?/9 I I Wm Class •no PRESENTED BY COMJPJLIMENT8 OF TMJE A UTMOM TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE A RECORD OF A SUMMER VACATION ABROAD. -BY O. R. BURCHARD, A. M., [INSTRUCTOR in the state normal school, fredonia, n. v. 1YRACUSE, N. Y.: DAVIS, BARDEEN & CO., PUBLISHERS. NEW YORK*. BAKER, PRATT & CO. 1879. IV PREFACE. their present form simply to indicate to those who think of going abroad, but wonder whether a summer vacation is time enough to be of any service, what they may reasonably hope to accomplish. The author has had in mind only to give a brief but faithful account of what will be most likely to interest the traveler who goes for profit as well as pleasure. He has endeavored to represent things fairly, and without that gush of admiration with which the coolest of us often see things for the first time. Personal allusions and experiences, which are of no value or interest to a stranger, have been as far as possible avoided, and the single aim has been kept in view of giving a plain and straight forward account of a summer's tour. If the book should recall pleasing memories to those who have had the pleasure of a foreign trip, and, most of all should be instrumental in in- ducing young people to visit, even hastily, the old world, and thus have the life-long enjoyment of the pleasure and knowledge which such a trip gives, the author will be more than satisfied. March 20, 1879. Bequest Albert Adsit demons Aug. 24, 1938 c{Uot available for exchange ^ TWO MONTHS II EUROPE. CHAPTER I. ON THE OCEAN. THE departure of an ocean steamer is always an event of 1 considerable importance. For several hours before the time of sailing the dock is crowded with baggage, people are hurrying down in carriages, men and women are rushing along on foot, passengers and their friends are crowding on board the vessel, the whole making a perfect pandemonium of noise and confusion. On the morning of our departure, toward the latter part of June, in addition to all this, nature was weeping most abundantly and constantly, evidently sympathizing with the travelers and their friends. The half hour bell sounds and the crowd on the steamer begins to lessen and that on the wharf to increase. The ten minute bell only adds to the confusion, and at the last moment the shore people on board the steamer rush frantically off, the bridge is drawn, the hawsers cast from the pier, the engine be- begins to move, there is a great splashing of the water at the stern of the vessel, gradually the vast steamer seems to have the breath of life infused into her, and slowly she leaves the 6 TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. wharf amid the farewell calls of friends, the waving of hand- kerchiefs, the shouting of the crowd, and the friendly whistle of passing steam vessels. The waving of handkerchiefs continues until we lose sight of the wharf, and is kept up still later by those whose zealous friends follow them down the harbor in tugs. Our steamer being a new one, and this her first departure from New York, she was escorted down the harbor by several tugs and passen- ger vessels. Our captain said that whenever there were any Brooklyn ministers on board such a company of steam vessels always followed them down the harbor, and with the remark that we would probably find two or three of them concealed among the passengers, he went forward. We afterward found a couple of them among the passengers. At length our little fleet of tugs turn back and leaves us with a final salute of cannon and steam whistles, and we are soon opposite the light- ship at Sandy Hook. On the way down the bay the passengers walk the upper deck, taking their last look at the beautiful fields below Brook- lyn, the green hills of Staten Island, and the low-lying Jersey shore in the distance. Many of the passengers write letters or postal cards, which can be sent back by the pilot, and will be the last that friends can hear from them until we are in sight of the Irish coast. Just outside the light ship we begin to feel the ocean swell, and the great steamer rises and falls in a way that makes many think with dreadful forebodings of the future. Soon some of the passengers, quietly and without remark, go down to their state-rooms, while others sit upon the upper deck in a thought- ful, meditative way, until gradually a paleness steals over their ON THE OCEAN. 7 faces, and after half an hour or so they quietly disappear be- low. Others of a resolute nature, who have determined that as for them, they will not be seasick, walk rapidly up and down the deck fighting in vain the grim monster which is literally clutching their vitals. Experienced sailors and those who are not at all affected by the sea, lounge leisurely about and enjoy the fresh breeze and the discomfort of their unfortunate fellow passengers. By the time the steamer has been out a few hours and the land has disappeared from sight, the dividing line between those who are to be sick and those who are to stand the voy- age, is pretty fairly drawn. If the weather is at all rough, half the passengers will not be at the table the first meal, and some will not befseen at all during the passage. For seasickness there seems to be no permanent or certain cure. What re- lieves one does another no good, but- forced contributions to the Atlantic are a general relief to all who are affected. Our voyage was a very monotonous one, having fog and quiet weather nearly all the way. Once, on the banks of New- foundland, the monotony was broken by running down a fish- ing smack from Beverly, Mass., which was anchored directly across our course. I can never forget how wildly the fisher- men ran to the stern of their vessel as the black hull of the steamer suddenly appeared to rush out of the dense fog, bear- ing down on them directly amidship and scarcely two hundred yards away. Almost instant death threatens them, for in less than half a minute they expect to be run down by the steamer. But they are seen from our vessel and she is instantly turned from her course, so that only the bowsprit of the fishing smack is cut off close up to the hull, and the shattered vessel grates 5 TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. harshly against the iron side of the steamer as we pass along. Our steamer is stopped, the men taken from their sinking ves- sel, and we are on our course again through the interminable fog. There is nothing that strikes a greater feeling of dread through a passenger than the shrill fog whistle sounding omin- ously in his ears day and night, and this is particularly so after a misfortune like ours. Without having passed through the experience one can hardly conceive how many imaginary ves- sels we ran down or how many imaginary icebergs we ran into during the remaining days of the fog. Occasionally the dense mist would clear away for a few hours and we would have a view of the boundless ocean, with not a living thing in sight except ourselves, but on every side the hemisphere of the sky seemed to shut down upon us like the cover to some great bowl. During the voyage the passengers amuse themselves in vari- ous ways with games, reading, music, conversation, and one day the lawyers, of whom we had an abundant supply on board, gave us a moot court, which was scarcely less amusing than some of the transactions of the real ones. They also interest themselves in watching the sky, the record of each day's course, the officers as they take the position of the ship at noon, the varied working of the vessel, and the wonderful donkey engines as they raise and lower the sails and apparently do all the heavy work on the steamer. Occasionally we see whales spouting in the distance, and some with well developed imagination see icebergs in the far away horizon. They also note the increasing length of the days as we sail north, the apparent gaining of time as we go toward the east, and the gradually increasing cold. ON THE OCEAN. 9 The ladies are generally very curious to know all about navigation, and are, in their irresistible way, besieging the officers, when off duty, for all kinds of nautical information. A lady evidently of the strong minded kind, who had- many years before passed the culminating point of her youth and beauty, got hold of our fun-loving Scotch captain one day, and pointing to the long line which was dragging behind the vessel, to which was fastened the instrument for recording the distance made by the steamer, in a very decided way said : "Captain, I want to know why you have that long rope dragging behind the steamer ?" " To tell how far we go each day, mam," said the captain, -cheerfully. " But I don't see how you can tell from t/iat," remonstrated the lady. "I cannot explain it to you," said the captain, "so that you would understand it." "Yes I can, I am sure," she said, eagerly, resenting the in- sinuation that there was anything on the earth, in the sea or in the heavens which she could not understand. After a great deal of urging on her part and an equal amount of gentle refusing on his, during which a crowd of the passengers had gathered around them, knowing from the mischief in the captain's eye that there was some fun ahead, he finally said : " Now that you insist on it so urgently I will try and tell you, although I have not much hope that you will understand it. The truth of the matter is, madam," said he in a loud con- fidential whisper which could have been heard by five hundred people, while at the same time a smile broadened over his IO TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. weather beaten face, " I have a sailor tied to the end of the rope, who counts the milestones on the bottom of the ocean." At length one morning the captain