'^^ .^ 
 
L= 
 
 GIFT OF 
 Prof* C.A. Kofoid 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2007 with funding from 
 
 IVIicrosoft Corporation 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/fivemonthsabroadOOscririch 
 
FIVE MONTHS ABROAD, 
 
 OB, 
 
 THE OBSERVATIONS AND EXPERIENCES 
 OF AN EDITOR IN EUROPE. 
 
 JAMES E. 8CRIPPS, 
 
 EDITOB OF TJK DtTitOIl EVE>J^G HEWS. 
 
 ILLUSTRATED 
 
 DETROIT, MICH. 
 
 F. B. DICKERSON & CO., PUBLISHERS. 
 
 1882. 
 
5 3 
 
 COPYRIGHTED BY 
 
 F. B. DICKERSON, 
 
 • « • • 
 
TO 
 
 MY "WIFE AND DAUGHTER, 
 
 THE 
 
 COMPANIONS OF MY JOURNEY, 
 
 THIS LITTLE WORK 
 
 IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED, 
 
 iyil019S9 
 
PREFACE 
 
 The following record of a European tour, made in 
 the summer of 1881, appeared in the first instance as a 
 series of letters in the columns of the Detroit Even- 
 ing News, and its presentation in more permanent 
 shape was not then thought of by the author; but so 
 numerous and apparently sincere were the solicitations 
 that it should be reprinted in book form, that he could 
 not, without ingratitude, allow them to pass unheeded. 
 In preparing the work for the press much of it has been 
 entirely rewritten, the form changed from letters to 
 chapters, and one or two entirely new chapters added. 
 The illustrations are mostly original, and were engraved 
 from photographs collected by the author in the course 
 of his journey. 
 
 The aim in the preparation of the work has been 
 three-fold: First, to convey to the reader as graphic an 
 idea as possible of what he would see and how probably 
 be impressed were he himself to make the same journey; 
 Second, to interweave with the narrative of travel such 
 an amount of collateral historical and biographical fact 
 as should make the book valuable as a medium of gen- 
 eral information; and, Third,\}j frequent reference and 
 allusion to make the work somewhat of a basis for and 
 stimulus to culture in the realms of art and literature. 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 If it shall incite the reader to further reading and 
 research, one of its principal aims, indeed, will have 
 been accomplished. 
 
 It may be hardly necessary to add that the book is 
 addressed in the main to western people of ordinary 
 information — to the intelligent farmers and mechanics 
 of Michigan and neighboring states; and that it makes 
 no pretense to either high literary merit or infallibility 
 in every statement. All reasonable care has neverthe- 
 less been given to render it both intelligent and trust- 
 worthy. 
 
 JAMES E. SCRIPPS. 
 
 Detroit, January, 1883. 
 
CONTENTS, 
 
 CHAPTER I. p^oK 
 How to Prepare for a European Tour— The Selection of a Eoute— Intel- 
 lectual Preparation— The Cost and How to Provide for it— What 
 Baggage to Take— The Voyage— Life at Sea 13 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 Arrival in England — Liverpool and its Wonderful Coxomercial Develop- 
 ment—Chester and its Antiquities— English Hotels— Cheap Cab 
 Fares 20 
 
 CHAPTER HI. 
 
 English Railways— Admirable Depots— Superiority of English Cars- 
 Cheap Fares and the Enormous Traffic they Create 28 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 Ijondon— How Holidays are Observed— Albert Memorial Hall— The Mes- 
 siah—The Foimdling Hospital— Tourists' Tickets for the Continent, 85 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Crossing to the Continent— Appearance of the Country in France and 
 Belg^ium- Brussels— A Continental Hotel — A Handsome City — 
 Lace Manufacture— The Kingdom of Belgium— Antwerp — Rubens 
 and his Paintings— Belgian Wood Carving— A Calvary 40 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 In Germany — Aix-la-Chapelle and its Memories of Charlemagne — 
 Cologne and its Cathedral— The Rhine and its Romantic Scenery — 
 Mayence the Birthplace of Printing — Frankfort — Goethe — The 
 Rothschilds 51 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Bavaria— The Ancient City of Nuremberg— Munich and its Picture Gal- 
 leries — Its Bronze Foundry— German Tree Culture — German Coin- 
 age—Freedom from Pauperism— Continental Sundays 63 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 The T^yrol— Innsbruck— Hofer the Patriot— Maximilian's Tomb— Over the 
 
 Alps by the Brenner Pass— Arrival in Italy 72 
 
vm TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. PAGE 
 
 Italy — ^Verona, its Arena and Churches — Padua — Arcaded Streets — The 
 
 Shrine of St. Anthony— Italian Agriculture 78 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Venice— Its History— First Impressions— Its Canals— The Church of St. 
 
 Mark — ^Venetian Art 84 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Bologna and its Leaning Towers— Over the Apennines , 96 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Florence— The Protestant Cemetery— The Cathedral— The Art Galleries 100 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 The Great Historic Characters of Florence— The Medici Family— Lor- 
 enzo the Magnificent — Pope Leo X. — Catharine and Marie de 
 Medici— Savonarola 112 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Rome — The Journey Thither— Appearance of the City — The Castle of 
 
 St. Angelo— St. Peters 121 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Rome— Its more Famous Churches— The Vatican— The Galleries of Sculp- 
 tures—Shelley's Grave— Mosaics 133 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 Ancient Rome— The Fonmis— The Palaces of the Caesars— The Colos- 
 seum—The Pantheon— The Appian Way— The Catacombs and the 
 Mamertine Prison 140 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. ' 
 Pisa and its Leaning Tower— Genoa, the Birthplace of Columbus— The 
 
 Battlefields of Italy— Turin— Arcaded Streets 151 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 Milan— Its Cathedral— The Gallerie— Da Vinci's Last Supper— The Italian 
 
 Exposition — San Carlo and the Borromean Isles 159 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 The Picture Galleries of Europe— The Over-estimate of] the Old Masters 
 —Notices of some of the Italian Masters and their Works — The 
 Two Great Spanish Painters 167 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 Among the Alps — The Simplon Pass— Brieg— Martigny— Chamounix — 
 
 Mont Blanc— A Glacier 177 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 Switzerland— A Beautiful Ride— Geneva— Lausanne— Freiburg— Bern- 
 Bale— The Swiss Republic 187 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. ix 
 
 CHAPTER XXn. PAGE 
 
 Into Germany Again — Border Customs Extortions — Strassburg— Its 
 
 Storks— The Cathedral— A Ghastly Exhibition 302 
 
 CHAPTER XXm. 
 
 Paris— Impressions on Arriving there — The Boulevards, Streets and 
 Buildings — Topography of the City— The Tuileries— Place de la 
 Concorde— Arc de Triomphe— The Madeleine— Column Vendome— 
 Grand Opera House— The Louvre— Hotel de Ville— Notre Dame— 
 Jardin des Plantes— The Luxembourg— The Invalides— Champ de 
 Mars 208 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 Paris in its Relation to French History— The Reigns and Revolutions of 
 Three Centuries — The Bois de Boulogne— Pere la Chaise Cemetery 
 — The Omnibuses and Shops of Paris— The National Archives. . . . . 223 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 The Art Galleries of Paris— The Art School— The Salon— The Luxem- 
 bourg—The Louvre— St. Denis— Versailles— The Seine— Sevres and 
 the National Porcelain Factory 240 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 Through Normandy— Rouen— Dieppe— Temperance— Politics in France 
 
 —French Money 251 
 
 CHAPTER XXVn. 
 Back in England— Brighton— London Contrasted with Paris— English Old 
 Fogyism— How London is Governed- Topography of the British 
 MetropoUs 254 
 
 CHAPTER XXVin. 
 
 The Tower of London— The City Library— St. Paul's— The Thames Em- 
 bankment—A Relic of Franklin— Whitehall— The Houses of Parlia- 
 ment—Westminster Abbey 267 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 London and Art— The British Museum— The National Gallery— The Great 
 Flemish, Dutch and German Masters— The South Kensington 
 Museum 281 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 London— The Waxworks— Crystal Palace— English Twilights— Law Prac- 
 tice in England— Land Tenures— Limited Liability Companies- 
 Temperance and Profanity 296 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 Ctenealogical Research— An Old English Cathedral Town— Parish Rec- 
 ords of 250 Years Ago — How Surnames Become Changed and Cor- 
 rupted—The Heralds' Office 3n« 
 
X TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII. p^gk 
 The English Cathedrals— Their Officers, Services and Architecture— The 
 Religious Condition of England— The High and Low Church Con- 
 troversy 317 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 
 The Summer Aspect of England— Windsor Castle— The Albert Memorial 
 
 Chapel— Bath and its Abbey 330 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 
 A Two Days' Ramble in the South of England— Exeter— Torquay— Honi- 
 
 ton— Winchester— Salisbury— Stonehenge 339 
 
 CHAPTER XXXV. 
 
 Bristol— Its History, Trade, Antiquities, Famous Residents, Topography 
 
 "and Churches— George Muller's Orphan Houses 351 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVI. 
 
 Chepstow Castle— Tintern Abbey— Gloucester and its Cathedral— Wor- 
 cester Cathedral— Stratford-on- Avon— Shakspeare's Birthplace and 
 Tomb 364 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVII. 
 
 Warwick Castle— Leamington — Kenilworth— Coventry— Lady Godiva — 
 Birmingham— Lichfield— The Cathedral— Eccentric Architecture 
 —Dr. Johnson 375 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVin. 
 
 Lincoln— Hull — Beverly — York — Ripon — Fountains Abbey — Durham — 
 The Venerable Bede— Lindisfame 388 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIX. 
 
 Edinburgh- The New and Old Town— The Castle— St. Giles' Cathedral 
 —John Knox— Holyrood Palace— Mary Queen of Scots and her 
 Tragic Career 402 
 
 CHAPTER XL. 
 
 Melrose Abbey— Abbotsford—Dryburgh Abbey— Roslin Chapel— Sir Wal- 
 • ter Scott— Stirling— The Scottish Lakes and Highlands— The Lady 
 of the Lake— The Trossachs 418 
 
 CHAPTER XLI. 
 
 Glasgow and its History — Its Cathedral, River and Commerce — Dum- 
 fries, the Home of Burns— His Tomb— Gretna Green — The Solway 
 and its Cruel Memories 431 
 
 CHAPTER XLII. 
 
 Carlisle— Barrow-in-Fumess-Coal Mining— The English Postoffice — Eng- 
 lish Wants and Free Trade— Cheap Living— Light Work— Obedi- 
 ence to Law— Conclusion 441 
 
 Index 453 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 Ruins of Tintern Abbey, . . . Froittispiece 
 
 Page. 
 
 Map of the Route, facing 14 
 
 An Ocean Steamer, 19 
 
 A Continental Tree, 50 
 
 A Venetian Gondola, . . . . ' . .95 
 The Leaning Towers of Bologna, . . facing 96 
 The Palazzo Vecchio, Florence, . . . .106 
 The Ponte Yecchio, Florence, . . . . 109 
 
 Lorenzo the Magnificent, 114 
 
 Savonarola, 120 
 
 Tomb of Cgecilia Metella, Rome, . . . .149 
 
 View of Genoa, . facing 154 
 
 An Ecce Homo, 176 
 
 View of a Glacier in the Valley of Chamounix, 
 
 facing 184 
 
 A Diligence, 186 
 
 A Swiss Fountain, ' . 201 
 
 Storks' Nests at Strassburg, . . . facing 204 
 The Arc de Triomphe, Paris, . . . . 222 
 The Tower of London, from the Thames, . .280 
 
 Ely Cathedral, facing 310 
 
 Ruins of Dryburgh Abbey, . . . facing 422 
 
9 9 • , 5 '' • " 
 
 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD, 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 HOW TO PREPARE FOR A EUROPEAN TOUR— THE SELECTION OF 
 A ROUTE— INTELLECTUAL PREPARATION — THE COST AND 
 HOW TO PROVIDE FOR IT— WHAT BAGGAGE TO TAKE — THE 
 VOYAGE — LIFE AT SEA. 
 
 C^ S a rule people who travel are of an intelli- 
 Jfi gent class, though I have met persons who 
 ^1 V traveled merely for the sake of traveling, 
 with no definite object in view, no knowledge of 
 the history and associations of the places they 
 visited, and little or no appreciation of the beau- 
 ties and curiosities of the countries they passed 
 through. It need hardly be said that travel in 
 such cases furnishes but very little of either plea- 
 sure or profit. 
 
 If one contemplates a European tour the first 
 thing to do is to decide upon the route. A list 
 may be made of such places as the person espe- 
 cially desires to visit, and with a map before him 
 a route may easily be outlined that shall take in 
 these points and the more important intermediate 
 ones. In my own case, as illustration, I partic- 
 
14 ^ ; ^ : \ : i:iy^ Months abroad. 
 
 tiUriyl ^lslied:to see Cologne cathedral, reputed 
 the Meist GbtMb chtircii in the world, the famous 
 Rhine scenery, ISTiiremberg, the best preserved 
 mediseval city in Europe, the romantic city of 
 Venice, art-cultured Florence, historic Rome, 
 Pisa with its famous leaning tower, the much 
 talked of Italian lakes, the mountain scenery of 
 Switzerland, Paris, the world's metropolis of 
 fashion, elegance and culture, and lastly the old 
 cathedrals, ruined abbeys, castles and picturesque 
 natural scenery of England and Scotland. I there- 
 fore traced out a route embracing Liverpool, 
 London, Antwerp, Brussels, Cologne, Mayence, 
 Frankfort - on - the - Main, Nuremberg, Munich, 
 Innsbruck, Yerona, Venice, Padua, Bologna, 
 Florence, Rome, Pisa, Genoa, Turin, Milan, the 
 Simplon Pass, Martigny, Chamounix, Geneva, 
 Lausanne, Berne, Bale, Strassburg, Paris, Rouen, 
 Dieppe, and so back to England which being a 
 small country and easily covered less required a 
 pre-arranged route. 
 
 The route decided upon, the next proper step 
 is the posting up of one's self upon the geogra- 
 phy, history, associations and attractions of the 
 countries and cities passed through. .The more 
 fully this is done, of course, the better will the 
 traveler be equipped for his journey. Particu- 
 larly in historical matters would I recommend the 
 jotting down in a sort of commonplace book the 
 
[(iuttHsti 
 
 ^ trait ce^ \\ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 THE ROUTE. 
 
 Heavy dotted lines (• 
 Light bi-«.)ken lines (- 
 
 '•) national boundaries. 
 
 -) the route taken by the author. 
 
PRELIMINARY PREPARATIONS. 15 
 
 more important facts, such as dates and succes- 
 sions, for reference to while traveling, as such 
 information is often very difficult to obtain away 
 from home. In this intellectual preparation for 
 the journey, encyclopsedias, school histories, and 
 the descriptive articles that so often appear in 
 our leading magazines, will be found very service- 
 able. 
 
 The next thing is to provide money for the 
 journey. The passage from New York to Liver- 
 pool and return may be put down roughly at 
 from $100 to $200, according to the amount of 
 luxury indulged in on the voyage. The railroad 
 and steamboat fares on the continent may be put 
 at $100 to $125, hotels about $2.50 a day, and 
 some allowance must be made for purchases from 
 the great stocks of pretty things that will con- 
 stantly meet the eye while in Europe. I have 
 known people to make a European tour and be 
 home in a month or six weeks ; two to three 
 months is a very common time to devote to the 
 trip, but I found the interest of travel to be well 
 maintained during a period of five months. Hav- 
 ing settled on the amount of money necessary for 
 the trip and purchased one's passage tickets, the 
 next step is to procure a letter of credit for such 
 sum as will probably be required for use after 
 landing in Europe. Such letters of credit are 
 issued by various New York banking houses, and 
 
16 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 may easily be obtained through local banks or 
 bankers. These letters of credit may be drawn 
 against in any amounts, large or small as 
 required, at any of a hundred or more different 
 banks scattered through all the principal cities of 
 Europe. A very small fee is charged for the 
 cashing of each draft, not more perhaps alto- 
 gether than the interest the undrawn deposits 
 will earn. The safety, economy and convenience 
 of this method of carrying one's funds can never 
 be appreciated until it has been tried. 
 
 Then comes the packing for the journey. As 
 little baggage as possible should be taken, and it 
 is astonishing how little a person can get along 
 with. One, or at most two, suits of clothes, or 
 dresses, will usually be sufficient, as additional 
 clothing can be easily and cheaply procured any- 
 where on the journey, should it be required. 
 Nor is a great amount of underwear essential, as 
 one can get washing done at any hotel without 
 much delay. Warmer clothing should be taken 
 than would ordinarily be worn at home in the 
 summer season, as on the Atlantic, in the moun- 
 tain regions, and generally through England and 
 Scotland the climate is much cooler than it aver- 
 ages in the United States. A heavy winter over- 
 coat and a traveling rug will be found indispen- 
 sable on the voyage, but these may be left at 
 Liverpool till the return, so they hardly count as 
 
THE VOYAGE. 17 
 
 baggage. A reclining steamer chair, purchasable 
 in New York for $2.50 to $3.50, will be found of 
 great comfort for nse on deck and may also be 
 left at Liverpool. 
 
 Leaving New York we steam down the harbor, 
 through the Narrows, as the strait which separ- 
 ates Long Island from Staten Island at the point 
 of their nearest approach is called, past Sandy- 
 Hook, a long spit of land running out from the 
 New Jersey shore, and, in two hours after cast- 
 ing off the lines at the pier in North River, we 
 are fairly out at sea. Our course lies consider- 
 ably to the north of east, Liverpool being about 
 thirteen degrees, or, in round numbers, 800 miles 
 north of the latitude of New York. The distance 
 by the route usually taken is about 3,085 miles, 
 and about ten days may ordinarily be reckoned 
 upon as the time for the passage. Twenty-four 
 hours, however, before reaching Liverpool, we 
 touch at Queenstown, on the south-east coast 
 of Ireland, to land the mails, and from this time 
 the voyage seems practically at an end. 
 
 For the first few days after sailing, if the sea 
 be at all rough, one is very apt to suffer from an 
 entire loss of appetite and more or less sea- sick- 
 ness. The sensation is one of great misery, espe- 
 cially with the reflection constantly haunting one 
 that his wretchedness may be of ten days' continu- 
 ance. However, with most people this wears off 
 
18 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 in a few days, and the latter part of tlie voyage, 
 with the animating prospect of soon being in port, 
 becomes quite enjoyable. On the leading lines 
 of steamers the state-rooms are clean and well ven- 
 tilated, and a table is set superior even to that of 
 the majority of first-class hotels. If the weather 
 is pleasant it is wonderful how quickly the time 
 passes. We get up in the morning, take a stroll 
 on deck, breakfast at eight, stand or lie around 
 in groups watching the waves or chatting, are 
 served with beef tea at eleven, at noon the chart 
 with the progress of the ship for the past 24 hours 
 marked upon it, and which is suspended in a 
 frame in the companion-way, engrosses the atten- 
 tion, at one comes lunch, and at six o'clock 
 dinner, with tea or coffee still later if one cares 
 for it. The intervals are filled up with i^rome- 
 nades on deck and games of shovel-board or 
 quoits. Shovel-board is played with a number 
 of circular pieces of wood perhaps six inches in 
 diameter which are slid over the smooth deck, 
 being propelled by a sort of cue, the object being 
 to place them on certain squares marked with 
 chalk on the deck, the squares being numbered 
 from one to nine and the players counting the 
 sum of the numbers of the squares upon which 
 their blocks rest after all have played. In the 
 smoking-room cards help to pass the time; in the 
 saloon, music and reading. Every steamer now 
 
AMUSEMENTS AT SEA. 19 
 
 has its piano and library. But as we are journey- 
 ing eastward the clocks have to be set on half-an- 
 hour every day, and the fact that the days thus 
 have but twenty-three and a half hours perhaps 
 helps to make the time seem short. 
 
 The best months in which to cross the Atlantic 
 are May, June, July and August, but one is 
 liable in any of these months to encounter a rough 
 passage, and may, in like manner, enjoy a smooth 
 one even in December. 
 
 The intense delight of sailing into the lovely 
 harbor of Queenstown can only be appreciated 
 by those who have experienced it. It takes but 
 half-an-hour to transfer a few tons of mail bags 
 to the tender that comes out into the harbor to 
 meet our steamship, and we proceed immediately 
 on our way to Liverpool, keeping much of the 
 time in sight of the Irish and Welsh coasts. 
 
 AN OCEAN STEAMER. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 ARRIVAL IN ENGLAND-LIVERPOOL AND ITS WONDERFUL COM- 
 MERCIAL DEVELOPMENT— CHESTER AND ITS ANTIQUITIES- 
 ENGLISH HOTELS-CHEAP CAB FARES. 
 
 N the occasion of my trip the enjoyment of 
 arriving at Liverpool was greatly marred by 
 the fogs, which utterly obscured all sight 
 of land even after we had dropped anchor in the 
 Mersey, and by a drizzling rain in which we 
 landed. The customs restrictions in this glorious 
 country of free trade offer no annoyance to trav- 
 elers, and only if there is reason to believe 
 they have spirits or tobacco or reprints of Eng- 
 lish copyright books among their baggage, is it 
 subject to anything like an examination. Six- 
 pence (12 cents) for each trunk pays the dock 
 porters' fee for all the necessary handling till it 
 reaches our "fly," or one-horse hack, and a shil- 
 ling (24 cents) carries us to any hotel in the city. 
 Liverpool is usually passed over by travelers, 
 who upon landing hasten to take the first trains 
 for London. But it merits more attention. It is 
 one of those cities like Venice, Florence, Ant- 
 werp, and many others on the continent, which, 
 having grown wealthy by trade, has turned its 
 
LIVERPOOL. 21 
 
 attention to culture, art and luxurious elegance. 
 One wealthy merchant has founded a free public 
 library of 70,000 volumes, and built for its accom- 
 modation a palatial stone edifice. Another has 
 founded a free art gallery which already contains 
 many valuable treasures. St. George's hall, one 
 of the finest in the country, and containing one 
 of the largest organs, upon which weekly recitals 
 are given at popular prices (12 cents) to the music 
 loving public, is one of the chief landmarks of 
 Liverpool. Then within the past ten years the 
 €ity has purchased and improved, at a cost of 
 about $2,000,000, a fine public park, known as 
 Sefton park. Architecturally, too, Liverpool is 
 becoming a very beautiful city. It has lately 
 been made the see of a bishop^ and an elegant 
 cathedral church is looked forward to. But the 
 docks and other commercial conveniences are 
 still the chief feature of the city. Extending 
 for eight miles up and down the Mersey there 
 are a great number of docks or basins in which 
 vessels can lie to load or unload without being 
 affected by the tides which here rise and fall ten 
 or a dozen feet. The entire area of these docks 
 is over four hundred and thirty acres, and twenty- 
 eight miles of wharf is afforded by them. They 
 are managed by a commission of twenty-eight 
 members, elected by the great body of dock 
 rate-payers, who serve without compensation. 
 
22 FIVE MOXTHS ABROAD. 
 
 The capital needed for tlieir construction from 
 time to time lias been raised by loan. Their 
 entire cost has reached the enormous sum of 
 $100,000,000, and the commissioners have a debt 
 of $70,000,000 still outstanding. Each dock is 
 surrounded by extensive warehouses, and these 
 again by high walls. 
 
 Two centuries ago Liverpool was an insignifi- 
 cant fishing village, with but about one thousand 
 inhabitants. There were then several j^orts on the 
 coast possessing equal or even sui)erior natural 
 advantages. In 1703 the first dock, a small one 
 three acres in extent, was constructed, and from 
 this beginning dates Liverpool's wonderful com- 
 mercial greatness. 
 
 The landing stage is another notable work. It 
 is an immense floating wharf, eighty feet wide and 
 half a mile in length, anchored a few rods from 
 the bank of the river and connected with it by 
 eight bridges. Of course it rises and falls with 
 the tide, and thus presents a wharf of uniform 
 height at all times for the smaller steamers and 
 ferries to land at. Upon it are built customs 
 offices, waiting and refreshment rooms and all 
 other conveniences. 
 
 The streets of Liverpool are kept beautifully 
 clean and well paved. The American is particu- 
 larly struck with the shop windows, in v/hich 
 goods are displayed to an extent and with an 
 
CHESTER 23 
 
 attractiveness nnknown in our coimtry. Inside, 
 the stores are nsnally inferior to ours, but the 
 street display is magnificent. Often the windows 
 are so filled that the store behind is completely 
 darkened and gas must be used at all times. 
 Another striking feature, and one I think Amer- 
 ican merchants would do well to imitate more 
 generally, is the ticketing of every article dis- 
 played in the windows with the price in bold 
 figures, a matter of great convenience to cus- 
 tomers. 
 
 At Liverpool, being within an hour's ride of 
 Chester, one of the best preserved mediseval cities 
 in England, travelers generally improve the oppor- 
 tunity to visit it. It is a charming little place 
 of about forty thousand inhabitants, with noth- 
 ing but its antiquity to support it. It is believed 
 to be the j)erpetuation of a Roman military camp, 
 the plan of the streets conforming to those of the 
 usual camp of a Roman legion. It is surrounded 
 by a wall about two miles in circuit, part of 
 which is no doubt of Roman construction, and 
 the summit of which forms a delightful prome- 
 nade. The houses are mostly of the gabled sort 
 with each story projecting a little farther into the 
 street than the one below it, such as was the 
 usual style of building three or four hundred 
 years ago. Some have their timbers richly carved, 
 and all present a very quaint appearance. But 
 
24 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 the greatest oddities are the ^'Rows." In the 
 business thoroughfares both the first and second 
 stories of the buildings are devoted to stores, 
 those in the second story being recessed back 
 fifteen or twenty feet so as to open upon a cov- 
 ered gallery running over the to^Ds of the stores 
 below. These are the ''Rows," and all the best 
 stores are found in them. On rainy days ladies 
 can do their shopping without at all exposing 
 themselves to the weather, except it be at street 
 crossings where of course they must descend to 
 the street level. They are very curious and 
 interesting. 
 
 One of the principal antiquities of Chester is 
 the church of St. John the Baptist. Its erection 
 was begun in the year 1067, the year after the 
 ]N"orman conquest. The nave is a fine specimen 
 of earl}^ Norman architecture, with massive pil- 
 lars Ave feet in diameter. Part of the church is 
 a picturesque ruin; part has in recent times been 
 restored for public worship. The old tower, 
 one hundred and fifty feet high, stands a little 
 detached from the church itself. It is very 
 massive, with walls eight feet thick and some 
 carvings upon them which must once have been 
 very rich. But the old tower looked very shaky 
 when we saw it, and a great part of it fell with 
 a crash the day after we were there, destroying 
 in its fall the beautiful Early English Gothic 
 
ENGLISH HOTELS. 25 
 
 porcli of tlie church. It is however to be rebuilt. 
 St. John's was at one time the cathedral church 
 of the united dioceses of Lichfield, Coventry and 
 Chester. It was superseded some five or six 
 hundred years ago by the present cathedral, 
 a fine old structure, but much dilapidated from 
 the softness of the red sandstone of which it 
 is built. When I last saw the cathedral, in 1864, 
 it was in doubt whether it was worth restoring, 
 but the question seems to have been settled in the 
 affirmative as considerable work has already been 
 done upon it. One of the most notable objects 
 in it is the tomb of Bishop Pearson, author of 
 the famous Exposition of the Creed. We attended 
 service at the cathedral, and had the pleasure of 
 hearing the eminent Dean Howson, the joint 
 author with Conybeare of the well known Life of 
 St. Paul. 
 
 The English hotels are very different from 
 what we are accustomed to at home. Instead of 
 the characteristic American hotel clerk, ladies are 
 almost invariably found at the desk. There is no 
 registering as with us, but the guest having been 
 assigned a room is known only as the occupant 
 of such and such a number. There are no regular 
 meal hours, but the guest orders his meals at 
 such times as best suit his convenience, and they 
 are served either in his private parlor or in the 
 coffee room, as he may prefer. There is no bill of 
 
26 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 fare from which to select, and being thns depend 
 ent on his own knoAvledge of the dishes possible 
 to produce, it not infrequently hapj)ens that the 
 stranger fares rather badly from his ignorance of 
 how to order a meal. This having to order spe- 
 cially everything one eats is the chief annoyance 
 of English hotel life. Otherwise they are gen- 
 erally very comfortable places of sojourn, being 
 more quiet and more resembling private house- 
 holds than the hotels of this country. One sees 
 very little of his fellow guests, and may be for 
 days at a large hotel with a good custom and still 
 fancy himself almost the only visitor. The hotels 
 are less elegantly fitted up than those of corres- 
 ponding position in America, but they are usually 
 not at all inferior in the matter of comfort. The 
 guest is charged so much per day for his room, 
 a certain other amount, usually one shilling or 
 eighteen pence, for attendance, and for his meals 
 according to what he orders. A plain breakfast of 
 bread, or toast, and butter and coffee generally 
 costs about eighteen pence (36 cents), with cold 
 meat it would perhaps be two shillings, and with 
 hot meat two and sixpence (60 cents). In the case 
 of dinner, all the different items, soujj, fish, joint, 
 *' sweets," and dessert are reckoned separately, 
 and the cost will range from two and sixpence to 
 ^ye shillings (60 cents to $1.20). On leaving it is 
 customary to give the waiters who have attended 
 
CHEAP CAB FARES. 27 
 
 you a small fee, but this is altogether optional. 
 English hotels would be more desirable if they 
 were more generally equipped with elevators, or 
 ''lifts" as they are called in that country. 
 
 Cab fare is very cheap in England. For one 
 or two persons, for any reasonable distance, the 
 fare is but a shilling, or but about one-half what 
 is charged in this country. So, too, with car- 
 riages hired at a livery stable, rates do not exceed 
 one-half what we are accustomed to at home. 
 
 ABMS OF GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 :english railways—admirable depots— superiority of 
 , english cars-cheap fares and the enormous traffic 
 they create. 
 
 n| 1 AVING seen Liveri")ool and Chester, we 
 ?T take our journey to London. The rail- 
 ^ ] ^ ways of England are, for the most part, 
 grouped into eight or ten great systems, all cen- 
 tering in London, and each confining itself to a 
 particular part of England, but so overlapping in 
 territory that from almost any town of import- 
 ance to another a choice of two lines may be had; 
 and thus a healthy competition is maintained. 
 Still rates are uniform and there is no cutting, 
 the managers rather cultivating custoin by seeing 
 how attractive they can make their lines respect- 
 ively. The principal railway systems are the 
 Great Western, the London & Northwestern, the 
 Midland, the Great Northern, the Northeastern, 
 the Great Eastern, the London, Chatham & 
 Dover, the London, Brighton & South Coast, and 
 the London & Southwestern. It is very rare that 
 either highways or other railways are crossed at 
 grade, and consequently not only are there few 
 accidents from collisions or obstructions on the 
 
ENGLISH RAILWAY STATIONS. 29 
 
 track, but a much higher rate of speed is possible 
 than with us. The towns and cities are usually 
 entered at a level above that of the streets, which 
 are crossed by viaducts, the passengers reach- 
 ing the station by stairs. The stations, they are 
 never called "depots" in Europe, are noticeably 
 large and complete in their appointments. Even 
 in towns of a score of thousand of inhabitants 
 stations are often found rivaling the great Forty- 
 second street depot in New York in magnificence. 
 They usually consist of fine glass and iron roofs 
 entirely covering the tracks for a distance exceed- 
 ing that of the longest train, with brick or stone 
 depot buildings on either side, the one for busi- 
 ness bound in one direction, the other for traffic 
 going the opposite way. The two sides are con- 
 nected either by a tunnel or subway under the 
 tracks, or by a bridge over them, and the public 
 are never on any account allowed on the tracks. 
 The stations are provided with cloak rooms 
 where parcels of any sort may be stored at a 
 charge of two or four cents a day for each article. 
 The ladies' waiting rooms are often laid with 
 Brussels carpet and furnished as comfortably as 
 an ordinary private parlor. A lavatory or wash- 
 room is provided, with an attendant whose duty it 
 is to keep it scrupulously clean. Soap and clean 
 towels are furnished, and to defray the expense a 
 charge of about four cents is made to those using 
 
30 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 them. So with the water closets. ISTo hotel could 
 have cleaner or more elegantly fitted up. A per- 
 son is in charge of them, generally a superannu- 
 ated employe of the company, and to defray the 
 expense of his care a charge of two cents is made 
 to those applying for a key. The hack stand is 
 generally in the depot and consequently under 
 cover, so there is no going out in the rain and 
 mud to take a carriage after leaving one' s train. 
 In many other respects the English railway sta- 
 tions are models we could afford to copy from in 
 our own country. 
 
 The practice is growing in favor of having mam- 
 moth hotels connected with important railway 
 stations, the same being owned and controlled, if 
 not actually carried on, by the railway compa- 
 nies. Strangers thus land directly in their hotels, 
 and in two minutes after leaving the cars may be 
 in their bedrooms. 
 
 On many of the English railways the station 
 grounds at points along the line are beautifully 
 laid out as gardens, and are resplendent with 
 beds of bright flowers. The reader can imagine 
 how much pleasanter stops are under such cir- 
 cumstances than where the passengers' vision is 
 confined to a dusty yard strewn with old iron 
 and other litter, as is too often the case in this 
 country. 
 
 The English railways do not have their switch- 
 
ENGLISH RAILWAY CARRIAGES. 31 
 
 men running all over their yards to operate the 
 switches, at the cost of many lives and limbs 
 annually, but the switches are all handled from 
 one or two comfortable lookout stations, so situated 
 as to command a view of all the tracks and the 
 movements of every train. In these one man, 
 without exposure to the weather, can manage 
 fifty or more switches. Often, as he sits in his 
 glass house with his long row of levers before 
 him he is fairly embowered in the geraniums and 
 other pot plants with which he adorns his perch 
 and beguiles his leisure moments. Think of an 
 American switchman indulging in flowers ! 
 
 I need hardly tell the reader that English rail- 
 way carriages are very different from ours. They 
 are divided into several compartments, between 
 which there is no communication, the seats run 
 entirely across the car, half the passengers ride 
 backwards, and the carriages (they don' t call them 
 cars) are entered at the side. I prefer them to 
 ours, they are so much more roomy and so plea- 
 santly exclusive. While very clean and comfort- 
 able the carriages are very plain— no rich gilding 
 or veneering with costly woods. The result is, 
 while they carry nearly as many passengers, they 
 apparently weigh but little more than half what 
 ours do, and I should think would cost to build 
 scarcely a third the sum. They are hence more 
 
32 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 economical every way. The engines, too, are 
 smaller and much less showy than ours. 
 
 The contrast between the heavy, cumbersome 
 freight cars used in America and the light, simple 
 and cheap ones used on the English lines is par- 
 ticularly noticeable. While the American freight 
 car usually weighs about ten tons the English 
 weighs less than five ( "tare 4 tons 16 cwt.," I in 
 one instance observed one marked), and both 
 carry about the same load. The economy of mo- 
 tive power in using this light rolling stock must 
 be apparent to everyone. 
 
 You never see the floor of an English railway 
 carriage defiled with tobacco juice. Oh for the 
 time when the same can be said in our own coun- 
 try! 
 
 They give you no checks for your luggage (it is 
 not "baggage" on that side of the water), and 
 you must look out for it yourself, and promptly, 
 upon arriving at your destination. Tickets are 
 taken uj) by ticket collectors at the station pre- 
 ceding the one they are issued for. The system 
 in this respect is hardly so complete as ours. The 
 railway porters are feed for handling the baggage, 
 from four to twelve cents, according to the quan- 
 tity you have. 
 
 Fares in England are about four, three and two 
 cents a mile according as you ride, first, second 
 or third-class. Keturn tickets are always sold at 
 
RAILWAY FARES IN ENGLAND. 33 
 
 a large reduction. They are made good for from 
 three days to a week, and the round trip costs 
 about fifty per cent, more than the single trip. 
 The railway passenger traffic of England is enor- 
 mous and I have no doubt has been largely culti- 
 vated by the railway companies by their wise sys- 
 tem of encouraging travel by the adoption of 
 cheap fares. All the railways are compelled by 
 their charters to run at least one train a day at a 
 penny (2 cents) a mile. At first it was regarded 
 as an imposition upon them, and all possible 
 obstructions were thrown in the way of people 
 availing themselves of this so-called j)arliament- 
 ary train. Now, however, the railway managers 
 find that the third-class traffic is the best part of 
 their business, and it is quite as much courted as 
 the first and second-class. Indeed, the Midland 
 railway, one of the most enterprising and best 
 managed of the great railway cor]3orations of 
 England, has gone so far as to abolish the second- 
 class grade altogether and at the same time has 
 improved its third-class cars to the former stand- 
 ard of the second-class in comfort and elegance 
 and now runs them upon all its fast express trains. 
 Out of most of the larger cities of England, regu- 
 lar excursion trains are run on certain days of 
 the week at a fare not exceeding one cent a mile, 
 and this too must be found profitable or it would 
 not be so extensively practiced. 
 
 3 
 
34 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. ' 
 
 The most profitable railways in England are 
 not the great trunk lines, but the little suburban 
 branches that carry people daily from their 
 homes to their business and back again. They 
 are very numerous in the vicinity of London. 
 American railroad managers might take a hint 
 from this and give more attention to develoj^ing 
 suburban traffic. 
 
 iS 
 
CHAPTER lY. 
 
 LONDON -HOW HOLIDAYS ARE OBSERVED - ALBERT MEMORIAL 
 HALL -THE MESSIAH -THE FOUNDLING HOSPITAL -TOUR- 
 ISTS' TICKETS FOR THE CONTINENT. 
 
 CVf 
 
 MEwe 
 
 I COl 
 
 were unfortunate in arriving at London 
 Lst at the Easter season, when nothing 
 
 could be seen and scarcely any business 
 transacted. On Good Friday all shops were 
 closed and everything was as quiet as on Sunday. 
 On Saturday business closed early, and on Mon- 
 day, which is one of the great bank holidays, all 
 London was off pleasure seeking and not even a 
 box of matches could be purchased. This is no 
 doubt better than our half-and-half way of 
 keeping holidays in America, and I commend it 
 for imitation on our Fourths of July. 
 
 All places of amusement proper were closed on 
 Good Friday, but as appropriate to the day the 
 oratorio of the Messiah was produced at Albert 
 Hall, an immense structure capable of holding 
 eight thousand people, erected as a memorial 
 of the late Prince Consort. It is built of heavy 
 masonry, oval in form, and so arranged that every 
 one can see and hear, the solo singers occupying 
 one of the foci of the ellipse. It contains one of 
 
 35 
 
36 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 the largest organs in the world, presided at on 
 this occasion by Dr. Stainer, organist of St. Paul's 
 Cathedral. The orchestra embraced about eighty 
 instruments, and the chorus over eight hundred 
 singers. I need hardly add that it was grand. 
 At the Hallelujah Chorus the entire audience 
 rose to their feet and the effect was most intense. 
 By the way, Handel's Messiah was first ren- 
 dered in the chapel of the Foundling Hospital, 
 the organ of which, still in use, was a present to 
 the institution from the great master. I attended 
 services there on Easter Sunday. The institution 
 was founded by one Captain Thomas Coram in 
 1739, and was so well endowed by him and others 
 that it is now a very rich corporation, owning 
 whole streets of elegant houses in the vicinity. 
 Formerly there was an aperture in the wall with a 
 revolving box in which any one could x)lace an 
 infant she wished to get rid of, when by ringing a 
 bell and giving the box a turn the child became 
 an inmate of the establishment and all clue to it 
 was lost forever. Now, however, the mother must 
 present her child in person and give her name 
 and address, and she as well as the child becomes 
 an object of solicitude with the managers of the 
 institution, though of course not an inmate. 
 There are now about four hundred children in 
 the Foundling. They are kept till old enough to 
 go out as servants or be apprenticed to trades, and 
 
THE FOUNDLING HOSPITAL 37 
 
 thougli not pampered, are well cared for. The 
 little girls look exceedingly pretty in their high 
 white Normandy caps, white collars coming down 
 to and pinned at the waist, and white aprons. 
 The service at the chapel is choral, and the chil- 
 dren, assisted by a quartet, suj)ply the mnsic. It 
 was charming, the spirit with which they entered 
 into it and the precision they maintained. Not- 
 withstanding the wealth of the institution, the 
 wardens stand at the door with plates, and every 
 visitor is expected to make a contribution of six- 
 pence or a shilling. After the services the chil- 
 dren dine, and the visitors commonly remain to 
 see them eat and afterwards to inspect the dor- 
 mitories and school rooms. There is also an 
 interesting museum containing some rare paint- 
 ings, which may be seen by those who like. 
 
 On Sunday evening we attended one of the 
 people's services under the dome of St. Paul's, 
 at which eminent men from all parts of the king- 
 dom preach in rotation. On this occasion the 
 entire church was filled with hearers to the num- 
 ber of many thousands. 
 
 A few steps from St. Paul's is the main office 
 of Thomas Cook & Son, the pioneer tourist ticket 
 agents. Here at one payment we can procure 
 tickets for thousands of miles of travel, by rail, 
 steamer and stage coach, and traversing a dozen 
 different countries. It is an immense conven- 
 
38 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 ience to travelers, particularly if one is not 
 familiar with the languages of all the countries 
 visited. Our tickets, taking us from London 
 through Belgium, up the Rhine, through Bava- 
 ria, the Tyrol, Italy, Switzerland and France, 
 over the route described in a former chapter, with 
 the privilege of lying over at numerous places, 
 cost us £18 17s 6d, or 891.73 each. 
 
 Besides this we are able at Cook's to pay 
 hotel bills in advance for any number of days we 
 desire at the rate of eight and sixpence, or $2. 10 
 per day. The tickets entitle us to a table d'hote 
 dinner, usually served on the continent at the close 
 of the day's sight-seeing, or about live or six 
 o' clock, a bed, with lights and attendance, and a 
 meat breakfast. Lunch in the middle of the 
 day one is supposed to procure at a restaurant 
 wherever he may happen to be. There are 
 separate coupons for each meal and the bed, 
 so one is not required to remain longer than 
 he cares to at any hotel, nor does he have 
 to pay for any meals he has not eaten. The 
 coupons are good at any of a list of three 
 hundred and twelve hotels at two hundred and 
 seventy-two different places on the continent. 
 Cook's is not the only tourist ticket agency, 
 nor, in the opinion of some, the best, but it 
 is an old established concern, and is every way 
 worthy of confidence. The senior Mr. Cook 
 
COOK'S COUPONS. 39 
 
 began Ms enterprise by getting \vp temperance 
 excursions for the poorer classes in England, 
 in j)art as a philanthropic measure, and from this 
 beginning has grown up a very extensive busi- 
 ness, with branch offices in all the principal cities 
 in Europe and America. It is safe to say the 
 majority of English and American people one 
 meets on the continent are traveling on Cook's 
 tickets. 
 
 We spend but little time in London as it is 
 important that we reach Rome by the middle of 
 May, soon after which the fever season sets in 
 and it is unsafe for strangers to sojourn there. 
 We leave therefore the sights of London till our 
 return, and push on for the continent. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 CROSSINa TO THE CONTINENT— APPEARANCE OF THE COUNTRY 
 IN FRANCE AND BELGIUM -BRUSSELS- A CONTINENTAL HOTEL 
 —A HANDSOME CITY— LACE MANUFACTURE— THE KINGDOM 'OF 
 BELGIUM- ANTWERP— RUBENS AND HIS PAINTINGS— BELGIAN 
 WOOD CARVING-A CALVARY. 
 
 CitVrjH^ sailed from Dover vrith a stiff east wind 
 blowing, confident in late trans -Atlantic 
 experience to bring us through like old 
 sailors, but before we reached Calais our con- 
 fidence gave way, and we vowed the next time 
 we crossed we should wait for a fine day. The 
 steamers are small, and the heavy waves break 
 over them to an extent that not a foot of dry 
 space is to be found on deck. Xo sooner were 
 the lines cast off at Dover than the sailors omin- 
 ously passed around to every passenger a large 
 white bowl, and devoted themselves mainly dur- 
 ing the voyage to emptying them as occasion 
 required. 
 
 It takes about two hours to cross from Dover 
 to Calais, and about five more, by rail, to reach 
 Brussels. The country we pass through in this 
 portion of our journey is very flat, but not unin- 
 teresting. We pass through several large manu- 
 
 40 
 
THROUGH BELGIUM. 41 
 
 facturing cities and see some fine old churches, a 
 few castles, and near the boundary line between 
 France and Belgium some fortifications. Occa- 
 sionally in the intervening country we see a stately 
 manor house, but the majority of the houses 
 are of the quaint, high-roofed French farm house 
 sort, built of stone oiiJDrick and covered with tiles 
 or thatch. Scarcely a fence is to be seen the entire 
 distance, only lines of trees, usually willows, 
 marking the subdivisions of the land. In the 
 case of the willows they are usually kept trimmed 
 off close about six or eight feet from the ground, 
 where a great unsightly knob forms itself. The 
 periodical crojDping of the trees is for the purpose 
 of supi^ljT-ing fuel, of which the country is other- 
 wise largely destitute. The same branch-denuded 
 trees — mere stumps with bushy heads of small 
 twigs — are commonly seen all over continental 
 Europe, large full grown trees being quite excep- 
 tional except in royal and public parks. The sur- 
 face of the ground between Calais and Brussels is 
 so flat that in many cases the fields are intersected 
 by canals a yard or two wide — primarily for 
 drainage but also utilized for navigation, the 
 farmer using boats instead of wagons to convey 
 his crops from the fields to his barn. Wagon 
 roads are rarely seen, but what there, are are 
 excellent, the main highways being paved with 
 stone like the streets of a city. So, too, draft 
 
42 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 animals seem scarce, and manual labor appears to 
 take their place in farming operations. Every- 
 where spring work was in full blast, and almost as 
 many women as men were seen in the fields. In 
 one case I noticed a man and a woman drawing a 
 harrow by ropes passed over their shoulders, and 
 in another case a like pair were drawing a roller 
 over a newly plowed field. One o? the most 
 striking features of the route is the great number 
 of windmills seen, and which may almost be 
 counted by hundreds. 
 
 Arrived at Brussels, we drive to our hotel, find 
 plenty of attaches who speak English fluently, 
 and soon feel quite at home. The hotel is a 
 quaint sort of a place, but withal very clean and 
 comfortable. There is a court-yard in the center, 
 open to the skies, across which we have to walk 
 to the dining room, and upon which the ladies' 
 parlor opens. It is a queer mixture of the ancient 
 and modern, the rude and the elegant. Our 
 chamber ceiling is low and is intersected by a 
 great beam, the woodwork of the doors and win- 
 dows, too, is old fashioned and clumsy, but the 
 house is fitted with electric bells, a handsome 
 French clock with accompanying ornaments occu- 
 pies the mantle-piece, a good Brussels carpet the 
 floor, and all the furniture is of solid mahogany. 
 The beds are all single, the custom of the conti- 
 nent being for husbands and wives to sleep sepa- 
 
A BELGIAN HOTEL. 43 
 
 rately, and, in lieu of a sufficient supply of blan- 
 kets and counterj^anes, each bed is provided with 
 a small eider-down bed, coming up about half 
 way to the pillows, and covered with lace. This 
 lies on top and keeps the feet and legs warm. 
 The bed rooms are lighted only by candles, and, 
 cheap as must be the article of soap, every guest 
 is expected to furnish his own. 
 
 The table d'hote in our hotel is at five o'clock. 
 The dinner bell rings and all the guests sit down 
 together. Ten courses are served, and we sit alto- 
 gether about an hour and a half. All the plates 
 and knives and forks are removed and clean ones 
 provided for each course. First comes soup, then 
 ham patties, then fish, and after these in succes- 
 sion, roast beef and spinach, roast veal with onion 
 dressing, asparagus \vith hard-boiled eggs, some 
 kind of bird on toast, head-cheese and salad, pud- 
 ding, and lastly dessert of fruit and cakes — ten 
 clean plates to each guest, unless he chooses to 
 omit some of the courses in which case he sits 
 patiently till the other guests have finished and 
 the next course is served. Almost every guest 
 has a bottle of wine by his plate, the light Ger- 
 man and Italian wines being much used on the 
 continent as an ordinary beverage. 
 
 After a night' s rest we take a drive over the 
 city. A two-horse carriage and driver for two 
 hours costs us nine francs, or $1.80. Brussels is 
 
44 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 a b(5antiful city. No American city, or even Lon- 
 don, can boast such architecture for boldness and 
 elegance. A more graceful tower and spire than 
 that of the Hotel de Vllle, a more massive crea- 
 tion than the new Palace of Justice, or more 
 palatial rows of private buildings than line some 
 of the newer boulevards it would probably be 
 difficult to find anywhere. Even in the older por- 
 tions of the city, where the streets are narrow and 
 crooked, the houses with their gabled roofs and 
 well-cared-for stuccoed walls, the attractive shop 
 windows, and the stately old churches and other 
 public buildings which stand out everywhere, 
 contribute a charm to the place. 
 
 The boulevards of Brussels are magnificent 
 thoroughfares, some of them two hundred feet 
 wide. These have a macadamized roadway for 
 pleasure driving in the center, lined with avenues 
 of trees. * On one side is a dirt road for horseback 
 riding, and on the other a grassy walk for pedes- 
 trians. Outside of these come paved roadways 
 for heavy traffic, and still beyond them flag side- 
 walks. 
 
 The cathedral church of St. Gudule is a very 
 fine Gothic edifice, famous for the magnificent 
 chapels that flank the choir, for its rich stained 
 glass windows, and for a remarkable carved 
 wooden pulpit representing the expulsion of 
 Adam and Eve from Eden. Our first parents are 
 
BRUSSELS. 45 
 
 of life size, and, with the trunk of the tree of 
 knowledge of good and evil, support the pulpit. 
 Just over them is a life-sized angel brandishing 
 his fiery sword, while Satan, in form of a serpent 
 some twenty or thirty feet long and as large as a 
 man's leg, is coiled all about the pulpit with his 
 head peering over the top of the sounding board 
 above, where a figure of the Virgin axDpears 
 instructing the infant Jesus to crush the head 
 with his foot. The stair railing leading up to the 
 pulpit is ornamented with cocks, monkeys and 
 various other animals, and altogether it is a very 
 curious piece of work. 
 
 In the Hotel de Ville or City Hall are some 
 tapestries which for perfection of shading and 
 brilliancy of coloring rival the best art of the 
 painter. But the great specialty of Brussels is its 
 lace. There are a number of manufactories some 
 of very long existence. The designs are generally 
 very artistic, but the skill with which the oper- 
 atives manipulate, in its production, sometimes 
 hundreds and thousands of bobbins is truly won- 
 derful. The interest in seeing lace made is only 
 exceeded by observing the skill and ingenuity 
 with which it is sold. Every hackdriver and 
 hotel porter seems to have a special interest in 
 beguiling travelers into the lace factories. Once 
 within the walls they are taken in charge by the 
 most beautiful and fascinating of young ladies, 
 
46 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 and the stock is exhibited with so much tact and 
 graceful naivete that I doubt if one person in 
 twenty gets away without making some pur- 
 chase. 
 
 Brussels, which has three hundred thousand 
 inhabitants, is the capital of Belgium, one of the 
 youngest of the family of European nations. 
 As part of the dukedom of Burgundy, it fell in 
 the sixteenth century to Charles V., emperor of 
 Germany and Spain, by inheritance. The oppres- 
 sions of his son, Philip II., caused the eighty years 
 war, portrayed so graphically by Motley in his 
 Dutch Republic. The war ended in 1648 with the 
 indei)endence of the protestant provinces of Hol- 
 land, but the retention by Spain of the catholic 
 provinces now forming BelgiumfP' By the peace of 
 Ryswick, in 1713, the latter were transferred to 
 Austria. It was the Empress Maria Theresa of 
 j^f tria who gave Brussels its park. In 1794 the 
 province was conquered by the revolutionary 
 army of France, and it remained under French 
 dominion till the fall of Napoleon in 1815, when 
 the congress of Vienna, which undertook the 
 reconstruction of the map of Europe, united it 
 again with the kingdom of Holland. The Bel- 
 gians were not given equal rights with their new 
 confreres, grew discontented, and in 1830 threw 
 off the Dutch yoke and set up as a sepa- 
 rate nation. They elected as their king Prince 
 
BELGIUM'S HISTORY. 47 
 
 Leopold of Saxe-Cobourg, the widower of the 
 beloved Princess Charlotte of England, daughter 
 of George lY. and cousin of Queen Victoria. 
 He was a man of high culture and superior char- 
 acter, and made for thirty-five years a good and 
 popular king. His son, Leopold II., now reigns, 
 and it is his daughter Stephanie who was recently 
 married to the son of the emperor of Austria. 
 
 The people of Belgium are mostly catholics, 
 and are industrious and enterprising and fully 
 abreast of the French and English in the develop- 
 ment of the arts and manufactures. Besides 
 lace, Brussels carpets, glass and iron are among 
 the chief products of the country. The French 
 and Flemish languages are about equally spoken 
 in Belgium. 
 
 From Brussels we take a train for Antwerp, 
 the principal sea-port of Belgium, and an inter- 
 esting old city of one hundred and twenty -five 
 thousand inhabitants. It is an hour's ride 
 and the fare for the round trip is about one 
 dollar. The country we pass through is a dead 
 level as far as the eye can reach in every 
 direction, neither cutting nor embankment worth 
 speaking of being required for the railroad the 
 entire distance. Nor is there scarcely a fence 
 to be seen, but rows of trees mark every subdi- 
 vision of land, and fine avenues line every road- 
 way. These have a very pretty effect, and will 
 
48 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 no doubt supply future generations with much 
 valuable timber. The land is in a high state of 
 cultivation, and every rod is fully imj^roved. 
 The field labor is chiefly manual, comparatively 
 few beasts being employed. One horse usually 
 draws the x)low, and in one field I saw a single ox 
 harnessed to this implement. 
 
 Antwerp, once the commercial metropolis of 
 the world, a position to which London has now 
 succeeded, is a well built but rather quiet and 
 sleepy old city. It lacks the brilliancy and 
 gaiety of Brussels, but is clean, in good repair, 
 and presents an air of stately respectability. The 
 houses are of great architectural variety, but the 
 steep gabled fronts predominate. All are built 
 up closely in solid blocks. We first visit the 
 cathedral, one of the finest in northern EurojDe, 
 and dating from 1352-1411. It is remarkable for 
 having three aisles on either side of the nave, 
 giving great breadth to the church. Its lofty, 
 light, graceful spire very much resembles that of 
 the Hotel de Ville at Brussels. The two master- 
 pieces of Rubens, ''the Elevation of the Cross" 
 and "the Descent from the Cross," for which the 
 cathedral is noted, hang in the two transepts of 
 the church, and are only uncovered for public 
 inspection at certain hours. Antwerp was the 
 home of Peter Paul Rubens, the greatest of 
 Flemish painters (born 1577, died 1640), and his 
 
ANTWERP. 49 
 
 best works are to be seen here. Some are col- 
 lected in a small gallery at the house he resided 
 in and which is still preserved in good condition, 
 but the principal collection is found at the 
 Museum, a public gallery open free on certain 
 days of the week. 
 
 The Belgians of past ages seem to have espe- 
 cially excelled in the art of wood carving. I 
 have already mentioned the wonderful pulpit in 
 St. Gudule's. In Antwerp cathedral is one very 
 similar to it, and in the church of St. Paul the 
 wood carvings are perhaps nowhere surpassed for 
 abundance and richness. Every confessional 
 consists of a group of figures of life size, and the 
 walls of the large church all around for some 
 height above the pavement are a mass of rich 
 carvings in oak. 
 
 A scarcely less notable feature of St. Paul's 
 church in Antwerp is its "Calvary." This is 
 outside the church but adjoining it, and consists 
 of some sixty life-size marble statues, represent- 
 ing all the great bible worthies, leading up to an 
 artificial mountain, upon which appears in full 
 the scene of the crucifixion in white marble. 
 Below the mountain is a cave in which a dead 
 Christ is seen, and back of the mountain a repre- 
 sentation of purgatory, with men tortured by 
 devils and writhing in marble flames. It is alto- 
 gether a very curious conception, and is a favor- 
 
 4 
 
50 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 ite place of resort for meditation and prayer with, 
 the pious catholics of Antwerp). 
 
 One of the inconveniences in Belgium is the 
 lack of a uniform language. All notices to the 
 public have to be in polyglot form, involving an 
 immense amount of printing and sign painting. 
 Thus, as illustration, the refreshment room at the 
 railway station usually bears a sign reading: 
 
 BUVETTA. 
 
 Tap-room. 
 Drinkplaats. 
 
 TliLNKSTUBE. 
 
 And the outlet from the station is indicated by 
 the words: 
 
 Way out.. 
 
 "WlTGANG 
 
 Sortie. 
 
 AUSGANG. 
 
 So all official pajDers appear printed in two or 
 more different languages, side by side. 
 
 A POUiARD WILLOW. 
 
CHAPTER 71. 
 
 In GERMANY— AIX-LA-CHAPELLE AND ITS MEMORIES OF CHARLE- 
 MAGNE—COLOGNE AND ITS CATHEDRAL— THE RHINE AND ITS 
 ROMANTIC SCENERY— MAYENCE, THE BIRTHPLACE OF PRINT- 
 ING-FRANKFORT-GOETHE-THE ROTHSCHILDS. 
 
 i\ 
 
 (^W^EAYINGr Brussels for Cologne we pass 
 ^^ througli Lou vain with its great catholic 
 O j university from which so many priests are 
 sent to America, and the important manufactur- 
 ing city of Liege. In this direction the country 
 is much more rolling, and after passing Liege 
 becomes decidedly rocky, if not mountainous. 
 Soon after, we cross the boundary line into Ger- 
 many and stop at the old city of Aix-la-Chapelle. 
 The place is famous in history as one of Charle- 
 magne's capitals and as the scene of several 
 important treaties of peace, including that effect- 
 ed by the congress of 1818 held for the settling 
 of the affairs of Europe after Napoleon's defeat 
 at Waterloo in 1815. It it is a quiet, modern- 
 built town with only one or two objects of any 
 considerable interest to the ordinary traveler. 
 These are the cathedral, part of which was built 
 by Charlemagne more than a thousand years ago, 
 and in which he was buried, and the Rathhaus, or 
 
 51 
 
52 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 city hall, which occupies the site of the great 
 emperor's palace, some remains of which are 
 embraced in it. The cathedral is octagonal in 
 form, with square piers and semi-circular arches, 
 and is of exceedingly massive construction. At 
 a later period an elegant Gothic choir or chancel 
 was added to the plain Carlovingian portion. 
 The tomb of Charlemagne was in the center of 
 the octagon, and he was buried originally in a 
 sitting position in an arm-chair of marble. This 
 chair or throne is now exhibited in th^ gallery of 
 the church. For many generations it was used as 
 the coronation chair of the emperors of Germany. 
 After reposing in it for three hundred and fifty 
 years Charlemagne's body was removed from 
 the chair to a richly-carved marble sarcophagus 
 brought from Rome, and said to have been the 
 coffin of the Emperor Augustus. This coffin is 
 also exhibited, the remains having at last found 
 a place as sacred relics in the treasury of the 
 church. 
 
 The Rathhaus is remarkable chiefly for an 
 exceedingly fine vaulted hall one hundred and 
 sixty -five feet long and sixty wide, called the 
 kaisersaal, and which contains some very fine 
 modern frescoes. 
 
 A two hour's ride brings us to Cologne, where 
 our baggage undergoes the formality of a cus- 
 toms inspection. The celebrated cathedral so 
 
COLOGKE. 63 
 
 overshadows everything else at Cologne that one 
 hardly cares to visit the objects of lesser interest, 
 though the city contains several fine mediaeval 
 churches, the tomb of the famous thirteenth cen- 
 tury British scholar and theologian Duns Scotus, 
 who died in Cologne where he occupied a chair 
 in the university, and numerous interesting anti- 
 quities, for Cologne was founded in the year 51 by 
 Agrippina, mother of the Roman emperor Nero, 
 and doubtless derived its name from being the 
 chief Roman colony in north Germany. But it 
 is not a pleasant city to stay long in. The streets 
 are narrow and crooked, the slops of the city 
 flow down the open gutters of the streets, and the 
 seventy- two distinct smells of which Coleridge 
 wrote seem now blended into one not unlike that 
 of some of our American sulphur springs. So 
 we confine our attention to the cathedral, the 
 grandest Gothic structure in the world, to see 
 which is well worth a journey to Europe to any 
 lover of architecture. 
 
 Cologne Cathedral was begun in 1248 by an 
 archbishop who was ambitious of a church 
 comporting with the wealth and commercial 
 greatness of the city at that period. The east 
 end, or choir, was first erected, and this was com- 
 pleted in 1322, when the nave, transepts and 
 towers were begun. In 1447 one tower was high 
 ^nouo^h to receive its bells. The enthusiasm then 
 
54 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 subsided, a temporary roof was thrown over the 
 nave, and for more than three hundred years all 
 hope of the church ever being completed was 
 abandoned. It had fallen greatly to decay, when 
 in 1796 the French stripped the lead from the 
 roof, used the interior as a hay magazine, and 
 left the church little better than a ruin. In 1816 
 the king of Prussia caused the building to be 
 examined with reference to its restoration, but it 
 was not till 1823 that work upon it was begun. 
 The work was then carried on under the super- 
 vision of one Zwirner, an architect of rare talent 
 who died in 1861, and he was the person who first 
 suggested the entire completion of the edifice. 
 Between 1842 and 1876 the immense sum of 
 $3,500,000 was expended upon it, the greater part 
 being contributed by the Prussian government. 
 
 The cathedral is four hundred and forty-four 
 feet long, two hundred and one feet wide at the 
 nave and two hundred and eighty-two at the 
 transepts. The walls rise one hundred and fifty 
 feet and the ridge of the roof is two hundred and 
 one feet from the ground. The two towers at the 
 west end rise grandly to the height of five hun- 
 dred and eleven feet, and their walls one hundred 
 and fifty feet from the ground, as I measured 
 them, were twelve feet in thickness. Inside the 
 church the vaulted ceiling is one hundred and 
 forty-five feet above the pavement. But these 
 
COLOGNE CATHEDRAL. 66 
 
 figures will utterly fail to give tlie reader any- 
 thing like an idea of the immensity of the struc- 
 ture or the deep impression it makes on one's 
 mind. But even this impression fades before the 
 admiration inspired by the intrinsic beauty of 
 the structure. Its magnificent proportions, its 
 graceful outlines, its apparent lightness and its 
 chaste yet elaborate ornamentation all combine 
 to render it the most beautiful Gothic church in 
 the world. What Handel' s Messiah is in music 
 Cologne cathedral is in architecture. It is above 
 comparison and can only be worshiped. 
 
 After drinking in the grandeur of the nave, with 
 its double aisles lighted with thirteenth and four- 
 teenth century stained glass, we ascend to the 
 galleries, which perforate the walls a hundred 
 feet from the ground, and look down on the pig- 
 mies worshiping below. Then we climb fifty 
 feet higher to the vaulting of the nave, at which 
 level we entered the belfry where in one of the 
 towers hangs a thirty-ton bell cast from French 
 cannon captured in the war of 1870 and pre- 
 sented by the Emperor William. This bell 
 requires twenty-eight men to ring it. Then we 
 ascend into the lantern, over the intersection of 
 the nave and transepts, two hundred and fifty 
 feet from the ground, and gaze up at the beauti- 
 ful openwork spires towering still two hundred 
 and sixty feet above us. 
 
56 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 That portion of the river Rhine visited for its 
 scenery is comprised between Cologne and May- 
 ence, a distance of one hundred and seventeen 
 miles, though it is in fact only the seventy-five 
 miles between Bonn and Bingen that possesses 
 interest to the American traveler. The rest of 
 the distance the banks are low and contain few 
 objects of attraction. Between Bonn and Bingen, 
 however, the scenery is very fine, far surpass- 
 ing in my opinion our much boasted Hudson. 
 Mountains rise on either side hundreds of feet in 
 height, and the river so winds among the hills 
 that it seems perpetually land-locked. The sides 
 of the hills are wonderfully improved in the cul- 
 .tivation of the grape, and terrace after terrace 
 rises along their steep sides, sometimes to their 
 extreme summits. Wherever on their rocky 
 slopes a dozen square yards of soil can be secured 
 by the erection of a sustaining wall there we find 
 a dozen grape vines. Tens of thousands of acres 
 must be thus employed, and hundreds of miles of 
 stone wall. One ceases to wonder where all the 
 wine comes from, or that it can be retailed at so 
 low a price as from thirty to fifty cents a bottle. 
 On our way up the river we pass, near Bingen, 
 the famous Johannisberg vineyard of forty acres, 
 the average product of which reaches a value of 
 $40,000 a year. It belongs to the family of the 
 late Prince Metternich. 
 
THE RHIKE. 57 
 
 The vine-clad hills are not the only attraction. 
 At intervals of a few miles the tops of the hills 
 are crowned with old castles, sometimes mere 
 ruins, sometimes restored for habitation. They 
 are often very picturesque. They are the pro- 
 duct of a barbarous age, when might made right, 
 and when iDositions of inaccessibility, with strong 
 walls and towers, were the only safeguards for 
 life and proi)erty. They were particularly 
 numerous along the Rhine and its tributaries, as 
 the commerce of the river afforded a tempting 
 revenue in the way of tolls to any one who was 
 powerful enough to collect them. The traveler 
 remains on deck every minute of the time during 
 the trip up the river and enjoys the panorama 
 exceedingly. 
 
 The Rhine is a very swift stream, and is navi- 
 gated by sharp and powerful steamers, which 
 nevertheless require in ascending the river about 
 eight hours to accomplish what they would in 
 five in going down. To enjoy the scenery one 
 should always ascend the river. We made the 
 trip in April, too early in the season for comfort, 
 the weather on the river being quite chilly. The 
 large express steamers also had not begun their 
 season's trips and the smaller boats made two 
 days of it, leaving their passengers over night at 
 Coblenz, a jDoint at the confluence of the Moselle 
 
68 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 with the Ehine, about midway between Cologne 
 and Mayence. 
 
 Coblenz is a strongly fortified town of thirty 
 thousand inhabitants. The extent of its fortifi- 
 cations may be judged from the fact that after 
 they had been dismantled by Napoleon I. the 
 Prussian government expended $6,000,000 in 
 their restoration. One can hardly find a square 
 yard of space anywhere in the vicinity that is 
 not covered by some loop-hole or embrasure in 
 some piece of fortification. Eight thousand sol- 
 diers are stationed there — a useless provision, one 
 would think, in time of peace, but every able- 
 bodied man in Germany must render three years' 
 military service, and the large army thus enlisted 
 must be disposed somewhere, so the little town 
 of Coblenz sleeps secure with a guard of about 
 two soldiers to each house. 
 
 The Empress of Germany has a summer palace 
 at Coblenz, and during the season it is a place of 
 considerable fashionable resort. In the way of 
 antiquities it possesses one church, at least, that 
 of St. Castor, over eight hundred years old. 
 
 Near the close of our second day's voyage we 
 call at Bingen, the "Fair Bingen on the Ehine" 
 of Mrs. Caroline Norton's beautiful poem. 
 
 Mayence, or Mentz, is an interesting little city 
 of fifty thousand inhabitants, opposite the mouth 
 of the river Main, and also strongly fortified. It 
 
MAYENCE. 59 
 
 is particularly interesting as being tlie birthplace 
 of Gutenberg and the art of printing. Johann 
 Gensfleisch von Gutenberg seems to have per- 
 fected his invention about 1438, He was then 
 residing in Strassburg. He returned to Mayence 
 in 1443 and soon after formed a partnership with 
 a capitalist named Faust for the establishment of 
 a printing office. His first production was a 
 Latin bible, the precise year of the appearance 
 of which is not known. The building, however, 
 in which the business was carried on is still in 
 existence, and a tablet on it fixes 1447 as a period 
 of its occupancy by Gutenberg. The poor 
 inventor was subsequently cheated out of the 
 property by his rich partner, and having jjro- 
 cured other assistance he was compelled to begin 
 again, his original office being now carried on by 
 Faust & Schoeffer as a rival concern. Guten- 
 berg died in 1468, and his fame is perpetuated by 
 a fine bronze statue by Thorwaldsen in one of the 
 public squares of Mayence. 
 
 Mayence has also a very interesting old cathe- 
 dral dating from 1180, combining the Roman- 
 esque with the Gothic styles of architecture, and 
 very rich in sepulchral monuments. 
 
 Leaving the Rhine at Mayence we turn east- 
 ward (the Rhine flows nearly due north) and an 
 hour's ride by rail brings us to Frankfort-on-the 
 Main, until 1866 one of the four free cities of 
 
60 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 Germany and the seat of the Germanic Diet. In 
 the Austro-Prussian war Frankfort took sides 
 with Austria, and for a time stood in great danger 
 of being sacked by the victorious Prussians. As 
 it was she was mulcted in a war indemnity of 
 $1,250,000, about half a million of which was, 
 however, assumed by the emperor individually 
 and a like amount by the imperial government, 
 so that on the whole the city got off quite easily. 
 The policy of the empire has been very concili- 
 atory toward Frankfort; and while the loss of her 
 ancient sovereignty is still bemoaned by the 
 older inhabitants, she never was more prosperous 
 than since her incorporation into the empire, and 
 altogether she is as loyal to-day as any other part 
 of Germany. Frankfort is a splendid old city. 
 A good portion of it is as quaint and old-fash- 
 ioned as can be, with narrow, crooked streets 
 and tall overhanging buildings of frame work 
 filled in with brick and plaster, many of them 
 richly carved and ornamented. Part of the city, 
 however, is modern and quite elegant, and alto- 
 gether it possesses an air of business, and presents 
 attractions in the display of its wares that we 
 have seen nowhere else since we left Brussels. 
 Frankfort also contains some of the finest hotels 
 in Germany. It is the seat of great wealth and 
 has a splendid Bourse or stock exchange. 
 
 Frankfort has some old churches of consider- 
 
PRANKFORT-ON-THE-MAIN. 61 
 
 able interest, and the Roemer, or town hall, dat- 
 ing from the year 1406, in which the elections 
 for emperor of Germany were accustomed to be 
 held. The kaisersaal, or large hall in which the 
 banquet was held after the election was complete, 
 and from a window of which the new emperor 
 was presented to the people, has been restored in 
 recent times, and now contains fine oil portraits 
 of all the emperors from Charlemagne down to 
 the dissolution of the empire in 1806. 
 
 In one of the quiet back streets of Frankfort is 
 a large and old-fashioned house bearing a slab of 
 marble in its front wall with this inscription: 
 
 In diesem bause 
 
 wurde 
 
 JoHANN Wolfgang Goethe, 
 
 am 28 August. 1749, 
 
 Geboren, 
 
 signifying that in that house the immortal Goethe 
 was born August 28, 1749. A fine bronze statue 
 of the great poet adorns one of the public 
 squares. 
 
 Another birthplace I took the pains to ferret 
 out was that of the famous Rothschild family. 
 It is in the Jews' quarter, in a miserable, dirty, 
 ruinous row of tall houses. Here, three gener- 
 ations ago, Mayer Rothschild kept a small bank, 
 and having the good fortune to preserve through 
 a period of invasion the treasures of one of the 
 German princes at the sacrifice of his own prop- 
 
62 
 
 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 erty, obtained favors from the government which 
 laid the foundation for the immense fortunes his 
 descendants still enjoy. A branch of the Roths- 
 childs' banking business is still carried on in 
 Frankfort, a plain four- storied modern building 
 being occupied, only a stone's throw from old 
 Mayer Rothschild's narrow quarters in the Juden- 
 gasse. 
 
CHAPTER YII. 
 
 BAVARIA-THE ANCIENT CITY OF NUREMBERG-MUNICH AND ITS 
 PICTURE GALLERIES-ITS BRONZE FOUNDRY— GERMAN TREE 
 CULTURE— GERMAN COINAGE— FREEDOM FROM PAUPERISM- 
 CONTINENTAL SUNDAYS. 
 
 *' In the valley of the Pegnitz, where across broad meadow lands 
 Rise the blue Franconlan mountains, Nuremberg', the ancient, stands; 
 Quaint old town of toil and traffic, quaint old town of art and song, 
 Memories haunt thy pointed gables, like the rooks that round them throng. " 
 
 —Longfellov). 
 
