zSsHftPftC BMNta BMC fiRBHS HPB6 o y ' A - .** W = i r -p **. V > V *^~ ■>* A* 4 0o, ,.0o Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2011 with funding from The Library of Congress http://www.archive.org/details/nortonshandbooktOOsidd NORTON'S HAND-BOOK TO EUROPE; OR, HOW TO TRAVEL IN THE OLD W" ORLD BY J. H, SIDDONS. gUfo-gnrk: CHARLES B. NORTON, § s t o n : CROSBY, NICHOLS, LEE & CO. 117 Washington-Street. 1860. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1860, BY CHARLES B. NORTON, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the • Southern District of New-York. PREFACE. Nothing is more true than that Travel is one of the purest and most profitable enjoyments of which an intelligent human being can partake, and no nation is more thoroughly imbued with the force of this truism than the American. Go into what part of the Old "World you will, you cannot fail to encounter the energetic, enterpris- ing adventurer from the New World. Discard- ing for a while the natural desire to accumulate wealth, you find him in most instances honestly intent upon the collection of knowledge. His eyes are everywhere ; his ears are open ; his note- book rapidly becomes the storehouse of facts ; his pencil is as active as his pen, and if he sometimes allows too much force to first impulses it is be- cause he either has not, or does not allow himself, time to correct them by later and more profound observation. In this, however, he only sins in PREFACE. common with the majority of European travellers who visit the " United States," and the cause is the same in both cases — they do not make the best use of the leisure and money at their com- mand. Anxious, as the vulgar phrase runs, to do everything, from a restaurant in a French provincial town to the source of the Rhine, the summit of Mont Blanc, and the Pyramids, or the " Heart of the Andes," they consume in profitless frivolities the hours that might be advantage- ously devoted to a careful examination of objects of interest and importance. In too many cases the tourist might safely follow the advice given by Sheridan to his son, and " say they had been" to such and such a place without the trouble of going there. It may be. taken as a rule that ponderous guide-books and hand-books are manu- factured on the razor vender's principle — " to sell" and of more than one half of the places to which the bewildered reader's attention is directed, it may be predicated that, as Vhomme blase says, " there is nothing in them." , It is to be lamented that the claims of business, the difficulties of travelling in the winter, and PREFACE. 5 the desagremens of the Atlantic passage until the month of May sets in, should deprive the greater portion of American travellers of the opportunity of seeing the cities of London and Paris when they put on their best attire. In April, May, and June, " the season" of the court and fashion of these two great metropolitan towns is compre- hended. Then, all that Art and Science can produce, Luxury suggest, or Wealth command, may be found concentrated within a radius of six or seven miles. The various painting and sculpture galleries are open ; the British Houses of Parliament, and the Legislative Assembly of France are sitting ; the opera-houses, the thea- tres and concert-rooms, display all the available talent in the two empires. In London, the great religious gatherings at Exeter Hall then receive authentic reports of the progress of Missionary labor abroad ; popular orators and lecturers from all parts of the continent of Europe are heard on the mighty questions which seek the sympathy of free nations ; great military reviews in the Champ de Mars and at Aldershott and "Woolwich " come off," and occasionally a large fleet of men- 6 PREFACE. of- war is assembled at Portsmouth or at Cher- bourg to gratify the national pride and give as- surance of the efficient state of " preparation" in which the states of France and England are re- spectively to be found. Finally, — perhaps, in the estimation of some readers, we should have said, primarily, — at that particular period of the year some of the sovereigns and the great political and literary celebrities of Europe may more easily and frequently be seen, and the best opportunity is afforded to the visiter of beholding the blaze of feminine beauty and elegance for which England and France are so celebrated. Apart, however, from these attractions, power- ful though they unquestionably be, there is very much to be seen and studied, and treasured in the memory, during the four or five months which business-like America allows herself for the trip to the Old World ; much, indeed, that would not be properly seen if the attention were engrossed by the brilliant sights which the two capitals offer in the spring of the year. But even for this portion of the attractions the time is correspond- ingly short, unless it be properly and rigidly economized. PREFACE. 7 > It is with the view of enabling the tourist to make the most of his leisure — to render almost every momenta matter of delightful recreation and ultimate profit — that this Guide has been un- dertaken. The experience of years in travelling over the greater part of the Old World, and the results of diligent inquiry into the latest changes and improvements in all that concerns locomo- tion, hotel accommodations, and the peculiar " sights'' of the chief places of interest, have been brought to the task. It may be accepted as a rule that the very natural passion for imitating in the Union all that is good and applicable in Europe has detached from the civilized parts of the Old World much of the " individuality" which formerly belonged to them. There are hotels in New-York, Philadelphia, Boston, etc., which no hotels on the European continent can approach for comfort, elegance, and an abundant table. In America the sea-board cities have their restau- ants, stores, and theatres which, in point of splen- dor, wealth, accommodation and talent, are un- approachable in London, and not often exceeded elsewhere. There are some educational estab 8 PREFACE. lishments in the United States which will safely bear a comparison with the best in Europe, and the military college at West Point has no rival except in France and Austria. There are not many private houses in the great cities of the Eastern hemisphere which exceed in the appli- ances of life, and even in its elegances, the abode? of the wealthier classes of the Western. These facts are confidently stated that the traveller may not waste his hours in fruitless investigations, or in taking that superficial view of things which fails to leave an impression even on the most sensitive minds. It is not meant to assert that certain objects are not worth seeing at all be- cause they cannot be diligently examined. There are many things in Europe which persons of quick apprehension can realize at a glance, and which, at all events, serve as pleasant sou- venirs when they have returned to their homes. Facts and objects photographed on the mental retina often form better illustrations of books than the most carefulengravings. In a word, the tourist must accept the follow- ing pages as an honest index to all that worthily invites attention in the accessible parts of the Old PREFACE. 9 World, and it will be for him or her, according to the time and means at disposal, to linger over those scenes, institutions, galleries, and palaces, which present the greatest attractions, or demand the most patient investigation. The Crystal Palace at Sydenham, the British Museum, the Louvre, the palace of Versailles, the galleries of Florence, Rome, Naples, Madrid, Dresden, and Munich, may each be done (after a fashion) in a day. It is no exaggeration on the other hand to affirm that some of them may pleasantly en- gage the visiter for weeks together, and still con- tain some gem that vigilant curiosity and diligent research will have overlooked — so vast is the accu- mulation of works of art in a land whose history stretches back into centuries, and whose natives love to treasure the records of the past. 1* TABLE OF CONTENTS SEC TION THE FIRST. GENERAL HINTS FOR TRAVELLERS. Money — Passports — Letters of Introduction — Affability of Manner — Costume — How to 6ave Time in the Choice of Routes to London SECTION THE SECOND. ENGLAND AND TTALES. 15/ Route. — Liverpool — Manchester — Chester — North "Wales — Shrewsbury — Birmingham — "Warwick — Strat- ford-on-Avon — Leamington — Kenilworth — Oxford — "Windsor — London 2d Route. — Southampton — Netley Abbey — The Isle of "Wight — Portsmouth — Winchester — Brighton — London. ENGLAND AND IRELAND. Zd Route. — Gal way — Athlone — Mullingar — Dublin — Holy- head—Beaumaris — Liverpool, etc. (as above) CONTENTS. 1 1 OR, By way of Gal way — Ennis — Limerick — Mallow — Killar- ney — Cork — Queenstown — Liverpool, etc., as above (The traveller coming by way of Liverpool or South- ampton, can return by way of Ireland, so as to include as much as possible in the trip.) 4th Route. — Glasgow — (reversing the tour through Sect- land) — London LONDON AND ITS ENVIRONS. The Houses of Parliament — the Palaces — the Museums and Picture Galleries — the Theatres — the Public Buildings — the Courts of Law — the Clubs — the Churches — Hyde Park — Windsor Castle and Park — Virginia Water — Hampton Court — Richmond — the Crystal Palace at Sydenham — Woolwich Arsenal and Model Room — The Dockyard — Artillery Reviews — Greenwich Hospital and Park — A White Bait Dinner — Pic Nics — the Queen's Drawing-room SECTION THE THIRD. THE NORTH OF ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND. London — Cambridge —Peterborough — York — Newcastle — Edinburgh — Melrose and Abbotsford — Peebles — Ros- lin — Stirling — the Trosachs — Loch Katrine — Loch Lo- mond — Glasgow — Carlisle — the Lakes — Lancaster — Leeds — Sheffield — Derby — Chatsworth — Leicester — Northampton — London SECTION THE FOURTH. THE CONTINENTAL TOUR. FRANCE AND BELGIUM. 1st Route. — London — Folkestone — Boulogne — Amiens — Paris 12 CONTENTS. 2d Route. — London — Dover — Calais — Lille — Douai — Ab- beville— Amiens — Paris 3d Route. — London — New Haven — Dieppe — Rouen — Paris 4th Route. — Dover — Ostend — Antwerp — Ghent — Brussels — "Waterloo — Paris (Persons arriving at Havre from America take the 3d Route, given above, from Rouen to Paris.) PARIS AND THE ENVIRONS. Hotels — Lodgings — Public Edifices — the Louvre — the Tuileries, Bois de Boulogne, and the Gardens — the Ho- tel des Invalides, the Madeleine, and Notre Dame — the Champs Elysees — the Operas and Theatres — the Artil- lery Museum — the Luxembourg — Versailles, St. Cloud, St. Germains, and Fontainebleau ITALY. 1st Route. — Paris — Auxerre, Dijon, Neufchatel, Lausanne, Geneva, Martigny, the Alps, the Great St. Bernard, Lakes Magrgiore and Como, Milan, Parma, Modena, Florence, Rome, Naples, Vesuvius, Pompeii, etc 2d Route. — (returning) — Naples, Rome, Ancona, Rimini, Bologna, Mantua, Verona, Venice — thence to AUSTRIA. Laibach, Gratz, Glognitz, Vienna, Presburg, Vienna (again), Linz (Here the traveller may go N. E. to Russia, or West to) BAVARIA AND SWITZERLAND. Linz, Salsburg, Munich, Augsburg, Ulm, Lake Constance, Zurich, Bale, Mulhausen, Strasbourg CONTENTS. 13 THE RHINE AND HOLLAND. Strasbourg — Manheim — Mayence — Coblent z — Bonn — Cologne — Arnheim — Utrecht — Rotterdam — the Hague — Amsterdam, crossing to London or any other port. . . SECTION THE FIFTH. THE MEDITERRANEAN TOUR. Paris — Dijon — Lyons — Marseilles — Malta — Alexandria, Cairo, the Nile, the Pyramids, Temples, and Ruins in Upper Egypt — Athens — Constantinople RUSSIA AND PRUSSIA. Constantinople, Odessa, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Konigs- berg, Berlin, Brunswick, Hanover, Bremen (Persons going from New- York to Bremen can re- verse the tour.) PORTUGAL AND SPAIN. 1st Route. — By Steamer from Southampton — Oporto — Lisbon — Cadiz — Gibraltar — Algiers — Morocco (Thence return by reversing the following route.) 2d Route, — By Land : — Paris — Bayonne — the Pyrenees — Vittoria — Burgos — Salamanca — Valladolid — Madrid- Cordova — Seville — Granada — Gibraltar — Algiers SECTION THE SIXTH. Ireland on the Return Route 14 CONTENTS. SECTION THE SEVENTH. RANDOM TRAVEL, Comprising such points of general interest as are not in the beaten track, but are still worthy of a visit from those having time and means to spare. These trips' will include many of the retired towns and pleasant villages in England and Wales ; also, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Iceland ; together with points of interest in Poland, Bohemia, Italy, and the "East, which have not been referred to heretofore. The concluding chapter will comprise SECTION THE EIGHTH. TRAVELS OF A POOR YOUNG MAN, OR, A YEAR IN EUROPE FOR $500. This chapter is from actual experipnce and observation, and will be found of real value, proving, as it does, that with self- denial, and a good constitution, all Europe can be seen thoroughly, at a less expense than the cost of living in New- York for the same period. A COMPREHENSIVE INDEX Will be added, as a key to everything of interest in the work. $tttiw t\u JtriSt. GENERAL HINTS. Money— Passports- -Letters of Introduction— Affability of Manners— Costume How to save Time and Money in the Choice of Routes to London. IF money be necessary to an American travelling in his own country, it is more than necessary to him in Europe — it is indispensable. You cannot stir a mile in any part of the Old World unless you are prepared to pay your way. But, in respect to the quantity of the circulating medium essential to a traveller, opin- ions must very much differ. Persons accustomed to a high style of living at home interpret " luxuries" to mean " necessities," while he who has been used to a simplicity of habit can minimize his wants to suit his means. It may, however, be taken as a fact, that a stranger cannot exist at hotels in any part of Great Britain or the European continent on less than one pound (five dollars) per diem ; and if to this be added the general travelling expenses — the railroad, steam- boat, omnibus, fly, cab, or carriage, with all the inci- dental charges of porters, newspapers, " accidental" assurance, refreshments, fees to guides, and so forth — it will be found that ten dollars a day is not in ex- cess of necessity. It may be said that, when a person is stationary in a town he is not spending money on locomotion. This is true to a certain extent ; but, on 16 NORTON'S HAND-BOOK TO EUROPE ; the other hand, the cost of sight- seeing within a town absorbs as much money as the rail, the steamer, etc., away from it. You cannot be on your legs all day in going from museum to gallery, gallery to palace, and palace to theatre. A cab or a carriage thus becomes indispensable ; and to this must be added the price of the admissions to the various places of entertainment. Paris offers many gratis attractions to the stranger, on the simple exhibition of his passport. In London, on the contrary, the doors of public places are, with rare exceptions, closed against the visitor who is not pre- pared to open them with a silver key. Therefore, let every American, crossing the Atlantic, provide himself with as much money as will enable him to spend ten dollars a day for every day he purposes to pass in the Old World, and as much more as will pay his return passage, and enable him to make a few pur- chases. In round figures, we should say that from 1,800 to 2,000 dollars would meet all the charges to which a single man could possibly be exposed during a four months' pleasure-trip to Europe and back, includ- ing therein the cost of his passage to and fro. With rigid economy and some self-denial, it may be accom- plished for 1,500 dollars.. If the traveller be accom- panied by his wife, nearly double the estimated sum will be required. In all this we refer to the most ex- pensive mode of travelling. A person who has but five hundred dollars, may go to Europe, see much, and return home ; but he must make up his mind to some privation and to the use of his legs where others of larger means would employ vehicles. OR, HOW TO TRAVEL IN THE OLD WORLD. 17 To guard against the possibility of the failure of the bankers, merchants, or agents, on whom bills of ex- change may be drawn — to protect himself from the risks attending informalities, the loss of a desk or pocket-book containing bills or circular letters of credit, or the omissions cf American friends to make timely remittances — it would be very advisable that the trav- eller should provide himself with English sovereigns, to the extent of five or six hundred dollars, before he quits the United States, even though he may lose a few cents in the operation. He will get back the difference of ex- change when he comes to vend his sovereigns on the continent. Those coins bear a premium out of England. Every intending traveller will take care to be pro- vided with a passport from his own government. It may be useful even in England ; it is imperative else- where. Having the continent of Europe in view, Americans must get the vise of the French consul at their port of departure, for which two dollars is paya- ble. Little store need be set by letters of introduction ; their value depends upon so many circumstances. If addressed by one eminent individual to another emi- nent individual, strongly recommending the bearer to attention, they may be serviceable in procuring for the latter admission into circles which might otherwise be found impenetrable. But, generally speaking, such credentials are hardly useful even as soup-tickets. If the recipient be not very intimate with the writer of the letter, he is likely to regard the introduction as a bore, imposing upon himself or his family the obliga- tion of showing courtesies to a stranger, at a time when 2* 18 Norton's hand-book to Europe ; it may be very inconvenient to him or them to do so. Moreover, the bearer of the letter may not unfre- quently find himself in the humiliating position of being tolerated less for his own sake than for that of the person who ventured upon the introduction. No — let the American trust more to the force of his own address, and the occasional contact incidental to travel, for the formation of pleasant acquaintances. An inti- macy will often be established in the course of a few hours' journey, or a few hours' passage, of a more substantial, and enduring, and profitable character, than may be achieved through the artificial medium of a " letter of introduction. " What Queen Elizabeth is alleged to have said of the recommendatory character of " a good face," is of great force among the impres- sible and amiable middle classes in Europe ; and better even than the " good face" is the pleasant man- ner, the unaffected disposition to be satisfied, the anxiety to obtain, and the readiness to communicate, information. Keserve and taciturnity must be scat- tered to the winds the moment a person leaves home to seek knowledge and agreeable intercourse abroad. Let not the apprehension of a rebuff deter the travel- ler from asking questions of any fellow-traveller — be that individual a gentleman or a lady — upon mat- ters of general interest. The cliances are that, in nine cases out often, he will receive courteous replies and ready information — the more promptly and cordially, perhaps, if he proclaims himself an American making a first tour in the gratification of a laudable curiosity. There is a natural desire, among people of all civilized OR, HOW TO TRAVEL IN THE OLD WORLD. IV countries, to create favorable impressions on the minds of foreigners ; and many, on discovering lhat they are communicating with persons of education and good- breeding, will tender an invitation to their dwellings or volunteer to become the cicerones of the stranger. The exchange of friendly words, and the earnest and truthful expression of a desire for further acquaintance- ship, is an every-day occurrence in Great Britain and France. With the purpose of making the best possible ap pearance on his arrival in England, an American would be likely to give his tailor, his hatter and boot- maker, large orders for clothes, before his departure. This would be a costly mistake. There is a difference in the general exterior of foreigners and Englishmen. It is particularly observable in the hats and the cut of the coat and trowsers of gentlemen, and the colors of the dresses worn by the ladies. Honorable as it may be to the American character to desire to appear to be " American," and nothing else, it can be no object of ambition with a native of the United States to be mistaken for a native of France, Germany, Spain, or Italy. Yet this confusion of identity would perpetu- ally arise in Europe, and often to the detriment of the traveller. Hence it is very advisable that the slight- est singularity should, if possible, be avoided, and this is be«t accomplished by the adoption of the costume most in vogue at the time of the stranger's arrival at Liverpool or Southampton. Let, then, the tourist take no more than one or two suits of clothes with him on board the steamer leaving America — clothes that 20 Norton's hand-book to Europe ; he has been in the habit of wearing for some time, so that on reaching his destination he can give them away to the steward or any one of the servants who has been attentive to him during the voyage. The same advice is offered to the ladies. For once in a way they would do well to abjure the competition which is said to be a feature of their shore life, and to wear but two or three serviceable dresses and a bon- net or hood. The broad straw hat, however agreeable as a protection from the sun's rays, is an awkward article of equipment on board ship, and stands a fair chance of being carried off the head of the wearer by sudden gusts of wind. One portmanteau and a carpet- bag will suffice for all the articles of clothing required during the trip, and a trunk or two, sent below, may contain everything that is needful in Europe. It should be borne in mind that much baggage is a se- rious inconvenience on a tour — liable to damage, liable to loss, and always a subject of anxiety and cost. It has become almost a general rule with American travellers, the moment they land at Liverpool or Southampton, to hurry up to London, stopping, per- haps, a day at Manchester or Birmingham, and estab- lishing themselves at one of those hotels to which their countrymen are most accustomed to resort. When the claims of business render this step impera- tive, it would be unwise to adopt any other course ; but if the time of the tourist is his own, and nothing but pleasure has wooed him across the Atlantic, the most prudent step he could take would be to make the port of arrival the starting point for one of those little OR, HOW TO TRAVEL IN THE OLD WORLD. 21 trips which he will sooner or later feel it incumbent upon him to take, and which can be more satisfacto- rily effected in the summer than at any later period. If London is visited in the first instance, the railway trip from Liverpool, Southampton, or Gal way, will have to be repeated " back again," in order to reach the places which may be better grasped at once, or visited en route to the metropolis. For instance, when at Southampton, after an hour's journey to Netley Abbey, you can run over to the Isle of Wight, and return thence to Portsmouth, and see the arsenal, dockyards, and some -of the largest men-of-war, in- cluding the old " Victory," Nelson's last flag-ship. Should you arrive at Liverpool, you have the oppor- tunity (after a day or two passed in that flourishing city itself) of going to Chester, seeing part of beautiful North Wales ; thence returning through Warwick- shire, hallowed as the scene of Shakespeare's early days, memorable as the locality of Scott's "Kenil- worth," and renowned for the fine old castle of War- wick and the exquisite scenery by which it is sur- rounded. On the same principle of action, should circumstances induce the traveller to select the Galway line, he would do well to take advantage of his being in Ireland, to go first to the lakes of Killarney, thence to Dublin — a very agreeable and interesting city — cross over to Liverpool, and from that point make the trip suggested above. That u time is money," is an admitted doctrine among commercial men ; but, with the tourist w T hose leisure is limited, time is more than money, for money cannot purchase the time lost in fruitless journeys. 22 Norton's uand-book to eueope ; gtctim t%t jfrronl let Route — Arrival at Liverpool — Custom-house Officers — Hotel Charges and Hotel life — Route to London by way of Chester, Bangor, North Wales, Manchester, Birmingham, Leamington, Kenil worth, Stratford upon Avon, Oxford, Windsor — London. 2d Route Arrival at Southampton — Netley Abbey — The Isle of Wight — Portsmouth and Spithead — Brighton — Lon- don. 3d Route. — Arrival at Galway — Dublin— Cork — Lakes of Killarney — Holyhead or Liverpool — Chester, etc. 4th Route. — Glasgow and Scot- land generally. — London Attractions fully described — London Life and Usages — Excursions to the Environs — the Crystal Palace — Hampton Court — Richmond — Woolwich — Greenwich Trip to Scotland, via the Eastern and Northern Counties — Cambridge — Peterborough — Newcastle — Edinburg — Peebles — Melrose — Abbotsford — Stirling Castle — Lochs Katrine and Lomond — Glasgow to Clyde. — Return to London via Carlisle and the Lakes — Leeds — Sheffield — Nottingham — Derby — Chatsworth— Northamp- ton — London. FIRST ROUTE TO LONDON LIVERPOOL. AS in nine cases out of ten Liverpool is the first port in England reached by vessels sailing or steaming from America, it claims primary notice. We suppose our vessel to be approaching the Mersey from the Irish channel. Be prepared for a minute and rather rough inspec- tion of the luggage by the gentlemen who have the in- terest of the British revenue in charge. They are no OR, HOW TO TRAVEL IX THE OLD WORLD. 23 respecters of other persons' property, and will derange the most costly and delicate articles of attire in their vigorous search after cigars, tobacco, reprints of English books, and other contraband wares. Let everything be packed before embarkation with special reference to the unwelcome visitation of the. custom- house officers. Arrived at Liverpool, land immediately, engage a cab or carriage, of which there is always a large num- ber plying for hire, and proceed to the Adelphi hotel, the Waterloo, or the Stork. The Adelphi is the most capacious, offers the greatest variety of accommoda- tion, and costs no more than the others. You pay two shillings (English) for a breakfast, of which the only elements are tea or coffee, with bread and butter : an additional sixpence insures two boiled eggs, or cold meat, fish, fried eggs and ham, or bacon. This is the breakfast rule all over England. If there be any difference in the cost, it is only to the extent of a sixpence. The smaller the inns — the less important tke towns — the slighter the charge, and the more abundant the fare. Dinner, consisting of fish or soup, a joint of meat, pudding, or bread and cheese, costs about two shillings and sixpence to three shillings, to which add the ex- pense of whatever beer, wine, or spirits you may take. Dinner is served at any hour after 1 p. M. in the coffee- room, unless the visitor prefers dining in his own pri- vate sitting-apartment, if he has one. Tea and coffee in the evening are upon the same scale as breakfast ; and the charge for supper is regulated bv what it may consist of. 24 Norton's hand-book to Europe ; The charge for a bed-room for a single man is two shillings and sixpence. A room for two persons gen- erally costs from three and sixpence to four shillings ; and a private sitting-room is unavoidable, if there be a lady in the case, for scarcely anywhere in England are there tables d'hote, and ladies rarely find admission into coffee-rooms. Wax candles, if needed, and fires, are charged extra. As soon as the traveller is established at a hotel, and feels inclined to move about, let him send for a cab. Drive, first, to the Docks — the pride of Liverpool — unless he should have seen enough of them on his landing to satisfy curiosity. Huskisson's, Prince's, the Queen's, and the Brunswick, are the largest. Then go to the Exchange, and St. George's Hall — the former boasts a singular monument to the memory of Lord Nelson, the latter is one of the handsomest edifices in Europe, and, like other halls, is either adapted to grand musical fetes or oratorical displays. The organ is unrivalled. A drive through the streets, and a ferry over to Birkenhead — a rapidly rising town on the opposite side of the river Mersey — will suffice to convey a good and lasting impression of the main features of the principal seaport town in England. It is a sheer waste of time to go to the theatres, the Bo- tanical, and Zoological gardens. They are very poor imitations of those which London boasts, and which are yet in store for the traveller. When about to leave the hotel, it will be well to despatch to the care of some hotel keeper in London the bulk of the baggage. Place in a portmanteau a OR, HOW TO TRAVEL IN THE OLD WORLD. 25 supply for four or five days ; call for the hotel bill, and give a small gratuity (sixpence) to the waiter or u boots'* who brings you a cab — and your lady may do as much by the chambermaid. u Attendance 1 ' is usually charged for in the hotel bills at the rate of threepence each meal — and it is a much more satis- factory mode of paying servants than the optional method in vogue in some few inns, where domestics are dissatisfied and insolent if paid too little, and syco- phantic and exacting (in future cases) if paid too much. MANCHESTER. Enter the cab, and drive to the Manchester rail- way terminus, if you desire to visit a town renowned for its manufactures, its bustle, and smoke. Man- chester is the Pittsburg of England. It is unsightly, and destitute of architectural beauty and antiquity. The proprietors of mills are very jealous of the ad- mission of strangers ; but a letter of introduction, or a call upon any one of the cotton spinners will insure, to an American, instant admission and courteous ex- planation. Opportunity is thus afforded of compari- son, the offspring of improvement. Manchester is reached in less than one hour, and the fare is, 1st class, five shillings ;* 2d class, four shillings ; 3d class, two shillings and sevenpence halfpenny. Should the weather be fine, the second class is as desirable as the * The reader will be good enough to bear in mind that when this coin is spoken of it refers to English shillings, which are double the value of the American coin. n 26 Norton's hand-book to Europe ; first. The best hotels are the Albion and the Queen's. The charges correspond with those at Liverpool. A few hours will exhaust Manchester. Then pro- ceed to the Western Railway office and take a ticket for CHESTER, which is reached in about two hours at a cost of ten shillings, first class- There is no mistake now about your being in the Old World. Perhaps there is not a town in all Great Britain and Ireland which so decidedly pro- claims its antiquity as Chester. Venerable walls and crumbling towers, ancient streets and houses, rickety churches, moss-grown and mouldy, announce that in spite of the destroying hand of Time, the ruthless as- saults of Henry the Eighth and the Puritans, the inno- vations of modern taste, and the demands of the age for improvement in comfort, convenience, and archi- tecture, there is yet much left which belonged to the sixteenth — aye, and the fifteenth, fourteenth, and thirteenth centuries. The monks who flourished be- fore "bluff King Hal" melted their plate, chose pleas- ant places for their monasteries and abbeys ; but no- where did they find a more picturesque locality than Chester. * The city rises in the midst of a green vale, and all around it is mountain, woodland, and verdant plain. It is surrounded with walls, built for purposes of defence upward of two hundred years ago. The earnest loyalty of the inhabitants led to a stubborn re- sistance when the Parliamentarian army attacked the OR, HOW TO TRAVEL IN THE OLD WORLD. 27 town garrisoned by the king's troops in 1643, and it was not until the beginning of 1646 that the place surrendered to Cromwell's soldiers. A walk along a portion of the ramparts reveals a beautiful prospect. Immediately beneath the walls is the race-course. The Chester races take place in the summer time, and being patronized by the nobility and gentry of Cheshire, and the neighboring counties, will afford a delightful recreation and an interesting sight to the tourist. The race for the " Chester Cup" is one of the great sporting events in England. The objects of interest within the town, are, — next to the ancient houses — the remnant of the old East gate, the Quaker's Meeting-house, where William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, was once heard holding forth in the presence of King James II, the Cathedral, St. Mary's church, the Roman Hypocaust, or sweating bath, close to the Feathers hotel, and— if it is intended to remain to dine, or sleep — the King's Head Inn. This latter is recommended because it is old-fashioned and peculiarly comfortable. Differing from the modern hotels in everything but the excel- lence of the fare, it offers novelty to the traveller in its antiquity. The attention which Chester Cathedral claims, must depend upon rne taste of the tourist. It is but 360 years old — that is to say, 360 years have elapsed since it was completed, for no one can say when it was begun — and it possesses all the features of the other cathedrals in England. If antiquities of this 28 Norton's hand-book to europe ; kind are -the passion of the visiter, he will do well to purchase a guide to the Cathedral and city, the best of which is Catherall's, of Eastgate Row, and examine the structure and the memorials of the dead with care ; but if he intends to be satisfied with a glimpse at cathedral architecture generally, an hour's visit to Chester Cathedral will render unnecessary the consumption of time in similar edifices elsewhere, for it is a- type of the rest. Here are windows of deli- cate tracery, filled with scriptural designs in rich stained glass ; a massive stone screen, Gothic arches of ancient oak, stalls canopied by curious carvings of the same material, a stone pulpit, a throne, and images of saints in stone, side chapels, tombs, and novel tablets, dedicated to comparatively modern celebrities. Neither more nor less thaa these objects is to be seen at York, Eiy, Gloucester, Salisbury, Peterborough, or Canterbury ; Westminster and St, Paul's, in London, form exceptions of which we shall speak hereafter. After a glance at Chester, it will be advisable to engage a boat, and run up the river Dee (the bank? of which are singularly picturesque ) to Eaton Hall, the magnificent seat of the Marquis of Westminster, four miles from Chester. There is no country man- sion in Great Britain to vie in size and splendor with this gorgeous palace, the property of the richest of the wealthy families of the British aristocracy. Ar- riving at Baton Lodge, quit the barge, and go up to the mansion through the Park, admiring, as you can- not fail to do, the glorious avenue of ancestral trees. OR, HOW TO TRAVEL IN THE OLD WORLD. 29 Previous to the trip, it will be indispensable to pro- cure tickets of admission at Catherali's, for the Mar- quis exacts payment from visiters, and the proceeds are applied to a charitable fund. The prices of the tickets are, to the house only, 2 shillings for one per- son, 5s. for three persons, 7s. Cd. for five persons. Admission to the gardens is, for the same number of persons. Is. 6d., 3s., and 5s. Thus a saving is effected by clubbing to visit the place. Eaton Hall may be visited by foreigners on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, of June, July, and August. The attractions of the Hall are manifold. It is a modern edifice, having been begun in 1804, and only completed, after numerous alterations, in 1850. The architect has contrived to combine the light with the massive in its architectural details. The entire building is nearly 700 feet in length, of which 450 are occupied by the hall alone. An enthusiastic tourist describes the exterior, with its sculptured niches, its crocheted pinnacles, and embattled para- pets, its windows filled with gorgeous tracery, every available surface bristling with shields charged with the heraldic crests and quarterings of the Grosvenor family, as presenting a sight savoring more of a palace of fairy land than of the house and home of a retiring English nobleman. The internal grandeur of this incomparable man- sion far exceeds its exterior beauty. Here are to be seen a lofty Entrance Hall, decorated with marble 30 Norton's hand-book to europe ; statues, vases, figures of men in armor, of all ages, a grand corridor enriched with family portraits, a do- mestic chapel, with a beautifully stained window ; a dining-room of capacious dimensions, adorned with richly-carved ceiling, sideboards, pictures (one of which is by Rubens), and statues; a saloon, with a marble floor, and marble base supporting a lofty fret- work of painted mosaic of Alhambra pattern, walls covered with paintings of landscapes by the best Eng- lish artists, bassi-relievi, windows containing figures of great warriors of bygone times ; a drawing-room, the walls of which are hung with rich crimson silk dam- ask, lighted by enormous chandeliers, chimney- pieces of marble, original pictures by Rubens and West ; a library of corresponding magnificence, sixty- two feet by fifty, containing numerous shelves of books, and enriched with chaste and beautiful marble groups; and, finally, a grand staircase, embellished with Egyptian statues, and modern pictures, illustra- tive of English country life. Emerging from the Hall, the visitor enters the gardens, and finds, in the exquisite groves, the lake, the crystal conservatory, the Roman altar, the mas- sive statuary, the rose, the shrub, and flower-beds, the lawns and walks, &c, &c, ample material for the highest amount of human enjoyment. NORTH WALES. Quitting Chester, there are two journeys open to the tourist, the performance of which must depend on OR, HOW TO TRAVEL IN THE OLD WORLD. 