informs us that in the afternoon we shall probably see land. What a thrill goes through us as we think of seeing land once more, and this time the shore of that old world whose wonders and beauties have for so long a time filled our imagination. How eagerly we all watch in the direction where the land will probably appear, each one hoping to be the first to see the rugged shore and green hills of Ireland. At length some one calls — "Land in sight!" and we all strain our eyes in the direction indicated but we only see what seems to be a light cloud rest- ing upon the water. Much against the evidences of our senses we are persuaded that this is land, the green shore we had pictured in imagination, and with a sigh of disappointment we turn away. The captain promises to have us called at two o'clock the next morning (it is broad day light here by this time) to see the coast off the Giant's Causeway. Coming on deck at this early hour we find on all sides of us, in some places less than one-fourth of a mile distant, the rugged and abrupt shore and out lying islands of the Irish coast, which have for so many centuries battled with the full force of the Atlantic. It is a dangerous place in a storm, but we steam along in a quiet sea, and wonder at the giant mass of black rock along the shore, and admire the green fields and white cottages of the peasants. The almost constant mist and fog which are found on the Irish and Scotch coasts, give an intensely green color to the grass and trees, so that the hills as we look upon them for the first time after our long voyage, seem the greenest and most ON THE OCEAN. II beautiful we have ever known, and give us a most pleasing welcome to the old world. We pass near the Causeway, close enough to see its remarkable basaltic formation which extends along the coast for several miles. The high rocks near which we occasionally sail return a quick, sharp echo to the shrill whistle of the steamer, and this echo is sometimes faintly repeated from some more distant rock. By eight o'clock of as lovely a day as Scotland ever saw, we are coming up the broad Firth of Clyde, with the beautiful green hills, and back of them the rugged mountains of " Bonnie Scotland " visible in the distance. For four hours we sail through as fine a stream with as beautiful shores as the sun shines upon, and we do not blame the Scotchman for loving his native land, since we strangers cannot help joining him in its admiration. We reach the harbor of Greenock, at the mouth of the Clyde, which is probably the most important seaport of Scot- land. It is constantly filled with steamers of all sizes, more than a hundred daily plying to all parts of the coast and in- deed of the world. Greenock is noted particularly for ship building and sugar refining. There is, however, little in the place to interest the traveler, unless he wishes to visit the Watt Institute, established as a memorial of James Watt, the inven- tor of the steam engine, who was a native of this place ; or if romantically inclined he may wander into the cemetery of the old church where Burns' " Highland Mary " is buried. After sticking for nearly an hour upon the bar at the mouth of the Clyde, we finally pass up the river toward Glasgow which is 23 miles distant. On the left is the fine residence and grounds of Stevens, the great ship builder, and directly 12 TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. in front of us, up the river, the rock and castle of Dumbarton. This nearly perpendicular rock rises several hundred feet above the river, and was an important fortress in the early wars between the Britons and Scots. In the varied vicissi- tudes of border warfare it has known many masters, but is associated chiefly with the daring exploits of the historic Wallace, one of whose many massive two-handed swords is now among the relics in its armory. It also figured conspicuously in the romantic history of the beautiful but unfortunate Queen Mary. It is even yet a fortress of considerable strength and commands the passage of the river. A little way above this is the ivy covered end of a very old wall said to have been built by the Romans, and upon this a plain monument erected to the memory of Henry Bell, who launched the first steamer on the Clyde. A few miles further up on the opposite side of the river, we pass the home of the poorest lord in Scotland. As we see his fine residence in the midst of a beautiful park of more than a hundred acres, we cannot help but feel sorry for the poor fellow compelled to live in such a place, and our hand involuntarily reaches into our pocket to contribute a penny or two to relieve his distress. On either side of the river are carefully cultivated and very productive fields, which yield crops of hay, that are a wonder to American eyes. As we near Glasgow, yards for building iron ships are on either side, and the constant clang of hammers is deafening. More than half the iron ships afloat are Clyde built, and although the times are hard in England as well as in America, we saw nearly one hundred on the stocks in various stages of completion. It is with the greatest difficulty that the Clyde, ON THE OCEAN. 13 which is only a small river, can be kept open for steam naviga- tion. A large number of dredges are constantly employed in deepening the channel. This work, which must be continually done over, is a great tax upon the city of Glasgow, but she cheerfully assumes it, for her supremacy depends on keeping the Clyde open to ocean steamers. By the help of two tugs, one at each end of the steamer, we work our way slowly up the narrow stream, and when within a few miles of the city our vessel becomes firmly fastened in the mud, the prow and stern on opposite banks. We are trans- ferred to a tug, and our baggage to another, and there we leave our grand steamer, which has carried us so proudly over the ocean, ignominiously stuck in the mud in the little Clyde, and with many a regret at parting with her under such circum- stances and so near her destination, we steam up to Glasgow. After passing the Custom House, that bug-bear of travelers, we are at our hotel, a genuine American house. The wife of the proprietor is an American, and all the furniture which is new and of the Eastlake pattern, came from America, the greater part being made to order at Grand Rapids, Michigan. The familiar look of things makes it seem almost as if after our long voyage we had landed on American soil. And here in the midst of these surroundings, at the very threshold ot the old world and all it has in store for us, we sleep soundly our first night on the dry land of the trans-Atlantic world. 14 TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. CHAPTER II. THE SCOTTISH LAKES AND STIRLING CASTLE. GLASGOW has a remarkable history. A hundred years ago it was a small city of less than 50,000 inhabitants and with- out importance, but to-day it is the commercial metropolis of Scotland, and has a population of 600,000. Its inhabitants have shown a remarkable enterprise in building up manufac- tories, and in developing the mineral resources of the neighbor- ing counties. The almost numberless tall chimneys with their clouds of smoke, and the continual noise of numerous iron works, remind us of our own Pittsburgh. To the tourist the city has few attractions. The chief of these is the old Cathedral, which was built in the twelfth cen- tury and is one of the few in all Scotland which survived the mad fury of the populace during the times of the Reformation. The building is very large, more than three hundred feet long, and most of its carvings and interior decorations are in a fine state of preservation. Its crypts are the finest and most mas- sive of any in the kingdom. But the pride of the cathedral is its beautiful, great, stained-glass windows, of which it has forty-four, from twenty-five to thirty feet in height, each rep- resenting some well known Bible event. These windows were made about ten years ago at Munich, and are the perfection of modern art. Adjoining the Cathedral is the Necropolis, or Cemetery, beautifully laid out and containing many fine monu- ments. Conspicuous among these is one to John Knox, whose body, however, is buried at Edinborough. We noticed also THE SCOTTISH LAKES AND STIRLING CASTLE. 