 ALF a day's ride from Frankfort brings us 
 to the interesting old city-of Nuremberg. 
 This we had long looked forward with 
 pleasure to seeing, as the best preserved mediaeval 
 city on the continent. Nor were we disap- 
 pointed. It is surrounded with a splendid stoile 
 wall and a moat at least fifty feet wide. It also 
 has dozens of towers for defense, some of them of 
 great height and strength. The streets are usu- 
 ally of good width, and the houses broad and 
 large, indicating a prevalence of wealth and com- 
 parative luxury at the time they were erected. 
 They are usually three or four full stories high, 
 with high roofs above containing from two to six 
 additional attic stories lighted by dormer win- 
 dows. The houses are commonly of stone with 
 walls of great thickness, though the projecting 
 fronts of fiUed-in frame work are also common. 
 
64 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 The predominating feature of the town is the 
 immense quantity of elaborate stone carving 
 which ornaments walls, towers, churches and 
 private buildings, rendering the city extremely 
 picturesque and interesting. This feature results, 
 first, from Nuremberg being in early days a 
 famous center of art, and second, from the city 
 being built mainly of a species of soft sandstone, 
 in which sculptures can almost be whittled out 
 with a jack-knife. This combination of circum- 
 stances has given almost every other house some 
 quaint device in stone, while no churches I have 
 elsewhere seen have been, for their size and 
 importance, so rich in sculptures. The two prin- 
 cipal churches are those of St. Lawrence and St. 
 Sebald, both quite cathedral-like in their propor- 
 tions and artistic beauty, and each claiming a 
 good two hours for its inspection. 
 
 Albert Durer, Germany's greatest painter and 
 engraver, was a native and resident of Nurem- 
 berg, and both the house in which he was born, 
 in 1471, and that in which he lived in mature life 
 are still to be seen. Nuremberg reverences 
 Durer as Antwerp does Kubens, and memorials 
 of him stand out in every feature of the place. 
 Besides Durer, Nuremberg ^as the home of Peter 
 Vischer and Adam Kraift,^both eminent sculp- 
 tors, some of the best works of whom adorn the 
 churches of the place. We stayed at Nuremberg 
 
MUNICH. 65 
 
 a day and a half, and could with difficulty tear 
 ourselves away. Nuremberg is situated on the 
 river Pegnitz, a tributary of the Main, and now 
 contains about one hundred thousand inhabi- 
 tants. It is peculiarly a protestant city, possess- 
 ing but one catholic church, and that a small one. 
 It is within the jurisdiction of Bavaria, but from 
 remarks dropped by people there I fancy the 
 emperor of Germany is far more popular than 
 king Louis II. 
 
 Munich, the capital of Bavaria, is five hours' 
 ride south of Nuremberg, and is described in all 
 the guide books and foreign letters as one of the 
 finest little cities on the continent. Perhaps I 
 had been led to exjDect too much, for I certainly 
 was grievously disappointed in it. Its streets, it 
 is true, are broad and straight and reasonably 
 well paved and clean, but architecturally Munich 
 stands nowhere. It has scarcely a single really 
 fine church that I can discover, although the 
 Basilica, a recent structure, is immense in its size 
 and gorgeous with rich marbles and frescoes. The 
 public buildings, as a rule, are pretentious, but 
 lacking in beauty. One very imposing structure 
 when seen from a little distance, known as the 
 Hall of Fame, we find on approach to be a mere 
 portico with nothing back of it. It contains 
 busts of about a hundred of the eminent men of 
 Bavaria, including Durer, Krafft, Jean Paul 
 
66 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 Ricnter. etc. Another costly building, the New 
 Pinakothek, instead of being of stone with bold 
 cornices and pilasters, is of brick finished with 
 plaster almost perfectly flat, and depending for 
 its exterior ornamentation on a series of enor- 
 mous frescoes by Kaulbach, which have already 
 faded to an extent that renders them an eye- sore 
 rather than a thing of beauty. Stucco takes the 
 place of stone almost universally, and not only is 
 but little constructional ornamentation possible, 
 but everything is left of a dirty yellow color that 
 gives it a cheap look. 
 
 Munich has two very pretentious picture gal- 
 leries, the New Pinakothek, containing the works 
 of modern artists, and the Old Pinakothek, con- 
 taining works of the old masters alone. The lat- 
 ter was founded by Maximilian I., first King of 
 Bavaria, in 1822, and the building was completed 
 and opened in 1836. The collection of pictures 
 was formed by the consolidation of several pre- 
 vfously distinct collections, including that of 
 Dusseldorf. The pictures are so arranged as to 
 illustrate the progress of the art in the last four 
 centuries. 
 
 The royal bronze foundry is one of the lions of 
 Munich. The charge for admission is forty pfen- 
 nigs (10 cents). The first thing that caught my 
 eye on entering the inclosure was the model from 
 which the statue of Michigan, which surmounts 
 
THE ROYAL BRONZE FOUNDRY. 67 
 
 the Detroit Soldiers' Monument, was cast. The 
 museum of the foundry contains a large number 
 of the original models from which the more famous 
 statues have been made including that of Wash- 
 ington (colossal equestrian) at Richmond, Va., 
 Clay, Webster, Jefferson, Chief Justice Marshall, 
 Lincoln, Everett, Benton, and other prominent 
 Americans; Goethe, Schiller, Marshal Bernadotte, 
 king of Sweden, Prince Milan of Servia, Gen. 
 Bolivar (the last three magnificent equestrian 
 statues) and many others, also the models of 
 the bronze doors of the Capitol at Washington. 
 America seems to have been by far the best cus- 
 tomer of this royal foundry, though statues have 
 been cast in it for almost every civilized nation on 
 the globe. The works are now employed on a 
 colossal statue of Germany to be erected at Bin- 
 gen. It will be represented as a buxom female 
 forty feet high, and will require three years to 
 complete. A still larger statue representing 
 Bavaria was turned out at this foundry some 
 years since, and is now one of the sights of 
 Munich. It is fifty-four feet high and stands 
 on a pedestal forty feet high. Steps in the inte- 
 rior lead uj) to the lady's head, which will hold 
 eight grown peojjle at one time. 
 
 The bricks used in Munich are twelve and a 
 half inches long, six wide, and three thick. Yery 
 coarse mortar is used with them. Partition walls 
 
68 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 are built six inches thick and plastered directly on 
 the brick work. For ceilings, after lathing with 
 wood, a cross lathing of wire is nsed in some 
 buildings, the wires being half an inch apart. For 
 sidewalk paving hard burned tiles eight inches 
 square and one and a half thick are used. They 
 make a nice walk and are probably cheaper and 
 more durable than stone. 
 
 The only kind of heating apparatus we saw on 
 the continent was a tall rectangular stove made 
 of tiles, usually white and glazed, but sometimes 
 ornamented. It stands six or seven feet high, 
 looks very neat, and is probably economical of 
 fuel. 
 
 One of the noticeable features of the country in 
 traveling through Germany is the extent to which 
 tree culture is practiced. We often pass on the 
 railway large tracts of land covered with pine 
 trees, all planted in rows like corn, and so thickly 
 that they grow up tall and straight with no 
 lateral branches. The question suggests itself, 
 might it not pay to plant similar tracts to timber 
 in the United States ? One might have to wait 
 some time for returns, but they would be certain 
 and lucrative when they did come. 
 
 Another feature is the great number of crosses, 
 crucifixes and images of the Blessed Virgin that 
 are seen along the highways and in the fields. 
 Some are quite large, others small and protected 
 
NOTICEABLE FEATURES OF GERMANY. 69 
 
 by little shrines. In the villages and cities, nota- 
 bly Nuremberg, almost every corner house has a 
 little niche in the angle from which a little gaudy 
 image looks down upon the passer-by. 
 
 We began to notice in Brussels that the horses 
 were of superior quality. Down in Bavaria the 
 heavy draft horses are simply magnificent. A 
 team of four attached to a heavy brewer s truck, 
 as seen in the streets of Munich, would be a 
 notable sight in America. Oxen are very much in 
 use and are often driven singly. Instead of the 
 heavy cumbersome yoke used in this country, 
 they are made to draw by their heads, a padded 
 stick being placed across their foreheads, sus- 
 pended from the horns, and traces being attached 
 to the ends. 
 
 Under the present imperial government there 
 has been a reconstruction and unification of the 
 coinage of Germany. The unit in their system is 
 the mark, as th<^ franc is in France, the pound in 
 England, and the dollar in our own country. 
 The value of the mark is twenty-four cents in our 
 currency, and it is subdivided into one hundred 
 parts called pfennigs, the value of a single pfen- 
 nig being about a quarter of a cent. The coins 
 struck are one and two pfennig pieces in copper ; 
 five and ten pfennigs in nickel, twenty and fifty 
 pfennigs, and one, two, three and five marks in 
 silver; and five, ten and twenty marks in gold. 
 
70 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 The necessity for the smaller coins may be ques- 
 tioned, but everything is cheap in Germany and 
 they are frequently required, as for illustration 
 in paying the tolls over the Rhine at Coblenz, 
 which are two pfennigs per head, or a scant half 
 cent. 
 
 Germany, at the time of our visit, was suffering 
 from "hard times" — the reaction from the era of 
 prosperity which followed the unification of the 
 German states, the conquest of France, and the- 
 re-establishment of the Empire. It is a note- 
 worthy fact that even in such times of depression 
 there is in Germany no poverty apparent on the 
 surface, and no poor laws or boards of associated 
 charities. There is no need for them ; the pru- 
 dent, independent German shapes his expenses to 
 his income, and if he has but ten cents a day he 
 will manage to live on it. I submit that this is a 
 condition of things infinitely superior to our 
 American system, where a large percentage of the 
 population has to be constantly supported by the 
 remainder. In this branch of social science I am 
 strongly inclined to believe our Teutonic cousins 
 are far in advance of us, and that sooner or later 
 we shall have to adopt their theories. Our Amer- 
 ican system is a mere cultivation of pauperism. 
 
 In Munich we had our first experience of a 
 so-called "continental Sunday." The first thing 
 we saw from our windows on the Sunday we were 
 
A CONTIKENTAL SUNDAY. 
 
 71 
 
 there was the shopkeepers taking down their 
 shutters and arranging their goods in their win- 
 dows. Then a large load of beer barrels came 
 along ; then a load of sand and all the ordinary 
 traffic of a week day. As we passed through the 
 streets on our way to church, people could be 
 seen at work in all the various shops, trucks were 
 delivering goods, and altogether it was hard to 
 believe it was really Sunday. We went into 
 three or four churches, Catholic and Protestant, 
 and found only mere handfuls of worshipers. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE TYROL-INNSBRUCK-HOFER THE PATRIOT-JMAXBHLIAN'S 
 TOMB-OVER THE ALPS BY THE BRENNER PASS-ARRIVAL IN 
 ITALY. 
 
 Ht was cloudy when we arrived at Municli, and 
 f[^ we did not notice the beautiful mountains 
 which lay to the southward of the city; but 
 on our departure, as soon as we were clear of the 
 houses, the panorama which met our view in the 
 snow-clad Bavarian Alps glistening in the mid- 
 day sun was truly magnificent. It took us three 
 hours to reach their base. Meanwhile the scenery 
 greatly changed. North of Munich we were very 
 much reminded of the Illinois prairies, both by 
 the lay of the land and the methods of cultiva- 
 tion, but as we approached the mountains a 
 decidedly Swiss aspect began to be assumed. 
 The farm houses began to exhibit a peculiar style 
 — oblong in shape, with the residence portion at 
 one end and the barns and stables at the other. 
 The roofs became rather flat and projecting, and 
 one or two verandas usually ornamented the 
 fronts. Stone was the material of the walls and 
 shingles of the roofs, the latter being held down 
 by heavy stones laid upon them. 
 
INNSBRUCK. 73 
 
 The railroad penetrates the mountains, follow- 
 ing the valley of the Inn, a tributary of the Dan- 
 ube. At Kufstein, a little place shut in by lofty 
 mountain peaks, we enter the Tyrol. We are 
 now in Austrian territory, and here have to 
 undergo that always annoying process, the 
 examination of our baggage. This causes a tedi- 
 ous delay, and it is late in the evening before we 
 reach Innsbruck, one hundred miles south of 
 Munich. We find prices higher, and the people 
 more grasping, in Austria than in Germany. 
 
 Innsbruck is a delightful little city of twenty- 
 three thousand inhabitants, dropped right down 
 in a deep valley among the mountains. The latter 
 seem to rise on every hand but a few blocks away 
 from the beholder, and they tower u-p thousands 
 of feet and are capped with snow for the greater 
 part of the year. Innsbruck is the chief city of 
 the Tyrol, and is a place of some historic note. 
 The German emperor Maximilian I. (1459-1519), 
 made it one of his capitals, and himself lies 
 buried in one of the churches of the place. Sev- 
 enty-two years ago it was the scene of the famous 
 exploit of Andrew Ilofer, who, a poor peasant 
 inn-keeper, raised the Tyrol against Napoleonic 
 dominion, defeated the emx)eror's ablest general 
 in a pitched battle, and compelled Bonaparte to 
 vary his usual tactics and conclude an armistice 
 with other foes in order to concentrate against 
 
74 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 the Tyrolese an overwhelming force. Hofer was 
 then defeated by sheer force of numbers and com- 
 pelled to take refuge in flight. He was subse- 
 quently betrayed to the French, taken to Mantua, 
 and shot like a dog. He now lies buried in the 
 Hof church at Innsbruck, in company with the 
 great Maximilian. The scene of his great battle 
 in which he defeated the French in the spring of 
 1809, is a low hill just south of and overlooking 
 the city. 
 
 The newer portions of Innsbruck are finely 
 built, with broad streets and palatial looking 
 structures. The older part has narrower streets, 
 with low arcades on either side through which 
 the sidewalks extend, and upon which the curi- 
 ous but well-stocked little stores open. These 
 arcades are very quaint and pleasant to walk 
 through. 
 
 Maximilian's tomb, referred to above, is reck- 
 oned the very finest in Europe, and certainly we 
 saw none more beautiful or interesting. It stands 
 in the center of the Hof church, and with its 
 accessories pretty much monopolizes all the space 
 in it. Extending down the nave of the church, 
 facing and flanking the tomb, are a series of 
 twenty-eight fine bronze statues something more 
 than life size, and all of sixteenth century work. 
 They represent tlie famous ancestors of Maxi- 
 milian, male and female, in the armor or costume 
 
THE TYROL. 75 
 
 of their day, and include the renowned crusader 
 Godfrey de Bouillon, King of Jerusalem. The 
 tomb itself contains twenty-four panels of marble, 
 each exquisitely carved in high relief, for which 
 the Tyrol is so famous, and each representing 
 some scene in Maximilian's life. We had seen 
 plenty of fine bas-reliefs, but none before that so 
 filled us with wonder and delight. In the space 
 of a yard in length there would be hundreds of 
 figures, with arms, armor and costume, even the 
 embroidered dresses, faithful to life. Maximil- 
 ian was the immediate predecessor of the emperor 
 Charles Y., and reigned from 1493 to 1519. 
 
 The Tyrol embraces eleven ' thousand square 
 miles of mountainous country lying to the east 
 of Switzerland. About one-third of this territory 
 is perpetually covered with snow, another third 
 is covered with dense forests, and the remainder 
 is mostly pasture land. The population numbers 
 nearly nine hundred thousand souls, two-thirds 
 being of German stock and speaking the German 
 language, and one-third Italian. The former 
 inhabit the northern slopes and valleys of the 
 Rhsetian Alps, the latter the southern. The 
 Tyrolese are notably fond of music and athletic 
 exercises. Education is widely diffused. Inns- 
 bruck boasts an extensive university. The prov- 
 ince has belonged to Austria since 1363. 
 
 The Tyrol is famous for its wood carvings, and 
 
76 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 particularly for its pictures carved in relief, which 
 are exquisitely beautiful and artistic, and if one 
 only has a well-lined pocket book Innsbruck is a 
 very seductive place for its depletion. The place 
 has also good hotels, and is altogether a desirable 
 point for a few days' sojourn. 
 
 An afternoon's ride over the Alps, by the 
 famous Brenner Pass railway, brings us into 
 Italy. This railway was opened in 1867, and is 
 regarded as one of the most difficult pieces of 
 railway engineering in Europe. Leaving Inns- 
 bruck we rapidly ascend to a height of four 
 thousand six hundred feet above the sea, with 
 mountains all around us rivaling our own Mount 
 Washington in altitude. In a distance of sev- 
 enty-eight miles the road passes through twenty- 
 two tunnels and over sixty bridges. Its grades 
 are in places one foot in forty, and very powerful 
 engines are employed to draw the trains, notwith- 
 standing which we travel very slowly — prob- 
 ably not over six miles per hour while making the 
 ascent. We follow in the ascent the course of a 
 little mountain stream, so have a deep valley on 
 one side of us. The scenery is very interesting. 
 Twice in the distance, in order to eif ect an abrupt 
 elevation to a higher level, the road branches off 
 up a lateral gorge, and after proceeding some dis- 
 tance, in one case a few miles, enters a tunnel in 
 which it describes a complete semi-circle, when it 
 
INTO ITALY. 77 
 
 returns to the point of divergence at a few hundred 
 feet higher level, the tracks to and from the turn- 
 ing tunnel being parallel to and in sight of each 
 other the whole distance. This is probably the 
 only railway in the world where a passenger can 
 leave his train, walk leisurely a few hundred 
 yards and sit down at a cafe to a glass of beer 
 and wait for his train to overtake him. This can 
 literally be done at one of the points of diverg- 
 ence just mentioned. 
 
 Botzen, at the foot of the mountains on the 
 Italian side, is a place of considerable import- 
 ance, and lies in a rich valley thickly surrounded 
 by vineyards. A hundred miles more through 
 the fertile valley of the Eisack, which lower down 
 becomes the Adige, with mountains in the back- 
 ground on either side, brings us to Yerona in 
 Italy. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 ITALY— VERONA, ITS ARENA AND CHURCHES-PADUA— ARCADED 
 STREETS— THE SHRINE OF ST. ANTHONY— ITALIAN AGRI- 
 CULTURE. 
 
 UR first experience of Italy was in Yerona, 
 and we were not favorably impressed. It 
 is a dirty place, abounding in beggars, and 
 with very little of interest to 3ee except its Arena 
 or ancient colosseum, resembling the famous one 
 at Rome but smaller and in much better state of 
 preservation. The Arena is oval in form and 
 built wholly of stone. There is a level space in 
 the center, eighty-three yards long and forty-three 
 wide, for the games and other exhibitions, and 
 from this, tiers of stone seats rise all around like 
 the seats in a circus. There are forty-five rovvs 
 of these seats, and it is estimated that they Avould 
 seat twenty-five thousand spectators. Above the 
 uppermost row was originally an arcade or gal- 
 lery in which still more people could stand and 
 watch the i^erformances. Only a small x)ortion 
 of the exterior wall remains standing, but enough 
 to show the design of the whole in its com- 
 pleted state. The outer wall is one hundred and 
 six feet high, and presents three stories of arched 
 
 78 
 
VERONA. 79 
 
 openings. The entire building is five hundred 
 and four feet long and four hundred and two 
 wide. It is constructed with massive piers of 
 stone, connected by vaultings, so as to form inter- 
 secting x^assages, one set radiating from the cen- 
 ter, the other encircling it. In the lower story 
 there are three of these encircling arcades or pass- 
 ages, in the second two, and in the third the one 
 mentioned above as surmounting the seats. The 
 vaulting is partly of brick, and partly of concrete 
 and cobblestone boulders. The seats are all of 
 native marble, dressed but not polished. The 
 Arena is believed to have been built in the time 
 of the Emperor Diocletian, A. D. 284, which 
 would make it about sixteen hundred years old. 
 The tombs of the Scaligers are perhax)s the next 
 object in order of interest. As the famous Medici 
 family by their wealth and abilities made them- 
 selves rulers of Florence, so did the Scaligers 
 supplant the republic of Verona, and establish in 
 their family an hereditary rulership. This lasted 
 from 1260 to 1389, and it was the golden age for 
 Yerona. The proud Scaligers scorned to have 
 their tombs hidden away in churches and fixed 
 up a little cemetery for themselves in the heart 
 of the city, where every passer-by would be 
 reminded of their greatness. The tombs are very 
 rich and costly, but after all do not create very 
 much of an impression on the average tourist. 
 
80 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 The clinrclies of Yerona are rather magnificent 
 as to size, but like most of the churches of Italy- 
 were commenced on so grand a scale that they 
 never could be completed. They are for the 
 most part immense ugly piles of rough brick- 
 work, the unfulfilled intention having been to 
 encase them with marble. Interiorly they are 
 finished Avith plaster and faded frescoes, and 
 come far short, in elegance and impressiveness, 
 of the Gothic cathedrals and churches of England 
 and northern Germany. 
 
 As our omnibus drives through one of the gates 
 of Yerona on the way from the station to the 
 hotel it suddenly stops. An official thrusts his 
 head in and rattles off a few words in Italian. We 
 have not the slightest idea what he says, so we 
 make no reply. He seems satisfied, and we drive 
 on again. We then remember that French and 
 Italian cities raise part of their municipal reve- 
 nue by levying a tax on all articles of food 
 brought into the city. This is called an octroi, 
 and officers are posted at all the gates to inspect 
 every vehicle entering the same, and collect the 
 tax should provisions constitute any part of the 
 load. The man was simply inquiring if we had 
 anything in our baggage liable to octroi duty. 
 
 We lay over for three or four hours at the 
 sleepy old city of Padua, the seat of the once 
 famous university, founded in 1238, and whicli 
 
PADUA. 81 
 
 throughout the middle ages made Padua a place 
 of renown. Although possessing sixty-six thou- 
 sand inhabitants Padua presents scarcely any 
 signs of life. The streets are narrow and lined 
 with arcades such as exist in the older portions 
 of Innsbruck. Indeed, there is hardly any side- 
 walk exposed overhead. On heft days these 
 Italian arcaded streets are very delightful. I 
 wonder we have never adopted the idea in Amer- 
 ica. There is very little to see in Padua beyond 
 a few interesting old churches. The principal of 
 these is the church of St. Anthony, founded 
 about 1250. It is of immense size and contains a 
 great number of very fine monuments, but itiS 
 great central attraction is the chapel and shrine 
 of the patron saint. The chapel is entirely of 
 marble, elegant in design and rich and beautiful 
 in its elaborately carved ornamentation. It was 
 designed by the great Venetian architect Sanso- 
 vino, who was born in 1477 and died 1570. 
 Around the chapel are a series of fine bas-reliefs 
 illustrating incidents in the life of the saint, and 
 each one is the work of a master in the art of 
 sculpture. St Anthony's tomb forms the altar of 
 the chapel, and at the time we visited it a crowd 
 of devotees thronged its rear, laying their hands 
 upon it while reciting their prayers. 
 
 Two other churches contain in dilapidated con- 
 dition much prized frescoes, those in the one 
 ft 
 
82 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 painted by Giotto, one of the earliest Florentine 
 artists; those in the other by Andrea Mantegna, 
 the great Paduan master. 
 
 Such draft animals and vehicles as they use at 
 Padua would fairly make a western man laugh. 
 Of the latter there seem to have been no new ones 
 built for a century at least, or if there have been 
 they were built after last century's pattern. • We 
 saw horses at work that could not have weighed 
 over three hundred pounds ; but little donkeys 
 were most numerous, and they drew loads that 
 would shame an American horse. 
 
 The country in northern Italy in May looks 
 very beautiful — vegetation quite a month in 
 advance of what it is in our northern states. 
 Rows of trees at intervals of a few rods intersect 
 every field and line every road, giving the coun- 
 try an attractive appearance. The practice is 
 universal of pruning down the shade trees till 
 they grow with great ugly knobs a few feet from 
 the ground. The prunings supply the people 
 with fuel, and the trees do not by their shade 
 affect the crops cultivated beneath them. In this 
 part of Italy they are also used instead of trel- 
 lises to support the grape vines. On the Rhine 
 the vines are cut off close to the ground, only one 
 or two shoots being left for bearing. These are 
 tied to a single upright stake four or five feet 
 long. At Botzen and above Yerona the vines 
 
ITALIAIT VIKEYARDS. 83 
 
 grow up straight for two or three feet, then are 
 trained over a sloping trellis five or six feet wide 
 — a mnch more complex system, but one expos- 
 ing the leaves and fruit to the sun and keeping 
 the ground below well shaded. South of Verona 
 trellises are dispensed with altogether, and the 
 vines are trained from tree to tree like clothes- 
 lines. All the horned cattle we see in Italy are 
 uniformly of a grayish white color, with extraor- 
 dinarily long horns. The rivers are all above the 
 level of the adjacent country, and require to be 
 diked. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 VENICE— ITS HISTORY-FIRST IMPRESSIONS— THE CANALS AND 
 GONDOLAS— THE CHURCH OF ST. MARK'S— THE BRIobE OF 
 SIGHS— VENETIAN ART. 
 
 MN crossing the Alps one is struck with the 
 1^ perishable quality of the rock, and the great 
 quantities of alluvium that are carried down 
 by the rapid streams. The rivers of north-eastern 
 Italy rival the Missouri for muddiness, and their 
 mouths are a repetition of the large areas of 
 alluvial deposit found at the mouth of the Missis- 
 sippi. Places once on the coast are now in some 
 cases fifteen miles inland. The lands are low, and 
 waters shallow. A mile or two off the main shore 
 a series of low islands has been formed by the 
 combined action of the rivers and the sea. On a 
 group of these islands the city of Venice has 
 grown up. 
 
 Under the Romans north-eastern Italy had 
 become very rich and populous. When the 
 country was over-run by the barbaric Lombards 
 in the seventh century, many of the people took 
 refuge on the islands off the coast, and some of 
 these being found easily defended they became 
 the seat of a populous colony. Having no lands 
 
 84 
 
HISTORY OF VENICE. 85 
 
 to cultivate, the inliabitants turned their attention 
 CO commerce, and like all commercial peoples, 
 soon became very rich and powerful. The trade 
 of the world was carried on by Venice. At the 
 height of her prosperity the little islands num- 
 bered a population of two hundred thousand 
 souls, possessing three hundred ships and a fleet 
 of forty-five armed galleys. For the convenience 
 of her trade Venice had conquered possessions 
 on all the coasts of the Mediterranean, and at one 
 time was even master of Constantinople. Coeval 
 with the discovery of America its decay began, 
 and continued steadily for three hundred years. 
 In 1797 Napoleon occupied Venice — the first 
 foreign foe who had ever held possession of it — 
 and at his downfall in 1815 the territory was 
 given to Austria, by whom it was held till 1866, 
 when, as a result of the weakening of the 
 latter' s power by the war with Prussia, Venice 
 was united to the kingdom of Italy. 
 
 As we approach Venice the country becomes 
 fiat and low. Bits of marsh land appear. Then 
 we find ourselves on the bridge, two and a half 
 miles long, which connects Venice with the main 
 land. The water crossed is shallow, and still as a 
 mill pond, and is called the lagoon. A few fish^ 
 ing boats are scattered over it. In a few minutes 
 w^e are in a large covered railway station, from 
 which we emerge on a fine stone quay fronting 
 
86 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 on the grand canal. The sight that meets the- 
 eye is a curious one. Dozens of funereal gon- 
 dolas are crowding their way to the landing, 
 and one by one they receive their passengers and 
 quickly row away. We get into one, with all our 
 baggage. It is about thirty feet long, and armed 
 at its prow with a tall iron meat-cleaver sort of 
 ornament. It is painted black and a black pall 
 is hung over the little covered cabin in the center. 
 Arriving in the evening, as we did, this being met 
 by hearses at the depot is quite impressive. It 
 seems that an old law required this mourning, 
 and the law has never been repealed. Two men 
 row the boat— one at the bow, the other at the 
 stern. Each uses a single oar and rows stand- 
 ing and facing in the direction we are going. The 
 delicacy and precision with which the boat is 
 managed is quite remarkable. We turn off into a 
 minor canal perhaps twenty feet wide. Houses 
 rise on both sides of us directly from the water's 
 edge. Scarce a light is seen in them and all is 
 still as the grave, save for the plash of the gondo- 
 liers' oars. Presently we meet another boat; a 
 sharj:), clear word in Italian indicates on which 
 side we are to pass. Another word, shouted just 
 as we are about to turn a corner, preiDares any 
 boat that may be coming through the intersecting 
 canal, to meet us, and prevents a collision. But 
 for these occasional cries and the plash of the 
 
DESCRIPTION OF VEIS'ICE. 87 
 
 oars we should scarcely know that a living soul 
 was within miles of ns. The boat at last pulls 
 up at a flight of stone stairs. A posse of clerks 
 and waiters assist us to land and escort us into 
 the hotel. We cross courts, ascend stairs, look 
 down into other courts, traverse corridors and at 
 last find ourselves in a pleasant suite of rooms in 
 the excellent Hotel Victoria. Inside, all is bright 
 and gay, and in striking contrast with the gloom 
 and loneliness of the watery streets. 
 
 There are said to be one hundred and fifty 
 canals in Venice, crossed by three hundred and 
 seventy-eight bridges. The grand canal winds 
 through the city like a reversed letter S, and is, 
 perhaps, one hundred and fifty feet wide. The 
 rest I should think were from twelve to thirty 
 feet. Some have narrow streets running along 
 their banks, others are bordered directly by the 
 houses. The tide, which rises and falls about two 
 feet, keeps the canals tolerably pure. All the 
 heavy trafiic is done by boating through these 
 canals, for, excepting the four bronze horses stolen 
 from Constantinople and contributed to the decor- 
 ation of St. Mark's (they stand over the front 
 portal), there is not a beast of burden in all Ven- 
 ice. The streets are mere foot paths, rarely over 
 six feet wide and often less than four. They are 
 all well paved with flagstone or concrete, and 
 upon them the houses and shops open. The city 
 
88 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 is a perfect labyrintli of these little streets, and 
 the stranger has great difficulty in finding his 
 way about, as the houses close in on him so 
 closely that he can have no sort of landmarks. 
 But some of these little four-foot streets are as 
 bright and cheerful, and trade is as lively upon 
 them as on the best retail streets in any of our 
 western cities. The shops get but little light, but 
 they are shallow and need but little. The prin- 
 cipal part of their stock occupies the windows. 
 The better houses are constructed on the oriental 
 plan, with a court-yard in the center, and gener- 
 ally with an imposing arched entrance into the 
 court-yard, and an arcade or colonnade around 
 the latter. From this court- yard the main stair- 
 case ascends, and upon it most of the windows 
 open. The exterior is dark and gloomy, but a 
 peep through the open gateway often reveals a 
 paradisiacal home. 
 
 Fronting the Cathedral of St. Mark is a large 
 open square about six hundred feet long and two 
 hundred wide, known as the Piazza. It is paved 
 with marble and surrounded on three sides by a 
 handsome colonnade upon which all the principal 
 stores and cafes of Venice front. No street in 
 London makes such a brilliant display of pretty 
 things as is seen in this Piazza. Books, photo- 
 graphs, pictures, jewelry, toys and confectionery 
 predominate, and the shop windows are in them- 
 
THE CHURCH OF ST. MARK. 89 
 
 selves quite one of the sights of Yenice. In the 
 evening the Piazza is brilliantly lighted np and is 
 thronged by thousands. In front of the cafes 
 hundreds of chairs are scattered about, with small 
 tables occupied by merry groups drinking coffee 
 or eating ice creams. It is altogether a novel 
 and fascinating scene. Prices are quite reason- 
 able in St. Mark's Piazza. 
 
 St. Mark the Evangelist, is the patron saint of 
 Venice. A thousand years ago, when her religion 
 outweighed her commercial acquisitiveness, it 
 was a penal offense for any Venetian navigator 
 to enter an infidel port. By stress of weather 
 however, a certain ship was once forced to put 
 into Alexandria, where the remains of the saint 
 then rested in the care of a small Christian 
 church. The mariners found the Christians 
 greatly alarmed for the safety of the precious 
 relics, as the reigning pasha had a mania for 
 building palaces, and to secure material for them 
 found the demolition of Christian churches a 
 ready and convenient method. The Alexandrian 
 Christians did not care to have poor St. Mark left 
 out in the cold, so arranged with the Venetians 
 to transfer the body to the more Christian city of 
 the Adriatic. The sailors were glad enough of 
 the commission, for by the sacred treasure they 
 brought home they hoped to gain immunity for 
 their breach of law. The Venetians were of 
 
90 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 course delighted with their acquisition, and at 
 once prepared a fine church for the reception of 
 the precious relic. 
 
 Some time later there was a riot in Venice over 
 some little political matter, and the mob set fire 
 to the Doge's palace, which adjoined the church 
 of St. Mark. The latter was consequently burned 
 to the ground, with all its contents. Then a new 
 church was determined on, and one which should 
 correspond in grandeur with the wealth and 
 greatness of the city at that time. It was begun 
 in 976, and took nearly a century to complete. 
 Meanwhile the Venetians sailed to all countries, 
 and the shipmasters vied with each other in 
 bringing home the richest contributions for the 
 new St. Mark's. The rarest marble and alabaster, 
 and antique sculpture despoiled from many a 
 heathen temple, found its way into the stock 
 heap, and skillfully did the architects make all 
 contribute to the beauty of the edifice. The 
 church is hence a medley of rich materials more 
 or less artistically disposed. When completed, a 
 tomb was provided under the high altar for the 
 patron saint, great faith being felt that his 
 remains would yet be restored. But the tomb 
 was never occupied. We looked into it. By a 
 miracle however, the saint's relics were still pre- 
 served to the church. On the occasion of some 
 great festival — ^perhaps the consecration of the 
 
ST. MARK'S. 91 
 
 building— as a procession was passing up the 
 broad nave, suddenly an explosion occurred in 
 one of the main piers, and there exposed to view 
 lay the body of St. Mark. It was then thought 
 best, to prevent the possibility of its ever being 
 stolen or again lost, that it should be deposited 
 in some secret receptacle, and accordingly the 
 officers of the church proceeded to hide it, and to 
 this day no man knows the part of the building 
 where the sacred deposit was made. Such is the 
 story of St. Mark's final burial. 
 
 The church is built of brick in the form of a 
 Greek cross, with domes over the intersection and 
 each arm of the cross — five in all. Both exterior 
 and interior are completely encased with various 
 colored marbles and bright mosaics. The latter 
 alone cover a space of forty-five thousand eight 
 hundred square feet, and are composed of small 
 pieces of colored stone, so set in cement as to 
 form pictures which from a short distance can- 
 not be distinguished from rich frescoes. The 
 ground work is in all cases gilt, and the pictures 
 are usually representations of bible subjects with 
 Latin inscriptions explaining them, the inscrip- 
 tions likewise being of mosaic work. The ceiling 
 of the main porch in front of the cathedral we 
 found some amusement in studying out. We 
 found it to illustrate in a long series of large and 
 brilliant pictures, the creation of the world, the 
 
92 FIYE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 fall of man, the death of Abel, the flood, the confu- 
 sion of tongues, and other events in old testament 
 history — all most expressive, and as bright and 
 perfect as when first produced eight or nine cen- 
 turies ago. The floor throughout is of great vari- 
 eties of marble arranged in hundreds of different 
 patterns, and is of itself quite a study. There is 
 scarcely a particle of wood work to be seen in the 
 entire church, nor a square yard of fresco — all 
 marble and mosaic. When new, it must have 
 looked very beautiful indeed, but dirt and decay 
 have given it a subdued, not to say dingy, look. 
 The different parts of the building have settled 
 unequally, and, while too massive to be in any 
 sense ruinous, it is sadly out of shape, the floor 
 in particular resembling the surface of a river 
 just after a large steamer has passed. They are 
 now at work restoring the edifice, and have 
 already made considerable progress with the 
 work. 
 
 St. Mark's is less wonderful for its size (two 
 hundred and ten by two hundred and fifty -eight 
 feet, inside measurement), and its architectural 
 beauty, than for the costly material of v/hicli it is 
 constructed. It suggests a plain woman over- 
 loaded with rich dress. It is of course well worth 
 seeing, and one could even spend days in the 
 study of it, but its merit from an artistic stand- 
 point is open to discussion. 
 
ST. MARK'S CAMPANILE. 93 
 
 The Campanile, or bell-tower, as is tlie custom 
 in Italy, stands detached from the chnrch. It is 
 three hundred and twenty-two feet high, and was 
 begun in the year 911, but not completed till 1591. 
 To this day it has never been veneered with mar- 
 ble, as was undoubtedly the intention originally. 
 It is a fine piece of masonry, constructed of bricks 
 each twelve or fourteen inches long and six wide. 
 It is ascended, not by steps, but by a series of 
 inclined planes extending around its inner sur- 
 face. The summit commands a fine bird's-eye 
 view of Venice, with the Adriatic sea stretching 
 away to the east and south, the snow-covered 
 Alps in the north-west, the Apennines in the south- 
 west, and the lagoon, which separates Venice from 
 the main land, in the immediate fore-ground. 
 
 The churches of Venice are mostly large and 
 pretentious, and well stocked with paintings by 
 the Venetian masters. It is unnecessary to enu- 
 merate them. One thing particularly worth men- 
 tioning is the beautiful wood carving with which 
 the stalls of the choir of St. Giorgio Maggiore are 
 ornamented. In a series of forty-eight panels the 
 history of St. Benedict is illustrated in rich alto- 
 relievo carvings, very beautiful and interesting. 
 
 To see the churches we took a gondola. A 
 franc an hour (20 cents of our money), with a 
 small gratuity to the boatman, is the tariff for 
 gondola service. Cheap enough, is it not ? 
 
94 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 The Academy of Fine Arts of Venice contains 
 a great number of pictures, but almost exclusively 
 tlie works of Venetian masters — Titian, Paul Ver- 
 onese, Tintoretto, Bonifacio, and others. To the 
 uncultured eye, none of the masters of the Vene- 
 tian school, even Titian, accounted one of the five 
 greatest of the Italian painters, possesses very 
 great attractions. 
 
 In the palmy days of Venice it was governed 
 by an aristocracy of nobles, and these elected 
 from among themselves a chief executive who 
 was styled Duke or Doge. His official residence, 
 with the halls in which the oligarchy held its 
 elections and other meetings, adjoins St. Mark's 
 church, and is known as the Palace of the Doges, 
 or the Ducal Palace. It forms three sides of a 
 quadrangle, the church filling the fourth. The 
 building is now used chiefly as a library and 
 gallery of art. Some of the rooms have been 
 restored in recent times, and are very handsome. 
 A great number of the works of the great Vene- 
 tian artists, Titian, Paul Veronese, and Tinto- 
 retto, are found in them. In the rear of the 
 church and ducal palace is a small canal, and 
 crossing this canal, connecting the second story 
 of the palace with the corresponding floor of a 
 building on the other side, is a covered stone 
 bridge, popularly known as the Bridge of Sighs. 
 It was across this bridge that in the tyrannical 
 
THE RIALTO. 95 
 
 days of the oligarcliy those who had given offense 
 to the all-powerful nobles were led from trial in 
 the palace to execution in the prison across the 
 canal; whence the name of the structure. Another 
 notable bridge is the Rialto, a stone structure 
 spanning the grand canal about .midway its 
 length. It is a single arch with a span of sev- 
 enty-four feet. It was built in 1588, and is said 
 to rest on twelve thousand j)iles. 
 
 We bid good bye to Venice with regret, for it 
 is a cheerful place, notwithstanding its gloomy 
 first reception, and the Venetians know how to 
 attract and entertain us foreigners. Venice is 
 particularly a favorite with the English, and at 
 the table d'hote each day English was almost the 
 sole language of conversation. 
 
 A VENETIAN GONDOLA. 
 
CHAPTER XT. 
 
 BOLOGNA AND ITS LEANING TOWERS— OVER THE APENNINES. 
 
 ok PLEASANT five hours' ride from Venice 
 ffi through a somewhat fiat but higlily culti- 
 ^1 V vated and fruitful country brings us to the 
 ancient city of Bologna, pronounced Bolognya 
 by the* natives. It is situated at the commence- 
 ment of the foot-hills of the Apennine range, has 
 about the same population as Detroit, Rochester 
 or Milwaukee, and is rich, and substantially built. 
 Its principal church of which the nave only was 
 ever finished, was begun on a stupendous scale in 
 1390, in rivalry with the immense cathedral at 
 Florence. But the buildings by which Bologna 
 is best known are its two leaning towers. They 
 stand side by side in a small open space at the 
 junction of several streets and lean in contrary 
 directions. The one is three hundred and twenty 
 feet high and leans four feet from the perpendic- 
 ular, the other is one hundred and sixty-three 
 feet and leans ten feet. Both were erected seven 
 hundred and seventy years ago. By the way, 
 almost all towers and even tall chimneys seem in 
 Italy to have a penchant for leaning. Whether 
 
 96 
 
THE LEANING TOWERS OF BOLOGNA, ITALY. 
 
t • • 
 
BOLOGNA. 97 
 
 it is from a peculiarity of the soil or carelessness 
 in the workmen in not plumbing them properly 
 I cannot say, but I have noted a number of 
 instances of more or less deflection. I cannot 
 believe that they were in any case built intention- 
 ally leaning, as even the bad architectural taste 
 of Italy could never have perpetrated so mon- 
 strous an eyesore. The streets of Bologna are 
 universally arcaded, and usually in a very 
 stately and substantial manner. 
 
 Bologna was once the center of a school of 
 painting peculiar to itself. It included among 
 its great masters Domenichino, Gruido Reni and 
 the brothers Carracci. An academy of fine arts 
 is still maintained. Its gallery is of course par- 
 ticularly strong in the works of the Bologna mas- 
 ters but it has one famous picture of Raphael's — 
 St. Cecilia, attended by St. Paul, St. John, Mary 
 Magdalene and one other saint, with broken 
 musical instruments at her feet and a choir of 
 angels in the clouds above. But to the average 
 sight-seer the salon containing the modern pic- 
 tures which have won the first prizes of the acad- 
 emy from year to year is much more interesting 
 and attractive than any of the old masters, even 
 than the Raphael. 
 
 We happened to spend Sunday in Bologna, 
 and before brealvfast I took a stroll around the 
 principal square. Half the population seemed to 
 
98 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 be in the streets. All the shops were open and 
 pedlars thronged the sidewalks. Wagons loaded 
 with furniture and boxes of merchandise passed 
 and repassed. From the great number of people 
 abroad in holiday attire I was forcibly reminded 
 of a Fourth of July morning in our own country. 
 Comparatively few people went to church, and 
 still fewer visited the public picture galleries 
 which government had opened free on this day 
 for their benefit. The noise and bustle on the 
 streets was far greater than on other days. Such 
 is an Italian Sunday. 
 
 The railroad from Bologna to Pistoja (the place 
 where pistols were first made and whence they 
 derived their name) lies across the Apennine 
 range of mountains. The latter are not equal to 
 the Alps in height or rugged grandeur, but are still 
 high enough to retain considerable snow on their 
 summits in the middle of May when in this warm 
 climate haymaking is in progress in the valleys 
 below. We gradually ascend to a height of two 
 thousand feet, following the valley of the Keno, 
 which flows westerly into the Adriatic, and, hav- 
 ing passed the summit, descend through the 
 valley of the Ombrone, a tributary of the Arno, 
 which latter flows through Florence. It is a 
 most interesting ride. In a distance of forty-four 
 miles we pass through no fewer than forty-four 
 tunnels — one for each mile — and as they must 
 
OYER THE APENNINES. 99 
 
 €ertainly average half a mile each, it is pretty 
 safe to assert that on this portion of the road 
 we are underground fully half the time. Th6 
 remainder we are winding around mountain 
 ledges and crossing tall viaducts, hundreds of 
 feet above the picturesque valleys and gurgling 
 streams beneath us. The ever-changing pano- 
 rama between the tunnels is most enchanting. 
 The tunnels are monotonous, but not disagreeable 
 like our American tunnels, where we are stifled 
 with smoke. At one point we catch a glimpse of 
 a broad plain, with a walled city with its domes 
 and campaniles set in the midst, and with smaller 
 villages scattered over it. Such a bird's-eye view 
 of a wide extent of country is rarely enjoyed. 
 We are looking down upon Pistoja and the fer- 
 tile plains of Tuscany from an elevation of 
 between fifteen hundred and two thousand feet. 
 Half an hour later we reach the station at Pistoja, 
 and from thence on to Florence our journey is 
 through the hot but fertile plain. 
 
CHAPTER Xn. 
 
 FLORENCE— THE PROTESTANT CEMETERY— THE CATHEDRAL— 
 THE ART GALLERIES-FLORENTINE MOSAICS. 
 
 LORENCE, the city of flowers, is beauti- 
 fully situated in the lovely valley of the 
 Arno, with the snow-capped Apennines 
 skirting the landscape to the northwest. It is 
 most interesting for its historic associations ; as 
 the home of the famous Medici family, which 
 made it the great center of literature, art and 
 civilization, and which gave the church her most 
 brilliant pope in Leo X., and to France two of its 
 best known queens; but is above all famous as 
 having no superior in the world either in its col- 
 lection of art treasures or in the quantity and 
 beauty of the art productions which it still fur- 
 nishes to us outside barbarians. Florence is a 
 charming place ; and halting here within a few 
 minutes walk of its noble cathedral, of the home 
 of Michel Angelo, of the original Madonna della 
 Sedia (Madonna of the chair), Raphael's most 
 popular painting, of the famous Venus de Medici, 
 of Savonarola's cell and the place where he was 
 burned at the stake, and of the old monastery 
 where the monk Fra Angelico lived and painted 
 
 100 
 
Ms exquisite delineations of holy men and women, 
 one has no care to see either Rome, Naples or 
 Paris. Florence in itself is all-satisfying. Weeks 
 could be spent there without satiety. 
 
 Upon arriving our first step was to take a 
 drive about the city and learn its geography, and 
 so it haj)pened that one of the first things we 
 visited was the noted Protestant Cemetery, where 
 so many well known foreigners, including the 
 esteemed poet, Elizabeth Barrett Browning and 
 our own Rev. Theodore Parker, lie buried. 
 Indeed it is filled almost exclusively with Eng- 
 lish and American graves; and the inscriptions, 
 mentioning New York, Philadelphia and a score 
 of other places in our own country, make one feel 
 quite as if he were on American soil. The ceme- 
 tery evidently at one time was situated just out- 
 side the walls of the city, but within the past few 
 years all the fortifications have been leveled, and 
 on the ground occupied by them, broad and beau- 
 tifully ornamented boulevards have been con- 
 structed. And so it happens that the cemetery 
 has become a little oval park in the center of one 
 of the finest boulevards. It cannot be more than 
 an acre in extent. It rises in the center to a 
 height of fifteen or twenty feet above the road- 
 way and rounds off to the fence on every side 
 except the north, where it terminates with an 
 abrupt wall. It is surrounded by an iron 
 
Ifi'^ VS' } *[ fFiyjE/^MOTTHS ABROAD. 
 
 fence, and is nicely kept. We had no trouble in 
 finding the tomb of Mrs. Browning, although it 
 bears no inscription except the simple initials 
 '*E. B. B.— ob. 1861." It consists of a marble 
 sarcophagus supported by six short columns. 
 Theodore Parker's we were unable to find with- 
 out inquiry. It is a plain grave with an old- 
 fashioned dark-colored headstone bearing the 
 inscription, "Theodore Parker. Born at Lex- 
 ington, Massachusetts, United States of America, 
 Aug. 24, 1810. Died at Florence, May 10, 1860." 
 Our first walk is directed to the Duomo, or 
 cathedral, a structure of great historic and archi- 
 tectural interest. It was projected at a period of 
 great ambition in the building line, when the 
 various cities of Italy vied with each other to 
 produce the church of greatest immensity. It 
 was begun from the plans of Arnolfo di Cambio 
 in 1294, and was nearly one hundred and sixty 
 years building. Arnolfo dying in 1310, was suc- 
 ceeded by Giotto, the famous pupil of Cimabue 
 the father of Italian painting. (Painters and 
 sculptors were also the architects of those days.) 
 Three or four generations of architects and build- 
 ers passed away, each more or less changing the 
 plans, and more or less destroying what its prede- 
 cessors had built up, until at last the structure 
 was ready for the dome. This was in 1418. No 
 such large dome had up to that time ever been 
 
THE DUOMO. 103 
 
 attempted, and now the question arose how was 
 it to be built? Architects from all over the 
 known world were invited to send in plans, and 
 serious controversies arose as to its being at all 
 practicable. One difficulty that suggested itself 
 was the construction of a centering to support the 
 stone work while in progress, it being argued that 
 there was not timber enough in all Italy for the 
 purpose. Then some wise head proposed filling 
 up the interior of the church with earth and 
 using a mound of this material as a center. In 
 order to facilitate the removal of the earth after- 
 wards, he proposed scattering money through it, 
 when he thought the poor of the city would be- 
 glad enough to cart away the dirt for the chance 
 of finding the coin. At last a really scientific 
 architect turned up in the person of Filippo Bru- 
 nelleschi, who insisted that it was possible to con- 
 struct the dome without any centering. He was 
 at first hooted as a lunatic, but finally got the 
 ear of the building committee and secured the 
 adoption of his plans with the appointment of 
 supervising architect. He did not live to see the 
 work completed, but his plans were fully carried 
 out, and his fame as one of the greatest architects 
 of the middle ages fairly established. Even 
 when the church was considered complete and 
 was dedicated, the west front or facade, was left 
 a mere rough brick wall, the intention being to 
 
104 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 encase it with marble at some future time when it 
 might be convenient to do so. But thus it 
 remained for four hundred years, or down 
 to 1860, when the work of completing it was 
 undertaken. It is still in progress. The entire 
 building is of brick, faced with black and white 
 marble in panels. While very rich and beautiful, 
 it lacks the dignity of churches built of plain 
 stone. One is reminded of inlaid work of ivory 
 and ebony, and its application to so immense a 
 structure has a belittling effect, and destroys very 
 largely the sense of imposing grandeur. The 
 interior is very disappointing. Even its immen- 
 sity fails to imi^ress, so well, or so badly, is every- 
 thing proportioned. One cannot realize that the 
 dome is three hundred feet high, or that the 
 rotunda and dome of the capitol at Washington 
 could stand under it. The walls are plain, and 
 in great part of a gloomy brown color ; the build- 
 ing is insufficiently lighted, and is remarkably 
 bare of monuments. It has nothing, therefore, 
 but its size, to interest the visitor. 
 
 Much more interesting every way is the old 
 church of St. Croce, begun at the skme time and 
 by the same architect, and nearly as large as the 
 cathedral, but much less pretentious. It is very 
 rich in the tombs of Italy's great men, including 
 those of Michel Angelo, Galileo, Macchiavelli the 
 statesman, Raphael Morghen the eminent engra- 
 
CHURCHES OF FLORENCE. 105 
 
 ver, Cherubini the musical composer, and many 
 others scarcel}^ less well known. There is also a 
 fine monument to Dante, though his remains are 
 buried at Ravenna. In its magnificent sepulchres 
 of departed greatness it is the Westminster 
 Abbey of Italy. Among the other principal 
 churches of Florence are the church of St. 
 Lorenzo, built at the expense of a few wealthy 
 Florentines by Brunelleschi, and finished by 
 Michel Angelo, and which contains the tombs of 
 the Medicis ; that of St. Maria Novello, and the 
 Baptistery. The latter stands opposite the cath- 
 edral, and is an octagonal structure surmounted 
 by a dome ninety feet in diameter. It is chiefly 
 remarkable for its three bronze doors, constructed 
 between four and five hundred years ago, and cov- 
 ered with reliefs representing bible scenes. They 
 were the work of Lorenzo Ghiberti, whose name 
 is immortalized mainly through them, and they 
 served in some degree as models fc>r the bronze 
 doors of our own capitol at Washington. 
 
 The Campanile, or bell tower of the cathedral, 
 stands, as is the custom in Italy, a little apart 
 from the church itself. It is a handsome square 
 tower two hundred and ninety-two feet high, of 
 black and white marbles, designed by Giotto and 
 completed in 1336. It has recently been restored, 
 and has quite a new and fresh look. 
 
 On the principal public square of Florence is 
 
106 
 
 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 the fortress-looking Palazzo Yeccliio with its tall 
 tower. It was originally the seat of government 
 of the republic, and was later the residence of 
 Cosimo I. It is now the city hall of Florence. 
 We walked through the principal rooms, includ- 
 ing the great hall where Savonarola's council 
 
 was accustomed to meet. 
 Just at the corner of the 
 building Savonarola him- 
 self was burned in 1498. 
 Also facing this square 
 is a large open hall or 
 piazza filled with sculp- 
 ture, the work of famous 
 artists. It is exposed to 
 the street, and forms a 
 sort of loafing place for 
 the idle. It is called the 
 Loggia dei Lanzi, loggia 
 being the Italian for hall 
 or gallery. 
 
 Close by is the entrance to the famous Ufiizi 
 (pronounced ''Uffeetzy") picture gallery, one of 
 the most extensive in the world. It comprises 
 all the rich collections of the Medicis, with addi- 
 tions made by the later dukes of Tuscany. It 
 occupies the upper story of three sides of a 
 long court. There are two parallel corridors, 
 each about six hundred feet long, and a shorter 
 
 THE PALAZZO VECCHIO. 
 
THE UFFIZI GALLERY. 107 
 
 one connecting them at the end, with some 
 twenty-five or thirty rooms opening from them. 
 The corridors and rooms are hung with pic- 
 tures and filled with antique statuary. The* 
 most precious pictures and statues are collected 
 in an octagonal room called the Tribune. Here 
 is the famous Venus de Medici, believed to be 
 the work of a Greek artist about one hundred 
 years before Christ, and discovered, some three 
 hundred years ago, in the ruins of Hadrian's 
 palace at Tivoli. Among the pictures in this 
 room are Raphael's Madonna of the Goldfinch, 
 in which the infant John is represented pre- 
 senting a bird to the babe Jesus ; also his well 
 known picture of the young St. John. In other 
 rooms the different schools of painting, as the 
 Tuscan, the French, the Dutch, the German, etc., 
 are kept distinct. One room is devoted to gems 
 of wonderful size and most exquisite workman- 
 ship. Another contains only cameos and intag- 
 lios of rare artistic value. Still another is filled 
 with ancient bronzes, and another with ancient 
 inscriptions carved in stone, the records of an age 
 long anterior to the Christian era. One room 
 contains hundreds of portraits of eminent paint- 
 ers, ancient and modern, mostly painted by them- 
 selves. It is a very interesting collection. But 
 few rooms possess more intense interest than the 
 salon of Niobe. 
 
108 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 In Grecian mythology IST iobe was the mother of 
 six sons and as many daughters, and, proud of 
 her offspring, she snubbed Latona, one of the 
 wives of Jupiter, who had only two, Apollo and 
 Diana, and officiously interfered with their wor- 
 ship as divinities. Thereupon Apollo and Diana 
 revenged themselves upon the silly mother by 
 shooting all her children with their arrows. 
 Diana, as the goddess of hunting, was of course 
 a good markswoman, and so the whole dozen 
 were slaughtered. Niobe's grief was so exces- 
 sive that the gods, out of pity, turned her into 
 stone, but even that failed to mitigate her terrible 
 sorrow. The scene of the slaughter was portrayed 
 in stone by some ancient Greek sculptpr, prob- 
 ably Praxiteles, and the group was discovered in 
 Rome in 1583, buried in the earth, and more or 
 less broken. They were restored, and now occupy 
 the room I am speaking of. Never have I seen 
 anything more striking. Niobe's face is a pic- 
 ture of the deepest grief, while the attitudes of 
 her children endeavoring to shield themselves 
 from the arrows of their assailants are, perhaps, 
 the most wonderful achievements of the sculp- 
 tor's art the world has ever seen. 
 
 Across the river, a quarter of a mile or more 
 from the iJffizi gallery, is the Pitti palace, so 
 named from the family who built it in 1440. 
 It is now one of the royal palaces of Italy. It 
 
THE PONTE VECCHIO. 
 
 109 
 
 also contains a very extensive gallery of rare pic- 
 tures, and this portion of tlie palace is connected 
 with the Uffizi gallery by long passages, crossing 
 the Arno by one of the bridges. We pass from 
 the Uffizi gallery down a flight of stairs, through 
 
 n 
 
 \wml/ii 
 
 j^issiiaaapr 
 
 THE PONTK VKCCmO. 
 
 a long zigzag passage hung with old and rare 
 engravings ( "prints" is the proper word), then 
 through a long corridor filled with drawings, 
 many of them by the old masters. Looking out 
 through a window we find we are now over the 
 river. A narrow, dark, crooked passage follows, 
 in which some less-cared-for pictures are hung, 
 and then begin the tapestries. These hang from 
 
110 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 the ceiling to the floor on both sides of ns, and, 
 though some centuries old, are quite brilliant in 
 their colors, and as admirably shaded as if done 
 with the artist's brush. They are exclusively 
 needle work, and depict, often in life size, bible 
 incidents, battle scenes, and other like subjects. 
 Then we ascend more stairs, and find ourselves at 
 last in the six salons of the Pitti gallery. 
 
 Among the more important pictures here are 
 Kaphael's well-known Madonna of the Chair, his 
 portrait of Pope Julius II., and his vision of Eze- 
 Mel, besides which there are some five hundred 
 other pictures embracing some of the best works 
 of almost all the great masters. In fact this gal- 
 lery is reputed the best in Italy in the fewness of 
 its works of subordinate merit. Unfortunately 
 however the rooms were not originally designed 
 for picture galleries, and are not properly lighted, 
 so the pictures do not show to the best advantage 
 possible. 
 
 We pay a franc or lira each to enter either gal- 
 lery, and can go from one to the other at pleas- 
 ure, but on Sundays and Thursdays both galler- 
 ies are open free. 
 
 Back of the Pitti palace are the extensive 
 Boboli gardens, open to the public on certain 
 days, and commanding a magnificent view of the 
 city, of the plains beyond, and of the Apennine 
 range in the background. 
 
FLORENTINE ART. Ill 
 
 Besides the Uffizi and Pitti galleries, there is a 
 valuable collection of pictures in the Academy of 
 Fine Arts. In all the galleries there are con- 
 stantly a great number of painters engaged in 
 copying. Many are ladies. Their works, when 
 finished, are sold to dealers, or left for sale on 
 commission, and thus pictul'es can be bought in 
 large numbers in Florence, and at reasonable 
 rates. Copies of old masters range in price from 
 twenty to two hundred dollars, according to the 
 size and quality of work. Carved frames are 
 also a specialty of Florence, and are made in 
 great variety. 
 
 But Florence's great specialty is her mosaics. 
 Different colored marbles are cut up and so skill- 
 fully joined as to form in some cases very life-like 
 pictures. They are made of all sizes, from a 
 sleeve button up to a large table top, and range in 
 prices from a dollar or two up to several hundred. 
 Jewelry, paper weights, pictures for easels, and 
 table tops, are the forms Florentine mosaics are 
 most frequently found in. They are generally 
 inlaid on a black marble ground, but sometimes 
 the whole surface is occupied by the picture. 
 The art has been practiced at Florence for over 
 three hundred years. 
 
CHAPTEH XIII. 
 
 THE GREAT HISTORIC CHARACTERS OF FLORENCE— THE MEDICI 
 FAMILY— LORENZO THE MAGNIFICENT-POPE LEO X-CATH- 
 ARINE AND MARIE DE MEDICI— SAVONAROLA. 
 
 OMETHINGr over five hundred years ago 
 tliere lived in Florence a worthy old gentle- 
 man named Salvestro Medici (pronounced 
 Medeche — ^three syllables, with the accent on the 
 first, and the "ch" soft), who had grown very 
 rich in trade, and who, enjoying the esteem of 
 his fellow- citizens, had been elected gonfalonier 
 or chief- executive of the then republic of Flor- 
 ence. He had a son John (Giovanni is the Italian 
 for John), a chip of the old block, being distin- 
 guished for his commercial enterprise and patriot- 
 ism. John, who was born in 1360, died in 1428, 
 leaving a son, Cosimo, who, being immensely 
 wealthy and very liberal, likewise enjoyed great 
 popularity. Having no need to devote himself 
 to business he went into politics, and so managed 
 matters that for thirty-four years he was practi- 
 cally the sole ruler of Florence. He looked out 
 well for the public interests, stole nothing from 
 the public treasury, and maintained his popu- 
 larity to the last. When he died in 1464 and at 
 
 112 
 
LORENZO THE MAGNIFICENT. 113 
 
 his own desire was unostentatiously buried in a 
 plain grave in front of the altar in the church of 
 St. Lorenzo, the senate passed a resolution styling 
 him Pater Patrice (the father of his country). 
 The family was thus established by three gen- 
 erations of energetic, honest and public- spirited 
 men. 
 
 Cosimo was succeeded in his estates and politi- 
 cal influence by his son Peter, who, however, was 
 killed in a popular revolt five years later, 1469. 
 He in turn was succeeded by his son, Lorenzo 
 the Magnificent, who was bovn in 1448 and died 
 in 1492, the precise year of the discovery of Amer- 
 ica by Columbus. Lorenzo inherited, besides a 
 princely fortune, all the ability of his ancestors, 
 if not all their virtues. He was a man of culture 
 and refinement, and spent liberally of his fortune 
 in the beautifying of Florence and in the culti- 
 vation of literature and the arts. He ransacked 
 Europe for books for his libraries and pictures 
 and sculpture for his galleries. The best that 
 was to be found anywhere was purchased and 
 carried off to Florence. Learned men and skill- 
 ful artists were encouraged to make Florence 
 their home, and in all matters of civilization and 
 culture it became the metropolis of the world. 
 Lorenzo lived in the grandest style and indulged 
 in the most munificent hospitality. No prince in 
 Christendom was suiTounded by such learning 
 
114 
 
 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 and elegance. While nominally still a republic, 
 Lorenzo was practically autocrat of Florence for 
 twenty-three years, and this was emphatically its 
 golden age. 
 
 LORENZO THE MAGNIFICENT. 
 
POPE LEO X. 115 
 
 Lorenzo left three sons — Peter, John and Wil- 
 liam. As they could not all succeed to the poli- 
 tical power of the father, John was trained f or- 
 the church, and, animated by the Medici ambi- 
 tion and backed by the family influence, he in 
 due time reached the highest position in the 
 ecclesiastical hierarchy, and in 1513 was elected 
 pope under the title of Leo X. As pope, Leo 
 fully maintained the reputation of the family in 
 the brilliancy of his career. He controlled the 
 politics of half of Europe, elevated his relatives 
 to the highest positions, gave a new prosperity to 
 Rome, gathered there men of fame and objects of 
 art from all parts of the world, and made the city 
 as gay and brilliant as it had ever been in the 
 palmiest days of the emperors. Of course true 
 Tital religion did not thrive amid so much tem- 
 poral prosperity, and it was the profligacy of 
 Rome and its priesthood at this time that attract- 
 ed the attention of Martin Luther and caused 
 that great split in the christian church which, 
 notwithstanding the reforms that came in due 
 time in the Roman branch, exists to this day 
 between the Roman Catholic and Protestant 
 bodies. Leo's chief energies were directed to the 
 building of St. Peter's church, which he deter- 
 mined should be the largest and most splendid 
 church in the world. The famous painter 
 Raphael was one of Leo's proteges, and lent his 
 
116 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 talents to the adornment of Ms patron' s churches 
 and palaces. Christian Rome was then at the 
 zenith of its power and splendor. Leo was born 
 in 1475 and died in 1521. 
 
 Meanwhile his father had died, and his brother 
 Peter had succeeded to the government of Flor- 
 ence, but had immediately been deposed by the 
 people, an outburst of republican spirit having 
 followed upon Lorenzo's death. It was about 
 twenty years before the family were restored to 
 power, and it was during this interval that Savon- 
 arola founded in Florence his theistic republic, of 
 which I shall speak presently. Then Peter' s son, 
 Lorenzo II., resumed the government with the 
 title of Duke. It was his daughter, Catharine de 
 Medici, who married Henry II. of France, and 
 upon her husband's death in 1559 governed 
 France as regent. She is notorious in history as 
 the promoter of the horrible massacre of St. Bar- 
 tholomew in 1572, whereby she hoped to wipe 
 out protestantism from her realm. She was a 
 woman of great ability, a lover and patron of the 
 arts, and she it was who built the palace of the 
 Tuilleries in Paris, which was destroyed by the 
 commune in 1871. She died in 1589. 
 
 Florence continued to be governed by the 
 Medici family until 1737 — a period in all of nearly 
 three hundred and fifty years. After Lorenzo 
 the Magnificent the greatest of the line was 
 
MARIE DE MEDICI. 117 
 
 Cosimo I., 1513-1574, who mucli resembled Mm in 
 his patronage of art and learning. Pope Clem- 
 ent VII., elected in 1523, was also a Medici, being 
 a cousin of Leo X. Besides thus contributing to 
 the church two popes, the Medicis furnished two 
 queens to France. Catharine has already been 
 mentioned. The other was Marie de Medici, 
 who was born in Florence in 1573, and married 
 Henry of Navarre, the famous champion of the 
 French protestants. He assumed the throne of 
 France as Henry lY. in 1600, and became the 
 founder of the famous Bourbon family as kings 
 of France. Marie led an unhappy life with her 
 husband and was probably accessory to his mur- 
 der by Eavaillac in 1610. She succeeded as 
 regent. The nation grew restive under Italian 
 rule. Cardinal Richelieu was constantly a thorn 
 in her side, and in 1631 she was deposed, and 
 eleven years later died in great poverty at 
 Cologne. She, too, was. a famous patron of art, 
 and was the builder of the palace of the Luxem- 
 bourg in Paris. 
 
 Thus, altogether, few families have made a more 
 notable record in history than these Florentine 
 Medicis. We visited the Palazzo Riccardi, an 
 immense, massive and imposing palace, the home 
 of Lorenzo the Magnificent and birthplace of Leo 
 X., and which contains highly esteemed frescoes 
 painted over four centuries ago. In one room 
 
118 FIVE MOKTHS ABROAD. 
 
 one of these ceiling paintings represents a man 
 plowing with a yoke of oxen. Standing opposite 
 to it the oxen appeared to be going directly from 
 you. Stand at one end of the room and the oxen 
 are going at right angles to their former course, 
 and seen from the other end are going in the 
 opposite direction. The illusion is very curious. 
 On the same street with the Palazzo Kiccardi is 
 the once famous, but now suppressed, monastery 
 of St. Mark, the home of the eminent painters 
 Fra Angelico and Fra Bartolommeo, of St. 
 Anthony and of Jerome Savonarola, who was 
 also prior of the institution. Savonarola was 
 born in 1452, became a monk at twenty-two, and 
 at thirty-seven had become renowned for his 
 piety and the earnestness of his preaching. Peo- 
 ple flocked from all quarters to hear him. From 
 attacking the sins of the laity he proceeded to 
 assail the low state of religion in the priesthood, 
 and, led on by the attention given to his dis- 
 courses, ultimately turned his batteries of elo- 
 quence upon the oppressions of the political pow- 
 ers of the day. The revolution which drove the 
 Medicis from power in 1492 was perhaps the 
 immediate result of his sermons. Being without 
 a ruler the people naturally turned to Savonarola 
 for leadership, and he ;n his piety pointed them 
 to the Jewish theocracy as a model of civil gov- 
 ernment. He was called upon to organize a sys- 
 
SAVONAROLA. 119 
 
 tern, and did so, naming Jesus Christ as the 
 supreme head of the Florentine republic, and 
 establishing a large legislative and executive, 
 council to act under him. His own functions 
 were to be akin to those of Moses and Samuel in 
 the Jewish republic, viz.: those of prophet and 
 expounder of the Divine will. I don't know how 
 the plan worked, but probably not well, for it 
 was of short duration. In four or ^ve years a 
 popular reaction had set in. Savonarola's ene- 
 mies gained the ascendancy, and he was deposed 
 from his prophetic office and thrown into prison 
 on a charge of heresy. They made short work of 
 heretics in those days, and a charge of heresy 
 was a capital way to get a political rival out of 
 the field. The unfortunate man was brought to 
 trial, easily convicted, and in accordance with the 
 practice of the day was first tortured and then 
 burned at the stake in the principal public square 
 in Florence. A fountain now occupies the pre- 
 cise spot upon which the execution took place. 
 But the most remarkable part of the story is yet 
 to come. Savonarola, who in 1498 was burned as 
 a heretic by the authority of the holy church, 
 was some years later canonized by the same 
 authority, and now ranks among the saints in 
 the ecclesiastical calendar. Such is in brief the 
 history of this remarkable man. We visited his 
 cell in St. Mark's convent, saw his very notice- 
 
120 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 able portrait painted by his colleague, Fra Bar- 
 tolommeo, his desk at which he wrote, and the 
 books he studied, with their copious marginal 
 annotations in his own handwriting. 
 
 The cells in St. Mark's are about twelve feet 
 square, well lighted, and altogether quite pleas- 
 ant retreats for studiously or artistically disposed 
 monks. The frescoes on the walls of the cloisters, 
 refectory and other rooms, painted four hundred 
 years ago, are to-day as fresh, bright and beauti- 
 ful as ever. The institution is now a public 
 museum. In the fine old library we saw in glass 
 cases a large number of the immense folio ritual 
 books of mediaeval times, collected from various 
 monasteries. They are beautifully engrossed on 
 parchment, with the music, and each page bears 
 more or less elaborate illumination in colors, the 
 work of the monks in their leisure hours. The 
 music is written on a staff of but four lines 
 instead of five as now in use, and the notes are 
 square instead of round or oval. 
 
 SAVONAROLA, PROM AN Ot.D PAINTINOt 
 
CHAPTER XIY. 
 
 ROME— THE JOURNEY THITHER-APPEARANCE OF THE CITY— 
 THE CASTLE OF ST. ANGELO— ST. PETERS. 
 
 4ffr HE journey from Florence to Rome requires 
 ^ J about seven hours. The first half is 
 
 \ through an intensely beautiful country. 
 We follow the valley of the Arno, having the 
 Apennines on our left. The surface of the coun- 
 try is much broken, but very picturesque, though 
 thickly populated and under high state of culti- 
 vation. Metaphorically speaking there is not a 
 square rod of land that has not a tree growing 
 upon it. 
 
 Between Arezzo and Chiusi we pass through a 
 particularly beautiful district, the trees here hav- 
 ing been allowed to grow to full size, instead of 
 being pruned down to a bare trunk. Then we 
 begin to follow the valley of a branch of the 
 Tiber. 
 
 The scene changes, and we are in a poor, rough, 
 thinly -populated country, with no vineyards. 
 Immense rocks frequently shoot up perpendicu- 
 larly from the prevailing level, and form the sites 
 for castles and cities. The latter are compactly 
 built, but show scarcely any signs of habitation. 
 
 131 
 
122 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 They look like the ghosts of towns of a departed 
 age. The sides of the rocky hills are honey- 
 combed with catacomb-like excavations. Droves 
 of pack animals with huge saddles take the place 
 of vehicles. The view is an exceedingly dreary 
 one. Suddenly we come upon a heap of ruined 
 masonry, and directly after a long line of ruined 
 arches extending across the plain. We know 
 now that we must be nearing Rome, and while 
 we are reflecting on it we pass under an old gate- 
 way. More extensive ruins, and then blocks of 
 five and six-story modern houses, appear. The 
 train stops. We are in Rome. 
 
 Rome, since 1870 the capital of united Italy, 
 has about twice the population of Rochester or 
 Detroit. I was agreeably disappointed in it. It 
 was much cleaner and more attractive every way 
 than I expected to find it. The eastern portion 
 is being extensively rebuilt in Parisian style, with 
 broad, well -paved streets, and elegant five and 
 six-story blocks. The leading business streets 
 compare favorably with other principal cities of 
 Europe in the brilliancy and attractiveness of 
 their stores. The streets are alive with fashion 
 and gaiety, and the old city seems fairly to have 
 entered upon a new era of prosperity. While 
 thus as a modern city a pleasant one to sojourn 
 in, Rome presents the double attraction of being 
 able to exhibit the remains of twenty-six centu- 
 
ROME. 123 
 
 ries of antiquity, and some of the finest ruins 
 perhaps to be found anywhere. The reader must 
 not suppose that the antiquities are remote from , 
 the modern city. On the other hand thej^ are 
 closely intermingled. Within a stone's throw of 
 one of the most elegant quarters are the ruined 
 for a of Augustus and Trajan; and one of the 
 most interesting old heathen temples, fully nine- 
 teen centuries old, is doing regular duty as a 
 catholic church in a crowded business quarter. 
 I refer to the Pantheon. Fifteen minutes walk 
 from our hotel takes us to the Colosseum, the 
 Roman Forum, and a dozen other interesting old 
 ruins. 
 
