rrr:
 
 \v
 
 JOHN MURRAY III
 
 JOHN MURRAY III 
 
 1808-1892 
 
 A BRIEF MEMOIR 
 
 BY JOHN MURRAY IV 
 
 WITH PORTRAIT AND ILLUSTRATION 
 
 LONDON 
 
 JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, W. 
 1919
 
 All rights reserved.
 
 PREFACE 
 
 I HAVE long cherished the desire to attempt the 
 writing of a biography of my Father. The 
 materials for such a work are superabundant, 
 as they were in the case of my Grandfather's life. 
 For over ten years I was engaged in collecting 
 and arranging the correspondence before handing 
 it over to Dr Smiles, but this had to be done in 
 leisure hours, and for many years past such leisure 
 hours have been denied me. 
 
 With a view to keeping my Father's memory 
 alive before the generation which knew him passes 
 away, I wrote an article which Dr Prothero 
 kindly accepted and published in the 'Quarterly 
 Review.' It has brought me such a large number 
 of gratifying letters, both from friends and 
 strangers ; from those who knew him and those 
 who did not, that I have been persuaded to re- 
 publish it in the somewhat more permanent form 
 of this small volume. 
 
 I have included several passages which, owing 
 to limits of space, had to be omitted from the 
 ' Quarterly,' and have added my Father's own 
 account of the origin of the Handbooks, and 
 a few extracts from his letters home from 1830
 
 vi PREFACE 
 
 to 1884, as they will give the reader some idea 
 of the zeal and intelligence which he imported 
 into his travels, and which enabled him to become 
 the Pioneer of Guide Book writers. 
 
 I have to thank my brother Hallam and my 
 sisters for their assistance in furnishing me with 
 various details and copies of letters. 
 
 J. M.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 PREFACE . . . . v 
 
 MEMOIR OP JOHN MURRAY III 1 
 
 Reprinted with additions from the 'Quarterly Review.' 
 
 THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF MURRAY'S HANDBOOKS FOR 
 TRAVELLERS . . . . - 39 
 
 SOME LETTERS FROM JOHN MURRAY TO HIS FAMILY, 1830- 
 1891 50 
 
 Bordeaux Venice Salzburg Munich Augsburg 
 Liege Charleroi Newcastle-on-Tyne Bourges 
 Angers Fontevrault Chinon Plessis-les-Tours 
 Chenonceaux Bayonne St. Sebastian Pau Bareges 
 A mountain climb on the Pyrenees Bagneres de 
 Bigorre Luz Bagneres de Luchon Rheims Senlis 
 Chantilly The Dolomites Venice iRiva Ha warden 
 Rousdon.
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 POETRAIT OF JOHN MURRAY .... Frontispiece 
 From a picture by the late Sir George Reid, P.S.A. 
 
 NEWSTEAD, WIMBLEDON facing page 24
 
 JOHN MUBBAY III 
 
 1808-1892 
 
 MY grandfather, John Murray the second, has 
 received an ample meed of renown and credit at 
 the hands of the public. Not more I think than 
 he deserves, but rather to the eclipse of his pre- 
 decessor and of his successor, both of whom in my 
 humble opinion deserve a fuller recognition than 
 has yet been given them. 
 
 One hundred and fifty years ago it required 
 more resolution than it does to-day for a young 
 man to give up his commission in the army and 
 start a trading business on his own account ; but 
 this was what the first John Murray did in 1768. 
 That he had many close friends in the service is 
 shown by the letters of his correspondents, many 
 of whom rose to distinction in later years. He 
 had a genuine love of, and a taste for, literature, 
 and he laid the foundation well and truly, although 
 he died before he had attained to any great financial 
 success. My present purpose however is not to 
 write about him but about my father the third 
 John Murray in the direct line. 
 
 In 1843 he succeeded to the headship of the 
 business, which had already taken its place among 
 the leading publishing firms in London, but, owing 
 
 B
 
 2 JOHN MURRAY III 1808-1892 
 
 to my grandfather's generous mode of living and 
 of treating his authors, was not in a very flourishing 
 financial position. My father therefore had before 
 him many years of strenuous work to remedy this 
 deficiency. 
 
 Of his early school days at Charterhouse he 
 seldom spoke much, but an occasional reference to 
 a bully who kept a cricket-stump with which to 
 thrash small boys is remembered. However great 
 the traditions of a public school may be, it must 
 have been a sad curtailment of the wholesome 
 life of the boys to be cooped up in the centre of a 
 city like London ; and my father often said that 
 he could not subject his own sons to such a dis- 
 advantage. From his earliest years he suffered 
 from an inflammatory malady of the eyes, which 
 greatly hampered his enjoyment of life and his 
 power of taking part in games. I never knew him 
 except as a very short-sighted man ; and his was a 
 form of short-sight which derived no aid from 
 glasses. As we grew older, we children were 
 accustomed to act as eyes for him in recognising 
 friends. In spite of this, his powers of observation 
 in regard to scenery, architecture, painting, etc., 
 were extraordinary ; and he never seemed to forget 
 what he had once seen. 
 
 In January 1827, at the age of 18, he was sent 
 to Edinburgh to study at the University, and there 
 he entered upon a life of study and associations 
 which were thoroughly congenial to him. He 
 lodged with the Rev. Andrew Thomson, D.D., as 
 a member of the family; and, from first to last, 
 Dr Thomson's only word of complaint in regard to 
 him was that he had too many friends in Edinburgh, 
 and was tempted to go into society so much as to
 
 LIFE IN EDINBURGH 3 
 
 endanger his studies, although it is evident that 
 in the long run they did not suffer. He attended 
 the lectures of Prof. Jameson in geology and 
 mineralogy, of Dr McCulloch in Political Economy, 
 and Dr Hope in chemistry, besides taking lessons 
 in French, German, mathematics and riding, 
 From the outset to the end of his days, geology 
 and mineralogy constituted his favourite pursuit. 
 He never went on an excursion from Edinburgh 
 without his hammer and bag and note-book, and 
 he formed a good collection of minerals, which is 
 now in the School Museum at Eton. 
 
 I gather from my father's letters that Dr 
 Thomson's misgivings in regard to social attrac- 
 tions were not unwarranted. He had many rela- 
 tions and friends in Edinburgh and appears to 
 have received a large number of invitations to 
 town parties and country houses. I find him going 
 to stay with General Elliot, a relative of his mother, 
 at Rosebank, with Sir William Fettes at Gogar 
 Bank and with General Bethune at Blebo, Here 
 he was initiated in the art of partridge shooting, 
 but without much success owing to his defective 
 eye-sight ' I ought rather,' he writes, ' call it firing 
 than shooting, as I only brought down one bird.' 
 
 In Edinburgh he dined frequently with Captain 
 Basil Hall, in whose house he met ' a Mr Audubon,' 
 the distinguished American naturalist, who told 
 him of the Mississippi floods. 
 
 ' January 2nd, 1827. 
 
 ' He had travelled over the greater part of the 
 United States and his conversation was very interesting. 
 He mentioned that there were 300 steamboats on the 
 Mississippi. At the time of the year when the snows 
 melt, that river overflows its banks to a great extent
 
 4 JOHN MURRAY III 1808-1892 
 
 and covers all the immense woods on its banks so that 
 the steamboats actually sail over the tops of the trees 
 and cut across the country, instead of proceeding along 
 the winding stream. It, however, sometimes happens 
 that they are caught like Baron Munchausen in the 
 branches, and are thereby stuck fast and lost. At 
 the time of these overflowings the water sometimes 
 rises 65 feet in a week and a person setting off on a 
 Sunday on a journey of 1700 miles down the river has 
 arrived at the place of his destination on Wednesday 
 night. He said he had himself made such a voyage.' 
 
 At Mr Ballantyne's he met Mrs Siddons ; and 
 he also went to see Dugald Stewart, a connexion 
 of his father's. One of the most notable events 
 of his stay in Edinburgh was the famous dinner of 
 the Theatrical Fund, at which he was present, 
 when Sir Walter first publicly owned to the 
 authorship of the Waverley Novels. Of this he 
 writes as follows : 
 
 'Edinburgh, Feb. 26, 1827. 
 
 ' Mr Allan had kindly offered to take me with him 
 to a Theatrical Dinner which took place on Friday 
 last. There were present about 300 persons, a mixed 
 company, many of them not of the most respectable 
 order. Sir Walter Scott took the chair, and there was 
 scarcely another person of any note to support him, 
 except the actors. The dinner therefore would have 
 been little better than tolerable had it not been for 
 the i confession of Sir Walter Scott that he was the 
 author of the Waverley Novels. This acknowledgment 
 was elicited from him in this manner. Lord Meadow- 
 bank, who sat on his left hand, proposed his health, 
 and, after paying him many compliments, ended his 
 speech by saying that the clouds and mists which had
 
 SIR WALTER SCOTT 
 
 so long surrounded the Great Unknown were now 
 removed, and he appeared in his true character (prob- 
 ably alluding to the expos6 made before Constable's 
 creditors, for I do not think there was any preconcerted 
 plan). Upon this Sir Walter rose and said, " I did not 
 expect, on coming here to-day, that I should have to 
 disclose before 300 people a secret which, considering 
 that it has already been made known to about 30 
 persons, has been tolerably well kept. I am not 
 prepared to give any reasons for preserving it a secret ; 
 caprice had certainly a good share in the matter. Now 
 that it is out, I beg leave to observe that I am sole 
 and undivided author of those Novels ; every part of 
 them has originated with me, or has been suggested 
 to me in the course of my reading. I confess J am 
 guilty and am almost afraid to examine the extent 
 of my delinquency. 'Look on 't again I dare not.' 
 The wand of Prospero is now broken, and iny book 
 is buried ; but before I retire I shall propose" the health 
 of a person who has given so much delight, I dare say, 
 to all now present, the Baillie Nicol Jarvie." 
 
 ' I report this from memory ; of course it is not 
 quite accurate in words, but you will find a tolerable 
 report of it in the Caledonian Mercury of Saturday. 
 This declaration was received with loud and long 
 applause ; as this was gradually subsiding, the Baillie 
 (Mackay)* exclaims in character, "Ma conscience, if 
 my Father the Deacon had been alive," etc., which, as 
 you may suppose, had a most excellent effect.' 
 
 Whenever he could get a few days' leave, his 
 chief delight was in making excursions over Scot- 
 land, which he seems to have explored pretty 
 thoroughly from Galloway to Aberdeen, and from 
 Arran to St Andrews, all the time making careful 
 
 * Mackay, the actor, who had made a hit in the part.
 
 6 JOHN MURRAY III 1808-1892 
 
 notes of antiquities and places of historical interest, 
 but above all of geological and mineralogical 
 features. During his sojourn in Edinburgh he 
 made at least three close and lifelong friendships 
 with Allen Thomson, the son of his host and 
 tutor, with Torrie, a nephew of Professor Jameson, 
 and with Copland. In company with one or other 
 of the two last named he made many of his subse- 
 quent prolonged excursions on the Continent. 
 
 That his residence in Edinburgh was not wasted 
 as regards his studies may be learned from the 
 following letter from Dr Thomson to his father 
 when it came to a conclusion. 
 
 ' Edinburgh, Nov. 15, 1827. 
 
 ' Your son left us yesterday morning, and I cannot 
 think of him departing without bearing my strong and 
 cordial testimony to his merits. I never had a finer 
 young man under my roof, so perfectly behaved was 
 he, in every respect so agreeable. Good temper, sobriety, 
 attention to his studies, an obliging disposition, polite 
 and pleasing manners, a readiness to perform whatever 
 he knew and felt to be a duty, deference to our opinions 
 and wishes as to all that concerned his conduct these 
 were qualities by which he uniformly distinguished 
 himself, and you may believe me when I say that Mrs 
 Thomson and I part with him with real regret, and 
 shall always remember him with esteem and pleasure. 
 I think he has acquired a good deal of information 
 during his residence in Edinburgh, and what is of still 
 greater consequence at his period of life, a strong desire 
 to advance in the path of knowledge and improvement. 
 I hope you will not confine him too closely to business, 
 but permit him to attend classes and prosecute study 
 as much as possible. Chemistry and Natural History, 
 especially Mineralogy and Geology, are the departments
 
 THE RUTHWELL FOOT-PRINTS 7 
 
 in which he most delights. With you he can be at 
 no loss for books. He should also attend the best 
 Lecturers, of whom you have some that are very 
 eminent, and I must request you to allow him to be 
 at some expense in joining a museum. Such things 
 will not only add to his personal respectability and 
 his more refined enjoyments, but must be ultimately 
 beneficial to him in his professional life. Forgive these 
 suggestions.' 
 
 On leaving Edinburgh he was destined to begin 
 serious work in his father's office, but, according 
 to his invariable custom, he sought and obtained 
 permission to make a circuitous journey home, in 
 order that he might inspect some remarkable 
 prehistoric foot-prints of animals in the sandstone 
 at Ruthwell in Dumfriesshire, and afterwards 
 made his first acquaintance with the English 
 Lakes. These same foot-prints caused no little 
 stir among the geologists of the day ; and the 
 following letter gives an amusing account of one 
 of the experiments made to explain their origin : 
 
 'Jan, 23, 1828. 
 
 'I went on Saturday last to a party at Mr Mur- 
 chison's house, assembled to behold tortoises in the 
 act of walking upon dough. Prof. Buckland acted as 
 master of the ceremonies. There were present many 
 other geologists and savants, among them Dr Wollaston. 
 At first the beasts took it into their heads to be re- 
 fractory and to stand still. Hereupon the ingenuity 
 of the professor was called forth in order to make 
 them move. This he endeavoured to do by applying 
 sundry flips with his fingers upon their tails ; deil a 
 bit however would they stir ; and no wonder, for on 
 endeavouring to take them up it was found that they 
 had stuck so fast to the pie-crust as only to be removed
 
 8 JOHN MURRAY III 1808-1892 
 
 with half a pound of dough sticking to each foot. 
 This being the case it was found necessary to employ 
 a rolling pin, and to knead the paste afresh ; nor did 
 geological fingers disdain the culinary offices. It was 
 really a glorious scene to behold all the philosophers, 
 flour-besmeared, working away with tucked-up sleeves. 
 Their exertions, I am happy to say, were at length 
 crowned with success; a proper consistency of paste 
 was attained, and the animals walked over the course 
 in a very satisfactory manner; insomuch that many 
 who came to scoff returned rather better disposed 
 towards believing.' 
 
 From Keswick he rode round Derwentwater 
 on horseback, and arrived in London near the 
 end of the year 1827. In 1828 he spent his first 
 summer holiday in Scotland and made notes on 
 Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire for Mr Moore, who 
 was then engaged in writing Byron's Life. He was 
 now fairly launched on his business career, and 
 never relaxed his steady application to work 
 until within a few days of his death in 1892 ; but 
 from 1829 to 1884 all his holidays were saved up 
 for travel. 
 
 There can be no doubt that tne need of good 
 guide-books for travellers had taken firm hold of 
 his mind in his student days ; and by sheer hard 
 personal labour he built up a series which held 
 the field against all competitors till the time 
 when cheap travel introduced the vast horde of 
 travellers who cared little for intellectual informa- 
 tion, and required a totally different class of vade 
 mecum travellers to whom where to feed was a 
 more important question than what to see. 
 
 The influence of the Red Books used to be 
 shown by various interesting- incidents. One of
 
 FOREIGN TRAVEL 9 
 
 the points invariably insisted on by my Father 
 was the sanitary conditions and arrangements in 
 hotels and cities ; and I have no doubt that the 
 vast improvement which has taken place in this 
 respect in the succeeding years was more due to 
 him than to any other individual. He used to 
 receive accusations and threats from hotel-keepers 
 and syndics, and always replied that, if they would 
 furnish proof of amendment, he would alter his 
 remarks, but not otherwise. 
 
 On one occasion I remember Mr John Delane, 
 the famous Editor of the 'Times,' on his return 
 from a journey abroad, telling my father that 
 he had been present when an altercation was 
 going on between a landlord and a man who 
 claimed special privileges on the ground that he 
 was Mr Murray of the Handbooks. Mr Delane 
 intervened and said, ' Mr Murray happens to be 
 a friend of mine, and you are not he.' He there- 
 fore assisted in turning the impostor out of the 
 house. Henry Reeve, in his Memoirs, writes, 
 
 ' My stay at Vienna displeased me mightily ; but the 
 last two days of it were rendered more agreeable by 
 the very welcome company of John Murray fils. I wish 
 he had arrived sooner, for he is a very agreeable person, 
 and the most thoroughgoing sightseer who ever trod 
 the deck of a packet-boat.' 
 
 In 1829 he visited the chief places of interest 
 in Holland, Belgium and North Germany, includ- 
 ing Weimar where he had the interview with 
 Goethe described in an article which he wrote for 
 Murray's Magazine, on ' The Origin of the Hand- 
 books.' This article I have, in consequence of 
 several enquiries, added as an appendix to this
 
 10 JOHN MURRAY III 1808-1892 
 
 Memoir, together with a selection of his letters 
 during his foreign tour, as they give a clear 
 impression of his thoroughness and intelligence as 
 a tourist and sightseer. 
 
 From 1829 till 1843, when his father's death 
 increased his responsibilities and his business ties, 
 he spent all his longer holidays in travel and in 
 the writing of the Handbooks. 
 
 In 1830 his route lay through Paris, Marseilles, 
 Bordeaux and Central France : in 1831 with Torrie 
 as a companion he visited Milan, Venice, Salzburg, 
 Munich, etc., but was prevented by an outbreak 
 of cholera from penetrating to Vienna. In 1836 
 he made his longest journey, down the Danube 
 to the borders of Turkey and Wallachia. In 1837 
 he took his two sisters, and his Cousin Murray 
 Holland, afterwards a Fellow of New College Oxford, 
 up the Rhine and through Switzerland to Milan, 
 and in 1841, again with Torrie as a companion, he 
 explored the Pyrenees, and climbed the Breche de 
 Roland in the days when mountain-climbing had 
 not become a popular pastime. 
 
 In 1858 he was elected a member of the Alpine 
 Club. 
 
 Throughout these years he was busy writing 
 and publishing his Handbooks, of which I have 
 the original MSS. in his own handwriting. He 
 wrote to his father, 'To the best of my belief I 
 have not borrowed one sentence from any Eng- 
 lish author nor materially from any foreign 
 one.' 
 
 Even in the midst of his work he found oppor- 
 tunities to attend scientific meetings in Great 
 Britain. Here is an account of a meeting at Oxford 
 in July 1833.
 
 PROFESSOR BUCKLAND 11 
 
 ' At the Oxford meeting almost the only representa- 
 tives of Scottish Science were Sir David Brewster, 
 and one Forbes. Cambridge sent forth as her champions 
 Airy, Babbage, Whewell, and Sedgwick. Deputies 
 came from almost every provincial Society. The 
 venerable Dalton from Manchester (much to the credit 
 of Oxford ; a symptom of waning prejudice, you will 
 style it) was honoured by the Doctor's degree, along 
 with Brewster, a Presbyterian, and Faraday, a Sande- 
 manian. Imagine however the Quaker Sages, decked 
 out in Cardinal-like robes of scarlet, and even appear- 
 ing and listening to a Sermon at the Cathedral on 
 Sunday, in the seat of the Doctors and in the aforesaid 
 robes. Even the science of Botany Bay was not left 
 unrepresented Sir Thomas Brisbane, the founder of 
 the Observatory there, being present. Buckland was 
 the life and soul of the meeting, of which he was 
 president. The session continued for a week. On 
 one of the days he gave an equestrian lecture on the 
 geology of the neighbourhood. The class a cheval 
 amounted to about 200 a capital troop of cavalry to 
 scour over the plain with the learned Professor, 
 hammer in hand, at their head. A loud blast from 
 his whistle announced the scene of action, and the 
 whole party clustered round him in a few moments. 
 He is a capital lecturer, with much power of lucid 
 illustration. He combines so much fun as to render 
 any subject interesting, however abstruse. He really 
 was great upon the subject of a gigantic skeleton of 
 the Megatherium recently arrived from Buenos Ayres. 
 The list of equestrian catastrophes during the day 
 were unusually small. Your friend little Clift (the 
 Elder) was mounted on a mettlesome Sheltie, which 
 though it ran away with him, was unsuccessful in 
 unseating him, so that he reached home without stain, 
 either on his breeches or his (equestrian) reputation.' 
 
 Edinburgh held for him another attraction
 
 12 JOHN MURRAY III 1808-1892 
 
 besides the friends and associations of his student 
 days. During his residence there he had seen a 
 very charming little girl dancing at a children's 
 party, and in 1847 he returned to be married to 
 her. This was Marion, third daughter of Alexander 
 Smith, an Edinburgh banker, who met his death 
 in a curious way. He was inspecting the contents 
 of Lord Elgin's house in Edinburgh prior to a 
 sale by auction when, owing to the crowd, a floor 
 gave way and the hearthstone fell into the room 
 below and killed him. 
 
 My father and mother were a most devoted 
 couple, and until near the end, when illness con- 
 fined her to the house, and he made his last 
 journey to Italy with his daughters and younger 
 son, I do not believe they were ever separated for 
 more than a few days. To those who knew her 
 as she was, Sir George Richmond's portrait recalls 
 her refined graceful personality, but to others no 
 words of mine can convey the gentle and sym- 
 pathetic charm which endeared her to all who 
 ever came within her influence. 
 
 Thus far I have confined my account mainly 
 to my father's education and recreations, I must 
 now turn to the business side of his life. It is 
 not my intention, nor would it be possible within 
 the limits of this short memoir, to give a continuous 
 and detailed account of my father's life. My object 
 is to place on record a few incidents of his career 
 in illustration of his character. I think it must 
 have been during his journey in Bohemia in 1831 
 or '32 that he first made the acquaintance of 
 Prince Metternich, whose family seat at Konigs- 
 wart he then visited. When Prince Metternich
 
 JOHN WILSON CROKER 18 
 
 was a refugee in England, about the year 1850, my 
 father went to visit him at Brighton ; and the 
 old statesman read him a chapter of his remi- 
 niscences the account of his famous interview 
 with Napoleon at Dresden when the Emperor, 
 pacing up and down the room in a rage, threw 
 down his hat and passed and repassed it lying 
 on the floor, in the expectation that Metternich 
 would pick it up for him. Metternich however 
 paid no attention ; and in the end the Emperor 
 had to pick it up himself. My father was so im- 
 pressed by this description that he offered the 
 Prince a large sum (I think 3000Z. or 4000Z.) to be 
 allowed to publish the Memoirs, but the Prince 
 would not consent it was too soon. Many years 
 afterwards, when these records were made public, 
 my father eagerly read the book, but found that 
 the Dresden scene was by far the best plum of 
 the whole; and he considered that he had had a 
 fortunate escape. 
 
 In the course of business my father was brought 
 into close relations with John Wilson Croker, a 
 man who was maligned and misrepresented by 
 Macaulay and his faction, and whose reputation 
 was never fully restored till the publication of his 
 Memoirs enabled the public to find out what 
 manner -of man he really was. When that book, 
 in the preparation of which my father took an 
 important part, appeared, he sent a copy to Lord 
 Dufferin, then Viceroy of India, who replied : 
 
 Simla, 1884. 
 