1 5 that of John Dick, the eminent theologian. Other things in the city, worthy of mention, are George Square with its colos- sal monument to Sir Walter Scott; Glasgow Green containing a fine monument to Nelson, England's favorite hero ; and the New University buildings. In one of the poorest streets of the old city we are shown the quarters once occupied by Cromwell. The most noticeable thing about the city to an American just landed, is the massiveness and solidity of the buildings, for they are mostly of cut stone with tile or slate roofs. There are almost no buildings made of wood and but few of brick, and the streets are all paved with stone. This gives an im- pression that the city is built to stand for all time and accords with our generally accepted opinion of Scotch thoroughness. Yet miles and miles of streets with stone houses and stone paving, everything stone, gives the city a monotony of dull color which finally becomes wearisome, until the eye longs for something bright and even for a little outside paint. Strolling down to one of the public squares, one evening, a member of our party found an excited crowd of two or three hundred working men discussing the merits of Protestantism and Catholicism. One had been making a speech on the sub- ject and was reading proof passages from a small copy of the Testament. Some one gave notice that the next night there would be a discussion on the favorite Scotch theme — Fore- ordination. In what American city, or any city in the world outside of Scotland, will you find day laborers discussing until late at night questions in theology and metaphysics ? The increased length of the day, owing to extreme northern latitude, becomes plainly noticeable, for I was able to read fine 1 6 TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. print by daylight after 10 o'clock at night, while daybreak comes about 2 o'clock. Indeed in clear weather the morning and evening twilight almost overlap. The policeman with his pot-shaped cap is everywhere, a constant terror to evil-disposed small boys, who at once take to their heels when the cry is raised, '-The Bobbies are coming." I knew a worthy Ameri- can lady who on her first day in Glasgow, in an innocent way asked, "What kind of a musical instrument is a bobby?" Leaving Glasgow by early train we soon reach Balloch, on Loch Lomond, where we take steamer for Inversnaid, near the opposite end of the lake, a sail of nearly thirty miles. A Scotch mist as it is politely called, (we should say a rain storm) soon settled down upon us, and although it was the fourth of July, and we had on our overcoats, we were shivering in the cold wind. The Highlanders have a saying that " When Ben Lomond puts on his night cap the rain will come down," and as we looked up toward the mountain and saw his head obscured with clouds, and the rain falling around us, we de- cided that there are weather signs which are true. Sailing up the lake which is surrounded by Scotland's highest mountains, we are in the midst of scenery scarcely equalled by any lake in Europe, Maggiore in Italy alone excepted. Nearly every mountain pass, rock and village is associated with some of Scott's characters. We see Balloch Castle, be- yond a ruined fortification, a traditional stronghold of Fingal ; a beatiful wooded island, the deer park of the Duke of Mont- rose ; Rob Roy's prison ; the rock from which he dipped refractory captives in the lake until they were willing to pay the required ransom; and his cave, which also sheltered Robert the Bruce. Near Inversnaid is the ruin of a fort once commanded by General Wolfe, the hero of Quebec. THE SCOTTISH LAKES AND STIRLING CASTLE. 1 7 At Inversnaid we take coaches for Stronachlacker, on Loch Katrine. These coaches are the few remaining from the famous old English coach system, the drivers being dressed in red coats, plug hats and high top boots, as in the good old times before railroads were known, and when the coach was the pride of the Englishman. The four horses are started up the steep hill at a full run amid a fearful snapping of whips and a greater display of style than we had supposed the solid and sensible Englishman ever allowed himself to use. About this snapping of whips, I have yet to see the country in Europe where the drivers of all sorts of pleasure carriages are not provided with long whips which they delight to snap almost constantly. It seems to be a sort of understood arrangement between the driver and his horses, that the cracking of the whip means nothing more than to give the passengers the impression that the driver is whipping up his horses and going very fast. Shortly after leaving Inversnaid we pass the ruins of the house in which Helen McGregor, Rob Roy's wife, was born. The drive of two hours was over a desolate country, in the midst of high mountains whose sides are covered for the most part with heather, that merciful provision of nature for conceal- ing unsightly rocks and rugged mountain sides. Occasionally there was a little pasturage for sheep and a wretched looking stone house. The trees were few in number and mostly scrub oaks. Peat, which is abundant, is the only fuel. To an American the country looks forlorn, and it is his constant wonder why any one should fight either to gain or defend it. The little steamer Rob Roy carries us over the pretty Loch Katrine, which reminds us strikingly of our own Lake George. 1 8 TWO MONTHS TN EUROPE. We pass " Ellen's Isle " and the "Silver Strand," where the fair heroine is represented as first meeting the Knight of Snowdoun. In less than an hour's time we are at the end of the lake near the "Goblin's Cave," where Douglas is represented as hiding his daughter when he took her from Roderick Dhu's island. For a mile we ride through the " Trossachs " or "Bristling Territory," a narrow, rugged gorge, so called from its many pointed rocks. This is the very center of the " Lady of the Lake " region, and filled with romantic interest. We pass Loch Achray and soon cross a small, single-arched bridge where, "And when the Brigg of Kirk was won The headmost horseman rode alone." Soon after on an eminence " Duncraggan's huts appear at last, And peep like moss-grown rocks half seen Half hidden in the copse so green." Not far beyond is "Coilantogle Ford," which was " Far be- yond Clan Alpine's outmost guard," the scene of the encounter between Roderick Uhu and Fitz James. Riding several miles farther we reach Callander, where the train for Stirling awaits us. Near Callander we pass through a forlorn looking village where the wretched inhabitants still speak only the original Gaelic. There is a settlement of the same kind near Stirling. This whole region through which we have been passing was studied carefully for years by Scott, as a preparation for his landscape descriptions in " Rob-Roy," "The Lady of the Lake," and "Waverly." The scene of Wordsworth's " Highland Girl " was also laid near Inversnaid. Deprived of these historic and romantic associations the region would lose much, if not all, of its interest. THE SCOTTISH LAKES AND STIRLING CASTLE. 10 On the way to Stirling we pass first Donne, with its ruined castle, formerly a resort of the imperial families of Scotland. Next comes Dunblane with its partly renovated, ruined cath- edral, dating from iroo. One end of this has been roofed over and is used as a place of worship by the Presbyterians and the other in the same way by the English Church. It is interesting to us chiefly from Tannahill's song, "Jessie, the Flower of Dunblane." Two miles beyond is Bridge of Allen, a delightfully situated watering place, visited by 40,000 to 50,000 people annually. Just beyond Allan and not far from Stirling, on Abby Craig, 360 feet above the sea, is the beauti- ful Wallace monument, 220 feet high, modeled from the old Scottish baronial style. A mile more and we are at Stirling, from whose lofty castle walls more historic territory can be seen than from any other point in England or Scotland. History is unable to name a time when there was not a fort upon the lofty and precipitous rock on which Stirling castle is situated. A part of the present fortifications is known to have been built by the Romans. This splendid castle, the key to the land of the Scots, has been held time and again succes- sively by the Scotch and English. Its last siege and capture was by General Monk, under the great Cromwell, in 1657. A long line of Scottish kings, from James the I. to the VI. occu- pied it. Kings were born here, crowned here and died here. From its lofty walls on a clear day twelve of Scotland's great battle fields can be seen, including Bannockburn, where Bruce with 40,000 men defeated 100,000 English, and won the inde- pendence of Scotland. In the far distance Arthur's Seat, a mountain near Edin- 20 TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. burgh, 40 miles away, is just in sight. The whole north is shut in by the Highlands, while to the south and east can be seen the mazy, winding course of the Forth, the richness of whose lands is embodied in an old proverb — " A crook of the Forth is worth an earldom of the north." To the south, as far away as the eye can reach, can be seen the flag staff erected upon the field of Bannockburn. Just below the castle is the field on which the tournaments used to be fought, and the ground yet shows the formation of the lists. As we looked down from the old walls upon the tilting ground we could almost see the gay equipments of armored knights, as they col- lected upon the field preparing for the combat. Part way down the rock is the Ladies' Seat, from which the ladies of the court viewed the contests of arms and feats of strength. The high ramparts from which the whole surrounding coun- try can be seen are named respectively Victoria's Look-out and Mary's Look-out. The former was a favorite place with the present queen and her consort during their visit in 1842. Their initials are cut on the walls, and the traveler is invited to stand upon the stone from which the queen viewed the ex- tended landscape. At another angle, a few yards farther on is a small aparture through which Queen Mary is said to have witnessed the passage at arms between the knights in the tour- nament field. Under the castle are many dungeons, in one of which Rob Roy is said to have been confined. The castle consists of many buildings, erected at various times, in different styles of architecture, and for various pur- poses. The most interesting of them all to the traveler is the Douglas Room, or the Star Chamber. In this room James II stabbed the too powerful Earl of Douglas, at the close of a THE SCOTTISH LAKES AND STIRLING CASTLE. 