 Rome is situated about ten or twelve miles 
 from the sea, and about the same distance from 
 the foot of the Apennines, a level plain known as 
 the Campagna lying between. The Tiber runs 
 through the city from north to south in a serpen- 
 tine course, dividing it into two unequal portions. 
 The larger and older lies on the left bank, or east 
 of the river ; St. Peter's and the Vatican, or pal- 
 ace of the popes, on the west side. The whole 
 city is surrounded by a wall about fourteen miles 
 in circuit. It was originally built by the Empe- 
 ror Aurelian, about the year 271, but has been 
 much repaired by later rulers. It is built of 
 stone and brick — chiefly the latter — and is fifty- 
 five feet high, but hardly massive in proportion. 
 
124 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 It would be no defense against even small cannon 
 of the present day. Twelve gates enter tlie city. 
 
 The streets, though generally narrow, and in 
 some portions very crooked and irregular, are on 
 the whole rather symmetrically laid out, so that 
 the geography of the city is soon mastered. Ex- 
 cept on the newer streets, there is either no side- 
 walk at all, or so narrow a one that if a body 
 meet a body one must step into the roadway; but 
 this one does not mind, for the streets are beauti- 
 fully clean. There are a great number of open 
 squares or "piazzas," as they call them, and 
 these are usually decorated with Egyptian obe- 
 lisks of larger or smaller size. The city being 
 originally built on seven hills, is still quite undu- 
 lating, some localities being from a hundred to 
 a hundred and fift}^ feet higher than others. 
 The Corso is a comparatively narrow street run- 
 ning north and south through the heart of the 
 city. It is the fashionable retail street of Rome, 
 is filled with brilliant stores, thronged with peo- 
 ple at all hours, and in the afternoon is alive 
 with gay equipages. 
 
 The larger mansions are built in the oriental 
 style, with a quadrangle or open court in the cen- 
 ter reached from the street by a broad arched 
 entrance, into which carriages often drive. The 
 court is usually filled with trees and plants, often 
 has a fountain in the center, and affords a very 
 
THE ITALIANS. 125 
 
 refreshing peep as one passes the entrance arch. 
 The walls of all buildings are very much thicker 
 than we usually construct them. Ceilings are» 
 frequently vaulted, stairs are almost invariably 
 of stone or marble, and the roofs are covered with 
 heavy tiles laid in cement. Houses built in this 
 way very rarely burn down, and last for centu- 
 ries. 
 
 I liked the Romans, and, indeed, the Italians 
 generally. They are a cheerful, good-natured, 
 courteous people. Black eyes prevail, but other- 
 wise the Italians are very much like other peo- 
 ple, though individuals giving a strong impres- 
 sion of a tinge of negro blood are quite common. 
 The dress, too, is one quite like our own, but one 
 frequently meets the picturesque peasant cos- 
 tume — a folded towel worn flat on top of the 
 head and hanging to the neck behind forming 
 the female head-dress, and full white sleeves with 
 bodice, neck-kerchief, apron, etc., of bright col- 
 ors, as red, blue and yellow, completing the attire. 
 The men wear felt hats with pointed crowns, 
 knee breeches, red stockings, etc. The costume 
 of both sexes is very picturesque. Beggars 
 abound, but not to the extent I had been led to 
 expect. Most of them have deformities of some 
 sort — some very disgusting cases, the sins, no 
 doubt, of the fathers visited upon the children 
 to the third and fourth generations. 
 
126 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 Every one is familiar, through pictures, with 
 the massive round tower on the west bank of the 
 Tiber known as the castle of St. Angelo. It was 
 built in the first quarter of the second century by 
 the emperor Hadrian as a tomb for himself. The 
 base is three hundred and forty- two feet square, 
 and upon this base rises the circular tower two 
 hundred and forty feet in diameter and altogether 
 one hundred and sixty-five feet high. With the 
 exception of passages through it, and the burial 
 vault in the center of the structure, which is 
 about twenty feet square and arched over at the 
 top, this building is a solid mass of masonry. It 
 was originally encrusted with marble and sur- 
 mounted by marble statues, but these have long 
 since disappeared. For four hundred years it 
 was the mausoleum of all the Roman emperors. 
 Then in the troublous times of the invasion of the 
 Goths it began to be used as a fortress. A chapel 
 erected on its summit and dedicated to the Angel 
 Michael, and a large bronze statue of an angel 
 w^hich surmounts its highest point, gave it its 
 present name. We procured a "permesso " and 
 visited it. The summit is reached by an inclined 
 plane and steps passing in their course through 
 the tomb chamber. The summit is quite a minia- 
 ture city, with its numerous small buildings and 
 streets paved with flagstones. A large hall is 
 shown us in which the trial of the beautiful 
 
ST. PETER'S. 127 
 
 Beatrice Cenci for tlie murder of her brutal father 
 who sought to corrupt her virtue, took place in 
 1599, and adjoining it the room in which she was 
 put to torture. The view from the summit is 
 very fine. St. Angelo, down to the time of Pius 
 IX., was the stronghold of the popes, and is 
 connected with the Vatican by a private passage. 
 It is now garrisoned by the royal troops. 
 
 We spent altogether six or seven hours in St. 
 Peter's, and could have spent as many days with- 
 out fatigue. It is the largest and most imposing 
 church in the world, the great masterpiece of 
 Michel Angelo' s genius. The longer one walks its 
 aisles and gazes up into its beautiful dome the 
 more deeply is he impressed. In the broad lofty 
 nave alone five or six of our largest churches at 
 home could stand, barring of course the steeples, 
 with plenty of room to drive around them with a 
 carriage ; and this is saying nothing of the broad 
 double aisles on either side, or of the transepts. 
 Under the dome a respectable American church 
 steeple could stand twice over and still have 
 something to spare in the matter of height, it 
 being four hundred and three feet from the pave- 
 ment to the mosaic- covered vaulting above. In 
 superficial area the church occupies a space equal 
 to about two-and-a-half ordinary blocks of one of 
 our western cities — say blocks three hundred feet 
 square. Probably the largest church in the west 
 
128 FIVE IMONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 could stand under the dome without touching 
 walls at any point. 
 
 The cost of the building has far exceeded fifty- 
 millions of dollars, and it costs thirty-five thou- 
 sand to forty thousand dollars a year simply to 
 keep it in repair. Notwithstanding this immense 
 cost it is still far from complete. The walls and 
 piers of the aisles are beautifully overlaid with 
 variously colored marbles and finely sculptured 
 reliefs, but the pilasters of the nave and transepts 
 are simply covered with plaster, slightly colored 
 in veins to imitate marble. Of course it was the 
 intention some day to enrich these portions cor- 
 respondingly with the aisles. So, too, while the 
 inscription in mammoth letters around the inside 
 of the dome is in imperishable mosaic, that 
 extending around the nave and transepts is, sim- 
 ply painted on cloth like the political campaign 
 streamers we indulge in at home. 
 
 But these imperfections are lost sight of in 
 presence of the exquisite beauty of the mosaic 
 altar pieces (copies of famous pictures by the 
 old masters in the Vatican gallery), of the mag- 
 nificent sculptured tombs of deceased popes, and 
 of the general effect of the grand proportions of 
 the edifice. 
 
 Under the dome is the high altar, with St. 
 Peter's tomb beneath it and a massive bronze 
 canopy ninety-five feet high, but which scarcely 
 
ST. PETER'S. 129 
 
 looks twenty, above it. In front is an enclosed 
 space with steps leading down to tlie tomb 
 and eighty-nine ever-burning lamps around it. 
 Near by is a bronze statue of St. Peter in a 
 sitting position, with his right foot projecting a 
 little beyond the pedestal. It is an insignificant 
 looking figure, but is very ancient. It is the 
 habit with good catholics to kiss the projecting 
 foot, and this has been done to such an extent 
 that the foot is worn to about half its original 
 thickness. As we were looking at it several per- 
 sons of various classes came up and went through 
 the ceremony. They would whip out their 
 pocket handkerchiefs, give the toe one smart 
 rub, kiss it, press their foreheads against it and 
 pass on. 
 
 Among the more noticeable objects in the aisles 
 are the tomb of the daughter of the protestant 
 king of Sweden, Gustavus Adolphus, who became 
 a convert to Catholicism; the monument of Pope 
 Gregory. XIII., who reformed the calendar two 
 hundred years ago; that of Gregory I. (the Great), 
 who died nearly thirteen hundred years ago; that 
 of the late Pius IX., a plain sarcophagus resting 
 on the cornice over a doorway, and the tombs of 
 ''James III." of England and his sons, Charles 
 Edward and Henry, '' the last of the Stuarts." 
 These were the sons and two grandsons of James 
 II., deposed at the revolution of 1688 for his 
 
130 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 attempt to restore the Church of England to 
 Catholicism. In English history the line of the 
 Stuarts ends with James II., and these gentlemen 
 are styled ''Pretenders;" but catholic Europe 
 recognizes their legitimacy and honors them with 
 royal tombs. 
 
 On every Thursday the ascent of the dome is 
 permitted to the public. We first ascend to the 
 roof of the church by a spiral inclined plane in a 
 circular tower adjoining the north aisle. In the 
 wall are marble tablets recording the ascent of 
 notable personages, and among them we notice 
 the names of the late Emperor Alexander II. of 
 Russia, Queen Isabella and the present King 
 Alfonso of Spain, and the unfortunate Empress 
 Carlotta of Mexico. We are now on the roof, one 
 hundred and sixty-five feet from the ground. It 
 is unlike the roof of any other building we ever 
 saw. Part is paved with large flagstones, part 
 with brick, and here and there a section is cov- 
 ered with lead or tiles. There are a great number 
 of cupolas and other buildings — quite a little vil- 
 lage in fact— a number of people making their 
 regular homes upon this immense roof. The 
 dome still rises over three hundred feet above us, 
 but so easy are the stairways that it is ascended 
 without much fatigue. Unlike the dome of St. 
 Paul's, London, the outer shell of which is of 
 timber covered with lead, this one is of stone 
 
THE DOME OF ST. PETER'S, 131 
 
 throughout. It is constructed in two shells, an 
 outer and inner, and the stairway to the top is 
 between them. The summit commands a splen- 
 did view — mountains to the north and east, with 
 broad plains intervening ; more plains to the west, 
 with the blue waters of the Mediterranean in the 
 distance, and all the hills and vales, domes and 
 palaces, gardens and groves, of Rome at our feet. 
 We spend an hour in the hot sun, and still can 
 hardly tear ourselves away. 
 
 Pictures of St. Peter's always show the dome 
 disproportionately flat. In fact its proportions 
 are admirable, but from no point of view can they 
 be seen to advantage, owing to the bad taste of 
 later architects, who changed Michel Angelo's 
 plans by lengthening the nave so as to give the 
 building the form of a Latin instead of a Greek 
 cross as was originally designed. The effect has 
 been to throw the dome so far back from the 
 main front that the lower part, or drum, is wholly 
 obscured from view. 
 
 The building is also disfigured by the vanity of 
 the popes, who for three centuries have seemed to 
 vie with each other as to who shall record his 
 name on the building in the greatest number of 
 places. The principal facade bears, in letters 
 probably ten feet long, instead of an ascription 
 of praise to the Almighty, the vain record that 
 the building was erected by Paul V., Borghese, in 
 
132 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 1612. But even this is less disgusting than the 
 inscriptions on the various objects in the Vatican 
 and other museums^ where, instead of finding the 
 title or explanation of the object we only find the 
 name of the pope by whose ''munificence" it 
 was placed there. This papal self-glorification is 
 peculiarly the eye-sore of Rome. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 ROME— ITS MORE FAMOUS CHURCHES-THE VATICAN— THE GAL- 
 LERIES OF SCULPTURE— SHELLEY'S GRAVE-MOSAICS. 
 
 ESIDES St. Peter's, Rome has several other, 
 nearly as famous churches. Among them 
 is the basilica of St. John's, Lateran, a very 
 large and handsome church, bearing little evi- 
 dence in its rich marble front and perfect state of 
 repair, of its fifteen centuries of antiquity. But 
 then it has been destroyed by fire and earthquake 
 several times, and as often rebuilt. It takes its 
 name from a Roman family who formerly occu- 
 pied the palace it adjoins. Notwithstanding that 
 it is the cathedral church of Rome it is situated 
 in the extreme outskirts of the city, with open 
 commons all around it. As a compliment to the 
 pope, the precincts of this church, as well as the 
 Vatican, have been ex- territorialized by the Italian 
 government, so as to be entirely outside King 
 Humbert's jurisdiction. In the cloisters of St. 
 John's the visitor is shown two small columns 
 which once formed part of the temple at Jerusa- 
 lem. It can readily be believed, for they certain- 
 ly belong to no existing order of architecture. 
 
 133, 
 
134 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 Another curious instance of large churches 
 being built remote from any population worth 
 speaking of is the case of St. Paul's beyond the 
 walls. This is situated a mile or more from the 
 city, and with no settlement around it. While 
 smaller than St. Peter's, and with a very plain 
 exterior, it is interiorly x^erhaps the most beauti- 
 ful church in the world. The floor of polished 
 marble shines like a mirror. Eighty large col- 
 umns, each a single block of polished granite, 
 support the roof of the nave and aisles, xibove 
 them in circular panels are portraits in mosaic of 
 all the popes, from St. Peter down to Leo XIII. , 
 over two hundred and fifty in all. The ceiling of 
 the nave and transepts is of wood, richly orna- 
 mented and gilded. The church is very large, 
 being three hundred and ninety feet long, one 
 hundred and ninety-fiye wide and seventy-five 
 high. It was founded in the year 388, and was 
 claimed to contain the remains of St. Paul him- 
 self. It burned down, however, in 1823, and has 
 since been rebuilt, the work being hardly yet 
 complete. Its cost must have been enormous, 
 and it puzzles one to conjecture where all the 
 money could have come from. The great variety 
 of rare marbles and malachites, the beauty of the 
 mosaics and richness of the stained glass, render 
 it certainly, for its size, one of the most beautiful 
 and costly structures in the world. 
 
THE CHURCHES OF ROME. 135 
 
 Space will not permit mention of all even of 
 the notable churches of the city. St. Maria Mag- 
 giore, another ancient basilica, we were unable to« 
 get away from in less than an hour. It contains 
 two particularly beautiful chapels, the burial 
 places of four sixteenth-century popes. St. 
 Croce, a very old church in the outskirts of the 
 city, is interesting as having been erected by St. 
 Helena, mother of the Emperor Constantine the 
 Great, in the fourth century. The inscription 
 that Pilate wrote and set up over the cross is said 
 to be preserved in this church, though of course 
 we did not see it. 
 
 Talking of churches, the American chapel in 
 Rome is one of the prettiest little modern churches 
 I have found. Prior to the fall of the papal civil 
 power in 1870, it was the only protestant church 
 permitted within the walls. 
 
 The palace of the Vatican, the residence of the 
 pope, adjoins St. Peter's, and is said to be the 
 largest palace in the world. It is an irregular 
 pile of old-fashioned, and, in many portions, 
 unsightly buildings. It is guarded by a corps of 
 oddly uniformed soldiers known as the Swiss 
 Guard. Only a small portion of the building is 
 actually occupied by the private apartments of 
 the pope, the remainder being taken up with 
 offices for the transaction of the immense business 
 of the church, and extensive museums and gal- 
 
136 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 leries of art. The picture gallery contains but 
 comparatively few works, and these all of reli- 
 gious character. It was begun with the pictures 
 plundered by Napoleon I. from the churches of 
 Italy and restored at the close of his career in 
 1815; to which collection some later additions 
 have been made. But the galleries of antique 
 sculpture are very extensive and interesting. 
 The salon of animals, which is filled with sculp- 
 tured animals of all sorts, is simply wonderful. 
 The Vatican also contains the famous antique 
 group known as the Laocoon, also of the Apollo 
 Belvedere. 
 
 The Sistine chapel, the private chapel of the 
 Vatican, noted for its elaborate frescoes by Michel 
 Angelo, is rather disappointing. It has the 
 appearance of a dingy lumber room, and there 
 are no indications of its having been used for 
 religious purposes for years. The walls are plain, 
 and the ceiling is a simple arched vault. It is so 
 dark that the frescoes are hardly distinguishable, 
 and famous as they^are it is difl3.cult to see any 
 beauty in them with everything so much of one 
 color. So, too, with Raphael's celebrated fres- 
 coes in the former private apartments of the 
 pope ; it is difiicult for the uninitiated fully to 
 appreciate them, although these Sistine chapel 
 and Vatican frescoes are considered the most 
 famous in the world. 
 
THE MUSEUMS OF ROME. 137 
 
 There is another very interesting collection of 
 antique statuary in a museum on Capitoline hill. 
 Here are the famous "Dying Gladiator" and the 
 "Capitoline Yenus," with many other beautiful 
 pieces of ancient work. 
 
 The principal collection of pictures, besides 
 that in the Vatican, is at the Borghese palace. 
 It is very tame, however, after seeing the Uffizi 
 gallery at Florence. At the Barberini palace is a 
 small collection, including Guido Reni's pleasing 
 portrait of Beatrice Cenci, of which copies are 
 so numerous. While Rome stands pre-eminent 
 for its sculpture, Florence must have the palm 
 for pictures. 
 
 There is a very pretty protestant cemetery in 
 Rome, near St. Paul's gate. It is filled chiefly 
 with graves of English and American people who 
 have died in or near Rome. We stumbled upon 
 a plain flat stone bearing this inscription: 
 Percy Bysshe Shelley, 
 Cor, Cordium. 
 Natus IV Aug. MDCCXCII. 
 Obiit VIII Jul. MDCCCXXII. 
 " Nothing of him that doth fade 
 But doth suffer a sea-change 
 Into something rich and strange." 
 
 The poet Keats, too, is buried in this ceme- 
 tery. 
 
 The most elegant post office I have seen any- 
 where is the one at Rome. It has a court-yard in 
 
138 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 the center filled with fountains, shrubbery and 
 flowers. Around this is an arcade upon which 
 the general delivery, stamp windows, and all the 
 different offices open. It is a charming place. 
 
 Rome is no exception to the rule in Italy in the 
 matter of the ignoring of the sabbath. Sunday 
 is a good day to haul building material appar- 
 ently, from the number of wagons that throng 
 the streets loaded with stone and bricks. Stone 
 cutters chip away all day, carpenters shove their 
 planes as we pass their shops on our way to 
 church, and blacksmiths file away at their vises 
 just as on week days. 
 
 Eome overflows with priests, friars and stu- 
 dents. They all look jolly, and appear to go in 
 for enjoyment much more than our priests at 
 home. The picture galleries and other places of 
 popular resort are full of them, and it is not 
 uncommon even to see black gowns, students, 
 perhaps, escorting ladies about. The nuns, too, 
 take an interest in the bonnets of the ladies they 
 meet to an extent that would shock our good 
 American sisters. The brown-gowned monk 
 reads the secular papers and chats on the street 
 corners just as any one else might do. 
 
 Rome is famous for its Roman mosaics and 
 cameos. The latter are cut from shell, the 
 antique statues in the public galleries serving for 
 models. These sell at four to five dollars apiece, 
 
MOSAICS AND CAMEOS. 139 
 
 xinset, and are very beautiful. But for fifteen to 
 twenty dollars anyone can have his own portrait 
 cut in cameo, a photograph in profile being taken 
 for a pattern for the artist to work from. 
 
 Mosaics, or pictures formed of small pieces of 
 stone ckillfully cemented together, are of three 
 distinct classes, Venetian, Florentine and Roman. 
 The Venetian mosaics are made of minute pieces 
 of colored glass, put together so as to form pic- 
 tures of flowers, buildings, etc., and are generally, 
 if not always, in small sizes, adapted only for 
 jewelry or small trinkets. The more beautiful 
 and artistic Florentine mosaics have already been 
 described. Roman mosaics are somewhat similar 
 to Venetian, the whole surface being filled up 
 with pieces of uniform size and shape, but stone 
 or colored tile taking the place of glass, and being 
 used in larger pieces ; in the case of large pictures 
 for wall decorations half an inch square or more. 
 Eoman mosaics are found mostly in the shape of 
 pictures for framing, wall or ceiling decorations, 
 and ornamented pavements. The cost of a pic- 
 ture in Roman mosaic is probably about four 
 or five times what the same would cost painted in 
 oil. Really artistic ones are hence quite costly, 
 but they are very beautiful and enduring. 
 
CHAPTER XYT. 
 
 ANCIENT ROME— THE FORUMS— THE PALACES OF THE CJESARS— 
 THE COLOSSEUM-THE PANTHEON-THE APPIAN WAY— THE 
 CATACOMBS AND THE MAMERTINE PRISON. 
 
 S remarked before, tlie remains of ancient 
 Rome are scattered through the city in 
 close conjunction with comparatively mod- 
 ern structures. Thus we may often see a rude 
 building only a few centuries old, in the wall of 
 which is imbedded the upper part of a massive 
 antique column. The column has, perhaps, stood 
 there for two thousand years. The level of the 
 earth around it has been gradually raised by 
 deposits of rubbish and the leveling of the hills, 
 until only its upper portion is visible above 
 ground, and this, standing in the way of the more 
 modern wall, has been incorporated as part of it. 
 All over Rome we find such antique fragments, 
 sometimes a piece of wall, sometimes an isolated 
 column, and occasionally a frieze and pediment, 
 still in their place. The stone is generally badly 
 broken, split and decayed, and such fragments 
 are frequently strapped up with iron to prevent 
 accident. 
 
 The remains are most numerous, however, in 
 
 140 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT ROME. 141 
 
 the sontliern part of the city, and during the 
 present century considerable work has been done 
 in clearing away the modern houses in certain 
 sections and then excavating the earth down to 
 the old level, carefully preserving all fragments 
 of antique stone work foand. In this way the 
 sites of many ancient temples have been deter- 
 mined, ancient streets identified, and fora, or 
 places of public gathering, with their rostra or 
 pulpits from whence the people were addressed 
 by their great orators, laid bare. At three locali- 
 ties in particular have these excavations been 
 extensively prosecuted, viz.: the Forum of Tra- 
 jan, the Roman Forum, and the Palaces of the 
 Caesars. In the case of the Forum of Trajan, 
 now embraced in one of the public squares of the 
 city, the pavement was found at a depth of ten 
 or twelve feet below the present roadway that 
 surrounds it. The earth was cleared away down 
 to the old level, and a brick wall constructed 
 around the excavation to prevent the sides from 
 caving in. At one end of the excavation rises 
 the richly-carved column of Trajan, erected as a 
 monument to his victories, and which, before the 
 excavation was effected, had ten feet of its base 
 under ground. In the center are the stumps of 
 some thirty or forty huge granite columns, which 
 once entered into the construction of a basilica or 
 large covered hall. Scattered all around are frag- 
 
142 FIVE MONTHS ABHOAD. 
 
 ments of tliese columns, witli sculptured stone 
 work, broken statues and carved inscriptions, all 
 found in the work of excavating. The pit or 
 excavation can be looked into from the parapet 
 wall that surrounds it, or can be entered by steps 
 at one end. It is open free to the public. 
 
 The Roman Forum in some respects is more 
 interesting even than Trajan's. It lies at the foot 
 of the Capitoline hill, and contains the ruins of a 
 number of temples. The most conspicuous objects 
 are the arch of Severus and eight tall Corinthian 
 columns, once forming the front of the temple 
 of Saturn. The ancient Homans clearly were 
 not a church-going people, and small temples 
 sufficed them, for in an area of two hundred feet 
 square we have the remains of three distinct 
 temples. A little beyond are the remains of an 
 immense basilica over three hundred feet long by 
 a hundred and fifty feet wide, believed to have 
 been built by Julius Caesar forty-six years before 
 Christ. It evidently consisted of rows of brick 
 piers, connected above by arched vaulting, but 
 with an elegant stone exterior. On one side of 
 this is the paved open space where the people 
 gathered for public meetings and other purposes, 
 and at each end of this space are rostra for the 
 speakers. Through the entire length of the 
 Forum extends a path, three or four yards wide 
 and paved with large flat stones, which path is 
 
THE PALACES OF THE C^SARS. 143 
 
 believed to have been the Via Sacra, leading up 
 to the Capitol. Besides those mentioned, there are 
 the colonnades of two or more other temples in 
 this excavation, which is altogether over eight 
 hundred feet long, by three hundred or four hun- 
 dred feet wide. The space is inclosed by a retain- 
 ing wall and parapet, and is full of sculptured 
 remains. 
 
 But the most extensive and interesting of all 
 the archaeological excavations is that on the site 
 of the Palaces of the Caesars, on Palatine hill 
 overlooking the Roman Forum. The summit of 
 the hill for some acres in extent is one mass of 
 stupendous ruins. These prove to be the remains 
 of a series of magnificent palaces erected by the 
 emperors Augustus, Domitian, Caligula and oth- 
 ers, with some foundation walls extending back 
 even to the times of Romulus and the Tarquins, 
 — six hundred to seven hundred and fifty years 
 before Christ. A first glance at the ruins shows 
 only a wilderness of brick walls, arches and vault- 
 ings, the walls being from three to six feet thick 
 and sometimes fifty to sixty feet high. A closer 
 inspection, however, convinces one that these 
 walls have once been encased with rare marbles 
 and have exhibited facades of the finest work- 
 manship. Exquisitely sculptured stone cornices, 
 capitals, bases, etc., and beautifully inlaid marble 
 and mosaic pavements show that the structures 
 
144 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 were not the rough barbaric edifices we had at 
 first been led to suppose. In one case we have 
 well defined remains of a spacious hall surrounded 
 with a row of elegant marble columns. Farther 
 on is the ruin of a magnificent fountain; else- 
 where a suite of rooms with mosaic floors that 
 would put to blush the work of the present day, 
 and frescoed walls really beautiful even now. 
 Fragments of marble found amid the ruins and 
 collected in the museum at the entrance show 
 that the builders were familiar with a great many 
 varieties and used them freely in ornamenting. 
 With the extent and magnificence of these palaces 
 the spectator is strongly impressed. A charge of 
 a franc apiece is made by the government for the 
 viewing of the remains. 
 
 In inspecting the ruins of ancient Eome one is 
 struck with the closeness with which the temples 
 and other buildings were crowded together ; with 
 the smallness of the temples ; with the great 
 extent to which brick and concrete were used by 
 the early Romans, and particularly with the mas- 
 siveness of their walls and vaultings. A piece of 
 the vaulted ceiling of the Basilica of Constantine, 
 originally one hundred feet above the pavement 
 but now lying on the ground, measures nearly a 
 yard in thickness. The vaultings of Cologne 
 Cathedral, by contrast, are only nine inches thick. 
 The Homan bricks were very thin compared with 
 
THE COLOSSEUM. 145 
 
 ours, one and one-fourth inches being the usual 
 thickness, while I have found them as thin as one 
 inch. The Romans used mortar very liberally, 
 the joints being sometimes as thick as the bricks 
 themselves. But they possessed tha art of mak- 
 ing a mortar nearly as hard and durable as stone. 
 The Basilica of Constantine mentioned above 
 must have been a magnificent piece of masonry, 
 its brick ceiling of eighty feet span being admir- 
 ably constructed in series of octagonal panels. 
 
 Proceeding southwestward from Capitol hill we 
 have a constant succession of interesting ruins. At 
 the foot of the abrupt hill lies the Rohian forum, 
 described above. Then to the left the Temple of 
 Romulus and the Basilica of Constantine ; to the 
 right. Palatine hill with the Palaces of the Caesars. 
 The road now passes under the Arch of Titus and 
 down a long slope with temples of Venus and 
 Roma on one side and piles of brick ruins, said to 
 have been private dwellings, on the other. Beyond 
 these we come upon the Arch of Constantine and 
 the Colosseum. The general character of this 
 latter stupendous work I have described in con- 
 nection with the Arena at Verona. It was an 
 immense out-door theater, capable of seating over 
 eighty thousand spectators. It is oval in form, 
 six hundred and fifteen feet long, and five hun- 
 dred and ten feet wide. The outside wall rises to 
 a height of one hundred and fifty-six feet, and 
 
 10 
 
146 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 from near the summit of this, stone seats former- 
 ly sloped down in tiers to the edge of the arena 
 in the center. It was built by the emperors Ves- 
 pasian and Titus about the year 80. An idea of 
 the immense quantity of masonry involved in its 
 construction cannot be conveyed in writing. I 
 suppose there is more brick and stone in it than 
 in all the buildings in an ordinary city of one 
 hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants put 
 together. When it ceased to be used for the pur- 
 pose for which it was originally designed, it 
 became for generations the great quarry from 
 which all the building material required for Rome 
 was derived. Its general appearance everyone is 
 familiar with. It is a story higher than the 
 Arena in Verona, or four in all, and the exterior 
 was originally handsomely finished with Tuscan 
 columns in the first story, Ionic in the second, 
 Corinthian in the third and Corinthian pilasters 
 in the fourth. It is in a sad state of ruin, and 
 much of what we see in anything like complete 
 form is mere modern restoration. It should be 
 understood that this is not the only ancient 
 amphitheatre in Rome. There are at least three 
 others, viz., the Theatre of Marcellus, the Circus 
 of Maxentius, and the Amphitheatre Castrense, 
 but these are comparatively small, and in an even 
 less perfect condition than the Colosseum. 
 But the ^nest remnant of the architecture of 
 
THE PANTHEON. 147 
 
 the early imperial age of Rome is the Pantheon. 
 This was originally built B. C. 27, by Marcus 
 Agrippa, son-in-law of the emperor Augustus, 
 and was originall}^ designed as a temple for all the 
 gods who were not fortunate enough to have 
 special temples of their own. It is an immense 
 circular building, one hundred and forty feet in 
 diameter, with walls twenty feet thick, and cov- 
 ered with a large flat dome of solid masonry, the 
 height of which above the pavement is also one 
 hundred and forty feet. It has a massive portico, 
 supported by sixteen monolithic columns, each 
 about four feet in diameter and thirty-nine feet 
 high. The building has no windows, but is 
 lighted by a large round hole in the center of the 
 dome, open to the weather. Any rain that comes 
 in is carried off by drains in the pavement below. 
 There are seven large niches in the interior wall, 
 each of which originally contained a statue of 
 some divinity, but the places of which are now 
 occupied by christian altars, the structure having 
 for centuries been in use as a catholic church. 
 The Pantheon contains among others the tombs 
 of Raphael and the late King Victor Emmanuel. 
 One afternoon we drove out for a few miles on 
 the Appian Way, a military road constructed 
 three hundred and twelve years before Christ by 
 Appius Claudius Csecus, and still a useful turn- 
 pike road. The old road had become, like every- 
 
148 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 tiling else, buried up with debris, but Pope Pius 
 IX. caused it to be excavated for several miles, 
 and we are thus enabled to see it to-day in nearly 
 its original state. The roadway itself is about 
 eighteen feet wide, with a curb of rough stone on 
 either side. The gutters are laid with flat, irregu- 
 larly shaped stones, and occasionally these extend 
 entirely across the street. Back a few yards 
 from the curb, on both sides, are constant succes- 
 sions of ruined remains, said to be tombs. It is 
 just as if all the monuments in one of our western 
 cemeteries had been for some miles strung along 
 both sides of one of the principal thoroughfares 
 leading out of the city. These Appian Way 
 monuments are now for the most part large piles 
 of rough brick or concrete masonry, the facings 
 of marble which once encased them having beea 
 stripped off by the vandals of the dark ages. 
 Now and then, however, sculptured stonework 
 and inscriptions are seen, and occasionally some 
 resemblance to a perfect tomb. The most notice- 
 able tomb is that of Csecilia Metella, which takes 
 the form of a circular tower, sixty-flve feet in 
 diameter and perhaps an equal height, erected 
 upon a square pedestal of even larger size. At a 
 later period it was used as the keep or stronghold 
 of a castle which grew up around it, but which is 
 now even more ruinous than the tomb itself. 
 The latter is covered with dressed stone with 
 
THE CATACOMBS. 
 
 149 
 
 wreaths and skulls of oxen carved on it. Slave 
 labor must have been very abundant at the time 
 of their erection to have made such large and 
 massive buildings possible. 
 
 TOMB OF CMCltXA METELLA. 
 
 There are in the vicinity of Rome a number of 
 different catacombs, or ancient subterranean bury- 
 ing places. We visited those of St. Callistus, a 
 mile from the city, on the Appian Way. We 
 descend some thirty or forty feet into the ground, 
 and then by the light of candles traverse a 
 quarter of a mile or more of narrow passages cut 
 
150 ' FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 through the stiff earth, with tiers of horizontal 
 niches on each side of us. In these niches the 
 dead were laid and afterwards walled in with tiles 
 and plaster. Economy of burial space, I imagine, 
 was the prime object of these catacombs, as 
 thus no surface land was wasted. 
 
 Another subterranean locality we visited was 
 the Mamertine prison, a sub- cellar under some 
 ancient Roman structure, now replaced by a 
 christian church. There can be no doubt of its 
 antiquity. Here Peter and Paul are said to 
 have been confined, and here Jugurtha, king of 
 Numidia, was starved to death one hundred and 
 six years before Christ. 
 
 A week is all too short a time in which to see 
 Rome. One should stay at the very least a fort- 
 night. Our short stay of eight days, necessarily 
 short by reason of the lateness of the season and 
 rumors of increasing prevalence of Roman fever, 
 prevented our giving more than a hurried visit to 
 many objects that would well have merited more 
 careful examination. Among these slighted 
 objects were the Tomb of Augustus, the Baths of 
 Titus and Caracalla, Hadrian's Yilla at Tivoli, 
 the Farnese Palace and the Ghetto, or Jew' s quar- 
 ter, in which, up to within a very few years, all the 
 Jews in Rome were securely locked every night, 
 it being a penal offence for a Jew to be found at 
 large in the city after nightfall. 
 
CHAPTER XYII. 
 
 PISA AND ITS LEANING TOWER— GENOA, THE BIRTHPLACE OF 
 COLUMBUS-THE BATTLE-FIELDS OF ITALY-TURIN-ARCADED 
 STREETS. 
 
 Cj^ JOURNEY of nine hours northward along 
 AS the shore of the Mediterranean, through 
 \^ a flat, level, malarial country, brings us to 
 Pisa, once an important commercial and political 
 center, but now a dead old place with only 
 twenty-five thousand inhabitants, but house room 
 enough, apparently, for twice the number. It is 
 situated near the mouth of the Arno, but seems 
 to have no trade left. It is well built, and boasts 
 many old palaces, but its only attractions to 
 tourists are its cathedral and leaning tower. The 
 former is interesting for its age (built 1063), for 
 its being constructed of marble throughout, and 
 for its columns being mostly trophies of war 
 plundered from temples* and other buildings, and 
 therefore very diverse in size, style and material. 
 It is also notable for being the church in which 
 Galileo, who was a native of Pisa, discovered by 
 the swinging of a chandelier, the principle of the 
 pendulum. The same chandelier is still pointed 
 out to visitors. 
 
 151 - 
 
152 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 The leaning tower is one hundred and seventy- 
 nine feet high, and deflects thirteen feet from the 
 perpendicular. It was built for, and still serves, 
 as the bell tower of the cathedral. A small fee 
 is charged for ascending it. Like the cathedral, 
 it is of marble, circular in form, with eight 
 stories, each ornamented with arcades of semi- 
 circular arches. It is held by some that the 
 tower was intentionally built with an incline to 
 the south, and since observing some of the eccen- 
 tricities of eleventh-century architecture in Eng- 
 land, I can half believe it possible, though at the 
 time of seeing it the impression made on my mind 
 was that it had settled into its present position. 
 The leaning tower stands just east of the cathe- 
 dral. About the same distance west is the Baptis- 
 tery, a circular dome-covered marble building, not 
 unlike, in its general features, the Baptistery at 
 Florence. A few rods north of this trio of stately 
 eight century- old buildings, is the Campo Santo, 
 or burying-ground of Pisa. It is rectangular in 
 form, and surrounded by. a high wall and broad 
 and lofty arcade or cloister, under the shelter of 
 which most of the monuments are placed; The 
 walls of this cloister also contain some curious 
 and interesting old mediaeval frescoes — interest- 
 ing as illustrating the theology of the period with 
 respect to death, hell, and the final judgment. 
 That the soil in which the good Pisans of the 
 
AN ITALIAN CEMETERY. * 153 
 
 middle ages reposed miglit be the more sacred, 
 many ship loads of earth were brought from Pal- 
 estine and deposited in this Campo Santo. It 
 was here, by the way, that we saw our first Italian 
 funeral. The coffin was carried on men's shoul- 
 ders, and was followed only by a bevy of priests 
 and acolytes mumbling a sort of liturgy as they 
 walked at a brisk pace through the streets. 
 Some of these followers were dressed in gowns of 
 black cambric, and wore black dominoes or veils 
 over their faces, with holes cut for their eyes. 
 When the procession breaks up, these masked 
 individuals circulate through the city begging for 
 money for masses for the repose of the soul of 
 the deceased. To have one come upon you sud- 
 denly is apt to unsettle your nerves for the rest 
 of the day, so unearthly an appearance do they 
 present. 
 
 In the eleventh century Pisa was an independ- 
 ent republic and an important military power, 
 and took a leading part in the crusades against 
 the Turk. Later, her lieets ruled the seas, but in 
 the twelfth century she suffered a fatal defeat 
 at the hands of her commercial rival, Genoa, 
 and two centuries later was conquered by and 
 annexed to the then independent republic of 
 Florence. 
 
 From Pisa to Genoa the railroad continues to 
 hug the shore of the Mediterranean, but as the 
 
154 • FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 Apennine range does the same, and as the moun- 
 tains often rise directly from the water' s edge, the 
 work of constructing the line, as may be fancied, 
 was a difficult one. Between Pisa and Genoa 
 there are over eighty tunnels, and many of them 
 quite long. For a considerable part of the way 
 we are under ground by far the greater part of 
 the time. Where we do catch a glimpse of the 
 country it is very beautiful, olives, figs, oranges 
 and lemons growing in great abundance, and the 
 blue Mediterranean as smooth as glass, stretch- 
 ing away to our left. 
 
 Genoa, the leading commercial port of Italy, is 
 built in the form of a crescent, encircling its fine 
 harbor. Hills and mountains lie behind it, and 
 the houses extend far up their slopes. So limited 
 is the si3ace available for building, that the 
 streets, except a few of the newer ones, are very 
 narrow — mere lanes eight or ten feet wide, and 
 the houses are run up to extraordinary heights, 
 seven, eight and nine stories being quite common. 
 The only garden space is on the roofs, and we 
 frequently see a mass of green enshrouding the 
 cornice and roof of a lofty structure. Genoa^as 
 many fine old palaces, but no antique remains or 
 any edifices of especial note. The bay is filled 
 with shipping, but owing to the shallowness of 
 the water, cargoes have to be landed by the aid 
 of lighters. Along the water's edge is a row of 
 
GENOA. 155 
 
 massive stone warehouses, and on their summit 
 is a beautiful esplanade or grand terrace paved 
 with stones. It is over fifty feet wide and several 
 hundred long, and commands a fine view of the 
 harbor. Genoa, once an independent republic, 
 was long a bitter contestant with Pisa and Venice 
 for the naval and commercial supremacy of the 
 Mediterranean. It was at Genoa that Christo- 
 pher Columbus was born in 1435 or 1436, and a 
 fine marble monument to his memory, is seen 
 near the railway station. 
 
 Leaving Genoa, we again have to cross the 
 Apennines, a comparatively inconsiderable range 
 at this point, our greatest altitude being about 
 twelve hundred feet. We then descend to the 
 fertile plains of Sardinia, or Piedmont, drained 
 by the river Po which flows eastwardly into the 
 Adriatic. The valley of the Po is formed by the 
 Alps on the north and the Apennines on the 
 south, and constitutes a broad and fertile plain 
 extending entirely across the northern part of 
 Italy. 
 
 On the route between Genoa and Milan via 
 Turin, we pass several important battle fields, 
 including that of Marengo, where Napoleon I. 
 won his decisive victory over the Austrians after 
 his famous passage of the Alps in June, 1800; 
 Novi, where the year previous the French had 
 been terribly defeated by the Austrians and Eus- 
 
156 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 sians ; Novara, where the Sardinians were badly- 
 defeated by the Austrians in 1849 ; and Magenta, 
 where Napoleon III. and Victor Emmanuel so 
 totally defeated the Austrians in 1859 that they 
 were compelled to abandon their possession of 
 northern Italy. A grand monument marks the 
 scene of the latter achievement. 
 
 Turin, the late capital of the little kingdom of 
 Sardinia, which within the past twenty years has 
 expanded into the kingdom of Italy, is a fine 
 modern city of over two hundred thousand inhab- 
 itants. It is laid out with Philadelphia regular- 
 ity, with streets of good width, and several hand- 
 some squares, or piazzas, as they call them, orna- 
 mented with equestrian statues. Street railways 
 are fully introduced, and they even use steam 
 as a motive power with success. In Turin we 
 again come upon the practice of building the 
 houses with arcades covering the sidewalks, but 
 here they are much more imposing than in the 
 other cities we have seen, being broad, and 
 extending up two full stories in height, and uni- 
 form in construction for whole blocks together. 
 The shops are well stocked and make a fine 
 appearance. Turin is undoubtedly the finest 
 modern city in Italy. 
 
 Talking of arcades, I wonder the system of 
 covered sidewalks has never been introduced into 
 America, where the shade would be so agreeable 
 
ARCADED STREETS. 157 
 
 in our hot summers and the freedom from ice and 
 snow so advantageous in winter. Fancy a lead- 
 ing street with long rows of columns or brick 
 piers extending along the line of the curbstone, 
 with arches spanning the intervals at thfe level of 
 the second story ceilings, and between this colon- 
 nade and the line of the houses a vaulted ceiling, 
 covering the sidewalk. Above this there might 
 be an open terrace, or, what is more usual in Italy 
 and Paris, is for the upper stories of the houses to 
 be built out to the line of the curbstone. Where 
 built uniformly, such arcades have a very pleasing 
 effect, and naturally attract custom to the stores 
 fronting upon them. Such an experiment was 
 once tried on Regent street in London, but it 
 did not answer there owing to the fog and dark- 
 ness of that city, which, for the abutting stores, 
 the arcade intensified. It would be different, 
 however, with our bright American atmosphere. 
 But it is nevertheless best adapted for streets 
 where the stores are not of great depth, and, by 
 the way, I am convinced that the public good 
 would be promoted if there were more small 
 stores, and if business were less concentrated into 
 the hands of a few large concerns. In Europe, if 
 a lady wants a parasol, she does not go to a mam- 
 moth dry goods house to select one, but to a little 
 store, perhaps twenty feet square, where nothing 
 but umbrellas and parasols are sold, and where, 
 
158 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 of course, a superior assortment is kept. So 
 every other branch is subdivided. The number 
 of independent businesses is increased; men of 
 small capital can do business successfully because 
 they do* not have to carry such multifarious 
 stocks ; landlords are benefited by the wider 
 distribution of trade, and the public, not only by 
 the better assortments that are possible, but by 
 not having to go long distances to the center of 
 the city to do their trading. 
 
 Just out of Turin a few miles is a magnificent 
 hill sixteen hundred feet high, known as the 
 Superga, from the summit of which a rare view 
 of the plains of Savoy, studded with cities and 
 villages, is obtained. It was from the top of this 
 hill that one of the dukes of Savoy viewed a 
 battle on the plains below, between his own troops 
 and an invading army, and, as the legend goes, 
 made a vow that if his forces were victorious he 
 would, on that summit erect a worthy temple to 
 the Virgin. The church was duly built, with 
 accompanying monastery, and has since formed a 
 sort of ducal mausoleum. It is one of the sights 
 of Turin, and the walk to it affords a rare bit of 
 exercise. Ladies make the ascent on donkeys. 
 
CHAPTER XYin. 
 
 » - 
 
 MILAN— ITS CATHEDRAL-THE GALLERIE-DA VINCI'S LAST SUP- 
 PER-THE ITALIAN EXPOSITION— SAN CARLO AND THE BOR- 
 ROMEAN ISLES. 
 
 ETWEEN Turin and Milan the country is 
 very level, the predominating feature 
 being the extensive rice fields flooded 
 with water by artificial means. . 
 
 Milan, like Turin, is essentially a modern city. 
 Upon its emancipation from Austrian rule some- 
 thing over twenty years ago, a spirit of enterprise 
 was awakened, which to this day has kept it in 
 the front rank, among Italian cities, for commer- 
 cial thrift and progressiveness. It has about two 
 hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants, exten- 
 sive canal and railroad connections, and no insig- 
 nificant manufacturing interests. It is best 
 known to the world through its cathedral, the 
 third largest church in Europe and probably the 
 most elaborately ornate of any. The latter is 
 built of marble and granite from foundation to 
 summit, the closest scrutiny discovering in the 
 structure itself neither brick nor timber. In this 
 respect it is the most complete piece of mason 
 work I have yet seen. The roofs of other great 
 
 159 
 
160 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 churclies are more or less covered with lead; 
 this is entirely roofed with slabs of marble. In 
 another respect it is unique: so complete is 
 the ornamentation that no diiference is made in 
 the richness of the sculptured work between 
 those portions prominently exposed to view and 
 portions entirely hidden, where the question of 
 symmetry at all enters in. Every pinnacle is 
 surmounted by a statue in marble, and these, 
 with the statues occupying niches, bring the 
 whole number displayed on the exterior up 
 to two thousand. But with all its magnitude, 
 richness of ornamentation and conscientious 
 workmanship, it has faults which every one 
 familiar with it through photographs or engrav- 
 ings will appreciate. Its ground plan is so large 
 that, notwithstanding the nave is one hundred 
 and fifty-five feet high, the whole building has, 
 in contrast with Cologne and the best English 
 cathedrals, a decided appearance of flatness, and 
 the tower, though three hundred and sixty feet 
 high, looks insignificantly small on so large a 
 church. It should have been at least five hun- 
 dred feet high, and have tapered much more 
 gradually. Then, too, the external ornament in 
 the shape of delicateh^ sculptured marble pin- 
 nacles, flying buttresses, screens, parapets, etc., 
 is decidedly overdone, and considerably detracts 
 from the dignity and grandeur of the building. 
 
THE GALLERIE VITTORIO EMANUELE. 161 
 
 The interior is less open to criticism, and if tlie 
 vaulted ceiling were really perforated stone work, 
 instead of painted imitation, it would perhaps be ' 
 unsurpassed for beauty among the great Gothic 
 churches of Europe. Altogether it is certainly a 
 beautiful thing, but, artistically, far inferior to 
 the cathedral of Cologne. 
 
 Next to its cathedral the pride of Milan is its 
 Gallerie Yittorio Emanuele, the finest arcade in 
 the world. Fancy two intersecting streets, each 
 forty -eight feet wide and five hundred or six 
 hundred feet long, lined with elegant five-story 
 stores, and entirely roofed in with glass at a 
 height of ninety-four feet from the marble pave- 
 ment. The two streets form a cross, and at their 
 intersection is an immense glass dome, octagonal 
 in shape and one hundred and eighty feet high. 
 The buildings are ornamented with statues and 
 brilliantly lighted in the evening, when half 
 Milan assembles there for a promenade. Most of 
 the best stores in the lines of jewelry, fancy goods, 
 statuary, pictures, books, music, confectioneries, 
 etc., with a number of cafes, are assembled here, 
 and it has become the great center of the best 
 retail trade of the place. The Gallerie was com- 
 pleted about three years ago. Of course it is 
 not a thoroughfare for vehicles. 
 
 Another special pride of this ambitious little 
 
 city is its cemetery. Milan is famous for its 
 11 
 
162 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 marble sculpture, and naturally the cemetery is 
 exceedingly rich in beautiful monuments and 
 elegant private vaults. There are also very 
 extensive public vaults and spacious arcades for 
 cenotaphs and tablets. This cemetery is also 
 provided with a crematory furnace, which is in 
 regular use, Milan leading all other cities in its 
 practical adoption of the plan of thus disposing 
 of the dead. 
 
 There is one other thing for which Milan is 
 famous, viz., its possession of Leonardo da Vin- 
 ci's famous picture of The Last Supper. Every 
 one is familiar with it through prints — with its 
 long table formed of boards supported on carpen- 
 ters' horses, and the Saviour in the center with 
 six disciples on either side of him, all facing the 
 spectator. It is reckoned Leonardo's greatest 
 work. We went to see it. It is in the refectory 
 or dining-room of an old monastery connected 
 with the ancient abbey church of St. Maria delle 
 Grazie. We pay a franc for admission. The 
 picture occupies the entire width of one end of 
 the room, and is painted on the plastered wall in 
 oil colors. As Da Vinci died in 1519 — three hun- 
 dred and sixty-two years ago — it may be readily 
 fancied the picture is in an advanced state of 
 decay. In fact, very little can be seen but the 
 positions of the figures — the expressions must be 
 in great part conjectured. When new, however, 
 
THE LAST SUPPER. 163 
 
 it must have been a very grand picture. With 
 this conviction we have to be content, so faded 
 are the colors and chipped and broken the plas- 
 ter. I fancy with another generation or two it 
 will have become altogether a thing of the past. 
 We hapi)ened to be in Milan during the pro- 
 gress of the great Italian Exposition held there 
 through the summer of 1881. It was gotten up 
 by the enterprise of Milanese capitalists, aided 
 by a liberal appropriation made by the national 
 government. Very extensive buildings were 
 erected for its accommodation, and every way the 
 Exposition was a great success, and gave tourists 
 a better idea of the resources and industrial con- 
 dition of Italy than could have been gained in 
 any other way. In paintings and sculpture the 
 exposition hardly came up to what I should have 
 expected of a country the nursery of art, but the 
 evidences of mechanical progress were very cred- 
 itable. Italy turns out as handsome steam 
 engines and other machinery as we can build in 
 America, though it costs more to produce them. 
 In optical and mathematical instruments and sci- 
 entific apparatus she always excelled. In every- 
 thing pertaining to building, except woodwork 
 and builders' hardware, they are in advance of 
 us ; in agricultural machinery far behind. One 
 of the most interesting departments, and one 
 fully represented, was the culture and manufac- 
 
164 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 ture of silk, all the processes, from the incnbat- 
 ing of the silk worms' eggs to the weaving of the 
 richest satin damask, being seen in full operation. 
 The wine and honey industries also occupied 
 considerable space. Cremation was exemplified 
 in models of furnaces, glass jars showing the 
 remains of numerous subjects, and an assortment 
 of modern cinerary urns. 
 
 Just as Leipsic is the most famous place in the 
 world for education in instrumental music, so is 
 Milan for vocal culture. It is the Mecca of all 
 great singers. 
 
 Milan has a very precious treasure, in a chapel 
 under the choir of her cathedral, in the bones of 
 St. Carlo. San Carlo Borromeo was born in 1538. 
 He was a nephew of pope Pius IV., who was 
 somewhat given to nepotism, and who made Carlo 
 Archbishop of Milan and a cardinal, when but 
 twenty-two years of age. Unlike most men thus 
 favored, the young prelate laid himself out to 
 merit his promotion, and by austerity of life and 
 severe labors he brought himself to an untimely 
 grave when but forty-six. Soon it was found 
 that miracles were worked at his tomb, and ulti- 
 mately, in 1616, he was canonized and became 
 Saint Carlo. He is the patron saint of all the 
 region around Milan. In the city itself, besides 
 his splendid shrine, there is a large church dedi- 
 cated to him, and at Arona, on a hill overlooking 
 
THE BORROMEAN ISLES. 165 
 
 Lake Maggiore, is a colossal bronze statue of tlie 
 reverend gentleman seventy feet high, on a pedes- 
 tal of forty feet. 
 
 A few miles up Lake Maggiore from Arona 
 are the Borromean isles, the property of the same 
 family to which St. Carlo belonged, which still 
 maintains its name and identity. The principal 
 islands are Isola Bella and Isola Madre, both 
 originally mere rocks rising above the surface of 
 the lake, but two centuries ago transformed by 
 artificial terraces and imported soil, into the love- 
 liest of gardens. Upon each island a palace was 
 erected, and trees and shrubs for the grounds 
 were brought from all parts of the world. The 
 present appearance of the islands, rising out of 
 the water in a succession of arcades and terraces, 
 reminds one very much of the fanciful pictures 
 sometimes seen on the drop curtains of theatres. 
 
 Arona is a small village at the foot of Lake 
 Maggiore, two hours' ride north of Milan. It is 
 the Italian terminus of the carriage road across 
 the Simplon pass, and here we bid adieu to Italy. 
 
 Many of the hotels in Italy were formerly old 
 palaces, and the rooms are spacious and elegant. 
 All Italian buildings are very substantially con- 
 structed. The stairs and landings are almost 
 universally of stone, and houses are commonly 
 built without joists or other woodwork in the 
 floors, the walls being made very heavy, with a 
 
166 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 flat arch of brick springing from each side of the 
 room and meeting in a point at the center. The 
 haunches are filled up with Portland cement con- 
 crete, and a concrete or tile floor is finally finished 
 for the room above. A style of floor very much, 
 in use in Italy is made of a concrete of Portland 
 cement and various colored marbles in irregular 
 pieces, from the size of a dime to that of a quar- 
 ter-dollar, polished to a smooth surface. Some- 
 times the different colors are kept separate and 
 laid in patterns. 
 
 The Italians are also splendid railroad builders. 
 Rarely is finer constructive engineering to be 
 seen than some of the Italian roads display. 
 Railroad travel is cheap in Italy. First class 
 fares are about three and a half cents a mile ; 
 second class, two and a half cents ; third class, 
 one and three-fourths cents. Their second class is 
 superior in comfort to our first. 
 
 The money of account in Italy is the lira, which 
 is identical in value with the franc of France and 
 Belgium. Like the franc, it is divided into one 
 hundred centesimi. Five centesimi make a soldo, 
 or sou, equivalent to our cent. An irredeemable 
 p^iper currency forms the sole circulating medium 
 (0>f Italy, and it ranges from one and a half to 
 three per cent discount as compared with silver. 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 THE PICTURE GALLERIES OP EUROPE— THE OVER-ESTIMATE OF 
 THE OLD MASTERS — NOTICES OF SOME OF THE ITALIAN 
 MASTERS AND THEIR WORKS — THE TWO GREAT SPANISH 
 PAINTERS. 
 
 ITH every traveler in Italy, the art collec- 
 tions of that country rank among the 
 foremost of its attractions, and yet, I 
 fancy, but comparatively few fully appreciate 
 and enjoy them. Most tourists visit the galleries 
 because they are set down in the guide books as 
 principal attractions, and because everybody else 
 visits them, but I am vastly mistaken if they do 
 not inwardly vote them a bore. It is certainly 
 a very laborious occupation ; for standing about 
 looking at pictures for hours together is far more 
 tiring than even brisk walking. Then the char- 
 acter of the pictures, too, is not usually such 
 as would be fascinating to a person of ordinary 
 tastes. Mythological and religious subjects pre- 
 dominate, and in a great majority of cases they 
 are handled in a fanciful and extravagant man- 
 ner that has few charms for the hard-headed 
 realist of the present day. I am referring now to 
 the paintings of the media3val period. Madon- 
 
 167 
 
168 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 nas greatly abound, but comparatively few of 
 them would be set down by the average observer 
 as models of female beauty. Other favorite sub- 
 jects are the martyrdoms of the saints, and sen- 
 sational, revolting subjects they most usually are. 
 St. Sebastian is perhaps the most frequently 
 depicted, bound nude to a tree, with his body 
 stuck full of arrows, like pins in a pin-cushion. 
 St. Lawrence comes next, in condition of being 
 broiled on a gridiron and prodded with tridents, 
 as a cook fumbles over the broiling steak with 
 her fork. When we come to bible scenes, which 
 of course are very numerous, we see little or no 
 attempt to reproduce the ancient and oriental, 
 either in landscape, architecture, dress, or any 
 other accessories. Patriarchs and prophets will 
 be pictured in middle-age Italian costume, and 
 Corinthian architecture be introduced in connec- 
 tion with the rudest and most barbarous i)eriods 
 of scripture history. So, too, not infrequently 
 the painter utterly fails properly to interpret his 
 subject, as when a feast is almost invariably rep- 
 resented as a debauch. Still, there must be some 
 real merit in these old paintings, or students and 
 connoisseurs could not so dote on them; but I 
 am strongly inclined to the opinion that very 
 much of the reverence with which the so-called 
 old masters are regarded, is factitious and unmer- 
 ited. Well authenticated works of the early Ital- 
 
MEDIEVAL ART. 169 
 
 ian painters of note are of course limited in num- 
 ber, and in the strife of collectors for possession 
 of them their value has become enormously infla- 
 ted, and, being valued at extravagant figures it 
 is only natural that people should come to believe 
 them possessed of extraordinary merit. I go 
 farther and assert as a plain, common sense, 
 unprejudiced observer, that I believe that as good 
 pictures are painted in the nineteenth century as 
 any the fifteenth or sixteenth centuries produced. 
 And why should there not be? The world has 
 made wonderful progress in all other branches of 
 intellectual and aesthetic culture ; and with all the 
 attention that the present age has given to art, 
 with the unprecedented opportunities for study 
 and the wealth that is lavished on works of high 
 merit, is it reasonable to suppose that in painting 
 alone, we have so sadly retrograded ? 
 
 It is, nevertheless, interesting and profitable to 
 see and study the works that, whether justly or 
 not, are so much prized, and to know something 
 of their authors. The number of old Italian mas- 
 ters is very large and a list of them would be 
 tedious and unprofitable; but there are some 
 twenty-five or more, whose names and works soon 
 become familiar to the traveler in Europe, and 
 these may be noticed here as a very slight intro- 
 duction to an acquaintance with Italian art. 
 
 Not quite the oldest painter known but still 
 
170 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 one regarded as the father of Italian painting, was 
 Cimabue, who was born in Florence in 1240. In 
 his day oil colors had not come into use, but the 
 pigments were mixed with glue or size and laid 
 on wood instead of canvas. All the earlier paint- 
 ings were executed on gold grounds. They were 
 almost exclusively confined to religious subjects 
 and, compared with the works of later artists, 
 have a stiff and doll-like appearance. Artistic 
 grouping was unknown and the pictures repre- 
 sent but little more than a collection of figures 
 very little dependent on each other. 
 
 Cimabue walking in the fields one day found a 
 shepherd boy drawing pictures in the sand with a 
 stick. He thought he detected genius in the lad, 
 took him into his studio and trained him. In 
 time the pupil, whose name was Giotto and who 
 was born in 1276, far surpassed his master, and 
 his remaining works are perhaps as highly prized 
 as those of any other painter. Most of his paint- 
 ings are frescoes, that is, are painted on plaster 
 walls in water colors, and hence are generally in 
 a dilapidated condition. Even the unlearned in 
 art will quickly discover that Griotto was far in 
 advance of the painters of his age in the life-like 
 naturalness of his figures and groups. Besides 
 being a great painter he was the architect of the 
 cathedral at Florence, as related in a former 
 chapter. 
 
THE EARLIER ITALIAN PAINTERS. 171 
 
 The next great painter was Fra Angelico, a 
 monk of the convent of St. Mark at Florence, tke 
 cells of whicli he decorated with frescoes still in 
 an excellent state of j)reservation. Fra Angelico 
 was born in 1387. He was a most prolific painter, 
 most of his works being religions scenes embrac- 
 ing a great number of figures of small size, bnt all 
 most exquisitely drawn and a character depicted 
 in every countenance. We greatly admired the 
 little gems of art that the good monk was so facile 
 in turning out. 
 
 Bellini, born in 1422, was the founder of what 
 is known as the Venetian school, and the master 
 of Titian, the greatest of the Venetian painters. 
 
 Then came Mantegna of Padua, who was born 
 in 1431. He was noted for the laborious fidelity 
 with which his pictures were worked up, but they 
 are nevertheless strongly marked with the crude- 
 ness of the early painters. 
 
 Next may be mentioned Perugino, who enjoys 
 the honor of being regarded as the master of 
 Eaphael, the greatest of all painters. Perugino 
 was born in 1446. 
 
 We now come to the five pre-eminently great 
 Italian painters: Leonardo da Vinci, 1452-1519 ; 
 Michel Angelo, 1474-1563; Titian, 1477-1576; 
 Raphael, 1483-1520, and Correggio, 1494-1534. 
 
 Leonardo da Vinci was born in Vinci on the 
 Arno, near Florence. He was a universal genius, 
 
172 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 being equally talented as a painter, an arcliitect, 
 a sculptor, and an engineer and scientist. At the 
 age of thirty he accepted a position in the service 
 of the Duke of Milan, and in that city he accom- 
 plished his greatest works. His famous painting 
 of The Last Supper, one of the greatest pictures 
 of all ages, has already been described. His other 
 pictures are not numerous, and being greatly 
 darkened with age are not particularly attractive 
 to the non-professional. 
 
 Michel Angelo, like Da Yinci, was a man of 
 rare and diversified talents. He also was a Tus- 
 can by birth. From the age of fourteen to twen- 
 ty-six he devoted himself to sculpture, producing 
 during that period his colossal statue of David, 
 now in the Academy of Art at Florence, and 
 others of his most famous works in marble. For 
 the next thirteen years he was engaged chiefly in 
 fresco painting, his principal production being 
 the ceiting of the Sistine chapel in the Vatican, 
 heretofore mentioned. Then he took up architec- 
 ture, ending his career as the principal builder of 
 the church of St. Peter at E,ome, and the designer 
 of its splendid dome. He left few or no paint- 
 ings in oil. 
 
 Titian was a Venetian and a painter only. The 
 greatest collection of his works is at Venice, 
 though a great many are found in Spain, where 
 he probably resided for a time under the patron- 
 
RAPHAEL. 173 
 
 age of the emperor Charles Y. His paintings are 
 quite numerous, but are not attractive, commonly- 
 presenting great masses of dark color with only a 
 small portion distinguishable as a picture. 
 
 Strictly as a painter, Raphael is accounted the 
 greatest of the ^ve. He was born at Urbino, a 
 place one hundred and thirty miles north of 
 Rome, and seventy east of Florence. After resid- 
 ing eight years at Perugia and four at Florence, 
 he settled at Rome where he spent the remainder 
 of his short life, dying at the early age of thirty- 
 seven. Among his most famous works are the 
 *' Stanzas," or pontifical dwelling rooms in the 
 Vatican, the frescoed walls of which vie with the 
 ceiling of the Sistine Chapel for the pre-eminence 
 as the grandest mural paintings extant. One of 
 his most notable oil paintings is his Transfigura- 
 tion, in which the upper portion of the picture 
 represents the scene on the mount, while the 
 lower portion depicts the disciples at the foot of 
 the eminence, endeavoring to cast out the devil 
 from the lunatic lad. This picture hangs in the 
 Vatican. Another of his masterpieces is St. 
 Cecilia, in the Academy at Bologna. In this the 
 tuneful saint is represented in a rapture of bliss, 
 with her broken musical instruments at her feet 
 and a choir of angels overhead taking up the 
 strain she has just been playing. On either side 
 of her stand St. Paul, St. John, St. Augustine, 
 
174 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 and Mary Magdalene, wrapped in contemplation. 
 Still others are his famous series of seven car- 
 toons, copies of which are so familiar to every 
 reader. The originals, belonging to the British 
 government, are exhibited at the South Kensing- 
 ton Museum in London. Then the visitor of the 
 great galleries of Europe will be struck with a 
 magnificent portrait of Pope Julius II., which 
 Baphael painted in triplicate, two copies being at 
 Florence and the other at the National Gallery in 
 London. His Madonnas are very numerous, and 
 some of them are among his most esteemed 
 works, but with few exceptions his Virgins wear 
 a sleepy look which detracts very much from our 
 modern idea of beauty. 
 
 Correggio, the fifth of the famous quintette, was 
 a native of the province of Modena. His greatest 
 works are the frescoes in the cathedral at Parma, 
 but oil paintings of his are moderately numerous, 
 and are found in all the principal galleries. The 
 story of Correggio' s death has often been told. 
 He had painted an altar piece for a monastery at 
 Parma, and the monks, for a trick, or for spite, or 
 to humiliate him, paid him off in copper coin. 
 The labor involved in carrying home his heavy 
 burden brought on a fever, which carried him to 
 his grave at the early age of forty. 
 
 The fifteenth century produced in Florence two 
 admirable painters, Fra Bartolommeo, a monk of 
 
THE ITALIAN MASTERS. 175 
 
 St. Mark's convent, born 1469, and Andrea del 
 Sarto, born 1488. Carlo Dolci, born 1616, was 
 also a Florentine. 
 
 In the sixteenth century two important schools 
 of art arose — the Venetian school, numbering 
 among its adherents Bassano, born 1510, Tinto- 
 retto, 1512, and Paul Veronese, 1528; and the 
 Bolognese, of which Lodovico, Agostino and 
 Annibale Carracci, two brothers and a cousin, 
 born respectively in 1555, 1557, and 1560, Guido 
 Keni, 1575, and Dominichino, 1581, are the shin- 
 ing lights. Guido has a world-wide fame from 
 the frequency of copies of his portrait of Beatrice 
 Cenci, the original of which is in the Barberini 
 Palace at Rome, and for his Aurora. The latter 
 is a fresco in one of the palaces at Rome, and is 
 regarded as his finest work. 
 
 Classed as of the Roman school are Gulio 
 Romano, 1492, and Sassof errata, 1605. Sal va tor 
 Rosa, 1615, was a Neapolitan painter, and Can- 
 aletto, 1697, a Venetian. The latter was very 
 prolific with his brush, and in subject and tone 
 all his pictures are very much alike, being almost 
 exclusively Venetian canal scenes, and all utterly 
 innocent of bright colors. 
 
 Two celebrated Spanish painters may appropri- 
 ately be mentioned here, Velasquez and Murillo. 
 The former, born 1599, especially excelled in por- 
 traits, and is reputed the greatest of all Spanish 
 
176 FIVE MONTHS ABEOAD. 
 
 painters, though to the uninitiated in art his 
 works are not by any means particularly attract- 
 ive. This however cannot be said of Murillo, born 
 1618, whose pictures, whether of homely beggar 
 boys or glorified saints, possess a grace and 
 beauty that no one can be insensible to. 
 
 KCX3K HOMO, AFTER GUIDO RBNI. 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 AMONG THE ALPS -THE SIMPLON PASS - BRIEG - MARTIGNY- 
 CHAMOUNIX — MONT BLANC — A GLACIER. 
 
 Arena we take the dilio:eiice at eleven 
 
 4t ^^^ ^ a- 
 
 Ml o'clock at night, so as to get over the 
 
 ^ I * mountains before dark next day. The 
 diligence is a heavy, cumbersome vehicle drawn 
 by live horses, two at the pole and three abreast 
 as leaders, each wearing a string of sleigh bells. 
 Fancy an old-fashioned stage coach with half the 
 body of another attached in front, and a seat with 
 a buggy top perched up behind. The baggage is 
 piled on the roof of the center compartment 
 which, inside, holds four persons. The driver and 
 guard sit over the front section, which is called 
 the coupe and which holds two persons. Under 
 the rear seat, known as the banquette, is a large 
 locker for the mails and small parcels. Seats in 
 the coupe and banquette are preferred, as afford- 
 ing a better view, and are charged for extra. The 
 driver devotes himself chiefly to cracking his 
 whip, and applying the brakes at the down 
 grades. Horses are changed every ten miles, and 
 well they need to be, for they are kept on a brisk 
 trot, and the vehicle and loading must weigh 
 several tons. 
 
 12 
 
178 » FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 The road from Arona to Brieg, over the Simp 
 Ion, is seventy-five miles in length, forty of which 
 lie directly through the mountains. The whole 
 road was built by Napoleon I. between 1800 and 
 1806, as a military road, for the purpose of afford- 
 ing the French armies ready access into Italy. 
 It cost three million six hundred thousand dol- 
 lars, half of which was paid by the French Gov- 
 ernment and half by the Italian. It was the 
 second carriage road across the Alps, the Bren- 
 ner road having been completed some time before. 
 It is a beautiful macadamized highway, about 
 twenty-five feet wide and lined at intervals of 
 from ten to twenty feet with substantial stone 
 posts. It winds along the sides of deep gorges, 
 traverses rocky ledges, passes over numerous 
 bridges spanning mountain torrents, and through 
 several tunnels. In places where exposed to dan- 
 ger from avalanches, it is roofed over with a stone 
 vaulting, through which water percolates like rain. 
 At nine or ten points on the route refuges are 
 maintained — substantial stone houses in which 
 persons are constantly in attendance to relieve 
 snow-bound travelers or any needing help. 
 
 After leaving Arona the road skirts the shore 
 of Lake Maggiore for a dozen miles, then follows 
 the valley of the river Tosa, a tributary of the 
 lake. Forty miles from Arona we turn up a 
 lateral valley, that of the Dovera river, a braw- 
 
THE SIMPLON PASS. 179 
 
 ling mountain stream capable of furnishing 
 power enough for all the machinery in half a 
 8tate. Soon a granite column by the side of the 
 road indicates the boundary line between Italy 
 and Switzerland. At the next stopping place a 
 Swiss custom house officer inquires of each pas- 
 senger if he has anything to "declare." If he 
 replies in the negative, that is the end of it. It is 
 only in the case of tobacco and cigars that they 
 are at all strict. 
 
 We now ascend mountain gorges, with almost 
 perpendicular cliffs rising thousands of feet on 
 each side of us. At last we are ourselves six 
 thousand six hundred feet above the sea and 
 the summit of the pass is reached ; but mountains 
 still tower far above us, their tops envelojped with 
 snow and half hidden by clouds. At the summit 
 a large hospice, kept by the monks of St. Ber- 
 nard, is located, and here all travelers are enter- 
 tained gratuitously, but those who are able are 
 expected to put something in the poor-box of the 
 institution for the support of the house. 
 
 All along the road thus far the telegraph poles 
 have been square strips of stone sixteen or 
 eighteen feet high. Stone poles are also used for 
 grape trellises in the valleys, and flat slabs of 
 stone, a sort of mica slate, are employed univers- 
 ally for the roofs of the houses, and are set up on 
 edge for fences. 
 
180 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 The descent on the Swiss side of the mountains 
 is more rapid and dangerous. So late as in June 
 we pass great banks of snow reaching as high as 
 the top of the diligence. In an hour and a half 
 we are in the beautiful valley of the Rhone — a 
 lovely green plain, bordered with high snow- 
 capped mountains. lu the center stands the 
 pretty little Swiss village of Brieg, with its old 
 chateau, its quaint houses, its rustic street scenes 
 and its clean tidy hotel. 
 
 We rest a night at Brieg, and then take the 
 train down the valley of the Rhone forty -eight 
 miles to Martigny. It is a beautiful ride. The 
 valley is of nearly uniform width, with ranges of 
 mountains on either side, " which usually rise 
 abruptly from the level valley, though in some 
 places their bases are lost in beautiful green 
 slopes. Villages are numerous in the valley. 
 The Rhone here is a small but rapid stream, per- 
 haps twenty yards wide, but is liable to freshets 
 which inundate the country and do much dam- 
 age. 
 
 Martigny is a small village at a point where the 
 Rhone makes a sudden bend to the northwest, 
 twenty-four miles before it flows into Lake 
 Geneva. It is an old-fashioned place, chiefly 
 important as a starting point for mountain excur- 
 sions. Here we hire a small pony carriage, 
 drawn by two strong horses, to convey us to 
 
THE TETE NOIR. 181 
 
 Chamonnix, twenty- two miles south. The route 
 has until recently been only a bridle-path, and it 
 still would be impassable to anything but a very 
 small vehicle. For those who are ir . hampered 
 with baggage the road from Martigny to Chamou- 
 nix affords a good opportunity for a little pedes- 
 trianism, the scenery being very wild and inter- 
 esting, and the mountain air exhilarating. By 
 the carriage it takes nine hours to make the trip. 
 We begin by ascending the mountain ridge at the 
 back of the village by tiresome zig-zag slopes. 
 We are fully four hours in getting out of sight of 
 Martigny, by which time we have reached an 
 elevation of thirty-five hundred feet above the 
 level of that place, or five thousand above the 
 sea. With a rough and stony road, as may be 
 fancied, the ascent is a tiresome one, but upon 
 looking back, the view up the Rhone valley for 
 twenty or thirty miles is most beautiful, and goes 
 far toward repaying the labors of the journey. 
 
