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diff --git a/old/esstr10.txt b/old/esstr10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c06e9bb --- /dev/null +++ b/old/esstr10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7020 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Essays of Travel, by Robert Louis Stevenson +(#30 in our series by Robert Louis Stevenson) + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Essays of Travel + +Author: Robert Louis Stevenson + +Release Date: August, 1996 [EBook #627] +[This file was first posted on July 3, 1996] +[Most recently updated: September 2, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, ESSAYS OF TRAVEL *** + + + + +Transcribed from the 1905 Chatto & Windus edition by David Price, +email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk + + + + +ESSAYS OF TRAVEL + + + + +Contents + +THE AMATEUR EMIGRANT: FROM THE CLYDE TO SANDY HOOK + THE SECOND CABIN + EARLY IMPRESSION + STEERAGE IMPRESSIONS + STEERAGE TYPES + THE SICK MAN + THE STOWAWAYS + PERSONAL EXPERIENCE AND REVIEW + NEW YORK +COCKERMOUTH AND KESWICK + COCKERMOUTH + AN EVANGELIST + ANOTHER + LAST OF SMETHURST +AN AUTUMN EFFECT +A WINTER'S WALK IN CARRICK AND GALLOWAY +FOREST NOTES - + ON THE PLAINS + IN THE SEASON + IDLE HOURS + A PLEASURE-PARTY + THE WOODS IN SPRING + MORALITY +A MOUNTAIN TOWN IN FRANCE +RANDOM MEMORIES: ROSA QUO LOCORUM +THE IDEAL HOUSE +DAVOS IN WINTER +HEALTH AND MOUNTAINS +ALPINE DIVERSION +THE STUMULATION OF THE ALPS +ROADS +ON THE ENJOYMENT OF UNPLEASANT PLACES + + + +CHAPTER I--THE AMATEUR EMIGRANT + + + +THE SECOND CABIN + + +I first encountered my fellow-passengers on the Broomielaw in +Glasgow. Thence we descended the Clyde in no familiar spirit, but +looking askance on each other as on possible enemies. A few +Scandinavians, who had already grown acquainted on the North Sea, +were friendly and voluble over their long pipes; but among English +speakers distance and suspicion reigned supreme. The sun was soon +overclouded, the wind freshened and grew sharp as we continued to +descend the widening estuary; and with the falling temperature the +gloom among the passengers increased. Two of the women wept. Any +one who had come aboard might have supposed we were all absconding +from the law. There was scarce a word interchanged, and no common +sentiment but that of cold united us, until at length, having +touched at Greenock, a pointing arm and a rush to the starboard now +announced that our ocean steamer was in sight. There she lay in +mid-river, at the Tail of the Bank, her sea-signal flying: a wall +of bulwark, a street of white deck-houses, an aspiring forest of +spars, larger than a church, and soon to be as populous as many an +incorporated town in the land to which she was to bear us. + +I was not, in truth, a steerage passenger. Although anxious to see +the worst of emigrant life, I had some work to finish on the +voyage, and was advised to go by the second cabin, where at least I +should have a table at command. The advice was excellent; but to +understand the choice, and what I gained, some outline of the +internal disposition of the ship will first be necessary. In her +very nose is Steerage No. 1, down two pair of stairs. A little +abaft, another companion, labelled Steerage No. 2 and 3, gives +admission to three galleries, two running forward towards Steerage +No. 1, and the third aft towards the engines. The starboard +forward gallery is the second cabin. Away abaft the engines and +below the officers' cabins, to complete our survey of the vessel, +there is yet a third nest of steerages, labelled 4 and 5. The +second cabin, to return, is thus a modified oasis in the very heart +of the steerages. Through the thin partition you can hear the +steerage passengers being sick, the rattle of tin dishes as they +sit at meals, the varied accents in which they converse, the crying +of their children terrified by this new experience, or the clean +flat smack of the parental hand in chastisement. + +There are, however, many advantages for the inhabitant of this +strip. He does not require to bring his own bedding or dishes, but +finds berths and a table completely if somewhat roughly furnished. +He enjoys a distinct superiority in diet; but this, strange to say, +differs not only on different ships, but on the same ship according +as her head is to the east or west. In my own experience, the +principal difference between our table and that of the true +steerage passenger was the table itself, and the crockery plates +from which we ate. But lest I should show myself ungrateful, let +me recapitulate every advantage. At breakfast we had a choice +between tea and coffee for beverage; a choice not easy to make, the +two were so surprisingly alike. I found that I could sleep after +the coffee and lay awake after the tea, which is proof conclusive +of some chemical disparity; and even by the palate I could +distinguish a smack of snuff in the former from a flavour of +boiling and dish-cloths in the second. As a matter of fact, I have +seen passengers, after many sips, still doubting which had been +supplied them. In the way of eatables at the same meal we were +gloriously favoured; for in addition to porridge, which was common +to all, we had Irish stew, sometimes a bit of fish, and sometimes +rissoles. The dinner of soup, roast fresh beef, boiled salt junk, +and potatoes, was, I believe, exactly common to the steerage and +the second cabin; only I have heard it rumoured that our potatoes +were of a superior brand; and twice a week, on pudding-days, +instead of duff, we had a saddle-bag filled with currants under the +name of a plum-pudding. At tea we were served with some broken +meat from the saloon; sometimes in the comparatively elegant form +of spare patties or rissoles; but as a general thing mere chicken- +bones and flakes of fish, neither hot nor cold. If these were not +the scrapings of plates their looks belied them sorely; yet we were +all too hungry to be proud, and fell to these leavings greedily. +These, the bread, which was excellent, and the soup and porridge +which were both good, formed my whole diet throughout the voyage; +so that except for the broken meat and the