21 heated discussion, after which his attendants dragged the body into a closet and threw it from a window into the moat below. The skeleton of a man in armor, dug up under the window nearly 350 years after, tends to confirm the tradition. The body was buried where it was dug up in front of the door under the window. Scott, in his " Lady of the Lake," alludes to this. " Ye towers within whose circuit dread A Douglas by his sovereign bled." The closet of the Douglas Room has a stained glass window with the Douglas Arms and the motto — "Look Sickar." A door from this closet leads to an underground passage which has been explored a considerable distance. Among the curiosities in the Douglas Room are the com- munion table (dated 1500) used in the castle by John Knox, and the pulpit from the Chapel Royal, called Knox's Pulpit. They are both very shabby and dilapidated, and it will be necessary to have new ones soon. There are some chairs which belonged to James II. and James VI. which are more rickety and uncomfortable than when I s.at in them five years ago, and an oak model of the old Scottish Crown, which was such a poor fit for me that I can now better see the force of the saying — "Uneasy rests the head that wears a crown." There is also a collection of battle-axes, kettle drums, Lochaber axes from Bannockburn, a Royal tilting lance of James VI., and a col- lection of rusty and badly used up pikes. As we wander for hours through this venerable relic of the past, now shabby with neglect, and shorn of all its elegance, it seems to us only like the skeleton of that living past, the beauty and glory of which has departed, never to return. As 22 TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. we sit on the massive walls and look out upon the fields which have been stained with the blood of thousands, now waving with a rich and plentiful harvest, as we explore the massive dungeons formerly filled with the groans of tortured prisoners, now only echoing the footsteps of the curious traveler, we can but rejoice that those days of mis-named chivalry are passed, never, as we hope, to return, and that man has found something nobler and better than to clothe himself in plated steel and take by might that to which he has no right. The train for Edinburgh soon carried us out of sight of the lofty castle, which, as we sped away from it, seemed to stand like a grand monument to the heroic deeds which it had wit- nessed in the past. CHAPTER III. EDINBURGH. rpO English speaking travelers there is perhaps no place, ex- 1 cept London, which contains so much of interest as Edin- burgh. As Glasgow is the commercial metropolis of Scotland, so Edinburgh is its artistic and literary center. She can refer with pride to such a list of men distinguished in the intellec- tual world as few cities can equal. Sir Walter Scott, Robert Burns, Dugald Stewart, Hume, Playfair, Professor Wilson, Dr. Chalmers, John Knox, and a long list of others, who are asso- ciated with the city, have given it a place in the world's regard which it can never lose. EDINBURGH. 23 Like most cities of the old world, Edinburgh dates far into the past for its origin, and owes its location to its facilities as a stronghold. The high rock in the center of the city, upon which the castle is built, is so conspicuously a suitable place for a fortification, that we are not surprised to find that it was so used even before the Roman occupation of the island. For the last five hundred years there has been a castle on the rock with a town or city at its base. The present city is located on both sides of what was orig- inally a deep gorge, but which, in the course of time has been partly filled in, until now it is largely a pleasure ground known as Princes Street Gardens. The old city is on the castle side> while the new, which has mostly been built within the past hundred years, is on the opposite side of this garden. The three central points of interest in the city are the Castle, Calton Hill and Holyrood Palace and Cathedral. Probably a majority of travelers visit the old Castle first, both because of its own attractions and for the sake of the fine view of the city which is obtained from it. The Castle, which is reached by a long carnage way, has been added to by suc- cessive Sovereigns, until it now consists of a large number of buildings, the most of which are without attraction to the trav- eler. We notice with interest the apartments occupied by Queen Mary, and the small, irregularly- shaped bed room, scarcely nine feet long, in which her son, James VI. was born, and from a narrow window of which he was let down in a bas- ket, by a rope, to the base of the rock, nearly three hundred feet below, and taken secretly to Stirling to be baptized into the Catholic faith. Queen Margaret's Chapel, which is said to be the oldest edifice in the city, is a small building of the 24 TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. purely Norman style, and is perfectly preserved. It remains just as in her times, with the exception of the oak floor, which has been renewed. The crown room contains the jewels and regalia of the for- mer kings of Scotland, which, while they have been worn by many famous in history, have brought disaster upon them all. The armory, like the museum in this city, and in other cities of Scotland, contains relics associated with nearly all her historic heroes. For instance, the number of two-handed swords which the brave Robert Bruce had is astonishing to the average modern man — who has not even one small one — if we are to accept as true the records of the various museums. The Palaces, Parliament Houses and other splendid buildings which have been built upon this rock at various times, have either been destroyed or despoiled of their ornaments and changed into soldiers' barracks. On the walls of the Castle are many curious but obsolete and useless pieces of artillery, among them the huge " Mons Meg," a twenty-inch cannon, with an outer covering made of hoops driven on. It was made more than four hundred years ago, and burst firing a salute two hundred years ago. The fortress was once taken by a few men who with their heavy iron armor on, climbed up the steep side of the rock in the night and surprised the garrison. Of the crimes, romances and sie- ges of this famous old place, which have extended over a period of several hundred years, we have no time to speak, and indeed of themselves they would fill many volumes. From the different parts of the walls of the Castle the whole of the city and surrounding country for miles around can be plainly seen. EDINBURGH. 25 At the foot of Canongate street, on the opposite side of the old city from the Castle is Holyrood Palace. Its many rooms are divided in much the usual way into picture galleries, state rooms and private apartments, which in general are without special interest except those which are associated with the tragic life of the beautiful Queen Mary. We are shown Lord Darnley's rooms, fitted up with great elegance for the time in which he lived, and containing his richly inlaid suit of armor and other relics. Adjoining are the apartments of Queen Mary. We are surprised at the small size of the supper room from which the luckless favorite, Rizzio, was dragged from the very feet of the Queen and mur- dered in the adjoining audience chamber. The guide attempt- ed to show us the blood stains upon the floor in front of the little stairs down which the conspirators escaped, but after striking a light and examining the floor on our knees, we gave it up and suggested to him that it would save travelers a great deal of trouble and disappointment if some fresh blood were placed upon the spot occasionally. It requires a great deal of " faith " to be able to see the " ineffaceable " blood stains after the fading and scrubbing of more than three hundred years. But to me the saddest of all were Mary's private rooms, which yet contain much of the furniture of her time and many memorials of her. On a little table by the window is her work box, with her needle work in it, as if she had laid it down but a little while ago. The bed in which she slept, which was once beautiful, in spite of care, is now rotting and dropping in pieces from the effects of time. The tapestries with which the walls are hung are faded but are in a better condition. All 26 TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. the surroundings of the place have been kept as nearly as pos- sible as she left them. As we linger in these rooms and in the adjoining cathedral, which are filled with memories of history, where Mary married Darnley, where she listened in tears to the harsh reproof of Knox, where her favorite was so foully murdered, and where she afterward married Bothwell, it seems to us like looking over the long lost illustrations of some volume of history. Connected with the Palace are the ruins of the old Abbey, which are even yet rich enough in ornament to show how magnificent it must have been in its prime. Within its now roofless and crumbling walls several of the minor kings and princes of the realm are buried. As we stand within this ven- erable ruin, with its walls so thick that its builders doubtless thought they would stand forever, and try to read the names and inscriptions on the time worn tablets, we cannot but think how vain are man's attempts to immortalize himself, and how soon even nature triumphs over all the works of man. On the opposite side of the gorge from Holyrood is Calton Hill, on which are the Old and New Observatories, Nelson's monument, which from its peculiar shape has been called " a Dutch spy glass," and the unfinished National Monument to Scotland's soldiers who fell at Waterloo. This was modeled after the Parthenon at Athens, but proving too expensive the plan was abandoned after the work was partly done and the incomplete building is now nicknamed " Scotland's Folly." Upon or near the hill are monuments to Dugald Stewart, Prof. Playfair, David Hume and the Burns monument with its memorial room and mementos of the poet. The High School is also located part way down the hill. EDINBURGH. 