 'MY DEAR MURRAY, I have just finished reading 
 Croker's Correspondence, and I cannot refrain from 
 writing you a line to say what a favourable impression
 
 14 JOHN MURRAY III 1808-1892 
 
 they have left upon iny mind in regard to your dis- 
 tinguished friend. ... I knew absolutely nothing 
 about him except that he was the reputed original of 
 "Rigby" in "Coningsby" and was otherwise un- 
 popular. I am so grateful now to you for having 
 hindered me making a disrespectful allusion to so able 
 and high-minded a man.* 
 
 ' The volumes are a very noble record of a blame- 
 less, patriotic, innocent and industrious life ; and I 
 am glad to think that they will amply vindicate Mr 
 Croker's memory from the unfounded aspersions with 
 which it has hitherto been clouded in the eye of that 
 careless and uninstructed majority of mankind which 
 is prone to found its estimates of its fellow-creatures 
 on the malevolent and unverified gossip of the day. . . . 
 
 ' Ever yours sincerely, 
 
 ' DUFFBRIN.' 
 
 This is only one example of scores of similar 
 testimonies from distinguished men which the book 
 evoked, and which afforded great gratification to 
 my father, as did also the following anecdote 
 which came to his knowledge about the same time. 
 
 Mr F. P., a relation of Croker's, who knew both 
 Thackeray and Disraeli, determined to ask them 
 why they had treated him so severely as ' Wenham ' 
 and ' Rigby ' in their novels. One day, after 
 Croker's death, he met Thackeray in the Park and 
 asked him the question. The reply was, ' I sup- 
 posed Croker's character was common knowledge. 
 I never heard the report contradicted.' F. P. 
 replied : 
 
 Let me tell you one story about him, for the truth 
 
 * This refers to a slighting allusion to Croker which Lord 
 Dufferin had made in his ' Letters from High Latitudes,' and which 
 my father had persuaded him to omit from the book.
 
 THACKERAY AND CROKER 
 
 15 
 
 of which I can vouch. Croker and his wife lived at 
 Molesey. Their only child had died many years before 
 and they were a lonely couple. Near them was a school, 
 much frequented by the sons of Indian officials ; and 
 many of the boys, having no home in England, had to 
 spend the holidays at school. Croker said to his wife, 
 " I feel pity for those boys let us ask some of them 
 here in turns to spend a few days with us." Mrs 
 Croker demurred at first, as she said the boys would do 
 mischief. " Never mind that," said Croker, " what does 
 that matter if we can give them pleasure?" And 
 accordingly they were asked and came.' 
 
 When Thackeray heard this, the tears came into 
 his eyes, and he said to F. P., ' Is Mrs Croker still 
 alive ? ' ' Yes, she is, and is in London.' ' Will you 
 take me to her, that I may apologise for what I 
 have written ? ' and he was taken and apologised. 
 Disraeli's reply to the same question was, ' I will 
 tell you some day ' but he never did. 
 
 I have often been struck by the fact that my 
 father's intimate friends were mostly experts in 
 some subjects, and that he used to discuss these 
 subjects with them, not as a mere outsider but with 
 intimate knowledge of his own. Such were Sir 
 Charles Lyell and Sir Roderick Murchison, the 
 geologists ; James Fergusson, the architect ; La- 
 yard, Livingstone and Schliemann, the travellers 
 and archaeologists ; Sir William Smith, the scholar ; 
 Grote, Stanley and Motley, the historians ; Sir 
 Joseph Crowe, the writer on Art, and many 
 others. 
 
 Sir Henry Layard told me that, when he first 
 came home from Nineveh, he asked my father to 
 purchase the copyright of his book for 250Z. My 
 father replied that he always disapproved of an
 
 16 JOHN MURRAY III 1808-1892 
 
 author parting with his copyrights, but that he 
 would pay the expense of publication and give 
 Layard the larger share of the profits. ' The first 
 year,' said Sir Henry, 'I received 1500Z. as my 
 share ; and every succeeding year, to the time of 
 your father's death, I received a further cheque.' 
 
 When war was declared against Russia in 1854, 
 my father wrote a memorandum on Varna and 
 the Dobrudja, explaining the geological and 
 geographical nature of the country, which he had 
 visited, and pointing out some strategical advan- 
 tages which might arise from an occupation of it. 
 This memorandum (enclosing a map of Sir R. 
 Murchison's), of which I have a copy, was sent by 
 Sir Charles Trevelyan to Lord Raglan, who replied : 
 
 ' MY DEAR SIR, I am very much obliged to you for 
 being so good as to send me Sir Roderick Murcliison's 
 geological map and Mr Murray's memorandum, which 
 is, as you truly say, highly creditable to him, and the 
 map will certainly be very useful to me should I require 
 the information it contains. 
 
 ' Believe me, very faithfully yours, 
 
 1 RAGLAN.' 
 
 March 7, 1854.' 
 
 Dr Schliemann's researches at Troy aroused 
 my father's eager interest, and he lost no time 
 in getting into communication with him with a 
 view to publishing his book. They soon became 
 intimate friends, and the publisher rendered 
 valuable assistance to the author in the prepara- 
 tion of all his subsequent volumes. 
 
 When Schliemann came home from Mycenae, he 
 expressed a strong desire that Mr Gladstone, who 
 took a deep interest in all his discoveries, should
 
 MR GLADSTONE J7 17 
 
 write an introduction. My father approached Mr 
 Gladstone, who replied that he was much gratified 
 by the request, but that, as he was not an expert 
 scholar or antiquary, he must make a stipulation 
 that two umpires should be appointed to decide in 
 case of any difference of opinion arising between 
 himself and Schliemann. Sir Charles Newton and 
 Dr Philip Smith, brother of Sir William Smith, 
 agreed to act in this capacity. The introduction 
 was duly written, and only one point of difference 
 arose. Mr Gladstone translated KUCIVOC as bronze ; 
 and to this Schliemann demurred. He called on 
 my father, who reminded him of the compact, and 
 the question was referred to the umpires, both 
 of whom gave a definite verdict against bronze; 
 but Mr Gladstone would not give way, even in 
 view of his own proviso, and bronze it remained 
 in the book only modified by the saving clause, 
 ' kuanos, which I take to be bronze.' 
 
 Mr Gladstone used often to call and have a 
 chat with my father ; and one of these interviews 
 occurred when he was in the midst of his dispute 
 about the Gadarene Swine. After he had gone, 
 my father came into my room and said, 'Am I 
 dreaming, or is there such a word in Greek as 
 rropKtia ? ' I replied that I certainly did not remember 
 it, but would look it up in Liddell and Scott, where 
 it does not appear. ' Well,' said he, ' Mr Gladstone 
 has been discoursing for half an hour on the 
 neglect of conjectural emendations in the Greek 
 text, and says he is convinced that the true reading 
 of the passage in the letter from the Elders at 
 Jerusalem to Antioch (Acts xv. 29) should not be 
 ti$(t)\oOvTt&u-. .KOI ai/maroQ KCU TTVIKTOV KO.I 
 
 but Tro/o/atae.' What value there may be 
 
 c 
 
 It
 
 18 JOHN MURRAY III 1808-1892 
 
 in this conjectural emendation I must leave it 
 to scholars to decide. 
 
 When the MS. of the ' Origin of Species ' was 
 submitted, my father showed it to his intimate 
 friend George Pollock (a son of the old Chief 
 Baron), who strongly urged him to publish it. He 
 took the advice, though in those days it required 
 some courage to act upon it. Charles Darwin was 
 one of the most courteous and 'modest of authors. 
 I was present when he called, in 1887, with a MS. 
 in his hands and said, ' Here is a work which has 
 occupied me for many years and interested me 
 much. I fear the subject of it will not attract 
 the public, but will you publish it for me?' My 
 father replied, ' It always gives me pleasure and 
 hope to hear an author speak of his work thus. 
 What is the subject ? ' ' Earth-worms,' said Darwin. 
 The book was duly published, and six editions were 
 called for in less than a year. 
 
 The Bishop of London's Fund was founded in 
 1863, and my father as Hon. Treasurer (a post 
 which he held till his death) was entrusted, at the 
 first public meeting in aid of the enterprise, with 
 the task of appealing for money. Just before he 
 rose to make his speech, some very distinguished 
 man (alas ! I have forgotten who it was) sitting 
 near him leaned over and said, ' How much are 
 you going to ask for ? ' ' 500,OOOZ.' said my father. 
 ' That is no use,' said the other, ' make it a million.' 
 And so, on the spur of the moment and on his own 
 responsibility, he ' made it a million.' That amount 
 has now been far surpassed- 
 
 My father spoke but seldom in public ; the calls 
 were not so frequent in his day as they are now ; 
 and never, in small things or great, would he 
 

 
 DR LIVINGSTONE 19 
 
 consent to push himself forward. But, when he 
 did speak, he had the gift of saying what he had 
 to say in few words and always with some happy 
 allusion, or anecdote or joke. As an instance I 
 may mention the following occurrence. He was 
 one of the committee of residents at Wimbledon 
 who fought a long and stern fight with Lord 
 Spencer, as Lord of the Manor, to retain Wimbledon 
 Common for the public and resist all encroach- 
 ments. They succeeded ; and, when their labours 
 were successfully ended, their chairman, Sir Henry 
 Peek, M.P., asked them all to dinner, and after 
 dinner presented each member with a silver 
 memorial cup, engraved with a suitable inscrip- 
 tion and contained in a red velvet bag. My father 
 was called upon, without any warning, to return 
 thanks to Sir Henry. This he did, introducing the 
 incident of Joseph's brethren on their return from 
 Egypt, and the cup being found in Benjamin's 
 sack, with singular felicity and success. 
 
 Dr Livingstone was a constant guest at my 
 father's house when he was in England ; and I 
 remember him carrying his gold-banded Consular 
 cap, as men used to carry their opera hats, to the 
 drawing-room after dinner. His portrait, painted 
 by Henry Phillips for my father, now hangs in my 
 dining-room. One day Livingstone, on looking at 
 it, said to my mother, 'Surely I do not look so 
 stern as that, Mrs Murray,' to which she replied 
 that she considered it a very good likeness. I think 
 it was the last letter my father ever received from 
 the Doctor, in Africa, which contained a postscript 
 to this effect : 
 
 ' Please tell Mrs Murray that I have seen my own
 
 20 JOHN MURRAY III 1808-1892 
 
 face, for the first time for many months, in Lake 
 Tanganyika, and it is very like the portrait.' 
 
 I must not omit to mention Paul Du Chaillu, 
 whose arrival from the Gaboon in 1861, with his 
 gorillas and his stories of dwarfs and other African 
 wonders, caused such a stir in London. He was 
 bitterly and most unjustifiably attacked as an im- 
 postor, but he had many staunch supporters such 
 as Prof. Owen, Sir B. Murchison and my father ; 
 and his reports of the dwarfs, the great Central 
 Forest, and other wonders of Central Africa, have 
 been amply confirmed in later years. His chief 
 assailant was one of the members of the Staff of 
 the British Museum, who could not pronounce the 
 letter V properly. My father was fond of telling 
 a story of this individual, who began a lecture to 
 a Scientific Society thus : ' The subject of my lecture 
 to-day is the wertical slit in the wisual organs of 
 wenomous wipers.' 
 
 Du Chaillu was a strange character a cosmo- 
 politan Bohemian, born in Louisiana. He spoke 
 several languages, but all of them with a foreign 
 accent. He was incapable of writing two con- 
 secutive sentences of good English, but he knew 
 clearly what he wanted to say and never failed to 
 find a friend, either here or in America, to help 
 him to express it. He was a warm-hearted friend 
 and one of the most amusing companions I ever 
 met. He was as great a favourite with children 
 as George Borrow was the reverse. Borrow seemed 
 to take pleasure in exciting their fears, and used 
 to come to us with a frown and say, ' I will scratch 
 your face.' We always called him the Scratchy 
 Man. At my father's table he made his first
 
 BORROW AND WHEWELL 21 
 
 acquaintance with a haggis ; and long afterwards, 
 when he came down to Wimbledon to dine, his 
 first words on entering the house were, ' Is there 
 a haggis to-day ? ' My father and mother were 
 once present at a dinner-party where he and Dr 
 and Mrs Whewell were fellow guests. Whewell 
 and Borrow were both large and powerful men, 
 and at table they fell into such violent controversy 
 that it seemed likely they would come to blows, 
 and Mrs Whewell was carried fainting out of the 
 room. 
 
 Soon after the death of the Prince Consort, 
 it was decided to bring out a volume of his 
 speeches, which Queen Victoria was anxious to see 
 published by the first anniversary of his death. 
 The firm to which the work was entrusted (it 
 has long ceased to exist) failed altogether in their 
 preparations ; and very late in the day my father 
 was called in to take over the responsibility. He 
 had the book re-set, and by very strenuous efforts 
 succeeded in getting it ready by the appointed 
 time. I shall never forget his delight and gratifica- 
 tion on receiving a copy with the following inscrip- 
 tion in the Queen's own hand- writing : ' To John 
 Murray Esq. with the sincere acknowledgment of 
 his zealous exertions in the publication of these 
 valuable Memorials of the great and good Prince, 
 from His broken-hearted Widow, Victoria R. 
 Osborne, Dec. 20, 1862.' 
 
 Ten years later when the Memorial in Hyde 
 Park was nearing completion he was called upon 
 to prepare a sumptuous and elaborate folio volume 
 describing the whole structure and ornamentation. 
 According to his wont he studied the proof sheets 
 carefully as they passed through the press. Dining
 
 22 JOHN MURRAY III 1808-1892 
 
 out one evening about this time at a party where 
 one or two M.P.s were present, he took part in a 
 discussion which arose about the monument. 
 
 One well-known man condemned the structure 
 unmercifully: saying that it was top-heavy, and 
 would certainly collapse. My father explained the 
 principle on which it was built, and that steel 
 ties or girders were embedded in the masonry to 
 counteract the lateral thrust. My mother who 
 was also present heard her neighbour a personal 
 friend and an M.P. murmur to the lady on his 
 other side, ' Murray had better hold his tongue on 
 a subject he does not understand.' A few days 
 later the said M.P. asked a very critical question 
 in the House of Commons on the insecurity of the 
 Monument. Of course he was given exactly the 
 same answer as my father had given but so far 
 as I know he never mentioned the subject to him 
 again. 
 
 In the forties my father first made the acquaint- 
 ance of Dr (afterwards Sir William) Smith; and 
 they worked together in the closest friendship till 
 my father's death in 1892. I never heard of the 
 shadow of a dispute between them, although they 
 carried on a large number of literary enterprises 
 without intermission during those years. In order 
 to show how strong was the mutual regard of 
 the two men I give an extract from a letter 
 written to me by Sir William on my father's death. 
 
 ' I feel the deepest sympathy with you and your 
 family in the irreparable loss you have sustained in 
 the death of your dear father. . . . You will have the 
 consolation of looking back upon his long, useful and 
 honoured career. I have known most of the distin- 
 guished men during the last two generations, but I
 
 SIR WILLIAM SMITH 23 
 
 know no one who was so universally liked and looked 
 up to and respected in all classes of society, and whose 
 death will be more sincerely regretted. Of my own 
 personal loss I dare hardly think. I have lost my 
 oldest and best friend. I have lived with him in the 
 most intimate friendship for nearly fifty years without 
 one jarring note ; and the longer I have known him, 
 the more I have respected, loved and admired him. 
 I have always received from him the most signal 
 marks of confidence, kindness and generosity, and I 
 feel that his death will darken my declining years.' 
 
 Together they planned and carried out the 
 Dictionary of the Bible, the Dictionaries of Greek 
 and Roman Antiquities and Biography, and those 
 of Christian Antiquities and Biography, the Latin- 
 English and English-Latin Dictionaries and the 
 Classical Atlas, as well as many minor works 
 which still hold their own as monuments of English 
 scholarship. These enterprises, together with the 
 Dictionary of Hymnology and the Speaker's Com- 
 mentary, involved an outlay o,n my father's part 
 of close on 150,OOOZ. In all cases he had long to 
 wait before his outlay was recouped, and in one or 
 two instances it is probable that it never will be 
 repaid; but, with him, good and creditable work 
 was an incentive as strong as the prospect of 
 financial profit. 
 
 Writing to Sir William Smith on the occasion 
 of my father's death, the Rev. W. Barry, D.D., 
 then Rector of St Birinus, Dorchester, said : 
 
 ' If I may be allowed to say it, the task in which, 
 during so many years, Mr Murray's name and yours 
 were joined was surely as important as any which 
 could have been undertaken I mean the bringing 
 within reach of the modern world all that is left of
 
 24 JOHN MURRAY III 1808-1892 
 
 the ancient. If we are not to run headlong down the 
 steep into a democracy without light or self-control, 
 one of the chief hindrances to that catastrophe will 
 be historical knowledge. In like manner it is of the 
 utmost importance that literature should not be set 
 up as an enemy over against the Christian faith. 
 Whoever has contributed, and that in large measure, 
 to bind the future in this way with the past has, I 
 venture to believe, much reason for thankfulness.' 
 
 For fifty years my father never ceased to pursue 
 his geological studies, collecting and collating facts, 
 reading all the new books on the subject, and form- 
 ing his own independent views. In 1877 he pub- 
 lished a small book entitled ' Scepticism in Geology 
 and the reason for it, an assemblage of facts from 
 Nature opposed to the theory of Causes now in 
 action and refuting it,' by ' Verifier.' As the title 
 indicates, this book is an assault on the theories 
 maintained by Sir Charles Lyell and his followers ; 
 and I venture to describe it as a model of what 
 such a work should be clear, cogent, and fearless, 
 but without a discourteous phrase from beginning 
 to end. With his usual modesty he withheld his 
 name, but the book attracted a good deal of 
 attention and soon passed into a second edition. 
 In 1915 I received the following letter from an 
 American Professor of Physics : 
 
 4 August 16, 1915. 
 
 ' DEAR SIB, I recently obtained from you a copy of 
 " Scepticism in Geology " by " Verifier." I must say 
 that I admire the book very much, and would very 
 much like to know the real name of the author. It 
 seems to me that the forty years (nearly) since the 
 publication of this book under this incognito ought 
 to be amply sufficient to answer the purposes of the
 
 NEWSTEAD, WIMBLEDON 25 
 
 author, and that the public are now entitled to have 
 the veil lifted and to know his real name. Possibly 
 the name has long been known among other geologists, 
 but it has escaped me. 
 
 ' This book deserves to be far better known than it 
 is ; and I feel sure that the author must be a scholar 
 of some standing, for he is certainly a shrewd reasoner, 
 and is a master of a pleasing style, to say nothing of 
 having complete command of the geological literature 
 of his time. May I not hope that you will favor me 
 with the name of the author, and possibly with some 
 information regarding the kind of reception which the 
 book received on its publication ? I infer that it has 
 
 not had a wide circulation. But it deserves it. 
 
 > 
 
 The great popularity of the Handbooks was 
 accompanied by gratifying financial success. With 
 the profits thus won by my father ' off his own 
 bat,' he determined to obtain for himself a country 
 residence. For many years he had been drawn 
 towards Wimbledon then a small village and one 
 of the most attractive within easy reach of London 
 where his father had lived so far back as 1806. 
 
 In 1851 some of the outlying portions of 
 Wimbledon Park, one of Lord Spencer's seats and 
 a distinguished social rendezvous, were being sold 
 off. My father took his friend Allen Thomson 
 down to help him in the choice of a site, and 
 finally bought a few acres on the brow of the 
 hill overlooking the lake and with scarcely a build- 
 ing in sight. There he built himself a house of 
 very modest dimensions, but in the course of 
 thirty or forty years it, as well as the grounds, had 
 grown to two or three times their original size. 
 He wrote to Allen Thomson, ' The house will be 
 moderate in size and thoroughly well built, no
 
 26 JOHN MURRAY III 1808-1892 
 
 extravagance, I hope. Do you think it would 
 sound absurd to call it Murrayfield [a suburb of 
 Edinburgh] ? ' The name decided on in the end 
 was Newstead, and there he spent many of the 
 happiest days of his life. * 
 
 Among his many pursuits and studies arbori- 
 culture and horticulture held a high place. He 
 was especially fond of Conifers ; and many of the 
 trees planted by him grew to be fine specimens. 
 Some of them were engraved for Mongredien's 
 book on Trees and Shrubs. He took great pleasure 
 in planting some of the new and rare shrubs 
 brought by Robert Fortune from China (including 
 Berberis Darwinii) and by Sir Joseph Hooker from 
 India. Rhododendrons were his special favourites ; 
 and some of his best came from Highclere, given 
 Jiim by Lady Carnarvon when he was on a visit 
 there. 
 
 He had neither the means nor the inclination 
 to become a collector on a large scale, but he 
 had great taste and discrimination, and in course 
 of time he filled his house with a variety of 
 treasures, pictures, classical coins, ivories, china, in 
 which he took a personal delight. The house at 
 Wimbledon, in its latest state, contained an ex- 
 cellent library ; and thither he transported most of 
 his father's books and MSS from Albemarle Street 
 and added many more besides. He never had a 
 study of his own, but preferred to work and 
 he worked almost every evening in the midst of 
 a family-party, working, talking, or playing games, 
 which however never seemed to disturb him. One 
 evening I happened to read aloud an account in 
 the newspaper of a hippopotamus having escaped 
 from the Jardin d'Acclimatation in Paris and
 
 ACCIDENT IN THE ALPS 27 
 
 finally having plunged into the river. My father 
 looked up from his work and without a moment's 
 hesitation said, ' What an in-Seine beast ! ' 
 
 The energy of his youthful days never deserted 
 him till within a few days of his death. Whatever 
 the weather, he insisted on walking the mile and 
 a half to and from the station daily ; and, when 
 the carriage was sent to meet him on some dark, 
 wet evening, I have known him put his handbag 
 into it and walk home. He regarded a walk as 
 the infallible cure for almost all bodily ailments, 
 and I should hardly have been surprised to hear 
 him recommend it for a broken leg. 
 
 On one occasion this propensity brought him 
 into imminent peril. In 1855 he and my mother 
 went for a tour in the Alps. On their return they 
 set out from Locarno, intending to drive to Airolo 
 and cross the St Gothard Pass the following day. 
 I believe that it was somewhere near Faido that, 
 as the carriage was slowly going up a steep hill, 
 my father insisted on getting out to walk. The 
 night was dark and the road was narrow and on 
 the edge of a precipice 1200 feet deep. My father, 
 owing to his defective sight, fell over the edge, 
 but by what seemed almost a miracle was caught 
 by a grassy slope twelve feet down and lay there 
 unconscious. The carriage passed on and waited 
 for him at the top of the hill. When he failed 
 to appear, my mother and two friends who had 
 joined them for the night's expedition became 
 alarmed and sent the coachman back with one 
 of the carriage lamps to search. My father was 
 found lying in his precarious position, and was 
 taken to the inn about a mile off, where he lay 
 unconscious for some time and out of reach of a
 
 28 JOHN MURRAY III 1808-1892 
 
 doctor. He did not completely recover from the 
 effects of the concussion till some time after his 
 return home. 
 