convenience of a table I +might as well have been in the steerage outright. Had they given +me porridge again in the evening, I should have been perfectly +contented with the fare. As it was, with a few biscuits and some +whisky and water before turning in, I kept my body going and my +spirits up to the mark. + +The last particular in which the second cabin passenger remarkably +stands ahead of his brother of the steerage is one altogether of +sentiment. In the steerage there are males and females; in the +second cabin ladies and gentlemen. For some time after I came +aboard I thought I was only a male; but in the course of a voyage +of discovery between decks, I came on a brass plate, and learned +that I was still a gentleman. Nobody knew it, of course. I was +lost in the crowd of males and females, and rigorously confined to +the same quarter of the deck. Who could tell whether I housed on +the port or starboard side of steerage No. 2 and 3? And it was +only there that my superiority became practical; everywhere else I +was incognito, moving among my inferiors with simplicity, not so +much as a swagger to indicate that I was a gentleman after all, and +had broken meat to tea. Still, I was like one with a patent of +nobility in a drawer at home; and when I felt out of spirits I +could go down and refresh myself with a look of that brass plate. + +For all these advantages I paid but two guineas. Six guineas is +the steerage fare; eight that by the second cabin; and when you +remember that the steerage passenger must supply bedding and +dishes, and, in five cases out of ten, either brings some dainties +with him, or privately pays the steward for extra rations, the +difference in price becomes almost nominal. Air comparatively fit +to breathe, food comparatively varied, and the satisfaction of +being still privately a gentleman, may thus be had almost for the +asking. Two of my fellow-passengers in the second cabin had +already made the passage by the cheaper fare, and declared it was +an experiment not to be repeated. As I go on to tell about my +steerage friends, the reader will perceive that they were not alone +in their opinion. Out of ten with whom I was more or less +intimate, I am sure not fewer than five vowed, if they returned, to +travel second cabin; and all who had left their wives behind them +assured me they would go without the comfort of their presence +until they could afford to bring them by saloon. + +Our party in the second cabin was not perhaps the most interesting +on board. Perhaps even in the saloon there was as much good-will +and character. Yet it had some elements of curiosity. There was a +mixed group of Swedes, Danes, and Norsemen, one of whom, generally +known by the name of 'Johnny,' in spite of his own protests, +greatly diverted us by his clever, cross-country efforts to speak +English, and became on the strength of that an universal favourite- +-it takes so little in this world of shipboard to create a +popularity. There was, besides, a Scots mason, known from his +favourite dish as 'Irish Stew,' three or four nondescript Scots, a +fine young Irishman, O'Reilly, and a pair of young men who deserve +a special word of condemnation. One of them was Scots; the other +claimed to be American; admitted, after some fencing, that he was +born in England; and ultimately proved to be an Irishman born and +nurtured, but ashamed to own his country. He had a sister on +board, whom he faithfully neglected throughout the voyage, though +she was not only sick, but much his senior, and had nursed and +cared for him in childhood. In appearance he was like an imbecile +Henry the Third of France. The Scotsman, though perhaps as big an +ass, was not so dead of heart; and I have only bracketed them +together because they were fast friends, and disgraced themselves +equally by their conduct at the table. + +Next, to turn to topics more agreeable, we had a newly-married +couple, devoted to each other, with a pleasant story of how they +had first seen each other years ago at a preparatory school, and +that very afternoon he had carried her books home for her. I do +not know if this story will be plain to southern readers; but to me +it recalls many a school idyll, with wrathful swains of eight and +nine confronting each other stride-legs, flushed with jealousy; for +to carry home a young lady's books was both a delicate attention +and a privilege. + +Then there was an old lady, or indeed I am not sure that she was as +much old as antiquated and strangely out of place, who had left her +husband, and was travelling all the way to Kansas by herself. We +had to take her own word that she was married; for it was sorely +contradicted by the testimony of her appearance. Nature seemed to +have sanctified her for the single state; even the colour of her +hair was incompatible with matrimony, and her husband, I thought, +should be a man of saintly spirit and phantasmal bodily presence. +She was ill, poor thing; her soul turned from the viands; the dirty +tablecloth shocked her like an impropriety; and the whole strength +of her endeavour was bent upon keeping her watch true to Glasgow +time till she should reach New York. They had heard reports, her +husband and she, of some unwarrantable disparity of hours between +these two cities; and with a spirit commendably scientific, had +seized on this occasion to put them to the proof. It was a good +thing for the old lady; for she passed much leisure time in +studying the watch. Once, when prostrated by sickness, she let it +run down. It was inscribed on her harmless mind in letters of +adamant that the hands of a watch must never be turned backwards; +and so it behoved her to lie in wait for the exact moment ere she +started it again. When she imagined this was about due, she sought +out one of the young second-cabin Scotsmen, who was embarked on the +same experiment as herself and had hitherto been less neglectful. +She was in quest of two o'clock; and when she learned it was +already seven on the shores of Clyde, she lifted up her voice and +cried 'Gravy!' I had not heard this innocent expletive since I was +a young child; and I suppose it must have been the same with the +other Scotsmen present, for we all