27 There is no object more conspicuous as one looks over the city than the beautiful and costly Scott monument, which is on a commanding situation on one side of the Princes Street Gar- dens. It is two hundred feet high, in general appearance not unlike the spire of some great cathedral but is open at the base, covering a sitting figure of Scott, of heroic size. This and the Albert memorial at Kensington are the only monu- ments of their kind and they are most beautiful and appro- priate. The new city has wide streets, fine residences, and many open squares, which are generally ornamented with stat- ues of eminent men. On and near Canongate street which extends practically from the Castle to Holyrood, are most of the places of inter- est in the old city. Near the Palace at the foot of Canon- gate, formerly stood Girth Cross, a place of public execution, now marked by a circle in the pavement. Just beyond is White Horse Tavern, which figures largely in " Waverly " as a place of meeting for English officers. It was also a famous place of meeting for Scotch wits, and here Dr. Johnson and Bosvvell had many a witty encounter. It is now used as a stable and hay loft. In the Canongate Cemetery, which is a small enclosure crowded in between high buildings are the tombs of Adam Smith, Dugald Stewart, Dr. Burney, and the two Fergusons. We visit among other places John Knox's church and his house which joined it, a very quaint building projecting into the streets, with small windows high from the ground. It has been recently fitted up, and filled with mementos of the great divine, and is to be kept as a Knox museum. A Sabbath day in Edinburgh on a former visit found us at- 28 TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. tending service at Trow church, which is nearly two hundred and fifty years old, and the place where Annie Laurie was married. On High street, which is merely the continuation of Canongate formerly stood the massive old prison called the Tolbooth, built more than four hundred years ago. In the early part of this century it was demolished and its location marked by an immense heart made in the pavement. The prison long bore the quaint name of " The Heart of Mid Lo- than " and contributed some incidents and the name to one of Scott's most fascinating novels. St. Giles Church, at first a grand catholic cathedral with forty altars, with its beautiful coronal spire, was noticeable in early Protestant times for the preaching of John Knox, and for being the place where Jennie Geddes entered a vigorous protest against the course of the Dean of Edinburgh by throw- ing her stool at his head. The open space between Parliament House and St. Giles was formerly a cemetery, but gradually was encroached upon, the tomb stones broken and removed, and at the present time is a paved court. John Knox was among those buried in this cemetery and the supposed location of his tomb is marked by a small marble in the pavement with the letters J. K. cut in it, and this is all the monument Edinburgh has yet given to one of her greatest men. A visit to the courts of justice was of interest from the fact that everything was done with the utmost dignity and formal- ity. The Judges were clothed in long black robes, while they as well as all the advocates wore white curly wigs which covered the whole tops of their heads. Not far from here is the plain, three story house with bay EDINBURGH. 29 front which Sir Walter Scott occupied for twenty-five years. From a tomb stone in the old Gray Friars church yard we copied the following inscription on a tomb dated 1667 : " Reader, John Milne who maketh the fourth John, And by descent from father unto son, Sixth Master Mason to a Royal Race Of seven successive kings, sleeps in this place." But time fails us to mention the many substantial public buildings, churches, museums, hospitals, etc., with which the city abounds. In the old quarter the traveler can but notice the crowded tenement houses some of them twelve stories high which literally swarm with frowzy women and dirty chil- dren. These were built when the city was shut in by its an- cient walls, and were once in the quarters of the nobility. But the pride of Edinburgh is in its great newspapers, its vast publishing houses and its justly claimed reputation as a liter- ary center. It delights to be known as the " Athens of Scot- land." The traveler can but think how much not only Edinburgh but all Scotland owes to the genius and labor of Sir Walter Scott, whose magic pen has immortalized scenes and events, which, but for him, would long ago have passed from public remembrance. As it is, thousands of travelers from all over the world come annually to visit the places known to them by his writings, and to make real the scenery he has so truthfully described. Although Edinburgh has built to his memory a splendid monument, he has built for himself a nobler in the great book establishments which are engaged all the time upon the various editions of his works. We can but admire the Scotchman for his industry, his in- telligence, his integrity, his love of liberty and country, and for 30 TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. all those sturdy traits which we naturally associate with his character. But if you deal with him remember that while he is honest to the bottom of his heart, one Scotchman is a match for any two Yankees, and that while he undoubtedly loves his American cousin and does not hesitate to tell him so, he will with a bow and a bland smile get the best of the bargain every time. As we see them struggling so hard for a living on their al- most barren hills, and think of the long, dark, snow bound winters through which they must pass, we feel like stretching out a hand to them and inviting them to come home with us to the enjoyment of better things. But without doubt their native heather-covered hills are as dear to them as our wide, fertile fields are to us, and if the best place in our grand west- ern prairie should be given them, they would soon long for the rugged sides and cloud-covered peaks of their native Ben Lomond. No matter what the surroundings under which we are born and brought up, nature seems to have wisely placed in every human heart a response to the expression of the poet " Be it ever so lowly, there's no place like home." CHAPTER IV. THE LAND OF SCOTT. THERE are few places in Europe which have been visited by [ more people or have been oftener or better described than Melrose Abbey. Hardly any one, of the slightest literary pre- THE LAND OF SCOTT. 3 1 tentions, can be found who cannot recall a picture of it from some point of view. Probably there are not more than three or four ruins in all Europe which can compare with Melrose in interest. While it is a complete ruin, for it is unoccupied and without a roof even, it is yet in so perfect a state of preserva- tion as to show its wonderful architecture, and to give a good understanding of what its beauty must have been before it was wantonly and wickedly destroyed. It has the additional charm of having its ragged and crumbling walls so covered with ivy, that beautiful mantle of nature, that the harshness and desolation of the ordinary ruin are entirely wanting, and from the dead past seems to have sprung a joyous and living present. The structure whose ruins are so much admired, was com- menced in 1326, although a building devoted to some form of religious worship had occupied the same place or the imme- diate vicinity for eight hundred years previous. At first the Abbey was a very small building, costing no more than two thousand pounds of the money of that period. It was occu- pied by a community of Cistercian monks, who were enjoined by the rules of their order to constant and faithful labor. They therefore engaged in agriculture, in transcribing and illuminating manuscripts, and particularly in the construction and ornamentation of the grand buildings whose ruins are now found all over England and Scotland. There is no bet- ter picture of patience and perseverance, than these pains-tak- ing monks laboring faithfully year after year, with their own hands wielding the mallet and slowly cutting out those won- derful ornamental carvings of flowers, plants and curious and grotesque figures with which both the outside and inside of the 32 TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. church were covered. Much of this work yet remains, which even after the storms of hundreds of years have beaten upon it, shows the wonderful delicacy and beauty it originally had. Entering through an iron gate on the west side of the grounds we are at once in the midst of the ruins. On the right is a long corridor which is filled with curious old monu- ments, most of them so worn by time, that their inscriptions cannot be read. Passing partly through this and turning to the right, we enter the cemetery by a narrow doorway under the south window. The whole south front is the best preserved side of any of the building, and although weather worn and decaying is grand in its proportions. On one of the towers can yet be seen a part of the face of the old clock, with part of one of the hands yet remaining. The paint has long since gone from its face and the boards even are cracked and weather worn. The venerable and aged face, as it were just dropping into the tomb, needs no inscription of tentpus fugit to impress on us the fact that time flies. Passing around to the east side we see the east window, which is a marvel of beauty as it stands in the ruined wall. It is fifty-seven feet high by twenty-eight broad, and is divided into five parts by perpendicular mullions, and these were subdivided into a large number of smaller sections by delicate stone work, much of which remains until the present day. On the extreme right the massive corner is entirely covered with a wonderful growth of ivy, which completely obscures the stone work and falls in gracefully sweeping curves toward the ground. On the ruins at the left, grass and flowers are grow- ing, and on a corner of the wall a rose bush was in full bloom, THE LAND OF SCOTT. 