3] time and taste. A couple of days may be most agreeably passed in a trip to Bangor, and an inspec- tion of the wonderful Britannia tubular bridge, which, spanning the Menai Straits, connects the Isle of Anglesey with Wales ; thence backward to Shrews- bury, through North Wales, unrivalled in England for the grandeur of its scenery. From Shrewsbury the railway runs to BIRMINGHAM. The specialty of this w r ell-known manufacturing town lies in the comparative smallness of the build- ings in which the work is carried on. Unlike Man- chester, Preston, Blackburn, Bolton, &c, where tall chimneys, vomiting dense columns of black smoke, announce the operations of hundreds of steam-engines, Birmingham is composed, in great part, of unpretend- ing houses, where the manufactory of steel pens, pins, buttons, papier-mache screens, cases, boxes, &c, is conducted. Thousands of young persons obtain employment in these factories. The streets of the city are neither wide nor level, the town being built on a hill, but the facades of the public offices and those of many companies are Grecian and handsome. There is a Town Hall of ample dimensions, suited to lectures and concerts on a grand scale, as well as to the operations of justice, and the railway terminus is grand. The visiter, however, will do well to be con- tented with a visit to two or three factories of the kind we have named, and taking refreshment at the 32 Norton's ha^td-book to europe ; Hen and Chickens, or the Queen's Hotel (a fine edifice, well conducted, at the railway station), to move onward to LEAMINGTON, A small but elegant town, which is reached in one hour by the direct route. Leamington is simply a place of genteel resort for persons in easy circumstances, and invalids who require the spa water. Many persons of these classes reside there continually, while others spend a few weeks of a " season" in the town. Seeing Leaming- ton saves the tourist the trouble of going to kindred idle towns, Cheltenham, Bath, Harrowgate, &c. Its chief features are its handsome streets and churches, its circulating libraries, assembly rooms, and walks. The hotels are comfortable, and not very expensive. Vehicles are here obtained to convey passengers, who do not care to go by rail lest they should lose any of the scenery, to Kenilworth, five miles off. KENILWORTH. Fifty years since, few persons, except idlers fond of ruins and given to speculations on the mutability of human affairs, would have cared to visit Kenilworth. The genius of Walter Scott vms required to cast a halo over the venerable pile. And it certainly has had the effect in a very remarkable degree. The moss-grown debris of the once famous castle of the Earl of Leicester, Queen Elizabeth's favorite, and the 33 husband of Amy Robsart, has now become a place of universal resort, greatly to the advantage of the cicerone and the poor people who reside in the vicinity. It requires, however, a very powerful imagination to reproduce the scenes and events so forcibly described by the great Magician of the North. There is not a trace of the chamber in which Leicester trifled the time with his unfortunate wife, nor of the remarkable pit into which Sir Richard Varney caused poor Amy to precipitate herself. The tourist must be contented to fatigue himself with rambling up and down the ruins, listening to the gabble of the guides, founded upon conjecture, and the archaeological research of others, and looking at the country from the summit of the highest accessible tower. Eighteen pence laid out upon " Heck's Guide" to the castle, finds its com- pensation in the historical facts accumulated by the author for the benefit of strangers. Eleven minutes of railway travelling carry us to WARWICK CASTLE, and the little old-fashioned town of Warwick. There are few objects in England more pioturesque than the castle, and the bridge which crosses the Avon. A view of the approach repays the visit. The castle itself, the residence of the Earl of Warwick, owes its celebrity partly to its own grandeur, but chiefly to its association with the names of Guy, and Richard Neville, two of the earls of by-gone times, the former of whom achieved more deeds than " Turk Gregory," while the latter contented himself with treating kings 2* 34 Norton's hand-book to Europe ; as if they were packs of cards, made onlj to be shuf- fled, knocked down, and set up again, at pleasure. The approach to the grand front of the castle, reveals three stupendous towers, and the entrance is flanked with embattled walls, covered with ivy. A few apartments are shown to strangers, but they are more remarkable for pictures by the great Flemish masters, and some antique curiosities, than anything else. At the en- trance — the porter's lodge — there are to be seen por- tions of the armor and weapons of the renowned " G-uy," who, if he could wear the one and wield the other, must have been a person of gigantic proportions and herculean power. In a green-house of the gardens attached to the castle, is a superb vase, known as the Warwick vase, because it was purchased by one of the earls, after it had been discovered at Tivoli, near Rome. It is so large that it would contain one hun- dred and sixty-eight gallons of liquid. As to the town of "Warwick, there is positively nothing attractive, excepting the Beauchamp Chapel, a beautiful specimen of the Gothic style, containing one or two old and curious monuments. From Warwick, we make our pilgrimage to STRATFORD-UPON-AVON. A railway to the hallowed spot is open, but, if pre- ferred, a ftage or a post chaise may continue the mode of conveyance. Almost everybody reads Shakespeare, and, conse- quently, almost everybody is seized with a certain de- OR, HOAV TO TRAVEL IN THE OLD WORLD. 35 gree of enthusiasm respecting his birth-place and his early haunts. There is undeniable evidence extant, that the mighty master of the human heart was born and baptized at Stratford ; that he obtained a license to marry a woman much older than himself (Anne Hathaway), and that three years before his death he retired to Stratford, upon the fortune he had acquired by his talents and exertions, and died there, aged 52. The records of the church attest the first facts, and the affecting monumental inscription, beginning, " Good friend, for Jesus' sake, forbear," &c, and covering the ashes of the poet, confirm the last. The house in which Shakespeare was born, and the church, are thus the chief objects of interest in the town. The travel- lers' associations will help to an enjoyment of these sacred scenes. If he is an honest enthusiast, and ardent admirer of the works of the " Swan of Avon," he will linger about the church and the house — the latter a little bit of a place, that would hardly satisfy the ambition of a modern journeyman in these days — and, perhaps, commit the folly of inscribing his autograph on the well-covered walls ; and he will gaze till his eyes ache at the clumsy bust in the chancel, and purchase one of the small models thereof as a souvenir. Unless, however, he really does appreciate Shakespeare, he had better not waste his time in going to Stratford at all. There is a tradition that William Shakespeare was once prosecuted by Sir Thomas Lucy, of Charlecote, for stealing deer ; and it is supposed that Lucy is rid- iculed in the character of Justice Shallow. Be this as it may, there can be little doubt that all the country 36 Norton's hand-book to europe ; around Stratford was trodden at some time or other by the poet's feet, and supplied him with much of that extraordinary acquaintance with the animal and ve- getable kingdom, which is perpetually made manifest in his pastoral scenes and poetical allusions. A walk to Charlecote, therefore, adds to the attractions of the visit to Stratford. The park is filled with fine trees and deer ; and a reflective man may imagine himself u for the nonce" the melancholy Jaques, and moralize accordingly. Back to Leamington, and thence by the train to oxford. There is nothing in the New World, and very little in the Old World, which partakes of the character of this seat of classical learning. There i3 enough here to supply the most skilful hand at " doing" a, place ra- pidly with material for two days' entertainment and inquiry. In other towns, excepting Cambridge, a university is comprehended in a single college or acad- emy. In Oxford there are nineteen distinct colleges, the first of which, called " University College," par excellence, was built or commenced in a. d. 872 ; and the last (Worcester) in 1714. They are all built upon the same plan, a quadrangle, but the style of architec- ture depends upon the age in which each was erected. The students or graduates have small rooms to them- selves, and there is a common hall where all dine at a given hour. To some of the colleges superb churches and halls are attached, with gardens, grounds, and meadows, through which the Isis flows. See two OR, HOW TO TRAVEL IN THE OLD WORLD. 37 or three of the colleges, say Christ Church, Merton, New College, and Baliol. But the interest attaching to Oxford is not confined to the colleges. The stranger should make a point of seeing the grand Bodleian Library, the theatre, where the public acts of the university are celebrated, and the founders and bene- factors annually commemorated ; the Clarendon Printing Press, so called from its having been partly founded from the proceeds of the sale of Lord Clarendon's " History of the Rebellion." The Clar- endon contains the geological collections of the learned Dr. Buckland. Then there is the Ashmolean Mu- seum, replete with genera in every department of zoology, medals, coins, paintings, manuscripts, and the library of Lilly, the once-famous astrologer ; the Taylor Institution, rich in the possession of a superb library ; the original casts of Chantrey, one of England's greatest sculptors, many of the Pomfret statues, and nearly two hundred original drawings by Michael An- gelo and Raffaelle ; and lastly, the Radcliffe Library, well stored with works on natural history, philosophy, and medicine, and from the summit of which a fine panoramic view of all Oxford is obtained. There are some very good hotels at Oxford. The best are the Star, the Angel, and the Mitre. The charges correspond with those we have already given. The Great Western railway offers us the means of soon going to London, but, in completion of our plan and to avoid the necessity of again coming west, we stop, within twenty-one miles of the metropolis, at 38 Norton's hand-book to Europe ; WINDSOR, that a view may be obtained of all of the exterior, and as much of the interior as is shown to the public gen- erally, of the palace of Queen Victoria. For strength, grandeur, and antiquity combined, no castle in the world approaches this majestic structure. Begun by William the Conqueror, enlarged and im- proved by successive monarchs, it has received a touch of the architectural taste of eight centuries, but a not unsuccessful attempt has been made by later sovereigns to preserve a harmony of style. Erected upon a knoll or mound of earth, and raised to a considerable eleva- tion, the prospect which Windsor Castle offers from the ramparts of the Round Tower is one of the most magnificent in the United Kingdom. An extent of twenty miles in circumference is offered to the view ; plain and valley, intersected by the serpentine course of the silver Thames, and varied by forest, park, and garden, dotted with venerable piles and antique towers* and the elegant residences of the aristocracy, combine to present a landscape which, for softness and pictur- esque beauty, has no parallel. The apartments of the castle, when her Majesty and family are not residing at Windsor, may be seen by the stranger. They are of vast size and splendor, owing much of the latter quality to the numerous val- uable pictures by the finest masters, ancient tapestries, and other works of art with which the walls and niches are decorated. The Queen's Audience Cham- ber, the Presence Chamber, the Guard Chamber, St. OR, HOW TO TRAVEL IN THE OLD WORLD. 39 George's Banqueting Hall, the Waterloo Chamber, the King's Drawing or Rubens' room, the King's Council Chamber, the King's and Queen's Closets, and the Vandyck room, are the principal apartments shown on any days except Fridays — or Tuesdays and Fridays when the Queen is at the castle. When her Majesty is absent a view of the private apartments of the Queen may be had, but to this end it is necessary to obtain an order from the Lord Chamberlain. As the titles indicate, the Rubens and Vandyck rooms contain some of the chefs cVouvres of those great artists, while the other chambers and closets are adorned with the paintings of the most illustrious men of the Italian, Flemish, and English schools. The Royal Mews or Stables, with accommodation for one hundred and twenty horses, thirty-six carriages of different kinds, and a considerable number of grooms and coachmen, will, next to the garden and terrace, claim the attention of the visiter. Every- thing there bespeaks excellent management and strict order — a characteristic of each part of the household of Queen Victoria. Of more interest, however, than the Mews are Henry VII. 's Chapel and St. George's, where royalty is buried. The cenotaph to the mem- ory of the Princess Charlotte of Wales is of singnLar beauty and originality. After a gratuity of^half a crown to the guide, if the party be not very large, the castle is quitted and the tourist proceeds to Eton College — one of the most striking objects seen from the Round Tower, a vener- able edifice founded by Henry VI., where many of 40 Norton's hand-book to Europe ; the most enlightened of the English aristocracy have received their education — and thence to the parks and Virginia Water. The parks are very extensive, and, in some parts, laid out with an excellent eye to picturesque effect. They abound with noble trees, one of which is said to be the identical oak celebrated by Shakespeare in the Merry Wives of Windsor. It is known as Heme's Oak ; Heme, as the tradition goes, having been a gamekeeper who committed suicide, and has since visited the locality " in the spirit' ' on mis- chievous purposes intent. Virginia Water is the name given to an extensive lake, on which all the re- sources of art have been lavished to impart a romantic appearance. Fringed with thick plantation shrubs, trees, and exotics, this beautiful piece of water en- chants all who visit its banks on a warm summer day. Crossed by bridges of broad span, conducting to roads intersecting the plantations, and decorated here and there with gracefully constructed lodges, a boat-house, a cascade, and a stone cave, the eye is greeted with a perpetual variety of sylvan scenes. Of course it will be necessary to hire a fly — as the hired one-horse car- riages are called in England — as the walk over the castle and grounds in the immediate vicinity is fatiguing. The fly should be engaged at Windsor by the hour. Two hours will suffice for a drive through the parks and Virginia Water, and for a luncheon or light dinner at the Wheat Sheaf Inn, contiguous to the laka. Trains run from Slough (near Windsor) every hour, until ten o'clock at night, the journey lasting one hour. 41 The finest carriages in England are on this line, those of the first class having no rivals in the world for ease and comfort. The expense for a single individual by this class is about three shillings. At the terminus in London (or Paddington as that part of the huge Babylon is called) there is a superb, well-conducted and economical hotel, the charges at which vary with the story on which the room of the occupant may be situated. But as the luggage of the passengers is soon removed from the trains, and there are innumerable cabs and omnibuses always in waiting to convey persons with speed to any part of London, there will be no occasion to remain at the Great West- ern hotel, should the newly arrived visiter determine to reside in a more central part of the town. In the foregoing tour we have consumed nine or ten days' time, and have probably spent seventy dollars a head, inclusive of everything. SECOND ROUTE TO LONDON. SOUTHAMPTON. The approach to Southampton from the western extremity of the Isle of Wight, via the Solent, and then up Southampton Water, impresses the traveller very favorably with the beauty of the British coast, and not the less so that it announces the approaching close of a voyage across the Atlantic. The caution recommended in respect to the preparation for the re- ception of the revenue officers at Liverpool, is equally imperative on the voyager to Southampton. Expect a 42 Norton's hand-book to europe ; rude handling of the contents of trunks and carpet- bags, and be assured that the possession of contraband goods will be a source of inconvenience to their un- lucky owner. Southampton abounds with hotels, some of which are situated on the High street. Radley's, however, is nearest to the docks, and is in all respects very su- perior to the rest. Spacious, airy, and very well conducted — with the additional advantage of being vis a vis the railway terminus — it distances all ri- valry. Having forwarded the bulk of the baggage to Lon- don, take a walk into the town of Southampton. It is a small town, with one good street, full of bustle and well-furnished shops. On a fine day a great many of the families residing in the vicinity come into town to make their purchases. The High street (the street in question) is divided by an old arched gateway, which goes by the name of a " Bar." This Bar-gate formerly constituted one of the defences of the town. The two figures on its north front represent Sir Bevois of Hampton and the giant Ascapart whom he slew in single combat ; so, at least, says the tradition. An hour's walk from Southampton, in an easterly direction, through a country of enchanting beauty, will take the tourist to Netley Abbey, or, rather, to the ivy-clad ruins of that very ancient structure. The same time and distance, in a southwesterly course, lead to the New Forest, which William, the Norman conqueror, laid out for his own especial gratification. To a free people the sight of the locality of an extinct OR, HOW TO TRAVEL IN THE OLD WORLD. 43 feudal tyranny will always suggest reflections of a gratalatory kind. Embarking on board one of the little steamers which run every hour, taking care to be accompanied by his baggage, the traveller is rapidly conveyed to the picturesque Isle of Wight, decidedly one of the loveli- est spots in England. It is a perfect garden. Coaches leave Ryde, the landing point, continually, for the interior. The ride is through an undulating country, the road flanked by lofty trees or sweet-smelling hedge-rows, redolent of wild rose and honeysuckle. The land is highly cultivated. Cornfields and barley- fields, acres of oats and clover meadows, gardens and little woods, interspersed with cottages and gentlemen's seats, diversify the aspect. The points to which the ride should be directed are the villages of Bonchurch, Shanklin, and Yentnor, all quiet, sylvan, and roman- tic, commanding views of the sea on one side and charming landscapes on the other. Returning, the course should be to Newport, in the neighborhood of which is Carisbrook Castle, where the unfortunate Charles the First was taken prisoner. Going from Newport to East Cowes, still passing through a lovely bit of country, we pass " Osborne House," the favorite mansion of the Queen of England. Arrived at East Cowes, numerous yachts are seen at anchor or scud- ding about in the vicinity, and row-boats are also available. The visit to the isle cannot have a better climax than a trip on one of the boats (if the weather be fine) to one of the ships-of-war lying at Spithead. The 6mcers take pride in showing their ships to stran- 44 Norton's hand-book to Europe ; gers, and in offering them hospitality in the shape of luncheon. The boat remains alongside of the ship, and is used to convey the tourist to Portsmouth harbor, where lie the Britannia man-of-war, used for the in- struction of midshipmen, and the Victory, on board which Nelson fell at Trafalgar — an incident com- memorated by an inscription in brass on the deck. From these vessels" the distance ashore is very short. The Naval Arsenal and Victualing Yard are the other . " lions" of Portsmouth — the " elephants," as we should say in America ; having seen which, we get into a train that takes us in two hours to Brighton. Ports- mouth hotels should, if possible, be avoided. They are costly, and by no means comfortable. The George, in the High street, is the principal hotel, but the Que- bec is much better situated. From its bow windows a complete view of the harbor, and the activity of which it is the central scene, is afforded. BRIGHTON. This is emphatically " London out of town." Situ- ated on the Sussex coast, within an hour and a quar- ter's journey by rail from the metropolis, this sea-side agglomeration of houses of all forms and dimensions, is the great autumnal resort of thousands of the upper and middle classes, who are glad to fly from the sti- fling heat, smoke, and dreariness of desolate London. The town consists of one continual series of terraces and squares of lofty houses facing the sea, for about two miles east and west, with numerous streets running OR, HOW TO TRAVEL IN THE OLD WORLD. 45 at right angles, north of the principal line, up a gentle acclivity. One long road runs parallel to the terraces, and at the eastern end of the town is a complete nest of shops, many of them equalling, in riches and ele- gance, the fine establishments of London. There is little of architectural elegance in Brighton, almost all the houses having convex fronts, which command views of the sea ; but there is a piece of architectural singularity which cannot be overlooked ; this is the Pavilion par excellence, erected for the residence of King George the Fourth. It is a hybrid affair, par- taking of the very opposite qualities of a Mahomedan mosque and a Chinese pagoda. The interior is espe- cially Chinese in its decorations. As Queen Victoria did not feel disposed to occupy the " Pavilion," which only exhibited the execrable taste of the " finest gen- tleman in Europe,'' it feas been appropriated by the inhabitants of Brighton to the purposes of balls, con- certs, lectures, exhibitions of pictures, fancy fairs, and similar entertainments. Of the hotels in Brighton, it is difficult to say more than that they are all well-conducted, airily situated, and afford capital accommodation at prices scarcely varying from any other. The Bedford is the most fashionable, and between the comfort of the Old Ship and the convenience of the Albion there is not a pin to choose. There are numerous bathing machines on the sea-shore, and baths in the town , for the accommo- dation of those who go to Brighton for " a dip" — the expense of the former being a shilling, and of the lat- ter two shillings. A well-conducted theatre offers 46 Norton's hand-book to europe ; entertainment in the evening, but it is difficult to woo the residents and the strangers from the promenades on the cliff and parade in front of the terraces, enliv- ened as they are by the presence of Wandering Min- strels, Italian Troubadours, Ethiopian banjo-and-bones concerts, and indefatigable organ-grinders. A few hours at Brighton, and we are off to London, having passed three days very pleasantly, and spent about twenty dollars each person. THIRD ROUTE TO LONDON. It may be that circumstances suggest the adoption of the Irish line, conducted by the Galway Packet Company. This will afford an opportunity of seeing the " green isle," which necessarily forms part of the tour, and can be adopted either going from, or return- ing to America. There is not much in the town of Galway itself to detain the passenger who should land there, but he will pass through a charming country en route to Dublin, and find much to admire in the handsome and hospitable metropolis of Ireland. Dublin will demand at least two days' attention. The town, the bay, the castle, Phoenix Park, and the law courts, are much too interesting to be dismissed at a glance, especially if the visiter enter the courts to listen to the eloquence of the Irish bar, or desire to see a military review upon a grand scale. Should there be time to devote to an inspection of some oPthc picturesque beauties of Ireland, it will be as well to go from Galway to the south, and see the Lakes of Killarney ; thence to Dublin, crossing to Holyhead or Liverpool. At the close of this volume OR, HOW TO TRAVEL IN THE OLD WORLD. 47 a few pages have been devoted to a more minute ac- count of the most interesting features of Ireland. FOURTH ROUTE TO LONDON. Arrive at Glasgow, after a short trip up the river Clyde, and make the tour of Scotland (described in a later part of this Hand-Book), reversing the order of the route completely. LONDON. There are so many excellent hotels in London that it is difficult to express a decided preference, especially as the objects of interest in and around this mighty Babylon lie in every direction, and are about equi- distant from the centre. Morley's, in Trafalgar Square, has acquired a certain name among Ameri- cans, but it is expensive, and in a noisy locality. Families desiring quiet, after the bustle of a day's round of sights, will do better to establish themselves at the St. George's, or Everett's, in Albemarle street ; or the Queen's, in Cork street, Burlington Gardens ; or the Burlington Hotel, in its immediate vicinity. Men of business will find the Exeter Hotel, near Exeter Hall, Exeter street, in the Strand, a commodious and suitable house. Excellent lodgings may be obtained, if they are considered preferable to a hotel, in the vi- cinity of Hyde Park, on the Bayswater road; but as, unlike the American hotels, only those meals are charged for which are actually eaten, it is perhaps as well to go to one of the public hostelries, for attend- ance is to be had at all hours of the day and night, and dinner and supper dressed within a very short 48 Norton's hand-book to eu^ope ; time of their being ordered. Young men, with slen- der purses, must eschew the hotels under any circum- stances — taking a room, of which hundreds are an- nounced at the windows to be let, within a circle oi a quarter of a mile, of which Morley's hotel is the centre. The way to engage lodgings is to contract to pay so much per week for the bed-room and servants' attendance. The prices vary from 8s. ($2) to 12s., according to the locality and the floor. Two rooms, one a parlor or drawing-room, will cost from 15s. to 25s. or 30s. The bed-room will perhaps suffice, and the landlady will serve the breakfast there, either by contract, or charging for the tea, coffee, bread, butter, &c, actually purchased. Dinner can be procured at any one of the five thousand coffee-rooms, chop- houses and restaurants, which abound in London. The most economical is a chop house, where, literally, chops, steaks, and kidneys, are dressed after a manner to satisfy the most fastidious epicure. The best of these are to be found in Cheapside, Cornhill, and the alleys and lanes running out of them. Hot potatoes and a pint of ale added to the chop, broiled before your very eyes, will cost about ninepence — say, including a gratuity to the waiter, one shilling (twenty cents). The restaurants are more chargeable. Verry's, in Regent street, Epitaux's, in the Opera Colonnade, the Westminster, in St. James' street, and the Cafe de 1' Europe, in the Haymarket, are the best. Everything is served up in elegant style, at a cost of two shillings to three shillings and sixpence each person. OR, HOW TO TRAVEL IN THE OLD WOULD. 49 There is but one way of "doing" London life stylishly ; and that consists in going to an expensive hotel, such as Mivart's, in Brook street, or the Claren- don in Bond street, engaging a Brougham c*r carriage and pair by the week, which costs about £15 (875), including gratuities to coachmen and lacqueys, and entertaining friends at the private room of the hotel — a very expensive proceeding, but indispensable to the highest and richest order of travellers. The carriage, be it remembered, is available all day and all night long. It can be used in the morning to visit places of attrac- tion, in the afternoon to call upon the great folks of London, and in the evening to convey parlies to the opera or theatre, and afterward to a ball or "at home," which seldom commences before 10, p. M. But the general run of visiters will not find it neces- sary to indulge in this extravagance. Cabs are always to be had to go any distance ; flys, Brough- ams, Clarences, &c, all of the carriage style, and wearing an air of private property, can be hired by the day or hour, for visits or evening parties, or wherever dress is indispensable. The cab here is six- pence per mile, or two shillings per hour, for one or two persons, an extra sixpence for every third or fourth person, and sixpence for each quarter of an hour of detention. Care should be taken, on alight- ing from a cab at a place where there is a possibility of your being detained, to look at your watch, and show it to the cab-driver, that there may be no subse- quent disputes arising out of a conjectural computa- tion of the time spent. A cabman's mile is a very 3 SO Norton's hand-book to Europe ; short one, and his quarter of an hour very much resembles five or ten minutes. Nothing is paid for baggage if carried within a cab, for every package outside the charge is three pence. Where shall the round of London sights be com- menced? Naturally with the places of the most im- portance — the Houses of Lords and Commons. The imitation of the antique grandeur of Gothic buildings on the exterior fixes attention, and the luxurious splendor and comfort of the interior rivet the spec- tator, curious in observing how lavish a rich and powerful people can be upon the accommodation of their legislators. Nothing can be more opposed to the serene dignity of the Roman Capitol than the affluent embellishment of the British Houses of Par- liament. The carved roofs, pillars, and benches of polished oak, the grand glass sky-lights, above which burns the gas, shedding a soft light upon the spacious senate halls, the rich and soft cushions, the statues of a long line of sovereigns and eminent statesmen, the fresco paintings, illustrative of the history of the British Constitution, the encaustic pavements, the grand glass windows, the lofty arched roofing of staircases and entrance hall, the throne of the Sovereign, the robing-room, the libraries, the com- mittee rooms, &c, &c, furnish matter of examination for two or three hours. If Parliament be sitting, ad- mission should be obtained to the strangers' or speaker's gallery. This is effected by a member's order only, not a very difficult matter to achieve on a night when no very important question is likely to be agitated. A OK, HOW TO TRAVEL IN TOE OLD WORLD. 51 note from an American gentleman, addressed to any member who is not very conspicuous (and the omis- sion of his name in the debates settles his true status), will, in all likelihood, insure a card for a special night, not available on any other, or a gratuity to one of the porters hanging about the entrance to the Houses, will procure the desideratum. The formula of a de- bate, and the perfect order which reigns throughout, except when some very absurd member of the House of Commons makes preposterously ridiculous obser- vations, and disturbs the serenity of the assembly — a rare occurrence, however — will strike the visiter. The seat obtained must not be quitted during the evening with any prospect of recovering it, nor must a single remark or demonstration of any kind proceed from the stranger. He is not even permitted to take notes. The accommodation for ladies is very limited. They are only allowed to observe the proceedings and hear the debates from a latticed gallery, which conceals them from observation, behind the reporters for the newspapers. Admission to the House of Lords is obtained by a peer's order. The American minister in London has the privilege of writing admissions to the Houses of Parliament during the sittings ; but the applications which he re- ceives from Americans are so much in excess of his means of compliance, that it will be advisable to seek the channels to which reference has been made. Emerging from the Houses of Legislation, we step into Westminster Abbey ; not to go over the same in- dividual inspection as had been bestowed upon Chester 52 NORTON'S HAND-BOOK TO EUROPE ; Cathedral, but to view the monuments of the illustrious departed — kings, statesmen, poets, warriors. The " corner" allotted to the literary men is of peculiar in- terest. Divine service is held in the abbey at 10 a. m. and 3 p. m. The singing and music are of the highest character. If the army and navy offices, respectively called the Horse Guards and the Admiralty, and the building which contains the Home and Foreign offices, have es- caped notice on the walk or ride to the Houses of Par- liament, they may be looked at on the way back. The architecture of the civil establishment is modern and very handsome. The Horse Guards and Admiralty are unsightly edifices, and there is nothing within but a series of little rooms for the accommodation of secretaries and clerks. The eye of the stranger will, however, be arrested by the two cavalry soldiers of the Life Guards or Oxford Blues, who do sentry duty at the sides of the military office. There are no finer men or horses in the world than those which form the three royal regiments of cavalry, and their costume is rich, soldier-like, and massive. It was in the terrible charge at Waterloo, that the weight and stature of these Herculean troops told with such fearful effect upon the French cuirassiers. Nearly opposite the Horse Guards, is Whitehall, the locale of the "judicial murder" of Charles L, which has been justly called a blunder, because it made a martyr of a bad king ; and by the side of the hall is a small square, called, " Whitehall Place," in which stands the United Service Inst'tute and Museum. OR, HOW TO TRAVEL IN THE OLD WORLD. 53 Members have the privilege of issuing an indefinite num- ber of admissions to the museum, which is, without an exception, one of the most curious in Europe. It con- tains several rooms, staircases and passages, a library, and lecture theatre. In one of the rooms is an im- mense and marvellously-executed model of the Battle of Waterloo, in which every field, and the peculiar character of the grain which grew thereon, is repre- sented by colored mosses. The rival armies, with their hordes of cavalry, artillery, and infantry, are de- pict ed by thousands of tiny figures in lead, arrayed in line or column, exactly as they stood or moved at the last critical moment of the battle of giants. The firing of the riflemen and the artillery is very happily imitated ; and the villages and farm-houses upon the field, are all carefully represented. Contiguous to this model is one upon an equally large scale, representing the siege of Sebastopol, and smaller models of the va- rious sections of fortification. In another apartment may be seen a large collection of the fire-arms, the swords, lances, bows, arrows, shields, armor, and cos- tumes of all nations, and of different ages ; relics of British heroes, naval and military ; and a singular collection of articles recovered from Arctic expedi- tions ; models of impromptu bridges used in the Penin- sular war ; flags captured from the enemy ; the saddle of Blucher ; and the skeleton of Napoleon's favorite barb, Marengo. Then there are excellent models, on a large scale, of ships of all kinds, from the clumsy Royal Harry, down to the taper steam-frigate ; barges, 54 NORTON'S HAND-BOOK TO EUROPE ; prahoes, canoes, yachts, and a hundred of the futile inventions emanating from the brains of theorists ; bat- teries, cannon, shells, shot of all kinds ; absolute il- lustrations of the progress of a rifle, stock, barrel, and lock, &c, &c. ; in a word, there is everything in this museum, not excluding a thousand fine specimens of zoology, icthyology, mineralogy, and osteology. If there is any trouble in finding a member of the Insti- tute, in view to getting an order, go into the Horse Guards, and ask one of the messengers to oblige, an American, by asking for one. These good and civil men, generally old soldiers, will attend to the request with alacrity, and it will secure a similar attention to all other Americans if a shilling be dropped into the hand of the messenger. Ring at the bell of " The Commander-in-Chief 'S Office ;" there is no mistaking it, as an inscribed brass plate indicates the door. After leaving the museum, walk (en route to the hotel) to the exhibition of Water-Color Artists, and the Society of British Artists, in Suffolk street, Pall Mali, Dine at the hotel, and take your choice of a theatre. They are all within half a mile of you, some much less. The admission to theatres is pretty much the same ; boxes, four or five shillings ; pit (parquet), two shillings ; gallery, one shilling. The Italian Opera, an exotic, is much more expensive ; the stalls cost about one guinea (five dollars) each ; the pit from eight to ten shillings ; private boxes from two guineas to six guineas, according to their situation ; the amphitheatre, at the top of the house, three shillings. Exactitude of evening costume is indispensable at OR, HOW TO TRAVEL IN THE OLD WORLD. 