laughed our fill. + +Last but not least, I come to my excellent friend Mr. Jones. It +would be difficult to say whether I was his right-hand man, or he +mine, during the voyage. Thus at table I carved, while he only +scooped gravy; but at our concerts, of which more anon, he was the +president who called up performers to sing, and I but his messenger +who ran his errands and pleaded privately with the over-modest. I +knew I liked Mr. Jones from the moment I saw him. I thought him by +his face to be Scottish; nor could his accent undeceive me. For as +there is a lingua franca of many tongues on the moles and in the +feluccas of the Mediterranean, so there is a free or common accent +among English-speaking men who follow the sea. They catch a twang +in a New England Port; from a cockney skipper, even a Scotsman +sometimes learns to drop an h; a word of a dialect is picked up +from another band in the forecastle; until often the result is +undecipherable, and you have to ask for the man's place of birth. +So it was with Mr. Jones. I thought him a Scotsman who had been +long to sea; and yet he was from Wales, and had been most of his +life a blacksmith at an inland forge; a few years in America and +half a score of ocean voyages having sufficed to modify his speech +into the common pattern. By his own account he was both strong and +skilful in his trade. A few years back, he had been married and +after a fashion a rich man; now the wife was dead and the money +gone. But his was the nature that looks forward, and goes on from +one year to another and through all the extremities of fortune +undismayed; and if the sky were to fall to-morrow, I should look to +see Jones, the day following, perched on a step-ladder and getting +things to rights. He was always hovering round inventions like a +bee over a flower, and lived in a dream of patents. He had with +him a patent medicine, for instance, the composition of which he +had bought years ago for five dollars from an American pedlar, and +sold the other day for a hundred pounds (I think it was) to an +English apothecary. It was called Golden Oil, cured all maladies +without exception; and I am bound to say that I partook of it +myself with good results. It is a character of the man that he was +not only perpetually dosing himself with Golden Oil, but wherever +there was a head aching or a finger cut, there would be Jones with +his bottle. + +If he had one taste more strongly than another, it was to study +character. Many an hour have we two walked upon the deck +dissecting our neighbours in a spirit that was too purely +scientific to be called unkind; whenever a quaint or human trait +slipped out in conversation, you might have seen Jones and me +exchanging glances; and we could hardly go to bed in comfort till +we had exchanged notes and discussed the day's experience. We were +then like a couple of anglers comparing a day's kill. But the fish +we angled for were of a metaphysical species, and we angled as +often as not in one another's baskets. Once, in the midst of a +serious talk, each found there was a scrutinising eye upon himself; +I own I paused in embarrassment at this double detection; but +Jones, with a better civility, broke into a peal of unaffected +laughter, and declared, what was the truth, that there was a pair +of us indeed. + + +EARLY IMPRESSIONS + + +We steamed out of the Clyde on Thursday night, and early on the +Friday forenoon we took in our last batch of emigrants at Lough +Foyle, in Ireland, and said farewell to Europe. The company was +now complete, and began to draw together, by inscrutable +magnetisms, upon the decks. There were Scots and Irish in plenty, +a few English, a few Americans, a good handful of Scandinavians, a +German or two, and one Russian; all now belonging for ten days to +one small iron country on the deep. + +As I walked the deck and looked round upon my fellow-passengers, +thus curiously assorted from all northern Europe, I began for the +first time to understand the nature of emigration. Day by day +throughout the passage, and thenceforward across all the States, +and on to the shores of the Pacific, this knowledge grew more clear +and melancholy. Emigration, from a word of the most cheerful +import, came to sound most dismally in my ear. There is nothing +more agreeable to picture and nothing more pathetic to behold. The +abstract idea, as conceived at home, is hopeful and adventurous. A +young man, you fancy, scorning restraints and helpers, issues forth +into life, that great battle, to fight for his own hand. The most +pleasant stories of ambition, of difficulties overcome, and of +ultimate success, are but as episodes to this great epic of self- +help. The epic is composed of individual heroisms; it stands to +them as the victorious war which subdued an empire stands to the +personal act of bravery which spiked a single cannon and was +adequately rewarded with a medal. For in emigration the young men +enter direct and by the shipload on their heritage of work; empty +continents swarm, as at the bo's'un's whistle, with industrious +hands, and whole new empires are domesticated to the service of +man. + +This is the closet picture, and is found, on trial, to consist +mostly of embellishments. The more I saw of my fellow-passengers, +the less I was tempted to the lyric note. Comparatively few of the +men were below thirty; many were married, and encumbered with +families; not a few were already up in years; and this itself was +out of tune with my imaginations, for the ideal emigrant should +certainly be young. Again, I thought he should offer to the eye +some bold type of humanity, with bluff or hawk-like features, and +the stamp of an eager and pushing disposition. Now those around me +were for the most part quiet, orderly, obedient citizens, family +men broken by adversity, elderly youths who had failed to place +themselves in life, and people who had seen better days. Mildness +was the prevailing character; mild mirth and mild endurance. In a +word, I was not taking part in an impetuous and conquering sally, +such as swept over Mexico or Siberia, but found myself, like +Marmion, 'in the lost battle, borne down by the flying.' + +Labouring mankind had in the