 He was an excellent host and had the power of 
 drawing all his guests into congenial conversation ; 
 and many were the entertainments given at New- 
 stead. He was a member of the Philobiblon 
 Society, which has now ceased to exist, but was a 
 distinguished club in the sixties. Each member 
 in turn used to entertain his fellows at a breakfast 
 party (as was then the fashion of the day) ; and 
 Newstead lent itself admirably to such a gathering. 
 I well remember seeing the company wandering 
 about the garden, including the President of the 
 Society the Due d'Aumale,clad in nankeen trousers 
 and waistcoat Monckton Milnes (Lord Houghton), 
 Dean Milman and others. 
 
 Although he was much sought after and highly 
 appreciated in society, he was essentially a domestic 
 man, and his chief pleasures lay among the members 
 of his own family, and in his own garden and 
 library. In referring to his domestic life, I cannot 
 refrain from some mention of his faithful friend 
 and attendant, James Mills, who was for nearly 
 forty years his butler, and was almost regarded 
 as a member of the family by all of us. Mills 
 accompanied my father on his visits to great 
 houses, watched over his comfort, and nursed him 
 in his last illness with a devotion which we can 
 never forget. He taught my brothers and myself 
 whatever we learned as youngsters of cricket, 
 carpentering, and many other useful things, and 
 was moreover a great reader and a very well in- 
 formed man. Scott and Dickens were his especial 
 favourites among novelists, and I think he could
 
 VISIT TO HAWARDEN 
 
 have passed a stiff examination in the writings of 
 either of them. My father read little or no fiction 
 and was not well up in any novels except Sir Walter 
 Scott's. One day, when Mills was handing round 
 the coffee in the dining-room to the guests after 
 dinner, the question was being discussed, in which 
 of Dickens' novels a certain character occurred. 
 As Mills handed the coffee to my father, he 
 whispered in his ear, ' Nicholas Nickleby ' ; and 
 my father said aloud, ' I have reason to believe that 
 the character to which you refer is in "Nicholas 
 Nickleby " ' ; and he was right. 
 
 My father had an unusual faculty for seeing the 
 good in people from whom he differed absolutely 
 on politics, religion, and other subjects, and being 
 on the most friendly terms with them. His rela- 
 tions with Mr Gladstone were not confined to 
 business ; they were real friends ; and he came back 
 from his visits to Hawarden full of interest in 
 what he had seen and heard. On one occasion, he 
 was invited to meet John Bright, and for once he 
 went in some trepidation lest he, a pronounced 
 Conservative, should be unable to get on with the 
 famous Radical and 'tribune of the people.' He 
 came home delighted with Bright as a man, having 
 found him honest and high-principled, and also 
 widely read in all branches of English literature. 
 This gave them much in common ; and Bright 
 told him how greatly he regretted not having 
 had a classical education, and that he tried to 
 make up for the deficiency by reading all the 
 English he could. Bright was a keen fisherman, 
 and he told my father that, when as a boy he 
 asked his Quaker father's permission to learn to 
 fish, his father consented on condition tha
 
 
 30 JOHN MURRAY III 1808-1892 
 
 before using a hook he. should always file off the 
 barb! 
 
 After my father's death Mr Gladstone used 
 often to come and see me and talk about him, 
 expressing the high regard he had for him. In 
 the course of one of these conversations I mentioned 
 that my father was a Special Constable on the 
 famous 10th of April, 1848, and was sworn-in at 
 the same time as Louis Napoleon, adding that they 
 were born within four days of one another, my 
 father on the 16th and Louis Napoleon on the 20th 
 of April, 1808. ' Oh,' said Mr Gladstone, ' do not 
 associate your good father with that man ! ' 
 
 When the late Marquess of Salisbury was Lord 
 Robert Cecil, he depended to no inconsiderable 
 extent on the earnings of his incomparable pen, 
 and was a regular contributor to the ' Quarterly,' 
 from which he derived a considerable income. In 
 his later years he never forgot this ; and he and 
 Lady Salisbury were most kind to my father and 
 mother, who were frequently their guests at 
 Hatfield and in Arlington Street. 
 
 In 1869 he visited South Italy for the first time. 
 In Rome he was under the guidance of his old 
 friend J. B. Pentland, who had acted as cicerone to 
 the Prince of Wales in 1860. In Naples he visited 
 Mrs Somerville and found her, at the age of 89, 
 making point lace without the use of glasses. 
 
 His last excursion abroad was in 1884, when, 
 after spending ten most pleasant days with Sir 
 Henry and Lady Layard in Venice, he revisited 
 the Dolomites, a district to which he was the first 
 to introduce English travellers by means of his 
 own Handbooks. After a brief visit to Mr 
 Malcolm, the well-known Venetian Banker, at
 
 WHITWELL ELWIN 
 
 Longarone, he went by the Sotoguda Pass to 
 Caprile, a journey which was unusually arduous 
 owing to recent floods which had washed away 
 roads and bridges in many places. From Caprile 
 he started on horse-back to cross the mountains 
 to San Martino di Castrozza and had several 
 contretemps on the way. At a place where the 
 exceedingly narrow mountain path had been 
 washed away, the pack-horse fell, rolled down 
 a steep bank, and became pinned down at the 
 bottom of the stream by the weight of his load. 
 The luggage got soaked, but the horse, strange 
 to say, was not seriously injured and, having been 
 extricated, continued its journey. Shortly after, 
 my father, in crossing a swollen torrent on foot, 
 fell into the water and got wet through. These 
 misfortunes, in addition to a deluge of rain that 
 was falling at the time, were a serious ordeal for 
 an old man of 76 to encounter, but he got through 
 them without being any the worse and eventually 
 arrived in safety at Neumarkt and the railway, 
 having thoroughly enjoyed the expedition. 
 
 Whitwell Elwin, from 1853 to 1860 Editor of 
 the 'Quarterly,' was to my father more like a 
 near and dear relative than a friend. He was one 
 of the most cultivated and fascinating of com- 
 panions, steeped in knowledge of English literature, 
 and had a wonderfully lucid and attractive style 
 in writing, as is shown by his volume ' Some XVIII 
 Century Men of Letters.' The memoir attached 
 to tHat volume gives so good an account of him 
 that I need only refer to it without repeating its 
 contents, to which I made a small and humble 
 contribution. 
 
 My father was engaged in business without
 
 32 JOHN MURRAY 1111808-1892 
 
 intermission for over sixty years from 1828 to 
 1891 but there was only one venture on which he 
 always looked back with mortification and regret. 
 He had long had a desire to found a really good 
 weekly literary organ ; and in 1869 he was brought 
 into communication with Dr Charles Appleton, 
 Fellow of St John's College, Oxford, with whom 
 he arranged to start and publish ' The Academy.' 
 An agreement was entered into with Dr Appleton 
 as Editor, similar to those which had worked in a 
 most satisfactory and friendly way with successive 
 Editors of the ' Quarterly.' Unfortunately, however, 
 Appleton was a man of a very different stamp 
 from Lockhart, Elwin and Dr Smith. Learned, 
 but narrow-minded and obstinate, and utterly 
 ignorant of the public and its tastes and require- 
 ments, he seems to have had but one idea to 
 appeal to dry-as-dust scholars and men of his 
 own type. A trial number was submitted and 
 rejected, but second attempts were not much 
 better. The first number of ' The Academy ' was 
 published in 1870, and received a warm welcome 
 by anticipation in virtue of my father's name, but 
 by the third number the circulation had dropped 
 to less than half. Our letter-books are full of 
 remonstrances from my father, and of dogged 
 opposition from the Editor. 
 
 Not content with mismanaging his own depart- 
 ment, he endeavoured to interfere with my father's 
 responsibilities as owner and publisher, and to 
 lay the blame of ill-success on him. The struggle 
 came to a climax when Dr Appleton sent in an 
 article by a German professor, which my father 
 regarded as detrimental to the Christian Faith. 
 He took the opinion of Sir Roundell Palmer and
 
 SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 33 
 
 was assured that he had the full legal right 
 to refuse to publish the article, which he accord- 
 ingly did. But he found it impossible to work 
 with Appleton, and paid a large sum to free 
 himself from an agreement the whole financial 
 burden of which had fallen on him. Dr Appleton 
 took his paper elsewhere, but the failure which 
 was inevitable under his auspices pursued him to 
 the end. 
 
 Mr and Mrs Grote were firm friends of my 
 father. When the historian died, Mrs Grote said, 
 ' Well, it is a fortunate thing that he passed away 
 first, as I can now write his Life.' This she did; 
 and her own personality and doings take a 
 prominent part in that work. The American 
 ' Nation,' in reviewing it, wrote : 
 
 ' In reading this book we cannot but be reminded 
 of Addison's hymn : 
 
 " Soon as the Evening shades prevail 
 The Moon takes up the wondrous tale, 
 And nightly to the listening Earth 
 Repeats the story of her birth ; " 
 
 for we find in it more about Mrs than Mr Grote.' 
 
 
 Even the shortest notice of my father would 
 be incomplete which omitted to dwell on the social 
 side of his life, both in town and at Newstead. 
 It was a real delight to him to see his friends 
 under his roof or in his garden. A large number 
 of people specially noted his beaming smile and 
 the warmth of his welcome, putting strangers and 
 young people at once at their ease. A friend 
 of his daughters wrote after his death : 
 
 D
 
 34 JOHN MURRAY III 1808-1892 
 
 'Last year was made happy to me chiefly by his 
 kindness. Those delightful evenings in your house are 
 among the very happiest I ever spent. How I used to 
 watch for your father coming into the room, and hope 
 he would come and speak to me ; and it was delightful 
 when he did, for there was something quite wonderful 
 about his kindness. I did feel grateful to him again 
 and again, and I loved him.' 
 
 Another testimony to the same qualities came 
 from Dr Alexander, Bishop of Derry, who wrote : 
 
 ' I never can forget the genial and continued friend- 
 ship to me which began at the time of the " Speaker's 
 Commentary," and continued up to last year. A more 
 thorough Christian gentleman I never met; and his 
 face at the Athenaeum was always a delightful sight 
 to me. I really feel as if life were perceptibly poorer 
 for that kind and generous soul gathered into the 
 place of rest.' 
 
 Mrs Bishop (Miss Isabella Bird) wrote : 
 
 ' I made Mr Murray's acquaintance as a young girl, 
 and in all this time have never received anything from 
 him but the utmost kindness and consideration as well 
 as sympathy in such of my affairs as I ventured to 
 trouble him with. Thoughts of kindness and help, of 
 giving pleasure to others, seemed to come so naturally 
 to him, and made him so loveable. Just a year ago he 
 wrote me such a kind note asking me to meet Mr 
 Gladstone. 
 
 'How his geniality, brightness, and enjoyment of 
 the society of his friends, and the way in which he 
 made people acquainted with each other, made those 
 gatherings in Albemarle Street, as Mr Gladstone said, 
 "the most charming in London." How many must 
 remember them as I do, and the dear figure which, no 
 matter who "was there, was always the central one.
 
 HIS PERSONAL FRIENDS 85 
 
 So true and loyal a friend will leave so very large a 
 vacant place.' 
 
 One special point about the large number of 
 well-known people who gathered round him so 
 gladly was that they had no business connexion 
 with him, and, if they were authors, published 
 their books elsewhere. Among such were Sir 
 George Grey and Sir Bartle Frere, who was a 
 Wimbledon neighbour and a much-loved friend. 
 There were great rejoicings among us when Sir 
 Bartle came home from India or South Africa to 
 the house near Newstead where his family were 
 brought up. Prof. Owen often came over from 
 Sheen, and delighted and amused us with queer 
 stories of beasts and natural history ; and Prof. 
 Flower, who later followed in his footsteps, was 
 another frequent guest, as were also Froude and 
 Lecky, and Sir Theodore and Lady Martin. 
 
 Among our most intimate friends at Wimbledon 
 were Mr and Mrs George Holland, the parents of 
 the late Professor Scott Holland. They had a 
 very large circle of friends, and their house was 
 a centre of constant and varied hospitality 
 dances, garden parties, and in winter, theatricals. 
 In these last the future Canon played a leading 
 part, into which he threw all the eager exuberance 
 and energy which afterwards became familiar 
 characteristics of his pulpit utterances. Scott, 
 who suffered from headaches, used to find the 
 incessant talk at the garden parties fatiguing, and 
 one summer Saturday he came to Newstead and, 
 finding my father alone, said : ' Mr Murray, will 
 you give me some tea ? I have fled from one of my 
 Mothers' Meetings.' 
 
 Through Scott Holland and Bishop Harvey
 
 86 JOHN MURRAY III 1808-1892 
 
 Goodwin (another intimate friend) my father was 
 led to take an active part in promoting the estab- 
 lishment of the Church House, This undertaking 
 originated with the Bishop, but at first met with 
 much and even bitter opposition. It was a Jubilee 
 scheme and had a thousand competitors, few of 
 which, perhaps, have justified their existence more 
 completely than it has done. 
 
 My father took the lead in endeavouring to 
 arouse the interest of the people of Wimbledon in 
 the Church House. ' We have determined,' he 
 writes in February 1887, 'to hold a meeting at 
 Newstead on Thursday. Scott Holland has pro- 
 mised to speak, though his mother appears to 
 have gone over to the Opposition Camp ! ' and 
 again on March 6, ' The Church House meeting, I 
 am glad to tell you, was a success. The speakers 
 were imprimis Scott Holland, Mrs Temple, Rev. 
 J. Ellison, Baron Pollock and Mr Vernon Smith. 
 Archdeacon Burney arrived in good time and did 
 his work well. The chairs were arranged in the 
 library, and before four the room was full, includ- 
 ing an overflow in the small library. Mrs Holland 
 came, also Lady Gifford, Mr Gore, Lady Kerry 
 and Mrs Lascelles. Mrs Temple opened the ball; 
 very fluent and to the purpose. Scott followed 
 with an exuberance which rather alarmed me, and 
 his speech lasted nearly half an hour, but it was 
 very clever. Judge Pollock wound up the whole 
 with one of the best speeches detailing the process 
 of his own conversion to Church House. Several 
 of the opposition were present ; whether they went 
 away convinced I know not.' 
 
 March 20: 'The collection for Church House 
 exceeds 100. Well done, perseverance ! '
 
 HIS PERSONAL FRIENDS 
 
 37 
 
 The total reached 300 in the end. 
 
 My father read little poetry and certainly no 
 Browning, yet Browning was an admired and ever- 
 welcome guest ; no one was better informed in a 
 wide range of subjects, and he and my father bad 
 so much in common that to listen to their talk 
 was a delight. My father knew nothing of music, 
 but that most versatile of men, Sir George Grove, 
 was a constant visitor ; and so were Madame Lind- 
 Goldschmidt and her husband, who were well 
 known in his circle of valued friends and neigh- 
 bours at Wimbledon. 
 
 He was a staunch and devout old-fashioned 
 Churchman of a very moderate type, averse from 
 all extremes. Yet Dean Hook and Dean Stanley, 
 both reported extremists in those days, were his 
 intimate friends. He once said of , Stanley, when 
 Prof. Max Miiller had been asked to lecture in 
 the Abbey, ' He can tolerate anybody except a 
 High-Churchman.' In one way he was ahead of 
 his own generation of Churchmen, for, when the 
 movement was started in Oxford, by men of a 
 younger generation, for assimilating the proved 
 results of modern criticism and showing them to 
 be compatible with the doctrine of Biblical In- 
 spiration, and most of those of his standing held 
 aloof in displeasure, he welcomed it and gladly 
 published their book ' Lux Mundi.' When it came 
 to points of ascertained fact he said, ' If the Church 
 does not bend, she will break.' 
 
 His generosity was shown, not only in gifts of 
 books but in lavish help to all sorts of good causes. 
 He served from the first on the committee for the 
 decoration of St Paul's ; and, when Bishop Thorold 
 started his great ischeme for the evangelisation of 
 
 V
 
 - 
 
 38 JOHN MURRAY III 1808-1892 
 
 the slums of his diocese (now the South London 
 Church Fund), it was my father who suggested to 
 him to include in it the poor district of South 
 Wimbledon, which had sprung up like a mushroom 
 under his eyes. He had noticed with dismay the 
 growth of its" mean streets and population in the 
 course of his work as a J.P. The formation of 
 a new parish, the salaries of workers, and the 
 building of the Church of All Saints, were all 
 abundantly helped by him, as an inscription in 
 the church now testifies. The amount given by 
 him to private cases of distress, whether poor 
 authors or others, will never be known. 
 
 In November 1918 the firm completed a century 
 and a half of existence ; and I may claim as, I 
 believe, a unique feature that during the whole 
 time the head of it has been a John Murray in 
 direct descent. As I write, the fifth of the name 
 is commanding a battalion in Flanders ; and I may 
 perhaps be excused for expressing a hope that he 
 may be spared to continue the tradition.* My 
 father, to whom much of the prestige which the 
 firm has enjoyed is due, was its chief for close on 
 fifty years ; and of him I would venture to quote 
 the well-known epigram of Martial : 
 
 ' Praeteritosque dies et tutos respicit annos : 
 Nee metuit Lethes jam propioris aquas. 
 
 Nulla recordanti lux est ingrata gravisque ; 
 Nulla fuit cujus non nieminisse velit. 
 
 Ampliat setatis spatium sibi vir bonus ; hoc est 
 Vivere bis, vita posse priore frui.' 
 
 * This hope has been fulfilled, and Lieut-Colonel Murray, D.S,O., 
 has now returned to his normal work as a publisher.
 
 II 
 
 THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF MURRAY'S 
 HANDBOOKS FOR TRAVELLERS* 
 
 I HAVE no desire to intrude myself before the 
 public, and as regards the subject of Handbooks 
 for Travellers I have never put forward any state- 
 ment of my claims as author and originator of 
 them. Having been requested, however, to give 
 some account of the origin of Murray's Handbooks, 
 I have consented to do so the more readily after 
 reading an article recently contributed to the 
 Pall Mail Gazette on the subject of Baedeker's 
 Guides. 
 
 The writer of that article would appear to claim 
 for Mr Baedeker the credit of inventing this class 
 of work, and he entirely ignores the existence of 
 Murray and his Handbooks for Travellers, omitting 
 all allusion to them. Now there are already in 
 existence twenty-nine of my Handbooks including 
 the Handbooks to the Cathedrals dealing with the 
 British Islands alone ; and if the compiler of a new 
 Guide to Great Britain has in no case made use of 
 this mass of material, he has exhibited a remarkable 
 example of forbearance and abstinence. 
 
 No doubt the Editor of such a book would be 
 called upon to travel over a considerable part of 
 the country himself, and in dealing with a vast 
 number of facts, and of matters liable to constant 
 
 * This account appeared in Murray's Magazine for Sept., 1887.
 
 40 MURRAY'S HANDBOOKS 
 
 change, he could not fail to find much to correct 
 and supplement in the work of his predecessors ; 
 but the claim of originating this species of Litera- 
 ture, and of having brought it to ' the level of a 
 fine art,' which the writer in the Pall Mall broadly 
 asserts on behalf of Messrs Baedeker, would, I feel 
 sure, be repudiated by them, since at the outset of 
 their series they acknowledged once and again the 
 obligations they were under to Murray ; not only 
 confessing that they made his Guides the basis and 
 framework upon which their own were founded, 
 but that in some instances they directly translated 
 from his work. 
 
 In consequence of this challenge, however, I 
 feel bound not to allow myself to be deprived of 
 what credit attaches to me as the author, inventor, 
 and originator of a class of works which, by the 
 invariable testimony of Travellers, during more 
 than half a century, have been of the greatest 
 utility and comfort to them which, in fact, may 
 be said to have had no little influence in producing 
 the result of ' Travelling made easy.' 
 
 Since so many thousands of persons have profited 
 by these books, it may be of some interest to the 
 Public to learn their origin, and the cause which 
 led me to prepare them. Having from my early 
 youth been possessed by an ardent desire to travel, 
 my very indulgent father acceded to my request, 
 011 condition that I should prepare myself by 
 mastering the language of the country I was to 
 travel in. Accordingly in 1829, having brushed up 
 my German, I first set foot on the Continent at 
 Rotterdam, and my ' Handbook for Holland ' gives 
 the results of my personal observations and private 
 studies of that wonderful country.
 
 FIRST JOURNEY ABROAD, 1829 41 
 
 At that time such a thing as a Guides-book for 
 Germany, France, or Spain did not exist. The only 
 Guides deserving the name were : Ebel, for Switzer- 
 land ; Boyce, for Belgium ; and Mrs Starke for Italy. 
 Hers was a work of real utility, because, amidst a 
 singular medley of classical lore, borrowed from 
 Lempriere's Dictionary, interwoven with details 
 regulating the charges in washing-bills at Sorrento 
 and Naples, and an elaborate theory on the origin 
 of Devonshire Cream, in which she proves that it 
 was brought by Phoenician colonists from Asia 
 Minor into the West of England, it contained 
 much practical information gathered on the spot. 
 But I set forth for the North of Europe unprovided 
 with any guide, excepting a few manuscript notes 
 about towns and inns, &c., in Holland, furnished 
 me by my good friend Dr Somerville, husband of 
 the learned Mrs Somerville. These were of the 
 greatest use. Sorry was I when, on landing at 
 Hamburg, I found myself destitute of such friendly 
 aid. It was this that impressed on my mind the 
 value of practical information gathered on the 
 spot, and I set to work to collect for myself all 
 the facts, information, statistics, &c., which an 
 English tourist would be likely to require or find 
 useful. I travelled thus, note-book in hand, and 
 whether in the street, the Eilwagen, or the Picture 
 Gallery, I noted down every fact as it occurred. 
 These note-books (of which I possess many dozens) 
 were emptied out on my return home, arranged in 
 Routes, along with such other information as I 
 could gather on History, Architecture, Geology, 
 and other subjects suited to a traveller's need; 
 and, finally, I submitted them to my father. He 
 had known nothing of my scheme, but thought my
 
 42 MURRAY'S HANDBOOKS 
 
 work worth publishing, and gave it the name of 
 'Handbook,' a title applied by him for the first 
 time to an English book. But these Routes would 
 have been of comparatively little value, except for 
 the principle and plan upon which they were laid 
 down. I had to consult the wants and convenience 
 of travellers in the order and arrangement of my 
 facts. Arriving at a city like Berlin, I had to find 
 out what was really worth seeing there, to make 
 a selection of such objects, and to tell how best to 
 see them, avoiding the ordinary practice of local 
 Guide-books, which, in inflated language, cram in 
 everything that can possibly be said not bewilder- 
 ing my readers by describing all that might be seen 
 and using the most condensed and simplest style 
 in description of special objects. I made it my aim 
 to point out things peculiar to the spot, or w^iich 
 might be better seen there than elsewhere. Having 
 drawn up my Routes, and having had them roughly 
 set in type, I proceeded to test them by lending 
 them to friends about to travel, in order that they 
 might be verified or criticised on the spot. I did 
 not begin to publish until after several successive 
 journeys and temporary residences in Continental 
 cities, and after I had not only traversed beaten 
 Routes, but explored various districts into which 
 my countrymen had not yet penetrated. 
 