55 the opera. Neither to the pit or boxes is any one admitted who departs from the conventional black dress coat, black waistcoat and pantaloons, with white, lavender, or straw-colored kid gloves. The neckcloth may be black or white. At the theatres the same rigor is not observed ; but no lady is ad- mitted to the dress circle of any theatre in her bonnet. If for convenience she should happen to go in one, it must be committed to the care of one of the females in the lobby, who will expect a fee for the custody of the article. Another day may be advantageously spent in view- ing the contents of the British Museum in Great Rus- sell street, Bloomsbury. It is too vast an affair to be minutely inspected, but the stupendous remains of Egyptian, Assyrian, Greek, and Roman architecture and sculpture, and the superb reading-room, should not be overlooked. Hie away to the city proper, and plant yourself at the base of the statue of the Duke of Wellington, in front of the Royal Exchange. You will then have at one view the Bank of England, the Royal Exchange, " where merchants most do congre- gate,'* and the Mansion House, where the Lord Mayor resides and holds his court of justice. If you should happen to be in London on the 9th of November, it maybe worth while to view the procession of the new Lord Mayor from the city to Westminster Hall, whither he goes to be sworn into office by the Lord Chancellor, after going through some ancient ceremo- nies. A dinner is given at the Mansion House on the evening of the 9th of November, to attend which a 56 Norton's hand-book to europe ; card of invitation is necessary, and procurable by the American Minister, or the landlord of a superior hotel, without much difficulty. The dinner is what Mr. Buchanan facetiously called " one of the British insti- tutions." It is worth attending because it exhibits the civic dignitaries in all their fussy glory, and en- ables the visiter to hear the Prime Minister, and other great officers of the state, ambassadors, etc., make speeches. It may be observed in passing, that an American should assist at least at one public dinner during his stay in London. Their object is charitable — that is to say, as the way to an Englishman's heart has been found to be through his stomach, it is thought that, after he has dined to his satisfaction, he listens with more patience, and generous inclinings, to the appeals made by post-prandial orators to his sympathy* than he would be likely to do before the cravings of hunger had been appeased. These public dinners are contin- ually coming off either at Willis' Rooms, King street, St. James's ; the St. James' Hall, or the London Tavern, in the city. The price of a ticket, which in- cludes wine, port or sherry (such as they are), is from fifteen shillings to one guinea. The attraction — let it be said in all truth — depends less upon the nature of the benevolent institution on whose behalf it is held, than upon the character, station, and oratorical pow- ers of the chairman and stewards. Perhaps the most popular and amusing of these meetings are the Theat- rical Fund dinners — for, then, a distinguished author, lecturer, or M. P., remarkable for his wit and literary OR, HOW TO TRAVEL IN THE OLD WORLD. 57 attainments, presides, and he is sure to be supported by some of the lei espnts of the day. Vocal music, of a high order, enlivens the entertainment between the speeches and toasts ; and that ladies may partake of the fete without dining at the table (whence they are religiously excluded), seats are arranged for them in a gallery at the end of each dining-hall, and refresh- ments suited to them are served out during the even- ing. It is optional with the gentlemen guests to con- tribute anything to the charitable object of the dinner beyond their company and the price they have paid for the ticket. The smallest donation is acceptable, but when from one to five guineas is given, the name of the beneficent donor is called aloud by the secretary and treasurer when the stewards have completed their begging-rounds. Having glanced at the Bank, Exchange, etc., it is but a step to the Coal Exchange, a remarkably taste- ful piece of architecture, handsomely embellished within. The view of the interior from the highest gallery is very fine. From the Coal Exchange It is only a stone's throw to the Custom House, the Long Room of which superb commercial hall may be seen free) at any time during business hours. We are now, also, in the vicinity of the ancient Tower of Lon- don, the chief attractions of which consist of an extra- ordinary collection of arms of all ages, and defensive armor, very fantastically arranged ; curious imple- ments of torture and punishment used in the olden time; the crown jewels of England (including dia- dems, sceptres, sword of state, etc.), and the dungeon 3* 58 Norton's hand-book to Europe ; in which Sir Walter Raleigh was imprisoned, and where he wrote his History of the World ; two-and- sixpence. If there be time, advantage should be taken of the contiguity to the Mint to pay that remarkable estab- lishment a visit. The whole process of coining by steam machinery merits attention. The third day (or any day), may be well spent in driving to the South Kensington Museum, replete with articles of vertu, and a marvellous collection of pic- tures, by the most famous modern English artists, all given or bequeathed by opulent citizens. The admis- sion to the museum is sixpence (twelve cents), on three days in the week, and free on the other three. And having inspected the museum, the School of Design, and (very soon) the National Gallery, in North Ken- sington, the Gardens, and Old Palace, may invife at- tention. There will be time,- after seeing these, to take the omnibus to Kew, six miles off, where a de- licious botanic garden, extensive and most tastefully laid out in flower-beds, umbrageous trees, numerous hot-houses, replete with exotics from India, China, Australia, America, and the Islands of the Pacific ; large pieces of water, whence jets cteau play, a curious pagoda, and an old royal villa, will gladden the eye of the spectator, turn which way it may. At Kew Bridge, close to the Garden, hire a wherry or, if the tide serves, take the steamer (it is very much cheaper than the wherry), and return to London down the Thames, viewing the villas which skirt the banks, the gay gar- dens of Cremorne, Vauxhall Bridge, the Royal Mili- OK, HOW TO TRAVEL IN THE OLD WORLD. 59 tarjr Hospital at Chelsea, Lambeth Palace, the New Pimlico Bridge, and various factories. Alight at Vauxhall, and take a cab to your hotel, whence, after dining well, if you do not find yourself too much fatigued, go to another theatre. The fourth day, if very fine, should be consecrated to a trip to the incomparable Crystal Palace, at Syd- enham, the most perfect mundane paradise in Europe, if the traveller be of cultivated taste, and has a pure sense of the beautiful. Here art and nature combine to intoxicate the senses, and carry captive the judgment. Leaving at about half-past nine, pro- ceed to Hungerford Market, and at the pier which projects therefrom, embark on one of the two-penny steamers which run to London Bridge. Thus, a view is obtained of the whole of the business part of the river. Thames. The iron suspension bridge at Hunger- ford Pier ; the immense factories and wharves ; the g^eat stone bridges, called severally Westminster, Waterloo, and Blackfriars ; the iron bridge connecting South wark with London ; Somerset House, a gorgeous stone pile, once belonging to a Duke of Somerset, but now appropriated to government offices ; the Temple and its Gardens, now a collection of lawyers' chambers and offices ; are all seen in the fifteen minutes' trip, be- sides showing the river itself instinct with busy life. Ascending the steps at London Bridge, and then crossing the road, we reach the Crystal Palace termi- nus. Should the weather be very fine and warm, take third-class tickets, and ride in an open car. The charge is but one shilling and sixpence for a return ticket, which admits to the palace. 60 Norton's hand-book to europe ; The objects of attraction within the Crystal Palace are so numerous, that it would be vain to attempt in this place anything beyond the most general descrip- tion. Not one guide book, but a series of guide books — not one visit, but a number of visits — are requisite to a thorough understanding of the riches deposited within and without this enchanting building. A fair degree of enjoyment may, notwithstanding, be secured in a single day, if the stroll through the palace be sys- tematically conducted. Let the Courts, illustrative of the history and progress of architecture, be first ex- amined. To this end, the Transept should be resolutely reached, to the utter disregard, for the time being, of the statues, fountains, and flowers, which woo the stran- ger on either side of the long aisle. Arrived at the Transept, examine the Egyptian Court on the left hand, and pass from that through the Greek and Ro- man Courts, severe in their classical simplicity, and grand from the noble imitations which they contain of the finest pieces of antique sculpture. From these pass into the gorgeous Alhambra Court, all gold, crim- son, and blue, so tasefully blended as to impart a soft cream-colored hue to the entire edifice. The Assy- rian Court comes next. The reproduction of the massive figures and bassi relievi, exhumed from the ruins of Nineveh, all colored to convey an idea of what the palaces of Sennacherib, Nebuchadnezzar, and Sem- iramis, may probably have been five thousand years ago, afford abundant field for study and speculation. The portion of the building allotted to the culture and preservation of tropical plants and trees, adjoins OR, HOW TO TRAVEL IN THE OLD WORLD. 61 the Assyrian Court. View it by all means. The climate and the sylvan scenery of India and Austra- lia are here cleverly imitated. Crossing over, the modern courts are reached, beginning at the Byzantine, or early Christian. From the rude and clumsy attempts of the subjects of Constantine to erect temples worthy of Christianity, a chronological arrangement of the courts carries us through the early German and Italian styles, the renaissance, the Elizabethan, and the modern Italian, where are to be found, admirably executed, copies of the great works of the mighty Michael Angelo, Benvenuto Cellini, Ghiberti, and others. Having inspected the courts, the extraordinary ar- ray of busts of great men, and accomplished women of all nations, arrests notice, and while they are in- spected, the ear is gratified by the music of an excel- lent band of stringed instruments, or the peals of an im- mense and tuneful organ. Bodily refreshment is now at hand, and not before it is needed. Coffee, cakes, ices, ale, wine, sandwiches, are procurable at mode- rate cost. A rest of half an hour fits us for a glance at the other parts of the building. We enter the Courts of Birmingham and Sheffield, the Ceramic Court, the Pompeian House — a very ingenious and graceful " restoration" of the " house of the poet" — we see the shrubberies of Africa, Asia, and America, abounding with the specimens of savage life, human and animal ; then, ascending the staircase to our left, as we face the south end of the building, w r e find ourselves in the Picture Gallery, and move on from that to the East India Court, just taking a passing glimpse at the little 62 Norton's hand-book to Europe ; stalls for the sale of nick-nacks, the models of ships, &c, &c The survey completed, descent by an opposite stair- case, leads to the western dining-room, its walls of crystal commanding an extensive view of the lovely county of Surrey. For one shilling and sixpence a-head, a dinner of cold meats, cold pie, bread, cheese, and salad, may be had. Lobster salads, ice puddings, blanc mange, &c, are charged extra, as are wines and ales. The sun is now declining, and the gardens have yet to be seen. Combining the plain Italian style, decorated with statues and fountains with the luscious English landscape style, with curved walks, lawn, and fragant shrubs, a serpentining stream at its extremity, this charming resort presents irresistible temptations for a stroll to the locale of the marvellous of the hideous antediluvian animals. From this point, it is not above two or three hundred yards to the railway station, where, until sunset, carriages are continually arriving to conduct the visiters back to London. It is unnecessary to say that all who have once been to Sydenham will endeavor to go again, and will probably select a day (though the cost of admis- sion will be greater) when the finest opera and oratorio singers are engaged, to add to the eclat of the concert, or a magnificent flower show adds to the brilliancy of, and imparts fragrance to the unrivalled Crystal Palace. The entire expense of the day's enjoyment, includ- ing the refreshments, may be set down at about five shillings. OR, HOW TO TRAVEL IN THE OLD WORLD. 63 For the remainder of the sights of London and its vicinity, it is not easy to allot particular days, be- cause circumstances will continually arise to disturb the arrangement. For instance, the exhibition of the pictures of the Royal Academy may either consume an entire day, or only two or three hours, according to the taste of the party ; a " morning" concert may, from the same influence, engross an entire afternoon. The Coloseum in Regent's Park, and the Zoological Gardens in the neighborhood, with their incomparable collection of animals of every description, and from every part of the known world, occupy some hours ; and then there are such objects as the Thames Tun- nel (one of Brunei's conceits), the wine-vaults in the London Docks, a review of the Guards in Hyde Park, or of the Artillery at Woolwich, which naturally excite curiosity and interest. The latter spectacle, by the way, may be viewed in connection with another sight, and another event which should not be omitted on any account. We have seen a part of the river above the bridge. Proceed to Woolwich by the North Kent Railway, near London Bridge (the same terminus as the Crystal Palace), rather early in the day, say 10 o'clock. View the arsenal and the model room ; then walk to the parade and review ground and see the practice of the artillery. From Woolwich take a penny or two penny boat to Greenwich, and visit the noble Hospital for aged and invalid seamen. The painted gallery contains some finely executed pictures of naval victories, and other striking nautical inci- dents, and a few souvenirs of Captain Cook, the cir- 64 nortox's hand-book to eurdpe ; cumnavigator of the globe, Lord Nelson, &c. Con- tiguous to the Royal Hospital are the Crown and Sceptre, and Trafalgar, two good hotels, facing the river, where a " white bait" dinner is served up in capital style. This is an English, or rather a London, " Institution ;*' it is nowhere else procurable. There are two ways of enjoying it. One way consists in allowing the landlord to send up an abundance of superfluities in the shape of salmon, flounders, and eels, before he introduces the white bait and brown bread, which in their turn are succeeded by roast lamb, ducks, peas, asparagus, tarts, &c, for all of which a heavy price is paid ; and the other, and more rational plan, consists in the landlord, or his caterer, being allowed no voice or discretion in the matter. The latter is by far the best plan. Contract for a dinner (exclusive of liquors) at three shillings and six- pence (eighty-seven cents) a head, and desire that it shall consist exclusively of white bait, one dish of which should be red-peppered, slices of brown bread and butter, a duck and peas, some lamb chops fried in egg crumbs, new potatoes, and a gooseberry tart, with cheese and butter. There is nothing more absurdly wasteful than the dinners which Englishmen are prone to order " for the good of the house." No one is benefited by this but the maitre oV hotel, for whom you do not care, and who only cares for you as long as you spend monev for his especial benefit. A day may be very pleasantly passed in a trip to Richmond and Hampton Court The old palace of 65 Cardinal Wolsey at the latter place is in fine order ; the hall, the innumerable corridors, closets, and re- ception rooms, filled with pictures by masters of all schools, from the days of Raphael and Holbein to the early art of the present century, the models of re- markable palaces, and tjie cartoons of Raphael com- pose a feast in themselves ; bnt besides these, there is a beautiful garden attached to the palace, and in front of it is Bushy Park, abounding with deer, and skirted by chestnut trees, which blossom in May, and present a lovely coup d'ceil. Should the weather be propitious, the most agreea- ble way for a party to go to Richmond and Hampton Court is in an open carriage, with a hamper, similarly packed to that which accompanies a sestette to the Derby or the Ascot, and which will be fouad described a little further on. Arrived at Hampton Court, the horses taken out of the carriage and set to bait at the livery stables (which are numerous there), the party, after making their tour of the palace and gardens, should cause the hamper to be carried into Bushy Park, and there spreading the cloth on the soft grass, be- neath the shade of the lofty chestnut trees, a pic-nic dinner is enjoyed in perfection, especially if one of the party is " funny" par excellence, and all are animated by a spirit of enjoyment. Go to Hampton Court by train from the Waterloo terminus, a short distance beyond the Surrey end of Waterloo bridge. Each passenger pays two shillings, first class, one shilling and sixpence, second clas3. After viewing the palace, gardens, and park, take a 66 Norton's hand-book to Europe ; wherry at the neighboring bridge, and be rowed to Richmond, passing Thames Ditton. A very delicious, though a rather short trip (two miles), this will be found The banks of the river exhibit a succession of pretty and handsome villas of all dimensions, with lawns and flower-gardens stretching to the water's edge. Excepting Richmond Park and the Cavalry College, there is nothing to detain the stranger, unless he is determined to dine at Richmond, which he can do in first-rate style at the Star and Garter, or the Castle, or the little Roebuck, for the same rate as at Green- wich, looking out the while upon an extensive prospect of luxurious grove and woodland, through which the silvery Thames lazily meanders. The scenery about Richmond has formed a fertile theme for English poets ; and there is, perhaps, no spot in all Great Brit- ain which possesses so much attraction for Frenchmen as the entourage of Richmond Hill. Three grand sights more remain, amidst a number of smaller ones which it would be tedious to enumer- ate. These are the great Derby race, the Ascot cup race, and the Queen's Drawing-Room. There are two methods of going to the races. The most agreeable is to make a party, and engage (which is accomplishable at any of the lively stables) an open barouche, with four horses ridden by postilions. Each vehicle of this kind will accommodate six per- sons, four inside and two on the box. There is usu- ally a seat behind for a servant. Take a hamper, containing a couple of cold roast fowls, a couple of OR, HOW TO TRAVEL IX THE OLD WORLD. 67 tongues, a lob3ter salad, a pie (veal and ham, or pigeon), six bottles of ale, two or three of champagne, a stone bottle of water, knives, forks, spoons, salt, pep- per, mustard, plates, goblets, a few napkins — and don't forget the cork-screw ! It costs six to eight guineas for the barouche and four, a guinea for a place on the course, and a guinea for gratuities to the postillions, beside the turnpike tolls and small dona- tions to gipsies, acrobats, Ethiopian minstrels, and other peripatetic mountebanks, who beset the " car- riage people" with importunities. A party of four gentlemen, taking with them two ladies, may divide the expense among them, and it all amounts to about ten dollars each. But it is a great and rare occasion J The other ways of going to the races are to travel by train to Epsom or Windsor, purchasing a return ticket, and either walking or going by a fly or omnibus to the course, and, when there, taking a ticket for the Grand Stand, or walking about the course, and seek- ing an elevated mound whence to view the races. Refreshments are procurable in the many booths erected for the occasion. The expense of this method of visiting Epsom or Ascot is about one guinea, and, therefore, more suitable to the bachelor who is not overstocked with money, and prefers going alone or with bachelor companions. Some persons prefer en- gaging a seat in one of the four-horse drags continually plying for passengers, and enjoying a cigar on its sum- mit. This, perhaps, is the least costly, and the most dusty, of all the modes of conveyance. The trains for Epsom run from the Waterloo-bridge 68 Norton's hand-book to Europe ; terminus and the London-bridge terminus all day, un- til half-past two o'clock in the afternoon. The rush for accommodations is very great. The trains for Ascot, or rather to the nearest points, Slough and Windsor, run from the Waterloo and the Great West- ern termini. The Derby race comes off at Epsom about the 20th to the 24th of May, on the Wednesday of the Epsom week. It brings together some thirty to forty well- trained colts, the property of the most opulent noble- men and country gentlemen. Soon after this volume shall be in the hands of the tourist, it is not improba- ble that a sporting American gentleman, Mr. Ten Broeck, will carry off the prize, which is seldom of less value than £5,000 ($25,000), irrespective of the private wagers that may be laid on the issue, and which have ere now put $150,000 into the pocket of the winner. The " Derby" is emphatically a British institution. People go from all parts of the world to witness the gay and eccentric scene which the course and the road to the course exhibit. The national senate — the Houses of Lords and Commons — suspends its sittings ; offices are closed ; a holiday is given to clerks and workmen ; the newspapers are filled with illustrations of the event ; carrier-pigeons are dis- patched from the ground, to notify the occurrence, to the metropolis ; and the electric wires flash to the ex- tremity of Europe intelligence that will decide the fate of many a turf gambler, and satisfy the burning curi- osity of many an enthusiast. The Ascot Cup day is less remarkable for the con- OR, HOW TO TRAVEL IN THE OLD WORLD. 69 test for the cup than for the circumstances which at- tend it. Being distant from Windsor Castle but five miles, through a road remarkable for its loveliness, Royalty has, for many a year, made a point of honor- ing the course with its august presence ; and, perhaps, no prettier procession can be anywhere seen than that of the carriages of the sovereign and her husband, each drawn by four horses, the coachmen, groom?, outri- ders, even to the Master of the Buck Hounds (an earl or duke), clad in scarlet coats. They enter the course at some distance from the Grand Stand, and can then be seen coming gracefully down and stopping at the " Royal Stand," where the Queen, Prince Consort, and the rest of the distinguished family alight, and take up their places to witness the races. In the in- terval of the running, the public congregate in front of the Stand, and have thus a good view of the whole Court. But it is at a Drawing-Room, and particularly at a Queen's birth-day Drawing-Room, that the most bril- liant assemblage of " beauty, rank, and fashion," is beheld. On such an occasion the ladies wear their most costly jewels, and attire themselves in the richest material. The gentlemen appear in court dresses of a by-gone age, with rapiers at their sides ; the judges come in wig and robe ; the officers of the army, navy, and militia, the lieutenants of counties, and the foreign officers, appear in the dress costume of their rank ; the ambassadors blaze with gold and silver embroidery ; and not unfrequently a native Indian prince, chieftain, or dethroned monarch, appears in gold brocade, cash- 70 Norton's hand-book to Europe ; mere shawl, and silken turban. The ensemble is daz- zlingly magnificent. As American ladies and gentlemen who have been presented to the President of the United States are eligible for reception at the levee of the Prince Con- sort and the Drawing-Koom of the Queen, a few words regarding the modus operandi may not be out of place. The course is simple. Application having been made to the American Minister, and his assent to the presentation being obtained, nothing more is requisite than that the parties should possess themselves of two large white cards, on each of which the name of the presentor and the presentee should be inscribed in large and distinct characters, and the cards then sent under cover to the Lord Chamberlain. One of these cards is shown to the Queen and the Prince that their sanction fa mere matter of form) may be obtained, and the other is retained for the guidance of the chamberlain or usher, who calls out the name of the individual as he or she passes before the royal person- ages. Gentlemen on approaching the Queen bow, and raising her hand to their lips, reverently touch the back thereof — ladies, in performing the same duty, courtesy to the ground and then pass on. All is the work of a few seconds, for the Queen and Prince stand all the time, and there are sometimes fifteen hundred presentations. The dresses of the ladies be- ing long, absolutely trailing on the ground, it would be as well if they took a few lessons beforehand from some experienced friend in the profound science of making the proper obeisance. OR, HOW TO TRAVEL IN THE OLD WORLD. 71 There are few other places than those already enumerated which are worth the time and money spent upon them, but the Cremorne Gardens must be excepted from this condemnation. These gardens are situated at Chelsea, and may be reached by the little steamers from Hungerford Market, or by the Chelsea omnibuses which run through Piccadilly all day. The fare in either case is three pence (six cents). The gardens, which once belonged to Lord Cremorne, are laid out fancifully with parterres of flowers, statues, little bosquets in which refreshments can be had, and lawns. At night they are illuminated, and a succes- sion of entertainments is offered to the visiters. There is a little theatre in which ballets and panto- mimes are performed ; sometimes a circus, and dancing dogs and performing monkeys add to the popular grat- ification ; tight-rope dancers, archery, rifle shooting, aquatic tournaments, and a discharge of fireworks, form other agremens. Then there is an unseen sybil, or an invisible hermit, who, for a small gratuity, will tell the fortune of any curious inquirer in those terms of decided ambiguity which made the oracles of old so very puzzling to the simple folks who consulted their decrees. But the chief attraction of Cremorne to certain classes is the dancing platform, from the centre of which rises a pavilion filled with musicians and ably directed. On this platform hundreds of feet " twinkle" from eve till morn to good polka, waltz, and quadrille music. Finally, there is a hotel at Cremorne opening upon the gardens, where dinners a la carte are obtainable from mid-day until night. 72 Norton's hand-book to Europe ; A Sunday in London partakes much of the charac- ter of a Sunday in the cities of America. The churches of all religious persuasions are open three times a day. To a stranger who has not been to Westminster Abbey on a week day, the cathedral ser- vice either at the Abbey or St. Paul's, or the ordinary service at the elegant Temple Church, will be found exceedingly interesting. If the taste, however, runs in favor of certain preachers, there will always be a Spurgeon or a Bel lew — a bishop of high renown, or a dean of great repute, to be heard in some one of the many places of worship in town. St. Paul'? is better seen on a week day, as access is then given to the whispering gallery, the dome, and the crypt which contains the remains of Wellington and Nelson. After luncheon, a walk through Pall Mall and St. James* street, up into Berkley and Grosvenor Squares, and Park Lane, will familiarize the eye of the stranger with the noblest mansions of the titled aristocracy of England, and those splendid institutions, the " Clubs of London." The chief of these are the " Army and Navy," the " Athenaeum," the " Carlton," the {i Reform," and the " Conservative." The exter- nal and internal architecture of these palaces is gener- ally of the Italian order, lacking nothing of the rich- ness of the palazzi of Florence and Genoa in their palmy days. OR, HOW TO TRAVEL IN THE OLD WORLD. 73 SCOTLAND AND THE NORTH OF ENGLAND. The round of London sights being exhausted, a trip to Scotland is deemed a sine qua non by all who are familiar with Walter Scott or Robert Burns, or with the history of a land distinguished for the loyalty, bravery, and enterprise of its sons, and the varied beauty of its scenery. The most advisable route to take is that which em- braces the greatest number of remarkable places, and affords the best excuse for a prolongation of the jour- ney. "We recommend the Eastern counties to begin with. The terminus is at Shoreditch, about three miles from Piccadilly, where we suppose the stranger to be located. Take a ticket to Cambridge. The Univer- sity of Cambridge has nearly as many recommenda- tions as Oxford ; but inasmuch as the colleges at both places are built on the same principle, and conducted after much the same manner, it will suffice to visit King's College and the Fitzwilliam Museum, and to walk through the grounds on the banks of the river Cam. From Cambridge on to Peterborough. Look at the cathedral, and in an hour or so more on to Newcastle — a rare old town modernized — the capital of coal, three million tons of which commodity, one of the sinews of England, are annually exported. To a 4 7 1 Norton's hand-book to Europe ; person interested in manufactures, shipping, and many of the elements of commercial strength, Newcastle will present inducements for a stay of some two or three days. The aspect of the town, when viewed from the summit of the acclivity on which it is built, is in itself a curious panorama. Thousands of houses laid out in handsome streets, but blackened by the ever-smok- ing coal from factories, the Tyne filled with shipping, creeping its dingy course to the sea, the docks, the old donjon keep of Robert Cur those, and the venerable old churches, the markets and hospitals, rivet atten- tion. But a more minute inspection reveals scenes of even greater interest. The glass houses and potteries, the coal pits, the manufactures of iron, steel, engines, and woollen cloths, all announce that Newcastle is one of the mightiest towns of Great Britain, well deserving the notice of the American whose country has risen to greatness by the commercial activity which has evolved its own abundant resources. From Newcastle we speed to Edinburgh, and alight- ing at the Waverley terminus, call a cab and are whisked, with our baggage, either to the Waterloo, the Royal, or the Douglass hotel — the latter the most elegant and expensive, the former the most econom- ical, and where prompt attention and civility are assured. The Waterloo hotel stands in Prince's street, a long range of houses extending west and east a distance of a mile and a half. The south side of this handsome street, which consists of shops, dwellings, clubs and hotels, faces the curious old town of Edinburgh, OR, HOW TO TRAVEL IN THE OLD WORLD. 75 known as " Auld Reekie," from which it is separated by a broad ravine crossed by two or three bridges. At the west end of this venerable aggregate of lofty houses, the locality of so many romantic and histori- cal incidents, stands the ancient castle, dominating the old and new towns and the environs. This picture alone is worth coming to Edinburgh to see. Turning the eyes from the evidences of the past and look- ing eastward toward the result of modern taste and liberality, the spectator beholds the Calton Hill stud- ded with classical monuments, the High School with its Grecian facade, the Post-Office, Waterloo Place — all remarkable for the efforts of the architect to give to Edinburgh the appearance of " Athens " revived. A walk along Prince's street to the west end opens up views of noble squares, commemorative columns, grand churches, superb libraries, institutions, and the grace- ful monument raised to the memory of Sir Walter Scott. After promenades in other directions, make an acquaintance with Holyrood Palace, Arthur's Seat, the interior of the old Tower, the University, and the inner walls of the Castle, beneath the battlements of which a glorious scene is spread before the spectator. Two days of industrious walking complete our ac- quaintance with the exterior of Edinburgh. Our bill is paid at the Waterloo, and we find that it amounts to just what we have been accustomed to pay else- where, though we have had the luxury of eating " Finnen baddies," kippered salmon and honey, in per- fection reached nowhere else. We don't spend much money in specialties, for excepting the tartan wood 76 Norton's hand-book to europe ; snuff-boxes, paper-knives, screens, and lady's boxes, and the Colin Campbell breast-pins, representing dag- gers and claymores in cairn gorum, silver and gold, there is nothing to bring away in memory of the town. Away, now, to Melrose by train. We are there in an hour, and hiring a fly we visit the famed Abbey and Abbotsford, gaze at the silver Tweed and the various little spots which the genius of Walter Scott has made sacred and poetical. Returning to Gala- shiels we dine and sleep. A commercial man will look at the woollen manufactures of Galashiels, and having satisfied his curiosity in that regard, will engage a car- riage and drive to' Peebles. The drive will occupy three hours at least, and the hire of the carriage will cost twenty to thirty shillings English. But what an insignificant sum when the gain is considered ! The whole road is excellent and the scenery thoroughly Scotch, within view of the Cheviot Hills, and skirting the murmuring Tweed. At intervals various and curi- ous spots are passed which have some reference to the romances, lays, and ballads, of which this land has been the scene. Peebles is a small town which has, within the last year or two, acquired great importance from the mnnificence of Mr. William Chambers, one of the illustrious brethren to whom the public owe Chambers' Journal, and many other useful works. Residing at Glenormiston, two or three miles from Peebles, he lately purchased a large building in the town, which had belonged in old times to the noble Queensberry family, and having greatly improved and altered it, he has established a ll Chambers' Institute," OR, HOW TO TRAVEL IN THE OLD WORLD, 77 with a large reading room, a spacious hall for county purposes, and a library, in the latter of which Mr. Chambers has placed no fewer than 10,000 volumes, comprehending every kind of literature. This inesti- mable gift will inevitably attract many students and others to Peebles, where, amidst lovely scenery and perfect quietude, they can drink deep of the Pieriaa spring. Dismissing the carriage at Peebles, after a stroll and quiet dinner at the only hotel in the High street, the route is taken to the railway station, and tickets en- gaged for Poslin — half an hour's journey. Koslin Castle and Chapel have a world-wide renown. Walk- ing from them, through an umbrageous thicket of tall old trees, and tangled shrubbery which skirts the bold rocks and crags overlaying a pebbly stream, we reach Hawthornden, a singularly romantic spot, where cavernous excavation speaks of the days when men worshipped in secret holes, or concealed themselves from their enemies. The subterranean apartments in the castle, the exquisite sculpture of the chapel, still in a fine state of preservation, and the mysteries of Hawthornden, have been sung by poets, and immortal- ized by local historians. There is a railway station at Hawthornden, whence in three quarters of an hour Edinburgh is reached. A long summer day has thus been passed most agreeably. On the morrow we take the train to Stirling, as- cend to the castle, survey ^he bold and champaign country from the battlements, and see the Highland recruits at drill, in the peculiarly handsome costume 78 Norton's hand-book to europe ; of their regiments. From Stirling — having glanced at Linlithgow Castle, and Falkirk, en route from Edin- burgh — the train is engaged to Callander, and then by coach to the romantic Trosachs, contiguous to which is Loch Katrine, the charming scene of the " Lady of the Lake ;" Loch Lomond, and its vicinity, sug- gestive of Hob Roy Macgregor. We revel in the noble scenery and its touching associations ; and if we should nave forgotten the lines which these romantic pictures illustrate, our boatmen will repeat them to us, in the genuine dialect of the North. At the southern end of Loch Lomond is Balloch, where the convenient train is ready to convey us to the busy city of Glas- gow, whose " bodies " with Bailie Nicol Jarvie at their head, have acquired immortality through the touch of the "Magician's" Wand. Glasgow is very unlike Edinburgh in its architectural pretensions, yet its antiquity and great commercial importance, the monuments in its squares and cathedrals, its athe- naeum, university, and halls, and its contiguity to the "bonnie Clyde'' entitle it to reverential attention. In fact, every part of Scotland to which allusion has been made, and other parts less accessible, to the north- east as far as Aberdeen, and the northwest as far as Inverness, are instinct with interest. But time is ne- cessary to visit all. Seven days have elapsed since our supposed depart- ure from London, and we have got rid of forty-five dol- lars, not including what may be spent in guide-books, nick-nacks, &c, the cost of which it is impossible to estimate, depending as they must upon caprice, taste, and the inclinations of the traveller. OR, HOW TO TRAVEL IN THE OLD WORLD. 