last years, and throughout Great +Britain, sustained a prolonged and crushing series of defeats. I +had heard vaguely of these reverses; of whole streets of houses +standing deserted by the Tyne, the cellar-doors broken and removed +for firewood; of homeless men loitering at the street-corners of +Glasgow with their chests beside them; of closed factories, useless +strikes, and starving girls. But I had never taken them home to me +or represented these distresses livingly to my imagination. + +A turn of the market may be a calamity as disastrous as the French +retreat from Moscow; but it hardly lends itself to lively +treatment, and makes a trifling figure in the morning papers. We +may struggle as we please, we are not born economists. The +individual is more affecting than the mass. It is by the scenic +accidents, and the appeal to the carnal eye, that for the most part +we grasp the significance of tragedies. Thus it was only now, when +I found myself involved in the rout, that I began to appreciate how +sharp had been the battle. We were a company of the rejected; the +drunken, the incompetent, the weak, the prodigal, all who had been +unable to prevail against circumstances in the one land, were now +fleeing pitifully to another; and though one or two might still +succeed, all had already failed. We were a shipful of failures, +the broken men of England. Yet it must not be supposed that these +people exhibited depression. The scene, on the contrary, was +cheerful. Not a tear was shed on board the vessel. All were full +of hope for the future, and showed an inclination to innocent +gaiety. Some were heard to sing, and all began to scrape +acquaintance with small jests and ready laughter. + +The children found each other out like dogs, and ran about the +decks scraping acquaintance after their fashion also. 'What do you +call your mither?' I heard one ask. 'Mawmaw,' was the reply, +indicating, I fancy, a shade of difference in the social scale. +When people pass each other on the high seas of life at so early an +age, the contact is but slight, and the relation more like what we +may imagine to be the friendship of flies than that of men; it is +so quickly joined, so easily dissolved, so open in its +communications and so devoid of deeper human qualities. The +children, I observed, were all in a band, and as thick as thieves +at a fair, while their elders were still ceremoniously manoeuvring +on the outskirts of acquaintance. The sea, the ship, and the +seamen were soon as familiar as home to these half-conscious little +ones. It was odd to hear them, throughout the voyage, employ shore +words to designate portions of the vessel. 'Go 'way doon to yon +dyke,' I heard one say, probably meaning the bulwark. I often had +my heart in my mouth, watching them climb into the shrouds or on +the rails, while the ship went swinging through the waves; and I +admired and envied the courage of their mothers, who sat by in the +sun and looked on with composure at these perilous feats. 'He'll +maybe be a sailor,' I heard one remark; 'now's the time to learn.' +I had been on the point of running forward to interfere, but stood +back at that, reproved. Very few in the more delicate classes have +the nerve to look upon the peril of one dear to them; but the life +of poorer folk, where necessity is so much more immediate and +imperious, braces even a mother to this extreme of endurance. And +perhaps, after all, it is better that the lad should break his neck +than that you should break his spirit. + +And since I am here on the chapter of the children, I must mention +one little fellow, whose family belonged to Steerage No. 4 and 5, +and who, wherever he went, was like a strain of music round the +ship. He was an ugly, merry, unbreeched child of three, his lint- +white hair in a tangle, his face smeared with suet and treacle; but +he ran to and fro with so natural a step, and fell and picked +himself up again with such grace and good-humour, that he might +fairly be called beautiful when he was in motion. To meet him, +crowing with laughter and beating an accompaniment to his own mirth +with a tin spoon upon a tin cup, was to meet a little triumph of +the human species. Even when his mother and the rest of his family +lay sick and prostrate around him, he sat upright in their midst +and sang aloud in the pleasant heartlessness of infancy. + +Throughout the Friday, intimacy among us men made but a few +advances. We discussed the probable duration of the voyage, we +exchanged pieces of information, naming our trades, what we hoped +to find in the new world, or what we were fleeing from in the old; +and, above all, we condoled together over the food and the vileness +of the steerage. One or two had been so near famine that you may +say they had run into the ship with the devil at their heels; and +to these all seemed for the best in the best of possible steamers. +But the majority were hugely contented. Coming as they did from a +country in so low a state as Great Britain, many of them from +Glasgow, which commercially speaking was as good as dead, and many +having long been out of work, I was surprised to find them so +dainty in their notions. I myself lived almost exclusively on +bread, porridge, and soup, precisely as it was supplied to them, +and found it, if not luxurious, at least sufficient. But these +working men were loud in their outcries. It was not 'food for +human beings,' it was 'only fit for pigs,' it was 'a disgrace.' +Many of them lived almost entirely upon biscuit, others on their +own private supplies, and some paid extra for better rations from +the ship. This marvellously changed my notion of the degree of +luxury habitual to the artisan. I was prepared to hear him +grumble, for grumbling is the traveller's pastime; but I was not +prepared to find him turn away from a diet which was palatable to +myself. Words I should have disregarded, or taken with a liberal +allowance; but when a man prefers dry biscuit there can be no +question of the sincerity of his disgust. + +With one of their complaints I could most heartily sympathise. A +single night of the steerage had filled them with horror. I had +myself suffered, even in my decent-second-cabin