 I began my travels not only before a single 
 railway had been begun, but while North Germany 
 was yet ignorant of Macadam. The high road from 
 Hamburg to Berlin, except the first 16 miles, which 
 had been engineered and macadamised by an uncle 
 of mine by way of example to the departments of 
 Fonts et Chausse'es, was a mere wheel track in the 
 deep sand of Brandenburg. The postilion who
 
 INTERVIEW WITH GOETHE 43 
 
 drove the mis-called Schnell-post had to choose- 
 for himself a devious course amidst the multitude 
 of ruts and big boulders of which the sand was 
 full, and he consumed two days and a night on the 
 dreary journey. In those days the carriage of that 
 country (the Stuhlwageri) was literally a pliable 
 basket on wheels, seated across, which bent in 
 conformity with the ruts and stones it had to pass 
 over. 
 
 On reaching Weimar, having been favoured 
 with an introduction to Goethe, the great poet and 
 philosopher of the time, I had the honour and 
 pleasure of a personal interview with the hale old 
 man, who received me Tin his studio decorated 
 with casts of the Elgin Marbles and other works 
 of Greek art, attired in a brown dressing-gown 
 beneath which shone the brilliant whiteness of a 
 clean shirt ; a refinement not usual among German 
 philosophers. On this occasion I had the honour 
 of presenting to Goethe the MS. of Byron's un- 
 published dedication of Werner to him. Later on 
 after a brief interview with Prince Metternich, 
 to whom I was presented by Baron von Hammer 
 in Vienna, an acquaintance renewed afterwards 
 when the Prince was an exile in England I set 
 foot in Hungary, where I had the great pleasure 
 of becoming acquainted with the enlightened 
 patriot Count Szechenyi, who had just completed 
 his grand design of steam navigation on the 
 Danube. I was among the first to descend the 
 Danube from Pesth to Orsova below Belgrade, near 
 the spot where the river, having previously spread 
 out to a width of five miles, is compelled to con- 
 tract to 300 or 400 yards, in order to rush through 
 a narrow gorge, or defile, split right through the
 
 44 MURRAY'S HANDBOOKS 
 
 range of the Carpathians, for its escape towards 
 the Black Sea. In a timber barge I swept over 
 the reefs and whirlpools in its bed, not yet fit for 
 steamers to pass, admiring the wondrous precipices 
 descending vertically to the water's edge, as far as 
 to the Iron Gate. All this is described for the first 
 time in my Handbook, as well as the ' writing on 
 the wall' left by the Romans under Trajan, in the 
 shape of two rows of put-lock holes, continued for 
 12 miles along the face of the precipice, made for 
 the wooden balcony road by which the invincible 
 Romans had rendered this ' impasse ' passable and 
 practicable for their armies. It is worthy of remark 
 that from the days of Barbarian invasion which 
 swept away the road, none other existed on this 
 spot until 1834-5, when the Austrian Government 
 blasted a highway through the limestone cliff along 
 the left bank of the Danube. My explorations 
 ended at the Turkish frontier of Wallachia, which 
 was not to be overstepped in those days without 
 the penalty of six weeks in quarantine. I had 
 already passed the Hungarian military frontier, 
 and its line of outposts like our coastguard, and 
 had penetrated into Carinthia and Carniola, where 
 I visited the almost unknown cave of Adelsberg, 
 with its subterranean lakes and fish without eyes, 
 and I descended the quicksilver mine of Idria, in 
 which it is death to work more than six hours 
 in a week underground. I have especial pleasure in 
 remembering that the first description, in English, 
 of the Dolomite Mountains of Tyrol, not a scientific 
 one (Murchison and Sedgwick were before me), 
 appeared in my ' South Germany,' first edition. I 
 explored those scenes of grandeur in company with 
 a geological friend in 1831-32. Thousands of my
 
 VISIT TO KONIGSWART 45 
 
 countrymen now follow my advice and my foot- 
 steps yearly. 
 
 On another occasion, while travelling through 
 Bohemia, I paid a visit to Konigswart, the family 
 seat of Prince Metternich, partly for its owner's 
 sake, partly on account of a Natural History 
 Collection deposited in it, which I found described 
 in one of Goethe's miscellaneous works. He became 
 interested in it on account of its founder, one 
 Huss, an intelligent, educated, and upright man, 
 whose fate it was to be ' The Headsman of Eger.' 
 It was an hereditary office, handed down to him 
 from a long line of ancestors, but it came to pass 
 that Eger was stripped of its criminal jurisdiction, 
 so the headsman's occupation was gone. The Prince 
 hearing of this, not only generously purchased the 
 collection, but in order not to separate the owner 
 from his treasures when transporting it to Konigs- 
 wart, made him its custodian with a pension 
 for life. I was shown round the Museum by Mr 
 Huss himself, a mild-looking old gentleman, and 
 found that besides specimens illustrating the 
 geology and natural history of Bohemia, it con- 
 tained many historic relics of the Metternich family 
 of great interest, among them a series of wine- 
 glasses rising from two to four feet each, blown 
 on the elevation in rank of a member in the family, 
 that his health might be drunk out of it. Here 
 were flails and scythes, the rude weapons of the 
 Bohemian peasants used in the Hussite War; the 
 rings of John Sobieski and Matt Corvinus, and 
 Napoleon's washhand-basin brought from Elba. 
 All these were pointed out to me by my guide ; 
 but I observed that he passed over a glass-case 
 which attracted my attention, as containing three
 
 46 MURRAY'S HANDBOOKS 
 
 swords. I called him back, and was then informed 
 that the central one was the dress-sword of 
 Louis XVI., and the two broad blades which 
 flanked it were the Eger executioner's official 
 swords : one was made at Solingen and; the other 
 at Ratisbon, and they looked very sharp,. Per- 
 ceiving that I had not come to scoff at him and 
 his profession, he became communicative, and 
 reminded me that to die by the sword was a 
 privilege of the noble Roman denied to the common 
 herd of criminals. 
 
 The first of my Handbooks to the Continent, 
 published 1836, included Holland, Belgium, and 
 North Germany, and was followed at short 
 intervals by South Germany, Switzerland in 
 which I was assisted by my good friend and fellow- 
 traveller William Brockedon, the artist and 
 France. These were all written by me ; but, as 
 the series proceeded, I was fortunate enough to 
 secure such able colleagues as Richard Ford for 
 Spain, Sir Gardner Wilkinson for Egypt, Sir 
 Francis Palgrave for North Italy, Dr Porter for 
 Palestine, Sir George Bowen for Greece, Sir 
 Lambert Playfair for Algiers and the Mediter- 
 ranean, Mr George Dennis for Sicily, &c. In 1839 
 appeared the first of Baedeker's long series of 
 Guides, that for Holland and Belgium, written in 
 German. The Preface contained an acknowledg- 
 ment of the compiler's obligation to ' the most 
 distinguished (ausgezeichnetste) Guide-book ever 
 published, "Murray's Handbook for Travellers," 
 which has served as the foundation of Baedeker's 
 little book.'* He began his Guide to Germany, 
 
 * I give a few extracts taken from one or two of Baedeker's 
 Guides : 
 
 Aus Grundlage hat diesem Werkchen das ausgezeichnetste
 
 BAEDEKER'S IMITATIONS 47 
 
 published 1842, by again referring to Murray's 
 Red Book as having 'given him the idea of his 
 own, though as his work progressed, he found he 
 could retain only the frame of his original.' No 
 doubt, with my book ready made to hand, he was 
 enabled to use the plan and arrangement, to 
 correct, enlarge, and fill in with such information 
 as he thought useful to Germans, as for instance by 
 sedulously pointing out where the best Bierstuben 
 were to be found. The acknowledgment of obliga- 
 tion amounts to this : ' in my first edition I copied, 
 extracted, and even translated freely from Murray's 
 
 Reisehandbuch, welches je erschienen ist gedient "Murray's 
 Handbook for Travellers on the Continent." ' Baedeker's ' Hand- 
 buchlein : Holland,' 1839. 
 
 ' Die Brauchbarkeit der von dem Buchhandler Murray au 
 London herausgegebenen reisehandbiicher ist eine von den Eng- 
 landern, dem unter alien vorzugsweise reisenden Volke, so 
 anerkannte Thatsache, dass man kaum einen derselben ohne das 
 sogenannte "rothe Buch" umherwandern sieht. Sie fiihrte den 
 Herausgeber des vorliegenden Handbuchs friiher schon auf die 
 Idee, zwei in Deutschland, trotz der Nachbarschaft, wenig gekannte 
 Lander nach jenen Murray'schen Handbuchern fur Reisende zu 
 beschreiben und nach ahnlichem Plane eine bekannte Rheinreise 
 zu bearbeiten.' Baedeker's ' Handbuch fur Reisende durch 
 Deutschland,' 1842. 
 
 My copy of this work contains the following inscription in Herr 
 Baedeker's own writing : 
 
 ' An Herrn Murray richtet dieses Buch in dankbarer Anerken- 
 nung der grosse Hiilfe welche bei Abfassung desselben die vortre- 
 fflichen Reisebiichern "Northern and Southern Germany" gewahrt 
 haben mit der bitte um ferneres Wohlewollen der Herausgeber, 
 
 ' K. BADEKER. 
 
 ' Coblenz, Aug. 1841.' 
 
 ' Das vorliegende Buchlein erschien, auf das beriihmte Mur- 
 ray'sche "Handbook for Travellers on the Continent" gegrundet 
 zum erstenmale vor zehn Jahren.' Baedeker's ' Holland,' 1851. 
 
 'Die Grundlage bildet auch hier Murray's beriihnites Reise- 
 handbuch.' Baedeker's ' Die Schweiz,' 1851.
 
 48 MURRAY'S HANDBOOKS 
 
 books. As I proceeded I found I was able to do 
 without them.' Still fragments of translated 
 passages long survived, and may be even now 
 detected by such a blunder as the following. In 
 one of the southern Swiss valleys Murray says 
 'the slate rocks here are full of red garnets? 
 rendered by B. 'are overgrown with red pome- 
 granates,' a mistake which runs through many 
 editions, but which I find corrected in that of 
 1873. Nineteen travellers out of twenty would 
 have passed the garnets unnoticed; the accident 
 of my having devoted some time to the study of 
 geology caused me to notice the garnets, a not 
 unusual occurrence in slate rocks. Throughout 
 the Handbooks may be traced other results of my 
 private reading, which stamp a special character 
 on these books. My tastes, studies and pre- 
 dilections mark the originality of my writing, 
 and it is impossible but that any one following 
 and picking up my threads one after another should 
 not betray himself as a copyist. 
 
 Messrs Baedeker have long ago proved how 
 easy it is with a book ready printed and published 
 to produce another book on the same subject and 
 identical in plan availing themselves of its in- 
 formation, sending them out in the same Red 
 Cover, yet not infringing the laws of copyright. 
 I do not complain of them they were legally 
 entitled to do what they have done ; but after 
 they have dogged my footsteps from one country 
 to another through Holland, Belgium, Germany, 
 France, Switzerland, Italy (North and South), 
 Greece, Syria, Egypt, England and Scotland I 
 was surprised to find one of their compilers sinking 
 my name and existence altogether, and claiming
 
 BAEDEKER 49 
 
 for them the merit of originating this class of 
 Handbooks.* 
 
 I will, therefore, in winding up my statement, 
 content myself with this remark, that although 
 Messrs Baedeker have brought out some eighteen 
 different Guide-books, every one of them has been 
 preceded and anticipated by a Murray's Handbook 
 for that particular country. 
 
 * The late Dr Porter complained to me seriously of the use 
 made of his ' Syrian Handbook ' by the German Baedeker, without 
 any acknowledgment. 
 
 E
 
 Ill 
 
 MR MURRAY'S LETTERS TO HIS FAMILY, 
 
 1830-1891 
 
 THE districts visited by my father nearly ninety 
 years ago are now in the familiar track of all 
 tourists and are described in a score of Guide- 
 books, but he traversed them when they were a 
 terra incognita to most Englishmen and when he 
 had only his own well-stored memory to aid him 
 in seeing and appreciating what was of chief 
 interest. I therefore give the following extracts 
 from his letters home : 
 
 ' Bordeaux, Hotel de France, July 9th, 1830. 
 
 ' A walk of about a league, all the way up-hill, under 
 a tres grand soleil, brought me to the scene of action, 
 a mine from which gypsum is extracted for making 
 Plaster of Paris. I descended, and remained some time 
 in the subterranean passages, which I found agreeably 
 cool. I was told by the workmen, that the place was 
 quite overrun with mice, which is curious, considering 
 that their only means of support consists in the 
 droppings of oil from the lamps of the miners, and an 
 accidental crust of bread skilfully extracted from the 
 pocket of a jacket, by chance thrown off to facilitate 
 the labours of its owner. From these quarries which 
 were explored two years ago by Messrs Murchison and 
 Lyell, I procured some curious specimens of fossil Fish 
 and Insects, which I am bringing along with me.' 
 
 ' Paris, Hotel du Rhone, July 17, 1830. 
 
 ' M. Guestier (W. Irving's friend) was unluckily out 
 of town when my letter was left for him, so that I did
 
 1830] BORDEAUX 51 
 
 not obtain from him those renseignements respecting 
 the place which are so useful to a stranger. However, 
 I believe I managed by myself to see everything, 
 except (what by the by is somewhat in the manner 
 of the omission of the part of Hamlet) the famous 
 vineyards of Medoc, which produce the wines of 
 Lafitte, and Chateau Margaux. The whole region 
 round Bordeaux is, in fact, nothing but a vast vineyard, 
 the portion of it devoted to other cultivation being 
 quite insignificant when compared with the space 
 occupied by the vines. M. Guestier took me out in his 
 carriage to dinner at his country house on the eve of 
 my departure. I found him a very pleasant intelligent 
 man, almost English, having been educated in England 
 and having brought his wife from thence. Since my 
 return to Paris I have been informed that Mr Lyell 
 reached Bordeaux some days before me, and that he 
 must also have left it some days previous to my arrival. 
 The appearance of the town of Bordeaux is, I think, 
 more striking than that of any other city I have 
 seen in France. The spirit of improvement has taken 
 possession of the people here to an extraordinary 
 extent. They have pulled down, and have commenced 
 building up on a grand scale and to such an extent, 
 that it will require many years to compleat their plans. 
 ' An excursion which I made, a short distance from 
 Bordeaux, afforded me more gratification than any 
 thing during my sojourn in that quarter. It was to 
 visit the residence of Montesquieu ; the habitation of 
 his ancestors, where he was born and lived and wrote. 
 It is an ancient castle surrounded by a broad moat, 
 preserved almost in its original state, with its towers, 
 and loopholes, and drawbridge. I wish I had been a 
 better draughtsman, as a view of it would have been 
 a great addition to your collection of authors' houses.' 
 
 In 1831, accompanied by his friend Torrie, he 
 travelled through Northern Italy, and part of
 
 52 LETTERS 
 
 Austria, but was prevented going to Vienna by 
 an outbreak of cholera, which caused much alarm 
 in the country. 
 
 Venice, August 7, 1831. 
 
 ' Last night I made an excursion to the Armenian 
 Convent on the Island of San Lazzaro, to visit the 
 Padre Pasquale Aucher, he had not by any means 
 forgotten you, and asked very kindly after you. He 
 conducted us over the convent showing us the Library 
 in which Lord Byron used to receive his lessons from 
 him. He has recently had for pupils Lord and Lady 
 John Russell, to the former he has dedicated a trans- 
 lation of Milton's P. L., which he has recently made, 
 and which has been printed at the press of the con- 
 vent. This he also showed to us. I should fear that 
 this, though perhaps a useful, is not a very profitable 
 part of the establishment. He lastly brought us seats 
 in the neat little garden which has been formed on 
 the space enclosed by the cloisters, here coffee and 
 lemonade was prepared for us, entertaining us in the 
 meantime with his very agreeable conversation. He 
 continues to speak English very well, and is warm in 
 praise of the whole nation, with the exception of Lady 
 Morgan who has lugged him into her Italy rather 
 unceremoniously. One occurrence only he said, had 
 given him annoyance during his visit to London, that 
 was the being mistaken for one of the witnesses against 
 the Queen, whose trial was going on at the time. 
 Considering the Father's reverend station together 
 with the gravity of his long beard this was a most 
 unlucky mistake however he was enabled to make 
 it understood that though he came from Venice, he 
 had no knowledge of the business. The "Life of 
 Byron " can be sent to him under cover to Mr Money 
 the Consul here. He expresses much curiosity to see 
 it. He is aware that a preface was written by Ld. B. 
 for the Armenian Grammar, it was suppressed at
 
 1831] VENICE 53 
 
 Father Pasquale's request, because it contained some 
 very strong passages against the Sultan, the Sovereign 
 of his native country, who might easily have retorted 
 on his friends and kindred for such an insult. He has 
 given me a copy of his Armenian Milton for you, 
 together with his own portrait. He received us with 
 a kindness and good nature which were the more 
 remarkable, as he is I fancy very much pestered with 
 visits from English people and especially in our case, 
 as I found that our visit was paid at an hour, when by 
 the convent regulations, the door ought to have been 
 shut, and at last he was obliged fairly to turn us out, 
 and the key upon us. We left the place regretting 
 that we had seen so little of him, but with agreeable 
 recollections of our visit. 
 
 ' I went to the Lido, a long sandy island about an 
 hour's distance (as they say in this country) from 
 Venice to see the ground over which Byron used to 
 ride and to-day I had his residence on the grand 
 canal pointed out to me. It is, like most of the build- 
 ings round about it, a palace falling to ruins. The 
 plaster fallen off from the front discovered the bricks 
 crumbling to pieces, gloomy windows grated with iron 
 bars all rusty, and tufts of grass sprouting out from 
 between the stones. Before the door, upon one of the 
 piles which are placed there for mooring the gondolas 
 to, are painted his arms, or rather his supporters, the 
 shield having been effaced. I have not fallen in with 
 any one who could tell me anything about him, nor 
 am I very anxious to push my enquiries, as I am sure 
 to hear nothing but what is bad.' 
 
 ' Salzburg, August 20,. 1831. 
 
 ' My last letter was put into the Post at Laibach, as 
 I was unluckily too late to dispatch it from Trieste. 
 We left the latter place yesterday week, before I set 
 out (tell my Father) I had the satisfaction of being 
 introduced to Lord Byron's friend Mr Barry of Genoa,
 
 54 LETTERS 
 
 who has lately come to reside at Trieste. As soon as I 
 heard his name I exerted myself to find him out, Mr 
 Pillans who is an acquaintance took me to his house, 
 he was in bed, unwell, but got up on hearing my name, 
 but on this account I was obliged to curtail my visit. 
 He was very civil, showed me some of Byron's letters 
 and papers, among them one written by poor Byron 
 in Fletcher's name giving a ludicrous account of his 
 own death addressed to Hobhouse as being one of his 
 executioners describes his master's patience on his death 
 bed, he only d d his friends once or twice, and wished 
 that Kinnaird's Play might be d'd as well as himself. 
 Barry has I believe the last letter B". ever wrote dated 
 April 9, also a miniature taken at Genoa in which he 
 is[ represented thin and wan looking, wearing a forage 
 cap with a gold band, and a plaid (the Gordon) jacket. 
 He seems a worthy but in no degree a literary man.' 
 
 ' Munich, August 31, 1831. 
 
 * From Salzburg we took the Vienna^ road in order 
 to reach the fall of the Traun, which Sir H. Davy has 
 already brought into notice in England. We found 
 the road crowded with people hastening from Vienna, 
 evidently in alarm for the Cholera, which at one time was 
 supposed to have actually made its appearance in that 
 city, several persons having died suddenly and of very 
 suspicious cholics. The retreat of the Imperial family 
 to Schonbrunn also probably strengthened the report, 
 though I believe it was unfounded. The terror of the 
 disease is spreading through Germany. Within these 
 few days a cordon has been established on the Bavarian 
 border, and had we been at Vienna we should certainly 
 not have been allowed to pass through it. The Aust". 
 Gov*. in their paternal care for the people have pub- 
 lished a paper of advice, recommending frequency 
 of ablutions both of person and habitation, and to 
 abstain from butter, old cheese, green apples and 
 things sour. I suppose there have been nearly a 100
 
 1831] MUNICH 55 
 
 different brochures published respecting this Pestilence. 
 Remedies of all sorts have been put forth, one of which 
 is no other than Dr Sangrado's, viz. pure water, and 
 not a few are collections of prayers for the aversion 
 of the calamity. Those which are good are almost 
 entirely indebted to English publications for their 
 matter. The experience of German physicians con- 
 firms the notion of its being epidemic (conveyed by 
 the air) and no cordon however strong has as yet stood 
 against it. Its ravages in Hungary are said to be 
 terrible, the peasants there are neither clean nor well 
 fed, they are very closely packed in their houses and 
 generally there is no more than one medical man to 
 attend to a population of 8 or 10,000.' 
 
 ' Munich, Oct r . 1, 1831. 
 
 ' I have been as I promised in my last letter working 
 tolerably hard at German and Italian, it is rather of 
 advantage to have a companion to second me in my 
 studies. Our master cannot speak a word of English 
 so that we have some exercise also for our French. 
 We went with Mr Anderson in his carriage to visit one 
 of the royal Palaces called Nymphenberg near this. 
 The palace itself is insignificant but it has fine gardens. 
 In them are preserved two live beavers which were 
 caught in the Isar and Danube. These animals are 
 very rarely found in Europe, indeed the species is 
 almost extinct, except that individuals are now and 
 then found in the neighbourhood of this river and in 
 one part of the Elbe. In the neighbouring park are 
 a great many white deer, a curiosity which is not often 
 seen elsewhere. 
 
 'Within the last fortnight Munich has been 
 gradually filling with refugees flying before the Cholera. 
 Though the information respecting Vienna in my last 
 was correct yet it appears a wonderful change took 
 place two days 'afterwards. After a remarkable 
 storm of rain which lasted 48 hours with great
 
 56 LETTERS 
 
 violence, the cholera which to all appearance had been 
 smothered burst forth with great fury. The news- 
 papers will inform you of a number of deaths, which 
 however considering the population is not very great. 
 It has not yet made much progress on its way hither, 
 and probably will not arrive here before Xinas. 
 Among illustrious refugees, are the Vienna Baron 
 Rothschild who seems to take great care of himself, 
 never going out, even in the hot weather which we 
 have at present without his greatcoat. He has got 
 two apartments next ours which have been furnished 
 expressly for him but he is evidently prepared to cut 
 and run on the first alarm. The Hotel was thrown 
 into great confusion last week by the announcement 
 that a Polish nobleman with a family and train of 
 30 persons was to arrive on a stated day. At the 
 appointed time they made their appearance in the 
 town. Landaus with imperials above and coffers below 
 lacqueys behind and before, barouches, britskas and 
 chaises a complete caravan dislodged from their 
 quarters in an Austrian bathing place by this for- 
 midable foe. It is said that Prince Metternich's family 
 is expected. 
 
 ' Augsburg, Octr. 10, 1831. 
 