79 It has been said, in a foregoing page, that, on ar- riving at Glasgow from America, a route to London may be taken, by reversing that which is here suggest- ed. The reader will perceive the feasibility of this course. Beginning at Glasgow, he goes in succession to Lochs Lomond and Katrine, Sterling, Edinburgh, Newcastle, Peterborough, and Cambridge. There is, however, another route back to London, which will infallibly be selected by the stranger, who has gone to Scotland by the northeastern route, and who desires to see as much of the beauty of England as can be comprehended in the period he has allotted to himself. We mean the route via Carlisle. The Cali- donian Line runs direct from Glasgow to the ancient city of Carlisle — : a city celebrated in the history of Scotland, for the successfnl siege of King David in 1312, and the surrender to Prince " Charlie" in '45 — and now deriving its prosperity from the coast- ing trade, and the manufacture of ginghams and cot- ton goods. At Carlisle, the train is quitted, and en- gaging a carriage, the traveller drives through the ex- quisite lake districts, to the u time-honored" Lancaster. Windermere, Derwent Water, Ullswater, and some others of the sixteen lakes, introduce the stranger to a description of scenery of a very different character from any hitherto here seen, The inns in the district are comfortable, and the roads good. The cost of trav- elling and being lodged in Cumberland and West- moreland does not exceed what has been supposed to be the average expenditure of the tourist in England. From Lancaster, the northwest railway runs to 80 NORTON'S HAND-BOOK TO EUROPE ; Bradford and Leeds, whence there is a line southerly to Sheffield. Each of these manufacturing towns offers something curious to the American merchant. Leeds is made wealthy by its woollen works, and Sheffield has no compeer for its cutlery. Travelling toward London from Sheffield, it is im- portant that a halt should be made at Chesterfield, with a view of driving to Chatsworth, in Derbyshire, the magnificent mansion and park of the Duke of Devonshire. The most striking features of Chats- worth are the beautiful collection of works of sculp- ture from the chisels of the most celebrated modern statuaries, aud the gigantic conservatory planned by Sir Joseph Paxton, the author of the Crystal Palace design. This conservatory is three hundred feet long by one hundred and forty feet wide. That historical association may come in aid of the natural and artifi- cial beauties of the exquisite sejour, it may be men- tioned, that Mary, Queen of Scots, was for thirteen years imprisoned in Chatsworth House, which stood on the site of the present splendid building. Derbyshire is replete with beautiful spots, and has a just renown for its spas, but we must not forget that we are on the way to London, with other objects in view. On, then, to Derby, and Leicester, famous for its lace and gloves ; and stopping for an hour or two at Northampton, the great emporium of boots and shoes, we get thence to London in two hours and a half. Three or four days have elapsed since Glasgow was left, and thirty-five dollars have parted company with tho tourist. OR, HOW TO TRAVEL IN THE OLD WORLD 8* It is time to direct attention to the Continent of Europe. Five or six weeks have passed over our heads since quitting New- York, and we have not yet seen Paris. A glance at the tourist's memorandum book will show that he has probably spent two hundred dollars by this time, exclusive of his passage to Europe, and he will compute his resources for the continental tour and be guided accordingly in his choice of routes. 4* 82 Norton's hand-book to f.urope; FRANCE AND BELGIUM. THE way is very much cleared for the would-be tourist in France, by his taking with him the con- viction that " Paris is France." There can be no mistake about the fact ; every Frenchman will tell you so, even though he be a native of another town or of a village in the South or the North. Nevertheless there are certain remnants of antiquity in the northern parts of la belle Finance, and some scenery in the southern provinces, which the lover of the picturesque and the student of history will deem deserving of notice. But Paris is undoubtedly the chief point — the grand centre of attraction, and to Paris we accordingly proceed. There is very little choice between the Boulogne or the Calais trip. The former is made from Folkestone, and is twenty-nine miles in length — the latter is some seven miles shorter. The journey from London to Folkestone occupies two hours and a half (express train) and to Dover some ten minutes more. Folke- stone boasts a fine hotel, the Pavilion, contiguous to the point of departure ; Dover has also its fine hotels, the Ship and the Lord Warden, and is overlooked by a venerable castle and cliff which have poetical and his- OR, HOW TO TRAVEL IN THE OLD WORLD. 83 torical associations. The departure of the steamer, however, which depends upon the tide, must, after all, regulate the route of the traveller, and he will have so little time left after eating a meal and looking after his luggage, that were the attractions of either Dover or Folkestone of sufficient moment to detain him, he really would be unable to spare the requisite minutes. As for the routes from Calais or Boulogne, it will suffice to say that they are equally monotonous and do not impress the traveller favorably with either the charac- ter of the country or the condition of the people. The only town at which the rail trains stop, to enable the passengers to take refreshment, is Amiens, which there is little time and less occasion to see. It is very old and dull, and that is all that can be said for it. Supposing that we conclude to go to Paris via Folkestone and Boulogne. The first thing to be done is to send to the South- eastern railway office, in the Regent Circus, Picca- dilly, for a through ticket, taking care to have first class to Folkestone, and second class tickets from Boulogne. The reason for this is, that the English second class carriages are for the most part detestable, while those of France are comfortably cushioned and padded. The price of a " through ticket" is between two and three pounds sterling — say fifteen dollars, inclusive of the expense of the meals. The next thing to be attended to is the procuring French money or a letter of credit ; or, better still, a " Circular Note" from a banker, which will enable the traveller to receive his money in the currency of whatever country he may happen to 84 NORTON'S HAND-BOOK TO EUROPE ; be in. The bankers nearest to the central West End hotels are Herries & Co., of St. James street, and Coutts & Co., of the Strand. Twining & Co., also of the Strand, but farther east, will be the most con- venient house for persons located at the Exeter Hall hotel. Possibly the traveller will have provided him- self with a circular letter at New-York or Boston. Having taken care to see our passport vise before leaving America we have no trouble on that score at present. It only remains to pack our baggage, taking care that it shall be as light as possible, and that it contains some wax candles and some Windsor or Naples soap. Too much baggage is not only a matter of anxiety but one of expense also. A single trunk and a carpet-bag ought to suffice for a gentleman, two trunks and a small sac for a lady. Let band-boxes and hat-boxes be eschewed — they are sure to be either lost or crushed. A forage cap, that will go in the pocket, for a gentleman, and a knitted hood or Nubia for a lady, will be the best wear in the carriages. The hat and bonnet can be suspended by one of those little contrivances which may be bought in New- York for twenty-five cents. Twelve hours after leaving London, supposing the departure of the steamer from Folkestone to correspond with the arrival of the trains, the traveller reaches Paris. The same time is occupied on the Dover and Calais route. And here we may pause to refer to other routes to the superb metropolis of France. It may be that the American has taken passage at OR, HOW TO TRAVEL IN THE OLD WORLD. 85 New- York for Havre. In such case it is to be hoped that he has not about his person, or in his trunks which he carries, any tobacco or sealed letters, for such contraband wares involve pecuniary lines and the con- fiscation of the article. Let him be prepared also to hand his passport to one of the soldiers who greet him as he lands, with the significant assurance that he is now under a despotic military government. Fifty commissionaire accost the passenger with cards of the hotels for which they tout, each of course tendering the most positive asseveration that the hotel he represents is the very best in the town. But the reader will have learned from the captain of the steamer or ship which takes him over, the names of the most respecta- ble hotels, and he will be safe to go to either of them, giving his passport and the key of his trunk to the commissionaire who will do the needful and bring all safely to the hotel. Havre is emphatically the Liverpool or the New- York of France. If the port has been selected be- cause of the business our traveller may have to transact, he will have abundance of time to see all that the old town presents of the notable. If, however, he is bent on making the best of his way to the capital he must be content with a view from the principal pier, which has been justly said to be "one of the finest in the world, obtained so near the level of the sea." To the left lies the lake of the Seine, terminating at Quille- boeuf, and opposite is Harfleur, surrounded by and standing beneath a perfect wood. Two methods of proceeding to Paris are open to 86 NORTON'S HAND-BOOK TO EUROPE ; the traveller. There are steamboats and there is a railway. The latter is the most expeditious, and as the route follows, for the most part, the course of the Seine, few of the beauties of Normandy on that line are lost to the spectator. He stops, of course, at Rouen, a city of great antiquity, replete with features of interest. A large portion of Rouen is composed of old and gloomy houses, forming narrow and irregular streets. These have a charm for the lovers of the picturesque and. the admirers of powerful contrasts. There is nothing like them in the Western Hemisphere. Still more attractive is the grand old Gothic cathedral, with its ruinous facade, carved in the middle of the sixteenth century, and presenting such a rare multitude of objects that the eye becomes confused in essaying to separate them. Enter this cathedral. The " dim religious light' ■ cast from the old stained glass windows discloses many chapels and tombs. The famons Rollo the brave, Duke of Normandy, whose memory the whole province reveres, lies here — so does his cele- brated son, William Longue-Epee. There is a painting over the altar-piece representing the adoration of the shepherds, which justly receives a large share of the admiration of connoisseurs. Superior in beauty and in antiquity to the cathedral is the church of St. Ouen, begun in 1318 and finished two hundred years later. It has not, however, the pretensions founded upon asso- ciations, which belong to the cathedral. There are two or three other churches in the town, erected at different periods, but of more interest than these is the monumental statue to the memory of Joan of Arc, the OR, HOW TO TRAVEL IN THE OLD WORLD. 87 Maid of Orleans. It is erected on the spot, in the Place la Purcelle, where she was executed by the Eng- lish. The writer of these pages, visiting Rouen many years since, and being attracted by the statue, without observing the inscription, asked an old woman, who was reading Corneille at her apple stand, what it indi- cated. " Quoi" she exclaimed, " vous ne savez pas f (Test le monument de la pauvre fille que vous autre Anglais, betes que vous etaient, out brules quatre cents annees passees/" The indignation of the venerable apple-vender illus- trated the regard in which the memory of the inspired Maid is held by the inhabitants of Rouen. Corneille was born at Rouen, and, in like manner, his fame is cherished by the people. Once a year, the anniversary of the birth of the great dramatic poet is celebrated at the theatre. The house in which Corneille was born is shown to the stranger. Walk down to the Q'tai de Havre on the river's bank, to get a view of the town, and then resume the journey, or the voyage, as the case may be. Should the tourist have been to England in the first instance, and have motives for sailing from New- Haven to Dieppe, he will necessarily go from Dieppe to Paris by the Rouen route. The circumstances stated above will therefore be a guide to him. PARIS. Whither shall we resort ? What hotel, in this city of superb hotels, shall we honor with our patronage? There is Meurice's, which the English have affected since 1814 ; there is the Hotel Richepanse, famous for 88 Norton's hand-book to Europe ; its table d'hote ; the Bedford, of high renown ; the Louvre, the largest, handsomest, and most complete — and there are a hundred others much less expensive, less cleanly, and less convenient. If the reader has no choice, we say, decidedly, select the Hotel du Louvre, and if that house be full try the Richepanse. At the* Louvre, you can choose the Stage or floor on which you will sleep, paying high in proportion to your con- tiguity to the basement. On the third floor an ex- cellent apartment is obtainable for two francs — a franc being exactly the fifth of a dollar — a fact to be noted. For wax lights and soap a charge is made. It will be advisable, as already hinted, to lay in a small supply of these articles in London, for at a Paris hotel such items swell the bill amazingly. The Hotel du Louvre is very elegantly furnished ; the table d'hote, at which one thousand persons sometimes dine, is upon a liberal scale, and the reading-rooms are abun- dantly supplied with newspapers and periodicals from all parts of the globe. Private lodgings may be had cheaper than rooms at a hotel, but a stranger who only meditates staying a week or so, and who is con- tinually in need of information and attendance, will do much better to give the preference to a hotel. The passport bekig delivered to the manager of the bureau or office of the hotel, and the body refreshed after the long journey, attention is turned to the " sights" of Paris. Happily we have not to go over the same space of ground as in London, for not only is the French capital of lesser dimensions than its sis- ter across the channel, but all the chief ooints of OR, HOW TO TRAVEL IN THE OLD WORLD. 89 attraction in Paris proper are more concentrated. Still, a little system is necessary with a view to economy of time and cash. Then let a commencement be made in a promenade through the principal streets. The Hotel du Louvre stands in the most magnificent of all the streets in the known world, the Rue tie Rivoli — a succession of pala- tial dwellings colonnaded in front and faced with stone — the opposite side of which is occupied by the gallery of the Louvre, and the palace and gardens of the Tuileries. The Rue de Rivoli is two and a half miles long, connecting the Hotel de Ville with the Faubourg St. Antoine. Walk along the Rue de la Paix. This latter, striking from the gayety and ele- gance of its shops, in which all the peculiar taste of the French for tasteful arrangement finds full develop- ment, leads to the Boulevards, which encircle a very large portion of the town, their left and right extrem- ities resting upon the Seine. The broad pavement of the Boulevards, flanked with trees on one side and a thousand shops of ail kinds and dimensions on the other, are more striking to an English than to an American eye, because, in London, the rus in urbe is unknown, save in a few squares at the West End of the town where a small collection of stunted trees and dwarf shrubs announce in their scanty foliage the re- luctant arrival of summer in town. At one extremity of the Boulevards stands the church of La Madeleine, an edifice in the style of a Roman temple, unrivalled in the chasteness and beauty of the architecture. No fewer than fifty-two Corinthian columns, sixty feet 90 Norton's hand-book to europe ; high and six in diameter, all fluted, form the peris- tyle of this captivating building. Fortunately it stands apart from other structures, and is thus seen to the greatest possible advantage. We defer entering for the present, as we do not wish to break the morn- ing's walk. Opposite to the Madeleine is the Rue Royale, a noble, spacious thoroughfare, where many of the government offices are situated, and at its extremity lies an open space called the Place (or square) de la Concorde — the most superb and tasteful spot in all Paris. The surroundings of this exquisite locality, consisting of the Seine and its bridges, the Champs Elysees or Elysian Fields — a fashionable park — and a crowd of lofty and magnificent buildings, present a rare coup oVceil ; but the Place is in itself a curiosity and a fine spectacle. Its history is singular. Origin- ally called the Place Louis XV., it contained in its centre — it being then as plain an aifair as Union Square, New- York — a bronze equestrian statue of Louis XV., which was voted by the city of Paris after the peace of Aix la Chapelle. The anti-monarchical spirit of 1792 destroyed the statue, and in its place arose the terrible guillotine beneath which fell the beads of Louis XVI., Marie Antoinette, and many of the French nobility. When the reign of terror was at an end, a plaster column dedicated to the goddess Liberty supplanted the guillotine. Napoleon raised a more enduring column, and named the place La Concorde. The restoration of the Bourbons revived the title Place Louis XV., only to give way, under the reign of Charles X., to a new title — that of Place OR, HOW TO THAVEL IN THE OLD WORLD. 01 Louis XVI. But the revolution of 1830, which placed Louis Philippe upon the French throne, led to the restoration of the title which the Place now bears. Louis Philippe did much to adorn Paris, and es- pecially did he lend enchantment to this luxurious part of the town. He caused the area 750 feet by 528 to be paved — he placed in the centre an Egyptian obelisk of immense antiquity which the Pacha of Egypt gave to the French government for its instru- mentality in forming the arsenal and naval establish- ment of Alexandria. On either of two sides of the obelisk Louis Philippe raised two beautiful, gushing fountains, embellished with emblematic figures of river deities. Forty magnilicent gas candelabra illu- minate this charming square, which is further deco- rated with colossal statues representing eight of the cities of France. From this point the walk may be extended to the Champs Elysees ; or, reserving that for a future drive, the stranger may retrace his steps to the Rue de la Paix, and passing the gardens of the Tuileries, and then walking up to the Place Vendome — a handsome square in the middle of which stands a metal column snrmounted by a figure of Napoleon I. The Place Vendome, like that of La Concorde, has undergone some mutations, though it has retained the name, for France is naturally proud of its famous marshal. Louis XLV. intended that the five buildings which oc- cupy the sides of the square should have been ap- plied as public offices In the centre was a bronze equestrian statue of himself ; but it did not survive 92 Norton's hand-book to Europe ; the democratic fury of the first French revolution. The dilapidated pedestal, however, held its place until, in 1806, Napoleon, flushed with his victories over the Austrians and Russians, from whom he had taken some hundred pieces of cannon, converted his trophies into the column which now graces the capital. The bas-reliefs on the column are worth examination. They represent, in order of date, all the incidents of the memorable German campaign, in figures three feet high, winding around the spiral shaft. Inasmuch, however, as the column is 130 feet high, the binocular glasses will be useful in following them to the summit. From the Place Yendome, we turn back en route to the Hotel du Louvre ; but, instead of entering the ho- tel, we proceed to the Palais Royal. This is a mag- nificent quadrangle, the centre of which is planted with trees, and the sides form arcades filled with gay shops, restaurants, offices, theatres, etc. It has not been occupied as a palace since the latter end of the last century, and only derived the appellation " Royal" from the circumstance of its having been bequeathed by Richelieu — in whose day it was called the Palais Cardinale — to his sovereign. The Due d' Orleans con- verted the palace, in the last century, into a series of arcades and shops, and for a long time gambling and every other description of vice was carried on to an enormous extent, in the apartments immediately above the places of business. So late as the reign of Charles X, (1830), the Palais Royal was synonymous with the abode of infamy. It is now an innoceut and seduc- tive place of resort. OR, HOW TO TRAVEL IN THE OLD WORLD. 93 We have walked enough — we are tired — we have appetites. Allons, which of the restaurants shall we select for a dinner? Here are Very's, Vefour's, and Les Trois Freres Provencaux. There are plenty of gargotes or smaller places, where we can eat, after a fashion, for thirty sous (a quarter of a dollar), or less. But people come to Paris to dine — to test the claims of French cookery to the high reputation which it bears, and expense is no object, for once in a way. The carte, however, is a difficulty. It offers a vast variety, but the nomenclature of the dishes is scarcely intelligible to the tourist. Look in at the windows — all the riches of the larder are displayed before the eye of the outsider. Fish, flesh, and fowl, are arrayed in tempting profusion. It is more easy to determine what we shall not eat than what we shall select. By no means have anything to do with French beef; and French fish (excepting oysters) is not good for much. Suppose we have some carrot soup after our raw oys- ters — some Maintenon cutlets — a roast fowl, with a salad or mayonnaise a la Basse (quite a first-class affair) — a Charlotte pudding, some apple-jelly, ice-cream, fruits — the pears and strawberries are very fine — and coffee without milk or sugar. For wine, a bottle of Beaume, and one of champagne, winding up with a chasse, in the shape of a glass of cognac. After that, the Emperor may have leave to dine. One thing, however, we must observe, in the interest of economy and common sense : order no more than can be eaten. The French restaurants are so liberal in their treat- ment of customers that when three persons form a 94 Norton's hand-book to Europe ; party, it is customary to order soup, cutlets, pudding, etc., for two persons — paying only for two. If you do not find that what is brought you suffices, it is very easy to call for more, and pay accordingly. Having dined, if the weather be very fine, adjourn to the garden of the Palais, and paying a sous or two for a chair, smoke a cigar, and enjoy the lively scene. As evening closes in, should you not be too tired, step into the Theatre Francais, or the Theatre du Palais Royal, where capital acting is sure to be seen. No- where in the world is the dramatic art carried to so much perfection as in France. Actors there are proud of being artistes, and though the stage cannot always boast of a Talma, a Mars, or a Rachel, it never thor- oughly degenerates. The government supports the theatres to a certain extent, which is a guarantee for their continuance in proper hands. Elsewhere, thea- tres are too often leased by men in desperate circum- stances, or of small capital, who try experiments on public taste and public patience, which generally end in failures. At the Theatre Francais, the highest char- acter of French tragedy and comedy — the works of Racine, Corneille, Boileau, Moliere, Casimir De la Vigne, Scribe, and other poets and comic writers — may be seen, always, however, of the Jiaute ecole. At the Palais Royal theatre is to be had the broadest de- scription of farce, presenting caricatures rather than exact types of French manners. But the foolery is capital — the actors and actresses are unrivalled for their fun, and the audiences highly appreciate their ability. OR, HOW TO TRAVEL IN THE OLD WORLD. 95 After a general survey of Paris, we may devote our- selves to details. On the second day cross over to the glorious Louvre, after breakfasting at the hotel on cap- ital coffee and boiled egg?, and seeing the guard mount in the square of the Tuileries. In the first day's wan- derings about the streets, Cuirassiers, Dragoons, Impe- rial Guards, Guides, Chasseurs, Zouaves, and Infantry of the Line, will have been met by hundreds ; but the French soldiers must also be seen on pafade. They have not the firm, solid step and regularity of move- ment of the New- York National Guard, or the British Guards and Line, but their easy, jaunty air satisfies the spectator that they could again go through an Italian campaign, and win more Montebellos, Magentas, and Solferinos. It may chance that the Emperor will have a field-day during our stay in Paris — so much the better ; in the meanwhile see the guard mounting. The gallery of the Louvre is to Paris what the British Museum, and the National Gallery, and the South Kensington Museum, combined, are to London — only that is more extensive and more elegantly dis- posed. Nothing is demanded in the shape of an ad- mittance fee. A catalogue, however, costs a franc or two. The visitor must not be disappointed if he does not find every part of the gigantic Louvre occupied with works of art. It is only within the last eight years that the noble design of Napoleon I., to connect the old Louvre with the Tuileries, has been carried out by his imperial and resolute nephew ; and the space occupied by the new buildings is so enormous, that it will be long before they can be properly filled. 96 NORTON S HAND-BOOK TO EUROPE ; In the inspection of the gallery of the Louvre and its unique museum, the visitor must be guided by the circumstance of time. There is, in the accumulated sculpture, excuse for the consumption of many days. The pictures of the finest French, Italian, Spanish, and other masters, challenge long scrutiny. The An- nunciation, by Murillo, will transfix the connoisseur for an entire day. The Naval Museum is replete with interest ; equally captivating is the Salle de la Renais- sance ; and the architecture of the New Louvre, stud- ded with statues of all the illustrious men of France, will fascinate the student of modern history, and en- chant the man of taste. It is fatiguing to walk about picture and sculpture galleries for an entire day. Therefore, on leaving the Louvre, engage a cabriolet or voiture de place, and be driven up the Rue Vivienne that you may see the Bourse (Exchange) in passing to the Maison d'Oree, on the Boulevards, where you must dine. The cab- riolet, with four persons or less within it, costs one franc and ten centimes the course, or journey, be it long or short ; to which must be added five sous (equal to five cents) for a pour boire — in other words, a gratuity to the driver that he may get " something to drink. " This application in France for a pour boire, in Italy for a buono mano, is as great a nuisance as the buksheesh demanded by the Arab. It is the tax im- posed by a slavish people, who are never above beg- ging, upon the good nature of a more elevated class of society ; and as it has grown into a custom, no one objects to pay it. OR, HOW TO TRAVEL IN THE OLD WORLD. 97 After dining at the Maison d* Oree, so called from the quantity of gilding within and without the edifice, it will be worth while to walk down the Boulevards to the Porte St. Martin theatre. This theatre has acquired a world-wide reputation for the manner in which melo-dramas and historical plays are put upon the stage and acted. The genius of Frederic Le Maitre and Madame Dorval has lent am importance to a style of composition which is objectionable, ad- dressing itself more to the passions than the judgment of society ; but as it supplies the originals from which the English and American stage has largely borrowed, the theatre is assuredly a curiosity. The third day cannot be better employed than on a visit to the Hotel des Invalides, the grand military asy- lum, corresponding with the Chelsea Hospital of Great Britain. It stands at the northwestern extremity of the Faubourg Saint Germain, immediately fronting the river, and opposite the Champs Elysee3. Between four and five thousand veterans are located in this no- ble building, many of them having served under the first Napoleon whose memory they still treasure. Le petit caporal will live for ever a household word among the French whose families did not suffer by the overthrow of the Bourbons. The hotel was pro- jected and built during the reign of Louis XIV., who seems to have originated the greater portion of the magnificent public institutions of Paris, and whose effigy decorates the arch in the centre of the frontage of the building. The court-yard of the Invalides is surrounded with arcades and galleries. There are 5 98 Norton's hand-book to Europe ; four dining halls, each 150 feet in length, and the kitchens contain two monstre coppers in which the dinner for the day — soup and bouilli — is dressed. As much as 12001bs. of meat can be cooked at once in each copper. The church of the Invalides is divided into two parts, one of which consists of a nave with side aisles supporting a gallery resting upon Corinthian pilastres, and the other of a rotunda surmounted by a lofty dome measuring 323 feet from the pavement to the summit of the cross by which it is topped. The exterior of the dome is very imposing — the interior of the church is decorated with portraits of some of the Marshals of France, and a few flags captured from the enemy in different campaigns. In a crypt under the dome is an object of more interest, perhaps, to the stranger than any other part of the Invalides. This is the tomb of Napoleon I. Yielding to the wishes of the French people in the time of Louis Philippe, the British government allowed the remains of the Ex- Emperor to be removed from St. Helena, and they are now deposited in the magnificent receptacle pro- vided for them in the military asylum. The tomb which covers the sarcophagus containing the ashes of the once mighty Emperor, consists of an immense monolith of Finland porphyry. The vault is lighted by funereal bronze lamps which disclose twelve colos- sal figures, each representing one of Napoleon's vic- tories. A gallery encircles the crypt above, and therein is a recess termed the Chapelle Ardente, in which lie the crown of gold voted to him by the town of Cherbourg, the sword he wore at Austerlitz, cer- OR, HOW TO TRAVEL IN THE OLD WORLD. 99 tain insignia, flags taken in battle, and a statue of the Emperor in his imperial robes. There are some models in the Military Asylum worth looking at — and the old heroes are, in themselves, a study, with their breasts decorated with the St. Helena medal. The old cathedral of Notre Dame — an illustration of passages in French history and of Victor Hugo's romance — may be visited on the day when the In- valides is seen, and it will not be out of the way to enter the handsome structure once known as the Chamber of Deputies. Victor Hugo's description of the cathedral is the best that could be given. If the reader will turn to the attractive volumes of that imaginative writer, he will find the pleasure of his in- spection of the Notre Dame enhanced by its associa- tion with the story of Esmeralda. The building is very ancient, and has suffered much from the hand of Time and the recklessness of revolutionary mobs, but it still possesses many features of interest. The Chamber of Deputies no longer bears that appellation. It is known as the Palais Bourbon, and accommodates the Legislative Assembly. The interior is extremely chaste, and well adapted to the object of the building. There will be time after luncheon, say at the Cafe Durand, near the Place de la Madeleine, to take a drive down the Champs Eli/sees, to the Bois de Boulogne ; — the favorite promenade of the Parisians in fine weather. The Champs Elysees consist of three avenues, the cen- tral being an avenue of trees extending for a consider- able distance on either side of the road, terminating with a splendid triumphal arch called the Arc de 100 Norton's hand-book to europe ; FEtoile. To the left, at the commencement of the Champs Elysees, is the Palace of Industry {Palais de Plndicstrip), erected by a company in 1852, to receive the quinquennial exhibition of the manufactures of France. The palace is of iron, faced with stone, on which are carved allegorical devices. To the right, embosomed in the trees, in the Avenue de Marigny, are several elegant dwellings of the nobility and am- bassadors ; and about half way up the central avenue (De Neuilly) we come upon an equestrian circus, called the Cirque de F Imperatrice, and two or three enclosed pavilions resembling the Cremorne Gardens in London, but in better taste, and called severally the Chateau des Fleurs and the Jardin ffHiver. Here also are sundry Cafes Chantants, where open-air concerts take place, and many indications of a country fair, such as dan- cing dogs, mountebanks, acrobats, and ropedancers, are seen. On a beautiful summer's eve there is no gayer sight than the Champs Elysees. All Paris then seems to have turned out for recreation. While the wealthy and the titled, the elegant and fashionable, occupy the centre of the avenue, the bourgeoisie of the town fill up the woody portions and give themselves up to the innocent frolics of the hour. Chairs are let out for two sous to those who prefer sitting by the roadside to observe the gay procession of carriages of all sorts, from the stylish landau to the modest gig, and the swarms of equestrians and pedestrians of both sexes. It is not unusual to meet the Emperor and Empress during the evening promenade, His Majesty often on horseback — the Empress in an open carriage. OR, HOW TO TRAVEL IN THE OLD WORLD. 101 Passing under the Arc cle VEtoile, and turning to the left, a drive of less than a mile brings us to the Bois cle Boulogne, a handsome, beautiful and extensive park, composed of avenues of trees, rides and walks, lakes, cascades, villas, restaurants and cafes. The whole of . the fashion of Paris resort to the Bois cle Boulogne as regularly as do the Londoners to their Hyde Park ; but though the trees in the French park as yet lack the age which imparts grandeur to the walnut and chest- nut plantations of London, the entire scene is infinitely more cheerful and varied. Returning to the hotel, the luxury of a bath which can be had in the hotel for a couple of francs, will be no bad preparation for the table d'hote dinner, after which a gentleman may stroll into the Boulevards or the Palais Royal and see some of the Cafes — a great fea- ture of Paris life. There are cafes where chess is played — others (called estaminets) where cigar-smoking is universal, — there are a few in which dominoes, news- papers, and other kinds of fugitive literature, are to be found and, in all, excellent coffee, ices, and brandy, may be had at reasonable rates. In the warm weather great numbers of persons sit outside the cafes, enjoying the air and the passing scene. At night the cafes are brilliantly and tastefully illuminated. Ladies are not admitted into these territories ; it is doubtful if the prohibition were taken off whether many would feel disposed to avail themselves of the privilege of the entree. The palace of the Luxembourg is the next object demanding attention. Built for Marie de Medicis, this 102 Norton's hand-book to europe ; Parisian " lion" is, in its architecture, worthy of an age in which the wealth of a nation was lavished on voluptuous kings and their haughty queens. Like other palaces, it has undergone many nominal trans- mutations in its time, and has served the purposes of a prison, a senate, and a dwelling. Its name has been changed half a dozen times to suit the power and the purpose of the moment, and is even now called by one of its old denominatives, Le Palais du Scnat. It is an imposing structure, " remarkable for the beauty of its proportions and its solidity.' ' Affluence of decoration is its inner characteristic. Nowhere is there such a profusion of statues, busts, paintings, frescoes, flags, velvet, and gold. Here the memory of all the great men of France receives due honor in the carved repre- sentations of their persons ; here too are works from the pencil of Poussin and Eubens, Horace Vernet, Dclaroche, Gignoux, and many others, natives of France. The eye becomes positively fatigued with the contemplation of this sumptuous Palais — and seeks relief in the gardens of the Luxembourg. These gar- dens, like the rest in Paris, do not boast the luxurious and abundant foliage of those for which the British metropolis is remarkable, for the simple reason that, ever since the first Revolutions, it has been the prac- tice with the infuriated and reckless populace to cut down the finest trees, either for barricades or firewood. The Prussians and Cossacks likewise did something in this Vandalish way in 1815. To atone, however, for the absence of old arborial embellishments, the gar- dens of the Luxembourg boast the finest rosary in the OR, HOW TO TRAVEL IN THE OLD WORLD. 