berth, from the +lack of air; and as the night promised to be fine and quiet, I +determined to sleep on deck, and advised all who complained of +their quarters to follow my example. I dare say a dozen of others +agreed to do so, and I thought we should have been quite a party. +Yet, when I brought up my rug about seven bells, there was no one +to be seen but the watch. That chimerical terror of good night- +air, which makes men close their windows, list their doors, and +seal themselves up with their own poisonous exhalations, had sent +all these healthy workmen down below. One would think we had been +brought up in a fever country; yet in England the most malarious +districts are in the bedchambers. + +I felt saddened at this defection, and yet half-pleased to have the +night so quietly to myself. The wind had hauled a little ahead on +the starboard bow, and was dry but chilly. I found a shelter near +the fire-hole, and made myself snug for the night. + +The ship moved over the uneven sea with a gentle and cradling +movement. The ponderous, organic labours of the engine in her +bowels occupied the mind, and prepared it for slumber. From time +to time a heavier lurch would disturb me as I lay, and recall me to +the obscure borders of consciousness; or I heard, as it were +through a veil, the clear note of the clapper on the brass and the +beautiful sea-cry, 'All's well!' I know nothing, whether for +poetry or music, that can surpass the effect of these two syllables +in the darkness of a night at sea. + +The day dawned fairly enough, and during the early part we had some +pleasant hours to improve acquaintance in the open air; but towards +nightfall the wind freshened, the rain began to fall, and the sea +rose so high that it was difficult to keep ones footing on the +deck. I have spoken of our concerts. We were indeed a musical +ship's company, and cheered our way into exile with the fiddle, the +accordion, and the songs of all nations. Good, bad, or +indifferent--Scottish, English, Irish, Russian, German or Norse,-- +the songs were received with generous applause. Once or twice, a +recitation, very spiritedly rendered in a powerful Scottish accent, +varied the proceedings; and once we sought in vain to dance a +quadrille, eight men of us together, to the music of the violin. +The performers were all humorous, frisky fellows, who loved to cut +capers in private life; but as soon as they were arranged for the +dance, they conducted themselves like so many mutes at a funeral. +I have never seen decorum pushed so far; and as this was not +expected, the quadrille was soon whistled down, and the dancers +departed under a cloud. Eight Frenchmen, even eight Englishmen +from another rank of society, would have dared to make some fun for +themselves and the spectators; but the working man, when sober, +takes an extreme and even melancholy view of personal deportment. +A fifth-form schoolboy is not more careful of dignity. He dares +not be comical; his fun must escape from him unprepared, and above +all, it must be unaccompanied by any physical demonstration. I +like his society under most circumstances, but let me never again +join with him in public gambols. + +But the impulse to sing was strong, and triumphed over modesty and +even the inclemencies of sea and sky. On this rough Saturday +night, we got together by the main deck-house, in a place sheltered +from the wind and rain. Some clinging to a ladder which led to the +hurricane deck, and the rest knitting arms or taking hands, we made +a ring to support the women in the violent lurching of the ship; +and when we were thus disposed, sang to our hearts' content. Some +of the songs were appropriate to the scene; others strikingly the +reverse. Bastard doggrel of the music-hall, such as, 'Around her +splendid form, I weaved the magic circle,' sounded bald, bleak, and +pitifully silly. 'We don't want to fight, but, by Jingo, if we +do,' was in some measure saved by the vigour and unanimity with +which the chorus was thrown forth into the night. I observed a +Platt-Deutsch mason, entirely innocent of English, adding heartily +to the general effect. And perhaps the German mason is but a fair +example of the sincerity with which the song was rendered; for +nearly all with whom I conversed upon the subject were bitterly +opposed to war, and attributed their own misfortunes, and +frequently their own taste for whisky, to the campaigns in Zululand +and Afghanistan. + +Every now and again, however, some song that touched the pathos of +our situation was given forth; and you could hear by the voices +that took up the burden how the sentiment came home to each, 'The +Anchor's Weighed' was true for us. We were indeed 'Rocked on the +bosom of the stormy deep.' How many of us could say with the +singer, 'I'm lonely to-night, love, without you,' or, 'Go, some +one, and tell them from me, to write me a letter from home'! And +when was there a more appropriate moment for 'Auld Lang Syne' than +now, when the land, the friends, and the affections of that mingled +but beloved time were fading and fleeing behind us in the vessel's +wake? It pointed forward to the hour when these labours should be +overpast, to the return voyage, and to many a meeting in the sanded +inn, when those who had parted in the spring of youth should again +drink a cup of kindness in their age. Had not Burns contemplated +emigration, I scarce believe he would have found that note. + +All Sunday the weather remained wild and cloudy; many were +prostrated by sickness; only five sat down to tea in the second +cabin, and two of these departed abruptly ere the meal was at an +end. The Sabbath was observed strictly by the majority of the +emigrants. I heard an old woman express her surprise that 'the +ship didna gae doon,' as she saw some one pass her with a chess- +board on the holy day. Some sang Scottish psalms. Many went to +service, and in true Scottish fashion came back ill pleased with +their divine. 