 ' The delay and ^detention occasioned by this altera- 
 tion of our plans though sufficiently provoking, had 
 this advantage that it enabled us to be present at the 
 celebration of a great ceremonial, called the Peoples 
 Festival (Folks Fest). It was established by the present 
 King of Bavaria. The ostensible object is the improve- 
 ment of Agriculture and the breeding of animals. But 
 it is converted into a very pretty show. All the popu- 
 lation of Munich and thousands from all parts of the 
 country assemble in a large meadow outside the town. 
 In the midst of a very conspicuous position is a large 
 open tent for the King himself, the Royal Family 
 and the Foreign Ambassadors. The arrival of their
 
 1831] THE PEOPLE'S FESTIVAL 57 
 
 equipages on the Course (for a race farms one of the enter- 
 tainments of the day) with all the glitter of splendid 
 Uniforms, rich carriages, fine horses, with Lacqueys 
 and Jagers bedizened with gold lace is very imposing. 
 Last of all the King himself makes his appearance, 
 escorted by the cavalry .of the Burgher Guard of the 
 city of Munich (among whom by the bye we discovered 
 our Italian master). His arrival was greeted by the 
 military bands who struck up to our no small surprise, 
 " God save the King." The inimitable air is as well 
 known here as with us and has become the National 
 Melody and in Prussia, Austria, Bavaria and probably 
 in others of the German States. 
 
 'Now came the distribution of Prizes, which were 
 given out by the King himself, first of all to the owners 
 of horses, then for Cows, Oxen and other. Most of the 
 people who obtained them were common peasants or 
 Farmers who had brought up their beasts to the capital, 
 many coming from long distances. As each person's 
 name was called, the beast and the owner were intro- 
 duced in front of the royal stand. The rudeness of 
 their appearance and the drollery of their primitive 
 costume contrasted singularly with the glitter of uni- 
 forms, courtly, Military and Diplomatic which thronged 
 the Royal Stand. Many of the farmers brought their 
 wives and daughters with them to conduct the beasts 
 and now and then an amusing scene took place when 
 the beast not being aware of the honour which it was 
 about to receive in being introduced into the presence 
 of royalty turned restive and made its escape after 
 perhaps upsetting or putting to flight its conductor. 
 The King appears a very amiable and good man, and 
 is very much beloved. The people, even the common 
 rustics, seem to approach him without any of that awe 
 which usually accompanies sovereigns. He had a kind 
 word to say to everybody, taking by the hand or 
 jogging on the elbow, even the dirtiest of those who 
 were presented to him. A race concluded the day's
 
 58 LETTERS 
 
 amusement. The whole concern both as regards horses 
 and Jockeys was ludicrous when compared with what 
 we see in our own country. Nevertheless it was amusing, 
 the beasts about 20 in number were sorry jades, and the 
 riders dirty rascals. They were put on without stirrups 
 or saddles then collected behind two folding doors ex- 
 tending all across the course, at a given signal the gates 
 were opened and out rushed the racers.' 
 
 1833 
 
 Ltege, Novr. 6, 1833. 
 
 ' On the evening of the day above mentioned I left 
 Vienna in the Eilwagen and I assure you it was with 
 great regret that I took a last look of the majestic pile 
 of St Stephens and its beautiful gothic spire dimly 
 lighted up by the moonlight. Among my companions 
 was one who pleased me very much, a capt. of Engineers 
 a Hungarian, a very well informed gentlemanly person 
 who unluckily went no further than Lintz among the 
 rest were two cadets, quite young soldiers, going to 
 join their regiment at Mentz. It took us till the next 
 morning to reach Mock, a grand monastery and one of 
 the richest now remaining in Austria. It is a fine 
 building, on a height overlooking the Danube and not 
 very far from the old ruined Castle, where our Richard 
 Coeur de Lion was kept prisoner, and guarded as it is 
 said by armed soldiers with drawn swords who never 
 let him out of their sight day or night. I made a 
 scampering visit to the Monastery while the passengers 
 stopped to breakfast, and at night by moonlight a 
 similarly rapid survey of the town of Lintz which is 
 finely situated on the Danube. It is moreover remark- 
 able for the new species of Fortifications which are at 
 present in progress or nearly finished. They consist of 
 towers, 32 in number, which surround the place, being 
 built at regular distances from each other, and nearly 
 sunk up to their necks in the earth, leaving only a 
 circlet beset with cannon visible above ground. Their
 
 1833] DISCOMFORTS OF TRAVEL 59 
 
 superiority over the ordinary defences seems proble- 
 matical at any rate it has not yet been put to the test 
 Early next morning we crossed the frontier of Bavaria 
 which in this part appears a dull country, previous to 
 reaching Passau the situation of which town at the 
 junction of the Inn with the Danube hemmed in by 
 commanding heights is remarkable. 
 
 'You will imagine what are the disagremens of 
 travelling in this part of the Continent when I tell you 
 that among other things the coach constantly stops in 
 the middle of the night or even in the morning at a 
 place where it is met by a cross coach coming from a 
 different quarter, and in consequence of the irregularity 
 of travelling stops at this inconvenient time for two or 
 3 hours. This happened to us at Ratisbon here the 
 coach arrived at about \ past 3 in the morning our 
 slumbers were all broken and we were turned out into 
 the room of the dreary Inn to wait till 7. It was 
 useless to think of going to bed and absurd to go out 
 in the dark so I awaited the approach of day in a sort 
 of half doze. Just because it was wanted the sun 
 delayed his appearance for about an hour longer than 
 usual, and when he did appear did little good owing 
 to the thick mist which lay heavily over the town, 
 and reminded me almost of a London fog. I groped 
 my way in the dark to the old Cathedral where the 
 priest was mumbling matins to a few old women, over 
 several of whom I stumbled in the dark. The uncertain, 
 light of a few tapers aided by the approaching dawn, 
 enabled me to form some notion of the grandeur of the 
 building, and also to examine the exterior of the old 
 town house which is only remarkable for being in 
 former days the meeting house of the German Diet.' 
 
 In 1836 he made his longest journey, down the 
 Danube past the Iron Gate and to the borders of 
 Turkey and Wallachia, but I can find no letters 
 of this year.
 
 60 LETTERS 
 
 In 1837 he travelled with his two sisters and his 
 cousin Murray Holland, afterwards a Fellow of 
 New College, Oxford, up the Rhine through 
 Switzerland, and across the Alps into Italy. 
 
 'Charleroi, Aug*. 9th, 1837. 
 
 'On Sunday we dined at Dunkirk and reached 
 Ypres just before dark, passing through a rich and 
 fertile country for the latter part of the way. At 
 Ypres we were up at 7 to see the Town hall an 
 immense building with a tower in the centre from 
 which I think Barry has caught the general idea of his 
 House of Commons. Adjoining it is a rather fine 
 Cathedral where Murray was gratified by hearing Mass 
 performed with some very fine music, and amused by 
 the sight of various votive offerings modelled rudely in 
 wax as gifts to the virgin such as a whole bunch of 
 teeth, which had probably been relieved from ache by 
 the supposed interposition of some saints, and two or 
 3 pigs also rescued from illness or misfortune. 
 Travelling in Belgium is rendered particularly fatiguing 
 especially for ladies by the roads being paved which 
 shake the carriage and jolt the passengers terribly. 
 To them I believe we must attribute it that on our 
 2nd days journey after going about 10 miles in all, 
 I received the agreeable intelligence that one of our 
 spokes had started and had broken short at the felloe. 
 Luckily this occurred in a large town, Courtrai, where 
 I intended to have stopped at any rate a short while, 
 and being told that the repair of the wheel would 
 occupy 3 hours I determined to see the sights and 
 dine. We saw two Churches, one containing a fine 
 painting by Vandyk The Raising of the Cross and 
 two very curious old carved chimney pieces in the 
 H. de Ville. While viewing the latter I enquired 
 of the attendant after two young men, sons of the
 
 1837] COURTRAI 61 
 
 Burgomaster of the town who had been my companions 
 for a short while last year. He said they were at home 
 and insisted on going for them rather against my 
 inclination, they accordingly came in consequence with 
 their tutor an Irishman, and at once recognized me. 
 They invited vis to go home and see the Burgomaster 
 which I refused for some time until they said we ought 
 to see some of the linen manufactured at Courtrai, and 
 that their father who was a wholesale dealer in it 
 would show us some. We accordingly all went and 
 were introduced to the Burgomaster and his daughter, 
 rather a nice girl in a well-furnished house who 
 seemed by no means above the shop as they took us 
 into it and showed us a sample of linen which my 
 sisters say was finer than they had seen in England. 
 I had been much pleased with the two lads and I now 
 left them my name and address begging them to visit 
 me when they travelled to England and extending my 
 invitation to the Burgomaster and his daughter. He 
 said he had been bred in the fear of God and in the 
 hatred of the English under the government of Napo- 
 leon but acknowledged that all such feelings had dis- 
 appeared. The Burgomaster had finished his dinner 
 and ours was waiting for us so our visit was short 
 but pleasant. Our wheel was [restored at the ap- 
 pointed time when our dinner was over and we reached 
 Tournay in time to explore its very beautiful and 
 interesting Cathedral from the sight of which all our 
 party seemed to derive great gratification. Murray 
 though a great amateur of Cathedrals and Churches 
 seemed chiefly taken with the priest's robes one set 
 of which of crimson velvet embroidered in gold cost 
 65,000 fr. The arches and pillars around the choir 
 are among the most elegant I have seen. It suffered 
 severely at the revolution but must still have some 
 wealth left. We put up at a very comfortable Inn at 
 Tournay newly fitted up.'
 
 62 LETTERS 
 
 'Lucerne, Aug t . 31, 1837. 
 
 ' I went to Neuchatel for the purpose of talking 
 over with Prof. Agassiz, the "Journal of a Swiss 
 Naturalist," which you know I suggested to him he 
 should undertake. In consequence of the especial 
 manner in which I impressed upon him in writing the 
 necessity of adopting a popular style % he has taken in 
 hand to deliver lectures to the boys of the public 
 school of Neuchatel between 7 and 8 years of age, 
 in various branches of Nat. Hist, to try his hand 
 as it were. He besides gives popular lectures to the 
 people of the town and is spreading a taste for Nat. 
 Histy. widely among them. He took me up the hill 
 behind the town (a member of the Jura range) and gave 
 me a very instructive lecture on the singular isolated 
 blocks of granite which have been transported to them 
 no one knows how from the Alps, and there is no rock 
 of the same kind nearer than the Alps as the distance 
 must be 150 miles. One of these stones is as big as a 
 house measuring 63 ft. by 48. Mrs Latrobe is well, 
 staying with her brother "a few miles out of the town. 
 Agassiz is really a first rate person in talent, and is in 
 a situation at present which impels him to work like 
 a horse. He gave me some valuable hints about a 
 Dictionary of Natural History a subject he has thought 
 much on, and he would be a most valuable assistant in 
 such a work. He would also be a capital Swiss cor- 
 respondent for a Magazine. He is going to send me a 
 sample of his journal, and the MS of his Lectures on 
 Geology to see if you can do any thing with them.' 
 
 ' Geneve, Sepf. 12/37. 
 
 'It then agreed between us (Dr and Mrs Vrolich) 
 that we should meet next day at a little Inn at the 
 foot of the Rigi when I introduced my sisters who 
 were as pleased with her as I was. Dinner over by 
 2 o'clock our horses and guides having been sum- 
 moned previously we set out a long cavalcade, Dr and
 
 1837] THE RIGI 63 
 
 Mrs V. and my two sisters on horseback, Murray and 
 I on foot with Alp poles to assist us. M. tried very 
 hard to have a horse but I wished him in the present 
 instance to imitate my example and use his legs. We 
 accomplished the journey which is a very toilsome one, 
 the path being very steep in 3 hours and reached the 
 top before sunset. We had a very tolerable view but 
 only a part of the distant Chains of Alps were free 
 from clouds. We all retired to bed early, and were 
 as is usual awakened before sunrise by the notes of 
 the long wooden Alpine horn, out of which the Swiss 
 shepherds extract music. The sun however rose grim 
 and behind clouds and a large portion of the landscape 
 was enveloped in mist. Still we contrived in ascending 
 and descending, or on the summit to see at different 
 times nearly the whole Panorama. I am sorry to say 
 we left Mrs Vrolich on the summit very unwell, and I 
 could get no tidings of them afterwards to ascertain 
 that she was better. We descended the Mountain by 
 a different path and committed ourselves to a boat at 
 the foot of .the Mountain, visited the most beautiful 
 Uri bay of the Lake of Lucerne and William Tell's 
 Chapel and meeting our carriage at Brunnen reached 
 our comfortable quarters at Lucerne late the same 
 night.' . . . 
 
 ' I am glad you like Southern Germany to the best 
 of my belief I have not borrmved one sentence from any 
 English author, nor intentionally from any foreign one, 
 the facts of course in most cases are from books but I 
 have seldom contented myself with a single authority in 
 matters which I have not personally ascertained for 
 myself. The descriptions are chiefly taken from my 
 note books some of them are enclosed in brackets with 
 MS Journal at the end. I must confess I do not like 
 the alteration of the colour of Handbook for S. G. I 
 think the green was important to enable people to 
 distinguish one from the other besides if the one be 
 called Murray's red book why may not this be called
 
 64 LETTERS 
 
 M's green book Will you consider this? I suppose 
 few more copies of Vol. 1 will be required this season. 
 I can have the new Ed" ready for next, but there are 
 one or two districts in North Germany and Holland 
 which I would gladly visit before sending it again to 
 press.' 
 
 1838 
 
 ' Newcastle, Augt. 25, 1838. 
 
 'After a very agreeable journey with my friend 
 Allen [Thomson] I reached this place on Friday morning. 
 The outset of our journey was not felicitous, we reached 
 the Railroad station in good time, a little after 7, but 
 found to our dismay every place to Birmingham taken. 
 There was no resource but to wait two hours and start 
 at 9. I do not think in the end that we lost anything 
 by the delay except that we were just two hours later 
 in reaching our destination Warrington where we 
 arrived about 12 at night after a series of transfers 
 into 7 different vehicles. Much as we hear and read of 
 Railroads it is difficult to form a true notion of their 
 magnitude and influence until you have made as long 
 a course upon them as I have just done, and find them 
 already ramifying into the remotest corner of the 
 country. Next month the line will be open from Liver- 
 pool to Preston, and it is already far advanced thence 
 to Lancaster. One of the coachmen who drove us 50 
 miles told me he had already been driven off four roads 
 in succession by railways. From Warrington to 
 Carlisle by Mail took us 10^ hours good driving. We 
 had a cold ride over the high and steep Mountain of 
 Shap Fells, the heaviest stage in all England as our 
 driver termed it, a passage of the Alps in miniature, 
 which for some years to come will bid defiance to the 
 passage of all railroads. From Carlisle to Newcastle a 
 distance of 60 miles, steam took us in 4 hours, a delight- 
 ful ride, first over charming wooded dells and heights,
 
 1838] NEWCASTLE - 65 
 
 and then down Tynedale, close to the margin of the 
 river Tyne. 
 
 ' Torrie and Copland we found qiiite well ; they had 
 at length given us up and discharged the room engaged 
 for me. They were absent on our arrival on a sort of 
 Geological expedition to the mouth of the Tyne with 
 a section of the Association headed by Sedgwick, and 
 did not return till the afternoon. Allen Thomson and 
 I after securing our tickets as members repaired to the 
 different sections which interested us most j- one of the 
 first persons I saw was Sir George Back presiding over 
 the Geographical Section he is staying with some 
 friend of Wheatstone's a Mr Akenhead (a retired book- 
 seller I believe) and at his instigation I am invited to 
 dine with Mrs A. to-morrow at a sort of evening 
 Conversazione. In the Assembly rooms I found a great 
 number of familiar faces. Murchison, Miss Waitman, 
 Jerdan, Brewster, Wheatstone, Grey of the Brit. Mus. 
 Ehrenberg a distinguished naturalist from Berlin and 
 friend of Humboldt who has discovered that certain 
 stones as opal flint etc. are made up of animalculae 
 immured in rock ; to-day I have seen Buckland, 
 Greenough, Lyell, Wilkie, Yates, Knight, Whewell, 
 and a host of others. I have just returned from the 
 concluding assemblage of the Members. The meeting 
 has been a very full one and has gone off well though 
 no very transcendent papers have been brought for- 
 ward. The tranquillity of the meeting a little disturbed 
 by Babbage who smarting with soreness from the affair 
 of Murchison's appointing him president and after 
 wards Herschel, has been very bitter, uttering I am 
 told a most offensive tirade against the British aristo- 
 cracy at a committee meeting at which the Duke of 
 Northumberland was present, and then resigning his 
 office in the society not because his speech was attacked 
 or opposed, but because every one seeing the fault he 
 had committed passed it over and took no notice of it. 
 Neither he nor Herschel is to preside, the latter having
 
 66 LETTERS 
 
 refused the office when he heard the circumstance, 
 but Vernon Harcourt the Ai'chbishop of York's son. 
 I called to-day for Mr Wilson, he was out, but I 
 met him and find that he is the little man whom 
 I know and have dined with in London, not, as I 
 supposed another brother. He is the short man, is 
 domiciled in London and only on a visit here. He 
 asked me to dinner to-day and to-morrow, but I am 
 engaged both days. We are to go together in company 
 with Torrie and Copland to the Anniversary dinner 
 of the Nat 1 Hist/ Soci y of this place to be held on 
 Monday. To-day Thomson Torrie Copland and I dined 
 at the Ordinary, where Maltby the Bp of Durham 
 presided and made as foolish a speech as I ever heard. 
 The D. of Northumberland the actual president was 
 laid up with the gout. Besides large donations he 
 feasted the society consisting of 700 members on 
 Thursday with Turtle from Liverpool. 
 
 * I have not yet said a word about Newcastle itself, 
 though with it I, in common with every one else am 
 astonished. It has become all on a sudden one of the 
 finest, if not the finest provincial town in England, 
 boasting of a quarter consisting of numerous streets 
 as grand as Regent Street, and the new Strand, but 
 built of beautiful wrought freestone instead of plastered 
 brick, with the largest and most magnificent Market 
 in the world, far superior to that of Liverpool, an 
 Exchange, a Music Hall and Theatre which though not 
 of blameless architecture are at least highly creditable. 
 The most wonderful part of it however is that the 
 whole has been planned and executed in 3 years, 
 since I was last here, so that it really has the effect of 
 magic to me. Add to this it is the work of one 
 individual named Grainger a carpenter's apprentice, 
 who without friends, interest or money has affected 
 this Aladdin like exploit. Upon the strength of his 
 credit and talents he has borrowed money, bought the 
 land covered it with first class houses, better than the
 
 1838] NEWCASTLE 67 
 
 best in Regent Street and is likely I am told to realize 
 a large fortune. At the termination of the principal 
 street stands a pillar surmounted with a statue of 
 Lord Grey which was raised the night before last and 
 uncovered yesterday amid the salvoes of 2 cannon, and 
 the applause of half a dozen mason's apprentices. The 
 town has been exceedingly full. We could get no beds 
 in the large new Inn called Turk's Head and put up 
 with a private room at a distance for which we pay 6/- 
 a night. I went yesterday with Allen T. to see the 
 celebrated Mr Stephenson the Engineers Manufactory 
 of locomotive engines which is highly interesting and 
 curious and like other manufacturing establishments 
 has been liberally thrown open to the Association. 
 There is besides an excellent museum and library to 
 which we have free access. I will correct the Index 
 to Swiss Handbook and will return it per coach. 
 Robert says you still have a hankering after the red 
 cover now I really do particularly wish the blue to be 
 tried because I do not think that the colour of the 
 book will have the least effect upon its success, and a 
 variation in colour to distinguish the one book from 
 the other appears to me desirablo, and other persons 
 among them Black the bookseller have expressed the 
 same. I shall be very sorry indeed if it is not blue, 
 and disappointed if Murray's blue book is not asked 
 for as well as Murray's red book. 
 
 ' I find Torrie has every disposition to make a short 
 excursion with me of ten days, or a fortnight's dura- 
 tion. Allen Thomson leaves this on Monday on his 
 way to Edinburgh to be married. The lady is a Miss 
 Hill sister to his brother's wife and it is an attachment 
 of 10 years. I should rather like to be present and it is 
 not improbable Torrie and I may run down by the mail 
 and back next day from Copland's house Blackwood 
 near Dumfries, where I am invited to spend a day or 
 two Copland himself is prevented leaving home even 
 for our short excursions. T. and C. are going to visit
 
 68 LETTERS 
 
 a friend near Morpeth for 2 or 3 days, during that 
 time I shall make some short excursions round the 
 border and meet them probably at Carlisle whither, 
 for the present you may address my letters.' 
 
 1841 
 
 ' Bourges (dep*, Indre), Thursday, Aug. 12, 1841. 
 
 'I will endeavour to give you an account of my 
 proceedings during the past week. The voyage up 
 the Loire, from Nantes, in a small steamer, is a little 
 tedious the river itself very turbulent, and, like the 
 nation, revolutionary, changing its bed, and shifting its 
 sand and gravel from month to month ; has too much 
 water in winter and too little in summer ; at the one 
 season a pest, at the other a nuisance. Its banks on 
 the whole are flat, and want variety, though there are 
 one or two interesting points, vineclad hills, &c. 
 
 ' The most interesting spot below Angers, in an 
 historical point of view, is that, where the Vendean 
 army crossed with their wives and families in dismay 
 and retreat before the forces of Revolutionary France, 
 under the guidance of their General Bonchamps, at 
 that time mortally wounded. The Vendeans had then 
 in their power about 3000 prisoners, shut up in a 
 church, and in the state of excitement and alarm, and 
 irritation against their pursuers, they were on the 
 point of massacring them, when the brave Bonchamps, 
 with his dying breath, pronounced and enforced the 
 generous sentence, " Grace aux prisonniers ! " and by 
 his influence and position alone they escaped. At the 
 Restoration a monument was set up to him on the hill 
 overlooking the spot where the river was passed, where 
 it still stands ; but (would you think it !) doomed to 
 support the hateful tri-coloured flag the ensign of 
 those very foes whom Bonchamps spared. 
 
 'Angers, where my journey ended, is a very antique
 
 1841] ANGERS FONTEVRAULT 69 
 
 town, and pleased me much though modern improve- 
 ments, quais and houses looking like band-boxes from 
 their whiteness and newness, are destroying in part 
 its original character. Besides a cathedral full of 
 painted glass, here is one of the sternest, loftiest, 
 largest, and best preserved castles I ever saw. Its 
 seventeen towers, built of slate and layers of white 
 stone, which make them look as though hooped round, 
 rise eighty feet above the river, separated by a yawn- 
 ing fosse from the rest of the town. They show you 
 within it, the remains of the Palace where good king 
 Rene (see Quentin Durward), father of Margaret of 
 Anjou, was born, and in the Devil's Tower, the oubli- 
 ettes down which prisoners were cast. Here also, 
 beside the castle, is the old Military Academy, now 
 degraded to a barrack, and its curious carvings of 
 horses, coats-of-arms, &c., defaced, where the Duke of 
 Wellington was educated. 
 