103 world. From spring until autumn two thousand vari- eties are in continual blossom. The rest of the day, after an inspection of the Palais du Luxembourg, cannot be better spent, if it be Thursday, than in a visit to the Musee cVArtillerie and the Conservatoire des Arts et de Metiers. In the former is a fine collection of arms and armor of all ages, and numerous models of guns and gun carriages, together with an equestrian figure of Francis the First. Take notice that this museum can only be seen by strangers on Thursday, between the hours of twelve and four, and the passports must be produced. It mny here be stated that the passport of the stranger should always be carried with him on his promenades about Paris, as the production of that document secures free admis- sion to all the public (national) buildings. The Con- servatoire des Arts et des Metiers is, as its name implies, a receptacle for models of all modern machinery con- nected with the arts and manufactures. Drive, by way of a change, to the Rocher de Can- cele, in the Hue de Montorgueil. Nowhere do you get Norman oysters, or shell fish of any kind, in such per- fection. After dinner, whether wearied or not, the visitor cannot give himself a greater evening treat than by going to the French Opera — the Academie, as it is called. All the finest works of Auber and Meyerbeer were first produced at this temple of Euterpe, and the ballet is likewise seen in perfection. Having now seen the greater portion of the sights of Paris, it will be well to devote a day to Versailles — if two days can be spared so much the better, for the 104 Norton's hand-book to Europe ; Gallery alone is worth an entire day at the very least. Indeed, it is quite impossible to see Versailles satisfac- torily in less than two days. There is not in the whole world so vast a palace and such extensive gar- dens, nor such an amazing collection of works of art of the highest character, applied to the commemoration of great deeds and mighty men. There are two lines of railway between Paris and Versailles, one running on the left and another on the right of the river Seine. Proceeding by one line and returning by another the visitor of Versailles is enabled to obtain two excellent views of Paris, Leaving at about 9 a. m., Versailles is reached before 11 a. m., the hour when the gates are opened to the public. One of two methods of seeing and enjoying Ver- sailles is open to the visitor. He can either engage a guide at the entrance of the palace near the chapel, paying him one franc an hour, or purchase a compre- hensive guide-book. The latter is the most indepen- dent method, and possesses the advantage of enabling the stranger to linger over striking objects and recur- ring to them at his leisure. It would be vain in this place to attempt even a meagre description of Versailles. It must be seen to be understood ; seen, too, with vivid recollection on the mind of all the leading incidents of the French history, and especially of those which relate to the momentous reigns of Louis XIV., XVI. , and Napo- leon I. Let it suffice to say, that here is to be wit- nessed an extraordinary succession of galleries, apart- ments, corridors, chapel?, theatres, museums, filled OR, HOW TO TRAVEL IN THE OLD WORLD. 105 with pictures, delineating the chief historical events ; with statues of poets, philosophers, statesmen, sover- eigns, and of the heroic Joan of Arc, the last-named having been carved from the marble by a daughter of a king ; with busts of remarkable individuals ; with ancient beds and curious drapery ; the cedar gates from Rhodes ; tombs, shields, tapestry, marbles, and bronzes, curious clocks, frescoes, chairs, tables, &c. Every apartment speaks of kings and their courtiers, of ministers, of queens and their favorites ; of hours of voluptuous enjoyment, of deeds of blood, of treason, and tyranny, and intrigue. Miles of ground are covered in the prom- enade in the interior ; and still there are the gardens to see — gardens apparently of illimitable extent, laid out in plantations and alleys, bowers, flower-beds, orangeries, fountains, basins of water, from the centre of which rise allegorical groups in bronze, pavilions, walks, arbors, marble statues, in short, everything that can dazzle the eye and delight the fancy. In the quiet little town of Versailles, contiguous to the palace, there are hotels and restaurants where the visitors can breakfast, dine, and, if necessary, sleep, at a charge corresponding with those which are made in Paris for similar entertainment. If only one day can be spared for the visit to Versailles, the morning should be occupied in the palace, and the evening, after din- ner, to the gardens. Six days have now been consumed. Let us suppose that the seventh is the Sabbath. Heginning the day very early, we may assist at the ceremony of mass at the Madeleine, and admire the interior of that chaste 5* 106 Norton's hand-book to europe ; and beautiful edifice. Later in the morning, it will be proper to attend divine worship in the Protestant Chapel of the British Embassy, if the traveller be an Episcopalian, then hieing to St. Sulpice, he may gratify his sight with the interior of one of the handsome old church 3S of Paris. A dejeuner a lafourchette, in other words, a good meat breakfast, being taken at any one of the restaurants in the vicinity, it will now be advi- sable to get into an omnibus and be driven to the cem- etery of Pere la Chaise, a place of world-wide fame where French grief takes forms as bizarre as French merriment. Nevertheless, amidst a variety of gro- tesque images and inscriptions, will be found numer- ous handsome and appropriate monuments to distin- guished merit, and very many touching evidences of the love that children bear to parents, parents to chil- dren, brothers to sisters, husbands to wives, and so on. The promenaders up and down the avenues of this im- mense aud interesting cemetery, will constantly have their steps arrested by the occurrence of names with which they may be familiar. Almost all the celebri- ties of France lie here. Poets and painters, soldiers and statesmen, dramatists and astronomers, authors and advocates, repose side by side. The most pictu- resque and interesting monument in the cemetery, is that of Abelard and Heloise, whose strange love has supplied the poet with a theme. The reader will remember the epistle beginning — 44 In these deep solitudes and awful cells," &c Returning from Pere la Chaise to an early dinner, a trip can be made en voiture to the Palace of St. OR, HOW TO TRAVEL IN THE OLD WORLD. 107 Cloud, the summer residence of the Emperor, and a very favorite place of resort with the humbler classes, especially upon those days when les eaux (the cascades) in the park have been announced to play. The palace, itself, possesses many objects of admiration in the shape of architectural details and paintings, but the gardens and park are the chief sources of delight to the masses. From the summit of an elevated hill in the park, a beautiful view is obtained of the valley of the Seine, or rather of Paris and the surrounding country. A spectacle worth coming to see, is a large collection of groups of happy people, who assemble here on a serene summer's eve, to dance, and sing, and enjoy themselves after their own manner. The remaining sights of Paris may be briefly enu- merated. There is the Morgue, a specialty designed to afford the sorrowing survivors of those who drown themselves, or are drowned in the Seine, an opportu- nity of recognizing the deceased. The Morgue is a small building on the banks of the river, having an inclined plane of black marble in the centre, on which the bodies dragged out of the water are placed for inspection by the public, from whom they are separa- ted by a glass wall. If the bodies are not speedily recognized, they are interred at the cost of the govern- ment, or given over to the hospitals for the purposes of dissection. The Morgue stands on the Quay of the New Market. And, by the way, the markets of Paris, particularly the flower markets, and the Marche des Innocens, should not be passed over. They are spa- cious and skilfully, as well as tastefully arranged. 108 Norton's hand-book to Europe ; The Expiatory Chapel in the Rue du- Temple, is also deserving of notice, because it stands upon the site of the "Temple," which was once a fortress belonging to the Knights of St. John, and afterward became the prison of the unfortunate Louis XVI., and his poor wife, Maria Antoinette. There are many minor objects meriting notice, but these are so certain to fail under the observation of the lounger in Paris, that it is almost a piece of super- erogation to indicate them particularly. Such are the arcades called the Passages and Galleries, connecting certain streets, and offering in their tasteful shops, a glittering assemblage of the world's products ; the grand gates on the Boulevards, known as the Fortes St. Denis, St. Martin, and St. Antoine ; two or three fountains, the Statue of Moliere, the July Column, the Arsenal, the Military School, the Bridges, and the River Baths. Eight or nine days having been passed in Paris and the environs, it will be for the tourist to determine if his time will admit of a prolongation of his stay. Should he have the leisure, a trip to St. Germain's, and another to Fontainebleau, winding up with a walk in the gardens of the Tuileries, and another stroll on the Boulevards, will pleasantly fill up three more days. St. Germain's does not possess a palace worth looking at ; its chief recommendation is the view from a fine terrace, 7,200 feet long, and 90 feet broad. Rich vine- yards slope from this terrace, down to the banks of the Seine. There is a large forest behind the terrace, inviting to shady walks, and solitary meditations. OR, HOW TO TRAVEL IN THE OLD WORLD. 109 Fontainebleau has far superior attractions to St. Germain's. It is not easy to describe this delightful place within a page. It deserves a volume to itself. The " American in Paris" published a few years since, is rapturous in its praise, and his fervid admiration forbids a descent to the dry commonplaces of an ordinary guide-book. Fontainebleau must be seen with a poet's eye, and described by a poet. " Every- where — in the chateau, beyond the chateau, in their thousand interminglings of stone and turf, of marble and flowers, there is a natural appearance of majesty and grandeur. The chateau itself is magnificent, affluent, and natural, like French genius. Strange and happy assemblage of all kinds of things ; orna- ments without end, sculptures without motive, caprices, chances, decorations — turrets, towers, arrows, master- pieces 1" It was at Fontainebleau that Madame de Mamtenon found a suitable retreat. It was here where Napoleon I. signed his abdication and bade adieu to his Old Guard. At Fontainebleau resided Francis I. The gardens and forest speak of the reign of Henry IV. Yet there is nothing antique in the appearance of the chateau and its surroundings. The hand of improvement, restoration, and repair, has been con- stantly at work and always tasteful in its cunning. Hitherto we have only considered the dulce in our treatment of Paris and its environs. A wovd on the utile will not be out of place. The best method of drawing money on the continent of Europe has been described, but little has been said regarding the cur- rency. English and American money is seldom re- 110 Norton's hand-book to europe; ceived in shops ; it should therefore be changed at the bureau of the money-changers, or at the hotel, for its value, or an approximation thereto, in French coin. Gold obtains its full value — silver suffers a heavy dis- count of four or five per cent. The monetary system in France is decimal, the franc being the unit, divided into ten parts called decimes — which are again subdi- vided into ten parts, called centimes. Thus a hundred centimes go to a franc. The value of the franc is ten pence English, and is therefore equivalent to one fifth of a dollar. It is important for an American trav- eller to bear these facts in mind, as the circumstance of the U. S. dollar being divided into one hundred cents might occasion mental confusion. Five French centimes are only equal to the American cent. The centime is an imaginary coin. The lowest copper coin is the sou, which is equivalent to an English half- penny, an American cent, or five French centimes. The only other copper coin is the decime, of two sous or ten centimes. The silver coinage is divided into pieces of 20, 50, and 100 centimes (the latter being called the franc, or piece de 20 sous), two-franc and five-franc pieces. The gold coins consist of 5, 10, 20, 50, and 100 franc pieces ; the 20-franc pieces are called Napo- leons. There are no French bank-notes of a lower value than 100 francs. The Pdst-office in Paris is well conducted, and the deliveries are frequent. The General Office is in the Rue (Street) Jean Jacques Rousseau. Americans who have not agents or correspondents in Paris should cause their letters to be addressed to them, "Poste Res- OR, HOW TO TRAVEL IN THE OLD WORLD. Ill tante, Paris" They can claim them on the presenta- tion of their passport which establishes the identity of the applicant. The cost of a letter from France to the United States is, per French steamer, fifteen cents the quarter ounce. The post-office is open every day. Should the reading-room of the Hotel du Louvre or the cafes fail to supply the newspapers coveted by Americans, it is not impossible that they will be found at the office of Galignani's Messenger, which is conducted by Englishmen who are distinguished by their cour- tesy to strangers, or at Fowler's American bookstore, Palais Royal. Our time is up : we have " done" Paris satisfac- torily, and it is time to be moving South. On refer- ring to our memoranda we shall probably find that we have now been nearly two months out from Amer- ica, and have spent altogether, including our passage, five hundred dollars. But before the route to Italy is sketched, let us try back and see what there is to be seen, instead of going to Paris by way of Havre, Dieppe, Calais or Boulogne, we take the route from London to Antwerp. BELGIUM. In the selection of this route it is indispensable that our passport be vise, by the Belgium ambassador. That, and the other preliminaries to a continental trip being duly arranged, it is optional whether to take the route to Dover and cross to Calais, or go direct from London by water. The latter course in- volves more sea-travelling, but affords a better oppor- 112 Norton's hand-book to europe ; tunity than any other for seeing the .banks of the Thames to its very mouth, and a part of the shores of the county of Kent. Steamers leave London for Ant- werp every Sunday and Thursday, and the voyage oc- cupies between twenty and twenty-four hours, of which about half are engaged in traversing the sea, and the remainder in making the trip down the Thames and up the Scheldt. The fares are, for the chief cabin £2 2s. (ten dollars and a half) ; for the second cabin £1 125. 6d. — two dol- lars less. After passing down the Thames, seeing Gravesend, Southend, and Sheerness (the Nore), the steamer enters the German Ocean, and crossing over enters the Scheldt. On the left hand of this river is the swampy and unhealthy island of Walcheren, where so many thousand English perished of fever after an unsuccessful attack on the town of Flushing at the mouth of the Scheldt. Opposite to Walcheren stands Cadsand, memorable in English history for the defeat of the Flemings by Sir Walter Manny. The land is very flat in this vicinity, and continues so until Antwerp is reached. Nothing but a few forts and embankments are seen on either side of the river. Antwerp will amply repay a day's stay. The Hotel Rubens, in the Place Verte, or Green Square, in the centre of which stands a colossal statue of Rubens, is as good an inn as can be selected. There is a table d'hote every day at 5 p. m. French money is current here and throughout Belgium. The salient features of Antwerp are the fortifications, the noble cathedral, the museum or academy of painting, and some few OR, HOW TO TRAVEL IN THE OLD WORLD. 113 smaller churches. In moving about among the pic- ture-galleries the stranger will be surprised at the ex- traordinary number of familiar works that will every- where meet his eye. No painters have had their productions so extensively multiplied as Rubens, Van- dyck, and Teniers. In the cathedral is the master- piece of Rubens, the Descent from the Cross ; likewise the Elevation of the Cross and the Assumption of the Virgin, with others. In the Museum, admission to which is obtained for one franc, from 10 a. m. to 3 p. m., there are fourteen pictures from the pencil of Rubens, six by Vandyck, one by Quintin Matsys, one by Teniers (the well-known " Boors smoking"), one by Titian, and several by superior painters. Rubem lived and died at Antwerp — hence the value attached to his works. His house is shown to the visitor. But the Antwerp of his time was not the Antwerp of to-day. Then, Antwerp enjoyed immense commer- cial prosperity — now, its streets, quays, and exchange, are totally deserted. The grass grows in the slreets, and the silence is only broken by the occasional pas- sage of an omnibus. The single feature of interest next to the churches, galleries, and fortifications, is the architecture of the Hotel de Ville and the Bourse, both of which were erected in the days of the city's pride, i. e., in the middle of the sixteenth century. In forty minutes after quitting Antwerp the railway train conveys the tourist to Malines or Mechlin, once famous for its lace, which has now been superseded by the finer fabrics of Brussels. Nothing but an in- satiable passion for cathedrals and churches could in- 114 NORTON'S HAND-BOOK TO EUROPE ; duce a stoppage at this dull town. It were better to continue the route to Brussels which is reached in thirty-five minutes. We see Lacken, the residence of the King of the Belgians, en route to Brussels ; and can drive thither after our arrival if it be deemed worth while to see more royal parks and gardens. Brussels, the capital of Belgium, is a pretty little town — a sort of miniature Paris — and is attractive from its connection with events in the history of Europe during the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries. Of the eight or nine hotels which the town contains, the principal is the Hotel de Flandre, where an excel- lent table d'hote is kept. The charges for board and lodging at the hotel are not greater than at other ho- tels in Brussels. The person who does not drink a bottle of wine (Bordeaux) at his dinner will find his expenses reach about nine francs a day — less than two dollars. At the Hotels de Hollande and Kreuz- nock, inferior inns, accommodation may be obtained for six francs. The special sights at Brussels are few in number. A walk about the town — or rather of the towns, for it is divided into the upper and lower town — will introduce the spectator to two descriptions of architecture — the Gothic, peculiar to the period of Flemish greatness and Flemish degradation, and the very modern : — the former finds its finest illustration in the Hotel de Viile, the latter in the palace of the King, the Prince of Orange, and the houses of the ambassadors. There is a palace garden, in humble imitation of the gardens of the Tuileries, and Lillipu- tian Boulevards surround the town. There is not 115 much statuary to captivate the eye. An equestrian figure of the famous Godfrey de Bouillon is the only piece of sculpture possessing any merit. Perhaps the central object of interest in Brussels is the Museum, which is open to the public on Sundays, Mondays, and Thursdays. A small fee (a franc) is payable for ad- mission. Pictures by Rubens, Neefs, Gerard Douw, and others of the old school, and a number of paint- ings by modern Belgian artists, make up, with a col- lection of objects of natural history, the principal con- tents of the Museum. Some of the churches are worthy of notice, and especially St. Gudule, which contains a very curiously carved pulpit, and the chapel of St. Sacrament des Miracles. Those who believe or disbelieve in the miracles with which the priesthood in former times delighted to cajole the people, will be edified or amused, as the case may be, with a sight of the Miraculous Wafers which spouted blood when penetrated by Jewish daggers some time in the fourteenth century of the Christian era. The visiter to Brussels and Antwerp may be supposed to carry with him a familiarity with the history of the Low Countries before and during the Spanish do- minion, and will thus find an extra source of pleasure in embellishing the principal localities with souvenirs of the great events of the fifteenth and sixteenth cen- turies, and of the anxious period which immediately preceded the battle of Waterloo in 1815. The day being passed in inspecting Brussels, not omitting a visit to the Theatre de la Monnaie in the evening, the second day must be devoted to a drive to 116 Norton's hand-book to Europe ; THE FIELD OP WATERLOO. Engage a carriage, called a voiture de remise. In- cluding the fee to the driver, and the turnpikes, the cost is less than five dollars — say twenty francs. The price of a cab, which holds but two persons, is ten francs only. The distance of the field from Brussels is about twelve miles, by the road which in June, 1815, was the scene of the retreat of the scared and the re- moval of the wounded. Alight at Hougomont, the farm and orchard which formed the scene of the most desperate encounters of the memorable day. Several men approach the carriage as it nears the field, offer- ing their services to show all the remarkable spots. It is useless to give, in this place, the names of men who may have left their vocations, or " shuffled off this mortal coil, ,, before the traveller can reach the scene of their industry. If the landlord of the Hotel de Flandre cannot recommend any one in particular, it will be well, when the field is reached, to accept the services of the guide who can make himself the most intelligible in English* The price to be paid for " lionizing" Waterloo is four francs. Make the stipu- lation beforehand, or the guide will be exorbitant in his demand when his work is at an end. The field of Waterloo is now so much changed in its general aspect, that it will not be easy for the most diligent student of the various accounts of the great battle that have been published, to distinguish the pre- cise spots of the " moving accidents'' of the day. The form of the ground is not changed — it is still undula- OR, HOW TO TRAVEL IX THE OLD WORLD. 117 ting and cultivated ; but it has been built over in some places, and monuments supply the place of deadly rencontres. Ascend the mound on which the Belgic Lion stands, and gaze at the field from the elevation. It was on this spot that the young Prince of Orange fell wounded. There is a painting representing the event in the International Art Institution of New- York. From the summit of the mound, 200 feet above the plain, the guide can point out the locality of many incidents of the strife, and the imagination of the spectator can picture the events described. Among the monuments and farm-houses on the field, to which attention will be directed, are La Haye Sainte, La Belle Alliance (both farms), the house of Coster, Napo- leon's guide, the grave of Shaw, the lifeguardsman, the iron monument to the memory of the Prussians who fell in the action, etc. The inspection of the field occupies three hours, no more time than is requisite to rest the horses. Re- freshment may be obtained at a restaurant at one of the farm-houses, but we do not recommend it. The charges are high, and the meat and cookery inferior. On the morning of thg third day, the journey to Paris is resumed, and soon accomplished. [In the foregoing, only a part of Belgium has been traversed, so as not to interfere with the main object of the traveller, which is presumed to be, the getting to the French capital. If a more extensive tour through Belgium is considered desirable, the route should be taken from Antwerp to Ghent, and thence to Bruges, returning, via Courtray and Lille, to Brussels. Ghent 118 Norton's hand-book to europe ; and Bruges are singular old towns, full of souvenirs and ancient churches ; but the country is a level sur- face, and only picturesque in its association with the cattle and windmills of Cuyp, the boors of Teniers, and some of the wars of Marlborough and Wellington.] Now get your passport vise by the Sardinian and Austrian ministers. SWITZERLAND AND ITALY. It was dreary enough to travel through France to Italy when the diligence or private carriage were the only recognized methods of transport. The dead level of the scenery, offering no better variety than an alter- nation of avenue and plain, rendered the journey tedious and monotonous. We have not improved our chances of getting a glimpse of the plains and alleys, with the poor diversification of a few stiff vineyards, since the railways have been opened to the south ; but we get along with greater rapidity, and this is an un- questionable gain, for where there is little to see, the more speedily the desolate country is passed the bet- ter. Auxonne, Dijon, Neufchatel, and Lyons, are the cities which lie on the track to Geneva. As there is nothing like them in or near Paris, it may not be amiss to stop at one or the other, for the purpose of becoming acquainted with the character of French provincial towns, always supposing that the traveller considers that the acquisition of an addition to his stock of topographical knowledge, will counterbalance the inconvenience of removing his luggage, spending OR, HOW TO TRAVEL 12* THE OLD WORLD. 119 more money, and procrastinating his journey to Italy. We wish to enter Italy across the Alps. Indeed there is no other way, unless you run down to Marseilles, and coast it to Genoa. And we wish to see as much as possible in the course of the journey ; because we may not return by the western line of country at any future time. When we have got to Dijon (say that it has been determined to spend a few hours at a resting- place), we are in the ancient capital of the Duke of Burgundy, and we, of course, take a walk through the town. It is well built and well paved. In the Place d'Armes, or Place Eoyale, stands the old palace of the dukes. In the Museum we pay our respects to the marble tombs of Philippe le Hardi and his sou, Jean, Duke of Burgundy. A gallery of paintings, and some ecclesiastical reliques, are to be found in the Museum. The merchant, on his travels, will possibly be induced to look into the small factories of cotton, wool, and silk ; and the reader of Walter Scott will not fail to remember that the Duke of Burgundy, contemporary with Louis XL, played a conspicuous part in Quentin Durward. # From Dijon, the alternative of going to Neufchatel or Lyons presents itself. The railway en route to the former place, only runs to Salins, near the gorge of the Jura ; the rest of the journey is effected by dili- gence. Neufchatel is the chief town of a small Swiss canton, situated among the ridges of the Jura. The King of Prussia is the sovereign of Neufchatel. The vicinity of this place is historically interesting, from the defeats which Charles the Bold experienced at the 120 NORTON'S HAND-BOOK TO EUROPE ; hands of the Swiss. The cathedral and the chateau of the ancient princes of Neufchatel adjoin each other. The former is 700 years old. All the scenery about Neufchatel is of the grand order, and the curious in manufactures will here find themselves among the makers of watches and the makers of wine. Steamers go from Neufchatel, on the lake, to Yverdun, twice a day. From Yverdun there is a rail to Lausanne. Say that we take the way to Lyons from Dijon, for the sake of visiting the finest manufacturing town in France. It is 316 miles from Paris to Lyons. The expense of the journey by rail is : first-class, 56 francs and 80 centimes ; by second-class, 42 francs and 60 centimes. The time occupied is sixteen hours, exclu- sive of stoppages. The expense increases with the stoppages. Travelling express to Lyons reduces the journey to eleven hours or rather less. The best hotel in Lyons, for accommodation and the picturesque scenery which it commands, is the Hotel de £ Europe. The most noticeable objects in the city inviting the ordinary tourist, are the Cathedral, the Hotel de Ville, the Library, the Museum, and the Ob- servatory. But he who goes to Lyons to see the silk manufactories will be quite embarrassed where to choose. There are no fewer than seven thousand fac- tories within the walls of the city. Ask the landlord of the hotel which is the largest or the best managed, and go there accompanied by a guide, who will charge three francs for two or three hours' service. Lyons is beautifully situated at the confluence of the Seine and OR, HOW TO TRAVEL IN THE OLD WORLD. 121 the Rhone, — the Rhone which Hannibal passed in the face of opposition in his daring invasion of Italy. Geneva is one hundred miles from Lyons. There is a rail all the way — the fare by first class is seventeen francs and ninety centimes — second class, thirteen francs, forty-five centimes. Five hours and a half are consumed in the journey. Geneva suggests watches, Calvin, and Jean Jacques Rousseau. The little town, with its population of thirty thousand, is very pleas- antly situated on the slopes of two hills which are divided by the Rhone. The traveller has the choice of eight or ten hotels. The Hotel tie la Metropole is the largest and fitted up a V Angla'se. For a slender purse the Hotel da Lac or the Lion d Or are more to be com- mended. A short promenade familiarizes us with the town and the statue of the author of the " Confes- sions* ' — and a call upon two or three of the watch- makers will enable us to see how those delicate little timepieces, which have for many years past been the companions of gentlemen and ladies in Europe, Asia, and America, are fabricated. And now for Lausanne. If the night is passed at Geneva, we can embark in the steamer which leaves at 7 a. M., and boil and bubble up lovely lake Leman (or Geneva) immortalized by the muse of Byron, stop- ping at Chillon — the scene of one of the poet's most touching compositions. There is a strong temptation, when referring to such places, to give loose to a little poetic fervor and quote considerably ; but we have neither space for such indulgence, nor any desire to display much ability in "index-hunting." The reader, 6 122 Norton's hand-book to Europe ; acquainted with Byron, will readily recall the exquisite passages to which we allude, and the traveller who has never delighted in the pages of the finest and most vig- orous English poet since the days of Shakespeare, will now find a motive for supplying a deficiency in his literary acquirements. It was unfortunate for Byron's posthumous reputation, and more unfortunate still for the English and American nations, that his last work, " Don Juan," should have created so strong a preju- dice against him as to lead to the supposition that nothing that he wrote could possibly be moral or even unobjectionable. But for this prejudice, thousands of both sexes would have read the glorious epic " Childe Harold," and the touching " Prisoner of Chillon." The scenery of the shores of Lake Leman, engross us for the six or seven hours during which we make the voyage to Lausanne, or rather to the head of the lake, which is but a short distance from Lausanne, and to which we are conducted by diligence. Lausanne is old and irregular. The cathedral dates from a.d. 1000. A fine view is obtained from its sum- mit. Remember we have come to Switzerland to gladden our eyes with glorious scenery, and we must not therefore slight any opportunity which offers of getting panoramic pictures. Out of Lausanne, distant two miles, is the cemetery of Pierre de Place, where John Philip Kemble, the brother of Mrs. Siddons, lies buried. He was an admirable actor, and held posses- sion of the stage for twenty -five years after the retire- ment of Garrick. He was deficient of the genius or impulsiveness which belonged to his illustrious sister OR, HOW TO TRAVEL IN THE OLD WORLD. 123 and to the great Edmund Kean ; but carefulness, scholarship, perfect taste, and correct conception, joined to a fine person and expressive face, atoned for the absence of originality. No British actor ever so completely and successfully impersonated Shakespeare's poetical delineations of Coriolanus and Brutus. His Cato (Addison's Cato) was also a sublime performance, and his renderings of Hamlet and Cardinal Wolsey, led Sir Thomas Lawrence and Harlowe, two great paint- ers of their time, to select those characters for their canvas. The Hamlet decorates the National Gallery of London. Let us see as much of Switzerland as time and the money will allow. From Lausanne we can go up to Bern and cross to the very pretty little town of Lu- cerne ; then steam down Lake Lucerne to Altorf, lux- uriating in the landscape of the verdant hills and lofty mountains and the reminiscences of William Tell. For do we not see on the shore of the lake, TelFs chapel and the field of Grutli, and is there not at the southern extremity of the lake the town in which Gesler com- manded the people to bow to his cap? All around us confirms the justice of "the appellation " the guards of liberty," given by Sheridan Knowles to the moun- tains of Switzerland — 44 O sacred forms, how proud you look ! How high you lift your heads into the sky ! How huge you are ! how mighty and how free ! How do you look, for all your bared brows, More gorgeously majestical than kings Whose loaded coronets exhaust the mine." 124 Norton's hand-book to Europe ; A coach from Altorf take* the Swiss tourist through a romantic country, crossing the Alps at Mont St. Gothard to Domo d'Ossola, at the head of Laggo (or Lake) Maggiore. But if there is any particular mo- tive for crossing the Alps by the Great St. Bernard and Mont Kosa, then we must not think of going to Lucerne The route from Lausanne is, by trains, to Martigny, and from Martigny by diligence to Sesto Calende, at the southern point of Laggo Maggiore. The lake is very beautiful — more picturesque than grand. Whichever route may be chosen to this point, there can be no question about the advantage of driving to Como. " Exquisitely lovely" is not too hyperbolical a phrase to apply to the scenery about the southern point of Lake Como. The town itself is very old and quiet. As usual, there is a cathedral, a Town Hall (the Broletto), and some remarkable gateways. Gara- baldi has lately added to the historical celebrity of Como. We are now in Italy — the fairest land in the uni- verse — a land that has produced great warriors and great poets, mighty painters and unequalled sculptors ; the land which gave birth to Columbus and Galileo, as well as to Petrarch and Tasso, Ratfaelle and Michael Angelo. The heart must be cold indeed which is not stirred by the first aspect of this favored land, and deeply impressed at a later period with the vast riches it contains. Quitting t Como, at the railway station of Camer- lati, and proceeding by rail for two hours and a quar- OR, HOW TO TRAVEL IN THE OLD WORLD. 125 ter, at an expense of 5 francs and 20 centimes (1st), or 4 francs 5 centimes (2d class), we get to Milan — the capital of Lombardy — and take up our quarters at the Hotel Marino, No. 5 Rue Marino. It is more centrally situated than others and not more expensive. The military aspect of Milan will strike the traveller forcibly. Austria rules in Lombardy, but has estab- lished no hold upon the affections of the Milanese. The effect of the estrangement of the people from their government is apparent in the deserted condition of La Scala, the largest theatre (excepting the San Carlo of Naples) in the world. The chief lion of Milan is the Duomo, or Cathedral. Any amount of enthusiasm which the sight of the chastely magnificent structure may excite is perfectly natural and excusa- ble. There is nothing to resemble it. With its nu- merous spires and statues, the more beautiful from the marble of spotless whiteness, it has no parallel in Europe. Nothing but the gracefully solemn Taj at Agra, in the East Indies, will bear a comparison with the Duomo. A couple of days exhaust Milan. We wish for something more decidedly Italian. Accordingly, not stopping at such rickety old towns as Parma and Placentia, we speed to Bologna, that we may see the Academia delle Belle Arte, the Museum of Anatomy, - and the Cabinet of Natural Philosophy. The town of Bologna is sufficiently gloomy. A succession of arcades, between the pillars of which thick curtains are suspended in the summer time, exclude from view the shops of the city, and give it an air of desertion. 126 Norton's hand-book to Europe ; But the Academy — where there is a host of interest- ing pictures, especially by Guido, Domenichino, and Ludovico Carracci ; — the Academy, as Charles Dickens writes, "gives Bologna a place of its own in the mem- ory ; and even though these were not, and there were nothing else to remember it by, the great meridian on the pavement of the church of San Petronio, where sunbeams mark the time among the kneeling people, would give it a fanciful and pleasing interest." To which we would add, that the two ill-looking leaning towers are calculated to fix the place in the mind. From Bologna to Florence, through the wild Apen- nines — mountains too rude and lofty to be beautiful, and neither rude enough nor lofty enough to be sub- lime. After Switzerland they are little more than in- significant. Parts are cultivated, but the larger por- tion is barren and woody, with an occasional good view. Florence — Firenze — the City of the Red Lily — cas- ket of the gems of the world — the paradise of painters — the loadstone of Europe — the " observed of all observers" — the invaluable ! In sober earnest, no man can feel or conceive the beauty of art, or the delight it is capable of communicating, until he visits the inde- scribable and inestimable galleries of this city. Enter the Tribuna, in the Palazzo Pitti — the room is of mod- erate dimensions, and nowise remarkable but for the glorious works it enshrines. The pictures, few as they are, are worth the revenue of a kingdom. Its Venus de Medicis is still worshipped by votaries from the remotest parts of the civilized world. The young OR, HOW TO TRAVEL IN THE OLD WORLD. 