'I didna think he was an experienced preacher,' said +one girl to me. + +Is was a bleak, uncomfortable day; but at night, by six bells, +although the wind had not yet moderated, the clouds were all +wrecked and blown away behind the rim of the horizon, and the stars +came out thickly overhead. I saw Venus burning as steadily and +sweetly across this hurly-burly of the winds and waters as ever at +home upon the summer woods. The engine pounded, the screw tossed +out of the water with a roar, and shook the ship from end to end; +the bows battled with loud reports against the billows: and as I +stood in the lee-scuppers and looked up to where the funnel leaned +out, over my head, vomiting smoke, and the black and monstrous top- +sails blotted, at each lurch, a different crop of stars, it seemed +as if all this trouble were a thing of small account, and that just +above the mast reigned peace unbroken and eternal. + + +STEERAGE SCENES + + +Our companion (Steerage No. 2 and 3) was a favourite resort. Down +one flight of stairs there was a comparatively large open space, +the centre occupied by a hatchway, which made a convenient seat for +about twenty persons, while barrels, coils of rope, and the +carpenter's bench afforded perches for perhaps as many more. The +canteen, or steerage bar, was on one side of the stair; on the +other, a no less attractive spot, the cabin of the indefatigable +interpreter. + +I have seen people packed into this space like herrings in a +barrel, and many merry evenings prolonged there until five bells, +when the lights were ruthlessly extinguished and all must go to +roost. + +It had been rumoured since Friday that there was a fiddler aboard, +who lay sick and unmelodious in Steerage No. 1; and on the Monday +forenoon, as I came down the companion, I was saluted by something +in Strathspey time. A white-faced Orpheus was cheerily playing to +an audience of white-faced women. It was as much as he could do to +play, and some of his hearers were scarce able to sit; yet they had +crawled from their bunks at the first experimental flourish, and +found better than medicine in the music. Some of the heaviest +heads began to nod in time, and a degree of animation looked from +some of the palest eyes. Humanly speaking, it is a more important +matter to play the fiddle, even badly, than to write huge works +upon recondite subjects. What could Mr. Darwin have done for these +sick women? But this fellow scraped away; and the world was +positively a better place for all who heard him. We have yet to +understand the economical value of these mere accomplishments. I +told the fiddler he was a happy man, carrying happiness about with +him in his fiddle-case, and he seemed alive to the fact. + +'It is a privilege,' I said. He thought a while upon the word, +turning it over in his Scots head, and then answered with +conviction, 'Yes, a privilege.' + +That night I was summoned by 'Merrily danced the Quake's wife' into +the companion of Steerage No. 4 and 5. This was, properly +speaking, but a strip across a deck-house, lit by a sickly lantern +which swung to and fro with the motion of the ship. Through the +open slide-door we had a glimpse of a grey night sea, with patches +of phosphorescent foam flying, swift as birds, into the wake, and +the horizon rising and falling as the vessel rolled to the wind. +In the centre the companion ladder plunged down sheerly like an +open pit. Below, on the first landing, and lighted by another +lamp, lads and lasses danced, not more than three at a time for +lack of space, in jigs and reels and hornpipes. Above, on either +side, there was a recess railed with iron, perhaps two feet wide +and four long, which stood for orchestra and seats of honour. In +the one balcony, five slatternly Irish lasses sat woven in a comely +group. In the other was posted Orpheus, his body, which was +convulsively in motion, forming an odd contrast to his somnolent, +imperturbable Scots face. His brother, a dark man with a vehement, +interested countenance, who made a god of the fiddler, sat by with +open mouth, drinking in the general admiration and throwing out +remarks to kindle it. + +'That's a bonny hornpipe now,' he would say, 'it's a great +favourite with performers; they dance the sand dance to it.' And +he expounded the sand dance. Then suddenly, it would be a long, +'Hush!' with uplifted finger and glowing, supplicating eyes, 'he's +going to play "Auld Robin Gray" on one string!' And throughout +this excruciating movement,--'On one string, that's on one string!' +he kept crying. I would have given something myself that it had +been on none; but the hearers were much awed. I called for a tune +or two, and thus introduced myself to the notice of the brother, +who directed his talk to me for some little while, keeping, I need +hardly mention, true to his topic, like the seamen to the star. +'He's grand of it,' he said confidentially. 'His master was a +music-hall man.' Indeed the music-hall man had left his mark, for +our fiddler was ignorant of many of our best old airs; 'Logie o' +Buchan,' for instance, he only knew as a quick, jigging figure in a +set of quadrilles, and had never heard it called by name. Perhaps, +after all, the brother was the more interesting performer of the +two. I have spoken with him afterwards repeatedly, and found him +always the same quick, fiery bit of a man, not without brains; but +he never showed to such advantage as when he was thus squiring the +fiddler into public note. There is nothing more becoming than a +genuine admiration; and it shares this with love, that it does not +become contemptible although misplaced. + +The dancing was but feebly carried on. The space was almost +impracticably small; and the Irish wenches combined the extreme of +bashfulness about this innocent display with a surprising impudence +and roughness of address. Most often, either the fiddle lifted up +its voice unheeded, or only a couple of lads would be footing it +and snapping fingers on the landing. And such was the eagerness of +the brother to display all the acquirements of his idol, and such +the sleepy indifference of the performer, that the tune would as +often as not be changed, and the hornpipe expire into a ballad +before the dancers had cut half a dozen shuffles. + +In the meantime, however, the audience had been growing more and +more numerous every moment; there was hardly standing-room round +the top of the companion; and the strange instinct of