 ' From Angers I travelled by land ; it lies on a tribu- 
 tary of the Loire, but I soon came on the prettiest 
 part of that river, near Saumur, passing upon the top 
 of a lofty Dike, extending as far as Orleans, raised long 
 ago, to repress the river. Acacia hedges, vines, and 
 walnut-trees, with orchards and rich crops of corn, 
 cover the country. Saumur also has a castle, which, 
 together with its houses, are white ; while the general 
 character of Angers is black, so it makes a pleasing, 
 and smiling contrast. Near this I saw one of the most 
 curious Druidical remains in France : a hut or house, 
 formed of huge blocks of unhewn stone, placed upright 
 to form the walls, with others laid flat above, for the 
 roof, just as you would make a house of cards. Each 
 story is of dimensions enormous, the largest twenty- 
 four feet by twenty-one, and the length of the cot 
 more than eighty feet. 
 
 ' I turned aside to Fontevrault, memorable as the 
 burial-place of our Kings, Richard Cceur-de-Lion, and 
 his father Henry II. The vast church in which they
 
 70 LETTERr 
 
 lie, situated in a quiet valley, was, as usual, pillaged 
 and ransacked at the Revolution ; and these statues, 
 interesting as portraits, were torn from their tombs, 
 and broken ; they are now placed in a dark corner, 
 with mutilated visages and broken noses, enclosed by 
 bolts and bars and grilles, for the church has been 
 converted into a prison, which is much to be deplored. 
 
 ' After I had come a considerable distance in a cab, 
 hired exprds, the pert jailor's daughter (hang her !) 
 was very nearly causing me to be turned away, with 
 the gate shut in my face, because the Minister [of the 
 Interior had lately published an ordinance, prohibiting 
 visitors entering prisons ; but by perseverance and ex- 
 plaining that I did not care a fig for the prisoners, but 
 only for the chapel, I won my way. 
 
 ' My day's journey ended at Chinon, a little town on 
 the river Vienne, with a castle of enormous extent, 
 now one vast heap of ruins, but originally the favourite 
 residence of our early kings, Henry II. and Richard I., 
 who held it as counts of Aiijou, and afterwards of the 
 kings of France. It stands on a most commanding 
 platform of rock, divided into three parts, by very 
 deep fosses, cut in the rock. In one pile of crumbling 
 roofless walls, where the position of once stately rooms, 
 without number, is shown by broken chimneys and 
 windows, tradition has recorded, that Joan of Arc was 
 first introduced to Charles VII., and distinguishing 
 him, from among his courtiers, led him to the recess 
 in the thickness of the wall, apart from the rest, where 
 she revealed to him, things, which the chroniclers say, 
 convinced him of her mission from Heaven. Here are 
 many dungeon towers, in which the Grand Master of 
 the Templars, Jacques de Molay, that chief of the 
 Order, may have lingered ; and from another tower, 
 ran a secret passage, by which Charles VII. visited his 
 mistress, Agnes Sorel, in the house, which he had built 
 for her, outside the walls. 
 
 ' At Tours J was in the land of Quentin Durward,
 
 1841] PLESSIS-LES-TOURS 71 
 
 and one of my first proceedings, was to visit the house 
 of Tristan 1'Heremite, the hangman of Louis XI., in 
 one of its narrow streets. It is a curious building, 
 certainly, of that time ; but I believe, the chief 
 authority, for attributing it, to that personage, is, that 
 along its brick walls, among the ornaments of its 
 windows and doors, runs a rope, well carved, twisted, 
 at intervals, into a very pretty knot, remarkably like 
 the noose of a halter. I climbed up to the top, of, its 
 turret stair, which, rising above the neighbouring 
 houses, curiously enough, commands a view of Louis 
 XL's residence, Plessis-les-tours. To that ill-omened 
 house of horror, of bigotry, and wickedness, I next 
 walked ; all its fosses and walls, watch-towers and 
 pitfalls, so well described by Sir Walter, have dis- 
 appeared under the plough, and the Castle itself (a 
 very small fragment of which, only remains, converted 
 into a dwelling, and with a tower stair at one corner), 
 so far from possessing either the picturesque, or frown- 
 ing aspect of a castle, is a mean red brick house with a 
 tiled roof nearly as high as its walls, and large sash 
 windows, groined with stone. Yet, this was the style of 
 building, at the period, partly corresponding with that, 
 of Hampton Court. However, at the end of the garden, 
 I was shown one vaulted dungeon, in which, the lady 
 of the house, told me, was Cardinal Balue's prison ; and 
 her little daughter, conducted me, to a neighbouring 
 cottage, where, in an outhouse, lumbered with empty 
 casks, I discovered, a small vaulted chapel, where, 
 doubtless, Louis, used to say some of his numerous 
 prayers. To give an idea of his religious notions, here 
 is a specimen I lately met with. I do not think it is 
 mentioned in the novel ; it is written from Plessis, to 
 the prior of a distant church : " Maltre Pierre, mon. 
 ami, je vous prie, comme je puis, que vous priez inces- 
 samment, Dieu, et Notre Dame de Sales, que leur plaisir 
 soit, de m'envoyer la fievre quarte, car, j'ai une maladie, 
 dont les physiciens disent, que je ne puis guerir sans
 
 72 LETTERS 
 
 1'avoir ; et quand je 1'aurai, je vous le ferai savoir, 
 incontinent." He probably had his wish, for a little 
 while after, he writes, to beg the prior, will pray our 
 Lady of Sales " qu'elle nie donne guerison parfaite." 
 
 ' I am afraid, I shall weary you with old castles, for 
 I have a great many more on my list, which I have 
 visited all, to my mind, of greater or less interest, 
 picturesquely and historically. And next, Amboise, 
 another residence, of French kings, now the property 
 of Louis-Philippe, who is altering and improving it, and 
 rendering it habitable, piercing the wall of rock, on 
 which it stands, through and through, with a tunnel, 
 in order to give easier entrance. The mode of access to 
 the castle, was by two huge round towers, one in front, 
 and the other behind, ninety feet high and forty-two 
 wide, containing not a stair, but a winding inclined 
 plane, up which, horses or carriages, may drive to the 
 top. One of these is now stopped, but the other is 
 perfect. They were built, together with most part of 
 the existing castle, by Charles VIII., who was born, and 
 died here. He, and his Queen, Anne of Brittany, added 
 an exquisitely beautiful chapel, covered inside with 
 stone-work of a richness and delicacy that can be com- 
 pared only to lace, or carvings in ivory delicacy in the 
 manipulation, though not in the subjects. It has all the 
 richness, without the arrangement of Henry VII.'s 
 Chapel. There are fearful associations connected with 
 this castle, of the ill-devised " conjuration d'Amboise," 
 set on foot to rescue from the hands of the Guises, who 
 held him enthralled, the boy-king, Francis II. One 
 thousand two hundred Protestants, who did take, or 
 were to have taken part in it, were hanged round the 
 walls, or in the streets, or drowned in the Loire, during 
 this prelude to the massacre of St. Bartholomew ; but 
 whitewash, and papered walls, and cast-off furniture 
 from the Palais Royal, sent hither when the Due 
 d'Orleans refurnished his house, to receive his wife, have 
 destroyed the character of the building ; and a range of
 
 1841] CHENONCEAUX 73 
 
 low and once dark vaults, which might have passed for 
 dungeons, oubliettes, &c., have by the present king, 
 been turned into kitchens, pantries, cellars, &c., and 
 illumined by the glare of broad day, let in, through 
 apertures, as big as port-holes in a battery. 
 
 ' I passed hence, to visit an old-fashioned chateau, 
 Chenonceaux, which has nearly as many souvenirs 
 about it, but not of so disagreeable a kind. It was built 
 in the more joyous days of Francis the First. Its 
 picturesque towers and bridged moat, though still pre- 
 serving the shape of a castle, were not meant for 
 defence ; and its front, is covered over with the graceful 
 and delicate Italian ornaments, which are seen at 
 Lpngleat, Audley End, and in works of Inigo Jones. It 
 stands on the river Cher: literally on, for it is built 
 upon a bridge, and the river passes under it. At a dis- 
 tance, most picturesque, with its green court, stables, 
 single advanced round tower, occupied by the concierge, 
 and pretty formal gardens around ; it^is within, almost 
 unaltered, since the day it was built, besides being well, 
 and carefully kept up, retaining all its old furniture 
 a vaulted hall hung with armour, walls covered with 
 stamped cloth, doors, screened by tapestry, curtains, 
 Avhich draw aside, rich ceilings of blue ground studded 
 with stars, old cabinets, old china and glass the very 
 glass out of which Francis I. drank ; Mary Queen, of 
 Scots' mirror, &c. But its chief interest, depends on the 
 persons who have lived in it. It was given, by Henry II. 
 to his mistress, Diane de Poitiers, who enlarged it, by 
 extending the bridge, constructed over only part of the 
 river, quite to the other side, and raising upon it, a 
 handsome, but less quaint and interesting building, of 
 two stories. She was, however, dispossessed of her fair 
 mansion, on the death of Henry, by the wicked and 
 unscrupulous Catherine de Medicis, whose bedroom, 
 with the original furniture, you are still shown. Here 
 again, near the end of the last century, by a curious 
 coincidence, were collected all the wits of the time,
 
 74 LETTERS 
 
 drawn together, by the owner of the mansion, Madame 
 Dupin, a beautiful, amiable, and accomplished lady, 
 who died so recently as 1799, at the age of 93. In her 
 time, Voltaire, Bolingbroke, (the exiled minister), Rous- 
 seau, and many others, were her constant visitors ; and 
 in the little dusty faded theatre, which occupies the end 
 of Diana's Gallery, Rousseau's opera, " Le Devin du 
 Village," was, for the first time performed. There is a 
 very curious collection of historical portraits, including 
 all the persons, who have lived here ; among them, a 
 whole-length of Diana, in the costume of her namesake, 
 the Goddess, with a dog in a leash, a bow at her back, 
 and wearing a taffeta petticoat, embroidered in gold 
 fleurs-de-lys. The most remarkable thing, about 
 Chenonceaux, perhaps, is, that it escaped the ravages 
 of the Revolution ; owing solely, I believe, to the respect 
 which the character of its mistress commanded. 
 
 ' It is curious, that in this beautiful and interesting 
 land, of Touraine, the deservedly chosen resort of the 
 monarchs of France, of whom Charles VII. built Chinon 
 and Loches, Louis XI. Plessis, Charles VIII. Amboise, 
 Louis XII. Blois, Francis I. Chambord, until Louis XIV. 
 set himself down in the marsh and made Paris, the con- 
 centration of France, by fixing his residence so near it, 
 women, should have played, so remarkable a part: 
 Diane de Poitiers, Catherine de Medicis, Agnes Sorel, 
 and Jeanne d'Arc ladies partly of ambiguous character, 
 it must be confessed. But now I come to one of them, 
 who is a great favourite with me, Agnes Sorel. At Loches, 
 another vast royal castle, all in ruins, I saw her tomb 
 turned out of the church, by the ungrateful monks, 
 whom she had enriched while living, her effigy, reclining 
 on its back with hands uplifted in prayer, lies in a 
 tower of the castle, upon a tomb of black marble. Two 
 little angels, bend over her head, spreading out their 
 wings, as though to protect her, and two lambs recline, 
 at her feet. She is gracefully dressed : a small circlet, 
 set with pearls, surrounds her forehead; and a face,
 
 1841] SPAIN 75 
 
 more sweet, amiable, and modest, with almost, the 
 elevated character of a Madonna, of Raphael, I scarcely 
 ever saw. She deserves some gratitude from the French. 
 Agnes, and Joan, saved their country from the English ; 
 Agnes, by rousing the energies of a previously torpid 
 monarch, and stimulating him, to become the leader 
 of his armies.' 
 
 ' Bayonne, August 28, 1841. 
 
 'My companion and I, have just returned from 
 making a dash into Spain ! This will probably surprise 
 you, as I gave you no previous notice, but the scheme 
 was of my suggesting ; I did not know whether Torrie, 
 would like it : he, however, was nothing loth, and I am 
 happy to say, the expedition has turned out successfully, 
 and afforded both of us much pleasure. 
 
 ' As the inducements to the journey, besides that of 
 having a glimpse of a country and people entirely new 
 to us, I may mention my desire to explore the farthest 
 roots of the Pyrenees, on the west, where they push 
 themselves into the sea ; and to visit the extreme south- 
 west country of France, a district not yet Trollopized, 
 and indeed scarcely described by any English travellers, 
 but interesting as being the country of the Basques. I 
 had also some curiosity to see the effects which war, 
 leaves upon a country the frontier of Spain, bordering 
 on France, being, as you know, the battle-field of the 
 late war, between Carlist and Christine ; and I return, 
 blessing the happy star, which exempts our little island, 
 from the horrors of such a scourge. The sight of it, 
 would do good to Joseph Hume, and all such, as vote 
 against our army and navy estimates, which (under 
 Providence) have the effect of keeping all enemies, at a 
 distance from our doors. 
 
 ' We quitted this place (where there is little to be 
 seen, except the Adour river, which the Duke of 
 Wellington's army crossed, a mile below the town, 
 just out of reach of the guns of the citadel, one of the
 
 76 LETTERS 
 
 strongest in France) yesterday morning, on the top of 
 a diligence, which runs from this, to St Sebastian, 
 established within the last eight mouths ; all communi- 
 cation having been stopped, while the war lasted. The 
 little river Bidassoa, which the Duke of Wellington 
 crossed, also, in his triumphant entrance into France, 
 from Spain, driving Marshal Soult before him, divides 
 the two countries. A little below the bridge, is an 
 earth bank tufted with grass, a mere strip of ground, 
 on which one or two cows were feeding, called He des 
 Faisans, memorable because upon it, as a piece of neutral 
 ground, Cardinal Mazarin, and the Spanish general, 
 Haro, negotiated the marriage of Louis XIV. A pavilion 
 was erected in the centre, and approaches were made 
 on both sides, by bridges, for the ambassadors, and 
 their suites to meet. Inundations, have carried off a 
 large part of the isle, which has also been cut, and 
 pared by the peasants, in order to lay the earth on 
 their fields, so that in a few years probably it will not 
 exist. Scarcely had we passed beyond the fortified 
 house, flanked with loop-holes and trussed, by enormous 
 stone buttresses, at the end of the bridge, forming the 
 Spanish custom-house, and guarded by soldiers of that 
 country, who in their blue uniforms and white duck- 
 trousers and gaiters, look neater than the French, than 
 we began to see traces of the v/ar in ruined houses ; 
 and on the approach to Irun, the first village about two 
 miles off, we passed a large house of rude masonry by 
 the road-side, the lower windows of which, were built 
 up with stones, so as to leave only a narrow loop-hole 
 in the middle, to fire through. It formed a fore-post, 
 for General Evans, who finally succeeded in taking Irun. 
 Some, of the most conspicuously-placed houses in Irun, 
 are literally peppered and pocked from top to bottom, 
 with shot-marks, while in others the damage is concealed, 
 by a coat of whitewash, serving, as a Spanish cloak, 
 often does, to conceal rags, and rents, below it. By 
 throwing a wall up, about the houses, the Spaniards
 
 1841] IN SPAIN 77 
 
 converted this, and other naturally harmless villages, 
 into a fortress, which stood many sieges. The wall, is 
 not higher, or much thicker than a garden-wall ; but 
 then, at every yard it is pierced, with a loop-hole to 
 fire through an arrangement well suited to Spanish 
 taste ; and small, and very narrow gates, were built at 
 the end of the principal streets. 
 
 'In passing from one country, into another, you 
 always find the dresses, language, houses, customs, &c. 
 of the two people, by a gradual transition, approach 
 one another : this was here, also the case ; but still I 
 could hardly have anticipated, the total change that 
 ensues, the instant you set foot on the Spanish frontier, 
 even though the dress of the peasants a blue bonnet, 
 exactly like that of the Scottish shepherds, a red sash 
 round the middle, and sandals of twisted hemp, which 
 unravels in wet weather are the same ; and the people 
 are Basques, speaking the same language, unlike any 
 other on the globe, on both sides of the frontier. The 
 country, assumes a rugged, shaggy, untrodden aspect, 
 a greater part of the hills covered with bushes, brambles, 
 fern, or heath, giving it a scrubby appearance, with 
 portions of ground larger and more numerous low 
 down, than high up cleared for culture, and covered 
 with rich crops of broad-leaved gigantic maize, which 
 appears almost the only object of cultivation. 
 
 ' The high-road in Prance, always straight, and three 
 times as broad as necessary, is here narrow and very 
 winding. You meet on it, scarce any vehicle, except 
 the rude country cart, drawn by a pair of oxen, wearing 
 ox-cloths to shield them from the flies, and moving upon 
 two round discs of board not on spokes, whi n very 
 often, from want of grease, announces its approach by 
 the most horrid squeaking you can imagine sourness 
 ' long drawn out ; " a noise between the braying of a 
 mule and the mewing of a cat. We also passed several 
 trains of mules, attended by the arriero, or muleteer, 
 fastened together, and well packed ; there were also
 
 78 LETTERS 
 
 trains of asses, generally guided by women, some 
 walking some riding, among whom one might readily 
 have found the type of Dulcinea. The Spanish female 
 peasants, carry all burdens on their heads baskets, 
 water- jars, resembling huge tea-pots with spout and 
 handle ; and from this habit of balancing themselves, 
 derive their graceful carriage. 
 
 'The postilions who drove us had, in one or two 
 instances, been out with Don Carlos ; one still wore the 
 military great-coat, bearing C. V. buttons, now turned 
 into a box-coat. They urge on their horses, and mules 
 for both occur mixed in one team by calling each, 
 by its name, and scolding them with volleys of Spanish 
 oaths, quite different from, and twice as bad, as the 
 French. To complete the contrast, and fully assure us 
 we were in Spain, we had not advanced eight miles, 
 before out started, from among a party of peasants 
 assembled, by the roadside, on the approach of our 
 conveyance, a pair of wild-looking but athletic, fellows, 
 in blue caps and blouses, with heavy guns slung behind 
 their backs, and ran by the roadside, for a whole stage, 
 keeping up with the horses. These were Miquellatos, 
 or police-officers, appointed to escort and protect us 
 from robbers, as in the present state of the country, 
 there are many wild fellows about, and the Zaragossa 
 diligence, was robbed a few days ago, to a very large 
 amount, taken from the different passengers. In our 
 case there, appeared to be no risk of such an adventure ; 
 but really the country seems made for robbery and 
 war a very thieves' paradise. The houses great, heavy, 
 square, flat-roofed buildings, with thick walls and small 
 windows, are ready-made forts ; every little window, 
 commanding the road, looks like a loop-hole ; and the 
 country is so tossed about with hills, intersected with 
 winding denies, and valleys, having sudden turns, so 
 scattered with mounds, and banks, and sprinkled with 
 tufts, bushes, hedges, and bits of old walls an ambus- 
 cade might be formed at every five yards.
 
 1841] IRUN 79 
 
 'Irun, with its deserted Plaza de Isabel II. Reyna 
 Constitucional, its narrow and gloomy streets, its houses, 
 faced with wooden balconies, on two or three stories, 
 often with rails of wood, like bannisters, in front, the 
 roofs projecting their penthouses, so as nearly to touch, 
 in the middle of the street, thus assisting to keep off 
 the sun. The ground-floor is usually an empty space 
 used as a hall of passage to the staircase, or lumber- 
 room, but its windows are strongly barred ; and over 
 the door is often a coat-of-arms carved in stone, a relic 
 of Spanish pride. Ladies, with mantillas, and fans, are 
 seen gliding along the shady side, to mass, and gentle- 
 men, in long cloaks, though the weather is hot to 
 suffocation, the sky without a cloud. The churches, 
 of which I entered one or two, were not very remark- 
 able for size or architecture, but the altars are most 
 splendid and gaudy ; architectural facades of golden 
 pillars, architraves, &c. serving as frames to mediocre 
 pictures or bas-reliefs. The shops in these smaller towns, 
 contain only the very commonest and coarsest articles, 
 and the whole stock might generally go into a donkey's 
 pannier. 
 
 ' On our way from Irun, we had to cross a high pass ; 
 for though the name of Pyrenees, ceases at the western 
 extremity of France, the mountain chain stretches 
 onwards to the extremity of Gallicia, sending down 
 numerous branches to the sea. On the ascent we had 
 a fine view of the town of Fuentarabia, famed in 
 romance ; and after traversing the defiles and crossing 
 the mountain summits, passing near a very remarkable, 
 and picturesque rock of granite, called " The Four 
 Crowns," we descended on the opposite side, into another 
 valley, in which lies Hernani, another small town, near 
 which, many battles occurred, and the Legion, sustained 
 one most severe defeat, being surprised, and cut off by 
 the Carlists, who occupied the pass behind, and before, 
 as well as the sides of the mountains. The field now 
 waves with a green sea, of most luxuriant maize.
 
 80 LETTERS 
 
 ' After toiling up a long and very steep ascent, we 
 caine in sight of St Sebastian the Gibraltar of the 
 north of Spain ; a tall and rocky eminence, with a 
 crown of embrazured walls bristling with cannon on 
 its top, rising out of the sea, in the middle of a bay, 
 which extends two hilly arms, on either side. A tongue 
 of sand, along which the road is carried, joins the rock 
 to the land, and at the end of the causeway, which 
 every advancing tide contracts, in width, to a musket- 
 shot, lies the small town, nestling under the tall rock, 
 and also surrounded, by very strong and lofty fortifica- 
 tions. Its aspect, as you ascend the, hill, towards the 
 sea is very striking, but our attention was partly with- 
 drawn from it, by the objects in the foreground. The 
 whole slope of the bay towards the fortress, forming a 
 curve of high hills five or six miles long, is sprinkled 
 over with villages, farms, campagnes, convents; and, 
 with the exception of one or two, which have been 
 repaired or rebuilt in the last eighteen months, not one 
 remains entire : the roofs smashed in, or entirely gone, 
 the inside, gutted of every bit of timber, with heaps of 
 stones, already grass-grown, lying, where once were the 
 hearthstones and chambers ; the windows empty, or 
 built up into loop-holes ; the outer walls scarified by 
 shot, except where some cannon-ball, or shell, has gone 
 clean through, leaving either a hole, or prostrating the 
 wall entirely. Such is the aspect of the country within 
 a radius of three miles from St Sebastian such the 
 consequences of war. These houses were good points 
 for annoying the fortress, and were, on this account, 
 occupied by the Carlists, in besieging it; and though 
 dislodged by its cannon, sometimes buried under the 
 ruins, always burning or gutting the habitation before 
 they quitted it. The town itself is quite modern, since 
 the capture by the Duke of Wellington, when it was 
 reduced to a heap of ruins. Its streets, are all built 
 at right angles, and all nearly alike ; but it has one 
 square, in the centre, with a piazza round it, where
 
 1841] SIEGE OF ST SEBASTIAN 81 
 
 promenaders, pace up, and down, in the cool of the 
 evening. 
 