 The road from the summit to Chamounix, by 
 what is known as the Tete Noir route, is a suc- 
 cession of ups and downs, but with an aggregate 
 descent of about fifteen hundred feet. ^The region 
 traversed is wild and much of the way desolate. 
 We descend the deep valley of a roaring moun- 
 tain torrent, with rocks rising almost perpendicu- 
 larly thousands of feet all about us. Sometimes 
 the road lies among masses of rock that have 
 
182 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 rolled down the mountain sides — masses often as 
 large as small cottages, yet piled up one upon 
 another as if shoveled there by Titans. Once the 
 road gets through an otherwise impassable point 
 by a tunnel through an immense projecting rock. 
 The noise of the water dashing its way through 
 the great boulders that often fill the bottom of 
 the chasm is almost deafening. A wild, awe- 
 inspiring solitude prevails. Now we ascend the 
 valley of another stream, and are soon again out 
 of Switzerland and in the province of Savoy, 
 formerly part of Italy, but ceded to France in 
 1859. We pass several small but comfortable 
 looking hotels, and numerous way-side shrines — 
 little stone buildings open to the weather in front, 
 with more or less artistically sculptured madon- 
 nas, or crucifixions, or dead Christs, or sometimes 
 only pictures — cheap engravings of sacred sub- 
 jects exposed in them. Occasionally we encounter 
 a little saw-mill driven by water power and appar- 
 ently cutting a thousand feet a week, though 
 with power available sufficient to run all the saw- 
 mills in Michigan. Two or three little villages 
 we pass, with their churches and little graveyards 
 filled with little black iron crosses, the churches 
 sometimes protected from destruction by ava- 
 lanches by immense stone barricades in their rear. 
 The houses in these villages come quite out to the 
 six-foot roadway, are built of stone and wood in 
 
THE VALLEY OF CHAMOUNIX. 183 
 
 combination, and are so intimately associated 
 with goat stables that it is impossible to tell 
 what is stable and what is house. Every one 
 greets you with a ^^ Bon jour^''^ and buxom maid- 
 ens emerge from the houses of refreshment and 
 rattle away French at you in the most welcoming 
 and hospitable manner. They are clearly a sim- 
 ple, polite, good-hearted people. For several 
 miles there is no house in sight, nothing but a 
 boulder-strewn valley with high mountains all 
 around. Large flocks of goats, with an occasional 
 cow, all with loud-tinkling bells, alone give life 
 to the scene. A bend in the road and we are in 
 full sight of the famous Mont Blanc range and of 
 our first glacier. 
 
 The valley of Chamounix (also spelled Cha- 
 monix and Chamouny), extends nearly north, 
 and south, and is fifteen miles long. The river 
 Arve runs through it. On the east lies the Mont 
 Blanc range, with a dozen or twenty peaks rang- 
 ing in hight from eight to fifteen thousand 
 feet. The highest is Mont Blanc itself — fifteen 
 thousand seven hundred and eighty-one feet 
 above the level of the sea, or about twice the 
 hight of our own Mount Washington. On the 
 west side of the valley is another range of high, 
 but by comparison inferior, mountains. The 
 Mont Blanc range forms the dividing line between 
 France and Italy. These mountains are peculiar 
 
184 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 for their sharp, jagged peaks, which rise almost 
 like church steeples from the great mass of snow 
 with which the whole range is perpetually cov- 
 ered. At least four great glaciers pour down 
 from them into the valley. 
 
 In the case of mountains so high that the snow 
 never melts on their summits, it piles up from 
 year to year until the weight becomes so immense 
 that it is forced out at the bottom, and under the 
 tremendous pressure it emerges in the valleys in 
 slowly-flowing streams of the hardest ice. These 
 are glaciers. We visited one in immediate prox- 
 imity to Mont Blanc. Seen from a distance, the 
 upper part has the appearance of a mountain 
 gorge filled with snow, rough and dirty as if it 
 had been shoveled there from all the aggregated 
 sidewalks in the world. The mass narrows as it 
 descends toward the valley at an angle of about 
 forty-five degrees from the horizontal. It also 
 grows rougher and dirtier on the surface. What 
 look like slight furrows from a distance, we find 
 on approach are great ridges, requiring ladders to 
 surmount. On either side of the mouth of the 
 glacier are great embankments pt earth and small 
 stones deposited by it, and these extend out a 
 long distance from the original line of the mount- 
 ain, like deposits of alluvium at the mouth of a 
 swift river. These are called moraines. Between 
 them the ice becomes blacker and more intermin- 
 
VISIT TO A GLACIER. 185 
 
 gled with boulders, and is at last lost in a rollick- 
 ing stream wMcli hastens away to join the Arve. 
 We hire mules and guides, and by a tortuous 
 route at last reach the summit of one of the 
 moraines at the point where it joins the mountain 
 proper. We are now several hundred feet above 
 the valley, and look down forty or fifty feet into 
 a chasm between the bank and the mass of mov- 
 ing ice, which, instead of spreading over its entire 
 channel like water, apparently heaps itself up in 
 the center. We descend into this chasm, and by 
 ladders mount upon the glacier. It is strewn 
 with boulders that it has brought down from the 
 mountains above. Here and there it is inter- 
 sected by deep fissures, into which, if a person 
 were to slip, he would go down twenty to fifty 
 feet, or perhaps more. We climb down into one 
 of the furrows which run longitudinally along the 
 glacier, and enter a tunnel which has been cut 
 right into its bowels. This we penetrate for 
 eighty-five yards. It is lighted by candles. The 
 ice all about us is as pure as crystal and as solid 
 and hard as stone. And this solid mass of ice, the 
 guides assure us, moves at the rate of about two 
 hundred and fifty feet a year. The remains of a 
 guide, lost in 1820, were found in the glacier in 
 1866, having been thus forty-six years in coming 
 down from the point where the poor fellow ended 
 his life. 
 
186 FIVE MONTHS ABHOAD. 
 
 One may spend days at Chamounix and yet fail 
 of a good view of Mont Blanc, this highest peak 
 in Europe, the summit being so often enveloped 
 in clouds. It costs, in fees to guides and other 
 expenses, about fifty dollars to make the ascent, 
 and about forty people go up every year. The 
 view from the top is unsatisfactory, and there is 
 nothing but the credit of having been there to 
 compensate for the labor and expense. It requires 
 three days' time. 
 
 The valley of Chamounix is a most charming 
 place. The inhabitants are famous for their 
 wood and ivory carvings, and souvenirs may be 
 bought in great variety. No one who visits 
 Europe should miss Chamounix. The hotels are 
 admirable, while the grand mountain scenery, 
 the pretty walks and rides, and the pure, invigor- 
 ating air, render it one of the most delightful 
 places imaginable. 
 
 MOUNTAIN DILIGExNCE. 
 
CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 SWITZERLAND— A BEAUTIFUL RIDE-GENEVA— LAUSANNE— FREI- 
 BURG-BERN— BALE— THE SWISS REPUBLIC. 
 
 E leave Chamounix for Geneva by dili- 
 gence, one of rather different construc- 
 tion from that in which we crossed the 
 Simplon. This has a coupe in front under the 
 driver's seat, but at the back of the coupe is a 
 large compartment for baggage, and over the 
 whole is the banquette. The latter has five seats 
 extending across the vehicle, each holding four or 
 five persons. The level of the seats is nine or ten 
 feet from the ground, and we climb to them by 
 ladders. When once up, there is no way of get- 
 ting down, till a stopping place is reached and a 
 ladder is raised. Over all is a canvas cover with 
 side curtains for use in bad weather. The pon- 
 derous vehicle is drawn by five horses (three 
 leaders abreast) and, under the liberal cracking of 
 the whip, we bowl along at the rate of seven miles 
 an hour. The horses are changed every eight or 
 ten miles. 
 
 The road to Geneva, fifty-three and a half miles, 
 is intensely interesting and beautiful, and never 
 did seven and a half hours pass more swiftly. It 
 
 187 
 
188 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 is macadamized, as sifiooth as a floor, and with 
 few or no lieavy grades. It follows tlie valley of 
 tlie Arve all the way, that river joining the Rhone 
 at Geneva. As we leave Chamounix we wind 
 our way through deep mountain gorges, galleries 
 being cut for the road in the sides of the rocks. 
 In one place we pass through a tunnel of consid- 
 erable length. Snow-covered mountains are in 
 sight at every turn. After twelve or fourteen 
 miles of this wild mountain scenery, the valley 
 widens and the road for the rest of the way is 
 lined with trees — a beautiful avenue the whole 
 distance, and much of the way an avenue of pear 
 trees. The fields and meadows are filled with 
 such a profusion of wild flowers as is never seen in 
 our own country ; and many varieties are included 
 that are found with us only in cultivated gardens, 
 such as geraniums, pansies, etc. 
 
 We pass one beautiful cataract, said almost to 
 rival the famous Staubbach, in which the water 
 falls from such a height as to be entirely con- 
 verted into spray before reaching the rocks below. 
 The reader can hardly fancy anything more beau- 
 tiful than the dashes of water chasing one another 
 through the air, and quickly vanishing into a thin 
 mist. But this Alpine country is full of charm- 
 ing waterfalls. 
 
 At Sallanches, fourteen miles from Chamounix, 
 where we get out into the open valley, we have on 
 
ge:neva. 189 
 
 looking back a fine view of Mont Blanc towering 
 above all the intervening mountains. It is indeed 
 a mucli better view than any we can get in the 
 valley of Chamounix. Though so far away we 
 seem to be at its very foot, and the effect of the 
 sun shining upon the great beds of snow and ice 
 that constantly envelop its upper half is very 
 grand. 
 
 The last part of the journey lies through a 
 highly cultivated district, with numerous villages 
 and chateaux, and picturesque old avenues of 
 limes, elms and poplars. And so, without a 
 thought of fatigue, we reach Geneva. 
 
 Geneva, the largest city in Switzerland (we get 
 into Swiss territory again just before reaching it), 
 has a population of about forty thousand souls. 
 It is situated at the point where Lake Geneva 
 empties into the lower Rhone, and is famous 
 chiefly for the great men it has been the birth- 
 place or home of. These include John Calvin the 
 reformer, Jean Jacques Rousseau the philosopher, 
 Jean Baptiste Say the political economist, Jean 
 Charles Sismondi the historian, James Necker 
 the financier, his daughter, Madame de Stael, 
 and many others. Calvin's house may still be 
 seen. Geneva also has always been the seat of 
 advanced social and political thought and agita- 
 tion. It is to-day mainly noted as the principal 
 mart for the delicate wood-carving and ingenious 
 
190 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 mechanism for which the Swiss are so famous. 
 Almost every other store is either an emporium 
 for carved wood work, jewelry, watches or musi- 
 cal boxes — in the last two articles of manufac- 
 ture Switzerland leading the world. It is quite 
 a sight to see the great variety of pretty things 
 with which these stores are filled. 
 
 Geneva is like an old house with a new modern 
 front. Seen from the lake it is quite Parisian in 
 its elegance — magnificent quays and bridges, 
 beautiful public gardens adorned with monu- 
 ments, and imposing ^ve or six story buildings 
 alone meeting the eye — but back of these the 
 streets are narrow, crooked and filled with old- 
 fashioned and often unsightly edifices. It is 
 peculiarly deficient in towers and spires, the 
 cathedral dome alone breaking the monotony of 
 ugly roofs. The cathedral, finished in 1224, is a 
 fine gothic church, disfigured by the bad taste of 
 the seventeenth century, which gave it a Grecian 
 facade. At the reformation it became a protes- 
 tant church, and is still so used. It looks odd, 
 after leaving the imposing high altars of the 
 catholic churches of Italy, to see the beautiful 
 choir or chancel of this church filled with seats 
 facing the pulpit in the nave. Under the pulpit 
 stands a chair formerly used by John Calvin. 
 The church is now in process of being restored. 
 
 The reader may remember the wealthy but 
 
A HUMAN ELEVATOR. 191 
 
 eccentric Bnke of Brunswick, who died in 1873, 
 leaving the bulk of his property, including the 
 finest collection of diamonds in Europe, to the 
 city of Geneva, The city showed its gratitude 
 by erecting in one of its public squares fronting 
 the lake, a magnificent monument to the old Duke 
 — a gorgeous sarcophagus, with marble canopy 
 surmounted by a huge equestrian statue. 
 
 At Geneva we passed a new house in course of 
 erection, and were amused at the method of con- 
 veying the brick and stone from the ground to 
 the masons above. A long ladder reached to the 
 top of the wall, and on this stood as many men 
 as could find room on it, each standing with his 
 back to the ladder and face to the street, one 
 above the other. A stone would be handed to 
 the first one who would quickly lift as far as he 
 could reach over his head, where it would be taken 
 by the next man and by him be passed on in like 
 manner to the third, and so on to the top. In 
 this way two or three stones would be constantly 
 in process of passing up the ladder and they 
 would be delivered in a steady supply at the 
 summit. 
 
 Geneva is quickly seen, unless one has money 
 to spend, when it will take him days to examine 
 all the pretty things that are offered in the shops, 
 and which would be very cheap if one could get 
 them home without those detestable customs 
 
1.92 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 inspections and extortions. So we take the boat 
 for a three hours' trip up the lake to Lausanne. 
 Lausanne is a little city of about twenty-seven 
 thousand inhabitants, situated on the north bank 
 of Lake Geneva, about two-thirds its length 
 above the city of Geneva. It is interesting 
 chiefly as having been the residence of Edward 
 Gibbon for the greater x)art of the time during 
 which he was engaged in writing his history of 
 the Decline and Fall of the Koman Empire. 
 Indeed, the hotel we stop at occupies the site of 
 the chalet or Swiss cottage that Gibbon lived in, 
 and our dining-room overlooks the garden where 
 one summer evening in 1787 he finally completed 
 his ponderous work. Aside from this associa- 
 tion, and a small but interesting Gothic cathedral 
 of the thirteenth century, now, like the one at 
 Geneva, used as a Calvinistic church, Lausanne 
 has but few attractions. The town sits high 
 above the lake, and is reached by an inclined 
 plane railway. The conveniences for transferring 
 baggage are very poor, and charges for every 
 service excessively high. The trip up the lake 
 by steamer is comparatively an uninteresting one. 
 The scenery is tame, and the single object of 
 interest I noted on the w^ay up was the chateau 
 at Coppet in which the great financier Necker 
 and his daughter, the eminent litterateur Madam 
 de Stael, lived and died. 
 
FREIBURG. 193 
 
 Freiburg, Switzerland (there is another Frei- 
 burg in Germany), is two hours ride by rail north 
 of Lausanne. It is a small place of ten thousand 
 inhabitants, and is famous chiefly for the organ 
 iii its cathedral, which is said to be one of the 
 largest in Europe. We were fortunate enough to 
 be present at an organ concert, such concerts 
 being given almost daily at an admission fee of a 
 franc. Unlike the cathedrals of Geneva, Lau- 
 sanne and Bern, that at Freiburg is still a Roman 
 Catholic church. Over the main door is a rude 
 but curious piece of relief sculpture represent- 
 ing the judgment day, according to fourteenth 
 century ideas. The Almighty is represented 
 with an apron full of saved souls, and a group 
 of others, all naked, are wending their way to 
 Paradise. The Virgin Mary holds the balances 
 in her hand, in which she is weighing another 
 batch, and Satan is hanging to the scale contain- 
 ing the weights in the vain attempt to make the 
 poor fellows in the other appear of light weight, 
 and so gain them for himself. Another demon 
 with the head of a hog is leading away a party of 
 unfortunates by a rope, and just beyond, still 
 other demons are boiling a kettle full of sinners 
 over a brisk fire, stirring them up meanwhile 
 with three-pronged pitchforks. 
 
 Another hour brings us to Bern, the capital of 
 of the Swiss republic. It is built on a high prom- 
 
 13 
 
194 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 ontory, surrounded on three sides by the river 
 Aar, one of the principal tributaries of the Rhine. 
 Probably no city can compare with it for the 
 beautiful views it commands. Across the river 
 are delightful green hills, interspersed with pic- 
 turesque houses and forests. In the far distance, 
 looking south, we have one of the finest pano- 
 ramas of the Alps anywhere obtainable. The 
 houses are high and quaint, with arcades cover- 
 ing the sidewalks. The roadways of the streets 
 are flanked by lines of heavy buttresses, con- 
 nected by arches which support the front walls 
 of the houses. The latter are usually four or five 
 stories high, and all have roofs projecting sev- 
 eral feet into the street. The arcades are low 
 and rather dark, but the sidewalks under them 
 smooth and very clean. There are a great many 
 fountains and monuments in the middle of the 
 streets, and nearly all are ornamented with bears, 
 the emblem of the city. Wherever we turn we 
 see a sculptured bear — walking bears, climbing 
 bears, equestrian bears, crouching bears, sleeping 
 bears, hugging bears, and bears in every other 
 possible act and position, in bronze, stone, and 
 wood. 
 
 We reached Bern one Saturday evening. On 
 awaking next morning, the cathedral chimes 
 were ringing most joyously, the sun shone 
 brightly, the air was cool and refreshing, the view 
 
A SUNDAY IN BERN. 195 
 
 from our bedroom window most charming. Well 
 was the hotel named Bellevue. At our feet lay 
 the delightful hotel garden, with its neat gravel 
 walks, its shady horse chestnuts and its bright 
 flowers. Just beyond, the swift-flowing, winding 
 river, with the gentle roar of its waters as they 
 glided over the stone dam. Still beyond, a beau- 
 tiful hill covered with bright green flelds and 
 groves of pines, and in the far distance the chain 
 of snowy Alps. The streets were quiet as Sunday 
 in any New England village. We went down to 
 breakfast. Americans at home little know what 
 good bread and butter are ; and as for honey, our 
 bees should take lessons in Switzerland. Every 
 sense was gratified, and no cumbering care 
 obtruded itself to mar the perfect enjoyment of 
 the day. And so we sauntered to church. 
 
 The cathedral of Bern, a very good Gothic 
 structure, was completed about the time of 
 the Reformation, and, of course, was speedily 
 reformed by this protestant community into a 
 Calvinistic church. In sharp contrast with most 
 of the catholic churches in Italy every seat in 
 this large edifice was filled. Men and women sat 
 apart, the former occupying the aisles and chan- 
 cel, the latter the nave. On the higher seats in 
 the chancel sat the elders. The minister wore a 
 black gown and bands and timed his sermon by 
 an hour-glass. Every soul stood during the 
 
196 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 prayers. The music consisted of plain, simple 
 chorals similar to our Dundee and Old Hundred. 
 After the sermon most of the congregation were 
 dismissed, but what any American pastor would 
 call a full house stayed to communion. In con- 
 ducting the latter service, first there was a prayer 
 from the pulpit situated half way down the nave. 
 Then the minister removed to the table on which 
 the bread and wine were placed at the entrance 
 to the chancel. Holding up a piece of bread in 
 his hand he said a few words standing, then ate 
 the bread ; and so proceeded with the wine. The 
 elders then came forward and partook of the ele- 
 ments at the hands of the pastor. Then came 
 the turn of the congregation. The men first 
 marched up, a single file from each side of the 
 church. The pastor and one elder each held in 
 his hand a strip of bread from which he broke off 
 a piece and gave to each communicant as he 
 passed. Farther to the rear, back in the chancel, 
 stood two other elders serving the wine to the 
 two processions, and between them still other 
 ofiicials were kept busy wiping out with nap- 
 kins and refilling the goblets as they were 
 rapidly emptied. Passing out through doors in 
 the chancel the two processions filed back to 
 their seats. Then followed the women in like 
 order. The whole proceeding reminded us forci- 
 bly of a vote by tellers in our national House of 
 
THE SWISS REPUBLIC. 197 
 
 Representatives. While it was going on, alter- 
 nately a young man in the pulpit read a chapter 
 from the scriptures and the choir sa,ng a hymn. 
 
 At a later hour Church of England services 
 were held in a small chapel formed by partition- 
 ing off one bay of the north aisle of the cathe- 
 dral. 
 
 The Swiss republic is very similar to our own 
 in many respects. It is composed of twenty-two 
 cantons, each of which is a sovereign power so far 
 as its internal government is concerned. The 
 regulation of foreign relations, the post-office, the 
 currency, the army, and some other things is 
 vested in the confederacy. There are two houses 
 in the national legislature, the lower house con- 
 sisting of one member for every twenty thousand 
 of population, the upper of two members from 
 each canton. The pay of the members is twenty 
 francs (four dollars) per day, and there are two 
 sessions each year, in June and December. The 
 executive power is vested in a Council of seven, 
 elected by the legislative body and serving for 
 three years. One of the seven acts as President 
 of the Council, and receives thirteen thousand 
 francs per year (two thousand six hundred dol- 
 lars); the other members receive tvv^elve thousand 
 francs each. The whole population of Switzer- 
 land is about equal to that of Ohio, while its 
 territory is considerably less than half that of the 
 
198 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 Buckeye state. About seventy per cent, of the 
 people use the German language, twenty-five per 
 cent, the French, and ^yq per cent, the Italian. 
 About three-fifths of the population are protes- 
 tant and two-fifths catholics. 
 
 Three hours' ride northward from Bern brings 
 us to Bale, or Basel, an important Swiss town 
 near the German frontier. It is situated on the 
 Rhine, and is in great part a well-built modern 
 city. The principal object of interest is its cathe- 
 dral, an interesting old Gothic structure built in 
 the fourteenth century to replace an older one 
 destroyed by an earthquake, some portions of 
 which, however, still remain. It is now used a» 
 a Calvinist church. 
 
 Once, a long time ago, a jealousy existed 
 between Great Bale and Little Bale, the two sec- 
 tions separated by the Rhine, and, to show their 
 contempt for their neighbors, the inhabitants of 
 the larger city, on the west bank, set up the figure 
 of a human head on a tower just at the threshold 
 of the bridge connecting the two places, the head 
 being provided with great goggle eyes and a red 
 tongue six or eight inches long, and the whole 
 being so operated by clock-work that at inter- 
 vals of a minute or so it would roll its great, 
 fierce eyes and stick out and wag its long tongue, 
 in a most insulting way, in the direction of Little 
 Bale. The head is now exhibited among other 
 curiosities in a room belonging to the cathedral. 
 
BALE. 199 
 
 Another curiosity in tlie same collection is a 
 breech-loading gun, not very unlike some of our 
 modern breech-loaders, yet the invention of two 
 hundred and fifty years ago. 
 
 In another of the rooms belonging to the cath- 
 edral sat the famous council of Bale, convened in 
 1431 to reform errors and abuses already, at that 
 early date, acknowledged to have crept into the 
 church. The members talked and disputed for 
 seventeen long years, when the reigning pope put 
 an end to the muddle by excommunicating the 
 whole lot. This was a sort of prelude to the 
 reformation which culminated under Luther and 
 Calvin a century later. 
 
 Among the monuments in the cathedral of Bale 
 is that of the eminent reformer and brilliant 
 scholar Erasmus, who was a resident of the 
 place. 
 
 Northern Switzerland is not very mountainous, 
 though rather more hilly than our own western 
 country. It is well cultivated and a very pretty 
 region to ride through. The castles of Switzer- 
 land are generally of the French chateau style, 
 with round, extinguisher-topped, towers and tur- 
 rets— ^more picturesque than the massive keeps of 
 the German castles. 
 
 The railway carriages of Switzerland more 
 nearly resemble our American cars than any oth- 
 ers I saw in Europe. They have generally eight 
 
200 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 wheels, and have an aisle and two rows of seats, 
 like our own, instead of compartments. They 
 approach ours in another respect: On none of 
 the other railways in Europe are the cars pro- 
 vided with water closets, but the trains stop every 
 few hours for ten or fifteen minutes for the pas- 
 sengers to get off at stations where accommo- 
 dations are provided. The Swiss roads, however, 
 have a notice in every car that a water closet will 
 be found in the '* Gepackwagen" or baggage 
 car. 
 
 The Swiss peasant costume, worn by a large 
 per centage of the women one meets, is very pic- 
 turesque. It consists of a short, full skirt, with 
 tight-fitting black bodice, ornamented with silver 
 chains suspended from the points of the shoulder 
 blades and passing under the arms to the breast, 
 and tight sleeves with a sort of broad, white, 
 stiff-starched epaulet extending from the shoul- 
 der to the elbow. 
 
 Switzerland is especially famous for the excel- 
 lence of its hotels. It is also a cheap, pleasant 
 and healthful country in which to make a pro- 
 tracted sojourn, though it affords fewer attrac- 
 tions in the realms of art and antiquity than the 
 other countries we have visited. 
 
 Throughout Switzerland a peculiar sort of pub- 
 lic fountain is common. It consists of a stone 
 
SWISS ODDITIES. 
 
 201 
 
 pillar with four pipes projecting from it horizon- 
 tally, from which four streams of water are per- 
 petually flowing. A large deep stone basin below 
 catches the water and is the common wash tub 
 and watering trough of the neighborhood. 
 
 A SWISS FOUNTAIN. 
 
CEAPTEH XXIL 
 
 INTO GERMANY AGAIN— BORDER CUSTOMS EXTORTIONS— STRASS- 
 BURG— ITS STORKS-THE CATHEDRAL— A GHASTLY EXHI- 
 BITION. 
 
 EAYINGr Bale we entered German territory, 
 and were once more subjected to that 
 abhorrence of travelers, a customs inspec- 
 tion. Most of our baggage was promptly chalked 
 upon our representation that we were going 
 through to Paris; but spying one small parcel 
 done up in paper, without any inquiry as to the 
 nature of its contents, an inspector snatched it 
 from us, threw it on the scales and demanded 
 forty pfennigs (10 cents) duty. In vain I told 
 the inspector it was only a little wood carving of 
 trilling value, and that I was on my way home to 
 America, and was taking it with me as a little 
 present. The only reply was, ''You must pay." 
 Then I put myself on my dignity and pulled out 
 my passport. The obtuse individual looked it 
 over, turned up his nose at the great seal of the 
 United States and James G. Blaine' s official auto- 
 graph that had cost me five dollars, and reiter- 
 ated, " You must pay." Then I became annoyed 
 and told him he might keep the bauble as I 
 
 208 
 
CUSTOMS EXTORTIONS. 203 
 
 would not pay, as he had no right to charge duty 
 on the property of an American citizen that 
 would not be twenty -four hours in the country. 
 He seemed entirely indifferent, and as I saw 
 that I should lose my train if I parleyed any 
 longer, I at last gave him the half franc and left, 
 protesting that I would report him to Prince 
 Bismarck. Neither did that seem to affect him. 
 I doubt very much if he had ever heard of such a 
 man, and I am quite certain the imperial trea- 
 sury will never see a cent of my contribution. In 
 fact I am convinced that this is the way these 
 fellows get their "trinkgeld," as they call it, 
 otherwise beer money. England and Switzerland 
 are the only two countries where travelers are not 
 annoyed by these official extortionists. 
 
 I had had a previous experience of this charac- 
 ter : Passing through Austria (the Tyrol), to save 
 trouble, I registered my baggage through from 
 Munich in Germany to Verona in Italy, thinking 
 I should thus only have the Italian inspection to 
 undergo. But, to my surprise, when we reached 
 the Austrian frontier there was my baggage 
 thrown off on the platform. I explained to the 
 official that it was in the hands of the railway 
 company and out of my possession, and would 
 not be delivered to me except on Italian soil. 
 Nothing would do but it must be examined. Of 
 course the examination was all a farce. It con- 
 
204 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 tained nothing dutiable, but the inspectors would 
 have been none the wiser if it had, from the indif- 
 ferent way in which they did their work. Then 
 came a demand for twenty-five kreutzers for the 
 trouble of handling the baggage, the same being 
 preferred by the porter, who, of course "whacked 
 up," as the boys say, with the inspector, and 
 each got his beer at my expense. Free trade 
 would be a great promoter of honesty in every 
 country. 
 
 Two hours' ride from Bale brings us to Strass- 
 burg. This is a city of considerable commercial 
 importance. It was formerly a free city of the 
 German empire. Then it was captured by 
 France, and remained a French city with Ger- 
 man-speaking population down to 1870, a period 
 of about two centuries, when the Franco-Prussian 
 war reunited it with Germany. It is a curious 
 place, different from any other city we had seen. 
 The houses are tall, and all have their eaves 
 towards the street, with very steep tile roofs, the 
 latter usually containing three or four tiers of 
 dormer windows, making seven or eight floors in 
 all to every house. 
 
 On the tops of the chimneys of the taller houses 
 are numerous storks' nests, generally with three 
 or four young storks about the size of small geese 
 lazily rolling about in them. Looking down from 
 the tower of the cathedral we were able to count 
 
STORKS NESTS ON THE CHIMNEYS AT STRASSBURG. 
 
STRASSBURG CATHEDRAL. 205 
 
 fifteen or twenty of these great nests witli their 
 black and white occupants. It is also a common 
 sight in Strassbnrg to see an old brown stork 
 perched on one leg on the summit of a tall chim- 
 ney, and stand there for hours as immovable 
 as a bronze statue. They are regarded as lucky 
 birds, and are never driven off. 
 
 Strassbnrg is famous chiefly for two things — its 
 cathedral and its pates de foxes gras^ or goose- 
 liver pies, which latter are the most costly edible 
 known, being sold at the manufactories at from 
 one to eight dollars apiece. They are exported 
 hence to all parts of the world. • 
 
 The cathedral is notable as possessing the tall- 
 est spire in the world, it being four hundred and 
 sixty -five feet high, or thirty feet higher than the 
 summit of St. Peter's in Rome. It is moreover a 
 beautiful spire, of light, open stone work, and it 
 can be seen for miles away in every direction. For 
 forty pfennigs (10 cents) one may ascend it, and 
 the view from the summit well repays the fee and 
 the labor of climbing, although, after all, we only 
 ascend to a gallery about three -fourths the way 
 to the top. The spire was badly damaged during 
 the bombardment of the city by the Germans in 
 the summer of 1871, and some shell marks still 
 remain, though, in general, repairs have been 
 fully made. The interior of the church is a noble 
 piece of Gfothic work, although built at different 
 
206 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 periods and in varying styles, and so lacking in 
 perfect symmetry. 
 
 The famous clock of Strassburg Cathedral every 
 one is familiar with. It is situated in the south 
 transept, and is adjusted to record everything in 
 the almanac line for about a thousand years to 
 come. At each quarter hour a small figure steps 
 forward and strikes a bell, and at noon each day 
 there is a grand procession of the twelve apos- 
 tles, and a cock flaps his wings and crows loud 
 enough to be heard all over the great church. 
 We were surprised to see how much of an attrac- 
 tion this clock is, even to the natives of Strass- 
 burg. As the hour of twelve approaches, people 
 are seen running from all directions to the cathe- 
 dral, and the crowd becomes so great that one 
 can scarce approach within a dozen yards of the 
 transept door, especially if he be a little late. 
 
 Another very ancient church — over one thous- 
 and years old — is that of St. Thomas, now a 
 Lutheran place of worship. It is visited for a 
 somewhat famous monument erected by Louis 
 XIII. to Marshal Saxe ; but a more sensational 
 exhibit is that of the half -preserved bodies of the 
 Duke of Nassau, killed during the Thirty Years 
 War, 1618-1648, and his daughter. They are in 
 coffins with glass tops, and are horrible things to 
 look at, though evidently people enjoy seeing 
 them, or they would be buried out of sight. 
 
A SENSATIONAL EXHIBIT. 207 
 
 There is also in St. Thomas' Church the monu- 
 ment of Jeremiah James Oberlin, a professor of 
 the University of Strassburg, and a brother of the 
 Swiss Pastor Oberlin, after whom Oberlin Col- 
 lege, Ohio, was named. 
 
 The Alsatian costume (Strassburg is the capital 
 of Alsace) is noticeable chiefly in the head dress 
 of the women. Instead of wearing bonnets or 
 hats in the street, the head is dressed simply with 
 an enormous black Alsatian bow. It is peculiar 
 rather than pretty, 
 
CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 PARIS— IMPRESSIONS ON ARRIVING THERE— THE BOULEVARDS, 
 STREETS AND BUILDINGS— TO POOR APHY OF THE CITY— THE 
 TUILERIES-PLACE DE LA CONCORD-ARC DE TRIOMPHE— 
 THE MADELEINE-COLUMN VENDOME-GRAND OPERA HOUSE— 
 THE LOUVRE— HOTEL DE VILLE— NOTRE DAME— JARDIN DES 
 PLANTES-THE LUXEMBOURG-THE INVALIDES-CHAMP DE 
 MARS. 
 
 HE trip from Strassburg to Paris is rather a 
 dull and tedious one, and there are no 
 points of any considerable interest at which 
 the journey may be broken. The same, I think, 
 applies generally to traveling through France. 
 The country, compared with Italy and Switzer- 
 land, is very level ; the railroad itself is no more 
 interesting as an engineering work than any of 
 our western roads, and the scenery is quite 
 monotonous, France appearing to the traveler one 
 vast farm, of which every acre is utilized. 
 
 Every station is marked with the number of 
 kilometers to Paris, and as the number dimin- 
 ishes the stations grow more frequent, the houses 
 begin to thicken, and evidences multiply that we 
 are drawing near a large city. Then we catch a 
 glimpse, in passing through them, of the walls 
 of Pans — a long line of earthworks faced on 
 
 a08 
 
ARRIVAL IN PARIS. 209 
 
 the outside with masonry and a ditch. Inside 
 the walls the view from the car window is just 
 what might strike .one in entering any large 
 American city — long lines of freight cars, railway 
 shops, ragged walls, new buildings in progress, 
 etc. The train slows up, and finally stops in a 
 magnificent station. As a rule, by the way, all 
 the railway stations on the continent are very 
 much superior in size and elegance to our Ameri- 
 can depots. We are met on the platform by 
 porters who relieve us of our hand baggage, and 
 an official with the word "Interpreter" on his 
 cap is quick to note where his services are 
 required. We name our hotel, and he conducts 
 us to one of the small omnibuses, holding about 
 six persons, and belonging to the railway com- 
 pany, which are in waiting outside ; the fare by 
 which to any hotel is one franc (20 cents). The 
 interpreter inquires, "Have you any registered 
 baggage?" We produce our receipts. They 
 give receipts, or, rather, paper checks, for bag- 
 gage, on the continental railways, a number being 
 pasted on each article, and the traveler holding a 
 receipt for so many pieces marked with that 
 number. Our baggage coming from a station 
 in Germany, has, of course, to be inspected 
 by the customs officers. We explain to the 
 interpreter that we are going through to Lon- 
 don: that we have nothing that we shall leave 
 
 14 
 
210 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 in Paris, and no tobacco, spirits or tea in any 
 quantities, and by his assistance the inspection 
 is soon over, only one piece of baggage being 
 opened for form's sake. A franc satisfies the 
 interpreter, half a franc the porter, and we 
 bowl away through the grand streets and boule- 
 vards of Paris. 
 
 The hotel we had selected, though higher in 
 price than any we had before patronized since 
 setting foot on the continent, we found not 
 satisfactory, so after putting up with it for a 
 day we started out to find something better, and 
 finally settled down on a very quiet, orderly, 
 comfortable place in the Rue de Rivoli, overlook- 
 ing the gardens of the Tuileries. Here every- 
 thing was beautifully clean, and the attendance 
 most efficient. The landlord was an agreeable 
 gentleman, and one who gave his personal atten- 
 tion to every detail. Every one in the house 
 spoke English, and the guests seemed to be almost 
 exclusively English. The charges were less than 
 three dollars a day, being five francs each for 
 room, two for breakfast, six for dinner, and one 
 for attendance. Candles, extra, according to what 
 we burned. 
 
 Being comfortably settled for a fortnight, we 
 began seriously the work of seeing Paris, and 
 armed with a pocket map, very quickly ^'got the 
 hang of the place." 
 
THE BOULEVARDS OF PARIS. 211 
 
 Paris was, of course, some centuries ago, mucli 
 smaller than at present. Like all mediaeval 
 cities, it was surrounded with fortifications. As 
 it outgrew these limits, new defenses had to be 
 erected beyond, and the old, being now useless, 
 were removed, and on their site broad streets were 
 opened. These were the original boulevards of 
 Paris. A second general enlargement gave another 
 series. From the circumstances of their con- 
 struction, they of course encircle the center of the 
 city. In their method of improvement they 
 differ in no respect from ordinary streets. There 
 is a broad roadway and two wide sidewalks ; the 
 latter in some cases are forty or fifty feet wide. 
 There are also usually rows of trees on either 
 side. Instead of the streets radiating from the 
 center of the city being the main business thor- 
 oughfares, as with us, the encircling boulevards 
 have attained this distinction, from their roomi- 
 ness, which makes them popular places of resort. 
 Inside the boulevards, the city, a century ago, 
 was an intricate net-work of narrow, crooked 
 streets. The successive usurping governments of 
 Napoleon I., Louis Philippe, and Napoleon III., 
 found it necessary to bolster u]) their popularity 
 with elaborate public improvements, and also to 
 find work for the large population which other- 
 wise were ready at a wink for riot and revolution. 
 The political circumstances of the century have 
 
212 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 hence contributed prominently to the beautifying 
 of Paris, until it has become without doubt the 
 finest city in the world. The old streets have 
 been widened and straightened at great expense, 
 and new and magnificent thoroughfares opened 
 between important centers. 
 
 Where a new street has been laid out or an old 
 one widened, the buildings have usually been 
 erected on a uniform plan, and on several of the 
 best streets the Italian fashion of arcaded side- 
 walks has been successfully adopted. On hot 
 days every one flocks to the shade of the arcades, 
 and on rainy days to the shelter they afford, and 
 this has made them very popular with shopkeep- 
 ers. I saw one day hundreds of ladies out shop- 
 ping in a rainstorm that would have soaked them 
 through in two minutes but for the friendly shel- 
 ter of the arcades. 
 
 The streets are very clean for so large a city. 
 Men are constantly employed with hose, sprink- 
 ling and washing them. Sweeping machines are 
 used in connection with this washing, also men 
 with stout brooms and rubber scrapers, and all 
 the slush is swept into the sewers. I even noticed 
 a man with rags and brushes cleaning the lamp 
 posts. This cleanliness is one of the things that 
 makes Paris so attractive, and draws so many 
 visitors to it, and I doubt not that in various 
 ways it well repays the cost. 
 
PARIS BUILDINGS. 213 
 
 The buildings of Paris are generally liigh — 
 often six stories, besides a mansard roof contain- 
 ing one or two more. These mansards are usually 
 covered with metal. The building material is 
 almost exclusively stone. A brick structure is 
 very exceptional, and there is probably not a 
 wooden house in all Paris. The cheaper build- 
 ings are constructed of rubble stone, and finished 
 with stucco ; the better class are built of squared 
 stone in large blocks the full thickness of the 
 wall. Stone is abundant and easily worked. 
 The ornamentation is all cut after the building is 
 up, and so is the smoothing of the walls, which is 
 done with a sort of plane. The floors are con- 
 structed with Ave or six-inch iron beams, filled in 
 between with Portland cement concrete. To sup- 
 port this concrete, iron cross-bars are suspended 
 from the beams on a level with their lower edges, 
 and upon these rest other longitudinal bars, form- 
 ing a sort of gridiron, which becomes imbedded in 
 the cement. The filling between the beams is put 
 in as the building progresses, and it is done by 
 means of a platform of boards temporarily con- 
 structed on the lower side of the beams, on which 
 the cement is poured. Practically, Paris build- 
 ings are completely fire proof. 
 
 Paris, the second city in the world in point of 
 population, is situated on both sides of the river 
 Seine, in the northeastern part of France. It is 
 
214 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 somewhat oblong in form, with ronnded corners, 
 and its greatest length extends east and west. It 
 is about seven miles long and five and a-half 
 wide, and its walls are over twenty miles in cir- 
 cuit. The Seine flows through it from east to 
 west, and forms in its course very nearly a semi- 
 circle, entering the city at its southeasterly cor- 
 ner, and leaving it at its southwesterly. 
 
 Near the center of the city, on the north bank 
 of the Seine, with one end towards the river and 
 fronting west, stand the ruins of the palace of the 
 Tuileries, built by Catherine de Medici about 
 three hundred years ago. The Tuileries was the 
 residence of all the great Bourbon kings, of 
 Napoleon I., Louis Philippe and Napoleon III., 
 and was finally burned down by the commune in 
 1871. The walls stand just as the fire left them, 
 and it is probable that sooner or later they will 
 be pulled down and the site be used for other 
 public buildings. It is sad to see the darkness 
 and desolation that reign where once all was so 
 gay and brilliant. 
 
 In front of the Tuileries extending westward lie 
 the gardens belonging to the palace, now used as 
 a public park. They are about half a mile in 
 length and about a third as wide as long. They 
 terminate in an immense open square called the 
 Place de la Concorde. In the center of this square, 
 stood the famous guillotine of the French revolu- 
 
GEOGRAPHY OF PARIS. 215 
 
 tion, npon which the nnfortunate Louis XYI. 
 and his wife, Marie Antoinette, lost their heads. 
 The spot is now marked by the obelisk of Lnxor, 
 a granite monolith from Egypt, similar to the one 
 recently set np in Central Park, ISTew York. The 
 river forms the south boundary of the garden of 
 the Tuileries and the Place de la Concorde, and 
 just across the river, fronting the latter, stands 
 the Chamber of Deputies, a fine edifice, formerly 
 known as the Palais Bourbon. 
 
 Still further west is a very broad boulevard 
 lined with spacious parks and gardens known as 
 the Champs Elysees (pronounced Shonseleeze), 
 and this terminates in the famous Arch of Tri- 
 umph, erected by Napoleon I. to commemorate 
 his victories. We thus have a continuous park 
 for about two miles, the Tuileries occupying one 
 end, the Arc de Triomphe the other. The arch is 
 a magnificent structure of massive stonework, one 
 hundred and fifty-two feet high, with a main 
 archway through it, forty-five feet wide and nine- 
 ty high. There is also a transverse arch, fifty- 
 seven feet high, extending through it from north 
 to south. The exterior is ornamented with bold 
 relief sculptures, and the inside is inscribed with 
 the names of ninety-six of Napoleon's battles and 
 the names of his principal generals. It cost the 
 French nation over two million dollars. 
 
 Intersecting the Place de la Concorde, and at 
 
216 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 right angles with the Champs Elysees, is the broad 
 and busy Rue Royale {Rue is the French for 
 street), and at the head of it, looking south, and 
 directly facing the Chamber of Deputies, is the 
 church of The Madeleine, one of the landmarks of 
 Paris. The Madeleine, or church of St. Mary 
 Magdalene, is an immense stone building modeled 
 after a Grecian temple and conveying from its 
 appearance anything but the idea of a Christian 
 church. It was begun in 1764 and completed 
 under JN'apoleon I., who contemplated changing 
 its use from a church to a temple of fame, or 
 l^lace for the tombs and monuments of the great 
 men of the nation — something like, perhaps, what 
 Westminister Abbey is to England. His succes- 
 sor, however, changed the destination of the 
 structure, and it is again an ordinary Roman 
 Catholic church. 
 
 Parallel with the Rue Royale and one block 
 east is the Rue Castiglione, wl^ich, a short dis- 
 tance up, widens into a square called the Place 
 Yendome, from the Yendome Column occupying 
 the center of it. This famous column is one 
 hundred and thirty-live feet high and twelve feet 
 in diameter, and is modeled after Trajan's Column 
 at Rome. It is entirely covered with plates of 
 bronze, cast from cai^tured cannon, and bearing 
 reliefs representing various scenes in Napoleon's 
 campaigns. It was erected by Napoleon I., in 
 
THE VENDOME COLUMN. 217 
 
 1805, to commemorate liis achievements, and is 
 surmounted by a statue of the- emperor. During 
 the communist sway in 1871 the column was lev- 
 eled with the ground, under the direction of the 
 eminent French painter Courbet, but fortunately 
 the fragments were preserved and it has since 
 been restored, all Courbet' s pictures being confis- 
 cated to help defray the expense. 
 
 A little north of the Madeleine and Column 
 Yendome, and forming an equilateral triangle 
 with them, is the Grand Opera House, the largest 
 and most elegant theatre in the world. It was 
 begun under the auspices of Napoleon III., but 
 was hot completed till after his fall. It cost 
 nearly ten million dollars, and instead of paying 
 rent for it the manager has a subsidy of one 
 hundred and sixty thousand dollars a year from 
 government to keep it running. It is opened 
 every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, admis- 
 sion from one dollar and forty cents to three dol- 
 lars. The other principal Parisian theatres are 
 likewise subsidized by government, but to a less 
 extent. The Grand Opera House looks down a 
 beautiful broad avenue running diagonally to the 
 southeast, and terminating near the Louvre, 
 known as the Avenue de V Opera. 
 
 Just east of the palace of the Tuileries, and 
 separated from it by a large open square flanked 
 by public offices on its two sides, is the palace of 
 
218 FIYE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 the Louvre, the famous art gallery of Paris. The 
 building was begun three centuries and a half 
 ago, but was only finally comijleted by Napoleon 
 III. East of the Louvre is the interesting old 
 church of St. Germain I'Auxerrois, whose bells, 
 on the memorable 23d of August, 1572, tolled the 
 signal for the massacre of St. Bartholomew. A 
 few blocks still further east and also near the 
 river bank, stood the Hotel de Ville, the seat of 
 the municipal government of Paris, burned by 
 the communists in 1871, when they found them- 
 selves unable any longer to hold the city against 
 the government troops. It will be remembered 
 that on the occasion a great number of commu- 
 nists perished in the flames they had themselves 
 kindled. A new building on the site of the old 
 one is now well advanced towards completion. 
 When finished it will be one of the finest muni- 
 cipal structures in the world. In the open space 
 in front of the Hotel de Ville, criminals were 
 formerly executed, and here, in 1610, Ravaillac 
 was torn to pieces alive by horses attached to his 
 several limbs, for the murder of King Henry TV. , 
 husband of Marie de Medici referred to in a 
 former chapter. 
 
 Opposite the Hotel de Yille is a large island in 
 the Seine, upon which stands the cathedral 
 church of Paris, Notre Dame. The latter is a 
 large and very excellent specimen of Gothic 
 
PLACE DE LA BASTILE. 219 
 
 architecture, the work of the thirteenth century. 
 Lower down on the island stands the Palace of 
 Justice, in a part of which, known as the Con- 
 ciergerie, fronting the Louvre, Marie Antoinette 
 was confined prior to her execution, and later 
 Kobespierre himself. Opposite the garden of the 
 Tuileries, on the south bank of the river, stand 
 the walls of the massive and beautiful building 
 known as the Palace of the Council of State, also 
 burned by the communists in 1871. 
 
 About three-quarters of a mile east of the Hotel 
 de Yille and at that point half a mile back from 
 the river is the site of the old castle knowm as the 
 Bastile, destroyed by the mob in July, 1789, the 
 event being the first step in the memorable French 
 revolution. The outline of the fortress is marked 
 in the pavement by strips of smooth stone inlaid 
 among the paving stones and asphalt. In the 
 center stands a bronze column erected as a 
 memorial of the subsequent revolution of 1830, 
 w^hich drove the Bourbons from the throne and 
 installed Louis Philippe as king, who in turn was 
 himself deposed by the revolution of 1848. 
 
 A mile still further eastward, or bearing slight- 
 ly to the north, is the cemetery of Pere la Chaise, 
 the famous resting place of a great number of the 
 eminent men and women of France. 
 
 South from the Place de la Bastile, and just 
 across the river, is the celebrated Jardin des 
 
220 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 Plantes, or zoological and botanical garden of 
 Paris. It was founded by Louis XIII., and is 
 perhaps the most complete institution of natural 
 history in the world. It comprises over sixty 
 acres, and besides the very extensive botanical 
 and zoological collections, embraces a very large 
 library of works on natural history, very exten- 
 sive museums, and an amphitheatre, in which 
 free lectures are periodically given on the various 
 branches of the science. It is all open free to 
 the public, and is a very interesting place to 
 spend an afternoon. 
 
 About three-quarters of a mile south of the 
 Louvre, and of course on the south side of the 
 Seine, is the palace of the Luxembourg, built by 
 Marie de Medici, and long used as a royal pal- 
 ace, but now occupied in part for the sittings of 
 the French Senate and in part as a gallery for 
 modern works of art, the property of the nation. 
 
 Half a mile south of the river, at a point a little 
 west of the Place de la Concorde, is the soldiers' 
 home, known as the Invalides, a very large edi- 
 fice built by Louis XIY., but which at present 
 contains but about five hundred inmates. The 
 chapel or church connected with this institution 
 contains the tomb of Napoleon I. This church is 
 a large and elegant one, built by the famous 
 architect Mansard, the inventor of the mansard 
 roof, and completed in 1706. The tomb, com- 
 
THE INVALIDES. 221 
 
 pleted in 1861, at a cost of one million eight 
 hundred thousand dollars, was constructed by- 
 taking up tke pavement of a large circular space 
 under the dome so as to expose the crypt below. 
 In the sort of circular well thus formed stands 
 the sarcophagus containing the remains of the 
 emperor, and it is looked down upon from the 
 gallery which the remainder of the old pavement 
 now forms. The floor of the well or pit is richly 
 laid, in mosaic and the sides are ornamented with 
 statuary. In the center stands the sarcophagus 
 of porphyry, which weighs sixty- seven tons, and 
 took sixteen years to polish. With its base and 
 cover it is thirteen and-a-half feet high. A more 
 imposing tomb could hardly have been devised. 
 
 In chapels adjoining are the marble sarcophagi 
 of Napoleon's brothers Joseph, king of Spain, 
 and Jerome, king of Westphalia; also monu- 
 ments to Yauban and Turenne, two eminent 
 French generals of Louis XIV's time, and here 
 also are collected the flags captured by the 
 French armies in the various battles of the past 
 two or three centuries. 
 
 West of the Invalides a short distance is the 
 Champ de Mars, a large .open space extending 
 from the military school to the river, upon which 
 the international exhibitions of 1867 and 1878 
 were held. It is now in a state of disorder from 
 the buildings of the last exhibition having only 
 recently been removed. 
 
222 
 
 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 It will be seen from the above that almost all 
 the buildings and localities of historic interest are 
 embraced in a belt extending across the city from 
 east to west. 
 
 ABC DK TRIO&IPHE. 
 
CHAPTER XXIY. 
 
 PARIS IN ITS RELATION TO FRENCH HISTORY— THE REIGNS AND 
 REVOLUTIONS OF THREE CENTURIES— THE BOIS DE BOU- 
 LOGNE— PERE LA CHAISE CEMETERY— THE OMNIBUSES AND 
 SHOPS OF PARIS— THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES. 
 
 ^^HE history of France is so intimately inter- 
 ^ J woven with the history and associations of 
 
 \ Paris, that a review of the successive 
 reigns and revolutions for three centuries past is 
 almost essential to an intelligent description of 
 the modern French capital. 
 
 As school children we were all familiar with 
 Macauley's spirited poem, "Ivry," beginning — 
 
 Now glory to the Lord of Hosts, from whom all glories are I 
 And glory to our Sovereign Liege, King Henry of Navarre! 
 
 and in which the prowess of the white-plumed 
 knight. King Henry of Navarre, is immortalized. 
 This Henry was the champion of the protestant 
 forces in the religious war which wasted France 
 in the latter half of the sixteenth century. Peace 
 was finally restored by the accession of Henry to 
 the throne in 1589, under the title of Henry IV., 
 and by his returning to the bosom of the Roman 
 Catholic church, while, however, he still contin- 
 ued to protect his old allies the Huguenots, or 
 
224 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 French protestants. One of the most popnlar 
 pictures in the Louvre, with engravers and copy- 
 ists, is Gerard's ''Entry of Henry TV. into 
 Paris." Henry married Marie de Medici, an able 
 princess of the famous Florentine family, and 
 became the first of the great line of Bourbon 
 kings, which ruled France for more than two cen- 
 turies. We often hear obtuse and bigoted people 
 compared to the Bourbons, but really for a cen- 
 tury and a half the Bourbons were great and able 
 princes, and under their rule France enjoyed her 
 golden era. Henry married the Italian princess 
 in 1600. In the picture gallery of the Louvre one 
 of the loudest, if not most meritorious, exhib- 
 its, is a series of mammoth paintings by Rubens, 
 fulsomely adulatory of Marie de Medici. They 
 are remarkable for their size and disgusting flat- 
 tery, perhaps, even more than for their artistic 
 excellences. Henry IV. was a brave soldier and 
 popular ruler, but he did not get on comfortably 
 with his Italian wife, and in 1610 was stabbed to 
 death while riding in the Rue St. Honore — the 
 next street to that our hotel was on — by one 
 Ravaillac, whose horrible punishment by being 
 torn in pieces by horses was alluded to in the last 
 chapter. At the lower end of the island in the 
 Seine upon which stands the Cathedral of Notre 
 Dame, is a fine bronze equestrian statue of Henry 
 lY. At his death his widow, Marie de Medici, 
 
MARIE DE MEDICI. 225 
 
 governed France as regent during the minority of 
 their son, Louis XIII. The famous Cardinal 
 Kichelieu (born 1585, died 1642) was her prime 
 minister. Both queen and cardinal were ambi- 
 tious, unscrupulous and intriguing, and soon an 
 active contest for the supreme power sprang up 
 between them, in which the long-headed cardinal 
 was ultimately victorious. The queen erected 
 for her royal residence the splendid palace of the 
 Luxembourg. The cardinal built the very much 
 more extensive and elegant palace now known as 
 the Palais Royal. The queen was, by the mach- 
 inations of Richelieu, finally deposed and made a 
 prisoner in 1631. Then she became a wanderer 
 without home or country, and finally died in 
 great poverty in Cologne in 1642 — the precise 
 year that her unrelenting antagonist himself 
 departed this life. Her heart lies buried in the 
 choir of Cologne Cathedral. 
 
 Louis XIII., surnamed "the Just," proved 
 himself an excellent prince. It was he who 
 founded the French Academy and the Jardin des 
 Plantes, and who built the Chateau of Versailles, 
 which his successor enlarged into the present pal- 
 ace. He reigned for thirty-three years, and was 
 cotemporary with James I. and Charles I. of Eng- 
 land. 
 
 He was succeeded by his son, Louis XIY., sur- 
 named "le Grande," or "the Great," who reigned 
 
 15 
 
226 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 for the long period of seventy-two years, being 
 cotemporary with the Commonwealth and with 
 the reigns of Charles II., James II., William and 
 Mary, and Anne, in English history. He died 
 one year after the accession of George I. of Eng- 
 land. Under the great military engineer, Yau- 
 ban, and the famous marshal Turenne, whose 
 tombs help to grace the sepulchre of Napoleon I., 
 the military prestige of France under Louis XIV. 
 was very great. By this monarch the city was 
 very much enlarged, the quays of the Seine faced 
 with stone, the Champs Elysees laid out, the Inva- 
 lides founded, also the Astronomical Observatory 
 and other important public institutions. The 
 wealth of France was so great at that time, and 
 the rage for luxury so excessive, that Louis is 
 reported to have spent $240,000,000 upon the 
 palace and grounds of Versailles alone. Every 
 one has heard of the famous fountains of Ver- 
 sailles. Their magnificence may be judged from 
 the fact that it costs about one hundred dollars 
 per minute to supply the water for them. Such 
 was the scale of Louis's extravagance, and such 
 the preparation for the national exhaustion which 
 precipitated the revolution of 1789. 
 
 He was followed by his great-grandson, Louis 
 XV., who reigned fifty-nine years, or from 1715 
 to 1774, and did much for the improvement and 
 adornment of Paris. He in turn was succeeded 
 
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 227 
 
 by his grandson, the unfortunate Louis XYI , a 
 man of excellent character and disposition, but 
 pcwGiiess to mitigate the evils into which the state 
 had now fallen by the luxury and extravagance 
 of more than a century. Driven to desperation, 
 the people rose in insurrection, and their first 
 achievement was the capture and destruction of 
 the Bastile. At Sevres is to be seen a model of 
 the old fortress. It was nearly rectangular in 
 form, with a round tower at each corner and others 
 midway the length of each side — six in all — and 
 the building was very high in proportion to its 
 width. It formed part of the ancient wall at the 
 eastern extremity of the city, but the enlargement 
 of the city had left it far inside the walls. 
 Other relics of the ancient walls are found in the 
 old gateways known as Porte St. Denis and Porte 
 St. Martin, which are still left standing in the 
 Boulevard St. Martin, some distance north of the 
 Bastile. Their success in capturing the Bastile 
 on July 14th, 1789, gave the people a confidence 
 which nothing could now withstand. The royal 
 family were soon prisoners. One of the most 
 noticeable buildings on the south bank of the 
 Seine is the Conciergerie, with its two feudal 
 towers, where the beautiful queen, Marie Antoin- 
 nette, was confined. The Temple, the other 
 prison of the royal family, has been long since 
 destroyed. An organized attempt of the other 
 
228 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 European powers in 1793 to reinstate Louis on 
 tlie tlirone by force, iDrecipitated both his and his 
 queen' s destruction by the fatal guillotine. Their 
 bodies were obscurely interred in the church 
 yard of the Madeleine, situated a little distance 
 north of the church itself. Here they remained 
 till royalty was restored in France, when their 
 bones were exhumed and reburied in the Church 
 of St. Denis, the resting place of a long line of 
 kings. A chapel, known as the Chapel of the 
 Expiation, was erected over their former graves, 
 a sarcophagus in the crypt below occupying the 
 exact spot where their bodies were laid. The 
 present Church of the Madeleine, by the way, was 
 begun by Louis XVI., who inherited the fondness 
 for building of his ancestors. 
 
 Like most republics, but far sooner than some, 
 the French republic of the eighteenth century 
 in time degenerated into an empire. Napo- 
 leon Bonaparte was crowned emperor in 1804, 
 and during his twelve years' reign upwards of 
 $20,000,000 was expended in public buildings 
 in Paris. Among the reminders of this epoch 
 are the magnificent Arc de Triomphe, mentioned 
 in a former chapter; a smaller triumphal arch 
 in front of the Tuileries, upon which the four 
 antique bronze horses stolen by Napoleon from 
 St. Mark's in Venice stood, until restored to 
 Venice in 1814; the Madeleine in its completed 
 
THE REVOLUTION OF 1830. 229 
 
 form ; the Yendome Column ; the magnificent 
 Bourse, or stock exchange, and various other 
 useful and ornamental structures. Napoleon was 
 finally defeated and sent to St. Helena in 1815, 
 and Louis XVIII., a younger brother of Louis 
 XYI., came to the throne. (Louis XVII., son of 
 Louis XVI., reigned only in a Pickwickian sense, 
 and died before the restoration of his family. ) He 
 was followed ten years later by a still younger 
 brother, Charles X., a corpulent old gentleman, 
 more given to religion than statesmanship. 
 
 The country was still in a bad state, and even a 
 much abler man would have found it difficult to 
 pilot the nation through the existing hard times. 
 And so, on the 27th of July, 1830, another revolu- 
 tion broke out. For three days there was con- 
 siderable fighting and then King , Charles betook 
 himself to flight and left the government once 
 more in the hands of the populace. This i evolu- 
 tion is commemorated by a bronze column in the 
 Place de la Bastile, known as the Column of July, 
 and inscribed all over with the names of the men 
 v^^ho fell in the three days fighting. The " Rue 
 du 29 Juliet," which leads out of the Hue de 
 Kivoli, also perpetuates the memory of this com- 
 pact little revolution. This time the French peo- 
 ple did not attempt a republic, but, by acclama- 
 tion elected as king, the Duke of Orleans, a 
 descendant of a younger brother of Louis XIV. , 
 
230 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 a man of some popularity, but no donbt a good 
 deal of a demagogue. He accepted the crown as 
 Louis Philippe I. It was during his reign of 
 eighteen years that the obelisk of Luxor was 
 erected in the Place de la Concorde, and that the 
 palace of Versailles, which had been sacked by the 
 mob in the first revolution, and had since been in 
 a ruinous condition, was partially restored at the 
 king's private expense and converted into a gal- 
 lery of historical paintings. Louis Philippe was 
 rich, and though miserly, he spent three million 
 dollars on this work. 
 
 Louis Philii)pe went out on the revolution of 
 1848, retired to England and died there a few 
 years later. He was succeeded by the second 
 republic, which even sooner than the first, became 
 stranded in imperialism. Then came the era of 
 Napoleon III., the public buildings of which 
 period are ostentatiously marked with a capital 
 N. The blackened ruins of the Tuileries and the 
 funeral wreaths that fill the lap of the statue of 
 Strassburg, one of eight colossal figures, symbolic 
 of eight principal cities of France, which grace 
 the Place de la Concorde, are the sad reminders 
 of the gloomy ending of the brilliant but unstable 
 regime of the grandson of the Empress Josephine. 
 It seems strange that so mild, good-natured and 
 polite a people as all the French seem to be, 
 should ever have become aroused to such deeds of 
 
THE BOIS DE BOULOGNE. 231 
 
 horror and destruction as characterized the reign 
 of the commune of 1871. The third republic 
 seems to have settled down into a successful per- 
 manence. 
 
 One thing that particularly strikes a stranger 
 in Paris is the legend "Liberte, Egalite, Frater- 
 nite," carved or painted upon every public build- 
 ing, even the churches. I don't know how the 
 Koman ecclesiastics like this conversion of sacred 
 edifices into political signboards, but they cannot 
 help themselves, for the ultra-democratic watch- 
 word is in most cases indelibly cut in the stone 
 and usually in the most conspicuous place about 
 the edifice. 
 
 Everybody has heard of the Bois de Boulogne. 
 It is a tract of about two thousand acres lying 
 just outside the walls, to the southwest of the 
 city, and is the property of the municipality. A 
 few years ago it was a forest of fine large trees, 
 but the exigences of the war of 1870 compelled 
 their destruction, and now it is for the most part 
 a jungle of young trees and underbrush, inter- 
 sected in every direction by splendid carriage 
 drives. It has a lake, a cascade, places for 
 refreshment, and some lawns and flower beds ; 
 but it is mainly what its name signifies, ''the 
 forest" of Boulogne. It is the favorite drive of 
 the Parisians. 
 
 Pere la Chaise, the principal cemetery in Paris, 
 
232 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 is situated on rising ground in tlie eastern part of 
 the city, and is one of the least interesting ceme- 
 teries that I have ever visited. The carriage 
 roads are paved with rough blocks of stone, there 
 are few trees or flowers, no grass, and a surpris- 
 ing paucity of sculpture and artistic monuments. 
 All along the carriage ways, on both sides, are 
 continuous lines of sepulchral chapels, each usu- 
 ally three or four feet wide, six or eight feet deep, 
 and high enough for a person to stand in conve- 
 niently. Each has a grated door in front and a 
 little altar in the interior, with the names of the 
 deceased cut in marble slabs above. Throughout, 
 the cemetery is very much crowded. The monu- 
 ments are of ordinary stone and display little of 
 the good taste upon which Paris prides itself. To 
 the right of the entrance is the Jewish section, 
 and here is conspicuous the tomb of Rachel, one 
 of the greatest actresses the world has yet pro- 
 duced. Her tomb is noticeable for being penciled 
 over with hundreds of autographs — I might 
 almost say thousands. A little beyond is the 
 famous tomb of Abelard, the learned monk, and 
 his inamorata, Heloise, the love of whom has 
 been so celebrated for over seven centuries. The 
 tomb is a simple rectangular structure, surmount- 
 ed by recumbent effigies of the deceased, side by 
 side, the whole being crowned by an open Gothic 
 canopy of considerable size. It is amusing to 
 
PERE LA CHAISE. 233 
 
 observe the romance of tlie Parisians, who, not- 
 withstanding the fact that the naughty couple 
 have been dead a matter of seven hundred and 
 forty years, still testify their admiration for them 
 by huge heaps of bouquets and funeral wreaths 
 strewn upon the grave. 
 
 In a small inclosure, unmarked by any stone, 
 but cultivated as a flower-bed, lie the remains of 
 Marshal Ney, one of Napoleon's most gallant 
 officers. When Napoleon was banished to Elba 
 in 1814, Ney gave in his allegiance to the restored 
 Bourbon government of Louis XVIII., and was 
 rewarded with the chief command of the French 
 army. When, a few months later, Napoleon sud- 
 denly returned to France from Elba, Ney proved 
 unfaithful to his. trust, and hastened to join his 
 old master, taking the entire army with him. 
 For this act of treachery, after the defeat of 
 Waterloo in June, 1815, he was tried by court-mar- 
 tial and shot. A little farther on, in one enclosure, 
 are the tombs of Moliere, the French dramatist, 
 and La Fontaine^ the well known author of the 
 fables. The tomb of Bernardin St. Pierre, the 
 delightful author of Paul and Virginia, is also 
 in the same vicinity, and without much diffi- 
 culty may be found the tombs of Chopin, Rossini, 
 Cherubini, Talma, Eugene Scribe, Racine, Beran- 
 ger, David, Arago, La Place, Marshals Kel- 
 lerman, Suchet, Macdonald, Massina, and many 
 
234 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 other eminent men. Frequently in passing 
 through the cemetery, we see tombs marked 
 with an inscription indicating a perpetual right 
 to the ground. Where this perpetual right is 
 not obtained, the bodies are dug up after a cer- 
 tain term of years, and the grave is resold to a 
 new occupant. The bones in such cases are 
 deposited in the catacombs, or subterranean gal- 
 leries that underlie much of Paris. 
 
 One of the most commendable things about 
 Paris is its splendid omnibus system. Street 
 railways are only partially introduced. The 
 omnibuses are ponderous vehicles, carrying six- 
 teen to eighteen inside, and as many on top, and 
 drawn by three horses driven abreast. On the 
 fine, smooth pavements they roll along beauti- 
 fully, though severe on the horses on first start- 
 ing, and on ascending hills. A splendid general 
 idea of Paris can be gained from the top of an 
 omnibus, and as it is easily reached by spiral 
 stairs from a platform in the rear, ladies can 
 enjoy an outside ride as well as the other sex. 
 The fare uniformly is thirty centimes inside and 
 fifteen out (6 and 3 cents), and for these sums 
 you can ride astonishingly long distances. 
 
 Everything in the way of fancy articles is dis- 
 played with wonderful prodigality in the shop 
 windows of Paris. The jewelry stores, picture 
 stores, toy shops, and every other branch of fancy 
 
PARIS SHOPS. 235 
 
 and art dealing, are numbered by the legion, and 
 ttie prices marked are astonishingly low; but 
 give the Parisian shopkeepers an opportunity to 
 make a special charge, and Paris becomes the 
 dearest city in the world. A pair of the best kid 
 gloves can be bought for sixty or seventy cents, 
 but if a button is lost they will charge you twenty 
 cents for sewing one on again. So everything 
 made to order is probably quite as expensive as 
 at home. 
 
 Two favorite places with the ladies are the 
 Magazins de Louvre and the Bon Marche, two 
 extensive dry goods stores, each covering an 
 entire block, and each overloaded with stock 
 and swarming with customers. The extent of 
 their business may be judged from the fact that 
 at the latter place there are cashiers numbered 
 from one to sixty-four, and perhaps even higher, 
 and all are as busy as bees in taking in money 
 and recording the amounts. The building con- 
 tains three stories, all connected by a dozen large 
 wells, with skylights above, and innumerable 
 staircases. Such a lively scene as is here wit- 
 nessed can probably nowhere else be found. 
 
 Another famous resort is the Palais Royale. 
 The Orleans family, to whom it belonged in the 
 last century, became financially embarrassed, and 
 to replenish their exchequer they converted the 
 ground floor of this spacious palace of Riche- 
 
236 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 lieu into stores, which open upon the gardens 
 which the palace incloses. These stores are occu- 
 pied mainly by jewelers, and there must be over 
 a hundred of them here congregated. Their win- 
 dows are resplendent with gold and gems in every 
 possible style of ornament. The Palais E-oyale 
 is situated a little north of and facing the Louvre. 
 
 Paris sadly needs ^ visit from Anthony Com- 
 stock. Judging by their titles, the most dis- 
 graceful class of books are publicly exposed for 
 sale ; and that too in respectable shops and on the 
 best streets. Nude pictures are seen in the shop 
 windows by tens of thousands, and pictures with- 
 out the least affectation of modesty, such as is 
 usually given by artists to nude statuary. Paris 
 may be no more immoral than other cities, but it 
 will take the palm for indelicacy. 
 
 In Paris again we find the ''continental Sun- 
 day." Builders are at work just as on other 
 days, and the streets are equally as cumbered 
 with great trucks with their immense loads of 
 squared stone, drawn by five or six horses. Fully 
 two- thirds of the shops are open, and apparently 
 as much business is done in the aggregate as on 
 any other day. But, while a large share of the 
 population thus toil, a still larger share would 
 seem to throng the cafes, the seats in the public 
 parks and the picture galleries ; and, from the 
 amount of riding on the Champs Ely^ees, one 
 
THE GAY LIFE OF PARIS. 237 
 
 wonld think there was not an idle horse in all 
 Paris. At night the Champs Elysees is brilliantly 
 illuminated and all sorts of shows and amuse- 
 ments are in full blast. 
 
 Paris is very gay and brilliant every fine even- 
 ing. The streets are well lighted, the Avenue de 
 r Opera being lighted with the electric light for 
 its entire length, and the sidewalks thronged 
 with a gay and careless crowd till well into the 
 night. 
 
 Paris churches, excepting perhaps Notre Dame 
 which is pure Gothic, and the Madeleine which 
 is pure Grecian, are of a style peculiar to Paris, 
 in which there is a happy blending of many fea- 
 tures of both the Gothic and Italian styles such 
 as I had not seen elsewhere. 
 
 In Paris the fuel used is chiefly wood and char- 
 coal. Both are sold by weight, and not in great 
 wood yards like ours, but in little shops scattered 
 all over the city, each of which is frescoed all 
 over its front with representations of piles of 
 stove wood. Much of the wood burned is mere 
 twigs smaller than your finger, such as we in 
 America consume in brush heaps and are glad to 
 get rid of. Every splinter, however, is saved in 
 thrifty France. 
 
 The Palace of Justice swarms with lawyers, all 
 in black gowns, white bands, and little stiff four- 
 cornered caps, • and every one with a morocco 
 
238 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD, 
 
 portfolio under Ms arm — a very gentlemanly 
 looking lot of men. By the way, they have a 
 system in France which we might do well to 
 copy. Before any action at law can be brought 
 the case must come before an official arbitrator, 
 who uses his best efforts to bring about a settle- 
 ment between the parties without the formality 
 of a trial. Such a system with us would certainly 
 diminish litigation one-half. 
 
 One day we strolled into the fine palace devoted 
 to the national archives. The papers of the gov- 
 ernment are admirably kept, either bound up 
 into volumes or packed in paste-board boxes of 
 uniform size, and all properly labeled and ranged 
 on shelves extending from floor to ceiling through 
 a great multitude of rooms. Our city clerks, if 
 not our state officers, could take a useful lesson 
 from the perfect order with which the multifari- 
 ous documents of two hundred years of govern- 
 ment are here maintained. The more interesting 
 and valuable documents, such as treaties, letters 
 of royal personages, etc., are arranged in vertical 
 glass cases so that they can be easily examined, a 
 curtain covering the case to prevent any injurious 
 effects of the light. These cases fill a number of 
 large rooms and are' chronologically arranged. 
 Some of the instruments bear the signature of 
 Charlemagne himself, and every king since is 
 more or less represented. Among the curious 
 
THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES. 239 
 
 papers are the will of Louis XYI. ; the last letter 
 written by Marie Antoinette ; various papers in 
 the handwriting of Robespierre ; a letter of Char- 
 lotte Corday, written from the prison where she 
 was confined for the assassination of Marat ; Liv- 
 ingston' s commission as minister to France, signed 
 by Thomas Jefferson, and a host of other interest- 
 ing autographs. 
 
CHAPTER XXY. 
 
 THE ART GALLERIES OF PARIS— THE ART SCHOOL— THE SALON^ 
 THE LUXEMBOURG— THE LOUVRE-ST. DENIS— VERSAILLES 
 —THE SEINE— SEVRES AND THE NATIONAL PORCELAIN 
 FACTORY. 
 