33 fifty feet from the ground, while birds were merrily singing and flying back and forth from their nests in the ivy and shrubbery on the ruined walls. From within, the ruins are equally striking and impressive. Although the sky is now the only covering of the Abbey, one cannot look down its vast length and see what must have been the majestic spring of its grand vaulted ceiling, without feeling a thrill of admiration as he catches, in imagination, a glimpse of what must have been the beauty of the building when it was complete. In accordance with the Romish custom of the period in which the Abbey was built, the church is in the form of a Latin Cross, with a length of two hundred and fifty- eight feet and an extreme width of one hundred and thirty- seven. Within the church are buried many men who were noted in their time. Here was interred Robert Bruce's heart, and here are the remains of the brave Douglas, the hero of Chevy Chase. Here is also the tomb of Scott's "Wizard of the North." Many of the inscriptions are very quaint, both in thought and expression. The brackets of a niche are sup- ported by the figures of two monks with flowing robes, and on the fillet of one and beneath the other are the following nearly obliterated inscriptions, in abbreviated Latin : "'Going whithersoever he would," and "When Jesus came the age of darkness ceased." Above the door of a stairway is a shield with a compass and this inscription : "As the compass goes straight around So does truth and loyalty, without doubt, Look to the end, quoth John Murvo." On a small stone in the form of four horse shoes fastened 34 TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. together, is the inscription, " Pray for the soul of brother Peter, the treasurer." Whether " brother Peter " had discovered the modern process of " hypothecating " the funds of the treas- ury and was afterward smitten with death -bed repentance, we do not know, as this is all the record he has left us. The cemetery attached to the Abbey, which is now part of a sheep pasture, contains many half buried, half worn out monuments, and among them one tomb stone of as late date as 1858. On one of these ancient stones is this curious inscription : The earth goes on the earth Glistering like gold ; The earth goes to the earth Sooner than it wold ; The earth builds on the earth Castles and towers ; The earth says to the earth All shall be ours. Probably there is not one traveler in a thousand who is able to take Sir Walter Scott's advice to visit Melrose " by the pale moonlight," and indeed it is stated that he never made such a visit himself, but it can be readily seen that under the favoring light of a mid-summer moon the ruins would have a peculiar beauty, and call forth all the romantic and poetical in a man's nature. Melrose Abbey is one of those places where one would like to spend days instead of a few hours, and drink the inspiration which comes from its contemplation. Examine it as often as you please or return to it after an absence of years, and you will always find some new beauty in it. " I do love these ancient ruins ; We never tread upon them but we set Our foot upon some reverend history ; THE LAND OF SCOTT. 35 And questionless, here in these open courts, Which now lie naked to the injuries Of stormy weather, some men lie interred Who loved the Church so well, and gave so largely to it. That they thought it should have canopied their bones Forever ; but all things have an end, Churches and cities, that have diseases like to men, Must have like death that we have." It is customary for us to look upon the time from the eighth to the thirteenth century as the "dark ages," and we think of the people of that time as but half civilized and engaged only in war and plunder, but when we see the ruins of the grand cathedrals and castles scattered all over Europe, we can but respect the rude energy of those ages, which spent itself partly in building and decorating these wonderful monuments of their industry. The more we see of the world and what has been done by those who have lived before us, the less conceit we have for our time, and the more respect for those who have lived hundreds of years before us. From Melrose a drive of three or four miles along a pleasant English road bordered with hedges, brings us to Abbotsford, the home of Sir Walter Scott. Its castle-like towers do not come in sight until we are close to it, as the building is situat- ed on low ground. The structure is a curious compound of castle and residence, and was built, or at least rebuilt to its owner's wishes. There are four or five rooms to which the public are admitted at twenty-five cents per person. Indeed it is as bad in Europe as at Niagara falls — you cannot get a sight of anything worth seeing without paying some one a fee. We were first shown the library, a room at least fifty feet long, which contains books on all sides from floor to ceiling, some twenty thousand volumes in all. Here is the large leath- 36 TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. er covered arm chair in which Sir Walter sat and the plain table at which he wrote. Joining this is a little study, with one small window, just large enough to comfortably hold a chair and table. In this room the great novelist did much of his hardest work. Connected with the library is the reception room which contains many portraits and curiosities presented to him. Next to this is a room used as an armory, which contains a fine collection of weapons. Among the notable things in the armory we noticed Rob Roy's gun, marked with his initials ; Roman spears ; Montrose's sword ; a pair of pistols taken from Napoleon's carriage at Waterloo ; the armor of one of the kings of Scotland ; the rusty keys of the old Tolbooth at Edinburgh, and a fine collection of modern and middle age arms from all over the world. The entrance hall is also filled with curiosities. Here are several full suits of armor with lances in their iron hands, as if only waiting for the spirits of their former occupants to re- turn. Here are also battle axes, maces, huge two-handed swords, spears, cross bows, and mementos from many of the fierce and bloody battles with which Scotland's history is filled. One of the rooms has a case containing the suit of clothes Scott wore at his death, the plaid trowsers, " Brother Jon- athan " striped vest, the large shoes, the broad skirted green coat and his stout walking stick. Among the pictures in the various rooms are " Beardie," one of Sir Walter's ancestors who let his beard grow for years untrimmed to show his sympathy for the dethroned Stuarts ; a head of Mary, Queen of Scotland, said to have been sketched a few hours after her death by an artist who, in the assumed THE LAND OF SCOTT. 37 character of an embalmer's assistant, gained admission to the room where the body was ; a grim and stern Cromwell, and many others, the greater part family portraits. One room of curiosities consists almost entirely of presents made him by distinguished people. Among these a silver cup given him by Lord Byron is of special interest. The views from the rooms, particularly the library, are fine but not extended. The exterior of the house is decorated with several memo- rial slabs from places of historic interest. The grounds are prettily laid out and are ornamented with statuary. A fine effigy of Scott's favorite dog Maida is particularly noticeable. In front of the old part of the house is the stone foundation of the old cross at Edinburgh which in former times on festal oc- casions flowed wine instead of water. Language can hardly portray our thoughts as we lingered in these rooms so familiar to the great novelist whom we all admire. When we saw the books he read, the place where he studied and wrote, the mementos and weapons which he seem- ed to weave into his wonderful stories, it seemed as if we had been into the workshop of Vulcan and seen the material of which Jove's thunderbolts were forged. It brought home to us with more force than ever, that the true genius to which the world owes so much is not the spasmodic offcastings of some inspired mind, but what Dickens claimed as the sum of his genius — the genius for hard work. With this visit to Melrose and Abbotsford, and with our love for the novelist greatly increased, we bid adieu for the present to Scotland. 3 38 TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. CHAPTER V. LONDON. THE ride from Edinburgh to London, a distance of four hundred miles, is usually made in ten hours by the fastest trains, and for the most part is through a country which would delight our best farmers. The careful cultivation and abund- ant crops remind us of the land near our cities, and are in- dicative of a country long under subjection to man. Oats and wheat with an occasional field of barley are the usual grains. Root crops are largely in excess of what we raise in America, and sheep seem to us unusually numerous and fine. As we near London the country becomes an almost contin- uous village filled with manufactories, and from ten to thirty tall chimneys can generally be seen at once. At the time of my former visit, five years ago, these were all in full operation, but at present at least half of them are not running, for hard times are felt in England as well as in America. Through these villages and the thickly settled suburbs we glide almost imperceptibly into the city itself, and end our journey at the Midland Depot, the largest and most expensive railroad depot in the world, which, with the hotel built as a part of it, cost ten million dollars. London is a world in herself. A city of four million inhab- itants, situated in a broad plain, upon both sides of a noble river, she has natural advantages which few places possess. So vast is she that one might walk her streets constantly for a month without retracing his steps. Everything made any- where in the world can be found in London, while people LONDON. 