the race +moved some of the newcomers to close both the doors, so that the +atmosphere grew insupportable. It was a good place, as the saying +is, to leave. + +The wind hauled ahead with a head sea. By ten at night heavy +sprays were flying and drumming over the forecastle; the companion +of Steerage No. 1 had to be closed, and the door of communication +through the second cabin thrown open. Either from the convenience +of the opportunity, or because we had already a number of +acquaintances in that part of the ship, Mr. Jones and I paid it a +late visit. Steerage No. 1 is shaped like an isosceles triangle, +the sides opposite the equal angles bulging outward with the +contour of the ship. It is lined with eight pens of sixteen bunks +apiece, four bunks below and four above on either side. At night +the place is lit with two lanterns, one to each table. As the +steamer beat on her way among the rough billows, the light passed +through violent phases of change, and was thrown to and fro and up +and down with startling swiftness. You were tempted to wonder, as +you looked, how so thin a glimmer could control and disperse such +solid blackness. When Jones and I entered we found a little +company of our acquaintances seated together at the triangular +foremost table. A more forlorn party, in more dismal +circumstances, it would be hard to imagine. The motion here in the +ship's nose was very violent; the uproar of the sea often +overpoweringly loud. The yellow flicker of the lantern spun round +and round and tossed the shadows in masses. The air was hot, but +it struck a chill from its foetor. + +From all round in the dark bunks, the scarcely human noises of the +sick joined into a kind of farmyard chorus. In the midst, these +five friends of mine were keeping up what heart they could in +company. Singing was their refuge from discomfortable thoughts and +sensations. One piped, in feeble tones, 'Oh why left I my hame?' +which seemed a pertinent question in the circumstances. Another, +from the invisible horrors of a pen where he lay dog-sick upon the +upper-shelf, found courage, in a blink of his sufferings, to give +us several verses of the 'Death of Nelson'; and it was odd and +eerie to hear the chorus breathe feebly from all sorts of dark +corners, and 'this day has done his dooty' rise and fall and be +taken up again in this dim inferno, to an accompaniment of +plunging, hollow-sounding bows and the rattling spray-showers +overhead. + +All seemed unfit for conversation; a certain dizziness had +interrupted the activity of their minds; and except to sing they +were tongue-tied. There was present, however, one tall, powerful +fellow of doubtful nationality, being neither quite Scotsman nor +altogether Irish, but of surprising clearness of conviction on the +highest problems. He had gone nearly beside himself on the Sunday, +because of a general backwardness to indorse his definition of mind +as 'a living, thinking substance which cannot be felt, heard, or +seen'--nor, I presume, although he failed to mention it, smelt. +Now he came forward in a pause with another contribution to our +culture. + +'Just by way of change,' said he, 'I'll ask you a Scripture riddle. +There's profit in them too,' he added ungrammatically. + +This was the riddle- + +C and P +Did agree +To cut down C; +But C and P +Could not agree +Without the leave of G; +All the people cried to see +The crueltie +Of C and P. + +Harsh are the words of Mercury after the songs of Apollo! We were +a long while over the problem, shaking our heads and gloomily +wondering how a man could be such a fool; but at length he put us +out of suspense and divulged the fact that C and P stood for +Caiaphas and Pontius Pilate. + +I think it must have been the riddle that settled us; but the +motion and the close air likewise hurried our departure. We had +not been gone long, we heard next morning, ere two or even three +out of the five fell sick. We thought it little wonder on the +whole, for the sea kept contrary all night. I now made my bed upon +the second cabin floor, where, although I ran the risk of being +stepped upon, I had a free current of air, more or less vitiated +indeed, and running only from steerage to steerage, but at least +not stagnant; and from this couch, as well as the usual sounds of a +rough night at sea, the hateful coughing and retching of the sick +and the sobs of children, I heard a man run wild with terror +beseeching his friend for encouragement. 'The ship 's going down!' +he cried with a thrill of agony. 'The ship's going down!' he +repeated, now in a blank whisper, now with his voice rising towards +a sob; and his friend might reassure him, reason with him, joke at +him--all was in vain, and the old cry came back, 'The ship's going +down!' There was something panicky and catching in the emotion of +his tones; and I saw in a clear flash what an involved and hideous +tragedy was a disaster to an emigrant ship. If this whole +parishful of people came no more to land, into how many houses +would the newspaper carry woe, and what a great part of the web of +our corporate human life would be rent across for ever! + +The next morning when I came on deck I found a new world indeed. +The wind was fair; the sun mounted into a cloudless heaven; through +great dark blue seas the ship cut a swath of curded foam. The +horizon was dotted all day with companionable sails, and the sun +shone pleasantly on the long, heaving deck. + +We had many fine-weather diversions to beguile the time. There was +a single chess-board and a single pack of cards. Sometimes as many +as twenty of us would be playing dominoes for love. Feats of +dexterity, puzzles for the intelligence, some arithmetical, some of +the same order as the old problem of the fox and goose and cabbage, +were always welcome; and the latter, I observed, more popular as +well as more conspicuously well done than the former. We had a +regular daily competition to guess the vessel's progress; and +twelve o'clock, when the result was published in the wheel-house, +came to be a moment of considerable interest. But the interest was +unmixed. Not a bet was laid upon our guesses. From the Clyde to +Sandy Hook I never heard a wager offered or