 ARIS probably ranks first among the cities 
 of Europe as an art center. It has a very- 
 extensive school of the fine arts, liberally 
 supported by the government. This school has 
 three professors of painting, three of sculpture, 
 three of architecture, one of line engraving and 
 one of die sinking — eleven in all. Liberal jDrizes 
 are given for the greatest advancement made by 
 the students, the chief prize each year being a 
 scholarship for four years' study in Italy, with 
 all expenses paid. The effect of this school has 
 been to give France a surprising number of capa- 
 ble artists, as is evinced by the fact that the 
 annual Salon for the present year (1881) had no 
 fewer than two thousand five hundred pictures 
 and eight hundred pieces of statuary entered in 
 competition for the various prizes. It should be 
 understood that the Salon is an annual exhibition 
 under government auspices, open to all French 
 artists, and the principal prizes awarded at it 
 are highly esteemed. The best works are pur- 
 
THE FRENCH SALON. 241 
 
 chased from time to time by the government and 
 deposited in the gallery of the Luxembourg. 
 When an artist becomes very famous, his works 
 are promoted to places in the gallery of the 
 Louvre, where they hang in the company of the 
 old masters. Thus the Salon represents the cur- 
 rent year's productions in art, the Luxembourg 
 gallery the chefs Woume of living or recent 
 French artists, and the Louvre the works of the 
 most famous painters and sculptors of all ages 
 and countries. 
 
 The Salon is held in the building facing the 
 Champs Elysees, constructed for the great inter- 
 national exposition of 1855. It was afterwards 
 purchased by the government and christened the 
 Palace of Industry. 
 
 The Luxembourg is open free to the public. 
 It contains about three hundred paintings and 
 one hundred pieces of sculpture, and is a very 
 interesting gallery to visit, as the works are care- 
 fully selected and are all comparatively modern 
 and not dimmed by age. Among the most notable 
 painters represented are Rosa Bonheur, the fam- 
 ous horse and cattle painter; Bouguereau, the 
 greatest living French artist ; Courbet, the com- 
 munist of Column Vendome notoriety, who died 
 in 1877; Lefebvre, one of the greatest living 
 painters of the nude; Meissonier, whose works 
 are reputed to command the highest prices paid 
 
 16 
 
242 FIYE 3I0NTHS ABROAD. 
 
 to any living artist; Gustave Dore, Bertrand, 
 Corot (died 1875), Giraud, Giroux, Goupil, Millet 
 (died 1875), and others. 
 
 The Louvre is probably the most extensive 
 museum of art in the world. It occupies four 
 stories of an immense range of buildings forming 
 the four sides of one large quadrangle and a por- 
 tion of another. It embraces in its scope much 
 more than galleries of painting. IsTo country 
 has a finer collection of Egyptian antiquities than 
 France, and these occupy a portion of the Louvre. 
 Then there are Assyrian, Grecian and Koman 
 antiquities, Chinese and Japanese curiosities, a 
 very extensive general ethnological museum, 
 several rooms filled with naval models, relief 
 models of the Suez Canal and of the various har- 
 bors of France, an immense collection of porce- 
 lain, ancient and modern, and many rooms filled 
 with drawings and designs. Simply to walk 
 through the different rooms without giving much 
 time to examination and study, is alone the work 
 of several days. 
 
 In the number of its oil paintings the gallery 
 of the Louvre is probably unsurpassed by any 
 other collection in Europe, but in sculpture it is 
 secondary to the galleries of the Vatican. It 
 contains, however, one object of priceless value 
 and incomi)arable beauty in the Venus of Milo, 
 an antique statue found some years ago in one of 
 
THE FRENCH PAINTERS. 243 
 
 the islands of the Grecian archipelago, and which, 
 though mutilated, both arms being wanting, pos- 
 sesses a symmetry and grace that cannot fail to 
 strike even the least cultivated eye. It is pecu- 
 liarly the gem of the statuary galleries of the 
 Louvre. 
 
 The picture galleries are really tiresome in their 
 extent. All the various schools are represented, 
 but naturally the French predominates. The 
 most famous of the older French painters are 
 Nicholas Poussin (1594-1665), Gaspar Poussin 
 (1613-1675), and Claude Lorraine (1600-1682). 
 Their pictures differ from those of the Italian mas- 
 ters in making the landscape a principal feature, 
 whereas the Italians rarely gave any attention to 
 anything but the figures. Claude's pictures are 
 very numerous and can easily be picked out with- 
 out the aid of a catalogue. They have a dreamy 
 arcadian sort of air, peculiar to themselves. 
 Greuze (1725-1805) was really a beautiful painter. 
 His works in the Louvre are not numerous but 
 are, every one, gems of art. The contrast between 
 Greuze and any one of the old Italian nlasters is 
 very striking, and I am sure nine out of ten of 
 my readers would prefer the French artist. David 
 (1748-1825) is also highly esteemed. Among the 
 more renowned later artists are Robert, Dela- 
 roche, Vernet, Delacroix and others. 
 
 Twelve miles south of Paris lies the city of 
 
244 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 Yersailles. When the principal seat of the court 
 of France, a century ago, it was a place of a 
 hundred thousand inhabitants, but it has now 
 scarcely a third as many. Its principal attrac- 
 tion is an immense palace, built by Louis XIY., 
 with a large park, adorned with magnificent ave- 
 nues of trees and the finest fountains in the 
 world. The palace itself has a frontage of a 
 quarter of a mile, and commands a splendid view 
 to the southward. The amount of money said to 
 have been spent on this palace, staggers belief. 
 For a century it was the principal residence of 
 the kings of France ; then it was sacked, and in 
 great measure destroyed, by the revolutionists of 
 1789, and later was converted into a gun factory. 
 Napoleon I. thought of restoring it for his 
 Imperial residence, but the estimated cost, ten 
 million dollars, frightened him, and the x)roperty 
 remained a ruin up to the time of Louis Philippe. 
 That king sj^ent a large sum from his i)rivate 
 resources in a partial restoration, and collected 
 there some five thousand modern pictures illustra- 
 tive of French history. The historical scenes are 
 arranged by reigns, from Charlemagne down to 
 Louis Philippe, and many of these are large and 
 spirited pictures by the most eminent artists of 
 the century. Another series of rooms is devoted 
 to pictures illustrating the part France took in 
 the Crusades. Another salon, extending nearly 
 
THE PALACE OF VERSAILLES. 245 
 
 half the length of the building, is filled with large 
 pictures, representing the great battles in which 
 France has been victorious, from the days of 
 King Clovis down to the era of Napoleon. Still 
 other rooms contain many hundreds of portraits 
 of the public men, not of France alone, but of 
 the whole civilized world. Here are pictures of 
 Washington, Franklin, Adams, Jackson, Polk, 
 Webster, and various other American statesmen ; 
 numerous members of the English royal family, 
 and English statesmen and men of eminence for 
 a hundred years past, and, of course, a very rich 
 collection of French celebrities. The number of 
 rooms seems almost interminable. We begin an 
 afternoon's inspection by looking at each picture, 
 and end, when the attendants evince an anxiety to 
 close up and go home, by simply glancing down 
 long vistas of rooms still unvisited. The whole 
 forms an exceedingly interesting collection. Be- 
 sides the pictures, there are to be seen at Yer- 
 sailles the bed upon which Louis XIY. slept and 
 died, a suite of rooms occupied by the unfortu- 
 nate Marie Antoinette, and many other objects of 
 rare historic interest. 
 
 The park of Versailles is famous for its magnif- 
 icent avenues of large forest trees, in some cases 
 more than a mile in length, and so trained as 
 most perfectly to shade the intervening roadway. 
 Much, too, of the Versailles park, is left in a state 
 
246 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 of perfect wildness, but is intersected in every 
 direction by pleasant roads and foot-paths, a 
 light lath fence hedging in these ways. The 
 result is a delightful solitude for a stroll, and a 
 park melodious with the songs of the birds which 
 seek a home in the dense foliage. 
 
 Four miles north of Paris is the village of St. 
 Denis, famous for a beautiful Gothic abbey 
 church which, since the days of King Dagobert, 
 thirteen hundred years ago, has been the burial 
 place of the French kings. At the revolution in 
 the last century, the National Assembly passed 
 an edict ordering all the royal tombs destroyed, 
 and in October, 1793, the work was carried out. 
 The bodies, including that of Louis XI Y., which 
 was found in good preservation, were reburied in 
 a common grave, the lead coffins were melted up 
 for bullets, and it was only with great difficulty 
 that some of the fine sculptured tombs were 
 saved by being deposited in a national museum in 
 Paris as specimens of French art. The building 
 was stripped of its roof, and its entire destruc- 
 tion meditated, but fortunately not determined 
 on. Under Napoleon I. it was restored, and the 
 tombs replaced, but all of date prior to 1790 are, of 
 course, only cenotaphs — empty sepulchres. Upon 
 the restoration of the Bourbons, in 1814, the bones 
 of Louis XYI. and Marie Antoinette were removed 
 to St. Denis, and now rest with those of later 
 
- THE SEINE. 247 
 
 kings in leaden coffins in the royal vaults nnder 
 the choir of the church. 
 
 St. Denis is on the river Seine, two hours by boat 
 below Paris, although only four miles by wagon 
 road. The current of the Seine is very rapid. 
 ]S"avigation as far up as Paris is inconsiderable, 
 and the river at that point is filled mainly with 
 floating baths. There must be dozens of them — 
 some exclusively for women. In some the fee 
 for a bath is as low as three cents of our money. 
 A crookeder river than the Seine it would be hard 
 to And. It leaves Paris at its south-west corner, 
 flows south to Sevres, six miles, bends around 
 to the north, passes the city only a short distance 
 from the walls, touches St. Denis four miles 
 north of Paris, and so continues its way to the 
 sea, taking about four miles to go one. One of 
 the prettiest excursions imaginable is a trip down 
 the Seine to St. Denis by steamer. The scenery 
 on every side is most beautiful. In that short 
 distance the boat passes through a lock of six or 
 eight feet, so rapid is the fall of the river. Just 
 beyond Sevres we pass the old royal park and 
 palace of St. Cloud, the latter now in ruins, hav- 
 ing been destroyed during the seige of Paris in 
 1870, partly by the French guns, and partly by 
 the Prussians who occupied the town. 
 
 At Sevres the French government have long 
 maintained a manufactory for the finest porce- 
 
248 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 lain, and Sevres china is known by reputation 
 the world over. The manufactory is carried on 
 at a considerable expense over and above the rev- 
 enue derived from it, as a department of the fine 
 arts, which France makes it her special care to 
 foster and encourage. Armed with a ticket from 
 the "Direction des Beaux Arts" we visited this 
 celebrated factory. The porcelain is made of a 
 very pure white clay known as kaolin, and 
 brought from Limoges, in the southwest of 
 France. The process of manufacture is probably 
 similar to that of porcelain made elsewhere, but 
 the designs are peculiarly artistic, and the manip- 
 ulations probably finer than elsewhere. We were 
 particularly interested in the process of making 
 the very delicate China tea cups, the substance of 
 which is scarcely thicker than a piece of card- 
 board. These cups are not turned in a lathe nor 
 pressed into moulds, but a matrix of porous clay 
 is carefully prepared of the size and shape of the 
 outside of the cup or other vessel, as the case may 
 be, which matrix being perfectly dry is filled with 
 a solution of the kaolin of about the consistency 
 of good rich milk. The porous mould quickly 
 absorbs a quantity of the water, and the kaolin is 
 deposited in a thin layer uniformly over the inte- 
 rior of the mould. When sufficient thickness is 
 attained, the remainder of the solution is emptied 
 out, and the mould allowed to dry, when the cup, 
 
THE SEVRES PORCELAIN FACTORY. 249 
 
 fragile as a wafer, easily slips out. The decorat- 
 ing is done after the article is burned. The pat- 
 tern, if it is to be in gilt, is first engraved upon a 
 steel plate. From this plate an impression is 
 taken on the finest paper by means of an ordin- 
 ary copper-plate printer's press, but with, of 
 course, a peculiar kind of ink. From this paper 
 the pattern is transferred to the porcelain by 
 placing the paper, face down, upon it and rubbing 
 it over for some time with a small roller. Pow- 
 dered gold bronze is then applied with a camel's 
 hair brush, and by another burning the gilding is 
 firmly fixed. Flowers and other ornamentations 
 in several colors are painted by hand, and then 
 burned in. 
 
 If the visitor hopes to bring away a specimen 
 of Sevres china, he will probably be appalled to 
 to find that the cheapest article costs more than 
 he cares to invest. The cheapest tea set made is 
 sold at about two hundred dollars, and from that 
 sum the prices run up indefinitely. A pair of 
 ordinary sized mantle vases were marked eight 
 hundred francs ($160), but perhaps not one person 
 in ten would recognise them as any choicer than 
 a set that could be bought for sixteen dollars at 
 any large china store. But the gem of the whole 
 establishment is a series of framed porcelain pic- 
 tures, copies of the great masters, and more 
 exquisitely beautiful than the originals ever could 
 
250 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 have been, painted in oils. Unless the reader has 
 seen some really fine paintings on porcelain, he 
 can have little idea of the possibilities in this 
 branch of the fine arts. We saw some very beau- 
 tiful specimens of porcelain painting at Munich, 
 in the New Pinakothek, but the productions of 
 the Sevres manufactory are incomparably supe- 
 rior, and the adjective fails to suggest itself that 
 will do justice to their exquisite beauty. 
 
CHAPTER XXYI. 
 
 THROUGH NORMANDY-ROUEN-DIEPPE— TEMPERANCE-POLITICS 
 IN FRANCE-MONEY. 
 
 i, 
 
 % 
 
 HE journey from Paris to Dieppe lies in 
 great part along the valley of the Seine, 
 which is a much more beautiful and inter- 
 esting part of France than that between Strass- 
 burg and Paris. We break the journey at Rouen, 
 a large and important place, well built, but inter- 
 esting chiefly for several old churches and other 
 buildings which have not been spoiled by modern 
 restoration. We were charmed with the simpli- 
 city of this old Norman city. The churches were 
 all open, and we were dunned for no fees by 
 omnivorous vergers. The shops were clean and 
 inviting, and the nicest pastry was obtainable at 
 ridiculously cheap prices. The charge for taking 
 care of our baggage at the station was one cent 
 per piece ; this including the giving of a written 
 receipt for the same. The people all seemed so 
 polite and good natured that we were quite 
 charmed with Rouen. 
 
 The cathedral of Rouen is a fine specimen of 
 Gothic architecture, very richly ornamented. It 
 contains the tomb of Richard I. of England, who, 
 
 251 
 
252 ri\"E MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 thougli of the fourth generation from William 
 the Conqueror, still loved Normandy better than 
 England, and had his bones laid there. 
 
 Dieppe, though less famous, is well worthy a 
 few hours' inspection. It has two nice old Gothic 
 churches incomparably more interesting than 
 many of the grand churches of Italy. Dieppe, 
 strange as it may seem in a fishing town so far 
 away from the center of art, is also famous for its 
 ivory carvings. Here we take a steamer for New- 
 haven, on the English coast. The sea, though 
 broader here than at Dover, is much smoother, 
 and the steamers are larger and better fitted up. 
 
 During our stay in France, and indeed on the 
 entire continent, it was a matter of remark that- 
 we did not encounter a single case of drunken- 
 ness. Our observation in this respect would 
 seem to bear out the claims of those who argue 
 that the general use of light wines is rather pro- 
 motive of temperance than otherwise, for wine is 
 cheap and the quantity consumed enormous. At 
 a table d'hote dinner a whole or half bottle is 
 seen at almost every plate, and about that quan- 
 tity is actually drunk by each person. The usual 
 table wine is a harmless beverage, and costs from 
 forty to sixty cents per quart bottle. 
 
 In France, notwithstanding the youthfulness of 
 the republic, there is already great complaint of 
 the low state of political morals. As in our own 
 
. THE MONEY OF FRANCE. 253 
 
 country, the offices are regarded as prizes, to be 
 sought at the sacrifice of all sentiments of patriot- 
 ism and public spirit, and a mean selfishness is 
 said everywhere to pervade the public service. 
 The better class of people are disgusted, and in 
 this lies the danger of the failure of the republic, 
 as the Frenchman's only notion of reform is by 
 revolution. 
 
 The money of account of France, like that of 
 Belgium, Italy and Switzerland, is the franc, of a 
 value of a trifle under twenty cents of our own 
 money. The franc is supxDOsed to be divided into 
 one hundred centimes, but very few of that coin 
 are in circulation, or even of the two centime 
 piece. Practically the sou, or five centime piece, 
 is the coin of minimum value. The other, coins 
 are the ten centime in coi^per, equal to two cents 
 of our money, the half franc, franc, two franc and 
 five franc in silver, and five franc, ten franc and 
 twenty franc piece in gold. For larger sums 
 Bank of France notes are used, the smallest 
 denomination being one hundred francs. 
 
 One can travel very conveniently without any 
 knowledge of the European languages, but in 
 that case his sources of infomiation will be con- 
 fined mainly to his own powers of observation. 
 His tour will hence be only half as instructive as 
 if he could ask questions. 
 
CHAPTER XXyil. 
 
 BACK IN ENGLAND — BRIGHTON — LONDON CONTRASTED WITH 
 PARIS— ENGLISH OLD-FOGYISM-HOW LONDON IS GOVERNED 
 —TOPOGRAPHY OF THE BRITISH METROPOLIS. 
 
 E land at Newhaven and after our two 
 months ramble among foreigners thor- 
 oughly enjoy the novelty of again being 
 in a land where the language is familiar to us, and 
 where we can understand everything that is said 
 by those around us. . We pass off the steamer 
 without inspection of our baggage, upon our sim- 
 ple assurance that neither tea, tobacco nor spirits 
 is contained therein. How much better this than 
 the insulting and humiliating tumbling over of 
 one's clean shirts and pocket-handkerchiefs by a 
 coarse and insolent official, as one experiences in 
 countries like ours, where a tariff is laid on a 
 hundred different articles easy of being smuggled. 
 Brighton, a few miles down the coast from 
 Newhaven and fifty-two miles from London, is a 
 city about the size of Rochester, Detroit or Mil- 
 waukee, and is supported almost entirely by its 
 position as the principal seaside watering place 
 for the British metropolis. It extends for three 
 miles along the beach, has hundreds of hotels, 
 
 854 
 
LONDON SMOKE. 255 
 
 and its grand parade on a pleasant evening is a 
 rare scene of outdoor enjoyment. Aside from its 
 fashion and gaiety there is nothing at Brighton 
 of especial interest to the traveler. 
 
 A ride of a little more than an hour brings ns 
 again to the British metropolis. Compared with 
 the continental cities, London presents a gloomy 
 appearance and by comparison its streets are 
 abominably dirty, though contrasted with those 
 of any American city they would be regarded as 
 very creditable to the municipality: The atmos- 
 phere is filled with soot, and it is impossible to 
 keep one' s linen clean for more than a few hours. 
 Old buildings, as St. Paul's for instance, are to a 
 great extent incrusted with a rough black deposit 
 of soot, which has become as hard as the stone 
 itself, and in protected places is often an inch or 
 two thick. 
 
 When an American arrives in London the first 
 thing he .does is to register at the American 
 Exchange, and the next thing is to subscribe for 
 the privileges of the Exchange for the time he 
 will remain in Europe. It costs but the trifle of a 
 dollar and a quarter per month, and for this small 
 sum he has the free use of the rooms, which are 
 situated at Charing Cross, the very heart of Lon- 
 don, and the common focus from which every 
 part can be reached by rail or omnibus. Here 
 he can receive his mail, read all the American 
 
256 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 papers, see bulletins of tlie latest American news, 
 meet all the fresh arrivals from his own country, 
 write his letters, and for a very moderate fee can 
 store any superfluous baggage that he may not 
 want to carry with him. When he goes on the 
 continent his letters will be forwarded to him to 
 whatever address he may indicate from day to 
 day, and throughout his travels he will receive 
 his mails with a promptness that would be imx)os- 
 sible were letters mailed to him direct from Amer- 
 ica. These are only a few of the conveniences 
 offered to American travelers by the Exchange, 
 and no one can for a moment afford to neglect 
 availing himself of them. It may be added that 
 Mr. Henry F. Gillig, the managing proprietor, is 
 an affable gentleman, and is constantly on the 
 alert to assist in all ways his numerous patrons. 
 One coming from the continent is struck wdth 
 the pre-eminence of London over all other Euro- 
 pean cities as a general mart for the products of 
 the whole world. In paintings, the specialty of 
 Italy, Rome and Florence sink out of sight in 
 comparison with London in the number of shops 
 devoted to their sale, the magnitude of the 
 stocks they carry, and the comparative cheapness 
 at which they can be purchased. In engravings, 
 one of the specialties of Paris, London offers 
 twenty times the inducements to buyers. In 
 fact any article can be purchased quite as advan- 
 
OVER-POPULA,TION OF ENGLAND. 257 
 
 tageously here as at the home of its production, 
 be it anywhere in the wide world. So much 
 for free trade and a well developed commerce. 
 
 The manufacturers of England complain bitter- 
 ly of our American protective tariff, which is 
 ruining many branches of their trade ; but the 
 disinterested, thinking men say nothing, for they 
 see that what England loses in manufactures by 
 our American policy she more than makes up in 
 the commerce that we by the same policy fool- 
 ishly throw into her hands, so that on the whole 
 she loses nothing by it, if indeed she be not the 
 gainer. Great Britain never was richer, and on 
 the whole more prosperous than at the present 
 moment. And this notwithstanding the fact that 
 the country is vastly over-populated and that the 
 relation between wages and the cost of living 
 is steadily widening. Clerks' and bookkeepers' 
 salaries in London range from live dollars to fif- 
 teen dollars a week, the latter being considered 
 rather a high figure, and on this income scores of 
 thousands are supporting in attempted respecta- 
 bility the large families that seem to be the inva- 
 riable rule with the wage class in that country. 
 
 One is struck on entering any place of business 
 with the great number of clerks, and immense 
 amount of bookkeeping, that seems inseparable 
 from business operations in England. Old-fash- 
 ioned and cumbrous ways of doing things prevail, 
 ir 
 
258 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 much in contrast with, our American common-sense 
 habits of simplifying everything to the utmost. 
 
 Our hotel windows overlooked Covent Garden 
 market, the great central wholesale vegetable 
 emporium of London. It was amusing to see the 
 great number of people constantly employed 
 there, and the circumlocutory way in which 
 everything was done. Loads of lettuce would 
 arrive as large as loads of hay at home, and in 
 unloading every head would be handled sepa- 
 rately. They would be thrown into baskets to be 
 carried to other parts of the market, and men 
 would stand holding their baskets on their heads 
 all the time they were being filled. Articles 
 would be piled up in one place, and directly after 
 removed to another, and everything done as 
 slowly and deliberately as if the sole object were 
 to kill as much time as possible. A smart Amer- 
 ican, I am sure, would do all the work with a 
 third the number of hands. And it was laugh- 
 able to see how busy they all seemed to think 
 themselves over what, to a Yankee, looked so 
 much like child's play. But perhaps it is for the 
 best, for if they did things after our fashion, half 
 the people of England would find nothing to do. 
 As another illustration, I noticed a large barge 
 load of grain being unloaded into a great flouring 
 mill on the banks of the Thames, and each sack 
 was drawn up separately by a rope into the fifth 
 
IMMENSITY OF LONDON". 259 
 
 or sixth story — a long and tedious process to 
 accomplisli what an American miller would have 
 appliances for doing in an hour or two. 
 
 As'we begin to look about us, we are struck 
 with the immensity of London, the world's 
 metropolis. What is called "greater London" 
 contains fully five million souls, or about eight 
 times the population of Chicago. During 1880 
 no fewer than twenty-five thousand new houses 
 were built, and seventy miles of new streets crea- 
 ted. The ordinary police force numbers eleven 
 thousand men, or a force equal to nearly half the 
 entire standing army of the United States. But 
 these immense figures give no appreciable idea of 
 the enormous aggregation of human life that calls 
 its home London. A better idea may be gained 
 by taking a train at one of the central railway 
 stations (for there are about a dozen of them) and 
 riding out eight or ten miles. Not until that dis- 
 tance is reached can we at all feel that we have 
 even reached the suburbs. From the railroads, 
 generally elevated on massive brick viaducts high 
 above the streets, we look out upon a wilderness 
 of roofs and chimney tops as far as the eye can 
 reach. People living in one section of London 
 are as much strangers to other sections as though 
 hundreds of miles intervened. Even cabmen, 
 when required to drive any distance from their 
 own stands, not infrequently are forced to stop 
 
SCO FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 and inquire of policemen or others, "Do you 
 know any such-and-sucli street in this vicinity ?" 
 and this, too, notwithstanding that commission- 
 ers have been for years engaged in the simplify- 
 ing and harmonizing of street nomenclature. It 
 is a wonderful city in its size and populousness. 
 More properly speaking, it is a collection of cities 
 which have each grown so extensive as to amal- 
 gamate the one with another, until all traces of 
 intervening country have been lost. It, the aggre- 
 gation, is known as London, but strictly the City 
 of London embraces only the comparatively small 
 district extending from Temple Bar in the west 
 to Aldgate in the east — perhaps a twenty min- 
 utes' walk — and lies wholly north of the Thames. 
 Over this portion alone, embracing a population 
 of less than two hundred thousand, the Lord 
 Mayor and aldermen exercise jurisdiction. The 
 remainder has a complex government divided 
 between the vestries of the several parishes and 
 various metropolitan boards appointed immedi- 
 ately by the national government. Practically, 
 therefore, the government of London outside of 
 the city proper, devolves on the nation at large. 
 While there can be no question of the desirable- 
 ness and efficiency of self-government in the case 
 of nations, it may be questioned if the system be 
 equally adapted for large cities, and if the control 
 of these abnormal aggregrations of population — 
 
GOVERNMENT OF LONDON. 261 
 
 wens on the body politic, I think some famous 
 writer called them — should not largely devolve 
 on the state or nation. 
 
 It is certain, at least, that this vast aggregation 
 of people embraced in the metropolitan district 
 or greater London is admirably governed, ^o 
 complaints are heard of extravagance in the use 
 of the public funds, .of oppressive taxation, of 
 dishonest rings or swindling schemes of jobbery, 
 and there are certainly no petty contests over the 
 allotment of trivial offices periodically recurring, 
 nor disgusting personal bickerings among the 
 highest officials. With the men who share in the 
 government of London it is a life business and a 
 road to the highest honor, and the government is 
 hence conducted as a great business should be 
 and not as a political bagatelle. I am hardly 
 prepared to recommend this undemocratic system 
 for adoption in America, but I may be permitted 
 to record the fact for what it is worth that there 
 is far less scandal in the conduct of the govern- 
 ment of London than in that of any one of our 
 western cities of less than one-twentieth its popu- 
 lation. So satisfactory is it in fact that the sub- 
 ject is more or less agitated of procuring the 
 repeal of the charter of the City of London pro- 
 per and bringing it also under the control of the 
 Metropolitan Board of Works, for the manage- 
 ment of the aifairs of the old central municipality 
 
262 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 is less satisfactory. But the corporation is so 
 rich and enjoys so many special privileges that it 
 will be difficult to compel it to relinquish its fran- 
 chises, and it certainly never will give them' up 
 voluntarily. Practically the "City of London" 
 is governed by a lot of mediaeval guilds or trades 
 unions, all now close corporations and immensely 
 wealthy. Every alderman must be a member of 
 one of these guilds, and the Lord Mayor is chosen 
 by the guilds from among the members of the 
 Board of Aldermen. Of the revenues and expend- 
 itures of the various guilds and of the city itself 
 the public knows very little, but as both guilds 
 and city own valuable landed estates and enjoy 
 various lucrative monopolies, the amounts they 
 handle must be very great. It is certain that 
 very large sums are spent annually in feasting 
 and display and in the entertainment of distin- 
 guished visitors. 
 
 Seen from a distance London is noticeable for 
 the great number of church towers and spires it 
 presents. In the midst of all rises conspicuously 
 the great dome of St. Paul's. On the river 
 Thames, which flows through London from west to 
 east, at the eastern extremity of the original city, 
 stands the Tower of London, an ancient fortress 
 with a great square tower surmounted by a turret 
 at each corner, and which forms a conspicuous 
 landmark. Midway between the Tower and St. 
 
GENERAL PLAN OF LONDON. 263 
 
 Paul's stand in a group the Bank of England, 
 the Eoyal Exchange and the Mansion House, the 
 latter the ofhcial residence of the Lord Mayor. 
 This locality, popularly known as ''the Bank," is 
 regarded as the business center of London, and the 
 lines of omnibuses that make it a starting point 
 are almost innumerable. The main thorough- 
 fare connecting the Bank with St. Paul's is the 
 historic Cheapside, perhaps the busiest street to 
 be found anywhere. A little north of Cheapside, 
 and at the head of a short street opening into it, 
 stands GuildhaU, the city hall of London, the 
 great banqueting hall of which is a fine old 
 Gfothic edifice of about the fourteenth century. 
 At St. Paul's the great artery of travel divides 
 into two, the most southerly, or that lying near- 
 est the river being known in successive sections 
 as Ludgate Hill, Fleet Street and the Strand. 
 The dividing line between Fleet street and the 
 Strand was formerly marked by Temple Bar, a 
 stone gateway, originally one of the gates of the 
 city, but which was pulled down a year or two 
 ago as a useless incumbrance. Between the site 
 of Temple Bar and the river lie the extensive 
 range of buildings occupied exclusively by law- 
 yers, known as the Temple, and just across the 
 street is an immense structure just being com- 
 pleted for the Law Courts, which will be here 
 concentrated. 
 
264 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. , 
 
 The Strand terminates westwardly in Charing 
 Cross, a business centre second only in import- 
 ance to the Bank. Here is located the American 
 Exchange, before referred to, important railway 
 stations, and several large hotels. A few rods 
 still further west is Trafalgar Square, with the 
 Nelson column in its midst, the north side of the 
 square being bounded by the National gallery, 
 the great picture gallery of the British nation. 
 From this point a street known as Whitehall 
 leads southw^esterly to Westminister Abbey and 
 the Houses of Parliament on the banks of the 
 Thames, and another street continuing more west- 
 erly, and known as Pall Mall, contains most of the 
 famous clubs of London. But the main current of 
 travel does not follow Whitehall or Pall Mall, 
 but continues westward on Piccadilly, a street a 
 few blocks farther north. Then we come to the 
 parks — Hyde park. Green park and St. James' s, 
 about which cluster the fashion and aristocracy 
 of London. At the w^estern extremity of St. 
 James's park stands Buckingham palace, the 
 Queen's London residence, and around the park 
 are the residences of the Prince of Wales and the 
 offices of the war, navy and foreign departments 
 of the British government. 
 
 What some of the fashionable thoroughfares of 
 our northern- cities are in times of good sleighing, 
 such, for a crowd of pleasure drivers, is Hyde 
 
THE WEST END. 265 
 
 Park every afternoon in the year. All the aris- 
 tocracy turn out for an hour or two after four 
 o'clock, and the drives are one mass of horses 
 and carriages, numbering many hundreds, if not 
 thousands. The more stylish have their coach- 
 man with curled wig and footmen with powdered 
 hair, all in livery to match the upholstering of 
 the carriage. About five o'clock the word is 
 given by the police, and a way is opened through 
 the crowd of vehicles, for the carriage of the 
 Princess of Wales, who, usually accompanied 
 by her little family,' makes a few turns around 
 the park. The Princess is beautiful and popular, 
 and her daily ride is a continuous ovation. 
 
 The other thoroughfare westward from St. 
 Paul's first passes the General Postoffice, then 
 Christ's Hospital, or the Bluecoat school, 'a pub- 
 lic school founded some three hundred years 
 ago, and the pupils of which still dress in the 
 peculiar costume of the period of its establish- 
 lishment — long blue gowns and yellow stockings, 
 with no hats, whence the popular name of the 
 school — then Newgate prison, beyond which the 
 street is known as Holborn, and still further 
 westward as Oxford street, one of the principal 
 retail business streets of London. At the extrem- 
 ity of Oxford street formerly existed the locality 
 known as Tyburn, where so many hundreds of 
 people used to be hanged for offenses that in the 
 
266 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 present day are condoned by a few months' 
 imprisonment. A few blocks north of Newgate 
 is the great central meat market of London, 
 Smithfield, the place where protestant heretics 
 were roasted at the stake in Queen Mary's reign, 
 three hundred and thirty years ago. 
 
 Bunning north and south, and intersecting 
 Oxford street and Piccadilly, is fashionable 
 Regent street, where the best of everything can be 
 purchased at about double Oxford street prices. 
 
 Above Westminster, on the north bank of the 
 Thames, is Chelsea, the late home of Thomas Car- 
 lyle and many other literary celebrities. Oppo- 
 site Westminster is Lambeth palace, the residence 
 of the Archbishop of Canterbury ; and still far- 
 ther down, on the south side of the river, the 
 populous section of London known as South wark. 
 
 The Thames is crossed by a number of fine 
 stone and iron bridges, that lowest down the river, 
 London Bridge, being located about midway 
 between the Tower and St. Paul's. Below this 
 are the several extensive dock yards and all the 
 shipping trade, for only small barges and omnibus 
 steamers pass above London Bridge. 
 
CHAPTER XXYIII. 
 
 THE TOWER OF LONDON-THE CITY LIBRARY-ST. PAUL'S-THE 
 THAMES EMBANKMENT— A RELIC OF FRANKLIN— WHITEHALL 
 —THE HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT— WESTMINSTER ABBEY. 
 
 ^ Londoners are apt to langli when one 
 W^ talks of visiting tlie Tower of London, 
 O affecting to regard tlie old castle as only 
 a sort of show place for children. But they do 
 it injustice. The castle itself, as an old Norman, 
 structure of the time of William the Conqueror 
 — eight centuries old — and as the scene of the 
 imprisonment and tragic death of Anne Boleyn, 
 Lady Jane Grey and many other notable charac- 
 ters in history, is certainly an object of interest ; 
 but besides this, it contains one of the most com- 
 plete museums of ancient arms and armor that 
 can perhaps be found anywhere, and which well 
 repays a visit. Here also may be seen the royal 
 crown and other crown jewels of England, the 
 whole valued at a fabulous amount. A great 
 improvement has been introduced since my last 
 visit, in permitting visitors to go about unat- 
 tended by guides, and to stay as long as they 
 choose. Formerly they were conducted through 
 in parties, and given no time for the careful 
 examination of anything. 
 
268 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 In connection with Guildhall, the municipal 
 headquarters of the city of London, there is a 
 large free library and a very interesting museum, 
 the latter comprising solely London antiquities. 
 Here are sculptures, mosaics, ornaments, tools, 
 pottery, household utensils, and even shoes, of 
 the Roman period, all found at different times in 
 excavations made in the city. Of their Roman 
 origin there can be no doubt, but it is remarkable 
 how many of the articles, as knives, spoons, nails, 
 tweezers, and other manufactures of metal, resem- 
 ble those of the present day. In a former chapter 
 was mentioned a breech-loading gun, seen in a 
 museum at Bale, and quite like a modern gun in 
 its construction, yet made two hundred and fifty 
 years ago. In the museum connected with the 
 London Free Library is a copy of the London 
 Farthing Post, of January 15, 1739, and yet it is 
 popularly supposed that_the cheap press is a pro- 
 duct wholly of the present generation. But, 
 more wonderful yet, there are seen in the same 
 museum safety pins precisely such as are now 
 in general use by ladies and infants, but made 
 and used by the Romans near two thousand 
 years ago. Truly, there is nothing new under 
 the sun. 
 
 After seeing St. Peter's at Rome, St. Paul's, 
 which is in great measure modeled after it, loses 
 greatly in interest. Exteriorly I think it the 
 
ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL. 269 
 
 superior of St. Peter's, but within it is not nearly 
 so imposing. It is, nevertheless, claimed to be 
 the largest Protestant church in the world. In 
 the churchyard may be seen some remains of old 
 St. Paul' s, a large Norman or Gothic church built 
 under William the Conqueror, and destroyed in 
 the great fire of London in 1666. Six years later 
 Sir Christopher Wren was employed to rebuild 
 the structure, which he completed in 1710, and it 
 is no doubt his most meritorious achievement. 
 
 While Westminster Abbey contains principally 
 the monuments of England's literati and states- 
 men, St. Paul's is more particularly devoted to 
 the tombs of her artists and warriors. In the 
 crypt lie the remains of kelson, Wellington, and 
 Sir John Moore, with a great number of less dis- 
 tinguished naval and military officers, together 
 vdth those of Sir Christopher Wren, the archi- 
 tect, Joshua Reynolds, J. M. W. Turner, Benja- 
 min West, Edwin Landseer, and other noted 
 painters, besides those of Dr. Samuel Johnson, 
 . Bishox3 Heber, the author of 
 
 "From Greenland's Icy Mountains," 
 
 Dean Milman, the historian, Howard, the philan- 
 thropist, etc. The [monuments, chiefly of white 
 marble, are ruined by the dust and smoke that 
 defiles them, and are anything but objects of 
 beauty. For sixpence we descend to the crypt, 
 where is to be seen Wellington' s funeral car, con- 
 
270 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 structed wholly from captured brass cannon, and 
 weighing several tons. Ascending to the base of 
 the dome, we find ourselves in what is known as 
 the whispering gallery, so called because, when 
 all is quiet outside, the faintest whisper uttered 
 on one side of the immense circular structure is 
 distinctly heard at the other, one hundred and 
 forty feet away. We still ascend higher to the 
 summit of the dome, where a gallery, known as 
 the golden gallery, two hundred and ninety feet 
 from the ground, commands the finest birds-eye 
 view of London obtainable. St. Paul's is too well 
 known to the average reader from the prints of it, 
 which are so common, to require any more 
 minute description here. 
 
 Among the finest of the public improvements 
 effected by the Metropolitan Board of Works is 
 the well-known Thames Embankment. The river 
 Thames rises and falls with the tides some twelve 
 or fifteen feet. At low water there were formerly 
 on each side of the river great beds of mud, hun- 
 dreds of feet in width, but which were entirely 
 covered at high water. Now, heavy stone walls 
 have been built at the line of the low water 
 channel, and the space at the back has been filled 
 up and improved as a park. The houses that form- 
 erly bordered the river now stand one or two hun- 
 dred yards inland, and look down upon brilliant 
 flower beds, green shrubbery, neat gravel walks, 
 
A RELIC OF FRANKLIN. 271 
 
 and statues of eminent personages. The Egyp- 
 tian obelisk, brought to England a few years ago 
 at so much cost, is also one of the adornments of 
 the Thames Embankment. 
 
 Starting out for a walk on the Embankment 
 one evening, I turned down Craven street from 
 the Strand, when on one of the houses, No. 7, 
 a circular tablet caught my eye. It bore this 
 inscription : 
 
 HERE LIVED 
 
 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, 
 
 PRINTER. 
 
 Born 1706. 
 Died 1790. 
 
 Parton, in his life of Franklin, mentions his 
 residing at No. 7 Craven street in 1757, when on 
 a mission from the colony of Pennsylvania to the 
 Penn family and the British government of that 
 day. ''His landlady," says Parton, "was Mrs. 
 Margaret Stevenson, one of the most amiable of 
 women, with whom and her daughter he soon 
 contracted a friendship which was warmly cher- 
 ished on both sides as long as he lived. At 
 Mrs. Stevenson's house he enjoyed, during his 
 long exile, all of a home which can be enjoyed 
 away from home." He lived in considerable style 
 in London, and finding the hackney coaches 
 dilapidated and inconvenient he set up a modest 
 chariot of his own. His son William, who was 
 
272 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 with him, entered the Middle Temple as a student 
 of law. One can hardly turn anywhere in Lon- 
 don without stumbling upon some such historic 
 locality. 
 
 Relics of the olden times are very numerous. 
 On some of the fashionable streets in the "West 
 End" almost every house still retains the posts 
 or brackets and frames which once held the oil 
 lamps with which the doorways were lighted 
 before the discovery of gas. More curious still 
 are the great iron extinguishers which project 
 from the porticoes or iron fences in front of the 
 honses, and which were used for the putting out 
 of the torches of the link boys who walked before 
 and lighted the way for the sedan chairs, in which 
 our ancestors went out to balls and parties before 
 the paving of the streets made the use of carriages 
 practicable. No one seems to think of destroy- 
 ing these things because they cease to be useful. 
 Another old-time relic is an occasional plank ele- 
 vated about four feet from the sidewalk on iron 
 posts on the line of the curbstone, its humane 
 object being the affording of a resting place for 
 burdens carried by men and boys, before the days 
 of trucks and express wagons. 
 
 I alluded above to Whitehall, a thoroughfare 
 connecting Charing Cross with Westminster. 
 This is a notable street. On the left we first pass 
 Scotland Yard, the headquarters of the London 
 
WHITEHALL. 273 
 
 detective police. A little further on is the Ban- 
 queting House, the only remaining portion of 
 Whitehall palace, the principal London resi- 
 dence of the Stuarts. From one of the windows 
 of this Banqueting House Charles I. was led out 
 to execution two hundred and thirty-two years 
 ago. The building is now used as one of the 
 royal chapels. Its interior is plain and old-fash- 
 ioned, with high pews, and one especially large 
 one surmounted by a canopy and gilded crown 
 for the use of the royal family. The audience on 
 the occasion of our visit was thin and the services 
 not particularly imjposing. 
 
 Nearly opposite is the Admiralty, or navy 
 department, an old-fashioned building with a 
 court yard. Just beyond are the Horse Guards 
 or military headquarters, in front of which two 
 cavalry soldiers in full dress, with steel breast- 
 plates and helmets, constantly stand guard, both 
 men and horses so motionless as almost to lead 
 one to believe they are equestrian statues. Still 
 further on a short street branches to the right, 
 separating the treasury department from the 
 immense and imposing pile of buildings erected 
 a few years ago for the foreign and home depart- 
 ments. This is the famous Downing street, which 
 we see so often referred to in English despatches 
 in connection with diplomatic afPairs Another 
 
 block and the Houses of Parliament, or, more 
 18 - ' 
 
274 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 correctly speaking, the Palace of Westminster, is 
 reached. One wonders to what purpose such 
 extensive premises can be put, especially in view 
 of the very small and inadequate quarters that 
 are allotted to the two legislative bodies. Our 
 Congress would not put up with such accommo- 
 dations for a single session. Most of our western 
 state legislatures are incomparably better housed. 
 The chambers are small, gloomy and inconve- 
 nient, notwithstanding that a sum equal to $15,- 
 000,000 was spent upon them. There are scarcely 
 seats sufficient for half the members, and none 
 are provided with desks of any sort. The gal- 
 leries, too, are very small, and only a very limited 
 number of visitors can be accommodated to listen 
 to even the most important debates. IN'othing 
 could be more absurdly inconvenient and una- 
 dapted to its purpose. 
 
 Viewed from the exterior the building is very 
 large, imposing and rich in its ornamentations. 
 In fact it is so large that it has entirely dwarfed 
 and spoiled the effect of Westminster Abbey, 
 which it almost adjoins. Although it has not 
 yet been completed for forty years, the finely 
 carved stone work is showing seriously the effect 
 of decay, and already in places the work of restor- 
 ation has begun. 
 
 On each Saturday the public are admitted to 
 the principal rooms in the building. The first 
 
THE HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT. 275 
 
 large room we enter contains a gilded throne and 
 is known as the Queen's Eobing Koom. From 
 this we pass to the Royal Gallery, a long room 
 through which the Queen passes in state to the 
 House of Lords to open or prorogue parliament. 
 Then another large ante-room called the Prince's 
 Chamber. The next room of the suite is the 
 House of Lords, which is ninety feet long by 
 forty-five wide. At one end is the royal throne, 
 in the middle the seats for the members, and at 
 the other end a small space beyond the bar for 
 the members of the House of Commons who are 
 summoned hither when the queen attends for the 
 purposes mentioned above. No seats are pro- 
 vided for the Commons, and the space allotted 
 them will certainly not accommodate a fourth of 
 their number. Continuing our walk, we pass to 
 the Peers' Lobby, from which, at one side, the 
 Peers' E-obing Room opens, in which is a famous 
 fresco painting of Moses giving the law to the 
 Israelites, the peculiarity of it being that the 
 painter, Mr. J. R. Herbert, with true British 
 fidelity, visited Arabia and made sketches from 
 Mount Sinai itself from which to paint his moun- 
 tain ; and all the characters in the picture, both 
 in feature and dress, are equally exact represent- 
 ations of the people of that region. This is true 
 art. 
 
 Continuing on in a right line we pass from the 
 
276 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 Peers' Lobby to the Peers' Corridor, and from 
 this to the great central octagonal hall of the 
 building. From this we pass to the Commons' 
 Corridor, Commons' Lobby, and House of Com- 
 mons, which latter is a sixth smaller than the 
 House of Lords. All these rooms are rich with 
 carved oak, stained Windows, and frescoes, the 
 pictures being portraits of the kings and queens 
 of England and notable scenes in English history. 
 It is all rich and costly, but is dingy and unim- 
 posing. From the Central Hall we pass through 
 St. Stephen's Hall, a building occupying the 
 exact site of the old St. Stephen's Chapel, in 
 which Parliament sat up to the time of its 
 destruction by fire in 1834. This brings us to 
 what is really the finest part of the entire struc- 
 ture, old Westminster Hall, built nearly eight 
 hundred years ago, and long regarded as the 
 finest old mediaeval hall in Europe. In it have 
 taken place most of the famous state trials, and 
 in other ways it is peculiarly identified with 
 English history. 
 
 Just across the street is Westminster Abbey, 
 one of the most famous churches in Europe. It 
 was built by King Edward the Confessor, about 
 eight hundred and fifty years ago, and rebuilt by 
 Henry III. at the period when Gothic architecture 
 was at the zenith of its purity and excellence. It 
 is not one of the larger churches of England, 
 
WESTMINSTER ABBEY. 277 
 
 being only three hundred and seventy-five feet 
 long, but it is very lofty and imposing. Its chief 
 interest, however, attaches to its being the burial 
 place of a large number of the English kings, 
 together with the great men in literature and 
 statesmanship through a long period of England's 
 history. The earlier tombs are, of course, in a 
 decayed and ruinous condition, and few possess 
 any artistic beauty. Fifteen English monarchs 
 are interred here, including Edward the Confes- 
 sor, Richard II., Henry III., Henry Y. and 
 Henry YII., Edward I., Edward III. and Edward 
 YI., Mary, Elizabeth, James I., Charles II., 
 William III., Anne, and George II. Oliver 
 Cromwell was formerly buried here, but his 
 remains were exhumed and destroyed at the Res- 
 toration. Mary Queen of Scots also sleeps here 
 in a tomb equal in elegance to that of her rival, 
 Elizabeth. Here lie also two of Henry YIII.'s 
 six wives, Jane Seymour and Anne of Cleves. 
 
 These royal tombs are mostly in the chapels 
 which surround the choir. The south transept is 
 known as Poet' s Corner, and here are monuments 
 to Chaucer, the earliest English poet, Spenser, 
 Shakspeare, Ben Jonson, Milton, Addison, Dr. 
 Watts, the hymn writer, Garrick, the actor, John 
 and Charles Wesley, Gray, Southey, Campbell, 
 Sheridan the dramatist. Dr. Johnson, Thomson, 
 Goldsmith, Dickens, Macaulay, Wordsworth, 
 
278 FIVE MOKTHS ABROAD. 
 
 Thackeray, and many other famous poets and 
 authors, most of whom are actually buried here. 
 In the north transept are collected most of the 
 monuments of the statesmen buried in the abbey, 
 which include William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, 
 the friend of America at our Revolutionary 
 period, William Pitt the younger, whose states- 
 manship proved more than a match for Napo- 
 leon's military genius, Charles James Fox, Spen- 
 cer Percival, the prime minister who was assassi- 
 nated in 1812, Warren Hastings, George Canning, 
 Lord Palmerston, Lord Mansfield, the eminent 
 jurist, Richard Cobden, the father of English free 
 trade, William Wilberforce and Thomas Powell 
 Buxton the leaders in the movement which abol- 
 ished slavery in the British colonies, and others 
 less widely known. Among other interesting 
 monuments scattered over the abbey are those of 
 the Duke of Buckingham, the favorite of James 
 I. ; Gen. Monck, who, as commander of the army, 
 abolished the Cromwellian republic and restored 
 the monarchy by placing Charles II. on the 
 throne ; James Watt, the perfecter of the steam 
 engine ; Gen. Wolfe, the hero of Quebec ; Mrs. 
 Siddons, the great actress ; Sir John Franklin, 
 who was lost in the Arctic regions ; Admiral 
 Kempenfelt, who went down with the British 
 man-of-war, the Royal George, with her crew of 
 nearly nine hundred men off Spithead in 1782 — a 
 
MONUMENTS IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY. 279 
 
 similar case to the Eurydice of a year or two ago ; 
 Isaac JSTewton ; Herschel, the astronomer ; Robert 
 Stevenson, the engineer who built the Victoria 
 bridge at Montreal ; Major Andre, the British spy 
 hanged by Washington ; and the musical compos- 
 ers, Handel, John Blow, and William Croft. 
 
 Some of the abbey monuments are old-fash- 
 ioned and ugly tablets fastened upon the wall. 
 Some of the more modern consist of statuary por- 
 traits of the deceased. Those of the period of the 
 Stuarts are often of stone, painted in various 
 bright colors, and the more pretentious royal 
 tombs generally have an effigy of the deceased 
 with an elaborate stone canopy overhead, sup- 
 ported by marble columns. All look very dingy. 
 
 In Westminster Abbey all the sovereigns of 
 England are crowned ; and here is seen the shabby 
 old chair which for nearly six hundred years has 
 done duty on such occasions. The sovereigns of 
 Scotland for an even longer period were crowned 
 sitting on a stone, reputed to be the veritable one 
 on which Jacob rested his head when he had his 
 famous vision of angels ascending and descending 
 from heaven at Bethel. When the two kingdoms 
 were united the stone was fitted into the seat of 
 the coronation chair, so that both stone and chair 
 have since been simultaneously occupied. 
 
 The visitor to the abbey must not pass by the 
 Chapter House, formerly the council room of 
 
280 
 
 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 the authorities of the abbey, but for three hun- 
 dred years used for the sittings of the British 
 House of Commons. In 1547 the Commons were 
 removed to St. Stephen's Chapel, alluded to 
 above, and since then down to a recent period the 
 Chapter House has been used for the storage of 
 public documents. It has lately been entirely 
 restored and now serves as a museum of antiqui- 
 ties connected with the abbey. It is octagonal in 
 form with a stone vaulted ceiling, in common, in 
 this respect, with every other part of the abbey. 
 On Mondays every part of the church is open 
 free to the public, but on other days sixpence is 
 charged for admission to the chapels. As in all 
 cathedrals full choral services are held twice each 
 day, at ten and three o'clock. On Sunday even- 
 ings there is also a service in the nave at which 
 sermons are delivered by the ablest preachers in 
 the kingdom to immense crowds. 
 
 THE TOWER OF LONDON, 
 
CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 LONDON AND ART-THE BRITISH MUSEUM— THE NATIONAL GAL- 
 LERY—THE GREAT FLEMISH, DUTCH AND GERMAN MASTERS 
 —THE SOUTH KENSINGTON MUSEUM. 
 
 Cli FAMOUS institution is the British Museum. 
 Jfk It began in 1753 with a large collection of 
 ^' I V curiosities and antiquities brought together 
 during his lifetime by Sir Hans Sloane, and pur- 
 chased after his death by the government. To 
 this collection additions were rapidly made by 
 purchase and donation. Among the larger gifts 
 was that of the extensive library collected during 
 his long lifetime by King George III., and which 
 his pleasure-loving successor, George lY., having 
 no use for, got rid of by presenting it to the 
 museum. When a nucleus is once formed for 
 such a collection is is astonishing how rapidly 
 accumulation goes on. Forty years ago it was 
 found necessary to rebuild on a much larger 
 scale the premises occupied by the museum, and 
 these becoming again overcrowded, the later policy 
 has been to transfer to other museums certain 
 portions of the collection, so as to leave this insti- 
 tution almost purely a museum of antiquities and 
 library of books. The latest removal has been 
 
282 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 that of the extensive natural history collection, 
 which has been transferred to a building erected 
 especially for its reception at South Kensington, 
 in the west end of London. Under the operation 
 of the copyright law a copy of every new book 
 published in Great Britain must be deposited in 
 the British Museum, and this, with the large 
 resources of the management, which enables them 
 to be constantly on the search for rare and valu- 
 able books, has resulted in making the library of 
 the museum, with but one exception, the largest 
 in the world. And this magnificent library is 
 open free to everybody, the only requirement 
 being the recommendation of a householder or 
 person whose name is found in the city directory 
 of London. No books are allowed to be taken 
 from the library, but every convenience is afforded 
 for reading and copying on the premises. The 
 library is very rich also in manuscripts, con- 
 taining, among other rare treasures, one of the 
 three oldest manuscript copies of the bible in 
 existence, the Codex Alexandrinus, written on 
 vellum nearly fifteen hundred years ago. It is 
 preserved in a glass case. There is also a copy 
 of the Latin Vulgate of nearly eleven centuries 
 antiquity. Here also may be seen in glass cases 
 a rich collection of Egyptian papyri and ancient 
 and oriental books, some written on sheets of gold, 
 some on cloth, ivory, birch bark, palm leaves, 
 
THE BRITISH MUSEUM LIBRARY. 283 
 
 etc., in a great variety of forms. In other cases 
 are mediseval books beautifully written on parch- 
 ment or vellum, and adorned with brilliant water 
 color paintings and illuminations. In still other 
 cases are autograph letters of a great number of 
 eminent men, including Luther, Calvin, Cranmer, 
 Wolsey, Knox, Raleigh, Bacon, Hampden, Pen^, 
 Newton, Durer, Rubens, Galileo, Yoltaire, Swift, 
 Addison, Burke, Pitt, Fox, Washington, Frank- 
 lin, Wellington, Nelson, Whitefield, Goethe, Shel- 
 ley, Handel and a great many more, all arranged 
 so that they may be easily read and examined. 
 In this autographic collection most of the kings 
 and queens of England are represented, and if 
 Queen Mary saw the letter of Lady Jane Grey 
 here exhibited it is not to be wondered at that 
 she took oif her head, for in it she alludes to the 
 "Lady Marye, bastard daughter to our greiat 
 uncle Henry th' eight." 
 
 In this library there has also been collected a 
 great number of maps, drawings and prints illus- 
 trating the changes that have taken place in the 
 geography and architecture of London, beginning 
 at a very early period. This suggests that in 
 every city collections of such maps, plans, draw- 
 ings and photographs should be preserved. 
 
 In another room of the library are exhibited 
 early printed books, from the period when an 
 entire page used to be engraved on a single block 
 
284 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 of wood, these being known as block books, down 
 to the perfection of the art by Gutenburg, with 
 specimens of his work, as well as that of Faust, 
 Schoeffer and Caxton. 
 
 In another department of the British Museum 
 there are collected copies of every known print or 
 engraving that has ever been published, the work 
 of any artist of note. Some of these when very 
 rare have been acquired at fabulous cost. They 
 are all carefully mounted on thick paper of uni- 
 form size, properly classified and arranged, and 
 preserved in portfolios for the use of artists or 
 connoisseurs who may wish to examine them. 
 
 But the department of the museum that is most 
 visited by the general public is that of the anti- 
 quities. In Assyrian and Babylonian remains no 
 other museum contains anything like so rich a col- 
 lection; as the researches in the valleys of the 
 Tigris and Euphrates have been carried on mainly 
 by English explorers, and to a large extent in 
 direct behalf of the British Museum. It is won- 
 derful how much may be learned of the very earli- 
 est civilization from these resurrected sculptures, 
 inscriptions, pictures and implements. The 
 Egyptian collection is perhaps somewhat inferior 
 to that of the Louvre in Paris, as the French did 
 for Egypt what England has done for Assyria ; 
 but the British Museum nevertheless contains the 
 richest prize known to Egyptology in the Rosetta 
 
THE ELGIN MARBLES. 285 
 
 stone, the sole key to the deciphering of the 
 Egyptian hieroglyphic records. It is a slab of 
 stone about the size of the top of a small table 
 with an inscription upon it in three different lan- 
 guages, Egyptian hieroglyphic, Coptic and Greek. 
 The Greek being of course understood, the hiero- 
 glyphics were easily unraveled. 
 
 Passing to the Grecian department we again 
 find the rarest treasures in the sculptures which 
 formerly adorned the pediments of the famous 
 Parthenon at Athens, and which are believed to 
 be the work of Phidias, the greatest of ancient 
 sculptors. These are/ known as the Elgin mar- 
 bles, because brought to England by Lord Elgin 
 while minister to Turkey. They are esteemed as 
 priceless treasures. There are also to be seen 
 here many sculptured fragments from the famous 
 tomb of Mausolus, reckoned by the ancients one 
 of the seven wonders of the world. 
 
 In Roman antiquities, of course the galleries at 
 Rome are superior in extent and richness, but, 
 taken altogether, the British Museum is quite the 
 peer of the Louvre and the Vatican in the inter- 
 esting character of its antique treasures. 
 
 This leads me to remark, by way of generaliz- 
 ing, that the museums and galleries of London 
 are, as a rule, more satisfactory to visitors than 
 those found on the continent, because more care- 
 fully selected and better arranged, and less over- 
 
286 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 loaded with rubbish. And all the great English 
 galleries and mnseums are entirely free to the 
 public. Thus, of all the galleries of old jDaintings 
 I have seen, I like the National Gallery the best, 
 for these reasons : 1. It is not so extensive, the 
 pictures are more carefully selected, and one has 
 not to search among a score of very ordinary pic- 
 tures for every one worth examination. 2. Most 
 of the pictures are exhibited under glass, by 
 which means they are kept clean and bright ; and 
 every picture is labeled, both with the subject and 
 the name of the artist, with the years of his 
 birth and death. 3. The rooms, having been con- 
 structed especially for the purpose they are used 
 for, are much better lighted, and the pictures 
 every way seen to better advantage, than in any 
 gallery in Kome, Florence, or Paris. 4. As a 
 rule, all the great painters are represented by 
 excellent specimens of their work. 5. The cata- 
 logues contain satisfactory sketches of the lives 
 of the painters, and, where necessary, descrip- 
 tions of the pictures. Altogether one derives in 
 London a more intelligent and satisfactory intro- 
 duction to the great masters, with less wearisome 
 labor, than anywhere else. 
 
 The National Gallery was founded in 1824, and 
 now contains about eleven hundred choice paint- 
 ings in oil. Of these over four hundred are of 
 the British school, and are as a rule a delightful 
 
BRITISH PAINTERS. 287 
 
 lot of pictures. Instead of tortured martyrs, 
 bloody heads of Medusa, or simpering nude 
 figures such, as have been so much affected by the 
 continental painters, here we have delicious rural 
 landscapes, glorious marine views, wonderfully 
 life-like animals, and charming genre pictures, 
 displaying more real genius than all tlie saints 
 and madonnas of the old masters put together. 
 
 Four of the so-called British painters here rep- 
 resented were really Americans, viz : Benjamin 
 West, died 1820, J. S. Copley, 1815, Gilbert 
 Stuart, 1828, and C. R. Leslie, 1859. The picture 
 of West's exhibited at our Centennial was very 
 far from being one of his best. In '^Christ Heal- 
 ing the Sick," in the National Gallery, his Christ, 
 for softness and beauty, is quite worthy of 
 Murillo. 
 
 For quiet landscapes Patrick Nasmyth, who 
 died in 1831, leads all others, though John Con- 
 stable, 1834, is perhaps quite as famous. For 
 marine views none can approach Clarkson Stan- 
 field, who himself began life as a sailor. He died 
 in 1867. The best genre painters — by which we 
 mean delineators of ordinary scenes in every day 
 life— are Sir David Wilkie, 1841, and Wm. Mul- 
 ready, 1863. As animal painters I can hardly 
 choose between Sir Edwin Landseer, who died in 
 1873, and Sir T. Sidney Coojjer, who is still living. 
 Leslie, alluded to above, seems to have excelled 
 in his character delineations. 
 
288 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 But the most famous painter in this gallery is 
 J. M. W. Turner, who died in 1851, and left his 
 large collection of paintings to the British nation. 
 At a first glance Turner's pictures are noticeable 
 for their brilliancy. Inspected more closely, one 
 hardly knows what to make of them, and almost 
 doubts if *their hanging there be not a huge joke. 
 He looks at one closely, and finds it only a mass 
 of white paint thickly laid on, with little daubs 
 of color here and there. Likeness of anything, 
 in either heaven above or in the earth beneath, it 
 is impossible to distinguish. He crosses the room 
 and takes a distant view of it, but it is no more 
 a picture than before. It expresses nothing but 
 a great uncertainty. And this is the general 
 character of all the later pictures of this remark- 
 able artist, whose works are so much prized. Of 
 course all his paintings are not equally obscure. 
 Turner made his reputation in the first instance 
 upon the great care and fidelity with which his 
 pictures were worked up. Then he began in later 
 life to sacrifice careful drawing to briUiancy of 
 coloring, and toward the close of his career he 
 seems to have aimed at seeing how little of repre- 
 sentation of anything he could produce and still 
 have it pass for a picture. The connoisseur of 
 course pretends to think his works very beau- 
 tiful, but I am quite sure that nine hundred and 
 ninety-nine out of every one thousand of my 
 
TURNER'S PICTURES. 289 
 
 readers wonld pronounce Turner an arrant hum- 
 bug. Still, it is interesting to sit down for an 
 hour and examine pictures that are so highly 
 valued. What is a picture? Webster says, '*a 
 resemblance in color." The nearer the resem- 
 blance, therefore, of course the better the picture, 
 and I am unable to see how any amount of skill 
 in laying on the color can compensate for defi- 
 ciencies in delineation. The nearer the approach 
 to nature, common sense would dictate, the more 
 meritorious the art. A picture that requires cul- 
 tivation to understand cannot by this rule be a 
 picture of the highest merit, though no doubt 
 people may work themselves up to a high esteem 
 for it, just as they do for ugly old porcelain and 
 rubbishing old furniture. I fancy there is very 
 much of this factitious taste in the admiration 
 that is expressed for the works of Turner as 
 well as for those of Titian and others of the old 
 masters. But I prefer pictures that everybody 
 can appreciate. 
 
 It may not be out of place to mention here the 
 names of some of the great German, Dutch and 
 Flemish masters, as those of France and Italy 
 have already been summed up in former chapters. 
 Perhaps the most famous of all is the Flemish or 
 Belgian painter, Peter Paul Rubens, who was 
 born in 1577 and died in 1G40. His pictures in 
 the various galleries of northern Europe are very 
 
 19 
 
290 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 numerous and his style so well defined that one 
 soon learns to pick out his works with tolerable 
 certainty. His subjects ^.re almost exclusively 
 historical scenes painted on large expanses of 
 canvas, with figures often life size, generally spir- 
 ited but frequently gross and indelicate and lack- 
 ing in grace and dignity. The next most eminent 
 Plemish painter is Yan Dyke (1599-1641). He 
 was particularly famous for his portraits. Then 
 comes David Teniers the elder (1582-1649) and 
 David Teniers the younger (1610-1690), both of 
 Antwerp, whose pictures are almost invariably 
 home-like country or village scenes, in which a 
 great number of figures are introduced. Unlike 
 those of Rubens the Teniers pictures are almost 
 invariably of comparatively small size. They, 
 too, are easily identified. 
 
 Of the Dutch or Holland masters, there are 
 Rembrandt (1606-1674), whose paintings are 
 remarkable chiefly for having most of their sur- 
 face very dark and obscure but some particular 
 portion brought out very strongly in high lights ; 
 Paul Potter (1625-1654) and Albert Cuyp (1605- 
 1691), both famous animal painters, particularly 
 of domestic cattle ; Ruysdaal (1630-1681) and 
 Hobbima (1629-1670), both delightful landscape 
 artists; Gerard Dow (1613-1680), a celebrated 
 genre painter ; Wm. Yan cle Yeldt (1633-1707), a 
 splendid marine painter ; Wouwerman (1619- 
 
THE ROYAL ACADEMY. 291 
 
 1668), an admirable delineator of horses and bat- 
 tle scenes, and others almost equally noted. 
 
 The German school numbers Jan Yan Eyck 
 (1390-1441), the inventor of oil colors; Albert 
 Durer (1471-1533), a masterly painter, but more 
 famous as an engraver, and Hans Holbein (1497- 
 1554), a painter chiefly of portraits. 
 
 What the Salon is to Paris the exhibition of 
 the Hoyal Academy is to London. The exhibi- 
 tion, which continues through the months of 
 May, June and July each year, last year (1881) 
 numbered about fifteen hundred pictures, all, of 
 course, new ones. While less extensive than the 
 French Salon, this exhibition is scarcely less 
 interesting, the modern British painters having 
 developed a high degree of perfection in certain 
 fields. Thus they seem particularly to excel as 
 animal j)ainters, as I have nowhere else seen such 
 life-like productions as in this country of Land- 
 seer. Landscapes, marine views, quiet genre pic- 
 tures, and perhaps I may add historical paint- 
 ings, seem t^ be also the forte of English artists. 
 IN'udities, which French painters seem to regard 
 as the highest achievement of art and in which 
 they certainly excel, the English painters do not 
 at all affect. I think there was scarcely one nude 
 figure in the entire catalogue of the Academy. 
 The French, I fancy, also excel in battle pieces ; 
 the English more in subjects that will admit of a 
 faithful reproduction of nature. 
 
292 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. -^ 
 
 In statuary the Frencli are no doubt incompar- 
 ably ahead of the English. Sculjpture seems to 
 find its best development in the warm countries 
 of southern Europe, while painting and architect- 
 ure improve as we advance northward. I think 
 there is a more painstaking fidelity to nature in 
 northern painters, and better conceptions of effect 
 in northern architects. The Italian painters of 
 all ages seem more to have cultivated the imagin- 
 ative, and their architects to have sacrificed every- 
 thing to immensity, in their productions. 
 
 Picture galleries are terribly wearisome places 
 for the legs, the standing for hours together being 
 the most tiring of occupations, but they may 
 nevertheless be made very interesting even to the 
 merest tyros in art. There is cultivation in 
 merely determining in one' s own mind which is 
 the best picture in a room full, and comparing 
 results with the conclusions of one's companions. 
 This tends no doubt to develop a critical observa- 
 tion. The peculiarities of painters may also soon 
 be learned, so that one with a little practice may 
 XDretty safely venture to name the artist without 
 referring to his catalogue. Of course this does 
 not apply to all painters, but the pictures of 
 Andrea del Sarto, Era Angelico, Ganaletto, 
 Murillo, Claude Loraine, Yernet, Teniers, and 
 some others, we soon learn to tell almost at a 
 glance. 
 
THE SOUTH KENSINGTON MUSEUM. 293 
 
 One of tlie outgrowths of the great interna- 
 tional exposition held in London in 1851 was the 
 South Kensington Museum. The exhibition itself 
 proved a stimulus to art-culture, and the profits 
 accruing from it formed a nucleus fund for the 
 establishment of this grand museum of arts and 
 sciences. The latter has grown with wonder- 
 ful rapidity, and provision is made for still 
 immense expansion in the future. The museum 
 occupies twelve acres of land in the west end of 
 London, upon which very extensive buildings — 
 some permanent, others only temporary— have 
 from time to time been erected. The scope of the 
 museum is mainly in the direction of art culture. 
 It embraces a large collection of models of famous 
 architectural works and casts of architectural 
 details, a very large collection of ceramics, a 
 ^reat variety and endless number of miscella- 
 neous objects of an art character, ancient and 
 modern, including bronzes, furniture, glassware, 
 jewelry, carved work, etc., and a very large col- 
 lection of drawings and paintings by British 
 artists. The large museum of East Indian curios- 
 ities formerly belonging to the East India Com- 
 pany, also occupies a suite of rooms at South 
 Kensington, and there are also extensive libraries 
 of works on educational and art topics. To care- 
 fully examine everything would take a week's 
 time at the very least. 
 
294 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 We first enter the National Portrait Gallery, 
 which, contains several hundred portraits and 
 busts of English celebrities from the earliest peri- 
 ods, and which very much resembles in character 
 the great gallery of portraits at Versailles, 
 described in a former chapter. These great por- 
 trait galleries are very interesting, and it is high 
 time that an American collection were begun at 
 our national capital, state collections at each 
 state capital, and local galleries at every import- 
 ant point. Ee tiring governors, mayors and 
 members of Congress ought to present their 
 portraits to such galleries, and search should be 
 made for old j^aintings, sketches, engravings and 
 photographs of the men who in the past have 
 been identified in any way with the history of the 
 commonwealth. 
 
 The gallery of miscellaneous pictures in the 
 South Kensington JMuseum is very extensive and 
 interesting. It is composed mainly of private col- 
 lections that have been bequeathed or presented to 
 the museum, and of pictures loaned to it. Among 
 the latter are the seven famous cartoons of 
 E-aphael, which long hung in Hampton Court 
 palace, and of which prints are so common. 
 There are also a number of choice pictures belong- 
 ing to the Royal Academy, some of the best 
 selected from the annual exhibitions, and pur- 
 chased from a fund provided for the purpose. 
 
THE NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM. 295 
 
 The bequests and donations include an immense 
 number of water colors and drawings by eminent 
 artists, and their examination is very enjoyable. 
 Besides pictures, some of these bequests include 
 valuable collections of autograph letters, notably 
 the Forster collection, which contains the original 
 manuscripts of several of Charles Dickens's most 
 important works, including David Copp'erfield, 
 Martin Chuzzlewit, Oliver Twist, and the Old 
 Curiosity Shop. These autograph collections are 
 of rare interest to all who are fond of history and 
 literature. 
 
 Connected with the South Kensington Museum 
 are art schools open to every one at the trilling 
 fee of about five dollars per month. 
 
 Near the South Kensington Museum is the new 
 Natural History Museum, the branch of the Brit- 
 ish Museum alluded to above. It is a very large 
 and beautiful building, with both inside and out- 
 side walls of terra cotta, and with much original- 
 ity in its design. It will probably be the com- 
 pletest thing of the kind in the world Avhen open 
 in all its branches, and, as in the South Kensing- 
 ton Museum, everything is so nicely labeled and 
 described that it is a pleasure to go through it. 
 I should have mentioned that all these museums 
 and galleries, that of the Royal Academy alone 
 excepted, are open free to the public, and thous- 
 ands visit them daily. 
 
CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 LONDON-THE WAX WORKS-CRYSTAL PALACE— ENGLISH TWI- 
 LIGHTS—LAW PRACTICE IN ENGLAND— LAND TENURES— LIM- 
 ITED LIABILITY COMPANIES-TEMPERANCE AND PROFANITY. 
 
 NE of tlie standard sights of London is 
 
 \tj Madame Tussaud's exhibition of wax works 
 in Baker street. The founder, Madame 
 Tassaud, was a Swiss artist, patronized by the 
 court of Louis XVI. of France. She w^as one of 
 the sufferers by the French revohition, and ulti- 
 mately took refuge in England, where she devoted 
 her artistic talents to the modeling of a series of 
 portrait figures in wax of the celebrities of her 
 day. At first her show was of the traveling 
 order, but it soon outgrew the capacity of the 
 means of conveyance of that period, and for 
 nearly half a century has been permanently 
 located in London. New figures are added from 
 time to time, and those which have lost interest 
 with the public, are removed to make room for 
 them. Conspicuous among the collection to-day 
 are the figure of the late President Garfield, those 
 of all the members of the royal family of Eng- 
 land, with the boyish-looking Marquis of Lome, 
 Mr. Grladstone, the principal participants in the 
 
MADAME TUSSAUD'S 297 
 
 Afghan war, the members of the famous Congress 
 of Berlin, and a great number of other public 
 characters, including Spurgeon, Baroness Bur- 
 dett-Coutts, John Bright, H. M. Stanley, Parnell, 
 the claimant in the Tichborne case, Bradlaugh, 
 etc., etc. But of fully equal interest is a fine 
 collection of all the kings of England and the 
 great men of past ages, as Wyckliffe, Wolsey, 
 Luther, Regent Murray, Calvin, Knox and many 
 others. Two entire rooms are devoted to the 
 Napoleon family and relics connected therewith, 
 including the veritable carriages that Napoleon I. 
 used at Waterloo, and that Napoleon III. was 
 captured in at Sedan. But one of the most inter- 
 esting objects exhibited is the knife of the original 
 guillotine used during the French revolution and 
 which took off the heads of Louis XVI., Marie 
 Antoinette, Madame Roland, Robespierre and 
 thousands of other famous and unknown French 
 men and women. 
 