 ' We climbed to the very summit of the fortress, and 
 enjoyed one of the finest views, I have seen for some 
 time. On the land side the bay, its fertile hillsides, 
 now glowing with Indian corn but melancholy from 
 its ruins ; and behind it, a noble semicircle of distant 
 hills, peaks and ridges ; filling the horizon to the north, 
 the uninterrupted swell of the Bay of Biscay and the 
 Atlantic, with a strip of the coast of Biscay, and a 
 glimpse of that of France. On this quiet solitary side 
 of the rock, shut out from the noise and sight of the 
 world, with nothing to intercept the silence, but the 
 roar of the waves, dashing against its base, rest many 
 of the poor fellows, Englishmen, who fell in the late 
 unprofitable, inglorious, mercenary fights. One of 
 them, Colonel Le Marchant, was an eminent officer. I 
 did not fail to make our guide show us the spot where 
 the British, during the Peninsular war, breached the 
 ramparts and stormed the town, capturing it, from the 
 French, after I know not how many months, of in- 
 cessant attack, "toujours en avant," as the man said; 
 very much to the astonishment of a young French 
 traveller, who accompanied us, and had never heard of 
 the French defeat, or chose not to remember the event. 
 The Duke of Wellington's batteries, were erected on 
 the shore of the bay opposite the fortress, whose very 
 highest half-moon a mile, I should think, in a direct 
 line, and 250 feet above the sea bears on its walls, to 
 this day, the holes and dents of the well-directed fire. 
 The British crossed the arm of the sea at low-water to 
 occupy the breach. 
 
 ' We walked to Passages, a singular spot, three miles 
 distant on the coast ; a sort of marine lake, separated 
 from the sea by mountains, through which, however, 
 nature has cut a passage, not more than a pistol-shot 
 wide, by which large vessels can enter. It is a puzzle, 
 on approaching it, to know how the access, to the sea 
 
 G
 
 82 LETTERS 
 
 is gained. The high steep hills on each side of this 
 mouth, are lined with houses forming the town; and 
 there is so little space between the water and the sea 
 that there are no streets, only narrow alleys, as at 
 Venice. Here again has been war, and desolation, 
 complete. Not half the houses are inhabited, the rest 
 all Cerastes by shot-shells ruined, tottering, mere shells 
 or .heaps of stones. The Carlists, occupying the sur- 
 rounding heights, poured down their hail of shot for 
 months, until "ces diables d' Anglais," the sailors of 
 Lord John Hay, and Royal Engineers, sent to assist 
 Evans, not only scaled the high hill between the town 
 and sea, but dragged cannon up its precipices, and built 
 a fort on the top, which silenced all the Carlist annoy- 
 ances. Next day we were again at Bayonne, delighted 
 with our two days in Spain. It was quite worth while 
 to go so far ; but before penetrating farther into this 
 country, one ought to be master of the language.' 
 
 4 Bareges, Sept. 7, 1841. 
 
 * Pau, whence my last letter was despatched to you, 
 stands as it were on the threshold of the Pyrenees ; 
 and the view of the chain of pics and ridges, seen from 
 the terrace called the Pare, is one of the finest in 
 France somewhat like that of the Alps, which we 
 admired together at Berne. It does credit to the taste 
 of the English that so many of them make Pau their 
 place of residence. Its climate is delicious, and its 
 winter is said to pass away without . its usual accom- 
 paniments. Pau has only one object of interest in 
 itself, that is, the fine old stately castle of the princes 
 of Beam, in which Henri Quatre was born. The cradle 
 in which he was rocked, the shell of a large tortoise 
 suspended upside down, by cords like a scale for weigh- 
 ing, is still preserved. This venerable relic escaped 
 destruction at the Revolution, like the statue at
 
 1841] PAU 83 
 
 Charing Cross, by a zealous Royalist substituting for 
 it another tortoiseshell, obtained from a cabinet of 
 natural history, which was dragged through the streets 
 and broken to pieces. The castle now belongs to Louis- 
 Philippe, who, as usual, is restoring it in very good 
 taste, and filling it with ancient furniture. A carved 
 bedstead is said to have belonged to Henry, and a 
 gothic arm-chair, the gift of Marshal Soult, who bought 
 it for the king in England, to Henry's mother, Jeanne 
 d'Albret.- One room is to be fitted up with splendid 
 and costly vases, tables, chimney-piece, &c. of por- 
 phyry from Sweden, the contribution of Bernadotte, 
 King of Sweden to Pau, his native town. The house 
 where he was born still exists, and many of his relatives 
 remain in very humble condition : one female cousin 
 keeps a gargote (a common eating-house), where dinners 
 may be had at five sous; another, an old man, who 
 collects the octroi duties at the entrance of the town, 
 has now and then a carriage stop before his door, a 
 purse is handed out to him, containing five or six 
 thousand francs, and it then drives off. Bernadotte 
 quitted the place very young as a drummer boy. 
 
 ' In the view from Pau, one mountain in particular 
 had attracted our attention by its striking form, and 
 our first plunge into the mountains was to pay it a visit. 
 It rises at the end of the Val d'Ossau, which we found 
 to be one of the most interesting in the Pyrenees, both 
 for its fine scenery and its inhabitants, who are a 
 primitive race, retaining their ancient customs and 
 costumes the women wearing red hoods, called capelets, 
 which I can compare only to bags unsewn along one 
 side, drawn over the head, and descending below the 
 shoulders, so that they serve for hat and cloak at once. 
 The men wear broad brown caps, overhanging their 
 brows, exactly like those worn by Scottish shepherds, 
 brown jackets, tights, and stockings, all of the undyed 
 black sheep's wool, and a scarlet sash round their 
 waists. I saw among them many faces and figures
 
 84 LETTERS 
 
 which would have delighted an artist to paint. There 
 are two watering-places in this valley, and our first 
 halt was made at that called Eaux Bonnes, a group of 
 hotels and lodging-houses of large size, [niched into 
 a little nook or side valley, with precipices rising close 
 behind the houses, as straight as their walls. I have 
 no doubt the bears and wolves look down from above 
 and see all that is going on below. Perhaps you don't 
 think there are many such animals. We had scarcely 
 been half an hour in the place when we were roused 
 by the noise of a number of shots, close at hand ; and 
 hastening to the spot to see what was the matter, we 
 met descending the steep slope behind the chapel, the 
 last building in the place, a singular procession. A 
 wild-looking party of active peasants, in the brown 
 berrets, jackets, and stockings, I have described to you, 
 their long locks cut away from their brows, but hang- 
 ing down behind, below the neck, as is their fashion, 
 armed with muskets and hatchets, one bearing a dead 
 izard, or chamois, slung round his shoulders ; another 
 leading an animal, which it required some minutes to 
 recognize. tt,was a donkey, not in a lion's but in a bear's 
 skin, his long ears packed quite close under Bruin's 
 small night-cap, and the broad pattes or feet of the 
 deceased hanging and swinging most inconveniently 
 about the ass's own hoofs. The bear had been killed 
 that morning on the mountain, having committed the 
 night before the atrocious murder of ten sheep, two 
 of which he had furthermore eaten. His captors, who 
 had taken good aim one shot going straight through 
 his forehead, and several others into the head were 
 picking up a few sous by dragging his spoils from one 
 hotel to the other. 
 
 ' The number of visitors left at the baths was not 
 very great, though the Eaux Bonnes have become one 
 of the most fashionable watering-places of the Pyrenees, 
 and is provided with some of the most showy hotels. 
 We soon satisfied our curiosity ; but next morning a
 
 1841] THE PYRENEES 85 
 
 terrific rain, which had lasted through the previous 
 night, delayed our departure till nearly noon. We 
 walked to Eaux Chaudes, where the baths and inns are 
 of a humble character ; but the scenery of the deep 
 gorge in whose depth they lie, between precipitous 
 mountains, is very striking. Far finer, however, is the 
 upper part of the valley, whither Torrie and I rode, 
 nearly to the Spanish frontier, quite to the foot of the 
 Pic du Midi. Although it would not show itself, owing 
 to envious mists, we were well repaid by the views ; the 
 abundance of foliage of all sorts, especially of box, 
 which grows here in an extraordinary luxuriance, like 
 furze or broom with us, covering the mountain from 
 top to bottom. There were not wanting many fine 
 large trees. On the road we met the flocks descending 
 for the winter from the high pastures, attended by the 
 noble Pyrenean dogs, fine robust animals, as large as 
 Newfoundland dogs, whose duty is less to conduct than 
 to protect the sheep, and both dog and shepherd are 
 generally seen leading the way. The next day we 
 returned to Pau, and, favoured by the sun, had at last 
 a fine view of the Pic, when we were thirty miles 
 distant from it. 
 
 ' Our second start from Pau carried us through very 
 fine scenery, but different from what we had already 
 seen, to the baths of Cauterets, St Sauveur, and 
 Bareges. It happens that the watering-places of the 
 Pyrenees are so placed as to form excellent halting 
 places for mere tourists while in passing from one to 
 the other, or in short excursions, you see all the finest 
 scenery. The number of English we have seen here is 
 remarkably small, I cannot help thinking because so 
 little is known of the country. There is literally no 
 tolerable guide. I know no district so destitute ; and 
 we are obliged to feel our way at every step, by 
 
 gleaning oral information. T is a most invaluable 
 
 and delightful companion. It is like seeing with 
 another pair of eyes to have him at my elbow ; and it
 
 86 LETTERS 
 
 is not a little agreeable to revive old recollections and 
 associations of former journeys. The longest walk we 
 have taken was from Cauterets to a small lake, called 
 Lac de Gaube, about twelve miles there and back 
 through fine scenery, but up hill all the way. The 
 lake has a melancholy interest, from the death of a 
 newly-married English pair, who, arriving at this 
 solitary spot, where there is only a solitary fishing-hut, 
 in the absence of the fisherman got into his wretched 
 ticklish canoe. When in the middle of the lake the 
 boat upset how, no one knows ; and they were 
 drowned, without any eye to mark their fate even. In 
 
 toiling up the steep path, T s s sharp eye discovered 
 
 the recent footmarks of a bear's paws, claw and heel, as 
 distinct as possible, imprinted probably not more than 
 three or four hours before. Snow had fallen in the 
 night, which had probably caused Bruin to descend 
 lower than usual in search of food. 
 
 ' We made the pretty little village of Luz our head- 
 quarters for a day or two, on account of its centrical 
 situation for making several excursions. The chief of 
 these is to the Cirque de Gavarnie, distant about fifteen 
 miles. We set out on horseback soon after six, with 
 a guide, Jacques, recommended by our worthy little 
 fat landlady, Madame Caseaux, who gives almost the 
 best dinners to be found in the Pyrenees. Favoured 
 by a brilliant sunshine, and fresh morning air, we rode 
 rapidly up the valley past the edge of precipices, 
 down which the eye looked aplomb 250 or 300 feet 
 into the green and frothy river, agonised within the 
 narrow cleft, barely opened for it between the rocks 
 below. We trotted over many narrow bridges of 
 planks, suspended over gulfs and cataracts, and 
 galloped by waterfalls innumerable, many of them 
 bestridden by water-mills, four or five in a row, not 
 much larger than boxes looking at a distance like 
 beads on a white thread. About half-way, in descending 
 a hill towards a village called Gedres, where the gorge
 
 1841] A MOUNTAIN CLIMB 87 
 
 expands into a basin- shaped valley, we had a fine view 
 of the mountain called Marbore, which rises above the 
 Cirque de Gavarnie, all covered with snow ; and beside 
 it we saw equally clearly the far-famed Breche de 
 Roland. This is a square gap in the wall of rock form- 
 ing the crest of the mountain, made by the Paladin 
 en chef Orlando, with one swashing blow of his sword 
 when he passed over into Spain to fight the Moors ! 
 We pulled up and eyed it attentively I with my 
 glass. From where we stood it looked a mere notch 
 or like the gap left in an otherwise well-filled jaw by the 
 loss of a single tooth. Yet we gazed on it with interest, 
 from the story, and its name and its great elevation, 
 
 9000 feet above the sea, and T advised me to make 
 
 the ascent, he of course not being equal for it. 
 
 ' The idea had occurred to me already ; the ambition 
 of climbing prevailed, and I proposed the expedition to 
 our guide. The suggestion came unexpectedly upon 
 him. We had started an hour and a half too late, he 
 said, and it would take four good hours' hard climbing 
 from the foot of the ascent. In short he seemed very 
 lukewarm : still the ascent was decided on. At Gavarnie 
 we were provided with crampons for the feet, and 
 with spiked batons, which a wild dishevelled lass bore, 
 scampering after our ponies, about three miles from 
 the village, as far as the Cirque. This is a natural 
 amphitheatre, surrounded not by mountains as valleys 
 commonly are, but by a circle of precipices, rising like 
 a wall on all sides save one, where there is a breach to 
 let out the river, formed by the drainage of many 
 glaciers, and of twelve or sixteen streamlets, which 
 descend over the walls of rock in falls like white 
 strings. The precipices forming the sides of the Cirque 
 of Gavarnie are divided into three or four steps, or 
 terraces, and between each terrace is a glacier of ice 
 and snow heaped up, the whole surmounted by numerous 
 sharp snowy peaks. As a scale to show you the dimen- 
 sions of the Cirque, there is one fall which descends in
 
 88 LETTERS 
 
 one white cord down the face of a precipice, 1200 to 
 1400 feet high. There is a singular ocular deception in 
 the view: you arrive at the entrance, and think the 
 waterfall close at hand, but you toil over rough fallen 
 stones and glacier for nearly half an hour before you 
 reach its foot, the distance being a long mile. I have 
 now got to the foot of the mountain, and the very 
 verge of my paper, and in consequence must break off ; 
 but I promise to continue my narrative immediately 
 on another sheet.' 
 
 ' Bagnres de Bigorre, Sept. 8, 1841. 
 
 ' Before quitting the village of Gavarnie, by T 's 
 
 advice I had fortified myself with breakfast some 
 trout, and a very tough chop, washed down with a 
 small quantity of red wine and water; but the wine 
 being very bad, I did not take much of it. Jacques, 
 equally provident, stored a wallet with huge hunches 
 of meat and bread, and slung round his neck an ugly 
 looking wooden bottle. But you exclaim, You have 
 brought us to the foot of the mountain, why don't you 
 carry us up ? The fact is, I cannot see my way up, and 
 neither you nor any other person coming to the Cirque, 
 for the first time, would divine that there was any way 
 up. It is all wall and precipice perpendicular all the 
 way round. Jacques, however, the sturdy guide of 
 eighteen years' standing, who has been up to the Breche 
 twice this year, and four or five times last, and more 
 than forty times in his life, is leading the way steadily, 
 over stripes of dirty glacier, and heaps of pointed 
 stones fallen from above since the creation, and perhaps 
 some of them part before it, while the world was a 
 chaos. He makes steadily for the right-hand corner 
 picking his way where no path is visible, to a slightly 
 projecting buttress of rock seemingly as abrupt and 
 vertical as any other part. Here he commences literally
 
 1841] A STIFF CLIMB 89 
 
 escalading the precipices ; and as the undertaking is 
 now not to be avoided no shirking your humble 
 servant set to work in earnest to imitate Jacques, and 
 find his way. 
 
 ' Where we began the rock is literally a sheer wall, 
 but being composed of shivery limestone a kind of 
 slate, it breaks off into splintery edges, which serve 
 with care as steps. I do not profess to be especially 
 courageous, provided with strong nerve, or endowed 
 with remarkable steadiness, or strength of head, and 
 I felt it was only by firmly riveting my attention to 
 the object before me, the very spot on which I was to 
 place my foot, that I could avoid the distraction and 
 tendency to giddiness produced by an uninterrupted 
 glance down a precipice hundreds of feet beneath me. 
 In many places the nicks or notches were very wide 
 apart, or, instead of a projection offering a hold for the 
 foot, nothing but a smooth space of slate presented 
 itself ; now and then my blindness prevented my dis- 
 cerning the proper steps, and I then had to feel my way 
 aided by the guide's instruction, and grasping firm hold 
 by the hand of some projection above. Here the spiked 
 pole was much in the way, and I was tempted to throw 
 it aside 'twas well I did not. The guide advanced 
 steadily upwards, putting one foot before the other 
 in the same even and regular steps, as though beating 
 time. .There is no intermission to this ascent no 
 landing place where you may gain breath by a few 
 dozen paces along level ground, it is all treadmill work, 
 always ascending, sometimes up a steep bank of green- 
 sward, at another, up a projecting buttress of the 
 limestone wall, the strata of which, being almost vertical, 
 resembled the leaves of a book, only quite ragged round 
 the edges. In this way we toiled up for two good hours, 
 of incessant hard labour. The heat was intense, and I 
 felt a constant throbbing in the drums of my ears. 
 One or twice we stopped to draw breath, and it was a 
 glorious sight to look around upon the Cirque and the
 
 90 LETTERS 
 
 snowy ridges surmounting it, and down upon the 
 precipices and waterfalls beneath my feet, which just 
 before I had gazed up at with aching head. 
 
 ' After each twenty minutes of toil, I looked round 
 upon the great waterfall, the 1200 feet cascade, as a 
 measure of my own progress; and it was a tough job 
 to get the mastery of it so as to look down upon it, I 
 assure you. The only sound in this wilderness hitherto 
 had been the murmur of these falling waters ; but 
 about twelve, when the sun had become powerful, a 
 distant report like thunder attracted my attention, 
 followed by another it was the roar of the avalanches 
 stirred by the heat continued at intervals during the 
 next two hours ; and a very respectable broadside the 
 Pyrenees kept up that afternoon, not much inferior to 
 the Alps. At the height we had now attained, about 
 1500 feet from the bottom of the rock, we were met by 
 the cold wind from the glacier, and very refreshing 
 it was. Below us still yawned the gaping Cirque, 
 apparently so close under our feet that we might throw 
 
 a stone into it. The guide traced T 's progress along 
 
 the bottom, but he was reduced to such an emmet in 
 the depth below, that my eyes could not discover him. 
 Above our heads now opened out a wide expanse of 
 snow and glacier, covering a very steep slope, and sur- 
 mounted by the ridge of rock in which is the rent of 
 Roland's Breche. The glacier is a highly inclined plane 
 like the roof of a house, and the most difficult part of 
 the task is to ascend it. 
 
 ' I sat down on the last rock rising as it were on the 
 shore of this sea of ice, and after the guide had tied the 
 crampons very firmly upon my feet, I grasped my pole 
 and started. I was very tired by this time, and the 
 steepness of the slope, together with the weight of the 
 crampons, to which I was unaccustomed, and of the snow 
 hanging to them, rendered it very laborious to climb ; 
 add to this, a cold rain and sleet came on, which made 
 the snow and ice more slippery, and the foothold more
 
 1841] A MAUVAIS PAS 91 
 
 difficult. As I toiled on, keeping, as well as I could, up 
 with the guide, and treading in his footsteps, two other 
 travellers, who had started some hours before us, passed 
 us swiftly descending. How I envied them but half 
 an hour's good hard work still remained for me. From 
 the slipperiness of the snow, (which had recently fallen,) 
 and the fatigue I felt, my steps no longer continued 
 firm, my feet slipped from under me, and after one or 
 two slips, down I slid like an arrow, traversing in half 
 a minute what had taken a quarter of an hour to sur- 
 mount ; indeed, I was in a fair way to the bottom of 
 the glacier, but recollecting some of my Swiss experi- 
 ence, I threw myself on my back, stretched wide my 
 feet, digging in the heels, and driving the spike of my 
 baton deep into the snow, and thus shortly brought 
 myself to an anchor. In an instant Jacques was down 
 from the height he had reached beside me, and laying 
 hold of my hand, with stout arm and firm foot soon led 
 me to the top of the ascent. 
 
 ' The next stage of the business is to cross another 
 division of the glacier, nearly in a straight line, scarcely 
 ascending at all ; but the angle at which it lies is very 
 much steeper than that passed already, and so nearly 
 vertical that I do not think it would be possible even 
 for a very skilful mountaineer to ascend it, and the foot 
 that once slipped in crossing it would go irretrievably 
 to the bottom. Here my guide made me precede him, 
 and gave me special injunctions to lift up my feet well, 
 and to set each foot down with a stamp so as to make 
 a good hole in the snow, striking in my pole to a con- 
 siderable depth before each step, adding after his 
 admonitions, "Parcequ'il y a du danger ici." This 
 mauvais pas was passed happily, safely, and quickly, 
 and a few steps more brought me within the Breche de 
 Roland. The little ridge which I had seen below, eight 
 miles off, like the blade of a small saw inserted in a 
 grooved handle, now rose before me a mountainous 
 wall of rock 300 feet high and about fifty thick in the
 
 92 LETTERS 
 
 gap. The Gap of Roland itself had expanded to a width 
 of 180 feet." 
 
 ' Before me, looking through this singular window, 
 was Spain a most uninviting prospect of rugged 
 ridges, bare mountains, and valleys filled with stones 
 and snow, while in the foreground, the horizon, up to 
 which rises the vast plain of Arragon, dimly seen in 
 very clear weather, was at the moment concealed. On 
 the French side, the Vignemale. the highest mountain 
 in France, and covered with glaciers, was also partly 
 hidden. But except these, all was clear ; the sleety rain 
 had ceased ; the sun shone brightly forth ; and a 
 hundred peaks rose around me. Still the absorbing 
 feature is the Breche itself; and the colossal wall, 
 rising so high and so abruptly ; yet literally a wall in 
 proportion to the mountain, which slopes down on both 
 sides like a house roof. It is like the crested hog-mane 
 on the neck of a Grecian horse. The threshold of the 
 Breche shares in this peculiar character so that as I 
 sat astride of the rocky ridge which forms the boundary 
 line of two mighty kingdoms, my right leg was in 
 France and the other in Spain. 
 
 ' The gratification of having succeeded, the elasticity 
 of the mountain air, and a crust of bread, with a piece 
 of prepared chocolate, washed down by a draught of 
 Jacques' previously despised wooden bottle, dissipated 
 all fatigues. Jacques was distressed that he had no 
 cup, but one or two good hearty pulls at the bottle- 
 mouth, time about, and a couple of cigaritos genuine 
 from St Sebastian cemented our friendship, and Ave 
 became great allies. The Breche, notwithstanding its 
 difficulty of access, serves as a pass from a small Spanish 
 village into France, and my guide pointed out to me a 
 nook in the rock, where a flask of wine-'had been 
 deposited by a party of three wild but handsome and 
 Murilloish shepherds, whom we had met conducting 
 two priests. 
 
 'We had accomplished the ascent in three hours,
 
 1841J RETURN TO LUZ 93 
 
 the time usually taken being four; the descent was 
 effected in less than two, with equally good speed. 
 The first glacier was passed slowly and cautiously, the 
 second we glided down in the fashion of a montagne 
 russe, resting on our spiked staffs to check the rapidity 
 of our progress. I was right glad to get rid of the 
 crampons when beyond the slope. The rest of the 
 descent we leaped, trotted, walked, or scrambled down, 
 taking our time about those craggy buttresses of pre- 
 cipitous rock, of which I have already spoken. I was 
 surprised to find how much the guide followed the same 
 line in descending; though the track was quite im- 
 perceptible at a distance to my eye, yet I found myself 
 treading on the very same stones I had trod on in 
 
 mounting. I had agreed with T that he should 
 
 ride back to Luz quietly, and await me there, and not 
 to be surprised if he did not see me till next morning ; 
 but, having got through the walk so well and quickly, 
 and finding my guide true to the backbone, and myself 
 quite fresh, I determined to ride back that night. 
 Accordingly, after half an hour's rest and a cup of 
 coffee at Gavarnie, we were once more on horseback, 
 and in less than three hours' time the fourteen miles 
 of mountain-road were passed, notwithstanding pre- 
 cipices, and giddy bridges and the shades of night 
 which overtook us about 2/3 ds of the way, and the 
 court-yard of good and fat Madame Cazeaux's inn was 
 resounding to the crack of my whip. I was warmly 
 welcomed by T , as you may suppose; and, after- 
 supper, I retired to a good sound sleep. The last four or 
 five miles was in the dark, but I made the guide ride 
 between me and the precipice. And now, leaving you 
 as tired probably as I was myself, I will say, Good 
 night.'
 