127 Apollo is still a model of beauty ; the Wrestlers, of muscular knowledge and vivid action ; the Fawn, and the Slave about to flay Marsyas, of admirable execu- tion and expression. At Florence, put up at the Grand Hotel de la Vic- toire, and at once walk to the Boboli Gardens, whence an excellent view is obtained of the whole town. Florence is remarkable for the beauty of its position, the picturesque grandeur of its buildings, its wooded plains, sloping hills, and majestic mountains. Many churches are in Florence ; but the traveller will hardly care to see them all. Let him not, however, fail to visit the church of Santa Croce, and that of San Lo- renzo, as it contains the Laurentinian library designed by Michael Angelo. The Sacristy of Michael Angelo should likewise be seen, for therein is the grand origi- nal of the statues of Day and Night, which are so well copied in the Sydenham Crystal Palace. The house of Michael Angelo, the Casa Buonarotti, recently be- queathed to Florence by the principal descendant* of the wonderful " painter, sculptor, and architect, " is not the least interesting of the many objects of interest in Florence. But paramount in importance are the gallery of the Pitti Palace and the Galeria Impe- riale e Eeale. They contain, without exception, the richest collection, as well as the most celebrated, in the whole world. It is a sad commentary on the instabil- ity of fortune, but not the less instructive, that these Palaces, or Palazzi, were once the residences of the members of a proud oligarchy, whose descendants have sunk to the extreme of poverty under the political changes wrought by time. 128 Norton's hand-book to Europe ; We shall not have completed the round of Florence sights, unless the Machiavellian and the Laurentinian libraries are visited. The former contains 150,000 volumes, and boasts of manuscripts from the pens of Galileo, Tasso, and Machiavelli ; — the latter contains the Pandects, and some MSS. of Virgil, Tacitus, Plu- tarch, and Dante, besides the Decameron of Boccaccio. It is not worth while to spend an evening at the Pergola theatre at Florence. The Grand Opera is bad, and the other houses are not better. The Flor- entines have not good taste enough to command good music. Their passion for ballet pantomime is aston- ishing. No concord of sweet sounds appears to pro- duce the effect of the stamping and face-making which succeed the opera; and this people, of reputed exquisite musical taste, after listening to the most charming compositions with perfect apathy, break out into ec- stacy at a grimace, and seem quite beside themselves when a pirouette exhibits rather a longer whirl and more ankle than usual. From Florence to Rome, there is no railway beyond Sienna or Arezzo. Take the latter route, for, if you have any classical ity, you will like to pass the Thrasi- mene lake, where Hannibal defeated Flaminius. The Roman consul made a great mistake in allowing him- self to be entrapped. Had a general of our days, fighting in his own country, made such a mistake, he would deservedly have been shot. A thousand sling- ers and archers, scattered in front and ranging widely on the flank of the consul's army, would have discov- ered Hannibal's plan and the distribution of his forces ; OR, HOW TO TRAVEL IN THE OLD WORLD. 129 but to rush into such a situation as that, between the steep, woody hills, where the mass of Hannibal's vete- rans lay like lions couchant, and the lake, leaving a narrow pass in the rear, and having another, and a position most difficult to assail in front, where Hanni- bal baited his trap by an ostentatious exhibition of some infantry in battle array, was an infatuation, for which, as it compromised his country, the death of Flaminius but poorly atoned. Eight or nine miles of diligence or vetturino travel- ling brings us to Perugia, older than " old Rome." It is strongly and splendidly situated, on the summit of a hill, and has less about it of a classical than a medi- aeval touch. Here was born the master of the divine Raphael. At the foot of the hill runs the Tiber, a river filling the world and the imagination with its name. Nothing but beautiful country villas, porticoes, and gardens, on the whole road to Narni, as far as Otri- cole and Civita Castellana. But after leaving the latter place, the eye has nothing to rest upon but a lonely, purplish-green prairie, where the wind sighs mournfully through the long gras3 and the sedge of standing pools, while the dusky, almost neutral, tint of the low, barren undulations, which spread on all sides like the swell of a midnight sea, is unbroken by tree or building. Nowhere in the world has earth so completely gone into mourning. It is impossible to conceive anything more melancholy ; and it would seem to a fanciful mind, as if nothing cheerful or ex- hilarating could flourish where the ground had been 6* 130 Norton's hand-book to Europe ; cursed by so much human suffering as must have attended the dying struggles of the colossus, Ancient Rome ! As we approach Rome all is consecrated ground. We traverse the Flaminian way, the path of so many hundred triumphs. We pass the Pons Milenus, where Christianity conquered in the person of Constantine. Underneath its ancient arches the Tiber, here about four hundred feet in breadth, flows quick and with troubled waters ; beyond are the gates of the Eternal City. We approach the Flaminian gate. In front rises an obelisk five centuries older than the Christian era, telling the tale of Rome's triumph over the suc- cessors of the Pharaohs. On the one hand are the tombs of the church's bloody persecutors, Nero and Domitian ; far off, on the other, rejoicing in her mighty triumph, the great and glorious St. Peter's lifts its dome to heaven, as if conscious that it had no rival. On the left are the Pincian and the Quirinal hills. Around and stretching far ahead, innumerable domes and the Seven Hills, the Palatine and the Capitol — all objects of interest and providing food for the most craving imagination, as well as the most profound knowledge. We enter Rome by the Porta del Popolo and are driven to the Hotel oV Allemagne. There are other good hotels, but that of de F Europe is expensive ; and the Hotel de la Minerve is the resort of Roman Catholic ecclesiastics — a fact which our Roman Catholic readers may " make a note of," — for reasons the very opposite of those which would induce our Protestant travellers OR, HOW TO TRAVEL IN THE OLD WOELD. 131 to avoid the hotel. Well, we go to the Hotel d'Alle- magne, and completely knocked up by our journey, we recall Shenstone's lines and Washington Irving' s de- scription, and exclaim with the tired and hungry Frenchman " & Hotel vaut mieux que les souvenirs /" Romt: ! such an infinity of tomes, so many hundred libraries have been written about the Immortal City, that nothing new can be said on. the subject. St. Peter's, the Basilica ! who shall describe it ? Where and what are the wonders of the old "old world" compared to its beauty and majesty ? Where ever was, or where is there, a Temple so worthy of the Most High 1 Within, it is a mighty miracle — though without it has been spoiled by a feeble innovation upon a bold and glorious conception. The front of Carlo Maderno ruins the dome of Michael An^elo — and even that dome is less graceful than the dome of St. Paul's, in London. But were the defects ten times greater, St. Peter's would still be, as a whole, the most glorious temple on earth. The magnificent approach of sweep- ing and statue-crowned colonnades, the flight of broad stairs leading to the vestibule, like those in Martin's pictures or Pirinesi's dreams ; the immensity of the open space before the Basilica, where people look like ants, and the cardinal's carriage like the nut- shell carriage of Queen Mab ; its magnificent fountains pouring forth tons of water every second, each attended in particular lights by its own peculiar hues, and fling- ing up jets like the water-spouts of the ocean ; — its Egyptian obelisk which, perhaps, beheld in early youth the plague of darkness, and stood amidst the rain of 132 Norton's hand-book to edrope ; fire ; these are adjuncts and accessories which no other church in the world possesses, and of which no other is so worthy. The portico is heavy — you remove a thick curtain, heavy as flexible iron, and enter the most glorious of human achievements. Who can describe the feelings at such a moment ? But they are not those of awe. What we behold is too beautiful to be awful — exquisite proportion, magnificent decora- tion, yet nothing gaudy — a profusion of all that is grand or splendid in ornament, yet no overloading — and, above all, scrupulous cleanliness, and a freshness, or brightness, in every part of the edifice, as if it were completed but yesterday. These are not adjuncts to excite awe or melancholy ; — those hover round the pyramids in the silence of the desert, or dwell in the moonlight ruins of the Coliseum. But in St. Peter's, all is beauty and glory, and light, and triumph. A few hours at St. Peter's may be appropriately followed by a few more in the Vatican. See the treasures of the magnificent gallery — the "Lord of theunerringbow" — the incomparable Apollo Belvidere, — the Laocoon — his 41 torture dignifying pain, A father's love and mortal's agony With an immortal's patience blending.'* The enjoyment which may have been derived from visits to other galleries here reaches its climax. The remains of ancient Pome will, of course, re- ceive as much attention from the traveller as the mod- ern architectural and pictorial riches. The Coliseum, the columns, the debris of the forum, and the temple OR, HOW TO TRAVEL IN THE OLD WORLD. 133 of Jupiter, are all interesting. Nor must we omit a drive to Tivoli, with its picturesque temple of the Sibyls, the Giants' Cavern, and the waterfalls ; — another drive to Albano, with its lovely lake and wooded shore, and similar places within a few miles of the seven-hilled city. It should here be mentioned that the expense of a vettura, a carriage and pair, which, in the absence of a diligence, may be employed to carry passengers from Sienna or Arezzo to Eome and back, and in the vicinity of Rome, costs from 36 to 42 francs daily. It is best, however, to make an arrangement with the driver, who will contract for everything, including locomotives, lodging, board, and his own buono mano, for about one Napoleon daily, for each passenger. French money passes current in Italy, but you cannot avoid using Italian money as occasional change. The chief coins in use are scudl A scudo is equal to a 5 franc piece — rather less than an American dollar. The lira — one lira being equal to 100 centisime or 8d. English — say 80 French centimes. Twelve centisime are equivalent to Id. English, or 10 French centimes. In Rome and other parts southward, the paoli or pauls are in use. One paul — 8 crazie — or 5Jd. English, half a franc French. Ten pauls go to a scudi. There are smaller coins, which are useful to give to beggars, and in re- quital of very small services. There are the bajocchi (half-pence), ten of which go to a paul, and there is the quattrene, five of which make up a bajocchi. At this present writing there is a railway train to Frascate and Marino, and a further section will shortly 134 Norton's hand-book to Europe ; be opened to Naples. Should this latter enterprise be carried out before this volume is in the hands of the public, there can be no possible doubt of its being adopted as a preferable means of going to Naples to that afforded by the vettura. In the opposite hypoth- esis, however, there is nothing for it but to engage a vettura and traverse the dreary Campagna, resembling "a stagnant lake, or a broad dull Lethe flowing round the walls of Rome, and separating it from all the world." How often have the legions, in triumphal march, gone glittering across that purple waste, so silent and unpeopled now ! The next day, after a short halt at Velletri, a miserable town, we cross the Pontine Marshes, level and lonely,, and overgrown with brushwood. The vetturino will tell you to keep awake while the causeway over these pestilential swamps is passed, and you will be sure to follow his counsel. It is said to be fatal to inhale the malaria while sleeping. Evening brings the carriage to a halt at Terracina, — a beautiful spot on the seashore. Those who remember the opera of Fra Diavolo, or who may have read any of the hundred tales of bandit life of which the Inn at Terracina has been the scene, will enjoy or otherwise their brief stay at this place, ac- cording to the strength of their romantic notions. We do not recommend the wine at this or any other hotel on the road. It is not made so good as it must have been when the Horatian muse was invoked in its honor ! The Neapolitan frontier is crossed within three hours travelling from Terracina. Fondi, Mola di Gaeta, and OR, HOW TO TRAVEL IN THE OLD WORLD. 135 Capua (suggestive of Hannibal), lie on the road. Every step taken illustrates the force of Heber's lines : " only man is vile !" Nature is everywhere lovely. There are mountains, not lofty, but rugged and pictur- esque, on our left and before us ; — there is the beau- tiful blue sea on our right. All is soft and sunny. Even the costumes of the people are picturesque in their filth. But the inhabitants themselves ! What- ever can be expected as the result of bad government, priestly influence, natural indolence, and the prodi- gality of nature in yielding fruits with the smallest amount of culture from the hand of man, will here be found in perfection. Squalor, rags, pitiful sycophancy, vile effluvia, ruins, decayed vegetation, offal, dirt, and disease, in all shapes, characterize each town on the road-side. Even the soldiers — the miserable instru- ments of an effete despotism — look as if they had been tricked out in the wardrobe of a fourth rate theatre. We arrive, by a facile descent down hill, at Naples, or Napoli — which enthusiasm has described as the last spot of earth worth looking upon. Voi Napoli per morir. " See Naples and die." Well, we hope to live to speak of Naples after seeing it, for it is full of ma- terial for future talk and lasting souvenir. Let us locate at the Hotel Crocelli The guide-book does not falsify fact?, which says that it is one of the best in Italy for families or gentlemen. And then it commands such a view ! Before us lies the grandest of bays and the mysterious mount which rarely ceases to proclaim that fire still lurks in its bosom. In the very remote distance, like a huge marine monster, 136 Norton's hand-book to europe ; guarding the entrance to the bay, lies Capri, and there standing upon a cluster of rocks, to the left of the spectator, is the ruined chateau Castel-a-Mare. We dine, and dinner, at which we take care to have mac- caroni, with a perfectly Italian savory sauce, becea- ficas, and no other wine than Marsala — takes a long time, because we linger over the view when our hands are removed from the plates. Come — the evening is cool and there are two or three hours to spare before night falls, and it becomes our business to hear an Opera at the San Carlo. Let us go into the streets, and mingle with the motley crowd which pours forth to enjoy the breezes from the bay, and the various gratis exhibitions which are ever to be found on the Mole, or near the Chiaja (an even- ing drive for fashionables), or the Public Garden, or in the open spaces about the town. Puppets (poupi), reciters of stories and poems, Pulcinello, singers with guitars, showmen, tumblers, venders of orangeade and lemonade, cars full of happy clusters of gaily dressed natives, beggars, funerals — gay from the crimson and gold pall which covers the bier — lazzaroni, cavalry soldiers, and pompous officials, make up the busy scene. It is very curious and exciting. The streets, every- thing considered, have little which merits notice. They are narrow, and the houses are lofty, so as to exclude the sun as much as possible. The San Carlo is a very large theatre, and the opera and the ballet — the latter having the preference — are upon a par with the same things at Milan. Better music is to be had at the Fondo theatre, a smaller but OR, HOW TO TRAVEL IN THE OLD WORLD. 137 not untasteful house. Tragedy and comedy are not in great vogue at Naples, and have little attraction for those who have not studied the Italian lanfiuajre. To make amends for the absence of theatres worthy of the poetical renown of Alfieri and Goldoi, there are three hundred churches, some of which are very rich in paintings and marble. San Severo, San Martino, San Giovanni and Paulo, and the cathedral, are the most remarkable. The second day at Naples may well be partially passed in the Bourbon Museum — the Museo Borbonico Every step taken within this charming building is re plete with entertainment and instruction. There is not much of the latter to be gathered from looking at the backs of 250,000 volumes, or at the dingy papyri found in Herculaneum, but the picture gallery, and its profusion of works by the glorious old Italian masters, who flourished when, and because, the Medicis were in their glory — the marbles, bronzes, and Etruscan vases, the mosaics, fresco paintings, and gold and silver vases discovered in the excavations of Pompeii and Herculaneum — these make up the enjoyment of a good part of the day ; and a trip to Baioe (where the classic lake Avernus lies), stopping en route to see Grotto Posilipo, the scene of Virgil's tomb, and the Grotto del Cane, where a poor dog is thrown into convulsions by sulphuric vapors, make up the other part. At Naples we are introduced to a new coinage — a small quantity of which is requisite at all of the public places, for we are not in generous Paris. The coins in use are the grani, carlini, and ducats. Agrana is 138 Norton's hand-book to europe ; worth rather less than an American cent, or an Eng- lish halfpenny. It costs eight carlini — a carlino is worth ten grani — to see all parts of the Museo Borbo- nico. This is, however, only payable on the occasion of the first visit. The third day after our arrival at Naples we give to Vesuvius. The railway goes to Portici nine times a day, and reaches the village, or town, in three quar- ters of an hour; cost, 15 cents a head. It is pleas- ant to make the walk, if the day be not very hot, from Portici. We remain a little time, just to realize, if possible, the scene of the eruptions, and to think of Finella and Masaniello, or Tomas Aniello. By the way, there is a very good picture of the gallant rebel fisherman in the gallery of the Museum ; and if the traveller can stand a little dirt and offensive smells, he may visit the identical fish market in Naples where the famous revolt began. It is capital fun climbing up and down Vesuvius amid the sconce, sometimes helped up by guides, who drag you by a strap passed round your middle, and sometimes coming down with a run. Five hours is the time consumed in going from Portici to the top of Vesuvius and back. The guide costs a piastre. No refreshments are to be had en route — ergo, it will be as well to take some with you. If the train be taken from Naples as early as 7 a.m., there will be abundance of time to visit the ruins of Pompeii, which are reached in half an hour from Portici, by rail. The traveller will be surprised at the extent to OR, HOW TO TRAVEL IN THE OLD WORLD. 139 which the excavations have been carried on. Two miles of streets in one direction, and half a mile in two other directions, will best illustrate the work which has been completed by the daudling Neapolitans and their stingy king. Murat began the operations with 700 navvies per day — the ponderous Bomba cut down the number to 80. Ever, for good or for evil, the perpetual French are the busiest of mankind. French- men, •* with all their faults," must still be loved ; for they are not afraid of being thought to sympathize with virtue, nor of being seen in company with a friend who does not wear a fashionably-cut coat, or live in a fashionable street. They do not think it fine to affect apathy, nor vote it vulgar to exhibit a generous emo- tion. Should the visiter have read Sir W. Gell's account of the discoveries at Pompeii, or Bulwer's ' ' Last Days of Pompeii^ or Pliny's description of the destruction of the town, he will be ripe for enjoyment. Only ima- gine an excavated town, so perfect, after being buried for two thousand years, that the houses want little but the roofs to make them habitable ! What they were when occupied is realizable at the Crystal Palace of Sydenham. It will be evident to the reflective travel- ler, that the first shower which fell from the moun- tain must have been one of light pumice-stone, from which the people who were in the houses must, in general, easily have escaped unhurt. The second dreadful gift of the mountain must have been com- posed of wet fine cinders and mud, the liquid predomi- nating ; and by its rapidity of circulation immediately 140 Norton's hand-book to Europe ; filled the cellars and other subterranean apartments as completely and as quickly as those above ground. From this there could have been no escape, and hence the discovery of two skeletons of persons killed while actually in motion. Yet Pliny makes no mention of this liquid or semi-liquid distinction, which a thousand remains prove to have been poured upon the city ; in- deed he gives no account of what occurred at or close to Pompeii, but only of the horrors experienced at Stabia and Misenum, and other parts of the Campana. The most striking objects at Pompeii are the noble and majestic Forum, the Amphitheatre, the house of* Diomed, the temples of Yenus and Quirinos. A guide is desirable in this terra incognita. There are always some at hand, and the fee payable to each, by a small party, is six carlini. The guide will point out the paintings on the walls, as fresh as if they were painted only yesterday. It is truly extraordinary to see the very great lightness with which the ancient painters were capable of investing some of their fig- ures — their Bacchantes and dancing nymphs. They absolutely seem to fly in air. The Thermae, or public baths, are most interesting. The marble basins, both of the Frigidarium and Tepidarium, are as sharp and clear as if not a month out of the mason's hands. The arched and ornamented roof is fresh and uninjured over more than half the baths, and the bronze benches and stone seats still remain perfect and serviceable, in the places they occupied seventeen centuries and a half ago. A domestic chapel, the abode of the Lares and Penates, will be found attached to the great OR, HOW TO TRAVEL IN THE OLD WORLD. 141 houses. All the kitchens are abominably small, and so inartificially constructed as to give one no very ex- alted ideas of the culinary art, as practised by the Pompeians of old. Very would have expired, and Francatelli fallen upon his own spit, at the sight of a kitchen 10 by 12 feet square. Glass was found at Pompeii, in one window only — the sleeping room of Arius Diomedes. The other windows were probably protected by oiled silk or paper in the daytime, and by shutters at night. At the threshold, the word salve is frequently inscribed in letters of black mosaic, and in one house a dog is under your feet with a less hospitable cave canem. The dog is excellently done in black mosaic, upon a white ground, and has precisely the pointed ears and bushy tail, besides being of the size, of a large Arctic dog, such as are used by the Esquimaux. What could have brought so hyperbo- rean an animal to the shores of the " bay of the cra- ter ?" The Goths had not then broken the iron ram- part of the Roman Empire ; still less had the Huns affrighted Europe with their pig's eyes and flat noses. The Amphitheatre is really almost fit for immediate use ; but it never could have been large enough for chariot races. The arena is so complete as to be quite ready for a repetition of the bloody sports which of old polluted it. There are the liens' dens, and the barriers, and all the paraphernalia of those old and barbarous "-deviltries," as Robinson Crusoe hath it, which delighted the fierce and conquering Roman, who was cruel but not cowardly. There is a great deal of nonsense current about cowards only being cruel. 142 NORTON S HAND-BOOK TO EUROPE ; Were the Romans cowards, or were they not cruel? Ask the ghosts of those butchered gladiators, which parted from their hacked flesh with the* gleeful sound of hoc habet ringing in their ears ! The temple of the mysterious Isis is complete, but the secret staircase is very much miscalled, as it is a very imsecret staircase, carried openly up the outside of a wall. Indeed there is no room in what is called the sanctum sanctorum, for a stair to be carried at all. But we dwell too long on Pompeii. There is more ground to be gone over before Naples is quitted. The Campo Santo, or cemetery of Naples, the temples of Neptune, Vesta or Ceres, and Basilea, 4,000 years old, constituting the chief ruins of Paestum, must not be overlooked. It takes a day and a quarter to go to Paestum, and see the grand debris. Another day may be passed in a railway excursion to Castel-a-Mare, along the shores of the bay, and from the u Castel," to Sor- rento. A carriage must be hired to make the latter portions of the trip. Since we quitted Paris, nearly three weeks have passed away — not unprofitably or unpleasantly — and we must have spent in railways, vetturini, hotels, sights, guides, &c. , not less than one hundred and fifty dollars each. Should it be in the contemplation of the tourist to proceed to Egypt, he could not do a wiser thing now than to take the steamer from Naples to Malta, whence packets go once a week to Alexandria. On the other hand, if he meditates confining his peregrinations to Europe, he should embark at Naples for Leghorn, and OR, HOW TO TRAVEL TS THE OLD WORLD. 143 thence run up to Bologna, Ferrara, and Padua, which is only a few miles from Venice. As we stop at Fer- rara, we remember that the tragedy of Parisina found its locality in the gloomy Ducal Palace of this latter city. Its massive towers, battlemented walls of gigan- tic height, drawbridge, and vast moat, bring back to the recollection all the horrors of the middle ages, the fate of the valiant, the guilty Hugo, and the wretched Parisina. Ariosto, too, and Tasso, his Eleanore, and the proud house of Este, come back through past ages to our memory, in the still streets of this decaying city. The cathedral of Ferrara is externally in the worst possible style of Gothic, being most un- fortunately like the gable ends of three Flemish houses of equal height joined together : — the interior is Grecian ! If we stop at Padua or Padova, and spend a night at the Hotel de la Stelle D'Or, it is because we like very old towns, which Shakespeare has immortalized. "We respect the pavement over which Petruchio, the gallant shrew tamer, walked. But Padua is no longer Italian ; it is Austrian, and the perpetual white uni- form gives a new turn to thought. There is plenty, however, to be seen in the Palace of Justice, and Ca- thedral, in the Church of St. Anthony, and the Chapel of Giotto. We have no occasion now to drive slowly along the banks of the muddy Brenta, and reflect upon the facility with which Mr3. Radcliffe and other novel- ists have metamorphosed the narrow stream, with its lugubrious ripple, its cockney villas, and dilapidated 144 Norton's hand-book to Europe ; edifices, into a scene of Italian enchantment. The railway whisks us over the twenty-three miles which lie between Padua and Venice, in an hour and a half, at a cost of three quarters of a dollar. The first appearance of Venice does not produce that overpowering effect on the mind, which might be expected. It looks very like a handsome foreign town, on the side of a green river. It is on a nearer approach that its world of wonders unfold themselves — that we see palaces, as it were, growing out of and floating on the bosom of the ocean ; streets paved with water ; and a population moving about in all directions upon an element, almost as little traversed in other capitals as the land is in this. The Grand Canal is striking beyond description, for it is perfectly unique as well as very beautiful. More than 300 feet in width, it would be a splendid street in any city of the world, but here, instead of dusty pavements and muddy roads, we have the green waters to sparkle in a breeze, or double the beautiful proportions of every palace when it sleeps calmly in sunshine at its base. By daylight, the city is a splendid and glorious picture — by moonlight, it is one of the most interest- ing spectacles that the eye can see, or the imagination conceive. All that is less than beautiful is then hid- den, while the noble forms of the palaces gather additional majesty, and the waters which lave them, fresh loveliness from the deep shadows and tender lustre produced by the sweetest of lights in this clear atmosphere. It is impossible to conceive anything more striking than the first view of St. Mark's place, OR, HOW TO TRAVEL IN THE OLD WORLD. 145 pillars, piazzas, arcades, palaces, domes, and towers by moonlight. Sunshine shows the scene in the full splendor of its oriental and gorgeous character, but the softer lustre makes it a place of enchantment ; while history and fiction, alike, lend their aid to gratify the mind, by conjuring up the innumerable romantic and beautiful recollections- connected with the spot. The three lofty poles which once bore the flags of subject kingdoms, rise in front of three horses, trophies won from a vanquished empire, and that empire all that remained of Rome! But the flags wave no longer, and the horses only remain, at the pleasure of a for- eign master. "Is not the Doria's menace come to pass ? Are they not bridled ?" Nothing can exceed the splendor of the churches in this city. Though none are of very magnificent proportions, yet nearly one and all are, internally, masses of precious marbles, of mosaic and gilding, adorned with pictures and statues, worthy the edifices they decorate. A com- plete account of them is out of the question. The finest among them are St. Marco, St. Giovanni e Paulo, the Church of the Jesuits, the Carmelites, St. Georgeo Maggiore, II Ridentore, and the Maria dalla Salute. The Dogane de Mare, or Sea Custom House, runs out from this church. It is a favored ob- ject with painters who take views of Venice from the seaward side. Beside these edifices, there are the San Rocco, and the Ducal Palace. The great and noble rooms of the former pious and praiseworthy establish- ment, contain many fine pictures, and they are worthy of the finest. The society or fraternity of the Rocco, 7 146 Norton's hand-book to' Europe ; is a male association formed on the model ofthe Sceurs de la Charite, personally to attend the sick, and relieve the necessitous. The great picture of Mount Calvary, by Tintoretto, is here. It is a grand composition, but the coloring appears either crude or feeble. The Ducal Palace! What recollections does not this vast and venerable pile recall ! Glory, conquest, wealth, domination ! A thousand years of dominion, the most detestable system of domestic tyranny which has ever cursed the world, and an inglorious fall. Here were seen subject kingdoms and subject doges all yielding to the selfish energy of the worst of despotisms, an oligarchy. Worse than " Lone Ty- ranny" because more difficult to overthrow ; worse than Democracy, for Democracy may be guided. At once grasping — for the name of those who are to di- vide the spoils is Legion — and envious, for, among a ftiousand masters, shall there not be very many to envy a successful servant? In this mighty pile sat the Senate and the Council of Ten. It likewise con- tained the public offices. Those on the ground floor being the departments of least importance, weight and dignity increased in the ratio of ascent, and each range of public offices is of a grade superior to that in the story below it ; until, in the highest story, crowning, both metaphorically and literally, the whole departments of the State, and rising above all the ma- chinery of government, sat the terrible Three in their secret omnipotence of evil. The prisons are under the palace — the prisons of the " Inquisition f of State V* Inquisition ! An ominous name, and as terribly ef- OR, HOW TO TRAVEL IN THE OLD WORLD. 147 fective here in upholding the abuses of the State, as it was in Spain for upholding the abuses of the church. But what an illustration of the adamantine nature of this terrible government — the prisons are under the palace ! The sovereign in all other states, Christian, or Mahometan, or Pagan, has been the dispenser of mercy ; here he was the chief jailor — nay, chief exe- cutioner — for " the Dungeon" was the sentence, and the Doge held the keys. You actually descend from a gay marble gallery into those dreadful abodes of hu- man woe. The pomp of purple and gold, the levee, the dance, the masque, the tent, were above, — and be- low, misery, torture, despair, death ! Could men dance and women smile when such dreadful scenes were acting both above and below them under the same roof? The Ponte de Sospiri, " the Bridge of Sighs," which leads from the ordinary civil and crim- inal prison (an above land and water place of confine- ment) to the more terrible dungeons of the Inquisition of State, is a covered passage, light and air being ad- mitted by two or three strongly grated windows look- ing on the canal which it crosses. This Ponte de Sos- piri was probably used as the Torture Chamber. To turn to less terrible portions of this edifice — the Chambers of the Palace of St. Mark's are spacious and princely. Some curious paintings of the ancient ex- ploits of the Republic decorate and cover the walls ; a row of Doges of vast length runs round beneath the cornice of one room and almost of another, and there are other beautiful frescoes and pictures in different apartments. 148 NORTON'S HAND-BOOK TO EUROPE ; If you would have au unique coup d'ceil go to the landing-place of the Piazzetta. As you step from your gondola, you have before you the two fine pil- lars of Egyptian granite which support St. Marc, and the winged Lion — farther on, the three banner-staves, and beyond these again the Clock Tower, with its azure front powdered with golden stars. To the right hand is the Ducal Palace, to the left, the Mint and Palazzo Reale, both classical and beautiful buildings. St. Marc's gigantic tower rises" high above all. Be- hind the spectator is the Adriatic and its thousand isles — above, is the sky of Italy, fit canopy for such a scene, while all that is left of life or gayety at Venice still haunts the spot where once was the " carnival of earth, the masque of Italy." Now the gondolier's song is mute — and the carnival is but a fast fading shadow of what it was. The Pialto, the Academia delle belle Arte, the house of Titian, and the Campanile, a column 316 feet high and 42 feet square, close the list of attrac- tions, unless an opera is being performed at La Fenice, the principal theatre. Let it be noted that there is a news-room at the northwest angle of the Piazza St. Marco, where French and English papers are procurable ; and that the best personal guides are the gondoliers. A steamer goes at midnight to Trieste, and occupies six hours in the transit. The fare is seven or five florins, according to the class. A florin is equivalent to two francs and fifteen centimes ; thus, seven florins, make fifteen francs and five centimes, or three Amer- ican dollars. OR, HOW TO TRAVEL IN THE OLD WORLD. 149 From Trieste, where there is no temptation to re- main, the railway may be taken to Vienna. AUSTRIA. It is 363 miles from Trieste to Vienna by rail. The journey occupies exactly twenty-four hours, if the traveller goes " right on." It may, however, be ac- complished in eighteen hours by express. The cost of the express, 1st class, is 34 florins ; 2d class, 23 florins, 33 kreutzers ; the ordinary trains cost 26 florins, 10 kreutzers ; 2d class, 19 florins, 38 kreutzers. The only inducements to stop en route for some hours are the towns of Laibach and Gratz. Each offers fine prospects, palaces, cathedrals, &c, ; but unless our traveller is very avid for this kind of spectacle he would be wasting his time, for there is much to see at Vienna. There are two tables dhote every day, at the Empress Elizabeth Hotel, which is otherwise well conducted. There are eight or ten other good hotels if this should be full, but none which appear so exactly suited to American travellers. The dinner costs about a dollar up stairs, and one third less in the restaurant attached to the hotel. The wines are Hungarian — those called the Hungarian Burgundy have a renown. Give up your passport to be vise. Much is there in the Emperor's City, as Vienna is proudly called, wherewith to amuse the visiter. Mount to the summit of the steeple of St. Stephen's (the ca- thedral, built in 1144), and thence take a view of the city and the suburbs. It is a superb prospect — hills, 150 NORTON'S HAND-BOOK TO EUROPE ; well clad, fortifications, the river Danube, and its islands, forest, park and garden, and about nine thou- sand houses variegated with innumerable church steeples. Many a time has all this neighborhood been the scene of hostile encampments and fierce battles. Once the bulwark of Germany against the Hungarian and the Turk, it fell to the former in the thirteenth century — was vainly besieged by the latter in 1683 with an array of 200,000 men, which was beaten by Jean So- bieski — and in 1805 and 1809 fell to the French under the all-conquering Napoleon. To form a good idea of the capital of a despotism and the wealth of an aristocracy, Vienna should be examined in all its parts. Nowhere do we find more reverence paid to monarchs living and monarchs dead. There are sarcophagi and silver urns for the reception of the ashes and the hearts of royalty and its scions — there are noble marble monuments and churches built in fulfilment of the sacred vows of sovereigns. So much for the departed. For the defence and protec- tion of the living there are troops, in all kinds of uni- forms, continually in and about the town, an arsenal, a manufactory of arms, and a cannon foundry. In evidence of the wealth and taste of the higher orders, we must visit the imperial picture-gallery, and the galleries of Prince Lichtenstein, Prince Esterhazy, Count Czernin, and Count Schorborn. There are considerable collections of antiquities of all kinds in the Belvederes ; and geology, mineralogy, geography, and anatomy, find copious illustrations in the various museums. The public infirmary, the lunatic asylum, OR, HOW TO TRAVEL IN THE OLD WORLD. 