 By the way, I admire the guillotine as a mode 
 of execution. It is instantaneous in its operation, 
 and blundering on the part of the executioner 
 is impossible. In each of the two upright posts 
 of the instrument there are two parallel grooves. 
 In the first is fitted the collar that encircles the 
 neck of the victim — the same being a board with 
 a round hole in it, cut into two sections, the 
 upper of which slides up in the grove to admit 
 
298 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 the head. In the other groove slides the heavy 
 knife with diagonal blade, which nicely shaves 
 off the head close to the wooden collar. ISTothing 
 could be more neat and satisfactory, and, if we 
 must perpetuate capital punishment, it will be a 
 great step in advance when we abolish the old 
 and barbarous gallows and adopt the product of 
 the higher French civilization, the guillotine. 
 
 My older readers will remember the great inter- 
 national industrial exhibition held in Hyde Park, 
 London, in 1851, the pioneer exhibition of the 
 kind. The building in which it was held, con- 
 structed wholly of iron and glass, was in its day 
 "unique. It covered a dozen or more acres of 
 ground, and when the exhibition was over was 
 purchased by some of the railway companies, in 
 connection with other capitalists, and removed to 
 a high hill at Sydenham, seven miles south of 
 London where, with two hundred acres of ground 
 attached to it, it was opened in 1854 as the Crystal 
 Palace, a grand place of public amusement. Two 
 railways run into stations directly connected with 
 the building, and the traffic this palace creates is 
 immense. A good share of the space in the struc- 
 ture is rented out to tradesmen for the exhibition 
 and sale of their wares, and to restaurateurs, 
 confectioners, beer sellers and others, who supply 
 refreshments to the multitudes of visitors. Then 
 there are casts of all the most famous statuary 
 
THE CRYSTAL PALACE. 299 
 
 in the world, casts of rare and beautiful pieces 
 ol architectural ornament from all countries, a 
 winter garden, ferneries, an aquarium, theater, 
 concert hall, great organ and other permanent 
 attractions. Besides these, temporary exhibitions 
 of all kinds are on from time to time. At the 
 time of our visit the specialties were a rose show, 
 and a display of woolen manufacturing machinery 
 in full operation. In a few weeks these would be 
 replaced by other novelties. There are also in 
 the building a great number of extra shows, to 
 which additional admission fees are charged, and 
 these change as their popularity declines. The 
 grounds outside are laid out in magnificent terraces 
 and gardens, with lakes and fountains, and plenty 
 of open space suitable for any outdoor exhibi- 
 tions that may be required. On each Thursday 
 evening during the summer season a grand dis- 
 play of fireworks is given, and these far surpass 
 any of our Fourth of July exhibitions at home. 
 Besides enormous set pieces of artistic design, 
 the other fireworks embrace many kinds wholly 
 unknown to us and some of surpassing beauty. 
 One set piece in particular enlisted our admira- 
 tion. It was a huge willow tree, fifty feet high, 
 the trunk and branches of which were outlined 
 in white light, while the drooping leaves and 
 smaller branches were represented by showers of 
 green sparks. The eJSect can be imagined, and 
 
800 FIVE MONTHS ABKOAD. 
 
 this illustrates the perfection to whicli pyrotechny 
 has been brought in England. The railroads sell 
 round trip tickets to the Crystal Palace, with 
 admission included, for about two shillings, or 
 forty-eight cents. 
 
 There are many other things in London worthy 
 of a visit, but which must be passed over briefly 
 here. Among these are the Regent's Park, 
 Zoological Gardens, the finest in the world ; Ken- 
 sington Palace, where Queen Victoria was born, 
 and Buckingham Palace, where she lives when 
 in London ; Hampton Court, a palace erected by 
 Cardinal Wolsey ; Chelsea Hospital, "thelnva- 
 lides" of London ; Greenwich Hospital, formerly 
 a palace, now an asylum for decayed seamen ; the 
 Botanical Gardens at Kew, some miles up the 
 Thames ; the immense docks of London, the sys- 
 tem of underground railways, the new law courts 
 in the Strand, the quaint old Inns of Court, and 
 many interesting churches, monuments, picture 
 galleries, and places of historic association. 
 
 Sunday evening services in the churches are 
 usually held at half -past six or seven o'clock, 
 instead of half -past seven or eight, as with us. 
 In hot summer evenings it is far preferable, as 
 thereby the use of gas is dispensed with, and 
 people have a long evening at home after church. 
 
 Owing to the much higher latitude, the summer 
 days in England are noticeably longer than with 
 
A COMPARISON OF LATITUDES. 301 
 
 US. In July it is light enougli to read at nine 
 o'clock in the evening and it is near ten before it 
 is fairly dark. Of course in the winter the days 
 are correspondingly short. If the reader has 
 never had his attention attracted to the fact, it 
 may surprise him to know that London in the 
 southern part of England is in a latitude higher 
 than any point in the United States, Alaska, of 
 course, excepted, being on about the i^arallel of 
 the northern edge of the Province of Manitoba. 
 Paris is in about the latitude of the northern 
 edge of Minnesota, Florence in about that 
 of Green Bay, Wis., and Rome about that of 
 Chicago. 
 
 A friend showed me one day a bill that a law- 
 yer had rendered for services in transferring a 
 lease of some property in London, the amount 
 being something over forty pounds sterling, or 
 about two hundred dollars — an amount very 
 nearly equaling the value of the lease itself. So 
 it is apparent that the legal profession is much 
 the same all the world over. The lawyers enjoy 
 the oyster, the clients must be content with the 
 shells. 
 
 Still, it is said, there is no such overplus of 
 lawyers in England as exists in America. Greater 
 restrictions are thrown about an entry at the bar 
 than with us. Instead of a couple of terms at a 
 law school putting a young snob on an equal 
 
302 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 footing with the old members of the profession, a 
 five years' apprenticeship in the ofiice of a prac- 
 ticing lawyer is required, and for the privilege of 
 thus learning, a premium of from one thousand 
 to two thousand dollars has to be paid to the said 
 lawyer, besides a stamp tax of about four hun- 
 dred dollars to the government. The student 
 during this ^\e years receives no compensation 
 for anything he may do, nor can he practice on 
 his own account till fully out of his time. Only 
 those, therefore, who can afford an immediate 
 payment of fifteen hundred to twenty-five hun- 
 dred dollars, and who can afford to spend five 
 years wholly without remuneration, can aspire to 
 the legal profession. During the five years, the 
 unworthy and incompetent are naturally culled 
 out, so that the English bar ranks far above ours 
 in both ability and respectability. 
 
 When out of his time the young lawyer is 
 licensed as a solicitor, and in this capacity is 
 qualified to advise clients, prepare cases for trial, 
 draw papers and perform other such functions ; 
 but the solicitor never appears in court. When 
 he has a case ready for trial it is turned over to a 
 barrister, a lawyer of a higher grade, who alone 
 is empowered to conduct trials. In the selection 
 of barristers there is, of course, another weeding 
 out, and thus the i)urity of the English bar is 
 maintained. Barristers of the highest repute are 
 
ENGLISH LAWYERS. 303 
 
 in due time promoted to the rank of queen's 
 counsel, and become benchers in the inns of court. 
 There is thus a constant avenue for advancement 
 open to every lawyer, and no one can afford to 
 jeopardize his future by shystering practice unless 
 he be a confirmed Quirk, Gammon or Snap. 
 
 Land tenure in England presents some curious 
 features. Originally all the land was assumed to 
 belong to the king, who granted it to his favor- 
 ites, but who exacted an acknowledgment of his 
 feudal ownership in the shape of fines to be paid 
 every time the property changed occupants by 
 descent or otherwise. In like manner these ten- 
 ants-in-chief granted lands in smaller subdivisions 
 to their retainers, exacting similar fines at each 
 transfer of ownership. And this system very 
 largely continues to the present day, the title 
 under it being known as *' copyhold." Gradu- 
 ally, however, a ''freehold" system like our own 
 is becoming more general. 
 
 All over England there are large tracts of wood 
 land known as royal forests, originally the hunt- 
 ing grounds of the kings of England. The title 
 to the soil in these forests has been particularly 
 involved. The crown seems to have exercised 
 only hunting rights. Other rights, as of cutting 
 timber, digging gravel, etc., were enjoyed by the 
 so-called lord of the manor, but he had no right 
 to inclose. Then all persons whose homesteads 
 
304 FIVE MON'THS ABROAD. 
 
 adjoined the forests possessed by long usage the 
 right of pasturing stock in them and of cropping 
 the timber for firewood. Just northeast of Lon- 
 don is a famous old forest ten or twelve miles 
 long, by two or three wide, known as Epping 
 Forest. As London spread out in that direction, 
 laiid in the vicinity became immensely valuable, 
 and the idea, worthy of an American speculator, 
 suggested itself to some one to gain possession of 
 the immense property and cut it up into building 
 lots ; and the scheme well nigh succeeded. First 
 the lord of the manor, by some influence at court, 
 purchased for a song the royal hunting privileges. 
 This it was thought would remove all obstacle to 
 inclosing the property; but the land grabbers 
 were too fast. 'No sooner was their scheme appar- 
 ent than the commoners, as those enjoying pas- 
 ture rights were called, flew to the courts for 
 injunctions, and a hot flght was inaugurated, the 
 result of which would have been very doubtful, 
 in view of the immense stake for which the spec- 
 ulators played, had not the corporation of the 
 city of London, with its great resources, taken 
 up the cause of the commoners. By virtue of 
 owning a piece of cemetery land adjoining the 
 forest, the city of London was itself one of the 
 commoners, and right heartily did it stand up for 
 its rights. The litigation ended at last in the 
 triumph of the people, and the subsequent pur- 
 
EPPING FOREST. 305 
 
 chase by the city, for one hundred and fifty 
 thousand dollars, of all the royal and manorial 
 rights. An act of Parliament was then procured 
 establishing the forest as a public park for all 
 time to come, and cutting off the rights of the 
 commoners to crop the trees. There will now be 
 a chance for the stunted beeches with which it is 
 covered to expand into large trees, but beyond 
 the preservation of the property it is not the 
 intention to immediately embark in any extensive 
 improvements of it. . 
 
 In England, when a person acquires sufficient 
 wealth to enable him to live comfortably on the 
 interest of his means, he almost invariably retires 
 from active business and gives other men a 
 chance — a practice which ought to be more com- 
 mon in America. But with us, usually the more 
 a man is worth, the deeper he dips in, and the 
 more he seeks to monopolize all the trade of his 
 locality. 
 
 Frequently men get out of business by convert- 
 ing their establishments into limited liability com- 
 panies. Such companies are very common in Eng- 
 land in every field of commercial enterprise. 
 They are very popular, and no doubt useful, 
 though it must be acknowledged that the system 
 is often abused. Sometimes rotten concerns are 
 unloaded ujjon such corporations ; sometimes they 
 are made the instruments of swindlers to secure 
 
 20 
 
306 FIVE MOI^TIIS ABROAD. 
 
 them the handling of other people's money; 
 sometimes the rights of minorities are overridden 
 by dishonest majority stockholders ; and some- 
 times the interests of all are neglected by incom- 
 petent and inefficient directors. But often it 
 happens that a capable man jDossesses the ele- 
 ments of success, and when backed with capital, 
 is able greatly to benefit himself, and at the same 
 time make large profits for his backers. In such 
 cases these companies find their legitimate use. 
 They i)rove safe and profitable investments for 
 capitalists, and enable capable men to advance 
 themselves who otherwise would have to be con- 
 tent merely with the wages of humble emj^loyes. 
 For fifteen or twenty years the English barbers 
 have been brushing hair by machinery, and I 
 wonder the idea has never been adopted in Amer- 
 ica. A line of shafting, usually driven by a small 
 steam engine, runs along the ceiling of the shop, 
 upon which there is a grooved pulley over each 
 chair. From each pulley is suspended an elastic 
 rubber belt. The brush is cylindrical, with a 
 pulley at one end, and a loose axle with a handle 
 at each end running through it. The X3ulley is 
 slipped into the rubber belt, when the brush 
 begins rapidly to revolve. It is held by the two 
 handles, and is moved rapidly about over the 
 customer's head. The sensation is delightful, 
 and such a thorough brushing is impossible by 
 mere hand work. 
 
GOOD MORALS. 307 
 
 The friends of temperance will be glad to know- 
 that the use of wine and beer on the table is 
 greatly declining in England. From what I have 
 observed and been informed, it is now the excep- 
 tion rather than the rule, and in families, too, 
 where the use of such beverages was formerly 
 habitual. 
 
 I was struck, too, Vith the small amount of 
 profanity one hears in that country compared 
 with America. In all my railroad, omnibus and 
 steamboat travel, I cannot call to mind a single 
 oath. I was reminded of this from overhearing 
 one day a fierce quarrel between two hucksters in 
 Covent Garden market, whose wagons in the 
 crush had become locked together. The war of 
 words went on for some time, with the most 
 emphatic assurances on the part of each that the 
 other was to blame, and must be at the pains of 
 unloading, but throughout all the name of the 
 Deity was not once mentioned. I conclude that 
 the rank and file of the English are not a swear- 
 ing people. 
 
CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 GENEALOGICAL RESEARCH-AN OLD ENGLISH CATHEDRAL TOWN 
 —PARISH RECORDS OF TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS AGO 
 —HOW SURNAMES BECOME CHANGED AND CORRUPTED— THE 
 HERALDS' OFFICE. ^ 
 
 Cji S there are very many people in this coun- 
 Jfi try interested in genealogical studies and 
 ^J ^ research, the story of my experience in this 
 direction may be worth devoting a chapter to, as 
 affording a general idea of the sources of infor- 
 mation, the means of gaining access to them and 
 the character of knowledge to be gained. Being, 
 while in London, within sixty-seven miles of Ely, 
 the birthplace of an ancestor who emigrated to 
 America nearly one hundred years ago, I felt 
 some curiosity to see the place and, if possible, 
 find out something more of the family origin and 
 ancestry. A pleasant two hours' ride through a 
 level but beautiful country brought us to the old 
 cathedral city of Ely. 
 
 Like most cathedral cities it is a sleepy old 
 place. It occupies rising ground in the midst of 
 a vast flat plain, known as the Fens, which before 
 the days of drainage was an almost impenetrable 
 marsh ; it is now, however, a highly cultivated 
 
ELY CATHEDRAL. 
 
 and fruitful district. Ely, also called from its 
 originally moist inaccessibility the Isle of Ely, 
 was the last place in England to hold out against 
 the Norman invader, William the Conqueror. 
 The place was founded as a religious community 
 by the Saxon queen Etheldreda, a little over 
 twelve hundred years ago, the good queen herself 
 retiring from her throne to become the abbess of 
 the new establishment. Soon after the conquest 
 the Norman ecclesiastics who obtained control of 
 the property, began the erection of the present 
 cathedral, one of the largest in England, and now 
 nearly eight hundred years old. It was origin- 
 ally a pure Norman structure, very massive and 
 imposing. Early in the fourteenth century the 
 central tower which had been overloaded with a 
 tall spire, fell with a crash and destroyed in its 
 fall the choir or eastern end of the structure. 
 This was then rebuilt in the Decorated Gothic 
 style of the period, of which it is one of the most 
 beautiful specimens to be found. Where the 
 central tower formerly stood a large octagon was 
 constructed, with a wooden vaulted roof sur- 
 mounted by an immense lantern, the whole form- 
 ing something entirely unique in Gothic archi- 
 tecture, aind, now that it has been fully restored 
 and redecorated, a work of exceeding beauty. 
 At a later period chapels were added to the 
 cathedral in the Perpendicular Gothic style, so 
 
310 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 that the building to-day illustrates every form 
 of architecture from the earliest Norman to the 
 latest Gothic, which makes it a peculiarly inter- 
 esting edifice. 
 
 Dean Merivale, the eminent historian, is the 
 dean of the cathedral. I caught a glimpse of him 
 in the cathedral library poring over the old 
 books, a fine, healthy, but intellectual looking 
 old gentleman. Services are held in the cathe- 
 dral at ten and four o' clock every day, and the 
 music is very superior. 
 
 The cathedral is surrounded by an extensive 
 park filled with beautiful shade trees, and around 
 and overlooking the park are the various subor- 
 dinate buildings connected with the cathedral, as 
 the dean's residence, the residences of some of 
 the canons, the school attached to the establish- 
 ment, the muniment room, vergers' residences, 
 etc., all very old and picturesque,^and all origin- 
 ally part of the old monastic establishment 
 founded by Etheldreda. 
 
 Lying entirely around the cathedral precincts 
 is the city — a clean, rather pretty place of eight 
 thousand inhabitants, with little or no trade 
 beyond what the cathedral creates. The houses 
 are brick, usually two stories high, and mostly 
 of the poorer class, with many a pretty garden 
 and a noticeably rustic air. 
 
 The hotel we put up at is called the Lamb Inn. 
 
AN ENGLISH COtlNTRY INN. 311 
 
 The entrance hall is paved with flag stones. 
 A genial landlady and a ponderous theological 
 looking waiter receive us. We partake of a 
 nicely cooked dinner of mutton cutlets, hot and 
 tender, American cheese, bitter ale, and goose- 
 berry pie with cream— everything clean and nice. 
 For supper, or tea as it is called, we have tea, 
 toast and butter, the teapot and cups and saucers 
 being brought in on a tray and set before the lady 
 of the party who presides at the table just as she 
 would at her own house. The coffee-room, in 
 which the meals are served, is a pleasant home- 
 like room, Brussels carpet, curtained windows 
 and good engravings on the walls. The chambers 
 are of good size but unpretending, and scrupu- 
 lously neat and clean. Mine is furnished with 
 an old-fashioned, carved mahogany, four-posted 
 bedstead, hung with white curtains. There are 
 lace curtains on the window and the dressing 
 table is hung with a white vallance. A print of 
 John the Baptist after Murillo, the original in 
 the Royal Museum at Madrid, adorns the wall, 
 and the religious leanings of the country stand 
 out in a card over the mantle-piece, reading 
 "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt 
 be saved." The English hotels contrast with the 
 American in being less pretentious and more 
 home-like, greater attention being given to little 
 comforts and elegancies. But to ni}^ mission. 
 
312 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 I find there are two parishes in Ely, in each of 
 which records of christenings, marriages and 
 burials have been kept for over three hundred 
 years. The keeping of such records was made 
 imperative by law in Queen Elizabeth's reign. I 
 apply to the rectors of the respective parishes for 
 permission to examine the registers, and rather 
 hesitatingly am accorded the same, for the records 
 are jealously guarded and can only be seen in the 
 presence of the rector or one of his curates. We 
 proceed to the parish church, and enter the 
 gloomy little vestry all hung around with sur- 
 plices and stoles. An old-fashioned iron " strong 
 box" is opened and a series of long, musty, parch- 
 ment covered books is brought out. They are of 
 different sizes and shapes and have been kept 
 with varying degrees of neatness, correctness and 
 legibility, but in all the leaves are of parchment, 
 the one side yellow and greasy, the other white 
 and dry like paper. I begin back about a cen- 
 tury, and soon find the record of the burial of 
 Susannah, the mother of the first Scripps to settle 
 in the new world, but the name is spelled Scrips. 
 Then I come to the births of other members of 
 the family, with whose existence and dates I was 
 before acquainted, all still spelled with a single p. 
 The baptisms are very numerous, but infantile 
 deaths almost equally so, and I begin to see how 
 it was that, prior to the present enlightened cen- 
 
OLD PARISH RECORDS. 313 
 
 tury, population in England increased so slowly. 
 Bad ventilation, ignorant medical treatment 
 and other causes, carried off in childhood — I 
 might almost confine it to babyhood — fully three- 
 fourths of all the children brought into the world. 
 Prior tQ 1699 the handwriting of the registers 
 assumes a sort of text character, difficult at first 
 to read. The letter c takes the form of a small 
 cross easily mistaken for a t, and a person casu- 
 ally opening the registers at this period would 
 easily mistake the name Scrips for Strips, Scott 
 for Stott, etc. During the period of the Common- 
 wealth it was clear that the family were puritans, 
 and no doubt approved the taking off of Charles 
 I., for the Roundhead names Moses and Faith 
 appeared. In 1633, during the lifetime of two 
 generations of Thomases, the name suffered an 
 important transmutation. Prior to that year it 
 had been written Crips. How naturally it be- 
 came corrupted to Scrips, will be seen by attempt- 
 ing to repeat quickly the name Thomas Crips, 
 and it was while the principal head of the family 
 bore the name Thomas that the change in writing 
 the surname occurred. The change probably 
 occurred with the incoming of a new rector or 
 clerk, who wrote the name from sound. It was 
 made so abruptly that some infants who a few 
 months before had been baptized as Cripses, were 
 buried just after as Scripses. The change, the 
 
314 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 result purely of ignorance or carelessness, illus- 
 trates the transmutations that have no doubt 
 taken place in hosts of other surnames. 
 
 The registers of Trinity parish, Ely, were gen- 
 erally well kept, and, considering their age, have 
 been remarkably well preserved, but back of the 
 year 1600 the writing becomes small and close, 
 and more difficult of deciphering, and having 
 accomplished what I desired, viz., the establish- 
 ing of the origin of the name, I there concluded 
 my researches. From other sources I satisfied 
 myself that the first to spell his name with two 
 p's was one William Scripps, about 1757, who, by 
 the way, was a builder and had an important part 
 in the reconstruction of the lantern of the cathe- 
 dral. 
 
 At an early period the abbots, and later the 
 bishops of Ely, had conferred upon them by 
 royal charter an autocratic civil jurisdiction over 
 the territory known as the Isle of Ely. No other 
 law but their mandates existed, and they exer- 
 cised a sway as absolute even as that of the Czar 
 of Eussia. A dwelling house was jjointed out to 
 me, which was formerly the jail in which their 
 prisoners were confined, and, as an old gentleman 
 of antiquarian tastes who rendered me valuable 
 services in my investigations, remarked, the bish- 
 ops appointed both judges and executioners. 
 That they wielded their power of life and death 
 
HOW RIOTERS WERE SERVED. 315 
 
 with a sturdy hand is apparent from a tablet on 
 the exterior wall of St. Mary's church, which 
 reads thus : 
 
 Here lye Interred in one grave 
 
 the Bodies of 
 
 William Beamiss, 
 
 George Crow, 
 
 John Dennis, 
 
 Isaac Harley 
 
 and 
 
 Thomas South, 
 
 Who were all executed at Ely on the 28th Day of June, 1816, 
 
 having been convicted at the special assizes holden 
 
 there of divers Robberies during the Riots 
 
 at Ely and Littleport in the month 
 
 of May in that 3''ear. 
 
 May their awful fate be a warning to others. 
 
 This civil power of the Bishop of Ely continued 
 down to 1836, when it was abolished by act of 
 parliament. 
 
 Upon returning to London I visited the college 
 of Heralds, a sort of record office of genealogies 
 and coats of arms. It is a quiet, old-fashioned, 
 highly respectable office in the heart of the city. 
 A fee of five shillings is charged for a search, 
 and an expert clerk then refers to indexes and 
 records filling thousands of volumes ranged on 
 shelves in an inner room. Here I simply ascertain 
 that the names Cripps and Crisp are identical in 
 their origin, that the family was originally located 
 in the south-eastern counties of England, and 
 
316 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 that they boasted a coat of arms as far back as 
 1482 — ten years before the discovery of America. 
 Thence I sought the government Record office 
 in Fetter Lane, vrhich is open free to the public, 
 and where by running over indexes I discovered 
 reference to a charter of some kind granted to 
 one Roger Crisp, by King John, in 1199. Satis- 
 fied with this indication of antiquity, I went no 
 further with my investigations. 
 
CHAPTEE XXXII. 
 
 THE ENGLISH CATHEDRALS, THEIR OFFICERS, SERVICES AND 
 ARCHITECTURE— THE RELIGIOUS CONDITION OF ENGLAND— 
 THE HIGH AND LOW CHURCH CONTROVERSY. 
 
 Ck CATHEDRAL is a bishop's chnrch, and 
 rS there is properly, of course, one cathedral 
 ^(V to each diocese. A cathedral is usually 
 very much larger than an ordinary parish church. 
 Services in the English cathedrals are held regu- 
 larly twice every day throughout the year, and 
 are invariably choral, the singing being done by 
 a dozen or twenty men and boys, wearing white 
 surplices. The prayers are intoned, or chanted 
 on a single note. Nothing is read but the les- 
 sons, all the rest of the service being musically 
 rendered. The effect of an English cathedral 
 service is very beautiful. 
 
 The clergyman at the head of a cathedral estab- 
 lishment is called a dean, and his assistants, usu- 
 ally four in number, are denominated canons. 
 The director of the music is known as the precen- 
 tor and is always a clergyman in orders. The 
 burden of the daily services devolves on two sub- 
 ordinate ministers, known as minor canons. The 
 dean of a cathedral is usually a man of some emi- 
 
318 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 nence in literature or theology, the comfortable 
 salary with the comparatively insignificant duties, 
 rendering the position one peculiarly favorable to 
 the prosecution of study and research. Many of 
 the most famous writers and scholars of recent 
 times have been the deans of cathedral churches, 
 as, for instance, Dean Milman of St. Paul's, Dean 
 Alford of Canterbury, Dean Stanley of West- 
 minster, Dean Trench of Dublin, Dean Merivale 
 of Ely, Dean Howson of Chester, and many 
 others. The canons are usually clergymen of 
 eminence or professors in the universities, as 
 Canon Farrar and Canon Liddon, for example, 
 their cathedral duties requiring their attendance 
 but perhaps a dozen times a year each. Often 
 they are at the same time rectors of parish 
 churches. The entire staff of a cathedral, includ- 
 ing the chorister boys and vergers or sextons, 
 usually numbers twenty-five or thirty persons or 
 more. These are all paid from the endowments 
 of the church, which are usually quite ample. 
 
 Most of the cathedra] churches of England were 
 formerly abbey churches, but they are by no 
 means an indication of the number of abbeys that 
 existed before the reformatio^. Yery many of 
 these abbeys are now mere ruins and many more 
 are preserved as parish churches. An abbey in 
 mediaeval times was a community of monks iden- 
 tical with what we now denominate a monastery. 
 
THE PLAN OF A CATHEDRAL. 319 
 
 Its chief officer was an abbot. The abbeys of 
 England prior to the sixteenth century became 
 very rich and much of their wealth was devoted 
 to the erection of large and beautiful churches in 
 connection with their establishments, ^o where 
 was more beautiful and interesting architecture 
 developed than by these English abbey monks. 
 
 Their churches were invariably cruciform or 
 cross-shaped, the head of the cross always point- 
 ing to the east and the long arm consequently to 
 the west. The transverse members pointing 
 respectively to the north and south are known 
 resx)ectively as the north and south transepts. 
 The principal front or fagade is always at the 
 west end, and the portion of the building west of 
 the transepts is called the nave. That portion 
 east of the transepts is the choir and corresponds 
 to the chancel of a parish church. On either side 
 of the nave, transepts and choir are aisles, usu- 
 ally of a lesser height. Under the choir there is 
 often a cellar or basement called the crypt and 
 which is often fitted up for worship. The build- 
 ings are invariably of stone, and usually a stone 
 vaulting, relieved by stone ribs or groins, forms 
 the ceiling. In Cologne Cathedral this vaulting 
 is one hundred and fifty feet above the pavement, 
 but in the English cathedrals from sixty to one 
 hundred feet is the usual height. The space 
 from one column to another is called a bay. 
 
320 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 In the angle formed by tlie nave and one of tlie 
 transepts are usually situated the Cloisters. The 
 cloisters of an abbey or cathedral are a covered 
 vralk surrounding an open square, and were in 
 the olden time the place of exercise and recrea- 
 tion of the monlvs. They form a quadrangle per- 
 haps two or three hundred feet square. The 
 open space in the center forms either a garden or 
 lawn, or is used for burial purposes. The covered 
 ambulatory or arcade is perhaps twelve or fifteen 
 feet wide and about the same in height. It is 
 paved with stone and has stone vaultings overhead. 
 On one side is a blank wall, often used for memorial 
 tablets, and stone benches ; on the other an open 
 arcade or range of windows with mullions but no 
 glass. Sometimes the cloisters also contain stone 
 writing desks, at which the monks could sit to 
 write their letters. The cloisters are always quiet, 
 secluded places, and pleasant resorts for study and 
 reflection. 
 
 In the angle formed by the choir and one of 
 the transepts usually stands the Chapter House. 
 This was originally the hall in which the monks 
 gathered for the transaction of the business of 
 their abbey. It is generally round or polygonal 
 in form, with a column in the center to support 
 the stone vaulted ceiling, and with stone seats all 
 around the sides. The chapter houses are often 
 very beautiful pieces of architectural work. 
 
CATHEDRAL ARCHITECTURE. 321 
 
 Prominent among the otlier monastic buildings 
 is the Refectory or dining room of the monks. 
 This is usually a large rectangular hall with tim- 
 ber roof. On one side is a niche in the wall, 
 forming a sort of stone pulpit, in which it used to 
 be the practice for one of the brothers to read 
 aloud from the Lives of the Saints, or some other 
 holy book, while the rest in silence ate their meals. 
 Another principal hall is the Hospitium or guest 
 chamber, in which visitors to the abbey were 
 lodged. 
 
 Most cathedrals have an extension of the choir 
 eastward, known as the Lady Chapel, from its 
 being dedicated to the Virgin Mary. 
 
 The earliest existing churches were built in the 
 eleventh century, and in the style known as 
 Norman. They are very massive, but generally 
 of rude workmanship. The predominating fea- 
 tures of the Norman style are round columns 
 with very simple capitals, semi-circular arches, 
 and zigzag mouldings. Yery few of the Norman 
 churches have vaulted ceilings, the skill of the 
 period being hardly equal to their execution. 
 Perhaps in a majority of the old churches and 
 cathedrals of England more or less Norman work 
 is found. Durham Cathedral presents one of the 
 best specimens of Norman work. 
 
 About the close of the thirteenth century the 
 Norman gave way to the Early English Gothic, 
 
 21 
 
322 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 a simple, and even to this day a very beautiful 
 style. In tliis the windows and arches are nar- 
 row and sharply pointed. The windows are with- 
 out tracery, and there is very little ornamental 
 stone work in the way of sculptured foliage or 
 figures. The columns of this period are clus- 
 tered — usually a large round pillar of common 
 stone in the center, encircled by four or more 
 smaller shafts of polished brown marble. Very 
 often a church is seen, begun in the Norman style 
 and finished in the Early English, the transition 
 from one style to the other taking place during 
 the progress of erection. The Early English is 
 as light and graceful as the JN'orman is heavy 
 and uncouth. Salisbury, Lincoln and Worcester 
 cathedrals are good illustrations. 
 
 A century later English church architecture 
 developed into what is known as the Decorated 
 period. In this the windows are much enlarged, 
 and are filled with elaborate tracery of stone 
 work, and the capitals of the columns, the brackets 
 and the bosses are richly sculptured. The severe 
 plainness of the Early English is lost, but the 
 ornamentation is not carried to excess as it was 
 at a still later period. This is regarded as the 
 golden age of Gothic architecture and many 
 beautiful specimens are found, notably in the 
 choirs of Ely and Lincoln cathedrals. 
 
 Still later the rage for ornament so overloaded 
 
GOTHIC ARCniTECTUPwE. 323 
 
 the cliurclies that the more graceful forms of the 
 earlier period were lost in excess of decoration. 
 The arches became wider and flatter, the columns 
 degenerated into piers, with the mouldings of 
 the arches simply continued to the floor, and 
 the vaulted ceilings were made to hang all over 
 with stalactite-like pendants of stone. This is 
 known as the Perpendicular period, and of all it 
 is most open to criticism, though displaying won- 
 derful skill in construction. The best specimen 
 of this age is Henry YII.'s chapel connected with 
 Westminster Abbey. 
 
 Within the past thirty or forty years there has 
 been a great rage in England for restoring the old 
 cathedrals, most of which had become almost 
 ruinous with age and decay. Sir Gilbert Scott 
 was of all the architects most prominent in this 
 work. The weather-worn stones are removed and 
 others substituted for them, and where, by the 
 vandalism of the sixteenth and seventeenth cen- 
 turies, rich ornamental work has been destroyed 
 or incongruous repairs or alterations been made, 
 the whole is put back to the condition of its high- 
 est perfection. The old cathedrals are thus all 
 made to look like new churches and have been 
 made very beautiful and artistic, though deprived 
 of the charm of antiquity they formerly possessed. 
 
 England is essentially a religious country, as is 
 evidenced by the quiet, orderly sabbaths, the 
 
324 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 crowded clinrches, the deep interest that every- 
 one seems to take in church matters, the orderly 
 and attentive crowds that gather aronnd the 
 street preachers, the earnest zeal of the Salvation 
 Army followers, the bibles and religions books 
 that are so numerously found in the hotels and 
 railway stations, the demand for religious tracts 
 that makes their hawking on the public streets a 
 possibility, and, generally, by the respect that in 
 all quarters is shown to sacred things. The reli- 
 gious energy of the country is found at least in 
 full share in the established church. This is, 
 perhaps, the more remarkable, as the church of 
 England suffers from bitter internal dissension, 
 though it may still be possible that its apparent 
 vitality is in some sort a result of the earnest 
 rivalry between the contending high and low 
 church factions. The dissension, which began 
 nearly half a century ago, is still far from its cul- 
 mination. The high church party is a party of 
 reaction. It deems that at the Reformation the 
 work of reform was overdone, and that a great 
 deal that was harmless and even good in the old 
 Catholic church was done away by the excessive 
 zeal of the times, just as the beautiful architec- 
 ture of the churches was ruthlessly marred and 
 defaced. With the restoration of the churches 
 came the desire to restore also all that was good 
 and beautiful in the ancient worship. A more 
 
HIGH AND LOW CnURCH. 325 
 
 decorous respect for the churcli as a sacred place 
 began to be inculcated, the beautiful harmonies 
 of a choral service were revived, and by various 
 little rites and observances it was sought to 
 impress the religious sensibilities. All this the 
 low church party have strongly condemned, as 
 tending to an ultimate return to the bosom of the 
 Homan church. 
 
 The low church is radically protestant, and will 
 ally itself with dissenters far sooner than with 
 the faction of the church of England that it 
 regards as little better than renegade and apos- 
 tate. Of course there are all grades of sentiment 
 and feeling in both parties, from the broad 
 churchman, who will concede liberally, even in 
 points of doctrine, to preserve the unity of the 
 church, up to the extremist who will prefer its 
 disruption by far, to a church in which his views 
 are not in the ascendant. All seem to feel that 
 the struggle must some day be brought to a final 
 issue, and the most prodigious exertions are being 
 put forth on each side to create for that day a 
 preponderance of strength and influence that shall 
 decide it in its own favor. And hence it comes 
 about that an amount of missionary work is being 
 done in England such as probably was never 
 before known. The high church party fills up its 
 churches by the most beautiful and impressive 
 musical service that perhaps the world has ever 
 
326 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 known, while, it fiirnislies employment for the 
 more active minds in the duties and self-sacri- 
 fices, the faithful observance of which it earnestly 
 teaches. That it reaches a very large number 
 who could not be reached by mere intellectual 
 argument is certain, and I cannot doubt that a 
 good work is being done, for I hold that it is bet- 
 ter far for one to cross himself before partaking 
 of a meal, as is now common with the extreme 
 section of the high church party, than to have no 
 thought at all of the Giver of all Good in connec- 
 tion therewith. 
 
 Meanwhile the pulpits of the low church are 
 being filled with intellectually strong and earnest 
 evangelical men, who by their preaching powers 
 draw large audiences, and who doubtless by their 
 intelligent presentation of religious truths exert 
 a great influence with the more thoughtful minds. 
 Of course all the good preaching is not on the low 
 church side, but practically that wing leans most 
 heavily on the pulpit, as the other side does on 
 the choir stalls. As there is nothing seriously 
 objectionable in a musical service, it is not uncom- 
 mon for the low church advocates to steal the 
 thunder of their opponents by themselves employ- 
 ing more or less fully the choral service. In one 
 church of well recognized evangelical standing, 
 St. Martin's, Birmingham, a surpliced choir leads 
 the devotions. The rector, Dr. Wilkinson, re- 
 
CHORAL SEmaCES. 327 
 
 frains from intoning the prayers, but the respon- 
 ses are in full choral style. The sermons are such 
 as would thoroughly please a Presbyterian or 
 Methodist hearer. At some other churches the 
 musical innovation is confined to the chanting of 
 the psalter, which was always formerly read 
 responsively, as in this country. The amount of 
 music in the service is hence in itself no criterion 
 of the position of the church on the great ques- 
 tion under agitation. The eastward position 
 assumed in reciting the Apostle's Creed is the 
 first distinguishing indication of ritualistic lean- 
 ings. Where such eastward position is not 
 assumed it may be taken for granted that the 
 church is evangelically inclined, even though the 
 whole service be musical. 
 
 There is nothing so beautiful as a well-conduct- 
 ed cathedral service in the Church of England. 
 No Roman Catholic services that it has been my 
 fortune to hear have possessed half the simple 
 beauty of the English service, musically rendered. 
 
 It seems strange that, while the Protestant 
 Episcopal church of the United States is essen- 
 tially more high church in its views and practices 
 than even the conservative element in the church 
 of England, the choral service, which is not incon- 
 sistent with English evangelicism, should be so 
 utterly neglected here. 
 
 It only remains to add that the Queen, who by 
 
328 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 tlie constitution is the head of the church, is very 
 properly a broad church woman, sympathizing 
 with neither extreme. It is true some pretend to 
 believe that her majesty was more or less impreg- 
 nated with the German rationalistic views of her 
 husband, the late Prince Albert, and that hence 
 arises her indifference. But in this they prob- 
 ably misrepresent her. Her children make no 
 disguise of their ritualistic preferences, and the 
 Prince and Princess of Wales are frequent 
 attendants at All Saints, Margaret street, one of 
 the leading ritualistic churches of London. 
 
 While position on church affairs is in no wise 
 conterminous with party politics, Mr. Gladstone 
 is the hete noir of the low church radicals. A 
 Romanist in disguise, bent on the subversion of 
 the Church of England, is what they delight to 
 call him, on account of the many concessions he 
 has made in the direction of religious toleration. 
 Meanwhile the high churchmen are equally dis- 
 satisfied with the amount of interference with 
 church matters that a secular parliament has 
 indulged in, and do not hesitate to say that they 
 would welcome disestablishment as a relief from 
 such control. 
 
 Church rates, or the tax for the support of the 
 church, having been abolished a few years since, 
 the town churches are now dependent on the pew 
 rents for their maintenance. In the rural dis- 
 
CHURCH VESTRIES. 329 
 
 tricts, however, the tithing system is still con- 
 tinued, by which the vicar may claim and recover 
 by process of law a certain proportion, assumed 
 to be a tenth, of the produce of all agricultural 
 lands in his parish, and on these tithes the coun- 
 try ]3arson grows fat in the midst of his handful 
 of parishioners, while his metropolitan brother 
 has to depend on his popularity alone for a decent 
 maintenance. 
 
 The immediate management of the affairs of 
 each parish devolves on the vestry. In the newer 
 parishes, in which the vestry has no civil powers, 
 that body is usually elected by the pew holders. 
 In the old parishes, which, as the reader is aware, 
 are civil subdivisions, the vestry has all the pow- 
 ers that a town meeting enjoys in this country. 
 It manages the poor, the street paving and clean- 
 ing, the levying and collecting of taxes, etc. The 
 mode of election of vestrymen in this case is not 
 uniform, but one common method is for the ves- 
 try to elect each year a church warden inside or 
 outside their own number, the vestry itself being 
 composed of all the surviving ex-wardens, who 
 may still be residents of the parish. It will be 
 seen how great power is thus lodged in what is 
 practically a close corporation, but such is the 
 general sense of responsibility of Englishmen in 
 public life, that it is rare that there is any abuse 
 of the powers enjoyed. 
 
CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 
 THE SUMMER ASPECT OF ENGLAND — WINDSOR CASTLE— THE 
 ALBERT MEMORIAL CHAPEL — BATH AND ITS ABBEY. 
 
 E leave London via the Great Western 
 Railway, one of the pioneer lines of the 
 country, and the broadest gauge (seven 
 feet) ever constructed in any country. The main 
 line extends from London to Bristol, one hundred 
 and twenty miles, and the express trains make 
 the distance in two hours and thirty-six minutes, 
 including a stoppage of ten minutes at Swindon 
 for refreshments — a speed equal to fifty miles an 
 hour. 
 
 A ride through England in June or July is 
 most enchanting. The country is generally more 
 rolling than ours, and in cultivated portions there 
 are twenty trees where there is one in our coun- 
 try. The effect is to add greatly to the beauty of 
 the scenery. Trees line every roadway and every 
 field, and are often scattered promiscuously 
 through the fields. No doubt much land is 
 wasted by their shade, but it is a question if this 
 be not more than made up by the modification 
 they effect in the climate, and the increased fruit- 
 fulness of the remaining portions of the land. 
 
WINDSOR CASTLE. 331 
 
 Our American fanners should cultivate more trees ^ 
 on their farms. A thousand years' experience 
 has taught England that it pays. Besides the 
 beautiful foliage, the country is full of pictu- 
 resque old farm-houses with thatched roofs, with 
 here and there the square tower of an old church 
 peeping up through the trees. The little, narrow, 
 winding country roads, so charmingly shaded, 
 are also exceedingly pretty. We waste too much 
 land in our American country roads. In England 
 twenty -five or thirty feet suffices, and they have 
 splendid roads, too. 
 
 Twenty miles from London we reach Windsor 
 Castle, the principal residence of the Queen. It 
 was built by Edward III. about the middle of the 
 fourteenth century, and thoroughly restored by 
 George IV. in the early part of the present cen- 
 tury. It is situated on a considerable eminence 
 on the south bank of the Thames, and is sur- 
 rounded by a park seven miles across and twenty- 
 five in circuit. The royal forest of Windsor 
 adjoins the park, and the entire royal domain is 
 fifty-six miles in circumference. The castle itself, 
 the largest in England, covers seventeen acres. 
 In the center rises the ''keep," or great round 
 tower, so familiar in all pictures of Windsor. 
 The Queen's private apartments are confined to 
 one tower situated at the southeastern corner of 
 the castle, and commanding a most beautiful view 
 
332 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 of the park and surrounding country. Adjoining 
 the private apartments of Her Majesty are the 
 state apartments. 
 
 As we enter the castle we first pass through a 
 large, irregular shaped court-yard, with the royal 
 chapel of St. George on one side^ barracks for the 
 soldiers and houses for the castle attendants on 
 the other, and the great round tower at the 
 farther end. Beyond this is a second court-yard 
 on the crest of the hill, surrounded by the private 
 and state aj^artments above mentioned. When 
 the Queen is not at Windsor all the principal 
 buildings are thrown open to the public. We 
 first ascend to the summit of the round tower, 
 from which, in clear weather, the dome of St. 
 Paul's and the clock tower of Westminster palace 
 are distinctly visible, the tower commanding a 
 view of about twenty-five miles in every direction. 
 To the south we look up the Long Walk, a car- 
 riage drive of three miles leading directly away 
 from the castle through the park, with a bronze 
 statue of George III. at its farther extremity. 
 To the west is Clewer, the principal seat of an 
 important Protestant sisterhood resembling the 
 Catholic Sisters of Mercy of our own country. 
 Here is a church said to be twelve hundred years 
 old, and the oldest but one in England. The 
 churchyard where Gray's Elegy was written, and 
 the home of William Penn, are also objects of 
 
ST. GEORGE'S CHAPEL. 333 
 
 interest witliin tlie range of vision. Just under 
 the castle, to the north, lies Eton, with its famous 
 college. The whole scene on a fine day is very 
 beautiful. 
 
 St. George's Chapel, the chapel of the castle, is 
 a large cruciform structure, almost worthy of 
 being a cathedral. It is built in the late or Tudor 
 Gothic style, with a beautiful stone vaulting 
 ornamented with what is known as fan tracery. 
 The nave contains a number of tombs, and an 
 elaborate monument by the sculptor Chantrey to 
 the memory of the popular Princess Charlotte, 
 daughter of George TV. Daily services are held 
 in the chapel, just as in a cathedral. Adjoining 
 St. George's Chapel on the east is a smaller 
 Gothic chapel, long known as Wolsey's Chapel. 
 In the crypt under it the royal family for several 
 generations past have been buried, instead of in 
 Westminster Abbey. Within a few years the 
 Queen has taken in hand the restoration and 
 adornment of this chapel, as a memorial to her 
 deceased husband. Prince Albert, and has 
 changed the name to the Albert Memorial Chapel. ' 
 It is certainly one of the most beautiful buildings 
 I saw in all my travels. The stone ceiling is rich 
 with gilding and mosaic, the floor of inlaid mar- 
 bles is polished like a mirror, the windows are 
 filled with the richest stained glass, and the walls 
 are covered with etchings in marble, reliefs, 
 
834 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 medallions, mosaics and busts in elegant profu- 
 sion. The large etched pictures are unique. 
 Various light shades of marble are used for a 
 groundwork, something after the manner of Flor- 
 entine mosaics, and the pictures are then brought 
 out strongly by black lines indelibly burned into 
 the substance of the marble, after which the 
 whole is highly polished. By this means both 
 drawing and shading are very perfect, and the 
 effect is novel and pleasing. At the upper end of 
 the chapel stands an elaborate monument to the 
 Prince Consort, though his remains are really 
 interred at Frogmore, a locality in the royal 
 park, a short distance outside the castle. 
 
 We continue our journey, and one hundred and 
 eight miles west of London, we reach the city of 
 Bath, a place of about fifty- two thousand inhab- 
 itants, beautifully situated on the hills skirting 
 the river Avon. For nearly two thousand years 
 Bath has been famous for its mineral springs and 
 the high curative powers of its. waters. In the 
 last century it was to England what Saratoga is 
 to the United States, the center of gaiety and 
 fashion. But other places have more or less 
 usurped, or at least divided its popularity, and 
 Bath to-day looks regretfully back on the good, 
 old times of the past. It presents still rather an 
 aristocratic air, from all the buildings being of 
 dressed stone. In the center of the town is the 
 
BATH ABBEY. 335 
 
 Pump Room, a large and stately hall where peo- 
 ple gather to lounge away the time and drink the 
 waters. Just behind the Pump Room is the 
 Abbey church, to the stranger the chief object of 
 interest in the place. The abbey was built some 
 three hundred and fifty years ago, and was fin- 
 ished just in time to be made a protestant church 
 by the Reformation. It is a fine structure of the 
 Tudor style with ceiling of fan tracery all in 
 stone. Its west front is curiously ornamented. 
 On either side of the main doorway are carved in 
 the stone walls two ladders extending quite to the 
 roof, with angels climbing their rounds, the whole 
 being intended to represent Jacob's dream at 
 Bethel. Probably nowhere else is there so large 
 a church so filled with memorial tablets. The 
 walls up to the level of the windows are com- 
 pletely covered with them. The reason probably 
 is, that Bath being a resort for invalids of the 
 wealthier and more aristocratic class, a great 
 many people of . social position have died and 
 been buried there. Judging from the inscrip- 
 tions, no other place can boast such a lot of 
 truly good people as have made it a point to die 
 in Bath. Some of the tablets date back to the 
 beginning of the seventeenth century, and many 
 are very quaint in their expression. One speaks 
 of the deceased in large cai^itals as ''An excellent 
 person." Another, dated 1698, has a stanza of 
 
336 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 poetry appended, " By Mr. Dry den." The spell- 
 ing also is very eccentric, as "sonn" for son, 
 "citty" for city, etc. Among the vast number 
 of tablets, I stumbled upon that of the famous 
 Beau Nash, the accomplished gentleman whose 
 life business it was to lead the fashion at Bath, 
 and who supported himself in luxury through a 
 long career by his graceful manners alone. His 
 epitaph reads: 
 
 Adeste O Gives, adeste lugentes 
 
 Hie silent leges 
 
 RICARDI NASH, armig : 
 
 Nihil amplius imperantis 
 
 Qui diu utilissime 
 
 Assumptus Bathoniae 
 
 Elegantise arbiter 
 
 Eheu ! 
 
 Morti (ultimo designatori) 
 
 Haud indecore succubuit 
 
 Ann Dom 1761. ^t suae 87. 
 
 Beatus ille qui sibi imperiosus. 
 
 If social virtues make remembrance dear. 
 
 Or manners pure on decent rule depend. 
 To his remains consign one grateful tear, 
 
 Of youth the guardian and of All the friend, 
 Now sleeps Dominion here, no Bounty flows. 
 
 Nor more avails the festive scene to grace: 
 Beneath that hand which no discernment shows, 
 
 Untaught to honor or distinguish grace. — H. H. 
 
 But very much more interesting is the monu- 
 ment to MalthuSj the political economist whose 
 
MALTHUS. 337 
 
 advanced ideas of social science so shocked tlie 
 good people of England half a century ago. 
 
 It reads thus : 
 
 Sacred to the memory 
 
 Of the Rev. Thomas Robert Malthus, long known to the lettered 
 
 world by his admirable writings on the social branches 
 
 of political economy, particularly by his 
 
 Essay on Population. 
 
 One of the best men and truest philosophers of any age or country. 
 
 Raised by native dignity of mind above the misrepresentations 
 
 of the ignorant and the neglect of the great 
 He lived a serene and happy life, devoted to the pursuit and 
 
 communication of truth. 
 Supported by a firm but calm conviction of the usefulness of 
 his labors. 
 Content with the approbation of the wise and good. 
 His writings will be a lasting monument of the extent and cor- 
 rectness of his understanding. 
 The spotless integrity of his principles, 
 The equity and candour of his nature, 
 His sweetness of temper, urbanity of manners and tenderness 
 of heart, 
 His benevolence and his piety, 
 . Are the still dearer recollections of his family and friends. 
 Born Feb. 14, 1766. Died 29 Dec, 1834. 
 
 In another place is this tablet to an American : 
 
 Sacred 
 
 To the Honorable William Bingham, a native and senator of the 
 
 United States of America, where his knowledge of the 
 
 interests of his country and his zeal for their 
 
 advancement, the marks of patriotism ' 
 
 equally active and enlightened, 
 
 will be long and gratefully 
 
 remembered. 
 
 He died in this place on the 7tU of Feb., 1804, aged 49 years. 
 
 22 
 
338 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. . 
 
 Bath has a very pleasant park opened by the 
 Princess Victoria before she became queen, and 
 which is ornamented with a statue of her. 
 
 Lovers of Pickwick will recall Mr. Sam Wel- 
 ler's experiences at this celebrated place, and 
 particularly his invitation to join the '^ select foot- 
 men of Bath" in partaking of a "friendly swarry 
 consisting of a boiled leg of mutton," and how 
 ignominiously the entertainment wound up. 
 
CHAPTER XXXIY. 
 
 > 
 
 A TWO DAYS' RAMBLE IN THE SOUTH OF ENGLAND- EXETER- 
 TORQUAY — HONITON — WINCHESTER — SALISBURY - STONE- 
 HENGE. 
 
 NE of the most delightful experiences of my 
 whole trip was a two days' ramble in one of 
 the most beautiful and interesting portions 
 of England, viz., its southern tier of counties. 
 Let the reader glance at a map of England. The 
 long peninsula which forms its southwestern cor- 
 ner constitutes the county of Cornwall. East of 
 Cornwall, and extending from the English Chan- 
 nel on the south to the Bristol Channel on the 
 north, lies Devonshire. East of Devon, and lying 
 along the southern shore of the island, comes 
 Dorsetshire ; and north of Dorsetshire, Wiltshire, 
 of which Salisbury is the capital. Still east of 
 Dorset and Wilts, as they are popularly called, 
 lies Hampshire. 
 
 Our journey was first to Exeter, the capital of 
 Devon, and the principal scene of Judge Jeffreys' 
 atrocious cruelties in the reign of James II., when 
 he sent so many to the gallows without law or 
 justice that his holdings of court are known as 
 the Bloody Assizes. Exeter is now a quiet place 
 
340 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 of about forty thousand inhabitants, and is 
 famous chiefly for its cathedral, though its loca- 
 tion on the little river Exe, with a prospect of 
 green hills in every direction, is exceedingly beau- 
 tiful. The oldest portions of the cathedral date 
 from the twelfth century, and are of Norman 
 architecture. About the middle of the thirteenth 
 century the church began to be rebuilt in the 
 Gothic style, and the two great Norman towers 
 were utilized as transepts — the only example in 
 England, I believe, where the towers are so placed. 
 The cathedral is not a large one, being only three 
 hundred and eighty-seven feet long, but it is an 
 imposing old structure, and quite worth a visit. 
 It was concerning the reredos or altar-piece of 
 this church, some years ago, that a memorable 
 litigation arose — one of the first appeals to law in 
 the famous dissensions between the high and low 
 church parties. 
 
 A short ride from Exeter brings us to Torquay, 
 a famous watering place and health resort on the 
 English Channel coast. The town lies on the 
 side of a rocky, hill, and commands from every 
 part a beautiful sea view. Just across the bay 
 (Torbay) is the village of Brixham, where William 
 of Orange landed in 1688, when he came over 
 from Holland to pick up the crown which his 
 father-in-law, James II., had run off and aban- 
 doned, the epoch being known as the English 
 
' DEVONSHIRE. 341 
 
 Eevolution. A little farther up the bay, and 
 distinctly visible from Torquay, is the glittering 
 dome of the magnificent residence that Isaac M. 
 Singer built for himself when he had acquired his 
 immense fortune in the manufacture and sale of 
 his sewing machines. It was here that he died a 
 few years ago. 
 
 We stop for the night at a clean and cozy 
 little inn at Exeter, and bright and early next 
 morning are up and on our way to Winchester, 
 one hundred and eighteen miles distant. Win- 
 chester is the county seat, or capital, as they call 
 it, of the county of Hampshire, from which our 
 State of New Hampshire takes its name. To 
 reach it we traverse the counties of Devonshire, 
 Dorsetshire and Wiltshire, and the journey is a 
 most interesting one. The country, particularly 
 in Devonshire, is very beautiful — undulating, well 
 settled, beautifully shaded with trees and hedges, 
 watered with small trout rivers, and full of green 
 lanes, picturesque old thatched and ivy-clad 
 houses, and more picturesque square-towered 
 churches. Devonshire is one of the best agricul- 
 tural counties of England, and is the original 
 home of the famous Devon cattle. The fields are 
 small, and one wonders that so much land should 
 be wasted in hedge-rows. The trees, from not 
 being crowded, grow very wide-spreading and 
 ornamental, and the whole country has quite the 
 appearance of an immense park. 
 
342 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 Soon we pass the town of Honiton, the place 
 where the famous Honiton lace is made, and a 
 little later Axminster, which has given its name 
 to the well known Axminster carpets, the most 
 costly variety usually found in our carpet stores. 
 
 In about five hours Winchester is reached. 
 This old-time capital of England is a place of 
 about eighteen thousand inhabitants, with quiet 
 streets lined with old-fashioned two and three- 
 storied houses in great variety of styles. We 
 had but a short time to devote to it, and so has- 
 tened to the cathedral, the central object of 
 attraction. 
 
 Winchester Cathedral is one of the largest and 
 oldest in England. The first church on the site 
 was built nearly seventeen hundred years ago. 
 This and the succeeding ones were destroyed in 
 the various Saxon and Danish wars, and the 
 present structure was finished in 1093. It was 
 built in the semi-circular-arched Norman style 
 of the day, with walls of great strength, and the 
 towers and transepts, which remain to the pres- 
 ent, are to-day the most substantial part of the 
 entire structure. A little more than a century 
 later the choir was rebuilt in the Early English 
 Gothic style, and in 1406 William of Wykeham, 
 Bishop of Winchester, and a famous architect 
 and builder, who was also the founder of "New 
 College, Oxford, and Winchester College, altered 
 
WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL. 343 
 
 the Norman work of the nave into what is known 
 as the late or Perpendicular Gothic. It was not 
 a rebuilding, but a substantial alteration, and this 
 nave, with its Norman skeleton, is consequently 
 one of the most massive to be found in any- 
 Gothic church. 
 
 The cathedral is full of historic associations. 
 In a carved wooden box — one of several exposed 
 on the top of the screen that surrounds the 
 choir — are the remains of Egbert, the first king 
 of united England, who died A. D. 837, or more 
 than a thousand years ago. In the rear of 
 the altar is the tomb of William II., known as 
 William Rufus, son of the Conqueror, who, it will 
 be recollected by readers of English history, was 
 accidentally killed with an arrow while hunting 
 in the New Forest, near Winchester. In order to 
 corroborate the fact of this being his tomb the 
 sarcophagus was opened a few years ago, and 
 among the bones and gold tinsel of the robe in 
 which he was buried was found the arrow-head of 
 iron which had killed him. In the Lady Chapel, 
 or chapel in the rear of the main altar, Queen 
 Mary was married to the persecuting Philip II., 
 of Spain, and the chair is still seen in which she 
 sat on the occasion — a chair, by the way, which 
 no American second-hand dealer would take as a 
 gift. Adjoining the .chair is the tomb of Stephen 
 Gardiner, bishop of Winchester, the execrated 
 
344 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 persecutor of the protestants in Mary's reign. 
 In the nave is the tomb of Bishop Wykeham, the 
 builder of the church, with a well preserved effigy 
 of the great man in marble reclining upon it. In 
 the south transept stands a new and beautiful 
 monument of the late bishop of Winchester, 
 Samuel Wilberforce, son of the great English 
 abolitionist and philanthropist, William Wilber- 
 force. The bishop was a man of wonderful per- 
 suasive powers, and was popularly known as 
 Soapy Sam. He was killed in 1873 by being 
 thrown from his horse. He was widely known as 
 one of the staunchest supporters of modern ritu- 
 alism. In the north aisle we observe a brass 
 tablet reading : 
 
 Jane Austen. 
 Known to many by her writings, endeared to her family by the 
 varied charms of her character, and ennobled by chris- 
 tian faith and piety, was born at Steventon, 
 county of Hants (Hampshire), Dec. 16, 
 1775, and buried in this cathe- 
 dral, July 24, 1817. 
 "She openeth her mouth with wisdom, and in her tongue is the 
 law of kindness. " — Prov. xxxi, v. 26. 
 
 Miss Austen was the popular novelist of the 
 beginning of the present century. Her '^ Pride 
 and Prejudice," recently reprinted by the Har- 
 pers, is a capital story, and a good illustration of 
 the best style of fiction of her day. 
 
 Winchester Cathedral is one of the longest in 
 
WINCHESTER 345 
 
 England, being five hundred and sixty feet in 
 length inside the walls. Over the altar is a good 
 painting by our Benjamin West, representing the 
 raising of Lazarus. The old oaken stalls and fur- 
 niture of the choir date from the thirteenth 
 century. 
 
 Winchester has always been one of the richest 
 and most desirable dioceses in England, and the 
 story is told of one bishop who, being offered pro- 
 motion to the archbishopric of Canterbury, the 
 highest position in the English church, declined 
 it, remarking '* Canterbury is the greater honor, 
 but Winchester has the deepest manger." 
 
 Near the cathedral is Winchester College, one 
 of the famous ancient collegiate schools of Eng- 
 land, of which those of Eton, Rugby and Harrow 
 are among the other principal ones. Read Tom 
 Brown's '* School Days at Rugby," and a good 
 idea will no doubt be gained of school life at 
 Winchester. 
 
 Retracing our journey twenty-five miles we 
 reach Salisbury, whose cathedral ranks as one of 
 the best in England, and boasts the highest spire, 
 its summit being four hundred feet from the pave- 
 ment. Salisbury Cathedral has few tombs of 
 world-wide celebrities, and fewer historical asso- 
 ciations than .Winchester, but it is famous as 
 being the only cathedral in England which is not 
 an architectural patch- work, it having been begun 
 
346 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. ^ 
 
 and (except the spire) completed under one arclii- 
 tect. It is very large, being, four hundred and 
 forty-nine feet in interior length and a full half 
 mile in exterior circuit. It was begun in the year 
 1220 and completed in 1258, the spire being added 
 a century later. Although over six hundred old, 
 it is kept so clean and in such good repair that it 
 seems quite like a modern church. It is in the 
 pure Early English Gothic style, with only nar- 
 row lancet windows without tracery. The col- 
 umns, numbering, it is said, as many as there are 
 hours in the year, are clustered, the smaller ones 
 being of polished dark marble. The whole is 
 very symmetrical and elegant, and to any lover 
 of Gothic architecture well repays a visit. 
 
 Before the Reformation a curious custom pre- 
 vailed in this church. The choir boys annually 
 elected one of their number a bishop, and he 
 retained the honor for one year. On one day in 
 the year the cathedral authorities recognized the 
 farce, and received the urchin in the cathedral 
 with episcopal honors. If the lad died during 
 the year he was buried with all the pomp that 
 would attend the funeral of a real bishop. Thus 
 did our ancestors combine play with even the 
 graver duties of religion. A few years ago, in 
 making some repairs, the stone efljgy which had 
 at one time ornamented the tomb of one of these 
 boy bishops was discovered, and it is now to be 
 
SALISBURY. h^ 
 
 seen among the other monuments in the nave of 
 the church. 
 
 The original Salisbury was a mile or two nortl 
 of the present city, and the locality is now knowi^ 
 as Old Sarum. It continued to be representee* 
 by two members of parliament down to the periocl 
 of the Reform Bill of 1832, even though it had 
 long been entirely deserted of inhabitants. We 
 drove past it on our way to Stonehenge. 
 
 This is another object of especial interest in this 
 exceedingly interesting section of country. Just 
 north of Salisbury is a stre'tch of a dozen or 
 twenty miles of open country known as Salisbury 
 Plain. Who has not heard of Hannah More's 
 famous tract '' The Shepherd of Salisbury Plain ?" 
 This plain is naked of trees and nearly barren, 
 being composed of a thin turf lying almost imme- 
 diately upon a vast bed of chalk. It is, however, 
 being gradually brought under cultivation. The 
 plain lies several hundred feet above the level of 
 the city of Salisbury, and is traversed by numer- 
 ous fine roads. About ten miles north of Salis- 
 bury, as the road goes, are the remarkable pre- 
 historic remains known as Stonehenge, consisting 
 of a number of immense stones set up on end, 
 with others lying horizontally on top connecting 
 one with another. As we approach the locality a 
 great number of mounds or tumuli are seen scat- 
 tered about the plain, and the first presumption 
 
348 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 is that they have some connection with the stones, 
 but we are assured by those who assume to know 
 that the mounds are the remains of the Roman 
 period, and that the outlines of an entire Roman 
 military camp may be traced in the neighborhood. 
 Stonehenge stands out on the open plain with 
 neither house, fence nor tree near it. It is sur- 
 rounded by the remains of a low circular ditch 
 and mound perhaps three hundred feet in diam- 
 eter. The stones form a circle about one hundred 
 feet across. Each upright stone is planted three 
 or four feet in the ground and stands fifteen 
 or twenty feet above the level of the turf. Each 
 is five or six feet wide and two and-a-half or three 
 thick, and they stand perhaps three feet apart in 
 the clear. The connecting stones above may be 
 a yard square and eight or ten feet long. The 
 upright stones have each rude tenons on their 
 upper ends about the size and shape of inverted 
 three gallon kettles, and the transverse stones 
 have corresponding mortises to receive them. 
 Originally there was a complete circle of these 
 upright and connected stones, but not more than 
 half of them still remain in position. The rest 
 lie prostrate on the ground in a more or less 
 broken state. Within this outer circle is a 
 second, composed of smaller stones set up like 
 huge posts. Then comes another circle of large 
 stones, with connecting lintels like the first, and 
 
STONEHENGE. 349 
 
 then another circle of smaller like the second, 
 thus making four in all. The two inner circles 
 are less perfect than the outer, and it is claimed 
 that they were intended to be of horseshoe rather 
 than circular shape, having the openings toward 
 the east. In front of this assumed opening, and 
 perhaps two hundred feet distant, is a large, 
 upright, single stone, rather pointed at its sum- 
 mit, to which significance is attached by archae- 
 ologists. Such is Stonehenge as I saw it. Who 
 built it, when, and for what purpose, has always 
 been a profound mystery. The mystery is inten- 
 sified when one views the immense blocks, esti- 
 mated to weigh from fifteen to forty-five tons each, 
 that compose it, and reflects on the very rude 
 appliances that in the age of its construction 
 must have been available for the conveyance and 
 hoisting of such masses. And the wonder still 
 increases when we learn that there is no stone of 
 the kind in the vicinity, and of some of the pieces 
 none is known to exist in England. I am sorry 
 to say the digging that has been done about the 
 base of some of these stones, with the effects of 
 the frosts of many centuries of winters, is gradu- 
 ally leveling the structure with the ground. One 
 of the finest uprights in the inner circle leans ten 
 and-a-half feet from the perpendicular, and may 
 topple over at any time. Of course the presump- 
 
350 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 tion is that Stonehenge is a Druidical temple — a 
 sort of cathedral, perhaps, of the remotest period 
 of England's antiquity. 
 
 We spend the night at Salisbury, and take an 
 early train to Bath, and thence to Bristol, reach- 
 ing the latter place after a most charming ride in 
 time for a late breakfast. 
 
CHAPTER XXXY. 
 
 BRISTOL — ITS HISTORY, TRADE, ANTIQUITIES, FAMOUS RESI- 
 DENTS, TOPOGRAPHY, AND CHURCHES — GEORGE MULLER'S 
 ORPHAN HOUSES. 
 
 ^JDrISTOL, one hundred and twenty miles 
 west of London, was formerly the second 
 city in the kingdom. It now boasts about 
 two hundred and forty thousand inhabitants. 
 It is situated on the river Avon, a tributary of 
 the Severn, at a point where the former river 
 makes an abrupt turn in its course and enters a 
 rocky defile, through which it flows northward 
 six miles to its debouchure. In old times Bristol 
 was a great commercial city, and largely inter- 
 ested in the West India trade. It was the first 
 port in Europe to establish steam communication 
 with America, but lost its advantages by the diffi- 
 cult navigation of its river and the superior dock 
 facilities of Liverpool. In late years it has been 
 making an effort to regain its commercial ascend- 
 ency. Over $3,000,000 has been expended in 
 deepening and straightening the river, and 
 $3,500,000 more in constructing a commodious 
 dockyard and warehouses at the mouth of the 
 river, and a railroad connecting the same with 
 
352 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 the city. Simultaneously with these improve- 
 ments, two lines of steamships, the Great West- 
 ern and City of Bristol lines, have been estab- 
 lished between Bristol and New York, and both 
 are understood to be doing a profitable business, 
 and to be gradually extending their operations. 
 Bristol is several hours nearer New York than 
 Liverpool, and with her present excellent facili- 
 ties there is no reason why she should not become 
 a great entrepot for American trade. 
 
 As the center of West India traffic, Bristol 
 became a great sugar mart, and engaged heavily 
 in the manufacture of refined sugars, but this 
 trade has been absolutely ruined by French com- 
 petition. England maintains a free trade system ; 
 France, like our own country, cherishes protec- 
 tion to her manufactures. In order to encourage 
 the manufacture of sugar, the French government 
 pays a bounty on every pound exported to Eng- 
 land. The result is, loaf sugar is sold in England 
 at about eight cents a pound, while in France the 
 same cannot be bought for less than twelve cents. 
 This pernicious interference with the natural laws 
 of trade has been death to the sugar interests 
 throughout England, but the people at large have 
 been immensely the gainers by it, saving, as they 
 do, two or three cents on every pound of sugar 
 they consume. Meanwhile the French people 
 pay the full value of the article for what they 
 
BRISTOL. 353 
 
 nse, and moreover are taxed heavily to enable 
 tlie English consumers to buy so much more 
 cheaply than they do themselves. Thus, while 
 free trade, as in England, may be injurious to the 
 few, it is money in the pockets of the community 
 at large ; and while, as in France, protection no 
 doubt benefits the few manufacturers, all the 
 advantage they gain has to be paid for ultimately 
 by the great body of tax payers and home con- 
 sumers. 
 
 But while Bristol has lost her sugar refineries, 
 she has built up very extensive interests in the 
 manufacture of soap, leather, boots and shoes, 
 and clothing. The city is spreading rapidly, and 
 has all the outward signs of business prosperity. 
 
 Besides the improvement of the harbor, impor- 
 tant public works have recently been carried out 
 in the opening of new and broad thoroughfares 
 in various parts of the city where formerly the 
 trafiic was confined to narrow, crooked streets, 
 and a very complete system of street railways has 
 been established. These railways, by the way, 
 employ boys of fourteen and sixteen as conduct- 
 ors, in place of men, and by a system of checks 
 find it quite' satisfactory, and much more eco- 
 nomical. 
 
 Bristol is famous for many antiquities and his- 
 toric associations. In the suburb of Clifton is 
 still to be seen a well-defined Roman camp, prob- 
 
 23 
 
 ^t 
 
354 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 abiy nineteen centuries old. In William the Con- 
 queror's time there was a castle here, but no ves- 
 tige of it now remains. The chapter house of the 
 cathedral, however, and a gateway to the once 
 existing abbey of St. Augustine, date back to the 
 Norman period. So does the parish church of St. 
 James, the main portion of which dates from the 
 beginning of the twelfth century. Of the same 
 period is the curious old Temple church, erected 
 in 1145 for the fraternity of Knights Templar, 
 and noticeable for its tower, which leans five feet 
 from the perpendicular. In the rebellion of 1642 
 Bristol played an important part, her sympathies 
 being with the parliamentary party and against 
 King Charles I., and the remains of a fort then 
 built on Brandon Hill are still visible. Queen's 
 Square is famous as the scene of a great riot in 
 1831, growing out of the reform bill agitation, in 
 which all the buildings on two sides of the 
 square, the Bishop's palace, and the various pris- 
 ons of the city, were burned. It cost the tax pay- 
 ers of Bristol about $350,000 to make good the 
 losses of the two days' rioting. Four of the rioters 
 were hanged, and about eighty more transported. 
 In Bristol William Tyndale, the translator of 
 the bible, preached, and here some of his descend- 
 ants still reside. To Tyndale we owe much of the 
 literary beauty of our English version of the 
 bible, his translation having been largely followed 
 
EMINENT BRISTOLIANS. 855 
 
 by subsequent revisers. He met his death in 
 Belgium, in 1536, under orders from the Emperor 
 Charles V., being first strangled, and his body 
 afterwards burned. 
 
 Admiral Penn, father of our William Penn, 
 was also a native of Bristol, and his monument is 
 still seen in Redcliff church. Joseph Butler, 
 author of Butler' s Analogy, one of the ablest the- 
 ological works ever written, was Bishop of Bristol, 
 and the witty Sidney Smith was a prebend of the 
 cathedral, where he early began to make a sensa- 
 tion by his preaching. Here Lady Huntingdon 
 established one of her chapels, the building now 
 being in use by the Salvation army ; here George 
 Whitefield lived and preached, and opened for his 
 services in 1752 a spacious tabernacle, still in exist- 
 ence ; and here John Wesley also at one time 
 labored, Bristol being peculiarly the cradle of 
 Methodism. In the suburb of Westbury stands 
 the chapel in which Adam Clarke, the commen- 
 tator, preached his last sermon. Rev. Rowland 
 Hill, having been refused ordination by six bish- 
 ops, was at last ordained by the Bishop of Bris- 
 tol, and here also began his earnest ministry. At 
 Kingswood, another suburb, Wesley founded his 
 college for the education of ministers, which has 
 since been removed to Bath. 
 
 In one street in Bristol the former residence of 
 the celebrated Baptist preacher Robert Hall is 
 
356 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 pointed ont. By the way, it was concerning a 
 baptist or congregational chapel in this city, the 
 cellar of which was rented to a wine merchant, 
 which suggested the old rhyme : 
 
 There's a spirit above and a spirit below, 
 A spirit of love and a spirit of woe; 
 The spirit above is the spirit divine, 
 The spirit below is the spirit of wine. 
 