 94 LETTERS 
 
 ' Trezar, an obscure village in the Cantal, 
 
 Wednesday, Sept. 22, 1841. 
 
 * We turned our backs upon the Pyrenees on Wed- 
 nesday last, with much regret. We have been 
 favoured with remarkably fine weather for the last 
 fortnight, which was very fortunate, as most of our 
 journeys and expeditions had to be performed on 
 horseback. 
 
 'The day after my expedition to the Breche de 
 Roland, we quitted our comfortable little inn at Luz, and 
 our civil landlady, for Bareges, the name of which 
 everybody has heard more than perhaps any other 
 watering-place among the Pyrenees. In spite of this, 
 we both agreed it was the most disagreeable place we 
 had seen. Lying in a narrow, bare valley, so high up 
 among the mountains, in so exposed a situation, that 
 the avalanches descend upon it in winter, and bury a 
 great part in snow ; in consequence of this, a wide gap 
 is left in the single street of which the town consists, 
 and only wooden booths are built upon that part, which 
 can be taken down and moved away. In winter the 
 inhabitants go away, leaving only twenty or thirty to 
 take care of the houses, and keep off the wolves ; and 
 return at the beginning of summer, to dig their habita- 
 tions out of the snow. 
 
 Bareges runs risk not only from the avalanches : 
 the little river now and then rises tremendously, and 
 sweeps away a row of building. The inn we put up at 
 was the worst we had been in in France, and the dinner 
 so horrible and dirty that we could not eat it. We 
 bitterly regretted our good quarters at Madame 
 Caseaux's, in Luz. Yet, with all this, Bareges is in 
 very high repute for the cures which its waters effect, 
 and is every year crowded with visitors. The supply 
 of water is so small, that the baths are engaged from 
 every hour of day and night ; and there are large 
 public baths for the soldiers and common people, in
 
 1841] BAGNERES DE LUCHON 95 
 
 which twenty persons can enter at once, supplied for 
 the overflow of the other baths and even with water 
 which lias partly been used. The cures effected are 
 wonderful, and the streets are crowded with cripples, 
 wounded soldiers, and other miserable objects ; in fact, 
 Bareges is a complete hospital. 
 
 ' We were glad to depart at five the next morning, 
 under the guidance of my friend Jacques, whom we 
 took from Luz, in preference to any other guide, and 
 who provided us with good horses. A long ride over 
 the mountains, by a path practicable only on horse or 
 foot, brought us in seven or eight hours to Bagneres 
 de Bigorre, the largest and most townlike of all the 
 Pyrenean baths, beautifully situated between the plain 
 and the mountain. We staid here two days and a 
 half, to explore the town and neighboiirhood, and I 
 spent some time in a library containing a large 
 collection of books about the Pyrenees, whence I 
 gleaned some good information. 
 
 'Another long journey of two days on horseback 
 also over the mountains, carried us to Bagneres de 
 Luchon, through much fine scenery. We travelled in 
 company with two English Roman Catholic gentlemen, 
 who were going our way, and whom we met on the 
 road at a miserable cottage, into which we had galloped 
 to obtain shelter from a thunder-storm, which, though 
 we had set out in the finest weather, overtook us in 
 the mountains, at a distance from habitations, our 
 guide lagging some miles behind us with the luggage. 
 Of them, more by-and-by. I will now tell you about 
 two excursions we made from Luchon : the first to the 
 pretty, pastoral valley de Lis, remarkable for its water- 
 falls, and closed in by snowy glaciers and dark drapery 
 of fir- woods. We walked thither the day after our 
 long two-days' ride, Torrie being now strong enough 
 for such a walk, though the distance was fully fourteen 
 miles there and back. As we quietly sauntered along, 
 we were overtaken by several parties of French ladies
 
 96 LETTERS 
 
 and gentlemen from the baths, on horseback, with 
 their guides all galloping as fast as possible generally 
 wearing red sashes, such as are used by the peasants 
 of this country, and broad-brimmed white felt hats 
 that being the fashion at these watering-places. 
 
 ' By the time we had reached the extremity of the 
 valley, and had seen the waterfalls, the number of 
 horses had increased to sixty all gathered round a 
 little cottage which furnishes milk to visitors all tied 
 round the walls or picketed among the bushes. But 
 the scene of confusion produced by the dismounted 
 riders, male and female, is more than^ I can describe. 
 Not one of them thought of the beautiful valley and 
 waterfalls, the chief object in vieAV was to eat, 
 apparently ; among the Babel of tongues, the cracking 
 of whips, the neighing of horses, shouts of " Ou s&nt 
 les vivres ! " were by far the most predominant. Here 
 you encountered a man with a couple of bottles of 
 wine under his cloak there another with a great 
 basket of prog. On one side you ran the risk of having 
 your eyes knocked out by the legs of a table carried 
 by a sturdy guide to his impatient and hungry masters ; 
 on another was the chance of being kicked by half a 
 score of horses ; while, to add to the din and confusion, 
 one party of ladies and gentlemen had got possession 
 of the largest room, and were beginning to gallopade 
 to an accompaniment of their own voices, en attendant 
 the getting ready of their provisions. We were soon 
 satisfied with a scene so thoroughly French : there was 
 only one tolerably pretty face among the ladies, and 
 among the gentlemen were not many who seemed to 
 deserve the name, even though they might bear it, 
 so, swallowing a basin of milk, we took our departure, 
 and reached Luchon without being overtaken by any 
 of the party. While at dinner, however, they made 
 their entry in a body, the whole sixty riding three 
 by three in procession ; and long after dark the same 
 people paraded the great avenue on foot, singing in
 
 1841] COL DE VENASQUE 97 
 
 chorus, but out of tune, and, in very bad voices, very 
 bad songs. 
 
 'Another, and far more interesting excursion was 
 made by Torrie and me, from Luchon across the crest 
 of the Pyrenees, at a pass called the Col de Venasque, 
 leading into Spain. This was done on horseback. 
 Setting out at seven, after an early breakfast, we were 
 joined on the road by our English friends ; and soon 
 after, at the miserable hospice where we stopped to 
 bait our horses, were overtaken by a French party, 
 including a priest each of the three parties led by a 
 guide (ours the most experienced of the whole) so 
 that we formed a body of eleven horsemen, to scale 
 the mountain. It was indeed literally scaling. From 
 the hospice a little side valley opens out in the form of 
 a semicircle its sides complete precipices; and it 
 puzzled us all, as our horses' heads were turned towards 
 it, and we commenced the ascent, to tell by what magic 
 men on foot, much less laden beasts, were to pass up 
 and over this wall in any part of its circumference. 
 Up, however, we went, toiling for two hours incessantly 
 up a slightly traced path, but always winding in 
 zigzags, over large stones or smooth solid rock. It was 
 a picturesque sight to look down upon this winding 
 path, like a cord unwound, with our cavalcade of men 
 and horses winding up it. In all the difficult passes I 
 have traversed, I never met with an ascent so steep or 
 long yet our little jaded horses did the work wonder- 
 fully well, taking to the steep, staircase road most 
 willingly, and clambering among the cliffs like kids 
 never making a false step, so that, except for a very 
 short distance, no one needed to dismount. 
 
 'As we mounted higher hills, however, another 
 obstacle besides the steepness, presented itself in the 
 ivind, which rushes down the gullies with a force 
 perfectly tremendous, and renders it very difficult to 
 keep one's seat. As almost every part of the path is 
 carried up the face of the slope which is all but a 
 
 H
 
 98 LETTERS 
 
 precipice, it is easy to imagine what serious con- 
 sequences to horse and man these gusts may produce ; 
 and there is a proverb, that in ascending the Port de 
 Venasque a father will not look back at his son, nor 
 a son at his father. Two or three tremendous gusts 
 had given us a foretaste of what might be expected, 
 when a sudden and more severe one whistled and 
 whirled among the rocks; the horses staggered, the 
 riders bent before it, clapping one hand to their hats, 
 and the other to the pummel of their saddles. One 
 ill-starred beast, however, could not stand it: it was 
 that which bore one of the Englishmen, who was a 
 good rider, and had been in the 15th Hussars. To my 
 terror and horror, I saw his beast down, slipping and 
 struggling on the edge of a most abrupt descent ; to 
 have slipped over would have been death, horse and 
 man would not have stopped till they had reached a 
 thousand feet below, perhaps, and they would have 
 swept others with them. Luckily the captain threw 
 himself off. The same accident, however, happened 
 twice in about a quarter of an hour to the same indi- 
 vidual, the second time with some mixture of the 
 ludicrous ; for the poor man's hat was wafted below, 
 exhibiting a very bald pate, heightening his rueful 
 aspect. We comforted him by the loan of handker- 
 chiefs and scarfs to keep his head warm, and so 
 proceeded. It was amusing to see with what alacrity 
 at the second gust every one dropped from his saddle. 
 
 ' The steepness of the mountain and the shortness of 
 the zigzags constantly increased till we reached the top 
 a small fissure, not broader than eight feet ; a moderate 
 doorway cleft in the crest of the mountain. Torrie and 
 I were the two first on the top; and on passing this 
 doorway, stepped from France at once into Spain. But 
 what a scene opened before us ! not a glimpse of which 
 had been perceived before. We beheld an enormous 
 mountain, the highest of the Pyrenees, called the Mala- 
 detta, or Accursed, I suppose from the utterly barren
 
 1882] RHEIMS 99 
 
 and dreary air of it and everything about it ; its tall 
 round top and ridge covered with everlasting snow, 
 except where one or two bristling black peaks broke 
 through it, its lower part shrouded with scanty fir- 
 trees, a great gulf or deep ravine separating it from 
 the bare ridge on which it stood, not a sign of human 
 habitation or cultivation. We spent more than an 
 hour reclining on the scanty grass, gazing* on this 
 magnificent spectacle ; then by another similar pass 
 returned into France proceeding, on our way out of 
 Arragon, through a corner of Catalonia. Thus ended 
 our most striking excursion in the Pyrenees.' 
 
 1882-1891 
 
 Finally, I add a few extracts from letters of 
 later years to show how his eager zest for travel 
 remained fresh as ever to the end. 
 
 In 1882 he visited France with my brother 
 Hallam and their friend Louis Jennings (after- 
 wards M.P. for Stockport) and accompanied by the 
 faithful Mills. 
 
 1 Hotel Lion d'Or, Rheims, Aug. 23, '82. 
 
 ' We reached this most interesting City yesterday, 
 and have decided to spend to-day here to write letters 
 and allow H. to sketch. He is now at work in the 
 glorious Cathedral, whose vast W. front I gaze on 
 from my window as I write, rising in all its vastness 
 and beauty of architecture and sculpture within a 
 stone's throw. 
 
 'It is certainly the most perfect Gothic edifice in 
 France; its solemn interior overwhelms one by its 
 vastness and perfect symmetry. Besides, within it 
 you gaze on the spot before the High Altar where 
 Jeanne d'Arc stood with her banner in her hand by the 
 side of Charles VII whom she had restored to the
 
 100 LETTERS 
 
 throne, at his coronation, and this done, she threw 
 herself at his feet, and begged to be dismissed to feed 
 her flock as a simple peasant, a request not complied 
 with unfortunately, since she was captured a few 
 weeks after, sold to the English, only to be burned as a 
 witch at Rouen. Here also in the Sacristy we were 
 shown the fragments of the Sainte Ampoule, the phial 
 of holy oil given by an Angel to Clovis, from which the 
 Kings of France were anointed at their coronation, 
 until a Revolutionist broke it in pieces in 1793, so that 
 a new one had to be made. 
 
 * I wish you could have seen with us the rare Church 
 plate, and the Archbishop's coronation robes of richest 
 golden broidery made for the Sacring of Charles X. 
 
 * We have seen a great many fine Churches, and 
 were particularly struck with that of Laon, which, 
 perfect in itself, has a wonderful site, on a solitary hill 
 rising out of the'plain, visible far and near. It has been 
 for 30 years past under repair at the expense of the 
 French Government, which does for its Churches what 
 private individuals do for ours : perhaps the French 
 do too much scarifying and giving a modern aspect to 
 what ought to be venerable from age.' 
 
 1 Senlis, Aug. 18, 1882. 
 
 'I changed our place of halt oa Wednesday night 
 to Chantilly, Jennings having heard a great deal of the 
 Due d'Aumale's newly built chateau. It is not open 
 to the public, but on my making up to Mr Miles, the 
 Duke's English groom of the chambers, and telling him 
 I was known to the Duke, we saw the interior to 
 great advantage. 
 
 ' It is really superb : the finest thing, I suppose, hi all 
 France after Royal Palaces. The pictures, many of 
 which I had seen at Twickenham, are most choice and 
 of the highest value, including a Raphael Holy Family 
 not a foot square, for which 5000 guineas were paid. 
 
 ' The furnishing of the rooms is sumptuous, one,
 
 1882] CHANTILLY VENICE 101 
 
 the Salle des Batailles, is hung with the Victories of 
 the Grand Conde by Van der Meulen while over the fire- 
 place is framed the Banner taken from the Spaniards 
 by Conde at Rocroi. The pictures occupy two grand 
 apartments lined up to the Roof. The Chateau, which 
 includes part of the old building destroyed at the 
 Revolution, stands on an Island approached by Draw- 
 bridges: the lake swarming with monstrous carp in 
 shoals, who fight with the swans for bits of bread 
 thrown to them. 
 
 ' In the morning we had driven through the Forest 
 to the Etanges, or ponds, and had walked through the 
 grounds which are pretty. 
 
 ' Chantilly is given up to racing, and is full of race- 
 horses which are exercised every morning on the 
 Pelouse, or Race Course. The Duke's stables are a 
 palace in themselves. He has 30 horses, but, like a 
 wise man, does not love the turf.' 
 
 ' Ca' Capello, Venice, May 24, 1884. 
 
 ' We are enjoying ourselves, and I really think 
 travelling has done us all good. Venice, however, is a 
 crowning pleasure, especially to be under the roof of 
 such kind and intelligent hosts as the Layards. Sir 
 Henry even met us at the station, and brought us 
 hither in his Gondola through the Grand Canal. 
 
 ' This house occupies one of the most favoured spots 
 upon it, surrounded with Palms, and it is in itself a 
 Bijou surpassing all my expectations in the splendour 
 of its decorations, and the real English comfort of its 
 fittings. He has filled it with works of art collected 
 from all parts which he has visited. 
 
 ~ ' Last night, after a very nice dinner, we adjourned 
 to an Alcove or Bower surrounded with plants, over- 
 looking the Canal and the Gondolas sweeping along 
 like fireflies silently over the water. Later on a Flotilla 
 of them, all lighted up, bearing a Musical Society 
 floated past us. To-day we went to Ch. in Sir H. L.'s
 
 102 LETTERS 
 
 Gondola, and then spent an hour in. the wonderful 
 Picture Gallery with Sir Henry for our guide, and now 
 we are going to take a walk in St Mark's Piazza. . . . 
 I do not like to trespass too long on our kind hosts, but 
 I think we may stay over Sunday, after which we are 
 to plunge among the mts., and I hope get bracing air. 
 
 ' We have been through many Italian cities, Bergamo, 
 Brescia, Verona, all most interesting places. Such 
 beautiful Churches, such a garden of cypresses, nearly 
 100 in number, and more than 100 feet high. . . . The 
 silence of Venice is something special, and we slept so 
 soundly last night after the shouting and singing of 
 nightly revellers, and the morning coppersmith's hammer 
 and anvil at Brescia.' 
 
 1 Caprile, Val Corderole, Italy, June 7, '84. 
 
 ' I am not quite sure where I left off in my last 
 letter from Venice, but think I told you of our stay 
 being prolonged two days by the advice of the 
 Layards' friend, Mr Malcolm. 
 
 * Accompanied by him we set off on Thursday 
 morning for his house at Longarone among the 
 mountains, where we became his guests for two days 
 until this morning. And very kind he was to us. 
 After encountering a tremendous storm of rain, hail 
 and thunder in the train, we left it at a place called 
 Vittoria, where his carriage was awaiting us, to drive 
 us 27 miles to his house. We did the distance in 
 3 hours. Moreover he brought with him a mysterious 
 basket, which about 2 o'clock, when we had become 
 desperately hungry, he opened, and disclosed a first-rate 
 luncheon which we rapidly consumed. 
 
 ' The rain suddenly cleared off, the carriage was 
 opened, and we had a delightful drive to Longarone, 
 where Mr M. has a comfortable country house built 
 close to the river Piave, a furious torrent which 
 nearly swept it away in a tremendous inundation
 
 1884] LONGARONE 103 
 
 which overspread great part of N. Italy in 1882. 
 Every river in a wide range of country burst its banks, 
 covered its valleys with hateful barren stones and 
 debris, and swept away roads, carried off bridges and 
 houses, and did damage to the extent of millions. 
 Among others Mr M. suffered greatly. Between his 
 house and the Piave he had created a beautiful garden 
 with flowers, and a fountain. It is all swept away, 
 not a trace of it left, his timber ponds and saw mills, 
 for he is a great timber merchant, were nearly 
 destroyed, and if he had not been a wealthy man he 
 would have been ruined. His kindness to us was un- 
 bounded. He gave us charming rooms, and treated us 
 with unbounded hospitality, all this owing to the 
 introduction of the Layards. 
 
 ' Next morning he drove with us up to the Val di 
 Zoldo, one of the most magnificent valleys in the 
 Dolomite mountains, rising 6000 or 8000 feet above 
 the sea in peaks and saw-like ridges and towers. 
 The road most part of the way runs along edge of 
 precipices. But we were safely driven in little carrioles 
 drawn by one small horse. We lunched at the chief 
 village, and returned home in a storm of rain. We 
 have encountered what is called bad weather since we 
 left Venice, that is to say, it has rained every day, 
 generally severe thunder storms with heavy pouring 
 rain, such as you don't see in England, but so fortunate 
 have we been, that the storm has always fallen when 
 we have been hi shelter, and we have seen all we 
 wanted to see. This morning we left Mr M. after a 
 hearty farewell, before 9, and have travelled by 
 road till 7, when we reached this place high up in 
 the mts., where a great coat is necessary, for the 
 air is bracing. The inn is modest and unpretentious, 
 but clean and kept by a civil Italian woman. 
 
 ' We intend to pass a quiet Sunday here, and in four 
 days' time we hope to be in Trent, and get letters for 
 which we wait impatiently.'
 
 104 LETTERS 
 
 ' Eiva, Lago di Garda, June 15, 84. 
 
 'We are passing Sat. and Sunday at one of the 
 most lovely spots in Italy. The head of the beauti- 
 ful Garda lake which y r mother and I drove along 
 37 years ago but could not stop at. 
 
 'We have rooms overlooking the lake wh. washes 
 the Garden wall. We take our meals under a bower 
 in the little garden, and are never tired of gazing on 
 the blue water and listening to the gentle murmur of 
 the waves. . . . 
 
 'Our journey through the Dolomites has been a 
 great success. We have traversed some of the most 
 beautiful valleys, and gazed on the grandest and most 
 wonderful forms of mountain peaks, and since our 
 cavalcade across the mts. on horseback we have had 
 easy travelling by carriage the most pleasant mode 
 of travelling. We have greatly admired the lovely 
 flowers in the Alpine meadows and on the roadside 
 at this season. Such Gentians, and great red ' lilies 
 that I should prize much in our garden at home if they 
 could be induced to grow. We are hoping to receive 
 letters here to-day when the post comes in, being 
 anxious to hear about dear E. and the Boy, the news 
 of whose arrival has occupied much of our thoughts.' 
 
 ' Hawarden Castle, Oct. 13, 1885. 
 
 ' My visit here is indeed very pleasant. The hosts 
 most agreeable and attentive. Mr G. very talkative. 
 Mrs G. most careful of the blind man, to prevent 
 his falling over dark steps in the passages or 
 slippery floors in the Hall. We have two sons in the 
 house and one in the village. Ld. Spencer, who made 
 himself very agreeable, left yesterday for Balmoral, 
 and the Dean of Windsor and his dear wife have 
 gone to-day. He inquired after you, as did Miss
 
 1885] HAWARDEN ROUSDON 105 
 
 Phillimore. Their places to-day are filled by Lady 
 Fredk. Cavendish, and Millais [fresh from Dunkeld, 
 where he has fishing and shooting quarters. The Park 
 here is really beautiful, such large noble oaks, and so 
 many of them. We walk through the woods after 
 lunch, Mr G. leading the troop. I hover in the 
 mornings about the romantic ruins of the Castle, 
 which have a great charm for me. Mr G. has just 
 discovered a huge elm which hides the view of the 
 Keep, and he is to cut it down day after to-morrow.' 
 
 1 April 5, 1891. 
 
 ' As you may suppose, my thoughts of late have been 
 considerably absorbed in watching the reception of 
 Murray's Memoirs, to which I look to place my dear 
 Father in the position which he deserves to hold before 
 the world. As yet I have reason to be thankful and 
 grateful to the Trade who have vied with one another 
 in appreciating and applauding his character, and in 
 extolling the interest of the book. The best articles I 
 have seen are in the "Sat. Review" and "Spectator," 
 but all are good. 
 
 ' Gladstone (entre vous) seems to be devoting him- 
 self heart and soul to the book, of which we hope to 
 have his estimate in " Murray's Magazine." ' 
 
 1 Bousdon, Lyme Regis, May 1891. 
 
 ' You know Rousdon, so I need not describe it. I 
 am astonished at its vastness and the manner in which 
 difficulties, apparently unsurmountable, have been 
 surmounted. 
 
 ' The house is larger than I expected, and is replete 
 with every convenience, and the kindness of hosts and 
 hostess beat everything I have experienced. We are 
 fortunate too in having such pleasant fellow-guests as 
 
 I
 
 106 LETTERS 
 
 Maj. and Mrs Darwin, who among other topics tell us 
 all about Japan. 
 
 ' The walks made around the wind-swept pro- 
 montory are endless and skilfully contrived to give 
 shelter in all directions. 
 
 * I am surprised at the rapid clothing with trees 
 of a spot so bleak, and am delighted to observe how 
 the trees and shrubs thrive. Pines and Conifers and 
 cypresses of the choicest kinds abound. Only too many 
 of them, perhaps, and extensive and speedy clearance 
 must soon be made to save the best specimens from 
 overcrowding and destruction. 
 
 ' On Sat. Sir C. H. took M. and me a very inte- 
 resting walk to see the landslip, not only guiding us, 
 but clutching hold of me to save me going over the 
 precipice ! ' 
 
 FBDtTKD BT WILLIAM CLOCKS AND SONi, LIMITED, LONDON AND BECCLJW, ENGLAND.
 
 University of California 
 
 SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 
 
 305 De Neve Drive - Parking Lot 17 Box 951388 
 
 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 90095-1388 
 
 Return this material to the library from which it was borrowed. 
 
 '
 
 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 
 
 A 000 736 455 7