151 the hospital of the benevolent brotherhood, the deaf and dumb institute, will go to prove the paternal character of the despotism. The public gardens and walks about Vienna are very numerous, and some of them splendidly laid out, in parterres of tulips, auri- iculas, pelagorniums and roses. In some of the gardens are concerts and bails, a la mode de Paris, and the Volk's garden contains Canova's famous statue of Theseus. There are not many club-houses in Vienna, as the frequent assemblage of the intelligence of a country is opposed to the genius of an unlimited mon- archy ; but there are plenty of coffee-houses, with bill- iard-tables, smoking-rooms, and newspapers. At one institution all the foreign newspapers can be seen if the visiter can get an introduction from his banker. The suburbs of Vienna offer some charming drives. The principal place of interest is Schcernbiinn, the summer palace of the Emperor. The only son of the great Napoleon lived and died at Schoenbrunn. He bore the title of the Duke de Reichstadt, for his mother and his grandfather relinquished all views to the throne of France on his account after Napoleon's abdication. Vienna presents many conveniences for locomotion. There are omnibuses without number, and public fiacres for journeys about the town and the suburbs, at reasonable rates. From the "City of the Emperor" we have the choice of routes. If it is intended to travel North, the railway is open to Cracow, Warsaw, and so on to St. Petersburg and Moscow. On the other hand, 152 Norton's hand-book to Europe ; should it be desired to see more of Germany and its varied beauties, and parts of Switzerland which were left unexplored as we proceeded south, there are means at hand for effecting that particular journey. We will consider the latter route. BAVARIA AND SWITZERLAND. There are two lines from Vienna. One goes to Linz and stops there — the other to Salzburg. There are also steamers up the Danube to Linz. Linz is very beautifully situated on the Danube, and is curious for the manner in which it has been fortified. Some- what after the plan of the Duke of Wellington at Torres Vedras, circular redoubts have been placed all about and around the town on the heights, by which it is encircled. It is one of the best, if not the veiy best example of the system of " Lines with Intervals" to be found in any part of Europe. But beyond these works there is little that is special in Linz to lead the traveller out of his way. We had better, therefore, take our tickets for Munich, or rather for Salzburg, the Austrian limit on the way to Munich. At all events there must be a stoppage at Salzburg, for who, with any music in his soul, will miss the opportunity of making a pilgrimage to the house in which Mozart was born, and looking with loving eyes upon the statue raised to his memory. The music of Don Gio- vanni, Le Nozze de Figaro, Die Zauberflote, the Sonatas, and the Kequiem, all come back.to the ear when we are in Salzburg, hallowed, as it is, by so charming an association. Go to the Hotel del Archduke Charles, . OR HOW TO TRAVEL IN THN OLD WORLD. 153 and when you have seen the palace, the castle, and the cathedral, and have sated your eyes with the cele- brated view from the Gaisberg, take a vehicle and pay a visit to the salt mines of Hallein. Adieu to Salzburg — on to Munich, the capital of Bavaria. The real name of this town is Munchen. It shares with Dresden the reputation of being the most perfectly classical city in Germany. The arts have here received the highest amount of culture, and the good fruit is apparent in the architectural decorations of the numerous churches and palaces, in the structure and contents of the noble sculpture gallery called the Glyptothek — in the paintings which adorn the walls of the Royal Palace and of the Pinacothek, and in the exquisite nature of the music at the churches, the Odeon, and the theatres. Admission to all public gal- leries is free, excepting to the copper statue of Bavaria outside the town, near the Walhalla, or Hall of He- roes. Two days are very profitably passed at Munich — more would not be lost, for, let me tell you, it is very hard work to see and thoroughly enjoy the riches of Munich in less than a week. It is unnecessary to remind the student of history that we are now on ground rendered famous by the aggressive armies of Napoleon Bonaparte. Continu- ally, between 1796 and 1809, the country in the val- ley of the Iser was the scene of terrible conflicts, in which the might of France pressed with iron weight upon the power of Austria. In two or three hours we have been carried to Augsburg, a fine old manufacturing town, full of ven- 7* 154 Norton's hand-book to Europe ; erable buildings, fountains and wells. There are many structures here which have stood for three hun- dred years, and there is actually an inn — that of the Three Moors — which was spoken of as a feature of the town six hundred years ago ! Singularly enough it is still the best hotel in the town. Ulm is but two hours' journey from Augsburg, and as' it lies, in some measure, on the route we propose to follow, there is no good reason for denying ourselves the opportunity of seeing the old cathedral — 500 feet long. The fortifications of Ulm will recall the capitu- lation, in 1805, of General Mack — a most unfortunate and unnecessary piece of business. To be sure Napo- leon had, by a masterly combination of his divisions on the Rhine, brought a great force, admirably com- manded, to bear upon the city of Ulm ; but a garrison of 30,000 men, well provisioned, can make an excel- lent defence, and no good reason has yet been ad- vanced why General Mack did not make somewhat of a stand. From Ulm the tourist can either run down in three hours to Ravensburg, or up to Stuttgard ; the former route taking him to within a stone's throw of Lake Constance — well worth seeing because of the view of the mountains of Tyrol, and the churches in the neg- lected town of Constance— =-and the latter to Stuttgjird, the capital of Wurtemberg, and a good specimen of the. chief towns of the little duchies and kingdoms into which central Germany is parcelled out. To the Republican these small despotisms cannot fail to be in- teresting. He is everywhere made sensible of the OR, HOW TO TRAVEL IN THE OLD WORLD. 155 wide difference between the sovereigns and the people. While the latter occupy small houses and apartments, in obscure and unhealthy parts of towns, the palaces are always advantageously situated, and the architect's skill has been lavished on their embellishment. Stutt- gard is singularly unhealthy. It is more prudent, therefore, to go on to Cannstadt, which may be reached in ten minutes, and from that beautifully- situated little place on the banks of the river Necker, walk to Stuttgard to view whatever it may possess of interest. Supposing that we go both north and south, and after looking at Stuttgard, take the rail to Kavensburg and Constance. From Constance cross the lake to Romenshorn, from which little Swiss town you get in two hours to Zurich, the largest and finest city in East Switzerland. The cost by rail is 14 francs 1st class, 9 francs 2d class. The Hotel Baur au Lac is very quietly and sweetly situated " on the margin of fair Zurich's waters," and the spirit of accommodation is rife throughout the establishment. Zurich will bring back to the mind of the traveller, while he con- templates the beauties of its surroundings, souvenirs of the efforts of Protestantism to upset Catholic as- cendency in Europe. Here, in 1519, began the Reformation under Zwingli — here, too, Zwingli's first English bible was printed — and here, also, the re- formers of England fled from the persecution of " bloody Queen Mary," and found refuge and protec- tion. In later years the tranquillity of Zurich was disturbed by the rude hand of war. The French 156 Norton's hand-book to Europe ; Revolution brought the Eussians and the French into conflict, and a battle was fought in 1799. Massena took up a defensive position on the heights to the westward of the town, and for twelve whole days defied the Russians who were bent on the invasion of France. The sights of Zurich are comprehended in a very small compass. There is a cathedral and a cemetery, the latter rendered attractive as the birth- place of Lavater, the physiognomist, who was cruelly shot by French soldiers. At Zurich we turn our back on Switzerland, and taking the trains to Carlsruhe, via Offenburg, find ourselves in a few hours approaching the head of the Rhine, and on the track of the thousands of English and French tourists who make this one of their an- nual autumnal trips. Carlsruhe presents few tempta- tions to a prolonged stay, unless a strong theatrical taste disposes us to visit the Theatre, which is one of the finest in the world. But, at an hour's railroad distance, stands the rare old chateau of Heidelberg. THE RHINE AND HOLLAND. Heidelberg, a singular old town on the Necker, pos- sesses several very good hotels, one of which, the Hotel Adler, stands in the grand square, and commands a view of the noble ruins of the vast castle where the Electors Palatine resided. This wonderful chateau contains something besides its gigantic Tun, reported to hold 3,000 bottles of good Rhenish wine, worth looking at. A castellan has actually contrived to OR, HOW TO TRAVEL IN THE OLD WORLD. 157 make a guide-book, which he calls " Wanderings through the Ruins of the Castle and its Environs," extending over 160 pages. To be sure we have a good deal of the history of by-gone Counts Palatine, many traditions, and a few quotations, to eke out the volume ; but what interest attaches to ruins of any kind, mossgrown, mouldy, damp and dark, as many of them are, if association, fond credulity, and an eye to the picturesque are not called in aid of the crumbled heap or dilapidated brick and stone walls 1 After all, if the ruins do not sufficiently excite the tourist to induce him to purchase the Castellan's volume and explore the remains of the castle, let him not fail to visit the garden. It is not extravagant to say that the garden is " the most beautiful of one of the most charming spots in Germany — the eye is delighted with verdant fields, dark forests, rivers, mountains and val- leys, and enjoys a most varied change in its surround- ing towns and villages." In half an hour, at the expense of less than a florin, we get to Mannheim, and here we take the steamer to Cologne, for who would miss the scenery on the banks of " the Rhine, the Rhine I" though to say the truth it is nothing above Mayence. We go first to Mayence by the Cologne and Dusseldorf Company's steamer, either at 5 or 8 1 a. m., or 2^ p. M., and we pay 2 francs for our place in the first cabin, 1 franc and 25 centimes in the second. Mayence (German Mainz) commands our stay for two or three hours. Here Guttenberg (or Gutenburg), the first printer, was bora, and here he died, four hundred years ago. 158 Norton's hand-book to Europe ; Thorwaldsen, the great Danish sculptor, is the author of the splendid monument raised at Mayence in honor of Guttenberg, and here the members of the Gutten- berg society resort to meet and celebrate his mighty discovery and do honor to his name — " Who," asks Samuel Phillips, in his Portrait Gallery of the Syden- ham Crystal Palace, " shall fix the merit or assess the claims, or tell the influence, exercised in the world by the portentous labors of the inventor of printing ?" The bible was first printed in Latin at Mayence. Faust, a goldsmith, lent Guttenberg the money where- with to establish a printing-press. The printer could not repay the debt at the appointed time. Faust seized the press, and Guttenberg was cast upon the world. The old story ! The fortifications, the Mu- seum, and the Cathedral of Mayence merit a glance ; having taken which, we embark for a voyage down the Rhine, at least as far as Cologne. Two dollars is the fare for the first class — less than a dollar and a half for the second — meals and wines extra. The voyage occupies about twelve hours, and every few miles the attention is arrested by some striking object on the shore. Town and castle, cathedral and tower and mountain, fringe the water ; some of the old castles in their elevation and formidable appearance carrying the mind far back into the times when feudal tyranny was rampant and proud Barons defied their sovereigns. We pass in succession, on the right bank, Biberich, in the duchy of Nassau, Schinstein, Etwille, Erbach, Hat- tenheim, the Schlosse (or Palace) Johannisberg, the very name of which suggests the most delicious Rhine f OK, HOW TO TRAVEL IN THE OLD WORLD. 159 wines, Rudesheim, the scene of the tragedy of Giselle, whose form is still see?i, by feeble-minded boatmen and credulous vintagers, floating about the ruined tower, — Bingen opposite, on the left bank, Ehrenfels and Mausethurm, or the Mouse Tower — so called because a wretched Baron was(o?i dit) devoured thereby rats — ■ Lurleifelsen ; and again, on the left bank, Bachersel, Oberwesel, Rheinfels, and Boppart, Braabach, and the " proud castle" Stolzenfels, the last point of attraction until we reach Coblentz, where the river Moselle forms a junction with the Rhine — whence the name of the place — Coblentz being a corruption of the Latin Confluentes. If it has not been thought worth while to land anywhere else, en route, it may be advisable to set pied a terre at Coblentz, because the town has some interesting features of antiquity about it. The fortifications are likewise deserving of notice. Con- nected by a bridge with Ehrenbreitstein, Coblentz and its vis a vis form a barrier against the invasion of Germany by France. Upward of 100,000 -men can be placed within these formidable works. At Cob- lentz, the banks of the Rhine for a time lose their mountainous character, but become hilly again after passing old Andernach, on the left bank. We pursue the journey, and count some twenty to thirty quaint towns and villages, among the former of which are Linz (right bank), and Bonn on the left bank — a place of some consideration — chiefly on account of its university, where Prince Albert, the consort of Queen Victoria, received his education. We quit the steamer at Cologne, supposing us not 160 Norton's hand-book to etjrope ; to have left it at any previous place on the right bank, and take up our quarters at the Hotel de Hollande, or the Hotel Royal, both of which command views of the Rhine. We have all heard of Cologne water, and it is something to find ourselves in the town where we can purchase a small quantity of the genuine composition of Jean Maria Farina, in whose honored name so much spurious trash has been manufactured and sold all over the world. We have also heard of the Dom Kirche, or Cathedral, unquestionably one of the purest specimens of old Gothic architecture extant ; and who is unacquainted, by reputation at least, with the three Kings of Cologne who carried presents to the infant who lay in Bethlehem ? Accordingly we go to the chief factory of Koln wasser, or Cologne water, in Julicks Platz, to the cathedral, and the famous shrine of the three magi. Then we enter the Museum and some of the churches, and returning to our hotel, set down to a comfortable dinner. Having got fairly into Germany, it is right that we should at once proceed to inform ourselves on many points which concern the economy of a traveller's life in Germany. First, as to our passport. If we should have forgotten to have it vised at Mayence, the grand ceremonial should not be omitted at Cologne. There is not much fear of the omission of the formula at any time, for landlords will, for their own sakes, take care that every one who comes to their hotel shall present the evidence of identity, such as it is ; and if they should by chance forget it, there are always valets de place seeking for so good an excuse for raising a franc OR, HOW TO TRAVEL IN THE OLD WORLD. 161 or two as the getting Monsieur's passport vise. Next, as to money. In Prussia we are introduced to the thaler, equivalent to 71 U. S. cents, and the silver groschen, 30 of which are equivalent to a thaler, and 20 of which correspond with 2 francs and 46 centimes, or one shilling and eleven pence halfpenny. Thirdly, as to expenses. The average charges are from a franc to two francs for a bedroom — fifteen to twenty silver groschen for a dinner at the table d'hote, a third more if served in a private room, fifteen s. g. for a dejeuv/ir a la fourchette, five or six s. g. for coffee, and 5 s. g. for half a bottle of wine. The table d'hote, it must be borne in mind, is held at 1 p. M. ; seldom later than 2 or 3 p. m., excepting at some hotels where, in defer- ence to the usages of the English and Americans, as late as 4 and 5 p. m. have been adopted. Fourthly, as to manners. The Germans are great sticklers for personal respect. It is imperative upon every one going into a house or office to take off his hat Smok- ing is not permitted in the public streets ; and Ger- mans must be addressed by their titles, or their offices, however humble they may be. " Madame, the cham- bermaid," will not be considered a covert insult. As Dusseldorf is "one of the nicest and most regu- lar towns on the Rhine,'' and has contributed, by the works of its artists, to enhance the attractions of New- York, few Americans will hesitate to continue the Rhine route from Cologne to Dusseldorf. The town is indebted for something of its splendor to the Elec- tor, John William ; and in token of its gratitude, his bronze statue, on a pedestal of grey marble, is erected in the middle of the Market Place. 162 Norton's hand-book to europe ; At Dusseldorf we quit Germany, and proceed by rail to Rotterdam, 145 miles. There is nothing more distinct in character than the seaports and inland towns of Holland. Should our traveller wish to form an idea of the latter, and of the country parts of the little kingdom he is now entering, he may stop at Arnheim, the principal town of Guel- derland, and see the iron-girder bridge across the Yssel, and again at Utrecht. A very pretty, formal little town is Utrecht, famous politically for the treaty in 1579, and the congress of 1713. Nothing can be cleaner, or more picturesque, than the houses in Utrecht, and the woods, gardens, and villages all about it. There is, of course, the inevitable cathedral, and a museum. Half a day passed in Utrecht, photo- graphs the inner Dutch town on the mind of the tour- ist, and he now makes the best of his way to Amster- dam, only 23 miles off. The commercial renown of the Dutch imparts a strange interest to Amsterdam, which is still a place of great trading activity. The canals running through the streets in all parts of the town, cutting it up into an infinite number of islets, will recall Venice to the mind of the traveller ; but he will remark this broad distinction between them, that on each side of the canals are trees and walks, or a series of quays, so that the gondola is not here a necessity. In place of the gondolas, barges, and Khine and Dutch coasters, occu- py the canals. But all these things are better seen from the summit of the lofty Palace, which was formerly the Stadthouse, corresponding with the City Hall of New- York. OR, HOW TO TRAVEL IN THE OLD WORLD. 163 Resort to the Hotel des Pays Bas, Doelen Straat, and get rid of your German money for as much Dutch coin as you may require before you quit Rotterdam for England. A stiver is equal to two American cents — a guilder, 49 cents, or about half a U. S. dol- lar. Florins are also in use here, and are valued at 1 guilder and 4 stivers. The " sights" of Amsterdam are, of course, of a very different character to those which have made the staple of France, Italy, Switzerland and Germany. The plain Protestant churches here offer nothing but a few monuments to gallant Dutch admirals, not the least of whom was De Ruyter. The Museum or Pic- ture Gallery, however, supplies abundance of material for the pleasure of a picture hunter. In the collection are to be found some of the best works of the admir- able masters of the Dutch school. Gems from the easels of Gerard Douw, Ostade, Paul Potter, Rem- brandt, Ruisdael, Wouvermans, and Teniers. The charitable institutions, the manufactories, the prisons, and the docks, make up the other lions of the town ; but there are also theatres and cafes which will not be overlooked. Everywhere, in his perambulations, the tourist will be struck with the extraordinary order and cleanliness of the people and their dwellings. Wash- ing and sweeping, and the removal of dust and garb- age, are ceremonies of hourly performance. The manufactories will be found especially interesting. Those for the refining of borax and of smalt are unique. There is a railway to Rotterdam, but as the Hague 164 Norton's hand-book to Europe ; intervenes, we will stop at that modern capital of Hol- land, in order to see the Picture Gallery and the Royal Cabinet of Curiosities. Such objects as are contained in these two establishments are not to be seen elsewhere. The Hague has no features in com- mon with the other seaboard towns of Holland. It could scarcely be called a city sixty years ago. Louis Bonaparte gave the Hague all the importance it enjoys by making it the seat of his court. The Hotel deV Europe, in the Langer Houtstraat, is the most desirable for our purpose, as it is close to the Museum. With just national pride, and unimpeachable taste, the Dutch have accumulated in this Museum some of the choicest works of the men who painted when Holland was pre- eminent for commercial opulence. The ft Young Bull" of Paul Potter, his chef $ ceuvre, is here. This once decorated the Louvre as part of the spoils of war, transported by Napoleon I., for the glory of France and the embellishment of the French capital. Restitu- tion was made in 1815. In the Museum, also, are mas- terpieces from the pencils of Snyders, Van Dyck, Rubens, Wouvermans, and Rembrandt. The spectator, whether connoisseur or otherwise, will enjoy those Dutch galleries, because they furnish so great a contrast to the Italian schools, of which he will have recently soen so great a number of specimens. The Royal Cabinet of Curiosities is distinguished by a collection of Chinese manufactures and articles of household use, figures of Chinese in porcelain, Japan ware, Japan models, cos- tumes, arms, medical instruments, etc. These illus- trations of Japan life are not to be found anywhere OR, HOW TO TRAVEL IN THE OLD WORLD. 165 else, for, until recently, the Dutch were the only nation which had contrived to establish a friendly communi- cation with the Japanese. America, however, has now done her part in contributing to prevail upon those singularly jealous people to hold free communi- cation with the civilized world. The Cabinet of Curi- osities would not be complete without some historical relics, and accordingly we find armor, portraits, and swords of illustrious Admirals and distinguished Princes of Orange, some souvenirs of Peter the Great, when he worked in the shipyard at Zaardam, and a few interesting models. Fourteen miles from the Hague is the fine old city of Rotterdam, in itself a curiosity. There are no specialities to detain a stranger whose travel south have made him fastidious, and he therefore contents himself with a walk about Rotterdam until the time arrives for the departure of one of the steamers to London. There are three of these steamers weekly — the fare in the chief cabin is 30 shillings (six dollars) ; in the fore cabin, lis. §d. — three dollars and a half. The average passage is eighteen hours. Whichever of the foregoing routes- may have been selected for the tour through France, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, and Holland, we shall find, that, after doing justice to all the principal attractions, not less than three months will have been consumed since we quitted the shores of America, and an examination of 166 Norton's hand-book to Europe ; the exchequer will probably demonstrate that, out of the fifteen hundred dollars which were set aside for all the expenses of the trip, at least eight hundred or nine hundred have been spent. We have still a month left, out of the four months which had been appro- priated to the holiday tour. How best to employ so much of that period as need not to be consumed in the voyage home will be the subject of future consider- ation. It is necessary now to chalk out another tour for those who desire to go as far south as Egypt, and as far north as Russia. OR, HOW TO TRAVEL IN THE OLD WORLD. 167 THE MEDITERRANEAN TOUR. The reader is requested to refer back to page 120, where mention is made of Lyons, and to suppose him- self there. At Lyons he takes the rail to Marseilles, 224 miles distant. He pays 40 francs for a first class seat, or 32 francs for a seat in a second class carriage. He will not find much difference between them. Marseilles — the ancient Marsilla — is an immense place, the port of the Mediterranean, with a harbor capable of receiving more than 2000 vessels at a time. It has all the disagreeable features of an ordinary sea- port town, and some very offensive ones which are peculiarly its own. The inducements to remain here are consequently very small, especially as there is nothing to see beyond an old town and a new one, the latter of which has one very long street, a square, and a fountain. It will be advisable, therefore, so to regu- late one's arrival at Marseilles that the place may be immediately quitted for Malta and Alexandria. There are ten opportunities every month. The Peninsular and Oriental Company have steamers which go on the 168 Norton's hand-book to Europe ; 4th, 11th, 19th, and 27th of each month — the Royal mail packets on the 8th and 26th ; the French packets on the 18th, and another class of steamers on the 16th. Thus, there are only intervals of five or six days be- tween the departure of one steamer and another. The expense of the passage is about the same in all cases. £7 10s. (35 dollars) — first class cabins ; — £4 10s. (22 dollars) — second class. The average duration of the passage is two days and a half, or say three days. Malta is an island of very considerable interest historically and ethnologically. It has belonged at different times to different nations, for its commanding position on the Mediterranean has made it an object of covetousness with all who sought dominion and com- mercial advantage. It was in the possession of the French, who dispossessed the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, until 1802, when it fell to an English blockade, and has been jealously maintained by the British to the present hour. The chief town is Val- letta, which, with a range of admirable fortifications, forms the harbor. Valetta contains two very good hotels — the Imperial is better than Morel's. A couple of days may be pleasantly passed at Malta ; indeed, the climate is so delightful that even if there were no sights worth notice at Malta, it would not be time misspent to breathe the pure air of the island. But there is something to see. True, the streets are steep and narrow, but the very circumstance of their being composed of stair-cases, constitutes a novelty: The Albergas and churches are the principal features of Valetta. The former are the halls and residences of OR, HOW TO TRAVEL IN THE OLD WORLD. 169 the Knights of St. John, and are remarkable for their architecture and the faded decorations of their inte- rior. Some of the churches are superb in their mar- bles, monuments, and mosaics. Beyond Valetta, in the centre of the island which, by-the-by, is only 16 miles long and 9 broad, rises the old town of Civita Vecchia, where a commanding view is obtained of Sicily and the Barbary coast. A range of sixty miles is taken in from the heights of Civita Vecchia. Do not omit seeing the catacombs, which are celebrated. But whatever may be your religious feelings, it is not desirable that you should go out of your way to visit the spot where St. Paul is said to have sojourned after his shipwreck, for it is very doubtful whether Malta is the Melita spoken of as the site of the apostle's dis- aster. The first steamer which calls at Malta, after our arrival, conveys us to Alexandria, at an expense vary- ing from £9 10s. to £12 10s., according to whether it be one of Her Britannic Majesty's packets, or one of the fine vessels belonging to the Peninsular and Oriental Company. The difference is so great for a voyage of only four days' duration, that it would be prudent to go by one of the latter vessels, which call at Malta on the 14th and 30th of each month. The second class cabins, by these last packets, cost £6 10s. Alexandria is not to be visited without recalling the wonderful marches and conquests of its illustrious founder, the Macedonian King ; the rule of the Pto- lemys, Cleopatra, the Septuagint, the Library, the French invasion and expulsion, and the battle of the 8 170 Norton's hand-book to Europe ; Nile — which last event took place at Aboukir, a little to the eastward. Hot and dusty, and having no " lion," excepting the Pillar erected by one Pompeius, a Prefect, and the Obelisk, called Cleopatra's needle^ which the English government permits to continue half buried in the sand, every day becoming " small by degrees and beautifully less," under the chipping process of enthusiastic tourists, Alexandria supplies us with no motive for remaining in the town longer than we can help. Four hours is the time of una- voidable detention. So we take the rail to Cairo. The distance is 130 miles — the time occupied 7 hours, the expense 157 Egyptian piastres, or £1 12s. 6d. The Egyptian piastre is w^rth 4i American cents. It is at Cairo that we begin to feel that we are in the wonderful East — the scene of the most marvellous incidents in the history, not of the Old World only, but of the whole globe. At Alexandria, and on the railway route, we had suspicions that we had travelled Oriental ground — the palm trees, the cus- toms of the people, the peculiar language, were all very suggestive ; but it is at Cairo that we are intro- duced to a description of life of which we have only been able to form a vague idea from books. There is so little difference in the character of the cities of the East, ruled over and inhabited by Mahometans, that at Cairo we may suppose ourselves at Bagdad, Bas- sorah, or Damascus. With a very little effort of the imagination, we can make the personal acquaintance of Ali Baba, the woodcutter, and the Captain of the Banditti — with the Caliph Haroun al Beschid, and OR, HOW TO TRAVEL IN THE OLD WORLD. 171 Abomelique, Blue Beard. All the characters of the Arabian Nights, and other Eastern romances, flit by us in turn. The women of the better order are so completely enveloped in the yashmak, which only leaves little apertures for the eyes, that it is easy and pleasant to believe that they are princesses, or ladies of the harem. We visit in turn the palace of the mighty Pacha of Egypt — a vassal with all the attributes of an inde- pendent sovereign — the egg-hatching places, Yussuf's well, the petrified forest, the Pyramids, and the Sphinx. If it should happen to be the particular season of the year when the banks of the Nile begin to look green from the sprouting of the seed which the husbandman has scattered on the slimy deposit, it will be worth the fatigue and trouble of an ascent of the Great Pyra- mid of Djizeh, for the prospect is charming and singu- lar. There are 240 stones, placed stair wise, to sur- mount before you get to the top, and as they are each 3 or 4 feet high, it is difficult to make the ascent without the aid of two or three Bedouin Arabs, who are alwa}'S plying at the foot of the pyramids for a job of this kind. Take care to divest yourself of all your clothes, excepting the shirt and a pair of drawers, or you will find your pants a little the worse for the unwonted stretching. And be sure that there is some one at the restaurant in the neighborhood who will take care of your things. Take no more money with you than is absolutely necessary to pay the donkey boys or the Bedouin guides, for the latter gentry endeavor to ca- jole the ambitious tourist who goes up the Pyramid, to 172 Norton's hand-book to Europe ; purchase antiques — which are simply impositions, manufactured in Europe, to beguile people into the idea that they have been taken from the sarcophagi. The interior of the pyramid should be seen, and one or two of the mummy pits. The voyage up the Nile and back was, until re- cently, performed in boats, manned by Arabs ; and very hot and uncomfortable they were. The dirty habits of the people of the country were apparent in the condition of these vessels, which swarmed with vermin. Now-a-days, on the contrary, there are ex- cellent boats prepared expressly for tourists with long purses, and regular steamers under American auspices, and the trip can be made to Upper Egypt with ease, certainty, and convenience. It is unneces- sary to say that, within the compass of this Guide- book, it is impossible to enter minutely into a descrip- tion of the stupendous ruins which are to be found on the banks of the Nile, Other volumes by learned men — such learned men and pleasant companions as Mr. Wm. C. Prime — must be consulted, to convey an adequate idea of the grandeur of the temples, and the lofty character of the statues, raised by the oldest people in the world to the honor of their kings and deities, who were, indeed, almost identical. The words Luxor, Thebes, Karnak, Denderah, Philoe, would suggest the localities of stupendous labor devoted to pious ends, even if we had not previously, at the Syden- ham Palace, the Louvre, and the British Museum, become familiar with the idea of the mighty remains of an ancient and priest-ridden nation. Of the ex- OR, HOW TO TRAVEL IN THE OLD WORLD. 173 pense of a voyage up the Nile we can afford no cor- rect notion. All must depend on the mode of trav- elling adopted, and the time spent on the trip. Returning to Alexandria, Ave find a steamer bound to the Piroeus, the port of Athens, via Smyrna, the most prosperous city in the Levant, as the people of Western Europe call the coasts of Turkey. The fare by the steamer is 81 florins, 1st class, and 54 florins, 2d class, and the time consumed in the passage is about one week. We do not visit Athens to see the modern town, although it contains a royal palace in the midst of a miserable population. No, we have had a pressing wish to see as much of the glorious temple to Athenas, the Parthenon, as time and the iconoclast have spared. Our thoughts run not upon Otho and his degenerate subjects ; we dream of Pericles and Phidias, and even Peristratus ; and the sight of the Propyloea, the temple to Theseus, the ruins of the Olympian Jupiter, the Areopagus, and other magnificent ruins, fully recompense us for the voyage. We have selected the Hotel des Etr -angers for our temporary dwelling, because though we pro- foundly respect M. Elias Polichronopules and M. Yanis Adamopolis (who conduct the Hotel oV Angle- terre), on account of the grandeur of their names, ,we prefer the more reasonable location. When at Athens, the traveller can suit himself and the means at his dis- posal, as to a little sailing about the isles in which Lord Byron delighted. Our business is with the route onward. We wish to go to Constantinople. Every Wednesday in the week one* of the Austrian 174 Norton's hand-book to europe ; Lloyds' steamers goes to Constantinople, stopping en route at Smyrna. The entire trip occupies six days. For a first class passage 30 florins are charged ; for a second class passage 20 florins. The interest attaching to an Oriental town, like Constantinople, is somewhat diminished by the previous visit to Cairo. Nevertheless, the sight of the City of the Sultan is decidedly grand. The Golden Horn merits the name it bears, from the delusive beauty of the city, with its glittering cupolas and minarets, in- termingled with trees of rich foliage, the sparkle of the water, the flitting of thousands of light caiques, the apparel of the people in the boats, and the en- trance to the Palace and the Arsenal at the water's edge. When we land, however, the real character of the place is at once revealed. Filth, and dirt, and howling dogs, paupers, agas, mumbling Moollahs, veiled women, reckless horsemen, insolent chaousses, clumsy carts, and cumbrous carriages, ruins of modern houses, vfhite-wash, brick, and mud-wash, make up the general aspect of the locale of the Sublime Porte. The chief mosque, St. Sophia, as it is still called, the Seraglio, the Hippodrome, and the Subterranean lake, are the sole objects which fix a momentary attention. Recreation must be sought in a trip to the Sweet Waters, the shores of the Bosphorus, the Turkish cem- eteries, and the Bath, which is a great luxury, with all its etceteras of pipes, coffee, and shampooing — which latter operation has a different signification to that as- signed to it in America, and really means kneading the body. The traveller will of course call upon the Min- OR, HOW TO TRAVEL IN THE OLD WORLD. 