 Here is a bridge with its romance. Some years 
 ago a deserted infant was fonnd upon it and 
 taken to a public institution to be brought up. 
 In the absence of a legitimate name he was called 
 from the place of his discovery. Bridges, and, 
 from his being found on the half of the bridge 
 embraced in St. Thomas parish, Thomas was made 
 his baptismal name. In due time Thomas Bridges 
 developed ability, became a teacher, then a cler- 
 gyman, and is now at the head of a flourishing 
 mission in Patagonia. Rev. Thomas Bridges was 
 recently in England superintending the printing 
 of a translation of the scriptures he had made 
 into the native language of his converts. His 
 story will illustrate another phase of the origin of 
 surnames. 
 
 S. T. Coleridge and Robert Southey at one time 
 resided in Bristol, the latter being born here, and 
 at St. Mary's'Redcliff church the two poets mar- 
 ried a pair of sisters, milliners of the place. 
 David Hume, the historian, was here apprenticed 
 
THOMAS CHATTERTOK. . 357 
 
 in early life to a mercliant, and was dismissed for 
 presuming to correct his employer's grammar. 
 Bristol was the birthplace and home of that 
 talented but unfortunate genius, Thomas Chatter- 
 ton. While only a boy of seventeen he produced 
 imitations of ancient literature which deceived 
 even the learned and astute Horace Walpole. 
 When Walpole discovered the youth and humble 
 position of his correspondent he treated him 
 with such contempt that Chatterton' s heart was 
 broken. He went up to London to seek literary 
 employment, struggled with starvation for four 
 months, and then closed his sad career with poi- 
 son in 1770. It was in the muniment room of 
 E,edcliff church that Chatterton professed to have 
 found the Rowley manuscripts, which, however, 
 were really the emanation of his own skillful pen. 
 Had he lived Chatterton would have occupied a 
 front rank in English literature. A fine monu- 
 ment to him adorns St. Mary' s churchyard. On 
 Park street the house is still standing in which 
 Hannah More, the authoress, and her sisters, kept 
 a school in the early part of this century, and in 
 a populous district in the east end of Bristol is 
 a chapej erected to her memory and known as 
 the Hannah More Memorial Chapel. 
 
 Dr. Jenner, the discoverer of vaccination, was 
 a resident of Bristol in the opening years of the 
 present century. Thomas Lawrence, the eminent 
 
358 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 painter, was born here, and so, if I mistake not, 
 was Sebastian Cabot. At all events the Cabots 
 sailed from Bristol on their famous voyage in 
 which Newfoundland was discovered and a foot- 
 hold on American soil given to the English by 
 right of discovery. 
 
 It was in Bristol that the first shot tower was 
 erected, and, though nearly a century old, it still 
 stands just opposite Redcliff church. The com- 
 mon shot, produced by permitting a shower of 
 melted lead to fall from a great height, the drops 
 assuming a globular form and cooling before they 
 reach the bottom, was the invention of a Bristol 
 plumber, one Wm. Watts, in 1782. His first exper- 
 iments were from the tower of Eedcliff church, 
 which proving successful, led to the erection of 
 the shot tower here alluded to, which earned for 
 the inventor a large fortune. Like many other 
 fortunate inventors he soon sunk his pile in an 
 impracticable scheme and died miserably poor. 
 
 Of all the cities I visited in Europe Bristol is 
 the most difficult for a stranger to learn the 
 topography of. The crookedness of the river, 
 the irregularity of the hills upon* which a great 
 part of the city is built, with the conformatory 
 necessities of the old original walled city and the 
 aesthetic tastes of the layers out of the newer resi- 
 dence portions, all combine to confuse and baffle 
 the traveler. It is a city of curves, and threading 
 
REDCLIFF CHURCH. 359 
 
 its often narrow streets one is constantly coming 
 out in the most unexpected places. Business is 
 confined chiefly to the lower portions near the 
 river. For residence, people seek the hill, which 
 rises two or three hundred feet, and at the west- 
 ern extremity is known as the suburb of Clifton. 
 The views obtained from many points in this 
 upper portion of Bristol are very fine, in some 
 places extending across the valley of the Avon 
 for many miles. Back of the residence portion is 
 an extensive down or open common which in late 
 years has been secured to the public for a park. 
 Stone is very abundant in Bristol, and the houses 
 are mostly built of that material. One variety is 
 a red sandstone, a wall of which has a very pleas- 
 ing effect. It is this red stone that has given 
 name to Redcliff parish, the church of which, St. 
 Mary's, is quite cathedral- like in its proportions, 
 and is claimed to be the finest parish church in 
 England. 
 
 St. Mary's Redcliff is about six hundred years 
 old. Having fallen into decay and been seriously 
 damaged by the fall of its spire, it wa^ rebuilt 
 and restored in the fifteenth century by one Wm. 
 Cannynge, the richest Bristol merchant of his 
 day, and five times mayor of the city. It is told 
 of this Cannynge that being visited by the king 
 the latter set his heart on marrying his host to a 
 favorite lady of the court. As the king's will 
 
360 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 could not be opposed, Cannynge, who was not 
 inclined to matrimony, escaped by becoming a 
 priest and assuming the abbacy of a convent he 
 had founded at Westbury near by. Cannynge, 
 or Canning as we should spell it nowadays, died 
 in 1474. The spire of Redcliff church was never 
 rebuilt until a few years ago, when two hundred 
 and sixty-five thousand dollars was spent in a 
 thorough restoration of the edifice. We visited 
 the muniment room over the north porch and saw 
 the old mediaeval wooden chests in which Chat- 
 terton professed to have found his manuscripts. 
 William of Wykeham, afterwards bishop of Win- 
 chester, alluded to in a former chapter, was vicar 
 of Redcliff in 1356. 
 
 Bristol Cathedral was formerly the abbey 
 church of St. Augustine. The abbey was found- 
 ed in 1142, and ^the old Norman church was 
 replaced by a Gothic one in the first half of the 
 fourteenth century, but only the choir and tran- 
 septs were completed. Within the past few years 
 the enterprising citizens of Bristol have completed 
 the strugture, at a cost of $250,000, by the erec- 
 tion of a nave, comporting in style with the older 
 portions of the building. Bristol Cathedral is 
 one of the smallest in the kingdom, and is pecu- 
 liar for its choir, nave and aisles being all of the 
 same height ; in other words, possessing no clere- 
 story. It contains the tomb of Bishoj) Butler, 
 
BKISTOL CATHEDRAL. 361 
 
 alluded to above, who was born in 1692, died 
 1752. 
 
 In Bristol Cathedral I first noticed a deflection 
 in the choir from a right line with the nave. Sub- 
 sequently I observed it in other old churches, and 
 in the ancient parish church of Henbury, near 
 Bristol, it is very pronounced. The deflection of 
 the chancel or choir is universally to the left, as 
 seen from the nave. An authority in such mat- 
 ters informs me that it was designed by the sym- 
 bol-loving builders to represent the drooping of 
 the dead Saviour's head as he hung upon the 
 cross. 
 
 Bristol has a famous school founded and en- 
 dowed in 1706, by Edward Colston, another 
 wealthy Bristol merchant. Under its original 
 organization one hundred poor boys were fed, 
 clothed and educated until fourteen years of age, 
 when they were discharged with an apprentice- 
 ship fee of ten pounds each. The scope of the 
 school is now considerably extended. 
 
 Everybody has heard of George MuUer and 
 his famous orphan houses. It will be remem- 
 bered that Mr. Muller visited America a year or 
 two ago and preached in many of our churches. 
 He is a member of the sect known as the Ply- 
 mouth Brethren, and began his ministerial labors 
 in Bristol some forty -five years ago. Soon after 
 settling there his warm christian heart led him to 
 
362 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 take into his family a friendless orphan child, 
 then another and another, till his house was full, 
 and other houses had to be taken for their accom- 
 modation. For the support of his large family- 
 he trusted solely to Providence, confidently 
 believing that being engaged in the Lord's work, 
 the Lord would provide the means for carrying it 
 on. When the larder was depleted he would 
 resort to prayer, and always, he assures us, with 
 signal success. Then he began to pray for means 
 wherewith to erect a larger and more suitable 
 home for his numerous dependents, and the means 
 were promptly forthcoming. He purchased a 
 tract of land on Ashley Down, a mile or two from 
 Bristol, and there built a large, plain, but sub- 
 stantial three story building with accommoda- 
 tions for about four hundred orphans. This was 
 speedily filled, and a second nearly similar build- 
 ing erected. From time to time the scope of his 
 operations has increased until to-day there are 
 five of these orphan houses with over two thou- 
 sand inmates. The buildings and land have cost 
 nearly $560,000, the annual expense of main- 
 tenance is nearly $150,000, and the whole amount 
 collected and expended from the first by this 
 earnest man has been nearly three million dol- 
 lars, and not a dollar of all this large sum has 
 been solicited from any one. The houses are fin- 
 ished in the plainest manner possible, and the 
 
MULLER'S ORPHAN HOUSES. 363 
 
 cMldren, though kindly treated, are by no 
 means pampered. That they are well taken care 
 of is evident from the fact that out of two 
 thousand two hundred and fifty inmates of the 
 institution for the past year only twenty-two died 
 — an extraordinary small percentage for children 
 of these ages. They are aU taught to work, and 
 when old enough are sent out, the girls as domes- 
 tic help, for which they have been especially 
 trained, the boys as apprentices to useful trades. 
 All receive in the schools sound religious training, 
 and those who are capable of it no inconsiderable 
 intellectual culture, as was evident from the 
 rapid mental calculations made by boys of ten or 
 twelve years, on the occasion of our visit. 
 
 
CHAPTER XXXYI. 
 
 CHEPSTOW CASTLE — TINTERN ABBEY — GLOUCESTER AND ITS 
 CATHEDRAL— WORCESTER CATHEDRAL-STRATFORD-ON-AVON 
 — SHAKSPEARE'S BIRTHPLACE AND TOMB. 
 
 EAVING Bristol, we cross the Severn, tlie 
 largest river in England, into Monmouth- 
 shire, originally one of the counties of 
 Wales, and lie over a few hours at Chepstow for 
 the purpose of visiting an old mediaeval castle, 
 mostly in ruins, to be found there. It was a very 
 interesting experience to climb the turret stairs 
 and thread the passages in the walls of this old 
 structure. The floors and roofs have long since 
 disappeared, but much of the stone work is still 
 in good condition and well illustrates the arrange- 
 ment and accommodations of an ancient castle. 
 Chepstow castle was built immediately after the 
 Norman conquest, and for several centuries was 
 an important fortress on the western border of 
 England. During the great rebellion it stood a 
 long siege by the parliamentary army, and was 
 only at last starved into surrender. It then con- 
 stituted the prison of the holy and eloquent 
 Jeremy Taylor, who was too strong a royalist for 
 Cromwell to trust at large. After the restoration 
 
TINTERN ABBEY. 365 
 
 it became, in turn, the prison of Henry Marten, 
 one of tlie most active participants in the convic- 
 tion and execution of Charles I., and who was 
 kept here for twenty years, or until his death. 
 The property now belongs to the Duke of Beau- 
 fort, and is being carefully preserved. 
 
 Four miles from Chepstow, on the banks of the 
 Wye, an aifiuent of the Severn, stands the very 
 fine ruin of Tin tern Abbey. This religious house 
 was instituted early in the Norman period and 
 continued until the Reformation, when the abbey 
 was dissolved and the buildings were permitted 
 to go to ruin. The abbey church, which must 
 have been a beautiful one in its day, was very 
 substantially built, and, except part of its north 
 wall, sfeems hardly to require more than a roof to 
 fit it again for occupancy. It is two hundred and 
 twenty-eight feet in length and was seventy feet in 
 height to the vaulting, none of which now remains. 
 The walls are largely overgrown with ivy, and 
 present a very picturesque appearance. Besides 
 the church there can be traced the remains of 
 other monastic buildings, as the cloisters, chap- 
 ter-house, sacristy, refectory, kitchen, guest- 
 house, etc. The entire premises of the abbey 
 embraced thirty-four acres. The grounds in and 
 around the abbey are nicely sodded and well kept 
 by the proprietor, the Duke of Beaufort, and to 
 defray the expenses of protection and repairs a 
 charge of sixpence each is made to all visitors. 
 
366 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 On a commanding eminence overlooking for 
 miles the valley of the Severn, is a tall monument 
 to Tyndale, the reformer and translator of the 
 scriptures. 
 
 Gloucester, thirty-seven miles north of Bristol, 
 is a place of thirty thousand inhabitants, and is 
 known to the younger portion of my readers as 
 the place where, a trifle more than a century ago, 
 Robert Raikes established the first Sunday school. 
 It has a fine old cathedral, part of which was 
 built in the ninth century. It was originally of 
 Norman style and very massive, but in the four- 
 teenth century was altered over in part to Per- 
 pendicular Gothic. The result is, though inter- 
 esting, it has a patch-work look which detracts 
 much from its elegance. It contains the tombs of 
 Robert, Duke of Normandy, eldest son of William 
 the Conqueror, and Edward II.,. who was mur- 
 dered in Berkeley castle, not far distant, in 1327. 
 A very common thing in old English churches is 
 to see the tomb of the parents of a large family 
 adorned with kneeling eiBgies in stone of all the 
 children, the sons kneeling on one side, the 
 daughters on the other, and all arranged in order 
 of age, the eldest in the center of the tomb and 
 the processions tapering away to the babies at the 
 sides. In Gloucester Cathedral there is one such 
 with this inscription: 
 
 John Bower had nyne sones and seauen daughters by his wife 
 Ann Bower. 
 
GLOUCESTER. 367 
 
 John died in 1615. A statue of Dr. Edward 
 Jenner, the discoverer of vaccination, stands in 
 the nave, and another of Kobert Eaikes is to be 
 added. The east windovi^ of the cathedral dates 
 from 1350, and is reputed to be the largest in 
 England. 
 
 Just west of the cathedral is the square where 
 John Hooper, bishop of Gloucester, was burned 
 at the stake February 9, 1555, for being a protes- 
 tant. A fine monument to the martyr now occu- 
 pies the site. 
 
 In one of the principal streets of the city stands 
 the Bell Inn, modernized it is true, but the same 
 inn where Gfeorge Whitefield was born and passed 
 his early life. 
 
 Passing on twenty- eight miles to Worcester we 
 have on our right the Cotswold hills, whence the 
 famous Cotswold breed of sheep take their name. 
 On our left are the famed Malvern hills. Wor- 
 cester is a comfortable old city of perhaps forty 
 thousand inhabitants, situated on the Severn, 
 which is here a small stream. It is memorable as 
 being the scene of the last struggle between the 
 royalists and the parliamentary forces under 
 Cromwell, September, 3, 1651, when the royalists 
 were utterly defeated. Worcester is also known 
 an the world over by the Worcestershire table 
 sauce manufactured there. 
 
 Worcester Cathedral is one of the most beau- 
 
368 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 tiful I have seen. It mucli resembles Salisbury, 
 though in the crypt, chapter-house and portions 
 of the nave, remains of the original Norman struc- 
 ture, destroyed by fire in 1113, are discoverable. 
 The choir is very pure Early English Gothic of 
 the twelfth and thirteenth century. The cloisters 
 of a later period are among the best found in 
 any of the cathedrals. The spandrils of the 
 arches around the choir and transepts are filled 
 with rude reliefs representing scriptural scenes, 
 and some of them from their excessive realism 
 are very amusing. Although almost entirely 
 restored, Worcester Cathedral well illustrates the 
 iconaclasm of the puritan regime. During Crom- 
 well's rule, orders were sent down to all the 
 cathedral churches to hew down the tabernacle 
 work and deface the images inclosed, and then 
 to whitewash the previously decorated walls. 
 Scarcely a statue or efloigy can be found in any 
 church, of an earlier date than the Commonwealth, 
 that has not at least its nose knocked off. In 
 Worcester some of the more delicately carved 
 stonework is shamefully hacked and battered. 
 The whitewash of generations has now been care- 
 fully scraped off, and hundreds of polished brown 
 marble columns have been brought to light. 
 
 Worcester Cathedral is not over -filled with 
 tombs. The principal are those of King John, 
 from whom Magna Charta was wrested by the 
 
WORCESTER CATHEDRAL, 369 
 
 barons, and who died A. D. 1216, and Prince 
 Arthur, elder brother of Henry VIII., who died 
 A. D. 1502. His widow, Katharine of Aragon, it 
 will be recollected, Henry married, and the neg- 
 lect of the Pope to divorce him when the illegal- 
 ity of the marriage began to prey on his con- 
 science, precipitated the Reformation in England. 
 Besides these the most noticeable is a monu- 
 mental brass in the south transept to the memory 
 of Kev. Wm. H. Havergal, the musical composer, 
 and the father of Frances Ridley Havergal, the 
 poet and author. Mr. Havergal, who was a canon 
 of Worcester Cathedral, died in 1870, his daugh- 
 ter in 1879. A popular hymn tune of his com- 
 posing, and called by his name, is found in most 
 of our American tune books. 
 
 There are also several tombs of Crusaders, with 
 their cross-legged eifigies. From the intelligent 
 verger I learned a lesson in knight-errantry. If 
 the effigy on a knight' s tomb has its legs crossed 
 near the ankle it signifies that the deceased was 
 engaged in but one campaign in the Holy Land ; 
 crossed below the knee it signifies two expedi- 
 tions, and at the thigh, three. If the hand grasp- 
 ing the sword appears palm up, the knight 
 returned from the wars alive ; if knuckles up, he 
 was brought home dead. 
 
 Every year a grand musical festival, lasting a 
 week, is held in turn at Worcester, Hereford and 
 
370 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 Gloucester cathedrals. Several oratorios are pro- 
 duced each year, and the event is a notable one 
 in musical circles. 
 
 Worcester is also famous for a royal porcelain 
 factory, established one hundred and thirty years 
 ago, where the most artistic wares produced in 
 England are turned out. 
 
 It is the practice in Worcester, and in many 
 other parts of England, to suspend all business 
 and close the shops at three o'clock every Thurs- 
 day afternoon, when the streets are as quiet and 
 deserted as on Sunday. 
 
 We leave Worcester for Stratford - on - Avon 
 (pronounced thereabouts ^von, with a long a\ 
 the birth and burial place of the immortal Shak- 
 speare, twenty-five miles distant. We traverse a 
 beautiful agricultural country. Stratford is situ- 
 ted on a branch line in the county of Warwick- 
 shire. It is a large market town, with broad and 
 well laid out, but irregular, streets, and many 
 old-fashioned houses. It is a neat, clean place, 
 and is evidently an object of much pride to its 
 inhabitants. We follow a long, curving street 
 leading away from the station, turn to the left 
 into Windsor street, and then by an acute angle 
 to the right into Henley street. A few doors 
 from the corner on the left hand side stands 
 Shaksi^eare's house. It is a long two-story-and- 
 attic building, with dormer windows in the roof 
 
BHAKSPEARE'S BIRTHPLACE. 371 
 
 and four low, broad windows filled with small 
 diamond-shaped glass set in lead, in each of the 
 other floors. The house is built of a framework 
 of oak, filled in between with plaster, such as was 
 so common about three hundred years ago. There 
 are two doors opening from the street. We step 
 up to the first and ring the bell. An old lady- 
 opens, and proceeds to show us through the 
 house, the fee for which is a shilling each. Scores 
 of people visit the house daily. The room we 
 enter from the street is the former kitchen, with 
 an immense stone fireplace on one side, stone 
 floor, and low ceiling. When the house passed 
 out of the Shakspeare family this room was long 
 used as a butcher's shop. Behind it is a similar 
 room, probably the family sitting room. Over 
 the kitchen, and of course fronting the street, is 
 the room in which the great dramatist first saw 
 light, April 23d, 1564. It is a large room, with 
 ceiling that cannot be more than seven and a half 
 feet high, a^nd the walls and ceiling, and even the 
 glass of the windows, are literally covered with 
 the names of visitors, though the practice is now 
 no longer permitted. Except a few articles of 
 old-fashioned furnkure of about the Shakspear- 
 ean period, the room is bare. In the room over 
 the sitting room above mentioned, the ceiling was 
 so low that it has been taken out for the comfort 
 of visitors, exposing to view the rafters of the 
 
372 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 attic story above. With this exception the house 
 has been put back as nearly as possible into the 
 condition in which Shakspeare saw it, and the 
 greatest care is exercised for its future preserva- 
 tion. Some adjacent houses have been pulled 
 down to lessen the fire risk, and what heat is 
 needed is supplied by hot water pipes, the hot 
 water for which is brought under ground from 
 premises some yards distant. Not so much as 
 the striking of a match is permitted in the house. 
 The other half of the house is used as a Shak- 
 spearean museum, in which are collected a great 
 many relics of the family, a number of pictures, 
 many autographs, and an extensive Shakspearean 
 library. 
 
 At the end of Henley street we turn to our 
 right into High street, two blocks down which, 
 on the left hand side, formerly stood the elegant 
 mansion which Shakspeare, when he became well 
 off, purchased, and in which he spent the last 
 nineteen years of his life, and ultimately died. 
 Some remains of the foundation are still to be 
 seen, and are carefully preserved by the citizens 
 of Stratford. The indignation of the people 
 against its last owner, w^ho some years ago pulled 
 it down, is hardly yet abated. The site has since 
 become public property, and is protected by an 
 elegant iron fence. Turning to the left at this 
 point, a walk of a block brings us to the river, on 
 
STRATFORD-ON-AVON. 373 
 
 the bank of which stands the Memorial Theatre, 
 erected a few years ago to commemorate the 
 three hundredth anniversary of the poet' s birth. 
 Connected with the theatre are picture galleries, 
 library, and reading room, the whole being 
 designed ultimately as a dramatic college, though 
 this portion of the scheme has not yet been put 
 into effect. 
 
 Following the bank of the river for a few hun- 
 dred yards, we come to the interesting parish 
 church of Stratford, in which Shakspeare lies 
 buried. It is an interesting old building, situated 
 in the midst of a large churchyard w^hich extends 
 on one side quite to the margin of the Avon. 
 The central tower must have been built for an 
 earlier church than the one existing, and must be 
 fully eight hundred years old. The transepts are 
 the next oldest portion, being of Early English 
 Gothic of about the year 1200. The nave, or por- 
 tion of the church west of the central tower, is in 
 the Perpendicular Gothic style, and is said to have 
 been built about the year 1400. The date of the 
 chancel is put at 1480. In this chancel, just in 
 front of the communion railing, lie in a row the 
 tombs of the Shakspeare family, a plain, flat 
 stone marking each. That to the left, a3 we face 
 the altar, is the tomb of Shakspeare' s wife, better 
 known by her maiden name, Anne Hathaway. 
 
374 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 Next comes that of the poet himself, with this 
 inscription : 
 
 Good friend, for Iesvs sake forbearb 
 
 to digg the dvst encloased heake ; 
 
 BlESTE be ye man YT SPARES THES STONES, 
 AND CVRST BE HE YT MOVES MY BONES, 
 
 On the wall of the church just over Mrs. Shak- 
 speare's grave is the monument to her husband. 
 His half-length figure in stone, painted, is repre- 
 sented in the act of writing. Above is his coat of 
 arms, the whole being surmounted by a skull. 
 The inscription shows that he died on the 23d of 
 April, 1616, aged 53. 
 
 As the reader is aware, there has always been a 
 good deal of controversy as to the proper spelling 
 of Shakspeare's name. The difficulty has arisen 
 from the very illegible w^y in which the poet 
 wrote it himself, and the probability that he did 
 not himself always observe the same siDelling. 
 
CHAPTETt XXXVII. 
 
 WARWICK CASTLE — LEAMINGTON — KENILWORTH — COVENTRY- 
 LADY GODIVA— BIRMINGHAM — LICHFIELD — THE CATHEDRAL 
 —ECCENTRIC ARCHITECTURE— DR. JOHNSON. 
 
 CyJ FEW miles from Stratford is Warwick 
 r¥ (pronounced Warrick), famous for its cas- 
 ^ V tie, the best preserved old baronial castle 
 in England. It is situated on an abrupt liill over- 
 looking tlie Avon, and is surrounded by a beauti- 
 ful park of about one thousand acres. It is 
 owned by the Earl of Warwick, who resides there 
 a portion of the time. When away from the 
 castle the building and grounds are open free to 
 the public, though a small fee is expected by the 
 attendants who show you around. It will be 
 remembered that a portion of the castle was acci- 
 dentally burned about ten years ago, but this has 
 since been fully restored. We lirst pass the por- 
 ter's lodge by a gate which opens to our knock. 
 A long, winding, shady walk, cut for some dis- 
 tance through solid rock, leads up to the draw- 
 bridge and gate tower of the castle. The gate 
 tower is fitted with two heavy portcullises, or 
 heavy iron gratings, which, sliding in grooves in 
 the stone walls, were formerly lowered when dan- 
 
 375 
 
376 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 ger threatened from without. The gate tower 
 passed, we find ourselves in a spacious courtyard 
 with a great oval lawn in the center. To our 
 right and left are strong towers of defense one 
 hundred and fifty feet in hight. The left side of 
 the courtyard is occupied by the private and 
 state apartments of the castle, a series of elegant 
 Elizabethan (rothic structures. Midway their 
 length we pass through a spacious porch, up a 
 broad flight of stone steps, through a massive 
 oaken doorway, and we find ourselves in the great 
 hall. 
 
 The walls are of stone, the floor of marble, and 
 the ceiling, some thirt}^ or forty feet high, of 
 carved oak. The wall ojDposite the door of 
 entrance must be fully eight feet thick, and the 
 windows in it look down upon the Avon a hun- 
 dred feet below. Around the hall are ancient 
 arms and armor, and other trophies. From the 
 great hall we x)ass through a series of large draw- 
 ing rooms, all looking out upon the Avon, and all 
 filled with rare inlaid cabinets and tables, pictures 
 by such artists as Rubens, Vandyke, Rembrandt, 
 Holbein, Murillo, Wouwerman, and others, rare 
 porcelain, articles formerly the property of the 
 unfortunate Marie Antoinette, and other objects 
 rich and rare. The last room of the suite contains 
 a bedstead, a trunk, and other articles formerly 
 belonging to Queen Anne. Returning, we pass 
 
WARWICK CASTLE. 377 
 
 tlirougli a long gallery filled with arms, and a 
 private chapel used by the members of the family 
 and servants of the castle. 
 
 Among the objects of interest in the park is a 
 large antique marble vase, twenty-one feet in cir- 
 cumference, found in the ruins of Hadrian' s villa 
 at Tivoli, in Italy, the same place where the 
 famous Yenus de Medici was discovered. In the 
 park also are many fine cedars of Lebanon, some 
 of which are said to have been brought from Pal- 
 estine by the Crusaders hundreds of years ago. 
 
 Two or three miles from Warwick we come to 
 Leamington, famous, like Bath, for its medicinal 
 waters and its concentration of wealth and 
 fashion. It is beautifully situated, has fine, 
 broad streets, and hundreds of elegant villas in 
 great variety of architectural design. In the 
 upper part of the town stands a large oak tree, 
 surrounded by an iron fence, which the natives 
 assure us has been demonstrated to be the exact 
 geographical center of England. 
 
 Three or four miles still farther on is Kenil- 
 worth, the seat of the castle of that name, immortal- 
 ized in Walter Scott's novel, Kenil worth. It is a 
 stately ruin. One portion called Caesar's tower, 
 dating from about A. D. 1100, is an immense 
 square, bastioned stronghold, with walls sixteen" 
 feet in thickness, yet notwithstanding this pro- 
 digious strength only three sides remain stand- 
 
378 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 ing. At the farther end of the court-yard are the 
 roofless walls of the great hall, which no doubt 
 Queen Elizabeth graced with her presence, and 
 which in its perfection must have been a very- 
 beautiful structure. The doors and lofty win- 
 dows are of the best periods of Gothic art and 
 some rich sculpture still remains. Another por- 
 tion of the castle, known as Leicester's tower, 
 evidently once contained several palatial suites of 
 apartments, with pleasant bay and oriel windows, 
 and fire-places, the carved mantels of which still 
 remain. Altogether, Kenilworth castle is a very 
 extensive and interesting ruin and well worth a 
 visit, especially if one is posted in its historical 
 associations. For the greater part of its existence 
 it has belonged to the crown, but has frequently 
 been given to royal favorites. Thus Queen Eliza- 
 beth bestowed it upon Robert Dudley, Earl of 
 Leicester, who, readers of English history will 
 recollect, was vain enough to aspire to the hand 
 of his royal mistress, and to gain that end was 
 accessory to the putting out of the way of his 
 secretly married but lawful wife, the fair Amy 
 Robsart. The whole story is entertainingly told 
 in Walter Scott' s Kenilworth. 
 
 Next we come to Coventry, a large and busy 
 manufacturing town, famous for its ribbons. It is 
 also a place of rare antiquarian interest. It pos- 
 sesses two very large and fine old churches, St. 
 
COVENTRY. 379 
 
 Michael's being almost a cathedral in size. Both 
 were built between the eleventh and fourteenth 
 centi;ries, and from the soft character of the 
 material of which they are constructed — the red 
 sandstone that so abounds throughout England, 
 are so badly weatherworn as to present the most 
 ancient appearance of any churches I saw in my 
 travels. Close by is St. Mary's hall, built of the 
 same stone, with ceiling of oak, the latter being 
 as black as ebony, from age. The hall was built 
 in 1397 — nearly a century before the discovery of 
 America by Columbus. It contains many por- 
 traits of royal personages, some ancient tapestries 
 made by the nuns of Coventry, and a throne of 
 carved oak, as dark as the ceiling, used by Henry 
 VI. and his queen upon one occasion when they 
 held a parliament in Coventry. At the time of 
 our visit to St. Mary's hall, one hundred and 
 thirty old men were just being paid a weekly dole 
 of four or six shillings each, in accordance with a 
 provision made some centuries ago by a charitable 
 citizen of the place who left lands for the purpose. 
 As the value and rental of the lands increase the 
 number of recipients is gradually enlarged. They 
 were a very respectable looking lot of old gen- 
 tlenien. By another ancient bequest a certain 
 number of loaves of bread are distributed to as 
 many poor people each Sunday morning in the 
 porch of St. Michael's church. 
 
380 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 Coventry also contains a great number of very 
 old houses, many of them very curious and pic- 
 turesque, with their carved timber framework 
 and overhanging upper stories, such as were so 
 fashionable in Queen Elizabeth's time. 
 
 Did the reader ever hear of Lady Godiva? 
 Well, as the story goes, a good many centuries 
 ago there lived in Coventry a tyrannical old earl 
 named Leofric and his beautiful wife, Godiva. 
 The earl greatly oppressed the people of Coven- 
 try, who were all his tenants, or perhaps, more 
 correctly speaking, serfs. In their misery they 
 appealed to the tender-hearted Godiva, who 
 interceded with Leofric in their behalf. The 
 monster at length consented to lighten the bur- 
 den of the townspeople, but on the one condition 
 that Godiva should ride in mid- day through the 
 town in a state of entire nudity. Of course he 
 supposed she would not comply with the terms, 
 but the plucky woman was bent on accomplishing 
 her mission at whatever cost, and ride she did, 
 and thereby earned for all time the gratitude and 
 worship of the people of Coventry. One chroni- 
 cler relates that the ride was taken on a market 
 day when the streets were crowded with people ; 
 but popular tradition has it that an order was 
 previously given for the people to stay indoors 
 and keep their blinds tightly closed; and it 
 further adds that one curious individual who did 
 
LADY GODIVA. 381 
 
 venture to look out was immediately struck blind. 
 He is known as Peeping Tom, and his effigy, 
 leaning out of a third-story window at a promi- 
 nent street corner, with eyes strained to their 
 utmost, has long been a conspicuous landmark of 
 Coventry. Until within the last few years there 
 was an annual festival in Lady Godiva' s honor, 
 one of the features of which was a grand proces- 
 sion through the streets, led by a woman on horse- 
 back dressed in flesh colored tights. The last 
 such show took place in 1878. 
 
 Birmingham is the fourth largest place in Great 
 Britain, and boasts a i^opulation of about four 
 hundred thousand. It has fine streets, elegant 
 stone buildings, splendid shops, fine public edi- 
 fices, and altogether is an attractive place to visit. 
 It is comparatively a modern city, and has no 
 historical associations. It is famous for its manu- 
 facture of hardware, steel pens, bronze and brass 
 work, fire-arms. Jewelry, pins, buttons, machi- 
 nery, and many other products of metal, and has 
 long enjoyed the cognomen of *'the Toy Shop of 
 Europe." One of the lions of Birmingham is its 
 Town Hall, a fine Grecian structure, seating 
 between two thousand and three thousand people, 
 and furnished with an immense organ, upon 
 which a free organ recital is given every Saturday 
 afternoon, whereby a popular taste for music is 
 cultivated. It was in Birmingham that Rev. 
 
882 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 Jolin Angell James, the great congregational 
 preacher and author of various religious books, 
 lived and labored in the early part of the cen- 
 tury. We attended services one Sunday evening 
 at Carr's Lane chapel, erected by this earnest 
 man in 1819. It is a large, plain, brick building 
 with broad galleries extending around three sides, 
 and high old-fashioned pews, over the tops of 
 which only the worshipers' heads can be seen. 
 The organ is raised slightly above the floor at the 
 rear of the octagonal pulpit, which stands out a 
 little way into the body of the church and is sur- 
 rounded by high seats for the choir of forty or 
 fifty voices. There are numerous memorial tab- . 
 lets on the walls. The church is now served by 
 the Kev. E. W. Dale. The services on this occa- 
 sion began with a seven verse hymn, a long chap- 
 ter from the Old Testament, an anthem by the 
 choir, a long prayer, a hymn of six verses, a 
 chapter from the New Testament, another long 
 prayer and another hymn — the entire opening 
 services occupying little short of an hour. Then 
 came an earnest extempore sermon of fifty min- 
 utes, and a closing hymn and prayer. 
 
 From Stratford-on-Avon to Birmingham we 
 have been altogether in the county of Warwick- 
 shire, a beautiful portion of England, and one 
 inhabited by as courteous and i^olite a people as 
 are anywhere to be found. 
 
THE BLACK COUNTRY. 383 
 
 Birmingham is situated on the border line 
 between Warwickshire and Staffordshire. North- 
 west of it, in Staffordshire, stretches away for 
 twenty miles the famous "Black Country," so 
 called because in all that region there is scarcely 
 a field, tree, or blade of grass — nothing but coal 
 mines, iron furnaces, rolling mills, railway tracks, 
 canals, rows of dusty dwelling houses for the 
 laborers, with great heaps of ashes and cinders 
 for scenery. The contrast between the approach 
 to Birmingham on the one side and the departure 
 from it on the other is very striking. 
 
 I enjoyed a short chat with a very agreeable 
 and intelligent Birmingham manufacturer. He, 
 in common with his class, bewails the hard lot of 
 England in working out the free trade problem 
 single-handed and alone, and admitting freely the 
 products of other countries, while her own pro- 
 ducts are excluded from their markets. Still he 
 concedes that the free trade theory is the correct 
 one, and confesses that notwithstanding the dis- 
 advantages under which England labors in this 
 respect, she was never more prosperous than at 
 present. Money is abundant and cheap, profits 
 are not to be complained of, and wages in most 
 branches of manufacture are satisfactory. The 
 gentleman alluded to had visited America 
 recently. "Yours is the dearest country in the 
 world," he remarked. "A dollar scarcely goes 
 
384 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 farther with you than a shilling with ns. Your 
 protective system is putting some money into the 
 pockets of your manufacturers, but at a tremen- 
 dous cost to the public at large, who pay double 
 prices for everything they consume." N^o doubt 
 he was right, and America would be richer and 
 our people individually better off were we to fol- 
 low England's example, and emancipate trade 
 from the barbarous mediaeval restrictions which, 
 in contempt of the teachings of science and the 
 spirit of the age, we continue to hamper it with. 
 Some fifteen miles north of Birmingham is the 
 city of Lichfield, a quiet little country place of 
 about seven thousand inhabitants. Only cathe- 
 dral towns are called cities in England, and thus 
 the rustic little Lichfield is a city while Birming- 
 ham, with its four hundred thousand inhabitants, 
 is only a town. Lichfield cathedral is only of 
 medium size, thirteen of the twenty-four English 
 cathedrals being larger, and ten smaller, but it is 
 one of the most perfect. It is purely Gothic, and 
 its erection covered the period between 1150 and 
 1350. Its chief peculiarity is its three beautiful 
 stone spires. The church suffered severely at the 
 hands of Cromwell's army, and its central spire 
 was entirely destroyed by their batteries, but at 
 the restoration it too was thoroughly restored, 
 and is now undergoing a still further restoration, 
 Lichfield is another instance of the nave and choir 
 
LICHFIELD CATHEDRAL. 385 
 
 not being in a right line with each other : and here 
 another explanation is given of the eccentricity, 
 differing from the one given at Bristol. A gentle- 
 man connected with the cathedral is strongly of 
 the opinion that taste in architecture was more 
 highly developed at the period when these bent 
 churches were erected than at any time since, and 
 that the deflection was made purely with aesthetic 
 purpose. The effect in looking down the nave of 
 one of these churches is certainly greatly height- 
 ened by the deflection, for on one side at least the 
 entire range of columns and arches is brought 
 into the perspective, while in a perfectly straight 
 edifice the more distant arches are lost in a con- 
 fused jumble. I was inclined to favor this latter 
 theory, but there is still another peculiarity in 
 these old churches not so easily accounted for. 
 In many of them, including Lichfield, but princi- 
 pally in the churches of IN'orman style, the col- 
 umns and arches of the nave incline outward as if 
 spread by being imperfectly anchored together at 
 the top. But, with the immense thickness of the 
 walls of most of the Norman churches, and the 
 absence of cracks that would indicate a giving 
 way, it is difficult to believe that they were not 
 originally built as we see them. In the case of 
 St. James's church at Bristol, the columns not 
 only incline outward, but to an even greater 
 degree backward from the chancel, so as to have, 
 
 25 
 
386 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 in nautical parlance, quite a rakish appearance. 
 The west or front wall also overhangs several 
 feet, but nowhere is there any indication of its 
 having shifted into that position. The intelligent 
 sexton of St. James's was of the opinion that the 
 ^N'ormans were unacquainted with the use of the 
 plumb rule, but my Lichfield friend would have 
 it that this too was a matter of taste, and not of 
 accident. In the fine old churches of Stratford- 
 on-Avon, and St. Michael's, Coventry, the de- 
 flected choir or chancel is very strongly markejd. 
 
 Lichfield Cathedral has a number of very 
 beautiful modern tombs and monuments, which 
 enjoy a freedom from dust and dirt that would 
 astonish a Londoner, but none of any personages 
 in whom my readers would be likely to feel an 
 interest, unless it be two marble busts of Johnson 
 and Garrick, erected to their memory in one of 
 the transepts. The Dean of Lichfield is Rev. 
 Edward H. Bickersteth, the well known poet, 
 the author of "Yesterday, To-day, and For- 
 ever," and other works. 
 
 Lichfield was the birthplace of Dr. Samuel 
 Johnson, the lexil^ographer and literary autocrat 
 of the last century, and the house in which he 
 v^as born in 1709 is still standing on a corner 
 facing the market place. In front of it has been 
 erected a colossal marble statue of the great man. 
 It was while living in this house that Johnson's 
 
DR. JOHNSON. 387 
 
 father, who was a peripatetic bookseller, once 
 desired his sen to attend his book stall on the mar- 
 ket of Uttoxeter, a town a few miles distant, when 
 himself confined at home by sickness, a duty which 
 the young man as a matter of pride declined to 
 perform. In after life, oppressed with remorse 
 at his undutiful conduct on this occasion, he 
 imposed as a penance on himself the standing 
 bareheaded for a whole day in Uttoxeter market 
 place exposed to the inclemency of the weather 
 and the gibes of the rabble. The incident is com- 
 memorated by an indifferent bas-relief on the 
 base of the monument. 
 
 Leaving Lichfield, we journey northward to 
 Lincoln, passing through Burton-on-Trent, the 
 greatest ale-brewing place in the world, !N"otting- 
 ham, the famous lace manufacturing town, and 
 Derby. 
 
CHAPTER XXXYIIL 
 
 LINCOLN— HULI^BEVERLEY— YORK- RIPON— FOUNTAINS ABBEY 
 —DURHAM- THE VENERABLE BEDE-LINDISFARNE. 
 
 INCOLN, the capital of the large eastern 
 county of Lincolnshire, is a rural place of 
 twenty or twenty-five thousand inhabit- 
 ants. It is situated on high ground, but is sur- 
 rounded by a flat, level country. On the summit 
 of the hill stands the cathedral, one of the largest 
 in England, being five hundred and seventeen feet 
 long. It was built in the twelfth century, and is 
 a good example of the Early English Gothic style. 
 About 1280 the choir was extended eastward in 
 the decorated style, of which it is also a very 
 beautiful example. In the western front may 
 be seen some remains of the original Norman 
 church, built eight hundred years ago. 'No addi- 
 tions or changes have been made in the building 
 since 1482. Lincoln cathedral is easily remem- 
 bered by its three lofty square towers, the one at 
 the intersection of the nave and transept being 
 two hundred and seventy feet high. It is a noble 
 church, but has no particular associations inter- 
 esting to an American. The only tomb I noticed 
 worth mentioning was that of Elizabeth Penrose, 
 
HULL. . 389 
 
 antlior of the Markham's History of England, 
 commonly nsed in our schools, the name Mark- 
 ham being a nom de plume. 
 
 From Lincoln we hasten on to Hnll, the third 
 seaport in England in respect of importance. It 
 is a place of about one hundred and sixty 
 thousand inhabitants, on the river Humber, near 
 its mouth, and it has extensive docks and a 
 large foreign trade, but chiefly with the Dutch 
 and Danish ports just across the North sea. Its 
 full name is Kingston-on-Hull, the Hull being the 
 name of a smaller river that joins the Humber at 
 this point. Besides its shipping interest, it is 
 largely engaged in the manufacture of linseed and 
 cotton seed oils. It is interesting as being the 
 birthplace of William Wilberf orce, through whose 
 efforts slavery was abolished in the British colo- 
 nies on the first of August, 1834. A tall column, 
 surmounted by a statue of the philanthropist, has 
 been erected to his memory. The house in which 
 he was born is still in existence, but is now used 
 for offices. 
 
 The Pole family, of which Cardinal Reginald 
 Pole, Archbishop of Canterbury during Queen 
 Mary's reign, was a member, were also residents 
 of Hull. 
 
 Twelve miles north of Hull is the town of 
 Beverley, famous for a parish church known as 
 Beverley Minster, in size and stateliness quite the 
 
390 ^FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 peer of many of the cathedrals. The church was 
 originally founded about the year 700, and the 
 existing church, which is kept in excellent repair^ 
 is about seven hundred years old. Beverley 
 Minster is celebrated for the quaint wood carv- 
 ings with which its interior fittings are orna- 
 mented. 
 
 From Beverley we proceed to York, the seat of 
 one of the two archbishoprics of England. There 
 is nothing remarkable about the place except its 
 old wall, which is kept in good repair, and the 
 summit of which forms a pleasant promenade, its 
 ruined abbey, and its cathedral, the latter reputed 
 the largest in England. I must own, however^ 
 to being rather disappointed in it, it nowhere 
 approaching in beauty and interest either Lin- 
 coln, Lichfield or Worcester cathedrals. Its 
 wooden vaulting, so constructed because its walls 
 were not strong enough to bear the weight of stone, 
 is a great defect, and in 1829 came near causing 
 the entire destruction of the church. In that 
 year an insane man named Martin secreted him- 
 self in the church, and in the dead of night 
 kindled a huge bonfire of the books and benches 
 just in the vicinity of the organ and choir stalls. 
 The flames spread to the roof of the choir, which 
 was entirely destroyed. Luckily the rest of the 
 church was saved. In the crypt under the nave 
 may be seen some remains of an old Saxon 
 
YORK MINSTER 391 
 
 churcli built twelve hundred and fifty years ago, 
 and also the bases of the finely sculptured col- 
 umns of a later Norman church, which next occu- 
 pied the site. The present edifice was erected 
 between 1220 and 1470— too late for the best 
 period of Gothic art. It is rather famous for its 
 windows, some of which are of immense size and 
 mostly filled with antique glass. The great east 
 window is thirty-two by seventy-seven feet in 
 size, and its glass dates from 1408. I observed no 
 very remarkable tombs in the cathedral, unless it 
 were that of the wife of a professor of theology 
 who, as the Latin inscription states, died in her 
 thirty-eighth year and after her twenty-fourth 
 confinement. 
 
 The city wall extends almost entirely around 
 the city. It is six or eight feet thick and from 
 ten to twenty-five feet high, according as the 
 ground is elevated or depressed. Its summit is 
 finished with large fiag stones and it. has a para- 
 pet about four feet high with embrasures at inter- 
 vals along the outer edge. The inner side of the 
 promenade that runs along the top is unprotected. 
 The wall does not follow straight lines or uniform 
 curves, but jogs in and out in a very irregular 
 manner. There are several imposing gateways 
 with towers, barbicans, loopholes, and every other 
 means of ancient defense. The city, which now 
 contains about forty thousand inhabitants, has 
 
892 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 spread to a considerable extent beyond the walls. 
 York has a sleepy and old-fashioned air and, 
 from the dirty colored brick with which it is 
 mainly built, wears rather a gloomy appearance. 
 It has an old castle to which modern additions 
 have been added from time to time, and which 
 serves for a court house and county offices. It 
 will be remembered as the scene of the trial in 
 Warren's incomparable novel ''Ten Thousand a 
 Year." 
 
 Tradition has always asserted that the Koman 
 emperor Constantine the Great was born in York, 
 A. D. 274. In recent times it was the home of 
 George Hudson the linen draper who, about 
 thirty-five years ago, threw down his yard-stick 
 and made himself the railroad king of Britain. 
 Railroads were made or ruined according as he 
 accepted their presidency or refused the same. 
 In a short time he made an immense fortune, but 
 soon after, when reaction and panic seized the 
 railway share market, he became the scapegoat 
 for the unwisdom of the period, and died at last 
 miserably poor. 
 
 From York we journey to Ripon, twenty-five 
 miles west, passing en route Knaresborough, the 
 location of the famous dripping well which in a 
 year or two petrifies any object brought in con- 
 tact with its waters. Ripon is the seat of a bish- 
 opric, and has an interesting little cathedral, 
 
HIPON CATHEDRAL. 393 
 
 built in large part in the latest ISTorman and very- 
 earliest Gothic style. Its transition architecture 
 is indeed quite unique, and in its stalls it boasts 
 the finest wood carving in England. The subjects 
 of some of these carvings are very curious ; as, 
 for instance, Punch (Pontius Pilate) trundling 
 Judy (Judas Iscariot) in a wheelbarrow to Hades ; 
 a big pig playing the bagpipes and two little pigs 
 dancing to the music ; a fox in a pulpit preaching 
 to two roosters, and many other like grotesque 
 subjects, all of which, in the minds of the monk- 
 ish designers, were, no doubt, thought to convey 
 useful lessons. About four centuries ago the 
 central tower fell and crushed one side of the 
 choir, which was thereupon rebuilt in an entirely 
 different style from the corresponding wall oppo- 
 site, and we thus have the architectural curiosity 
 of a church with one side of Early English Gothic 
 the other of Perpendicular, a style of three 
 hundred years later. The chapter house is of 
 early Norman work, fully eight hundred years 
 old, and under the church is a rude Saxon chapel 
 affirmed to be twelve hundred and fifty years old. 
 The latter is a small room perhaps ten feet wide 
 and fifteen long, arched over at the top, and all 
 of stone. It was probably only designed for pri- 
 vate devotions. Its most curious feature is a hole 
 about sixteen inches square penetrating a massive 
 wall on one side and connecting with a passage 
 
394 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 way behind, the use of wMch hole, known as St. 
 Wilfred's Needle, is thus described : In the olden 
 time, when a woman went to confess, if the priest 
 doubted her truthfulness he required her to creep 
 through the hole. If she had been chaste, she 
 got through easily enough ; if otherwise, she 
 stuck fast. In modern t'imes the suiters tition has 
 grown up that the woman who passes through St. 
 Wilfred's Needle will be married within a year, 
 and the verger assured us that it is no uncom- 
 mon thing for twenty females a day to be dragged 
 through. Certain it is that the sides of the hole 
 are highly polished by the centuries of attrition 
 with female garments. The verger tells of one 
 young lady who, having passed through the Nee- 
 dle, received an offer of marriage three days 
 after, and forthwith brought her sister, that she 
 might shar^ her good fortune. 
 
 Two miles from Ripon is the celebrated ruin 
 known as Fountains Abbey, probably one of the 
 most extensive monastic ruins in England. The 
 abbey buildings are said to have formerly cov- 
 ered twelve acres. It is one of a great number of 
 such ruins scattered over England. These abbeys 
 were generally of great antiquity, some, as in the 
 case of Fountains, dating from the early jDart of 
 the twelfth century. They generally consisted of 
 an extensive group of massive stone buildings, in 
 the erection of which much delicate art was 
 
ANCIENT ABBEYS. 395 
 
 expended. At the Reformation the abbeys were 
 dissolved, the monks turned adrift in the world, 
 and the property first confiscated to the crown 
 and then sold or granted to various royal favor- 
 ites. To their new owners the buildings were 
 often useless, unless for the material they con- 
 tained, which might be re-employed in the con- 
 struction of more convenient abodes. * They hence 
 for some generations became the stone quarries 
 for the neighborhood. If a load of stone was 
 wanted for any purpose the abbey was resorted 
 to, and fine old clustered columns and richly 
 muUioned windows would be ruthlessly battered 
 down to .supply it. Roofless and exposed to the 
 weather, they soon became overgrown with ivy, 
 the insinuating roots and tendrils of which disin- 
 tegrated the stone work, and furthered the work 
 of decay. In this deplorable condition they were 
 found by the art-appreciating nineteenth century, 
 and for the last two generations as much zeal has 
 been expended in the care and preservation of 
 these old ecclesiastical remains as formerly had 
 been in their destruction. They usually form the 
 center of attraction of some nobleman's park, 
 having been carefully explored by expert archae- 
 ologists, dangerous places strengthened, frag- 
 ments set up in something near their old posi- 
 tions, and a continual guard kept over them to 
 prevent the slightest acts of renewed vandalism. 
 
396 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 Within and without the walls, the ground is cov- 
 ered with a soft, green turf, which contrasts very 
 prettily with the grey stone of the edifice, and 
 and the blue sky above, which forms the only 
 roof. 
 
 At Fountains, as in all these old abbeys, the 
 church is the central and principal building. It 
 is cruciform in shape, with a lofty square tower 
 rising at the extremity of the northern transept 
 to the hight of a hundred and sixty-eight feet. 
 The church is in the Norman style, with massive 
 round columns and semi-circular arches, except 
 where at a later period alterations and additions 
 were carried out in the Early English Gothic. 
 The Lady chapel, or extension eastward, is pecul- 
 iar, in forming as it does a second transept, or T, 
 to the choir. The same existed originally in Lin- 
 coln Cathedral, and still exists in Durham, and 
 seems to have been a favorite style in the north- 
 ern part of England at the end of the twelfth and 
 beginning of the thirteenth centuries. Along 
 the eastern wall of this terminal transept were 
 arranged five, seven, or nine altars, dedicated to 
 as many different saints. This portion of Foun- 
 tains Abbey is in the pointed style, and must 
 have been exceedingly beautiful. The other 
 buildings of the abbey, judging from the founda- 
 tion walls which remain, were very extensive. 
 They comprise cloisters about three hundred feet 
 
FOUNTAINS ABBEY. 397 
 
 in length, witli dormitories on the floor above, 
 an immense refectory or dining hall, a kitchen 
 with two fire-places each sixteen feet wide from 
 jamb to jamb and six feet deep, a chapter house 
 for the business meetings of the monastery, with 
 a library and scriptorium, or writing room, on 
 the floor above, a hospitium or guest-house, a 
 house for the abbot, with a great hall rivaling in 
 magnitude those of the proudest barons, a dun- 
 geon for criminals, for the abbot also exercised 
 civil jurisdiction over the surrounding country; 
 and a great many other buildings of which the 
 uses are not clearly apparent. The abbey, orig- 
 inally founded in 1132 by an order of monks 
 more ascetic than the Benedictines, seems early 
 to have become rich, powerful and luxurious. 
 We are told that the abbey possessed sixty 
 thousand acres of land all in one body, besides 
 other property. The dissolution took place in 
 1539, and the estates were sold by Henry YIII. 
 for what would to-day be a merely nominal sum, 
 to the ancestors of the present owner, the Marquis 
 of Ripon. 
 
 From Ripon we continue our journey north- 
 ward to Durham, passing on our way through 
 Darlington, a large manufacturing town famous 
 as one of the termini of the first railroad ever 
 built for general traflic, viz., the Stockton and 
 Darlington, constructed by George Stephenson, 
 and opened in 1825. 
 
398 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 Durham is a beautifully situated little city on 
 the sides of the hills which rise from the river 
 Wear, the tops of which are crowned by the castle 
 and cathedral. The see of Durham was formerly 
 one of the richest in England and yielded its 
 bishop an income of about $200,000 a year, but 
 latterly the revenues of the bishoprics have been 
 to some extent equalized, and his lordship of 
 Durham now has to struggle along with $40,000 
 a year. Durham is one of the oldest, best pre- 
 served and most interesting of the English cathe- 
 drals. It was built about the year 1090 in tha 
 most highly developed Norman style, and is 
 much more highly ornamented than most of the 
 Norman churches we had previously seen. The 
 walls are of great strength, and the entire build- 
 ing is vaulted with stone. About the year 1250 
 an eastern transept, similar to that described in 
 connection with Fountains Abbey, and known as 
 the Nine Chapels, was added in the Early Eng- 
 lish style ; and, with the exception of the central 
 tower and here and there a window inserted at a 
 later date in the Perpendicular style, the edifice 
 remains as its thirteenth century builders left it. 
 Its two western towers are very fine specimens of 
 the Norman- Gothic transition period. 
 
 Durham Cathedral is famous as the burial place 
 of two Saxon worthies whose works and fame 
 have survived a thousand years. These are St. 
 
THE VENERABLE BEDE. 399 
 
 Cuthbert, of Lindisfarne, and the Venerable Bede, 
 the ecclesiastical historian of the Saxon period. 
 The latter died in the eighth century and his 
 remains were brought to Durham in the thir- 
 teenth. His tomb, a plain slab of stone, bears 
 this inscription : 
 
 • 'Hac sunt ia fossa Bmdm Venerabilis ossa," 
 
 Green, in his '' History of the English People," 
 gives a touching account of the death scene of 
 this holy man. ^' Two weeks before the Easter of 
 755 the old man was seized with an extreme weak- 
 ness and loss of breath. He still preserved, how- 
 ever, his usual pleasantness and gay good humor, 
 and in spite of prolonged sleeplessness continued 
 his lectures to the pupils about him. Verses of 
 his own English tongue broke from time to time 
 from the master's lips. The tears of Bede's 
 scholars mingled with his song. ' We never read 
 without weeping,' writes one of them. So the 
 days rolled on to Ascension- tide and still master 
 and pupils toiled at their work, for Bede longed 
 to bring to an end his version of St. John's gospel 
 into the English tongue, and his extracts from 
 Bishop Isidore. 'I don't want my boys to read 
 a lie,' he answered those who would have had 
 him rest, ' or to work to no purpose after I am 
 gone.' A few days before Ascension- tide his 
 sickness grew upon him, but he spent the whole 
 day in teaching, only saying cheerfully to his 
 
400 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 scholars, ' Learn with what speed yon may. I 
 know not how long I may last.' The dawn broke 
 upon another sleepless night, and. again the old 
 man called his scholars aronnd him and bade 
 them write. ' There is still a chapter wanting,' 
 said the scribe, as the morning drew on, ' and it 
 is hard for thee to question thyself any longer.' 
 ' It is easily done,' said Bede ; ' take thy pen and 
 write quickly.' Amid tears and farewells the 
 day wore on to even-tide. 'There is still one 
 sentence unwritten, dear master,' said the boy. 
 'Write it quickly,' bade the dying man. 'It is 
 finished now,' said the little scribe at last. 'You 
 speak truth,' said the master; 'all is finished, 
 now.' Placed upon the pavement, his head sup- 
 ported in his scholar's arms, his face turned 
 to the spot where he was wont to pray, Bede 
 chanted the 'Glory to God.' As his voice reached 
 the close of his song he passed quietly away." 
 
 St. Cuthbert's tomb, in the rear of the high 
 altar, was formerly enriched with a magnificent 
 shrine, which, however, was demolished at the 
 Reformation. 
 
 Durham castle, formerly the residence of the 
 bishops of Durham, is now used for the college 
 or university which is under the control of the 
 diocesan authorities. 
 
 From Durham we continue northward, passing 
 Newcastle-on-Tyne, one of the greatest centers 
 
NEWCASTLE-ON-TYNE. 401 
 
 of English coal mining — whence the expression, 
 when articles are carried to a place where they 
 are extensively produced, ''Carrying coals to 
 Newcastle." Near the border line between Eng- 
 land and Scotland we are in full view of the North 
 sea, and just off the shore catch a glimpse of Holy 
 Island and the site of the Lindisfarne of St. Cuth- 
 bert. A little farther on we cross the Tweed, the 
 boundary line between the two countries, and are 
 in the old town of Berwick-uiDon-Tweed, pro- 
 nounced Berrick. The terminal "wick " is an old 
 Saxon word meaning harbor or port. 
 
CHAPTER XXXIX. 
 
 EDINBURGH — THE NEW AND OLD TOWNS— THE CASTLE — ST. 
 GILES' CATHEDRAL— JOHN KNOX — HOLYROOD PALACE — 
 IMARY QUEEN OF SCOTS AND HER TRAGIC CAREER. 
 
 E skirt the eastern coast of Scotland till 
 the Firth of Forth is reached, then, 
 trending westerly, follow the south bank 
 of that noble estuary till near Edinburgh. The 
 Scottish capital lies south of the Forth, and two 
 or three miles distant from it, the intervening 
 space being a level plain. On the nearest bank 
 of the river is the port of Leith, formerly a sepa- 
 rate town, but now quite united with Edinburgh 
 by the building up of the intermediate space. 
 
 Edinburgh itself is built on two parallel ridges 
 extending east and west. The northern ridge or 
 the one nearest the Forth, rises at its eastern 
 extremity into a lofty eminence known as Calton 
 Hill. The southern ridge rises similarly at its 
 western extremity, which is surmounted by Edin- 
 burgh Castle. On the crest and sides of this 
 ridge stands the old city of Edinburgh. On the 
 northern ridge the new or modern city has been 
 built. The valley between, contains the railway 
 stations, market buildings, and pleasure grounds 
 
CALTON HILL. 403 
 
 known as Princes Street Gardens. The two 
 sections of the city are connected by high bridges 
 spanning the valley. The southerly or castle 
 ridge slopes down gradually from the castle 
 until, opposite Calton Hill, it is altogether lost in 
 the lower level of the valley. At this point 
 stands Holyrood Palace. Still further south, but 
 beyond the limits of the city, is a third lofty 
 ridge known as Salisbury Crags, above which 
 towers a peak eight hundred and thirty feet high, 
 known as Arthur's Seat. 
 
 Calton Hill forms a public park, and commands 
 a magnificent view, both of the city and sur- 
 rounding country with its background of distant 
 mountains. On the top of the hill are several 
 monumental structures, including a tall tower to 
 the memory of Lord Nelson ; small Grecian tem- 
 ples to Burns the poet, Playfair the mathemati- 
 cian, and Dugald Stewart, a philosophical writer ; 
 and an unfinished copy of the Athenian Parthe- 
 non, intended as a memorial of the battle of 
 Waterloo. The funds, however, ran out when 
 only the front colonnade had been completed, and 
 work stopped short at that point. 
 
 On the ridge extending westward from Calton 
 Hi]l stands what is called the New town, which 
 is, without exception, one of the finest cities in 
 Europe. The streets are broad, well paved, and 
 clean. Public squares and gardens are numerous 
 
404 FIYE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 and well cared for. The houses are of squared 
 stone and wear a highly respectable mien. Prm- 
 ces street, which extends along the brow of the 
 ridge and overlooks the old city across the ravine, 
 is one of the most attractive retail business streets 
 anywhere to be found. The shop windows are 
 wonderful in the great variety and beauty of their 
 contents, so that indeed it takes a lady a whole 
 afternoon to get from one end of the street to the 
 other. The view from Princes street across the 
 valley is very picturesque. At our extreme right 
 stands the castle. In front, over the tops of the 
 tall houses, rises the crown-like summit of St. 
 Giles's Cathedral. At our left can be seen the 
 lofty summit of Arthur's Seat. All along the 
 foreground are tall eight and ten-story buildings 
 with curious gables and extinguisher-shaped tur- 
 rets, forming a picturesque panorama. 
 
 On the slope of the valley, near Princes street, 
 stands the Scott Monument, one of the finest 
 monuments to a private individual that modern 
 times have produced. It consists of a marble 
 statue of Sir Walter Scott, surmounted by a mag- 
 nificent Grothic canopy and spire two hundred 
 feet high. There are also in the new city a great 
 number of other monuments to public men of the 
 present century, some very imposing. 
 
 In this part of Edinburgh is the new English, 
 or Episcopal, cathedral, probably the finest 
 
NEW AND OLD EDINBURGH. 405 
 
 Gothic cliurch edifice of modern times. It was 
 built under the supervision of Sir Gilbert Scott, 
 in the Early English style, and is a very beautiful 
 and meritorious structure. Its cost has been 
 about $600,000, a sum equivalent in the amount 
 of building it will accomplish to two or three 
 times that amount if expended in America. The 
 larger half of the cost was defrayed by an Edin- 
 burgh lady, who thus prevented her heirs quar- 
 reling over and squandering her fortune. 
 
 While the new city is in every respect so beau- 
 tiful and attractive. Old Edinburgh is quite the 
 reverse. Take High street, for example, which 
 extends along the crest of the castle ridge from 
 the castle down to Holyrood palace, though for 
 the latter portion of the distance it is known as 
 the Canongate. It, of course, lies parallel with 
 Princes street. It has few intersecting streets, 
 but a great number of courts, closes or wynds — 
 narrow passages running under the houses and 
 communicating in the rear with narrow open 
 courts surrounded by lofty buildings. The build- 
 ings on High street are six, seven and eight 
 stories high, massively built of squared or rubble 
 stone, and in quaint and very irregular style, 
 most of them being two hundred years old and 
 upwards. Judging from the great number of 
 children that swarm the streets, nowhere else in 
 the wide world can there be so large a population 
 
406 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 crowded into so small a space. And such a dirty- 
 population ! Even on High street, to say nothing 
 of the wynds, one must be careful where he sets 
 his foot, and if at all of a weak stomach he will 
 do well to hold his nose as he passes the entrances 
 to the wynds or closes. 
 
 It must not be understood that all the southern 
 part of the city is of a like character with High 
 street and its purlieus. On the contrary, one of 
 the prettiest parts of Edinburgh lies just beyond. 
 As in our western cities, the houses in this por- 
 tion are built with considerable ground about 
 them, which is prettily laid out in lawns and 
 flower-beds. The houses themselves are uni- 
 formly of stone, and are built with much archi- 
 tectural taste. Taken as a whole Edinburgh is 
 certainly a beautiful city. 
 
 Edinburgh Castle had its origin in a very early 
 period. One small chapel contained in it, dates 
 from the middle of the eleventh century, it having 
 been built for Queen Margaret, wife of Malcolm 
 III., who died in 1093. Malcolm and Margaret 
 were the parents of David I., the model king of 
 ancient Scotland. He founded the abbeys of 
 Holyrood and Melrose and many other ecclesiasti- 
 cal establishments, the centers of civilization and 
 learning of that early period. Part of Edinburgh 
 Castle is quite modern. It possesses little of 
 interest beyond the fine view it commands, 
 
EDINBURGH CASTLE. 407 
 
 though there is shown there a suite of rooms occu- 
 pied by Mary Queen of Scots, in one of which, a 
 mere closet in size, she gave birth to James VI., 
 afterwards James I. of England. In another 
 room of the castle is preserved the ancient regalia 
 or crown jewels of Scotland, which the jealousies 
 of the Scotch people prevented being taken to 
 London on the union of the crowns. To quiet 
 public apprehension the old crown, sceptre, and 
 sword of state — no very rich display compared 
 with the English crown jewels — were boxed up 
 and deposited in a strong room of the castle, 
 where they remained for one hundred and ten 
 years, until they were forgotten, or at least till 
 their existence was considered doubtful. Then, 
 through the instrumentality of Sir Walter Scott 
 and other antiquaries, the old chest was broken 
 open and the jewels were found intact. An old 
 fifteenth century gun, made of bars of iron 
 secured by bands, known as Mons Meg, from its 
 having been made at Mons, in Belgium, is also 
 one of the curiosities of the castle. 
 
 In High street, about midway between the cas- 
 tle and Holyrood, stands St. Giles's Cathedral, a 
 very old church, but one so mutilated at the 
 Reformation and by a bungling restoration fifty 
 years ago, that it has lost all appearance of 
 antiquity, and, excepting its crown-shaped spire, 
 nearly all its artistic beauty. Up to the present 
 
408 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 time it has been divided by partition walls into 
 two parish, churches, but these walls are now 
 about to be removed, and a more discriminating 
 restoration proceeded with. A large share of the 
 cost of this work is being borne by William 
 Chambers, the famous publisher of "Chambers' 
 Edinburgh Journal," "Information for the Peo- 
 ple," and the well-known "Chambers' Encyclo- 
 paedia." Mr. Chambers' place of business, by 
 the way, is just across High street from the cathe- 
 dral, and overlooks Princes Street Gardens and 
 the New town, as brass plates containing the 
 name W. & R. Chambers on several doors indi- 
 cate. One of the most fascinating biographies 
 of the past decade is that of Robert Chambers, 
 the junior member of the firm, who died a few 
 years since. The two brothers began life about 
 half a century ago in the most humble manner, 
 with no resources but their native Scotch industry 
 and thrift. Being fond of literature they gravi- 
 tated into the publishing business, and founded 
 their weekly journal, which speedily became a 
 prodigious success, and ultimately acquired for 
 them a large fortune. The biography alluded to 
 is worthy the perusal of every aspiring young 
 man. 
 
 St. Giles's has, since the Reformation, been a 
 Presbyterian church. We attended services there 
 one Sunday. The minister wore a black gown 
 
ST. GILES'S. 409 
 
 and bands, such as we are used to in some Epis- 
 copal churches. There was a large choir and 
 organ, but all the congregation joined heartily in 
 the singing. The people stood up to sing and sat 
 to pray. The prayers were extempore^ but were 
 strongly interlarded with expressions from the 
 English liturgy, and closed with the most ritual- 
 istic a>^men. Indeed the longer prayers were 
 each in fact a series of shorter ones, rather than 
 a continuous petition. The progTamme of the 
 services was as follows: Singing of a psalm, 
 prayer, Old Testament lesson, chanting of a psalm, 
 New Testament lesson, prayer, another psalm, ser- 
 mon of twenty-five minutes, psalm, prayer, col- 
 lection and benediction. It was noteworthy that 
 almost every member of the congregation held a 
 bible in his hand and followed the minister in the 
 reading of the lessons. 
 
 In the south transept of St. Giles's is the tomb 
 of Regent Murray, the half-brother of Mary 
 Queen of Scots, and regent of the kingdom dur- 
 ing part of her imprisonment. Readers of Scot- 
 tish history will remember that he was assassin- 
 ated at Linlithgow, in 1570, by Mary's partisans. 
 He was a wise and moderate ruler, and his death 
 was a great loss to Scotland. 
 
 In the middle of the street, on the south side of 
 St. Giles's, is the grave of the famous Scottish 
 reformer, John Knox, marked only by a .small 
 
410 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 square stone, level with the pavement, with the 
 letters I. K. 1572, in brass, let into it. It requires 
 careful looking to find it at all. 
 
 A little farther down High street, on the left 
 hand side, is the house formerly occupied by- 
 John Knox. It is a quaint old place, projecting 
 far into the street, with a low ground floor, now 
 occupied by a tobacconist's shop, stone steps to 
 the second story, and three stories above it, each 
 projecting farther into the street than the one 
 below. The roof is a queer jumble of gables, 
 dormers and chimney-pots. On the corner is a 
 little stone image pointing up to the word God, 
 cut in the wall in four different languages. 
 Where the sign should be, just over the shop 
 front, are the words : 
 
 XOFE. GOD. ABOUE, AL. AND. YOUR. NICHTBOUR. AS. YI. SELF. 
 
 The house was built in 1490 for a Scottish 
 nobleman. When Knox was pastor of St. Giles's 
 he secured it for a manse, and here he resided till 
 his death. The house has in late years been 
 restored interiorly, and it is kept for exhibition 
 to strangers. Ascending the outside steps we 
 enter a large room used by the great reformer as 
 an audience chamber, and from one window of 
 which, looking up High street, he was wont occa- 
 sionally to preach to a crowd on the sidewalk 
 below. The next story contains his bedroom, a 
 large parlor richly wainscoted with carved oak 
 
JOHN KNOX. 411 
 
 panels, and a small closet projecting into the 
 street, which served as his study. The chair he 
 occupied in the latter still stands in its old corner. 
 Other furniture of the period has been collected 
 in the other rooms, together with a number of 
 miscellaneous curiosities associated with the 
 Reformation period. John Knox was born in 
 1505, was educated for the priesthood, and became 
 a professor in the university of St. Andrews. In 
 1542 he joined the Reformers, and it w-as mainly 
 by his earnest and vigorous preaching, and by 
 the influence that he gained with the masses, that 
 Scotland, from being a stronghold of Catholicism, 
 became of all countries the most uncompromis- 
 ingly protestant. Knox was a most remarkable 
 man for the recklessness with which he assailed 
 the enemies of the reformed religion, no matter 
 what their power. To the royal family he was 
 on occasions positively insulting. It seems 
 almost miraculous, in view of the rough times in 
 which he lived and the slight regard in which 
 human life was held, that he was not summarily 
 put out of the way. But his life seems to have 
 been a charmed one, for, although several con- 
 spiracies were formed to murder him, and once a 
 bullet did come whizzing through his parlor win- 
 dow, aimed at the spot where he was wont at 
 that hour to be sitting, he escaped all perils and 
 died at last, in 1572, a natural death in his own 
 house. 
 
412 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 Leaving John Knox's house, a little further on 
 we come to the Canongate parish church, an 
 ugly old building, in the churchyard of which 
 lies buried Adam Smith, author of the "Wealth 
 of Nations," one of the ablest works on political 
 economy ever published. 
 
 At the foot of the street, the Canongate, we 
 come upon Holyrood Palace, famous chiefly for 
 its associations with the beautiful, but misguided 
 and unfortunate, Mary Queen of Scots. It was 
 originally an abbey, founded in the twelfth cen- 
 tury by the pious King David I. It had long 
 been used more or less as a royal residence, when 
 James TV., grandfather of Mary Stuart, added to 
 it the present palace. James soon after married 
 the Princess Margaret, daughter of Henry VII. 
 of England, and of course the sister of Henry 
 YIII. This was in 1503. Ten years later he fell 
 in battle with the English at Flodden Field. He 
 was succeeded by his young son, James V., during 
 whose reign the Reformation in Scotland made 
 considerable progress. James' s wife was Mary of 
 Guise, a French princess, and their only child, 
 the future Queen Mary, was born in 1542, only 
 seven days before her father's death. Mary's 
 early life was sj)ent in France, where she was 
 married to the Dauphin, or heir apparent to that 
 kingdom. Upon his early death she returned to 
 Scotland, and was received with great loyalty by 
 
MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. 413 
 
 her snbjects. This was in August, 1561. All 
 went well till her marriage to her cousin, Lord 
 Darnley, a young English nobleman, in July, 
 1565, when the Scottish court at once became a 
 hot-bed of intrigue. Darnley embarked in pursuit • 
 of royal powers, and the Scottish nobility plotted 
 against both Darnley and the Queen on account 
 of the husband's overweening pretensions. 
 