39 from all countries and nations are living within her limits, and there is nothing which art or science can produce which is not represented here. The very greatness of the city and the multitude of things of interest to be seen, fairly bewilder the traveler, so that, unless one has months at his disposal, at best it can be but a choice of a few places to be visited and a lingering regret that so much must be left unseen. After a ride through some of the more celebrated streets to gain a general idea of the city, we commence our examination of things of particular interest with a large dingy looking stone building, blackened with centuries of London smoke, which stands in one of the most busy parts of the city, itself filling an entire square. As we approach St. Paul's Cathedral and enter it, we are impressed particularly with its size and massiveness, and indeed it is the largest Protestant Cathedral in the world. The interior is very plain, strikingly so compared with Cath- olic cathedrals, its decorations consisting almost entirely of monuments and memorial tablets. Of these we may mention those of Howard the philanthropist, Turner the painter, Sir John Moore, Sir Christopher Wren, Benjamin West and Sir Joshua Reynolds. In the crypt are the remains of the Duke of Wellington and the paraphernalia of his funeral, including the funeral car made of captured cannon and weighing many tons. Near by is the monument of Lord Nelson, under which his body lies. People who are enthusiastic and foolish enough next climb more than six hundred steps to the ball, where they are gener- ally rewarded with a magnificent view of London smoke and fog extending as much as five hundred feet in every direction ; but although they can see but little, they have the consolation 40 TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. of knowing that they are nearly three hundred and fifty feet above the pavement. We recall with pleasure a Sabbath service in the Cathedral conducted by that prince of pulpit orators, Canon Lyddon. The thoroughfare around the Cathedral is known as St. Paul's Churchyard, the longer side, a carriage-way, called the Bow, the shorter, a foot-passage, called the String. Between the Churchyard and Newgate street is Paternoster-row, the great center of the book trade. Here are the offices of Thomas Nelson &: Son, and Blackwood's Magazine; and in this vicinity most of Shakespeare's plays were originally published. This locality has a special interest to Americans from the fact that the first book ever written on American soil was published at the "Grey-hound in Paul's Churchyard, 1608." Its author was no less a personage than Captain John Smith, of the colony of Virginia. Just off from this is the quiet little nook called Amen Corner. Very near St. Paul's are the Old Bailey and Newgate, im- mortalized by the genius of Dickens. Going up Cheapside, one of the chief retail streets of London, we pass the great building known as the General Post Office, while a little far- ther up is King street, which brings us to Guild-hall, where are the ancient colossal wooden figures, Gog and Magog. Continuing up Cheapside we soon come to the open space in front of the Royal Exchange, which is emphatically the busi- ness center of London, as Charing Cross is the center of its fashion. I doubt if there is a spot in the world through which there is more travel by foot and omnibus than this, as eight main thoroughfares pour into it their ceaseless traffic. It is well worth a half-hour of one's time to stand on a corner here, LONDON. 41 and also at the center of London Bridge, and see the unend- ing stream of human beings and omnibuses which flows by. On one side of the Exchange is the Bank of England, and on the other the Mansion House. The Bank of England covers eight acres of ground, has no outside windows, is a fortress which has withstood several sieges, has a capital of $70,000,000, and employs nearly one thousand clerks. Obtaining permission to visit the vaults, we see gold in heaps as plenty as iron in a blacksmith shop. We look over a railing into a court and see two men with a pulley lifting bags of gold into a wagon, and in one of the many rooms a wonderful little machine is at work, which weighs 35,000 gold pieces per day, and picks out every one which does not come up to the required weight. In the Royal Exchange are some of the oldest insurance companies in the world, and also the offices of the celebrated " Lloyds," the ship insurers, whose " List " is authority every- where in ship matters. Near the Exchange is a fine statue of George Peabody, the distinguished American merchant. On the opposite side of the open space is the Mansion House, the official residence of the Lord Mayor of London, and where, at his princely entertainments the highest nobles in the land can be found. Not far from here is the Old Tower, which in former times was a fortress and prison, but is now used as a military curi- osity shop and armory. It contains also the royal jewels, valued at about $15,000,000. It takes the best part of a day to go through the tower, with the gorgeously dressed official guides. It is especially interesting as the prison and place of execution of hundreds of England's noblest men and women. 42 TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. Lady Jane Grey, Anne Boleyn, Raleigh, and many princes of England's royal families were put to death on Tower Hill. The Horse Armory, which is one of the finest known collec- tions of ancient armory, contains rich suits displayed on eques- trian statues, and arranged in chronological order, many of them the very armor worn by the kings whose reign they rep- resent. In the armory are also breech-loading guns, revolvers, thumb-screws, beheading blocks and executioners' axes, all from early times, and curious ancient and modern weapons from all parts of the world. Within the walls of the Old Tower there has been enacted enough of romance and tragedy to furnish material for volumes. Opposite the Tower is the entrance to the tunnel under the Thames, a dark, damp, circular iron hole seven feet in diame- ter, always to be avoided if possible. Walking along the bank of the river we soon come to the commodious Custom House buildings, and just beyond to Billingsgate fish-market, so graph- ically and truthfully described by Dickens. It is well worth one's time to visit it from 5 to 8 o'clock in the morning, and see and hear the indiscriminate mixture of fish, profanity, old women and slang. Fifteen minutes of it one summer's morn- ing was all we wanted. Just across the street, in one of the cheap temperance res- taurants, of which there are many in London, we had a great bowl of coffee and a sandwich which would make a meal for a small family, for two pence. Not far from here is the monu- ment, two hundred feet high, built on the spot where the great fire of 1666 commenced. Near Billingsgate is the celebrated London Bridge, which cost $10,000,000, and is probably the most crowded bridge in the world, as it is estimated that eight LONDON. 43 thousand persons and nine hundred vehicles cross it per hour during the middle of the day. Taking one of the swift Thames steamers at London Bridge, we go rapidly along the river under the many fine bridges which span it, past Cleopatra's needle, which is just assuming an upright position on the embankment, and land at West- minster Bridge, which is larger and finer than London Bridge, and are only a few yards from Westminster Hall and the Houses of Parliament. The Hall contains one of the largest rooms in Europe under one roof, and several apartments in which we found the high courts in session, while in the House of Lords we also found a committee of that body sitting as a Supreme Court. On a former visit we had the pleasure of attending a session of the famous Tichborne trial, which was held in one of these courts. The Parliament House joins Westminster Hall, and is a beautiful and substantial structure. The chambers of the Commons and the Lords are at opposite ends of a fine hall, and are similar, with the exception that the House of Lords is elegantly furnished, while the, Commons has none of the con- veniences for the use of members lo which we are accustomed in this country, not even places for writing being provided at the long benches on which the members sit. Near this is Westminster Abbey, a not very noticeable struc- ture, but yet one of the most interesting buildings in Europe, both on account of its antiquity and the illustrious names associated with it. The Abbey was founded by King Sebert, the Saxon, in 616, and has been used especially as a burial place of English Kings and distinguished men and women. It would take many pages of this volume to simply enumerate 44 TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. those who have been honored with burial here, and we can only say that within its walls lie thirteen English Sovereigns and fourteen Queens, covering a historic period of more than twelve hundred years. In the Poet's Corner are the greater part of England's well known literary names, from Chaucer to Charles Dickens, whose tablet is in the pavement. In another part of the building, happening to look on the pavement by our feet, we saw cut in small letters, "O Rare Ben Johnson," and this is all the monument and epitaph this great writer has or needs. There is no place on the earth which contains the remains of so many distinguished men, and few places where an American of education can spend a day with greater interest. We had the good fortune to hear Canon Farrar, the distinguished incumbent of the Abbey, as he took a party of friends through the building, showing them the things of greatest interest. Taking the cars on the Metropolitan or underground rail- way, which makes the entire circuit of the city, a few minutes brings us to the South Kensington Museum and the Albert Memorial monument, at one. corner of Hyde Park. The Museum, while it is not so large as the British, is yet a fine one, and is scientifically arranged. It has lately become dis- tinguished for the Art School connected with it. What inter- ested me most at my last visit was Dr. Schliemann's collection of Trojan antiquities, which has been on exhibition here since last Christinas. In a small building adjoining is a museum of the Patent Office, containing among other things, " Puffing Billy," the first railroad engine ever made, used from 1813 to 1862; and also the " Rocket," the next oldest. There is here also the LONDON. 