175 ister of the United States, as a mark of respect, and get his passport vise for Russia, by the Eussian Am- bassador, if he intends to follow the route chalked out below. RUSSIA, PRUSSIA, HANOVER, ETC It is to be presumed that no one will prefer making his way to .Russia, through a country so villanously unprovided with civilized modes of travelling as the Danubian Principalities. If, however, the curiosity of the tourist exceeds his regard for comfort, and he resolves to go through Bulgaria, Wallachia, and Mol- davia, he must seek guidance in the modus operandi from some authority at Constantinople. On the other hand, should he desire to see all the best parts of Russia, he will find many opportunities for making the trip to Odessa, northwest of the Black Sea, a dis- tance of 365 miles or thereabout. He must, how- ever, make up his mind to a detention in the Lazaretto of Odessa, even if the vessel carries a clean bill of health. The number of days depends upon circum • stances. The writer of these lines, proceeding from Asiatic Turkey to Odessa, was compelled to remain outside the harbor, tossed about on the roads for some days ; then to endure a week's confinement on board ship in the Mole or wharves of the city, and finally to spend a fortnight in a room in the Lazaretto, under the surveillance of an inodorous Russian infantry sol- dier. This quarantine system may have undergone some modification of late years, but it is strongly recommended that minute inquiry be made on this 176 Norton's hand-book to europe ; head before leaving Turkey, for a detention of one month is " most intolerable and not to be endured." Odessa, the most important commercial town and harbor in Russia, will interest the merchant. Num- bers of vessels come here from Italy, the Levant, and indeed all parts of Europe, for grain, which grows in vast abundance in Southern Russia. The town itself has a classically elegant appearance when seen from the sea, as many of the houses and public buildings have facades or porticoes after the most approved Greek models ; but it does not realize favorable im- pressions when entered. The dust or mud, according to the period of the year and the state of the atmos- phere, are intolerable. There are some magnificent edifices in Odessa, which owe their origin to the Duke de Richelieu or Count Woronzow, and a Museum which possesses many specimens of Greek antiquity brought from the Crimea. The Exchange, the ba- zaars, the theatre, and the granaries, will merit atten- tion, and it is consolatory to know that it will not take above one day to see everything. Society is agreeable at Odessa. The Greek merchants who swarm here, and the consuls of the different States, form a pleasant coterie, and are hospitable to travel- lers. The Hotel de Londres is the most desirable of all the public places of accommodation. The south of Russia is not, as yet, covered with railways. The only method of travel open to persons in good circumstances, is by posting. A Icibitka, or carriage with a leather hood and apron, drawn by four horses abreast, and driven by a jehu with a beard, who OR, HOW TO TRAVEL IN THE OLD WORLD. 177 is not insensible to the luxury of wotka (a fiery spirit), or the efficacy of oaths, constitutes the chief mode of conveyance. Arrangements are made beforehand with the owner of such an affair, to carry the traveller to Moscow in, say, 14 days, and it will be his business to send on word to the various postmasters to have hcrses ready along the line of road. But not a horse will be let out without the production of a padaroshna, or posting order, from the governor of Odessa. The cost of this document is two copper copecks — about one cent — per horse, for each mile. The cost of the post- ing is about fourteen cents per mile, for the four horses. The entire distance is 1,3714 versts, or 914 English miles — the verst being equal to three quarters of a mile. Thus the expense of going from Odessa to Moscow, for the posting and the padaroshna, will be 164 dollars ; to which add the pay of the coachman, the tolls, the refreshment and accommodation (such as they are !) at the miserable inns on the road. In round numbers, the whole cost will be 250 dollars. The carriage will accommodate a party of three or four persons, which will reduce the charge to each in- dividual to about 70 or 80 dollars. Nothing can be less interesting than the country lying between Odessa and Moscow — nothing much worse than the roads. There are two routes to the ancient capital of Russia. One of them runs eastward as far as NicolaefF, and then northerly by Kharkoff, Orel, Tula, and Eiazon ; the other proceeds due north, and, half way up, intersects the country traversed by the French armies on the occasion of the invasion by 8* 178 nortox's hand-book to Europe ; Napoleon in 1812. This alone entitles the latter to a preference ; but the roads are here a shade better, and Mohilev and Smolensk lie on the route. Adopting this route, therefore, let the traveller provide himself with a commissariat for the whole distance, that he may not be dependent on the fare offered by the Jew- ish innkeepers. A round of beef, boiled, a ham, a tongue, a case of sardines, some coffee or tea, and su- gar, with coffee-pot, knives, spoons, biscuit, and a bottle or two of Cognac, will insure a certain degree of independence. Mohilev, on the east bank of the Dneiper, is full of Greek and Roman Catholic convents, churches, and synagogues. It is a very old commercial town. , Smo- lensk, the capital of the government of Smolensk, is also on the Dneiper. There is nothing beyond the fact of these places having been occupied by Napo- leon's troops, calculated to impart to them a shadow of interest. Heartily glad to get to his journey's end, the trav- eller causes himself to be driven to the Hotel de Dresde, or to one of the boarding-houses. The one kept by Mrs. Howard was the best twelve years ago ; but it is doubtful if it still exists under the same management. The best of the hotels are bad, and dear, and dirty ; but since the coronation of the Emperor they have become better than they were. Silver roubles (3s. 4d. English) are the coins in chief use here. Of these rou- bles, two will be charged for rooms, one for dinner, and half a silver rouble for breakfast. There is no table d'hote at the hotel. It is right to be particular OR, HOW TO TRAVEL IN THE OLD WORLD. 179 as to location, because it requires a week or ten days to see Moscow well. It should be borne in mind that the town is five or six miles long and as many broad. An order for permission to see the principal sights should be applied for to the governor, and a good valet de place engaged to act as cicerone. The Kremlin — an aggregate of churches, palaces, vast public buildings, and architectural decorations — is the chief point of attraction. It is truly a wonderful place. A fanciful gorgeousness is everywhere apparent. Gold, silver, and highly-wrought paintings, embellish alike cathe- drals, chapels, and the residences of Emperors and Empresses. Singular and carefully-cherished reliques abound in the Kremlin. Evidences of the visits of imperial personages are as carefully treasured as the religious deposits. Thrones, old chairs, beds, crowns, sceptres, models, arms, etc., are to be seen in profu- sion. Then there is the " Monarch" Bell, on its ped- estal of granite, the tower of Ivan Vetchi, and the Church of the Annunciation, all deserving of attention. Outside the Kremlin are other remarkable places of worship, with clusters of green and red domes, the ordinary features of Greek churches, monasteries, pal- aces and gardens, theatres, villas, markets, tea houses (quite a peculiarity of Russian life), a university, an anatomical cabinet, and many other objects of rational curiosity. And, in addition to these, the people them- selves are a study. Their costume, habits, pursuits, pastimes, language, will irresistibly fix attention. All the trials of patience to which the journey from Odessa may have subjected the traveller, are quite for- 180 Norton's hand-book to europe ; gotten in the intense gratification derived from so ex- traordinary and unique a city as Moscow — a city which to have entered was Napoleon's momentary pride, and where his ambition received the terrible check from which it was never destined to recover. At Moscow we find that the Russian government has condescended to follow the example of other Euro- pean nations, and to establish a railway, which runs to St. Petersburgh, a distance of 400 miles, in from 16 to 18 hours. The fares are 19 roubles, 1st class, and 13 roubles, 2d class, by the express ; and 13 roubles by the ordinary second class. There are no first class tickets except on the express line. Leaving Moscow at mid-day, and taking care to doff the hat as we pass beneath the Holy Gate, above which hangs a miraculous portrait, we set forth on our railway trip through a country in no wise more interesting than that which we had previously trav- elled. Russia is made up of wild steppes, immense grain fields, lakes, rivers, and forests of pine. The towns which lie on the high roads are almost all of the same character : whitewashed houses, chequered buildings, to denote government property, sentry boxes, also streaked black and white, churches, convents, and synagogues. The people have a poor and dirty as- pect, but in the manufacturing towns exhibit industry and ingenuity. There are, however, few manufac- tories out of St. Petersburg worth the seeing, for all that the Russians know they have borrowed from other nations. America has supplied Russia with many of her best engineers ; France, England, Ger- OR, HOW TO TRAVEL IN THE OLD WORLD. 181 many, Italy, and Switzerland, have also contributed a quota of intelligent industry. St. Petersburg is a totally different kind of city to Moscow. It is grand and spacious, but its architec- ture in nothing resembles the bizarrerie which we have just quitted. There is a cold and stately dignity about the vast palaces which skirt the Neva. The great width of the streets and public squares, almost bare of a moving population, adds to their imposing character. There are lofty churches and colossal statues, in keeping with the stately dwellings of Em- peror and princes ; and the flowing river, in its breadth and silence, increases the impression of the absence of all social intercourse in this the headquarters of the greatest despotism upon the earth. But after taking a general survey from the summit of one of the churches, and entering a droshky for a drive about the town, we find in one district a degree of gayety and animation which is not to be paralleled in the Boule- vards of Paris, the Regent Street of London, or the Broadway of New-York. A curve in the Neva forms a kind of delta, and stretching across this space, for a distance of two or three miles, is a promenade called the Nevskoi Prospekt. Here the whole population takes its promenade, and presents to the eye of the stranger a very motley spectacle. The proofs of a military despotism are apparent at every step. Hun- dreds of officers in glittering uniforms, gay carriages with outriders, liveried servants, and hnissiers, in for- midable cocked hats and plumes, ladies superbly at- tired, public officials in diplomatic attire, their breasts 182 Norton's hand-book to europe; covered with stars and medals, the Circassian, the Greek, the Tartar, and the Persian, in their national costume, droshkies with their bell-decorated horses, peasants in pink shirts, bearded merchants, and slov- enly Jews — all go to the composition of a group un- seen in any other part of the world. Having indulged in this coup d'oeil, and previously depositing our luggage in one of the English boarding- houses, if possible (for the hotels are exceedingly ob- jectionable on the score of dirt and vermin), we en- gage a guide, who obtains the necessary orders, and proceed to make the round of sights, commencing with the Winter Palace. The interior of the Winter Palace far exceeds in splendor, if it does not approach in good taste, the palaces of the Emperor of the French and Queen Victoria. The mines of Russia have been made tribu- tary to the adornment of the residences of autocrats. Malachite is here u at home," and here also are dia- monds and other precious stones in rare abundance. Vases, pictures, and marbles, in countless profusion, enrich the various apartments through which the stranger is conducted, and gives him a very correct dea of the wealth of Russia, and the manner in which that wealth is disposed of. The Hermitage — lucus a non lucendo — connected with the Winter Palace by long galleries — is rather a dwelling for a sybarite than an anchorite. It was the evening retreat of the Empress Catharine from the cares of business. Externally it is nothing ; but the contents of the interior exhibit a highly cultivated OK, HOW TO TRAVEL IN THE OLD WOULD. 183 taste. It is indispensable that you go to the Hermit- age in full dress (evening costume), and take your full enjoyment of pictures, cameos, busts, gold relics of the tombs of the Greeks buried in the Crimea two thou- sand years ago. The pictures comprehend all the fa- mous schools. Italy, Spain, and Holland, have been made tributary. Russia herself has not yet found artists whose works merit a place in the abodes of Emperors. The other palaces, namely, the Taurida, the Marble, the Michael off, &c, are more remarkable for their size than anything else, for they have been nearly stripped of their contents. If it should so happen that the tourist is at St. Pe- tersburg on a Tuesday, let him not miss the Imperial Library. It is not open to visitors on any other day. The collection of books and MSS. in this library is one of the largest in the world. Among the MSS. are some books and letters which belonged to the un- fortunate Mary, Queen of Scots. The churches must not be passed over. They are all large, and very richly furnished and decorated. The Academy of Arts contains some capital pictures and statues. The manufactories of tapestry, porcelains, cotton piece goods, and playing cards, are likewise well worthy of notice. In fact, for a comparatively new city, St. Petersburg possesses a greater variety of attractions, all denotative of the riches of the rulers and the coun- try, and the pride successive monarchs have taken in the capital, than any other town in the world. The theatres and hospitals are upon a par, in size and splendor, with the other buildings. There are a few 184 Norton's hand-book to Europe ; / rides and drives about the town, and it will be worth while to row to one or two of the islands on the Neva, on which villas, &c. , have been erected. . Sated with our visit to the two splendid cities of Northern Russia, we now turn our faces westerly, and post it to the Prussian capital, Berlin. There will really be no occasion to stop at Warsaw, unless the Polish sympathies of the traveller irresistibly impel him to take a passing glance at a once proud capital whose glories have faded under the paralyzing influ- ence of the Russian government. There is a railway for about 100 miles to Louga. The rest of the distance to Konigsberg, 240 miles, must be travelled after the manner employed to go from Odessa to Moscow. From Konigsberg we get to Frankfort on the Oder by the rail — 350 miles — at a cost of 17 Prussian thalers, or 13 American dollars, first class — the second class is about one third less expensive. Berlin is 50 miles from Frankfort, and another railway connects the two towns. Less than two dollars, and two hours and a quarter of time, bring us to the great Prussian capital. What Madame De Stael said sixty or seventy years ago, regarding the military character of Berlin, is, if possible, more applicable at the present day. Both the animate and inanimate objects in the streets have a certain warlike perfume about them. Brilliant staff officers, guards, and dragoons, rapidly move about the Unter den Linden — a long and handsome street, with an avenue of lime trees in the centre — and the statues of old Bliicher, Bulow, and Scharnhorst, decorate the road-side. OR, HOW TO TRAVEL IN THE OLD WORLD. 185 The hotels of Berlin are very good. Indeed there is little difference between them. However, select the Hotel du Nord, or the British Hotel, for they are both on the Unter der Linden, which is the largest and most central street in the town. Indeed there is hardly another street worth looking at. All the theatres, and opera-houses, and palaces, are on this fine avenue. Arriving at the hotel give up your passport. You will get a room for half a dollar a day. Half a dollar (or less) is the sum paid for dinner at the table d'hote. Breakfast is served in your own room. The sights of Berlin may be used up in two or three days with a little ordinary diligence. At the same time, an entire fortnight may be consumed by linger- ing over some of the objects. Excepting on Thurs- day, when only the Museum is open, every day may be passed in visiting places of interest or amusement. The architectural and sculptural objects are not nu- merous. The chief of the latter is the bronze eques- trian statue of Frederick the Great. There is nothing superior to it in the world. The finest buildings are the King's Palace, the new Museum, and the Bran- denburg Gate. The interior of the Eoyal Palace is upon a scale of magnificence suitable to a monarch who rules almost despotically over some millions of human beings. But the Chamber of Art (Kunst- kammer) in the New Museum, is the chief magnet of attraction in Berlin. It contains many curious ob- jects illustrative of savage life, a collection of speci- mens of natural history, an anatomical collection, and 186 Norton's hand-book to Europe ; a very interesting historical collection, replete with illustrations of the lives and habits of the great men of Prussia. Not the least amusing of the latter is a figure of " old Fritz/' Frederick the Great, " in his habit as he lived. ,, Another lion of Berlin is the Mu- seum facing the Lustgarden. It does not take rank with the depositories of genius at Munich or Dresden, but it is very rich, for all that, in sculpture, pictures, vases, bronzes, and other curious works of art. The Royal Library exhibits an immense array of books, and the Reading-room attached to it affords a great convenience to residents and visitors. The Arsenal deserves a visit ; Count Raczynski's gallery contains some interesting specimens of modern German art, and the Iron Foundries and China Manufactories may afford profitable entertainment for a few hours. The opera and theatres of Berlin are first rate, and outside the town is Charlottenberg, where the beautiful monu- ment of Queen Louisa, the noble wife of William III., is seen, and her melancholy history recalled with sor- rowful interest. Potsdam — not inaptly termed the Versailles of Ber- lin, because it stands in much the same relation to the Prussian capital that the palace and gardens of Ver- sailles do to the French metropolis — is reached by railway in 45 minutes. As the favorite abode of the great Frederick, and the occasional resort of Voltaire, Potsdam, and the gardens of Sans Souci, would on no account be neglected by the stranger. Many memen- toes, both of the King and the author of the Henriade, are to be seen at Potsdam, to which there are trains five or six times a day. OR, HOW TO TRAVEL IN THE OLD WORLD. 187 From Berlin the traveller can shape his course as he pleases. He can run to Dresden, the interesting Saxon capital, and to Leipzig, and thence can get to the Rhine, or to Switzerland and Italy, described in foregoing pages ; or, if bent on returning to America, he can proceed to Bremen, taking Hanover, the capi- tal of the kingdom of the same name. Dresden is more than satisfying. It has been called the " Florence" of Germany, and we readily endorse the appellation. Pleasantly situated on the Elbe, it abounds in rare works of art, and from the circum- stance of many men of taste and learning making it their place of residency, good taste and refinement pre- side over all its institutions. Of the hotels, we would give a preference to the Victoria, though, indeed, none are objectionable. Engage a valet de place (one dol- lar per diem), and through his instrumentality you will be able to penetrate the art riches of Dresden. The Royal Palace is a perfect mine of wealth. In its Green Vault, Ivory Cabinet, and other rooms, are ac- cumulated extraordinary works in metals and precious stones, wrought by Michael Angelo, or Saxon artists, whose skill rivalled that of Benvenuto Cellini. The Picture Gallery is also brilliant with first rate pro- ductions. Pictures there are from the pencils of Cor- reggio and Raphael, Rubens and Titian, Van Dyck, Wouvermans, and very many others. But the col- lection of armor in the Zwinger is the most singular and valuable in the world. The Zwinger is a quad- rangular building, once intended as a court and en- trance-yard to a palace, but now and always occupied 188 Norton's hand-book to Europe ; by the Historical Museum and the Museum of Natur- al History. The armor in the Historical Museum illustrates the manners of the feudal ages, for not only does it comprehend all the offensive and defensive covering of the warriors of the period, but it likewise embraces the paraphernalia of tournaments, and the trappings and implements of the chase. More, this museum contains armor and weapons used in the mid- dle ages, and the thirty years' war, and firearms from the earliest dates. The Museum of Natural History is small and will hardly bear inspection after the col- lections in London and Berlin have been seen. The amateur of sculpture will find a field for the gratifica- tion of his taste in the Japanese Palace of Dresden, so called from certain oriental decorations on its facade. The collection of statuary is not large ; its quality more than compensates for the absence of a large number of rare works. The collection of porcelain and terra cotta will of course be examined with inter- est, for has not Dresden a reputation for porcelain manufacture which has survived all the vicissitudes of fashion and the mutations of taste % It will, how- ever, be prudent to take every precaution against be- ing seduced into the purchase of spurious wares. The " Koyal Depot" supplies the only perfect guarantee against imposition. Hanover, the next place at which we stop, was thirty years ago a queer old town, with a population of 30,000 souls. The Duke of Cambridge resided and administered affairs there, in the name of the King of Great Britain, and as all the Hanoverian OR, HOW TO TRAVEL IN THE OLD WORLD- 189 army had served with the British against Napoleon, the aspect of the people and the troops gathered some- thing from association. But since the accession of Queen Victoria to the throne of England, Hanover has become an independent sovereignty, and the chief town in the little State has been amazingly improved. The Royal Palace and the Royal Library are the centres of attraction for the visitor who merely pur- poses remaining a day or two. The Hotel Royal, near the railway station, is as good as any other, and will be more convenient than one in the town for a person who does not stay long. Hanover treasures its historical reminiscences. The memory of Leibnitz is embalmed in the affections of the people. The public cemetery contains the ashes of Zimmermann, and the stranger is reminded that Herschel, the astronomer, was born at Hanover. Outside the town, in a square called Waterloo Place, is the lofty Waterloo Column, which perpetuates the names of the officers and men who fell in the memorable battle of June, 1815. The population of the town has increased to 43,000. To Bremen the distance is 76 miles, traversed by railway trains in three hours, and the fare is 90 groschen — equal to 3 German thalers, or 2 dollars and 25 cents (American). Nothing is to be seen en route. The country is singularly dreary. It is unnecessary to observe to the American trav- eller, that the fine steamers of the German Lloyds' Company sail to New- York at brief intervals. Should the traveller, when at Berlin, determine to take the route to Hamburg, instead of that via Dres- 190 Norton's hand-book to Europe ; den and Hanover, he will find a perfect railway com- munication open the whole distance. The fare is 8 dollars (American), and the time consumed 8 hours. Neither Hamburg nor Bremen possesses any institutions or curiosities to invite the passenger to prolong his stay. Amusement, however, will be derived from the " life" of the former town, which, in some respects, resembles the seaports of Holland. We have now carried the tourist over a very long and expensive route, and we find it difficult, if not impossible, to estimate the gross cost, or the exact consumption of time. Travelling in Turkey and Russia, and steaming about the Mediterranean, are expensive and uncertain operations. So much must depend upon the inclinations and resources of a per- son selecting the tour chalked out above — the number of friends with whom he may be travelling — and the disposition to yield to the temptation to deviate from prescribed routes, especially after leaving Berlin, that it would be vain to attempt a computation that should approach within 500 dollars of accuracy. The tour, in fact, is one of those which would be more likely to be taken after Switzerland and Italy, or Austria and the Rbine had been explored. It is a kind of supple- mental tour. Nevertheless, if enough of Switzerland and Italy had been seen on the Southern trip, it would be easy to go to Russia from Vienna, and follow the foregoing route : Vienna is reached from Constantinople by Trieste steamers. > OR, HOW TO TRAVEL IN THE OLD WORLD. 191 % PORTUGAL AND SPAIN. Were the interest which foreign countries awaken in the American mind to arise solely from the his- torical connection of the New World with the Old World, Spain would have very peculiar claims upon its attention and regard. For, was it not owing to the generous exertions and noble sacrifices of the in- comparable Isabella that Columbus, after eighteen years' begging of Courts to accept a world (as Wash- ington Irving so happily puts it), was enabled to set forth in quest of the solution of the theoiy which had taken possession of his heart and understanding ? And is not one half of the vast Southern continent of America more or less identified with the early Spanish acquisitions ? Have not the names of Cortez and Pizarro been made familiar to us as household words by the revered Prescott ? And even if historical con- nection had failed to render Iberia a land of pleasing association, can we forget that Irving lived long in Spain, and for some years represented America at the Court of Madrid — contributing by his exhaustless re- search, his matchless talent, and graceful pen, to per- petuate the renown of Columbus and his followers, and enhance the romantic attractions of the Alham- bra? From England, Spain may be reached either partially by land or entirely by water. The adoption of the steam packet allows of Oporto and Lisbon being visited en route to Cadiz, but as the traveller, after being landed at either of the two Portuguese ports, must wait ten days 192 nortons hand-book to europe ; for the next packet to carry him in, it is doubtful whe- ther it would be advisable to sacrifice so much time where there is so little to see. Lisbon is an old town, finely situated on the banks of the Tagus ; possesses palaces, churches, convents and many associations. The earthquake in 1755 was an extraordinary event, and awakened much philosophical inquiry. The invasion by the French under Junot, and their subsequent ex- pulsion by the British under Wellington, imparts to the dirty capital of the Portuguese a modern historical interest. But we do not forget that it was at Lisbon Prince Henry nourished improvements in nautical science, and that from Belem Vasca de Gama set sail to run a race of rivalry with Columbus in advancing the cause of maritime discovery. Nor can we be in- sensible to the beauty of " Cintra's glorious Eden," lauded of poets. Necessarily, before leaving England for Portugal and Spain, the passport will be vise by the respective minis- ters from their courts, and a small stock of Spanish dol- lars will be laid in to serve until the circular letter or bill of exchange is used. A Spanish dollar is equivalent to 20 reals, a real being a small silver coin worth 4£ cents (American). The dollar is known as a duco in Spain. The steam passage to Oporto costs £13 first, and £8 15s. second class — to Lisbon, £15 and £10 — to Cadiz, £17 105. and £11 15s. Cadiz is the first port reached after leaving Lisbon, and here the traveller may land to make his tour through the country. Assuming that it is hardly deemed compensatory to OR, HOW TO TRAVEL IN THE OLD WORLD. 103 make a tedious trip to Portugal, preparatory to visit- ing Spain, let us suppose that the land route is chosen in preference, that the traveller may come down to Gibraltar preparatory to visiting the opposite coast. There are few railways excepting in the east of Spain. The journeys through the northern and west- ern and southern parts of the country are made by diligence, or malle poste, or on horseback. The malle post only admits of two persons being conveyed at a time, but it is the most independent though much the most expensive. Distance is computed by leagues in Spain, a league being about 3| English miles. The cost of travelling depends on the number of horses or mules employed. Six reals, or 27 cents, is paid for each horse per league — two leagues are travelled in one hour by two or four horses — and the postillion receives three reals a league. Travelling by diligencia, or public coach, is much cheaper than the malle posle, but to avail yourself of this mode it is necessary to give long notice beforehand, and be content to stop when it suits the arrangements of your fellow travel- lers. A party of six mighl hire a diligence to them- selves. Before starting on a tour through Spain, let the traveller make up his mind to endure a good deal of jolting from the badness of the roads, much privation at the hotels and posadas, if he be not well provided with a commissariat ; a good deal of imposition, fre- quent contact with foul smells and nuisances, and the chance of being plundered by banditti. This last feature of Spanish travel, so common and so felici- 9 194 NORTON'S HAND-BOOK TO EUROPE ; tously described in the time of Le Sage, the author of the immortal Gil Bias, is by no means so prominent now-a-days, and may rather be mentioned as one of the chances than the certainties attendant on a tour. Still, prudence will dictate the propriety of a travel- ler's carrying as little as possible with him of real value. Supposing us to be at Paris when we set forth upon our Spanish tour, we take the rail to Bayonne, 492J miles (English) from Paris, stopping at Tours and Bordeaux to break the journey and see two of the best provincial towns in France. Bayonne will engage a day or two, or even more, for it is a town worth the seeing, apart from all associations with hams, bayonets, wines, chocolate, and sorties. A very few miles from Bayonne is Biaritz, a. watering place in the Pyrenees, which the Empress of the French has made fashionable. At a distance which may be accomplished in six or seven hours, is the famous for- tress of San Sebastian. It will be for the tourist to choose his own route from either Bayonne or San Sebastian. But it may be mentioned that the towns of chiefest interest are those which lie in the west and centre of Spain, be- tween the Bay of Biscay and Gibraltar. Vittoria, Burgos, Valladolid, Salamanca, Madrid, Talavera, Toledo, Badajos, Seville, Cordova, Granada, Malaga to Gibraltar, will embrace nearly the whole tract of country covered by the armies engaged in the great Peninsular War, hallowed by the struggles of Spain to emancipate herself from Moorish domination, and OR, HOW TO TRAVEL IN THE OLD WORLD. 195 consecrated by the muse of Byron and the fancy of Cervantes. Each city has some special object deserv- ing of notice, excepting Vittoria, which is more a business place than anything else. The fact of its lying on the high road to France, through the Pyre- nees, and being almost the only town so situated, gives it an air of bustle. Burgos possesses a remark- ably fine old cathedral, full of paintings, and orna- ments, and curious decorative architecture. Valla- dolid, once the capital of old Castile, boasts a museum containing some very fine specimens of wood carving, a classical cathedral, and many churches. Columbus died at Valladolid. Salamanca, forming the seat of learning in Spain, is celebrated for the great battle fought in its vicinity in 1812. It is now in a deplor- able condition, never having recovered the effects of the occupation of the town by Napoleon's troops. Madrid, the capital, of which all Spaniards are so inordinately proud, presents to the traveller the means of studying the Spanish character and habits. The old picturesque costumes have, in a great measure, given way before the fashions of France, but in other respects there is much originality and antiquity in Madrid. There are some fine old edifices in the town, some very indifferent hotels, certain good cafes and restaurants, and a museum enriched with the works of Velasquez, Murillo, and Juan Juares, who has been justly called the Raphael of Spain. Talavera does not court a long stay, but if the visitor can use his pencil, he will find many choice morceaux worthy of transfer to his sketch-book. At Toledo, we are in 196 Norton's hand-book to Europe , the land over which the Moors held dominion. The town is very picturesque, very Moorish, very close, but remarkably clean. There is a noble cathedral here, containing many highly embellished chapels: there are, likewise, convents, churches, and syna- gogues ; and who that has heard of a " Toledo blade " will omit a visit to the sword manufactory? The suburbs of Toledo abound in landscapes, and are rich in pretty bits of scenery. Badajos is of little account, excepting to the English traveller, who loves to follow the footsteps of Wellington, and revolve in the " mind's eye" the sanguinary siege of 1812. It would be almost as well to leave it for Manzerares. But Seville, the next town we arrive at, is, of all the cities of Spain, the most attractive. History and fiction have alike invested it with powerful interest. No town has been so much sung in the ballads of Spain. It was the glory of St. Ferdinand that he wrested the city from the Moors, who have left their mark everywhere about the town. At Seville the bull fights are seen in perfection. And all the finest works of Murillo, which have not been carried away by the sword or money, adorn the Museo and the Cathedral. The continued influx of foreigners has contributed to the establishment of a better class of hotels at Seville than are to be found in any other town. From Seville we move on to Cordova, a wreck of its former self, but prettily situated amidst olive and poplar trees. Neither Eoman nor Moorish an- tiquities now remain, but the manufactories of chased silver filigree work are to be visited. Granada — i3 OR, HOW TO TRAVEL IX THE OLD WORLD. 197 not the Alhambra here ? and the tombs of Ferdinand and Isabella? Had there been no other object in view in crossing the Pyrenees, this one alone would have justified the journey. Well and truly has the late excellent and accomplished Richard Ford written, 11 Art and nature have combined to render Granada, with its Alps, plains, and Alhambra, one of those few p^ces which realize all previous conceptions." No wonder that Washington Irving was captivated, and gave to every land where the English language is spoken the charming tales suggested by his visit to the famous "Red Castle." Malaga is the southern- most point of our journey before we get to the old rock of Gibraltar, where a stay of some days will recruit fatigue and enable us to see the marvellously strong works of this impregnable fortress. It can easily be imagined with what confidence, from his eyrie of adamant, old Governor Elliot watched the French and Spaniards, who, for three or four years, endeavored, fruitlessly, to snatch the Rock from his iron grasp. Communication is frequent, between Gibraltar and the opposite coast, and it may be that some tourist would feel disposed to pay a visit to Algeria, and sub- sequently to Tetuan, preparatory to going to Egypt. The war, however, which rages in Morocco, while ^his little volume passes through the press, may have the effect of rendering any information we may now give obsolete and useless, and it must therefore be de- ferred until a future edition. 198 Norton's hand-book to Europe ; Action tto . V- V \ * O N <^ XL *->. * - \> s s V '+« *>. * t % . ■ ^0 N 3 O % V* x° O ' «<. > 020 666 807 6 ■ H shhHH H&SX JBHWi Barnau l S&gSS&SB&sa '.^X;\2Z BH5B SfflaSH gagmi ffinHftsH SSSwBBwS !hr brh hHbmEc9g w™w tfTHnffr JSnHiiiP crwksw Sw S&ftttMB [SM '>..;„-. ixv'jir :. ••■ i <^yiy*ffm B& bpwm l^sflD W^WtKiilKiCfZJ mh^RI 19b Bftalj gf$9£ gg« RsfiJH MtfHffMM BSKaBSB 3jfiMJB|ttfi| BB9H l&BlPfiKPatp» m9h hBH E8851 1$ [WIM m i^H SBMttMWWl KfiMS Bay ■ *:: .ttJjyiJWM