 Mary's private secretary was one Rizzio, an 
 Italian, who was also a great favorite with her on 
 account of his musical talents. Darnley early 
 became jealous of this man, and in less than eight 
 months after his marriage organized a conspiracy 
 to assassinate him. It was on the 9th of March, 
 1565, that, with a large party of armed men, he 
 burst into the Queen's private rooms where she 
 was supping with a party of friends, Rizzio being 
 in attendance, and in her very presence assaulted 
 and slew him. The blood stains on the floor, in 
 the large outer room whither they dragged him, 
 are still plainly visible. Later Queen Mary had 
 this portion of the room partitioned off from the 
 rest, so as to hide the ugly spot from her vision, 
 and thus it happens that the scene of his death is 
 now a narrow passage way. Three months after 
 the murder the Queen gave birth to her only 
 child, afterwards James I. of England. Mary 
 lived unhappily with Darnley, but there seem to 
 be grave doubts of her being accessory to his 
 
414 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 murder, wliicli occurred on the 31st of January- 
 following — but little more than ten months after 
 the R/izzio tragedy. Darnley, who was in ill- 
 health, was lodging for quiet in a secluded house 
 known as Kirk of Field, on what is now part of 
 the university grounds, when, early in the morn- 
 ing, a large quantity of gunpowder was exploded 
 in the cellar, and that was the last of either the 
 house or Darnley. The horrible deed w^as fixed 
 on the Earl of Both well, but he managed to 
 secure an acquittal upon his trial, and within 
 four months had procured a divorce from his own 
 wife and had married the widow of his victim. 
 
 Then Mary's more serious troubles began. 
 Bo til well treated her like a brute, and her nobles, 
 scandalized by her conduct, and dreading the 
 power and ambition of her new husband, rose up 
 in insurrection. In less than a month from the 
 date of her marriage she was a prisoner in Loch- 
 leven castle, and Both well a fugitive in the Ork- 
 ney Islands, where he ended his career as a pirate. 
 A year later she escaped from Lochleven, and 
 rallying her friends ventured a battle with the 
 insurgent lords. She was defeated and fled to 
 England, to meet there an imprisonment of 
 eighteen years, which was to terminate only with 
 her tragic death. While living, as a Catholic, 
 and the next heir to the throne of England, she 
 was constantly the center of intrigue for the 
 
HOLYROOD. 415 
 
 removal of Elizabeth and tlie restoration of the 
 Catholic religion. Queen Elizabeth finally relieved 
 herself of her constant anxiety by cutting off her 
 troublesome captive's head. 
 
 Mary's private apartments at Holyrood palace 
 are open to the public on payment of a small fee. 
 They occupy the third story of the north or left 
 hand wing of the palace, as we stand facing it, 
 and consist of a large audience room, a good 
 sized bedroom, a little five by nine dressing room 
 in one of the round towers that ornament the cor- 
 ners of the building, and which are so conspicuous 
 in all pictures of Holyrood, and a supper room of 
 like diminutive size in the other tower. Darn- 
 ley's apartments were the exactly corresponding 
 ones on the floor below. The rooms are far from 
 elegant, the ceilings being comparatively low, the 
 wood work clumsy, and the panes of the windows 
 small with sash bars an inch thick. The walls of 
 some of the rooms are wainscoted with wood 
 entirely up to the ceiling, and in others are cov- 
 ered with faded tapestry made to fit the various 
 spaces. The floors are bare and the furniture old, 
 uncomfortable and inartistic. Such were royal 
 apartments in Scotland three centuries ago. 
 
 The palace of Holyrood consists of a single 
 quadrangle, with a plain building of Italian archi- 
 tecture three stories in height extending around 
 its four sides. An arched piazza extends all 
 
416 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 around the quadrangle on the ground floor. The 
 buildings on the south side contain the state 
 apartments, and the rooms occupied by Queen 
 Victoria when she visits Edinburgh. The historic 
 apartments, including those above described, are 
 in the opposite or north side of the palace. 
 Among these is a long picture gallery containing 
 portraits of most of the kings of Scotland from 
 the year 330 before Christ, down to the close of 
 the Stuart dynasty. The authenticity of many 
 of the older portraits is beclouded by the fact 
 that they were all painted by one artist. Adjoin- 
 ing the northeast corner of the palace is the 
 ruined chapel of the former abbey of Holyrood, 
 and which, down to the period of the Common- 
 wealth, was the royal chapel of the palace. It 
 was burned by Cromwell's soldiers in 1650. In 
 1768 the building was restored, but such a quan- 
 tity of stone-work was put into the vaulting and 
 roof that the walls gave way under the weight 
 and the building became the utter ruin we to-day 
 see it. 
 
 Probably no city in the world is better supplied 
 with schools and colleges of a high grade than 
 Edinburgh. It also has an art school and very 
 excellent public gallery of paintings. The latter 
 contains a few old masters, but the works are 
 mostly those of Scottish painters. There is also 
 a gallery of casts of ancient sculpture, and a very 
 
POPULATION OF EDINBURGH. 
 
 417 
 
 interesting museum of antiquities. In the uni- 
 versity is another extensive museum of arts 
 and sciences somev^hat similar to that at South 
 Kensington. 
 
 Riding on a street car one day, I asked a gen- 
 tleman beside me what might be the population 
 of Edinburgh, *' Really, I cannot inform you," 
 he replied, then turning to an old gentleman next 
 to him, he put the same question to him. The 
 old gentleman did not know either, and asked a 
 third party, who was not sure, but thought about 
 fifty- eight thousand. With some trouble I ascer- 
 tained that it was two hundred and eighty-five 
 thousand, including Leith, but I was impressed 
 with the little interest Edinburghers seem to feel 
 in the growth of their beautiful city. 
 
 27 
 
CHAPTER XL. 
 
 MELROSE ABBEY — ABBOTSFORD — DRYBURGH ABBEY — ROSLIN 
 CHAPEL — SIR WALTER SCOTT — STIRLING — THE SCOTTISH 
 LAKES AND HIGHLANDS— THE LADY OP THE LAKE — THE 
 TROSSACHS. 
 
 I, 
 
 ^^HIRTY-FIVE miles south of Edinburgh is 
 ^^ the little village of Melrose, the site of 
 \ Melrose Abbey, famous from its associ- 
 ation with Walter Scott's " Lay of the Last Min- 
 strel," and his novel, ''The Monastery." It is 
 one of the abbeys founded by the good King 
 David I., more than seven hundred and fifty 
 years ago. In the fourteenth century it was 
 restored by Robert Bruce, whose heart, by the 
 way, lies buried just under the east window in 
 the choir. In 1545 the abbey was destroyed by 
 the English in one of their retaliatory forays 
 across the border. Then for a long time the 
 ruins became the stone quarry of the neighbor- 
 hood. In 1618 a portion of the nave was vaulted 
 over in a most barbarous style and converted into 
 a Presbyterian kirk, which purpose it continued 
 to serve down to 1810. The ruin is now carefully 
 preserved. It consists of all the outer walls, 
 except the west end and about half of the north 
 wall of the nave, which are entirely gone. More 
 
 418 
 
MELEOSE ABBEY. 419 
 
 than half of the columns remain standing, also a 
 few sections of the groined vaulting, and one side 
 of the square central tower. The tracery of the 
 windows, and the sculptured capitals of the col- 
 umns, are exquisitely beautiful, showing that the 
 church in its perfection must have been a work of 
 the highest artistic merit. None of the other 
 monastic buildings are at all traceable, though 
 the abbey before its destruction was very exten- 
 sive, rich and profligate. Besides Bruce' s grave, 
 that of Michael Scott, the wizard, immortalized 
 in the '*Lay of the Last Minstrel," is pointed 
 out in the south transept. 
 
 Two or three miles up the valley of the Tweed 
 from Melrose is Abbotsford, the renowned home 
 of Sir Walter Scott. When Sir Walter became 
 wealthy, from his literary work, he purchased 
 this estate, then a humble farm with the uneupho- 
 nious name of Cartley Hole. For eleven years, 
 from 1811 to 1822, he gave his personal and 
 immediate attention to the erection of the house, 
 and the laying out and beautifying of the 
 grounds, and succeeded in producing one of the 
 most artistic and interesting homesteads to be 
 found anywhere. Every portion of it is modeled 
 after the best features of some mediaeval castle, 
 palace, or abbey, the whole forming a perfectly 
 harmonious mosaic of antique architecture. The 
 sculptured stone work of Melrose Abbey, Roslin 
 
420 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 Chapel, and other beautiful ruins of the neighbor- 
 hood, was drawn upon largely for models for the 
 interior decorations. Visitors enter by a side 
 door, pay a shilling apiece to*the attendant, pass 
 through a basement ante-room hung with old 
 prints, up a winding stone stair, and then find 
 themselves in Sir Walter' s study, a comparatively 
 small room, with book shelves all around reach- 
 ing quite to the ceiling, and the chair and table 
 in the center which he occupied while writing all 
 his later novels. From the study we pass into 
 the library, a very large room with twenty thou- 
 sand volumes filling the shelves that line the 
 walls. The furniture is all unique, and was for 
 the most part presented to Sir Walter by high 
 dignitaries in church and state, King George the 
 TV. and the Pope being among the number. 
 There is also a glass case containing a great num- 
 ber of interesting curiosities, picked up by Sir 
 Walter in his long career as an antiquary. Both 
 the library and drawing room adjoining look out 
 upon a beautiful lawn, extending quite down to 
 the little river Tweed. The latter room has its 
 walls decorated with hand-painted paper, hung 
 more than sixty years ago, and contains portraits 
 of many eminent historical characters. We next 
 pass into a long, narrow room, the walls of which 
 are completely covered with ancient and historic 
 arms. Here are the pistols of Claverhouse, the 
 
ABBOTSFORD. . 421 
 
 persecutor of the Covenanters, the claymore and 
 musket of Rob Roy, a pair of pistols carried by 
 Napoleon at Waterloo, a German executioner's 
 sword, and hundreds of other rare and curious 
 weapons., The collection of arms and armor is 
 continued in the main entrance hall, which we 
 next enter, and which completes the suite of 
 rooms open to the public. The rest of the house 
 is occupied by a great-grand-daughter of Sir 
 Walter, a Mrs. Maxwell. It was impossible in 
 the brief time alloted to a visit to note even a 
 tithe of the interesting objects with which 
 Abbotsford is replete. It is the model home of 
 the poet, the historian and the romancist. 
 
 About an equal distance on the other side of 
 Melrose, and also on the banks of the Tweed, is 
 Dryburgh (pronounced Dryboro) Abbey, another 
 beautiful monastic establishment, founded in the 
 twelfth century, restored by Robert Bruce, and 
 left a ruin by the English in 1544. The church is 
 much less perfect than Melrose, but the walls of 
 the other monastic buildings are still in good 
 preservation. The latter are mostly covered with 
 ivy, and the whole ruin is exceedingly pictur- 
 esque. In one bay of the north aisle of the 
 church, the vaulting of which still remains per- 
 fect, are the tombs of Sir Walter Scott, his wife, 
 son, and son-in-law and biographer, Lockhart, 
 each being marked by a block of solid Scotch 
 
422 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 granifce, with a simple inscription on the top, and 
 all inclosed by an iron railing. It will occur to 
 the reader that there is a peculiar appropriate- 
 ness in the great poet and novelist thus finding 
 his last resting place amid the romantic ruins of 
 an ancient abbey. 
 
 Between Melrose and Dry burgh are the Eildon 
 Hills, which the reader of the " Lay of the Last 
 Minstrel" will remember the imps of Michael 
 Scott clave in three in a single night, when, pest- 
 ering him for further employment, he ingeniously 
 set them to work twisting ropes out of sea sand. 
 From this place also can be seen in the distance 
 the Cheviot hills, which form in part the boundary 
 between England and Scotland. 
 
 About ten miles southeast of Edinburgh is the 
 hamlet of Roslin, or Rosslyn, as it is variously 
 spelled, with its ruined castle and famous chapel. 
 The castle must at one time have been very exten- 
 sive, and a place of great strength both from its 
 position, almost entirely surrounded by deep 
 valleys, and from the thickness of its walls, but 
 nothing now remains of it but several tiers of 
 vaulted chambers, which were probably the kitch- 
 ens, storehouses and dungeons of the establish- 
 ment. The chapel was built by the Lord of Ros- 
 lin in 1446, and is one of the most remarkable 
 pieces of architecture in Great Britain. It was 
 originally intended as an abbey church, with 
 
ROSLIN CHAPEL. 423 
 
 trattsepts and nave, but only the choir or chancel 
 was ever finished. It is a small, affair, but very 
 massively built and excessively ornate. In the 
 whole interior there is scarcely a square foot of 
 surface in the stone work which is not elaborately 
 carved, and as there is no repetition of the 
 designs, the reader may imagine what a study the 
 building presents. Even the vaulted ceiling is 
 richly carved in what is known as diaper work, 
 in a variety of patterns. Not only are the capi- 
 tals of the columns diverse in every instance, but 
 the faces of the columns themselves. One of the 
 latter, known as the Apprentice's Pillar, is a rare 
 piece of workmanship. It is a fluted column 
 with a wreath of foliage spirally encircling" it. 
 The legend is that the builder of the chapel found 
 his skill unequal to this column, and went to 
 Rome for further instruction in his delicate art. 
 Upon his return he found that an apprentice lad 
 had undertaken and completed the difficult job, 
 whereupon in a fit of envious hatred he killed 
 the poor fellow with his mallet. The arches, too, 
 are cuspated so elaborately as to present quite a 
 stalactite appearance. The building is in the 
 Gothic style of architecture, but its excessive 
 richness of ornamentation suggests the influence 
 of a Spanish or Moorish taste. For two hundred 
 years the chapel was neglected, windowless, and 
 exposed to the weather, but has lately been put 
 
424 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 in repair, and services are now held in it erery 
 Sabbath. 
 
 These were all favorite haunts of Sir Walter 
 Scott, and frequently figure in his works. It may 
 not be out of place here to refresh the reader's 
 memory in regard to the history of this remark- 
 able writer. He was the son of a lawyer, was born 
 in 1771, and was himself educated for the bar. 
 From early life he was fond of antiquarian studies, 
 and was a ready versifier. In 1805 he published 
 the ' ' Lay of the Last Minstrel, ' ' and at intervals of 
 two or three years, ''Marmion," "The Lady of 
 the Lake," and his other poetical works. His 
 poems were received with great favor by the 
 public. In 1814, when his popularity seemed to 
 have passed its zenith, he suddenly appeared in 
 the role of novelist, " Waverley" being his first 
 production, whence the title, ''Waverley Nov- 
 els," commonly applied to the entire series of his 
 works of fiction. The enormous expense he was 
 at in establishing his seat at Abbotsford, and the 
 lavish hospitality he there indulged, with perhaps 
 some reckless speculations, brought him to finan- 
 cial ruin in 1826, his debts reaching $750,000. As 
 an honest man, he refused to compound with his 
 creditors, and devoted the remainder of his life to 
 indefatigable literary work for their sole benefit. 
 His writings during this period were much infe- 
 rior to those of the era of his prosperity, but he 
 
SIR WALTER SCOTT. 425 
 
 accomplislied liis end, and the last dollar of his 
 indebtedness was paid by his executors soon after 
 his death, which occurred in 1832. Sir Walter 
 Scott's works are alike famous for their purity of 
 style, their richness in historic fact and incident, 
 and their admirable portrayal of the manners, 
 customs, and modes of expression of the medi- 
 aeval period. No man is more worshiped in Scot- 
 land than he. 
 
 From Edinburgh we take the train for Stirling. 
 The reader will frequently have observed after 
 a rainstorm how, under the shelter of every peb- 
 ble in the gutters, a little ridge of sand or mud 
 forms itself, which gradually diminishes in size 
 as it recedes from the protecting pebble. So 
 when, at some very remote period, a great flood 
 of waters washed out the valley of the Forth, it 
 encountered two sturdy rocks which withstood 
 its fury, behind each of which a sloping ridge of 
 alluvial deposit formed itself — two instances of 
 what geologists call " crag and tail." Upon these 
 two rocks castles were ultimately built, and upon 
 their sloping tails cities grew up, which in turn 
 have been the capitals of Scotland. One is the 
 castle and city of Edinburgh, the other the castle 
 and city of Stirling, the latter being situated 
 thirty-six miles farther up the river, or northwest 
 of the former. 
 
 Next to Edinburgh, Stirling possesses more 
 
426 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 Mstorical interest than any other place in Scot- 
 land. It was the scene of two very early and 
 memorable victories gained by the Scots over the 
 English. In 1297 William Wallace here won the 
 battle of Stirling Bridge, to commemorate which 
 a noble monument in form of a tower with coronal 
 spire, very like that of St. Giles's cathedral, con- 
 spicuously surmounts a neighboring hill. Seven- 
 teen years later (1314) Hobert Bruce won the 
 great battle of Bannockburn within sight of 
 Stirling castle, and this a tall flag- staff commem- 
 orates. 
 
 The oldest existing portion of the castle dates 
 from 1424. The Stuart family made it a royal 
 residence, and in 1480 a line building, still in good 
 repair and in use as barracks for the garrison, was 
 erected within its walls for the sittings of the 
 Scottish parliament. Sixty years later James Y., 
 father of Mary Queen of Scots, built adjacent to 
 it a sumptuous palace, which still stands, forming 
 the principal building of the castle. It is rather 
 richly ornamented on the outside with statues, 
 and has a court in the center called the Lion's 
 Court, because originally lions were kept at large 
 in it for the amusement of the inmates of the pal- 
 ace, who could look down upon them from the 
 windows surrounding the court. The openings 
 through the massive walls through which the 
 lions were fed are stUl to be seen. In 1594 James 
 
STIRLING CASTLE. 427 
 
 VI. (James I. of England) built a royal chapel 
 witMn tlie castle walls, which is now nsed as an 
 armory. 
 
 The view from the ramparts of Stirling Castle, 
 three hundred and sixty feet above the river, is 
 most superb. On all sides is the level and highly 
 cultivated valley, through which flows the little 
 tortuous Forth, bounded in every direction by 
 beautiful hills. Such views are rarely to be seen 
 out of Scotland. 
 
 A little below, on the castle slope, is the old 
 Grey Friars' church — an old abbey — in which 
 both Mary and her son, James VI., were crowned 
 in infancy. Down in the town is a house which 
 belonged to Lord Darnley, and which served as 
 the nursery of his son, the infantile King James. 
 
 Stirling bridge has always been known as the 
 key to the Scottish Highlands, so from the time 
 we leave Stirling we may regard ourselves as 
 strictly in the Highlands. About twenty miles 
 brings us to Callander, a pleasant little town in 
 the valley of the river Teith, one of the larger 
 tributaries of the Forth, with which it unites near ' 
 Stirling. Callander lies Just at the gateway to 
 the Scottish lakes, and is a popular summer resort. 
 Dozens of handsome stone villas were, at the 
 time of our visit, going up for the accommodation 
 of sojourners. The place also boasts one of the 
 best managed hotels in Britain. It bears the 
 
428 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 imposing name of the Dreadnoiiglit, and is kept 
 by an unmarried lady. 
 
 Who has not read the " Lady of the Lake," 
 Sir Walter Scott' s most popular poem ? Well, 
 this bit of country we are now in, is the scene 
 of the thrilling events therein described. Loch 
 Katrine is the lake in question, and an island of 
 considerable size near its foot is known as Ellen's 
 island. Here is the mountain of Ben Venue and 
 here Loch Achray, through which the waters of 
 Katrine flow on their way to join the Teith. A 
 little below is Lanrick Mead, the rendezvous of 
 the Clan Alpines, and still below is pointed out 
 the traditional spot where Koderick Dhu and 
 Fitz James held their memorable combat. The 
 reader will recollect that the last scene of the 
 poem is laid in Stirling Castle, which we have 
 just left. So every inch of the way is intimately 
 associated with the legends of the poem and is 
 wonderfully full of interest. The good king who 
 brings the tragic story to so sunny a close, it may 
 be interesting to remember, was James Y., father 
 of Mary Queen of Scots. 
 
 We leave Callander about nine o' clock in the 
 morning in an open coach drawn by four horses, 
 for the famed Trossachs or Trosachs, as the name 
 of the romantic glen that forms the outlet of 
 Lake Katrine is variously spelled. The lake is 
 ten miles distant, and the route affords us a 
 
THE HIGHLANDS. 429 
 
 splendid introduction to real Scottish mountain 
 scenery. 
 
 The mountains of Scotland are unlike either 
 those of our own country or of Switzerland in 
 being entirely bare of trees. From base to sum- 
 mit they are covered with purple and brown 
 heather. Much of the intervening land and often 
 far up on the sides of the hills is peat bog, which, 
 even for purposes of pasturage, has to be drained. 
 This mountain country is very pretty though 
 somewhat dreary-looking. It pastures large 
 numbers of highland sheep, all, both ewes and 
 wethers, with horns, and all with jet black noses. 
 Highland cattle, too, we see, small and hardy, 
 with hair several inches long. They have what 
 they call farms up in this region, but raise noth- 
 ing but hay and a few potatoes. One farmer we 
 met who paid between three thousand and three 
 thousand five hundred dollars a year rent for his 
 mountain ranch, upon which he simply pastured 
 about four thousand sheep. The land hereabouts 
 is all owned by the Duke of Montrose, and though 
 what an Illinois farmer would consider worthless, 
 still brings him a good revenue, as may be judged 
 by the rental of the farm above mentioned, and by 
 the proceeds of the sale of the shooting rights. 
 For the right of shooting grouse on one tract 
 five or six miles square his grace receives four 
 hundred pounds, or two thousand dollars per 
 
430 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 annum, and there are plenty of sportsmen who 
 can afford to pay that sum for three or four 
 months' shooting. The grouse season lasts from 
 August 12th to about December 10th. 
 
 The famous Trossachs are nothing remarkable 
 after all to an American. They consist simply of 
 a wooded valley, bounded by sharp, bristling 
 mountain peaks, and extend for about a mile and 
 a quarter to the foot of Loch or Lake Katrine. 
 Plenty of just as good scenery of the kind can be 
 found in Vermont and New Hampshire, but in 
 Britain people travel hundreds of miles to see the 
 Trossachs. - 
 
 So with the lakes. Neither Loch Lomond nor 
 Loch Katrine can compare with Lake George. 
 They are very pretty lakes, however, narrow, and 
 edged in with mountains, the principal of which 
 is Ben Lomond, three thousand two hundred feet 
 high. Along the shores are numerous pleasant 
 and picturesque residences and popular hotels. 
 A steamer carries us from the Trossachs to the 
 head of Loch Katrine, where we take another 
 coach, five and-a-half miles, to Inversnaid, at the 
 head of Loch Lomond. Another boat takes us 
 to Balloch, at the foot of the lake, and thence 
 we go by rail to Glasgow, passing en route the 
 ruins of Dumbarton Castle on its rocky hill. 
 The whole trip from Edinburgh to Glasgow, via 
 the Trossachs, can be accomplished in a day. 
 
CHAPTER XLI. 
 
 GLASGOW AND ITS HISTORY— ITS CATHEDRAL, RIVER, AND COM- 
 MERCE—DUMFRIES, THE HOME OF BURNS— HIS TOMB-^GRETNA 
 GREEN— THE SOLWAY AND ITS CRUEL MEMORIES. 
 
 n 
 
 LASGOW began its career as a religious 
 and educational settlement about thirteen 
 hundred years ago. Its existing cathedral 
 is over seven hundred years old, and its uni- 
 versity over four hundred and thirty. Its earliest 
 trade was in connection with the fisheries. Then 
 Glasgow took a leading position in the Virginia 
 tobacco trade, and grew wealthy. With the 
 invention of the power loom she went largely into 
 cotton manufacturing, and to-day works up nearly 
 a million pounds of raw cotton per week. Later 
 she embarked in the iron and ship building trade ; 
 and thus has grown up a great commercial and 
 manufacturing city of between seven and eight 
 hundred thousand inhabitants, reckoning its 
 dependent suburbs. 
 
 Historically, Glasgow has not much to boast 
 of, though it was the scene of the battle of Lang- 
 side, waged between Mary Stuart, after her 
 escape from Lochleven castle, and her rebellious 
 nobles, and in which she sustained the defeat 
 
 481 
 
432 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 that led her to throw herself into Queen Eliza- 
 beth' s hands. In January, 1812, it saw the test 
 of what the Scotch claim to have been the earliest 
 successful steamboat, the Comet, constructed by 
 Henry Bell, between whom and Robert Fulton 
 there must ever be a division of the honor of 
 being the first to use steam successfully for vessel 
 propulsion. 
 
 I spent a Sunday in Glasgow and attended 
 Established Church of Scotland services at the 
 cathedral, and at two o'clock (all the churches in 
 Glasgow have their second service at two and 
 Sunday school at half past five) dropped in at the 
 Free church of St. Columba. The Presbyterians 
 of Scotland, by the way, have no prejudice 
 against saints in naming their churches. St. 
 Columba' s was the church over which Rev. Nor- 
 man McLeod was pastor from 1836 to the time of 
 Ms death, in 1862. A fine bust of him stands in 
 the vestibule. Both English and Gaelic services 
 are held in this church. The contrast between 
 the services at the Established and the Free church 
 was very noticeable. The former had an organ 
 and well trained choir; the latter discard the 
 organ but have some of the best congregational 
 singing I have ever heard, led by a precentor who 
 sits at a table just below the tall pulpit. At the 
 Free church the services were conducted much as 
 our Presbyterian services are at home. The 
 
CHURCH GOING IN SCOTLAND. 433 
 
 prayers were purely extemporaneous, and very 
 warm and earnest, and the sermon plain, practical 
 and strongly evangelical. At the cathedral, on 
 the other hand, the prayers were made up of a 
 number of short petitions, some of them taken 
 bodily from the Episcopal liturgy, and all of them 
 containing much of its language, while the ser- 
 mon, though scholarly, lacked in depth and ear- 
 nestness. I could not but be impressed with the 
 idea that the religious life of the country is in the 
 Free rather than in the Established church, which 
 seems to have no such decided mission of its own 
 as suffices to keep it from hankering after the 
 aesthetic forms of the church of England ; as for 
 instance the chanting of the psalms, the introduc- 
 tion of an anthem in the middle of the service, 
 adaptations from the liturgy, etc. 
 
 Glasgow cathedral is quite an old one (built 
 1175), but has recently been restored. Only the 
 choir is used for worship, the nave serving as a 
 magnificent vestibule. There are no walls, how- 
 ever, separating the two portions. The music is 
 superb, the large organ and choir being well sup- 
 ported by the congregation, and the effect being 
 enhanced by the size and construction of the 
 church. 
 
 Just at the back of the cathedral is the princi- 
 pal cemetery of Glasgow, the Necropolis, as it is 
 called. It occupies a hill overlooking the city, 
 
 28 
 
434 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 and is beautiful both in its location and monu- 
 ments. The most conspicuous of the latter is a 
 short Doric column surmounted by a stone statue 
 of John Knox, the whole being dedicated to the 
 memory of the reformers and protestant martyrs 
 of Scotland, including George Wishart, the 
 teacher of Knox, who was burned at the stake 
 at St. Andrews in 1546. 
 
 Like Edinburgh, Glasgow has its High street 
 stretching away from the cathedral in the direc- 
 tion of the river, and like Edinburgh's High 
 street it is filled with barefooted and bareheaded 
 women gossiping on the sidewalks, and with bare- 
 footed, dirty-faced, crying children, to an extent 
 that makes it anything but a pleasant thorough- 
 fare to traverse. But the old part of Glasgow is 
 very insignificant as compared with the new sec- 
 tions, in which the streets are broad, clean, and 
 run parallel and at right angles, as in most of our 
 American cities. The buildings too, are, as a rule, 
 more elegant than in any other city of Great Brit- 
 ain, and stone is almost exclusively the building 
 material. The Italian renaissance style generally 
 prevails, and this gives Glasgow an air of modern 
 elegance rather than one of mediaeval picturesque- 
 ness. It is every way a fine commercial city, nor 
 is it lacking in artistic aspirations. In the square, 
 in front of our hotel, we counted no less than 
 twelve statues of as many eminent personages. 
 
THE CLYDE. 435 
 
 In tlie center stands a tall column, surmounted 
 by a statue of Sir Walter Scott, to the right and 
 left of which are equestrian statues of the Queen 
 and Prince Albert. Among the other statues are 
 those of Dr. Livingstone, Robert Peel, James 
 Watt, and Sir John Moore, the hero of Corunna, 
 who was also a native of Glasgow. The churches 
 of Glasgow are nothing extraordinary, but the 
 new university building, in the Gothic style, situ- 
 ated just below the city, is a very striking edifice. 
 
 The Clyde, which, within the recollection of 
 persons still living, could be crossed by wading, 
 has now, by the enterprise of the Glasgow people, 
 been so deepened and dredged out that the largest 
 ocean steamships sail right up to the wharves of 
 the city. Unfortunately, in accomplishing this 
 end, the current of the river has been destroyed, 
 and the Clyde, through the heart of Glasgow, is 
 a mere pool of stagnant sewage. The river is 
 crossed by several fine bridges, below which the 
 wharves are lined with sea-going steamers bound 
 for all parts of the world. Still farther down the 
 river lie the shipyards, unequaled in extent by 
 those of any other port in the world. The yards 
 are but a short distance apart, and at each three 
 or four iron vessels are on the stocks, and the 
 hammering of the riveters is one continuous 
 clatter. 
 
 Glasgow is well supplied with water by an 
 
436 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 aqueduct from Locli Katrine, tMrty-four miles 
 distant ; notwithstanding whicli more drunken 
 people are seen on the streets than in any other 
 European city we have visited. The extreme 
 prevalence of intemperate habits in Scotland, 
 even among women, is illustrated by the necessity 
 for the last clause of the following sign, which I 
 noticed on a house in Dumfries : 
 
 Mrs. Crosbie, 
 
 Certified Midwife — Qualified in Accouchments. 
 
 Terms Moderate — Total Abstainer. 
 
 Leaving Glasgow, a two hours' pleasant ride 
 through a very hilly country — it would be 
 hard to find a ten-acre field of perfectly level 
 ground in the whole distance — brings us to 
 Dumfries, a town of twenty thousand inhab- 
 itants near the mouth of the river Nith, a few 
 miles from the Irish sea, almost at the extreme 
 southern edge of Scotland. Dumfries is prin- 
 cipally famous as having been the later home 
 of the poet Burns, and the place of his burial. 
 His house still stands just as he left it eighty- 
 five years ago. It is an unpretending two- 
 story building, on a narrow street, and only a 
 few steps from the cemetery where he is buried. 
 In the cemetery stands the old parish church, 
 built one hundred and forty years ago in the 
 peculiar Scottish Presbyterian style, nearly 
 square, with gallery on three sides, and a tall 
 
TOMB OF ROBERT BURNS. ^ 437 
 
 pulpit holding but one person on the fourth. A 
 charge of three pence per head is made to see the 
 Burns mausoleum. It is a plain dome supported 
 by Ionic columns filled in between with glass. 
 Inside is a life-sized relief in marble representing 
 the poet holding a plow, with an angel swooping 
 down upon him. In the front of this relief is a 
 slab in the pavement bearing this inscription : 
 
 In memory of 
 
 Robert Burns, 
 
 Who died the 21st of July, 1796, in the 37th year of his age, 
 
 And 
 
 Maxwell Burns, 
 
 Who died the 25th of April, 1799, aged 2 years and 9 months, 
 
 Francis Wallace Burns, 
 
 Who died the 9th of July, 1803, aged 14 years. 
 
 His sons. 
 
 The remains of Bums removed into the vault below, the 19th of 
 
 Sept., 1815. 
 
 And his two sons. 
 
 Also the remains of 
 
 Jean Armour, 
 
 Relict of the poet. 
 
 Born Feb., 1765, died 26th Mar., 1834. 
 
 And Robert, his eldest son, who died on the 14th May, 
 
 1857, aged 70 years. 
 
 A visitors' register is kept in the mausoleum, 
 and the number signing it is very large, particu- 
 larly of Americans. On the river bank, a short 
 distance below the cemetery, is a pleasant walk 
 shaded by large elms, which is pointed out as a 
 
438 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 favorite resort of the poet, and where no doubt 
 many of his poems were inspired. 
 
 Looking up the river from this point, we see a 
 very ancient stone bridge, said to have been built 
 in the thirteenth century by the mother of John 
 Baliol, King of Scotland. 
 
 The good people of Dumfries seem to be exces- 
 sively given to hospitality, if they may be judged 
 from the courtesy of a gentlemanly seedsman, 
 who, simply to show politeness to strangers, left 
 his store and walked with us to his nursery 
 nearly half a mile away just to gratify a desire 
 expressed in a three minutes' acquaintance to 
 take home to America a root of Scotch heather. 
 And not a penny would the good burgher take 
 for all his time and trouble. 
 
 They have many curious expressions in the 
 highlands of Scotland, as for instance, in denom- 
 inating a butcher a '^flesher." The sign on a 
 vacant lot near Glasgow, "This property to be 
 Fued," puzzled us till we found out that a Scotch 
 fue is a perpetual lease. The practice is very 
 common to fue or lease land for building pur- 
 poses for a term of nine hundred and ninety-nine 
 years, the rental remaining the same throughout, 
 and the tenant's rights being as absolute as if he 
 ovmed the ground in fee simple, so long as he 
 pays his rent annually. 
 
 In half an hour's ride from Dumfries we pass 
 
ENGLISH MARRIAGES. 439 
 
 Gretna Green, tlie southernmost town in Scotland, 
 and just at the English border. Gretna Green 
 was long famous as the goal of runaway couples 
 from England, who could there be married under 
 Scottish law and thus exempt themselves from 
 the restrictions and formalities that the laws 
 of England imposed. So extensive did this sur- 
 reptitious marrying business become, that the 
 •people of Gretna Green provided regular facilities 
 for it, and it indeed became the principal industry 
 of the place. And this has continued to within 
 the memory of the present generation. But rail- 
 ways and telegraphs have destroyed the trade of 
 Gretna Green just as they have of hosts of other 
 ambitious towns. 
 
 This reminds me that I never attended church 
 in England on Sunday without hearing the bans 
 of one or more couples published. No one can 
 be married there, unless by special license, with- 
 out having the bans thus publicly read in the 
 parish church on three successive Sundays. 
 Hasty or secret marriages are thus impossible. 
 So, too, no marriage can ever be performed after 
 twelve o' clock noon, up to which time it is pre- 
 sumed by the law that people are sober and have 
 their wits about them. 
 
 We cross the river Solway, and are again in 
 England. The Solway, by the way, is memor- 
 able as being the scene of several cruel executions 
 
440 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 of Covenanters during Charles II. 's reign. " The 
 gay and frivolous monarch undertook to force 
 episcopacy upon Scotland in spite of the intense 
 conscientious prejudices of the Scottish people. 
 Many gave up their lives rather than worship 
 Grod out of a prayer book, so much did they con- 
 sider it as tending to a relapse towards Roman- 
 ism. Among these were several young maidens, 
 who were led out into the sands at the mouth of 
 the Solway at low water, bound to stakes, and 
 left there to drown when the tide should come in 
 and cover them. 
 
CHAPTER XLII. 
 
 CARLISLE-BARROW-IN-FURNESS ~ COAL MINING - THE ENGLISH 
 POSTOFFICE— ENGLISH WANTS AND FREE TRADE — CHEAP 
 LIVING— LIGHT WORK— OBEDIENCE TO LAW— CONCLUSION. 
 
 00]^" after passing the river Solway the train 
 enters the splendid station at Carlisle. The 
 castle at the time of our visit was closed to 
 the public, so we had to content ourselves with a 
 visit to the curious old cathedral. It is a queer 
 architectural Jumble. Originally a JSTorman struc- 
 ture of the eleventh century, the choir was pulled 
 down in the fourteenth to give place to a larger 
 and more beautiful one in the pointed Gothic 
 style. In connecting it with the central tower 
 and transepts the old arches were walled up and 
 new ones cut through to suit the new structure. 
 The result is a curious confusion of Norman and 
 Gothic moldings and fragmentary arches. Later 
 an attempt was made to carry up the tower to a 
 much greater height, which caused the piers to 
 settle at least a foot, with the effect upon the 
 semi-circular arches of the adjoining bays of the 
 nave and transepts that may be imagined. Such 
 queerly distorted arches are probably nowhere 
 else to be found. To save further disaster thirty 
 
442 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 feet of the tower had to be taken off. Still later, 
 to wit, during the rebellion, about the middle of 
 the seventeenth century, to provide stone for the 
 fortifying of the city, four- fifths of the nave was 
 pulled down, and thus the church was left in a 
 sort of stump-tail condition, with a nave of only 
 two or three bays. Despite its mutilated state 
 the church is very interesting for the history that 
 can be read in its stones. 
 
 It is further interesting as being the burial 
 place of William Paley, D. D., the author of the 
 well-known "Evidences of Christianity," and 
 other popular theological works. 
 
 We are now in Cumberland, a county of charm- 
 ing landscapes. Beautiful green hills, thrifty 
 hedgerows, spreading trees, picturesque thatched 
 cottages, ivy-grown old castles, romantic baronial 
 halls and ancient church towers peeping out 
 above the foliage, greet the eye every rod of the 
 way. 
 
 We branch off from the main line to visit the 
 old ruin of Furness Abbey and, close by, the 
 modern town of Barrow-in-Furness, which has 
 grown up within forty years, from the proximity 
 of valuable mines of iron ore. Barrow is on the 
 sea coast, and very extensive docks have been 
 constructed there. It is likewise the seat of the 
 most extensive Bessemer steel works in the world, 
 and of extensive ship-building interests. 
 
ENGLISH IRON AND COAL. 443 
 
 In England iron ships have entirely superseded 
 wooden ones, and steam has almost as entirely 
 supplanted sail power. Only now and then is a 
 sail vessel built on the Clyde or the Tyne, while 
 steamships are turned out by the score, and a 
 wooden-built vessel is a very exceptional thing 
 indeed. If well taken care of an iron vessel will 
 last for a century at least. Iron is cheaper than 
 wood in Europe for all purposes to which it can 
 be applied. One application which I noticed was 
 for telegraph poles. 
 
 Noting the great consumption of fuel in the 
 manufacturing districts of the north of England, 
 I inquired of a large operator if he had no fears 
 of the exhaustion of the British coal fields. 
 " None at all ! " he replied. " We have only to 
 go a little deeper from time to time, and fresh 
 veins are reached. It will be centuries at least 
 before the coal fields of England are worked out." 
 
 He then went on to tell me of one mine the 
 workings of which extended under the sea for a 
 long distance. In sinking the shaft for it great 
 trouble was experienced from the inflow of water. 
 At one point a stratum of rock one hundred feet 
 thick had to be penetrated with a hundred and 
 fifty feet of water overlying it. But English 
 engineering was equal to the task. The shaft was 
 thirteen feet in diameter and a hole of that size 
 was literally drilled through the entire one hun- 
 
444 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 dred feet of rock. The metliod was substantially 
 the same as that employed in sinking oil or salt 
 wells, but the bit or cutting tool, instead of hav- 
 ing an edge a few inches wide, had thirteen feet 
 of cutting edge and was itself an immense inverted 
 T of iron weighing a great many tons. This by 
 a pow^erful engine was alternately raised and 
 dropped, with a gradually revolving motion, until 
 the stratum of rock was entirely cut through. 
 The shaft was then tubed wdth iron, the water 
 pumped out, and further sinking proceeded with- 
 out anything more than the ordinary trouble 
 from water, the stratum of rock that had been 
 pierced effectually shutting out all from above. 
 
 From Barrow we proceeded to Liverpool, pass- 
 ing through Wigan, a famous colliery district. 
 At Liverpool I had occasion to visit the post- 
 office. The English post offices very little resemble 
 ours, but are more like banks. The delivery sys- 
 tem is so general and complete that a very few 
 pigeon holes suffice for the "general delivery," 
 or 2)0816 restante^ as the Europeans call it. The 
 principal business, therefore, of the postoffice, or 
 at least of the part the public has to do with, is 
 the receipt of telegrams — the uniform price of 
 which for twenty words to any part of the coun- 
 try is a shilling, or twenty-four cents — the issue 
 and payment of money orders, the receipt of 
 money on deposit and repayment of the same 
 
THE ENGLISH POSTOFFICE. 445 
 
 with interest when called for, the x)urchase and 
 sale of government stocks, and the insuring of 
 lives. The policy may be questioned of govern- 
 ment thus engaging in the life insurance business, 
 but there can be no doubt of the propriety of its 
 thus offering the broadest facilities for taking the 
 poor man' s savings in sums of from one shilling 
 up to thirty pounds and paying him interest 
 upon them with all the guarantees of safety that 
 attach to loans to the government. 
 
 Money orders are issued at much lower rates 
 than with us. For sums under ten shillings 
 ($2.40) the charge is two pence (four cents), for 
 sums up to ten dollars it is six cents, and it only 
 reaches ten cents where the amount exceeds 
 fifteen dollars. Another kind of postal order is 
 also issued by which twenty-four or thirty-six 
 cents can be remitted at a cost of one cent ; ten, 
 twenty or thirty shillings at a cost of two cents, 
 etc. Why cannot we have an equally liberal sys- 
 tem in this country ? 
 
 At Liverpool we bid good-bye to European soil 
 and go aboard our homeward bound steamer. 
 The number of passengers coming this way is 
 very large, and it takes a long time to get all 
 the baggage aboard. At last we weigh anchor 
 and steam down the Mersey. In a few hours we 
 are in the rough sea of the channel, and in some- 
 thing less than twenty-four hours put in at 
 
446 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 Queenstown for the mails wMch have been for- 
 warded thither by rail. 
 
 Our homeward trip was a rough one, partly 
 because of westerly winds, but mainly because 
 our steamer was sailing light or simply ''in 
 ballast" as to cargo. Going out the steamers 
 are heavily loaded with grain, flour and other 
 agricultural products, but coming this way, owing 
 to our protective tariff, which keeps out foreign 
 products, cargoes are hard to be obtained, and the 
 railroad iron and a few other things that do offer, 
 have to be carried at merely nominal rates. The 
 result is the farmer's grain has to pay double for 
 transportation what it would if return cargoes 
 were obtainable, and thus in one particular, at 
 least, does the entire cost of protection fall upon 
 the shoulders of the tillers of the soil. 
 
 Under a different system England with her 
 twenty-five millions of inhabitants would look to 
 us almost for her entire bread supply, for grain is 
 raised there under great disadvantages. The 
 great drawback is the excessive moisture of the 
 climate, which keeps the crops green and pre- 
 vents their ripening. Thus when the wheat and 
 oats reach a degree of maturity which in America 
 would betoken the putting in of the reaper in a 
 few days at farthest, in England and Scotland 
 you see them remain for weeks without apparent 
 progress towards ripening. This is terribly dis- 
 
ENGLISH AGRICULTURE. 447 
 
 couraging to tlie farmers, especially after the cool 
 and shortening days of September arrive. 
 
 But the same damp climate that is so preju- 
 dicial to the grain crops makes the country at all 
 times beautifully green and renders it one of the 
 gardens of the world in its wealth of flowers. 
 Every house down to the meanest cottage has its 
 flower garden, or if that is impossible, its window 
 sills are filled with pots of geraniums or other 
 plants, and all seem to flourish so admirably and 
 to be so prolific in bloom. 
 
 The striking contrast in the scenery between 
 England and the continent lies very largely in the 
 hedgerows. On the continent no ground is wasted 
 on partition fences of any kind, and one may 
 almost travel all day without seeing a fence, 
 while in England the farms are not only fenced, 
 but are cut up into very small fields, and of the 
 most irregular shapes imaginable. Then for 
 fences the hawthorn hedge is almost universally 
 used, with a picturesqueness of effect not easily 
 described. 
 
 Another striking feature of the country is the 
 admirable roads they are able to maintain. The 
 country roads, as well as the residence streets of 
 the towns and cities, are all macadamized. Being 
 graded, a layer of broken stone is spread over the 
 surface with a little gravel. A hose is then 
 turned on and the whole thoroughly saturated 
 
448 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 with water. Then a heavy steam roller passes 
 over backwards and forwards till the whole is as 
 smooth as a floor and as solid as native rock. The 
 road will then last for years without further 
 repair. When it does become uneven the pro- 
 cess of restoration is very simple and cheap. A 
 gang of men with pickaxes go over it and loosen 
 up the old stones, some new ones are added, 
 with a little more gravel, more water, and a day 
 of the steam roller, and the street is as good as 
 new. The steam roller has become as indispen- 
 sable to the English road-makers as the pick and 
 shovel, and it might well be introduced into this 
 country more generally. 
 
 Notwithstanding that England has to import 
 most of her grain the cost of living is much less 
 than with us. IS'o where in this country do the 
 bakers' shops furnish such nice bread and cakes 
 and at such cheap rates. At Glasgow I was able 
 to procure a substantial lunch of buns and Ban- 
 bury cakes with a glass of milk for the trifling 
 sum of six cents. House rent, I think, can scarce 
 be more than a third what it is with us, while 
 clothing and almost every necessary of life is very 
 much cheaper — even commodities imported from 
 America being often retailed at lower prices than 
 at home. On the whole, upon a given income 
 people live more comfortably in England than in 
 America. Of course for people with large fami- 
 
WORK AND WAGES. 449 
 
 lies and without capital, and for those engaged in 
 the too well beaten avenues of trade, there is a 
 serious repressing influence at work in excessive 
 competition; but, perhaps, not much more so 
 than in our own country. For men of brains, 
 push, and energy, I fancy there are quite as good 
 opportunities in England as even with us. Cer- 
 tainly a great number of people have been pointed 
 out to me who beginning life in the humblest 
 circumstances have become wealthy. 
 
 And living cheaply, the British people do not 
 overwork themselves. Walking through Glas- 
 gow, for instance, at half past nine in the fore- 
 noon, we see scarcely half the stores open, and at 
 the time of our visit most of them contained 
 notices in the windows that they would be closed 
 altogether on the following Thursday, because, 
 forsooth, the Queen was going to msit EdiJiburgh 
 on that day. I went into a barber's shop at 
 Edinburgh after four o' clock one Saturday after- 
 noon, and was coolly told I would have to come 
 again on Monday, as they did no work after 
 four. At Bristol a case came to my notice where 
 a dressmaker was summoned to appear before a 
 magistrate and fined for simply permitting one of 
 her assistants, who did it of her own free will, to 
 work after four o'clock on Saturday, the law 
 being peremptory that work-people must not be 
 kept later than that hour. I verily believe that, 
 
450 FIVE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 despite the low wages of the British workmen, 
 they are fullj^ as well paid in proportion to the 
 work they accomplish, as our own ; though, 
 irrespective of the amount of work done, 
 our American wages sound fabulously high to 
 them. On the continent it is different. In 
 Antwerp, girls are employed in the cotton fac- 
 tories sixteen hours a day for the pittance of two 
 francs, or thirty- eight cents a day. On the other 
 hand, the clamor in England now is for the reduc- 
 tion of the hours of the legal working day from 
 ten to nine. 
 
 And this reminds me that, judging from exter- 
 nal appearances, there is in Great Britain but a 
 mere fraction of the lawlessness and criminality 
 that we are exposed to at home. I presume the 
 laws are there more rigidly enforced than with 
 us, for in almost any part of London ladies can be 
 out up to a late hour in the evening unattended ; 
 no householder ever for a moment worries him- 
 self about burglars ; no one ever dares to claim 
 another party's baggage on the railway platform, 
 although there is no check used, and every one is 
 allowed to take what baggage he claims without 
 a question being asked ; room doors at hotels are 
 rarely locked during the day, and murderous 
 assaults are scarcely, if at all, more numerous 
 than cold-blooded, willful murders, which, of 
 course, is a phase of crime that no laws or penal- 
 
RESPECT FOR LAW. 451 
 
 ties can check. Dishonesty is severely dealt with 
 in England, whether it be the case of the boy who 
 pilfers an apple, or the bank teller who misuses 
 the funds with which he is entrusted. That 
 assaults are less numerous than with us, is, per- 
 haps, owing in large measure to the restrictions 
 that are placed upon the carrying of firearms of 
 any sort. To carry a gun or pistol without a 
 license is a serious offense. Still, there is no 
 infraction of personal liberty in the matter, for 
 anybody of any degree of respectability can pro- 
 cure a license upon simply paying a fee of thirty 
 shillings ($7.50). Those who need weapons do 
 not mind the tax, while those who have no law- 
 ful use for them are naturally chary about apply- 
 ing for licenses. The system is a good one, and 
 something like it would be a fine thing in our 
 own countrj^. 
 
 Ten days at sea, and we sail up the beautiful 
 harbor of ;N"ew York, We stop an hour or two 
 at quarantine for medical examination, then pro- 
 ceed to our landing pier. Here every passenger 
 has to sign a declaration setting forth the number 
 of pieces of baggage he has, and whether or 
 not they contain dutiable articles, and to what 
 amount. Then inspectors go through the baggage 
 and verify the truth of the declaration. If decep- 
 tion has been attempted the goods are confis- 
 cated. Otherwise an appraiser sets a value on 
 
452 
 
 FIYE MONTHS ABROAD. 
 
 the articles that should pay duty, and the same 
 is collected on the spot. In general, the duty 
 and expenses bring the cost of everything up to 
 about what would have to be paid at home for 
 the same article, so it only pays to bring back 
 such things as cannot be purchased at home. 
 
 New York looks very dirty in contrast with 
 the cities we have seen abroad, and the whole 
 country unpicturesque and prosaic, and one of 
 the first things we do on reaching home is to 
 resolve that, sooner or later, we will repeat the 
 trip. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Abbeys, Ancient, 318, 395. 
 Abbotsford, 419. 
 
 Agriculture in Germany, 69; in Eng- 
 land, 447. 
 Aix-la-Chapelle, 51. 
 Albert Memorial Chapel, 333. 
 Albert Memorial Hall, 35. 
 Alsatian costume, 207. 
 American Exchange in Europe, 255. 
 American Painters, 287. 
 Angelo {see Michel Angelo). 
 Antiquities in British Museum, 284. 
 Antiquities of Bristol, 353. 
 Antwerp, Description of, 48. 
 Apennines, Journey across the, 98. 
 Appian Way, 147. 
 Arcaded streets, 156. 
 Arcades at Bern, 194. 
 Arcade at Milan, 161. 
 Arc de Triomphe, 215. 
 Architectural distortions, 385. 
 Archives of France, 238. 
 Arena at Verona, 78. 
 Arnolfo di Cambio, 102. 
 Arona, 164. 
 
 Art school of Paris, 240. 
 Austen, Jane, Grave of, 344. 
 Autographs in British Mujeum, 283. 
 
 Bale, 198. 
 
 Barrow-in-Furness, 443. 
 
 Bastile, The, 219. 
 
 Bastile, Destruction of the, 227. 
 
 Bath, 334; Bath Abbey, 335. 
 
 Battle-fields of Italy, 155. 
 
 Bavaria, description of country, 72. 
 
 Bavaria, Statue of, 67. 
 
 Beatrice Cenci, 126. 
 
 Belgium, description of country, 41, 
 
 47; history of , 46. 
 BeUini, 171. 
 Bern, 193. 
 
 Berwick-upon-Tweed, 401. 
 Beverley Minster, 389. 
 Bickersteth, Rev. Edward, 386. 
 Bingen, 58. 
 
 Birmingham, 381. 
 
 Black Country, The, 383. 
 
 Bois de Boulogne, 231. 
 
 Bologna, 96. 
 
 Borromean Isles, 165. 
 
 Botzen, 77. 
 
 Boulevards of Paris, 211. 
 
 Boy bishops, Account of, 346. 
 
 Brenner Pass Railway, 76. 
 
 Bridge of Sighs, 94. 
 
 Bridges, Rev. Thos., Story of, 356. 
 
 Brieg, 180. 
 
 Brighton, 254. 
 
 Bristol, 351, 358. 
 
 British Museum, 281. 
 
 Bronze foundry at Munich, 66. 
 
 Browning, Mrs., Tomb of, 102. 
 
 Brunelleschi, Filippo, 103. 
 
 Brunswick Monument, Geneva, 191. 
 
 Brussels described, 43. 
 
 Building in Geneva, 191 ; in Munich, 
 
 68; in Paris, 213; in Rome, 125; 
 
 Italian, 166; Ancient Roman, 144, 
 Bums, Robert, Tomb of, 437. 
 Butler, Joseph, Bishop of Bristol, 
 
 355. 
 
 Callander, 427. 
 
 Calton Hill, Edinburgh, 403. 
 
 Calvary, description of one at Ant- 
 werp, 49. 
 
 Calvin, John, 189. 
 
 Cameos, 138. 
 
 Campanile of St. Mark's, Venice, 93. 
 
 Campo Santo at Pisa, 152. 
 
 Canaletto, 175. 
 
 Canals of Venice, 87. 
 
 Carlisle, 441. 
 
 Carracci, The, 175. 
 
 Castle of St. Angelo, 126. 
 
 Castles on the Rhine, 57. 
 
 Catacombs of Rome, 149. 
 
 Cafharine de Medici, 116. 
 
 Cathedral defined, 317; Oflficers of, 
 317; Plan of, 319. 
 
 Cathedral service, Beauty of, 327. 
 
 Cathedral at Aix-la-Chapelle, 51 ; at 
 Antwerp, 48; at Brussels, 44; at 
 
454 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Cologne, 53; at Florence, 102; at 
 Freiburg, 193; at Geneva, 190; at 
 Milan, 159; at Pisa, 151; at Strass- 
 burg, 205; Bristol, 360; Carlisle, 
 441; Durham, 398; Ely, 309; Exe- 
 ter, 340; Glasgow, 4a3; Gloucester, 
 366; Lichfield, 384; Lincoln, 388; 
 New Episcopal, at Edinburgh, 404; 
 Ripon, 392; St. Giles's, 407; St. 
 Paul's, 268; St. Peter's, 127; Salis- 
 bury, 345; Winchester, 342; Wor- 
 cester, 367; York, 390. 
 
 Chambers, W. & R., 408. 
 
 Charaounix, Valley of, 183. 
 
 Chapter House defined, 320. 
 
 Charity, An ancient, 379. 
 
 Charlemagne's tomb, 52. 
 
 Chatterton, Thomas, Story of, 357. 
 
 Chepstow Castle, 364. 
 
 Cherubini, Tomb of, 105. 
 
 Chester, 23. 
 
 Choral service, Beauty of, 327. 
 
 Churches of Paris, 2:37. 
 
 Church of England, Controversy in, 
 324; how supported, 328. 
 
 Church restoration, 323. 
 
 Cimabue, 170. 
 
 City of London, 260. 
 
 Claude Loraine, 243, 
 
 ClementVII., Pope, 117. 
 
 Cloisters defined, 320. 
 
 Clyde, Deepening of the river, 435. 
 
 Coal fields of England, 443. 
 
 Coblenz, Description of, 58. 
 
 Coinage of Germany, 69. 
 
 Coleridge, S. T., Marriage of, 35G. 
 
 Cologne, Description of, 52. 
 
 Colosseum, The, 145. 
 
 Columbus, Birthplace of, 155. 
 
 Communion service at Bern, 196. 
 
 Congregational chapel. An English, 
 382. 
 
 Constantine the Great, 392. 
 
 Cook's tickets, 37. 
 
 Copyhold explained, 303. 
 
 Coronation Chair, 279. 
 
 Correggio, 174. 
 
 Cosimo de Medici, 112. 
 
 Cosimo I. of Florence, 117. 
 
 Cost of living in England, 448. 
 
 Council of Bale, 199. 
 
 Covenanters, Persecution of the, 
 439. 
 
 Coventry, 378. 
 
 Cremation at Milan, 162. 
 
 Crime, Repression of, in England,451. 
 
 Crusaders' tombs. Symbolism of, 
 369. 
 
 Crystal Palace, 298. 
 
 Cimaberland, 442. 
 
 Customs, American, how passed, 
 452. 
 
 Customs extortions, 202. 
 
 Customs inspections in England, 254. 
 
 Deans of Cathedrals, 318. 
 
 Decorated Gothic, 322. 
 
 Deflected churches, 861, 885. 
 
 Del Sarto, Andrea, 175. 
 
 DeStael, Madame, 189. 
 
 Dieppe, 252. 
 
 Diligence described, 177, 187. 
 
 Dome of cathedral at Florence, 104. 
 
 Dome of St. Peter's, 130. 
 
 Dominichino, 175. 
 
 Downing street, 273. 
 
 Dryburgh Abbey, 421. 
 
 Dumfries, 436. 
 
 Durer, Albert, 64. 
 
 Durham, 398. 
 
 Dutch painters, 290. 
 
 Dante, Monumental tomb to, 105. 
 
 Darlington, 397. 
 
 Darnley, Murder of, 414. 
 
 Edinburgh, 402; Population of, 417. 
 
 Egbert, King, Coffin of, 343. 
 
 Eildon Hills, 422. 
 
 Elgin marbles, 285. 
 
 Ely, City of, 308. 
 
 Ely, Civil jurisdiction of bishops of, 
 
 England a religious country, 32^. 
 
 General appearance of, 330, 341; 
 
 Geographical center of, 377. 
 English painters. 287. 
 Epping Forest, 3(>4. 
 Erasmus, 199. 
 Exeter, 389. 
 Exposition, Italian, of 1881, 10* 
 
 Firearms, Restriction on carrying, in 
 England, 451. 
 
 Flemish painters, 289. 
 
 Florence, 100. 
 
 Flowers in England, 447. 
 
 Era Angelico, 171. 
 
 Fra Bartolommeo, 174. 
 
 France, Travel through, 208. 
 
 Frankfort-on-the-Main, 59. 
 
 Franklin, his London residence, 271. 
 
 Free Trade, effect on sugar inter- 
 ests, 352 ; views of an English man- 
 ufacturer, 383. 
 
 Freiburg, 193. 
 
 French sugar protection, 352. 
 
 Foundling Hospital, 36, 
 
 Fountain's Abbey, 394. 
 
 Funeral in Italy, 153. 
 
 Fumess Abbey, 442. 
 
INDEX, 
 
 455 
 
 Galileo, 151; Tomb of, 104. 
 
 Gallerie Vittorio JSmanuele, 161. 
 
 Geneva, 189. ' 
 
 Genoa, 155. 
 
 German painters, 291. 
 
 Ghiberti, Lorenzt), 105. 
 
 Gibbon, Edward, 193. 
 
 Giotto, 8.2, 102, 170. 
 
 Giotto's Campanile, Florence, 105. 
 
 Glaciers, Theory and description of, 
 
 184. 
 Glasgow, 431, 434. 
 Gloucester, 366. 
 Godiva, Lady, 380. 
 Goethe, Birthplace of, 61. 
 Gondola riding, 86, 93. 
 Gothic architecture, 321. 
 Government of Switzerland, 197. 
 Gretna Green, 439. 
 Greuze, 243. 
 Grouse shooting, 429. 
 Guido Reni, 175. 
 Guillotine, The, 297. 
 Gutenberg, Account of, 59. 
 
 H 
 
 Hairbrushing by machinery, 306. 
 
 Hall, Rev Robert, 353. 
 
 Havergal, Rev.Wm. H., and Frances 
 Ridley, 369. 
 
 Hedgerows in England, 447. 
 
 Henry IV. of Fran-e, 117, 223. 
 
 Heralds, College of, 315. 
 
 High and Low church controversy, 
 324. 
 
 Highlands of Scotland, 427; a High- 
 land farm, 429. 
 
 Hill, Rev. Rowland, 355. 
 
 Hofer, Andrew, 73. 
 
 Holidays in England, 35, 370. 
 
 Holyrood Palace, 412. 
 
 Homeward voyage, 446. 
 
 Honiton, 342. 
 
 Hooper, John, Martyrdom of, 307. 
 
 Hotel at Brussels, 42; in England, 25 ; 
 at Paris, 210. 
 
 Hotel de Ville, Paris, 218. 
 
 Hudson, George, the railway king, 
 392. 
 
 Hull, 389. 
 
 Huntingdon, Lady, 355. 
 
 I 
 
 Inn, An English country, 311. 
 Innsbruck, 73. 
 
 Intemperance in Scotland, 436. 
 Invalides, The, 220. 
 Italian Exposition of 1881, 163. 
 Italv , Description of the country, 82 ; 
 of the people, 125. 
 
 James, Rev. John Angell, 382. 
 Jardin des Plantes, 219. 
 Jenner, Dr. Edward, 357, 367. 
 Johnson, Dr. Samuel, 386. 
 
 K 
 
 Kenilworth Castle, 877. 
 Knox, John, 409. 
 Kufstem, 73. 
 
 Lace factories of Brn-^sels, 45. 
 
 Ladv Chapel defined, 321. 
 
 Lady of the Lake, 428. 
 
 Land tenure in England, 303. 
 
 Languages, Diversity of, in Belgiuna, 
 50. 
 
 Lateran, Church of the, 133. 
 
 Latitude of European cities, 300. 
 
 Lausanne, 192. 
 
 Law practice in England, 301. 
 
 Leamington, 377. 
 
 Leaning Tower of Pisa, 152. 
 
 Leonardo da Vinci, 171 ; his Last Sup- 
 per, 162. 
 
 Leo X., History of, 115. 
 
 Library of British Museum, 282. 
 
 Lichfield, 384. 
 
 Limited hability companies, 30"). 
 
 Lincoln, 388. 
 
 Lindisfarne, 401. 
 
 Liverpool, 20. 
 
 Loch Katrine, 430. 
 
 London, Greneral plan of, 2,12; Gov- 
 ernment of, 260; Magnitude of. 
 259; museums and galleries, 285; 
 the world's market, 256. 
 
 Lorenzo the Magnificent, 113. 
 
 Louis Philippe, 229. 
 
 Louis Xm., 225. 
 
 Louis XIV., 225. 
 
 Louis XVL, Reign of. 227; Grave of, 
 228. 
 
 Louvre, The, 217, 242. 
 
 Low Church methods, 326. 
 
 Luxembourg, The, 220, 241. 
 
 M 
 
 McLeod, Rev. Norman, 433. 
 Madeleine, Church of the, 216. 
 Malthus, Rev. T. R., Epitaph of, 337. 
 Mamertine Prison, Rome, 150. 
 Mantegna, Andrea, 82, 171. 
 Marie de Medici, 117, 224. 
 IVlarkham's History of England, 389. 
 Marrying in England, 439. 
 Marshal Saxe's monument, 206. 
 Martigny, 180. 
 Mary, Queen, Marriage of, 343. 
 
456 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Mary, Queen of Scots, 412. 
 
 Maximilian's tomb, 74. 
 
 Mayence, 58. 
 
 Mediaeval sculpture, 193. 
 
 Medici, origin of the family, IIS. 
 
 Mexrose Abbey, 418. 
 
 Mentz, 58. 
 
 Merivale, Dean, 310. 
 
 Michel Angelo, 172; Tomb of, 104, 
 
 Milan, 159. 
 
 Money, Italian, 166; French, 25.3; 
 
 German, 69. 
 Mont Blanc, 183, 186, 189. 
 Moore, Sir John, 435. 
 Mosaics, Florentine, 111: Roman, 
 
 139. 
 Mosaics in St. Mark's, 91. 
 MuUer's orphan houses, 361. 
 Mimich, 65. 
 Murillo, 175. 
 Museum of City of London, 268. 
 
 N 
 
 Napoleon Bonaparte, Regime of, 228. 
 
 Napoleon's tomb, 220. 
 
 Nash, Beau, Epitaph of, 336. 
 
 National Galleiy, London, 286. 
 
 National portrait gallery of Eng- 
 land, 294 
 
 Natural history museum, London, 
 295. 
 
 Necker, James, 189. 
 
 Newcastle-on-Tyne, 400. 
 
 New York, Arrival at, 452. 
 
 Ney, Marshal, Story of, 233. 
 
 Niobe, Story of, 108. 
 
 Norman architecture, 321. 
 
 Nuremberg, 63. 
 
 Oberlin, Professor, 207. 
 Octroi duty explained, 80. 
 Old Italian masters, 170. 
 OldSamm, 347. 
 Omnibuses of Paris, 234. 
 Opera House, Grand, Paris, 217. 
 
 Padua, Description of, 80. 
 Palaces of the Caesars, 143. 
 Palace of Justice, Paris, 236. 
 Palais Roy ale, Paris, 235. 
 Palazzo Riccardi, Florence, 117. 
 Palazzo Vecchio, Florence, 106. 
 Paley, Rev. Wm., Tomb of, 442. 
 Pantheon, Rome, 147. 
 Papal vanity, 131. 
 Paris, General description of, 213. 
 Parish registers, 312. 
 
 Park of Versailles, 245. 
 
 Parker, Rev. Theodore, Tomb of , 102. 
 
 ParlianifMit, Houses of, 274. 
 
 Pauperism, Absence of, in Germany, 
 70. 
 
 Penn. Admiral, 355. 
 
 Pere la Chaise, 231. 
 
 Perpendicular Gothic, 323. 
 
 Perugino, 171. 
 
 Picture galleries generally consid- 
 ered, 292. 
 
 Pictures, Mediaeval, 167. 
 
 Pinakotheks, The, at Munich, 66. 
 
 Pisa, Description of, 151 ; History of, 
 153. 
 
 Pitti Palace, Florence, 108. 
 
 Place de la Concorde, 214. 
 
 Poet's Corner, 277. 
 
 Pole, Cardinal, 389. 
 
 Politics in France, 252. 
 
 Ponte Vecchio, Florence, 109. 
 
 Po, River, Valley of, 155. 
 
 Portrait gallery at Versailles, 245. 
 
 Pustoffice at Rome, 137. 
 
 Postoflace system of England, 444. 
 
 Pousin, 243. 
 
 Preparation for journey, 14. 
 
 Pretender, Tomb of tlie, 129. 
 
 Princess of AVales, 265. 
 
 Printing, Invention of, 59. 
 
 Prints, Department of, in British 
 Museum, 284. 
 
 Pi'ofanity, Small amount of, in Eng- 
 land, 307. 
 
 Protection injurious to farmers, 446; 
 effects illustrated in case of 
 French sugar, 352. 
 
 Protestant Cemetery, Florence, 101; 
 at Rome, 137. 
 
 Pyrotechnics in England, 299. 
 
 Raikes, Robert, 366, 367. 
 Railway, The first, 397. 
 Railways, English, 28; Swiss, 199. 
 Raphael, 173; his pictures at Flor- 
 ence, 107, 110; his cartoons, 294 
 Ravaillac, Punishment of, 224. 
 Record office, London, 315. 
 RedcUfl church, Bristol, 359. 
 Regent Mm-ray, 409. 
 Religious character of England, 323. 
 Respect for law in England, 450. 
 Revolution of July, 229. 
 Rhine, Trip up the, 56. 
 Rhone valley, 180. 
 Rialto, The, 95. 
 Richard I., Tomb of, 251. 
 Richelieu. Cardinal, 225. 
 Ripon, 392. 
 
 Rizzio, Murder of, 413. 
 Roads in England, 448. 
 Romano, Gulio, 175. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 457 
 
 Home, Description of, 122, 140; Walls 
 of, 123; Archaeological excavations 
 in, 141. 
 
 Rosa, Saivator, 175. 
 
 Rosetta stone, 284. 
 
 Roslin Chapel, 423. 
 
 Rothschild family. Rise of, 61. 
 
 Rouen, 251. 
 
 Rousseau, J. J., 189. 
 
 Route, How to select, 13. 
 
 Royal Academy, 291. 
 
 Royal forests, 303. 
 
 Rubens, P. P., 48. 
 
 St. Anthony, Shrine of, 81. 
 
 St. Carlo Borromeo, 164. 
 
 St. Croce, Florence, Church of, 104. 
 
 St. Cuthbert, Tomb of, 398, 400. 
 
 St. Denis, Abbey Church of, 216. 
 
 St. George's Chapel, Windsor, 333. 
 
 St. Gudule, Brussels, Church of, 44. 
 
 St. Mark, Legend of, 91. 
 
 St. Mark's Church, Venice, 89. 
 
 St. Mark's Convent, Florence, 118. 
 
 St. Mark's Piazza, Venice, 88. 
 
 St. Paul's, London, 268. 
 
 St. Paul's, Rome, 134. 
 
 St. Peter's, Rome, 127. 
 
 St. Wilfred's Needle, 394. 
 
 Salisbury, 345; Salisbury Plain, 347. 
 
 Sallanches, 188. 
 
 Salon, The French, 241. 
 
 Sansovino, Venetian architect, 81. 
 
 Sassoferrata, Italian painter, 175. 
 
 Savonarola, Jerome, 119. 
 
 Say, Jean Baptiste, 189. 
 
 Scaligers, Tombs of the, 79. 
 
 Scotch churches, 432. 
 
 Scott's Monument, Edinburgh, 404. 
 
 Scott, Sir Walter, 424. 
 
 Scripps family, History of, 312. 
 
 Seine, The, 247. 
 
 Services at St. Giles's, Edinburgh, 
 
 409. 
 Sevres porcelain factory, 347. 
 Shakspeare'a birthplace, 370; his 
 
 tomb, 373. 
 Shelley's grave, 137. 
 Shipbuilding, 443. 
 Shops of Paris, 234. 
 Shot tower, first one erected, 358. 
 Shovel board, how played, 18. 
 Simplon Pass road, 178. 
 Sismondi, J. C, 189. 
 Sistine Chapel, Rome, 136. 
 Smith, Adam, Burial place of, 412, 
 Smith, Sidney, 355. 
 Smoke of London, 255. 
 Solway, The river, 439. 
 Southey Robert, Marriage of, 356. 
 South Kensington Museum, 293. 
 Statuary, Inferiority of English, 292. 
 
 Stirling, 425; castle, 426. 
 
 Stonehenge, 347. 
 
 Storks' nests, 204. 
 
 Straits of Dover, 40. 
 
 Strassburg, 204. 
 
 Stratford-on-Avon, 370. 
 
 Streets of Paris, 212. 
 
 Stuart dynasty of Scotland, 412. 
 
 Sunday observance in Bavaria, 71; 
 in Italy, 97; in Paris, 236; in Rome, 
 138; in Switzeriand, 195. 
 
 Superga, The, 158. 
 
 Swiss form of government, 197; cos- 
 tume, 200. 
 
 Switzerland, Extent and population 
 of, 198. 
 
 Table d'hote, 43. 
 
 Taylor, Jeremy, Prison of, 364. 
 
 Temperance in England, 307; on the 
 
 continent, 252. 
 TeteNoir route, 181. 
 Thames Embankment, 270. 
 Tintern Abbey, 365. 
 Tintoretto, 175. 
 Titian, 172. 
 
 Tomb of Csecilia Metella, 148. 
 Tombs in Westminster Abbey, 277. 
 Torquay, 340. 
 Tower of London, 267. 
 Tree culture, 68. 
 Trossachs, 428. 
 Tuileries, The, 214. 
 Tunnels between Clenoa and Pisa, 
 
 154. 
 Turin, Description of, 156. 
 Turner's paintings, 288. 
 Tussaud's wax works, 296. 
 Twilight in England, oOO. 
 TyndalL Wm., 354: Monument to, 
 
 366. 
 Tyrol, Description of the, 75. 
 
 U 
 
 Uflflzi picture gallery, 106. 
 
 Vatican, The, 135. 
 
 Velasquez, 175. 
 
 Vendome Column, 216. 
 
 Venerable Bede, The, 399. 
 
 Venice, Description of, 85; History 
 of, 84. 
 
 Venus of Milo, 242. 
 
 Verona, Description of, 78. 
 
 Veronese, Paul, 175 
 
 Versailles, Description of , 243; Foun- 
 tains of, 226. 
 
 Vestries and their powers, 329. 
 
468 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Vineyards on the Rhine, 56; Various 
 
 training of, 82. 
 Voyage, The, 17. 
 
 w 
 
 Warwick Castle, 375. 
 Warwickshire, 38'2. 
 Wellington's funeral car, 269. 
 Wesley, John, 355. 
 West, Benjamin, 287. 
 Westminster Abbey, 276. 
 Westminster Hall, 276. 
 Westminster, Palace of, 274. 
 Whitefield, George, Birthplace of, 
 
 367; residence at Bristol, 355. 
 Whitehall, Banqueting House, 273. 
 Wilberf orce, Bishop, Tomb of, 344. 
 
 Wilberforce,Wm., Birthplace of, 389. 
 
 William U.^Tomb of, 343. 
 
 William of Wykeham, 342; Vicar of 
 
 Redcliff. 360. 
 Winchester, 342; college, 345, 
 Windsor Castle, 331. 
 Wishart, George, 434. 
 Wood Carvings, at Brussels, 44; at 
 
 Antwerp, 49; in the Tyrol, 75; at 
 
 Venice, 93; at Beverley, 890; at 
 
 Bipon, 393. 
 Worcester, 367. 
 Wren, Sir Christopher, 269. 
 
 York, 
 
 THE END. 
 
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