45 old clock of Gastonbury Abbey, hammered out of wrought iron by a monk and set up in 1325. It is running yet and has not been repaired except to supply two or three wheels which were lost. Besides the hour of the day it keeps several other records. One of the first Cornish engines used in the mines is in this collection. The place though small and dingy has many things of interest to those who care for mechanical curi- osities. The memorial erected to Prince Albert by Queen Victoria is very fine and in undisputed taste, excepting the gigantic gilt statue of the Prince. As a whole the monument has a general resemblance to the Scott monument in Edinburg. We ride back toward the center of the city for more than a mile along Hyde Park, one of the many breathing places which London is fortunate in possessing, by Buckingham Pal- ace gardens and the Palace itself, the city residence of the Queen of England, a large but by no means striking building, down the Mall beside the beautiful St. James Park to Charing Cross, the center of West End, the fashionable part of London. Near here are many of the finest residences in the city, and most of the aristocratic club houses. At Charing Cross in Trafalger Square, is a magnificent monument to Lord Nelson, and along one side of the Square is the National Art Gallery. From Charing Cross the street is called the Strand, and is one of the most prominent thor- oughfares in the great city. At Temple Bar, which was for- merly a conspicuous landmark, and could be seen at a long distance from either side, the name changes again to Fleet street. The Bar was a rude arch thrown across the street where, in early times stood the posts or bars which maked the 46 TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. boundary between London and Westminster. It was removed about two years ago, and we miss its familiar arch and the rusty iron hooks on which only a hundred years ago the heads of criminals were exposed. Just as we enter Fleet street on the right is a former palace of Henry VIII and Cardinal Wolsey, which is now a hair cut- ting establishment. Fleet street was formerly a resort of lit- erary men. Ben Jonson, Chatterton, Dryden, Milton, Gold- smith, and a host of others are associated with this historic street. The well known Mr. *' Punch " also has his office here. At the foot of Ludgate Hill, the street again changes its name to Ludgate Circus, which extends to St. Paul's Ca- thedral, the place where we commenced our sight seeing. If we now take a seat with the driver of an omnibus on Cheapside we can ride through Newgate, Holborn and Oxford streets, (the same unbroken street but with different names) a distance of many miles back to Kensington, and will have seen the entire length of the city, in a course, in general, par- allel to that taken from Kensington to St. Paul's. On Oxford street we are near the British Museum, about which we can only say here that it is the largest and best museum in the world and is worthy all the time one can give it, if it be a month. It was recently proposed to issue a catalogue of the Museum, but the plan was finally abandoned because to simply name the different things in the collection would make several books as large as Webster's Unabridged. Time permits mention of only a few of the most prominent places, which we had the pleasure of visiting, and allows no mention of the many places of interest which are within an hour's ride of the city. To any one born to the English Ian- BELGIUM. 47 guage there is no city in the world equal to London, for inter- est or improvement, and for weeks the traveler can wander through it familiarizing himself with places, persons and events which have been prominent in our common English history for the past thousand years. Although London is dingy and smoky, often obscured by dense fog, and rains are so sudden and frequent that it seems as if the inhabitants are born with umbrellas under their arms, she is a city to be loved by every American traveler, and to be left with regret. CHAPTER VI. BELGIUM.- THE horrors of the passage from England to the continent 1 have never been over estimated. These countless discom- forts arise from the fact that the steamers are small and incon- venient, and during the summer season generally carry two or three times as many people as they can accommodate. The following notice copied from a large poster on the deck of one of the steamers on which we made the passage this year, shows the general style of management of the channel steam- ers : " This quarter deck contains 1170 square feet and is certified for 130 first class passengers when not occupied by cattle, animals, cargo or other encumbrance." This is prac- tically the nearest approach to the celebrated " Pig in the Parlor " theory I have ever seen. 48 TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. The route from London to Flushing, in Holland, is pleasant- er now than at our passage five years ago, for new and better steamers ply between the places. This year, however, there has been so much more travel than usual that even the new boats are over crowded. The passage is made in the night, and in the early morning the low shores of Holland are in sight, and two hours later our steamer is between the embank- ments of the Scheldt. We can just see the church spires and chimneys of houses over the dykes, which indicates that the river level is a dozen feet above the streets of the city. Taking cars for Antwerp we at once realize that we are in a foreign country. The strange gutteral Dutch and old Flemish which seem to fill the air around us, the dykes extending away as far as the eye can reach, the squatty, tile-covered houses, the ditches and rows of trees which take the place of fences, the little patches of different kinds of grain which seem to fly by as the train moves along, and most of all the short, broad, big-footed women wearing wooden shoes, and doing most of the work in the fields, all are so different from what we see at home that the traveler cannot but be greatly interested. The crops grown are largely wheat, barley and potatoes. No cattle are in sight pasturing, as land here is too valuable. Most of the amimal labor is done by cows or donkeys. Careful cultivation and economy of land is especially noticeable. No spot large enough to raise a hill of potatoes even is uncultivated, and grass is harvested almost up to the track of the railroad. As we near Antwerp the dykes are not so high and finally nearly disappear and there is occasionally a low hill. We at length pass through heavy fortifications and enter Antwerp, BELGIUM. 49 which although it has experienced the many vicissitudes of a varied fortune is now on the whole the most important city of Belgium. In the sixteenth century it was the most wealthy and prosperous city on the continent, surpassing even Venice. It received its death blow, commercially, in the wars with Spain. Driving from the depot to our hotel we see strange things on every side of us. The great draft horses which we pass, (celebrated the world over) have immense collars running up to a point two feet above the horses' shoulders while the traces are generally made of ropes. Small loads are drawn by cows, donkeys or dogs and frequently by men and women. A team of five dogs drew a cart of wood which would be called by an American farmer a good load for one horse. Most of the streets, particularly of the old city, are narrow and winding. The upper stories of the houses frequently project over the lower, and at the corners of the streets there are often little shrines built into the second stories of the houses. Artistically, Antwerp is famous as the birthplace and home of the artist Van Dyck, as one of the several places in which it is claimed Rubens was born, and as the center of the cele- brated Flemish School of Art, which in the sixteenth and sev- enteenth centuries was of world wide repute. Like every continental city of the least pretentions, Antwerp has a cathe- dral dating back for its foundation from four hundred to eight hundred years ago, a good assortment of churches, which the tourist is compelled to visit or be considered a lunatic, and museums and so-called art galleries sufficient to worry the life out of the average man if he consents to see them all. The cathedral contains Rubens' far-famed masterpiece, the 5