taken. We had, +besides, romps in plenty. Puss in the Corner, which we had +rebaptized, in more manly style, Devil and four Corners, was my own +favourite game; but there were many who preferred another, the +humour of which was to box a person's ears until he found out who +had cuffed him. + +This Tuesday morning we were all delighted with the change of +weather, and in the highest possible spirits. We got in a cluster +like bees, sitting between each other's feet under lee of the deck- +houses. Stories and laughter went around. The children climbed +about the shrouds. White faces appeared for the first time, and +began to take on colour from the wind. I was kept hard at work +making cigarettes for one amateur after another, and my less than +moderate skill was heartily admired. Lastly, down sat the fiddler +in our midst and began to discourse his reels, and jigs, and +ballads, with now and then a voice or two to take up the air and +throw in the interest of human speech. + +Through this merry and good-hearted scene there came three cabin +passengers, a gentleman and two young ladies, picking their way +with little gracious titters of indulgence, and a Lady-Bountiful +air about nothing, which galled me to the quick. I have little of +the radical in social questions, and have always nourished an idea +that one person was as good as another. But I began to be troubled +by this episode. It was astonishing what insults these people +managed to convey by their presence. They seemed to throw their +clothes in our faces. Their eyes searched us all over for tatters +and incongruities. A laugh was ready at their lips; but they were +too well-mannered to indulge it in our hearing. Wait a bit, till +they were all back in the saloon, and then hear how wittily they +would depict the manners of the steerage. We were in truth very +innocently, cheerfully, and sensibly engaged, and there was no +shadow of excuse for the swaying elegant superiority with which +these damsels passed among us, or for the stiff and waggish glances +of their squire. Not a word was said; only when they were gone +Mackay sullenly damned their impudence under his breath; but we +were all conscious of an icy influence and a dead break in the +course of our enjoyment. + + +STEERAGE TYPES + + +We had a fellow on board, an Irish-American, for all the world like +a beggar in a print by Callot; one-eyed, with great, splay crow's- +feet round the sockets; a knotty squab nose coming down over his +moustache; a miraculous hat; a shirt that had been white, ay, ages +long ago; an alpaca coat in its last sleeves; and, without +hyperbole, no buttons to his trousers. Even in these rags and +tatters, the man twinkled all over with impudence like a piece of +sham jewellery; and I have heard him offer a situation to one of +his fellow-passengers with the air of a lord. Nothing could +overlie such a fellow; a kind of base success was written on his +brow. He was then in his ill days; but I can imagine him in +Congress with his mouth full of bombast and sawder. As we moved in +the same circle, I was brought necessarily into his society. I do +not think I ever heard him say anything that was true, kind, or +interesting; but there was entertainment in the man's demeanour. +You might call him a half-educated Irish Tigg. + +Our Russian made a remarkable contrast to this impossible fellow. +Rumours and legends were current in the steerages about his +antecedents. Some said he was a Nihilist escaping; others set him +down for a harmless spendthrift, who had squandered fifty thousand +roubles, and whose father had now despatched him to America by way +of penance. Either tale might flourish in security; there was no +contradiction to be feared, for the hero spoke not one word of +English. I got on with him lumberingly enough in broken German, +and learned from his own lips that he had been an apothecary. He +carried the photograph of his betrothed in a pocket-book, and +remarked that it did not do her justice. The cut of his head stood +out from among the passengers with an air of startling strangeness. +The first natural instinct was to take him for a desperado; but +although the features, to our Western eyes, had a barbaric and +unhomely cast, the eye both reassured and touched. It was large +and very dark and soft, with an expression of dumb endurance, as if +it had often looked on desperate circumstances and never looked on +them without resolution. + +He cried out when I used the word. 'No, no,' he said, 'not +resolution.' + +'The resolution to endure,' I explained. + +And then he shrugged his shoulders, and said, 'Ach, ja,' with +gusto, like a man who has been flattered in his favourite +pretensions. Indeed, he was always hinting at some secret sorrow; +and his life, he said, had been one of unusual trouble and anxiety; +so the legends of the steerage may have represented at least some +shadow of the truth. Once, and once only, he sang a song at our +concerts; standing forth without embarrassment, his great stature +somewhat humped, his long arms frequently extended, his Kalmuck +head thrown backward. It was a suitable piece of music, as deep as +a cow's bellow and wild like the White Sea. He was struck and +charmed by the freedom and sociality of our manners. At home, he +said, no one on a journey would speak to him, but those with whom +he would not care to speak; thus unconsciously involving himself in +the condemnation of his countrymen. But Russia was soon to be +changed; the ice of the Neva was softening under the sun of +civilisation; the new ideas, 'wie eine feine Violine,' were audible +among the big empty drum notes of Imperial diplomacy; and he looked +to see a great revival, though with a somewhat indistinct and +childish hope. + +We had a father and son who made a pair of Jacks-of-all-trades. It +was the son who sang the 'Death of Nelson' under such contrarious +circumstances. He was by trade a shearer of ship plates; but he +could touch the organ, and led two choirs, and played the flute and +piccolo in a professional string band. His repertory of songs was, +besides, inexhaustible, and ranged impartially from the very best +to the very worst within his reach. Nor did he seem to make the +least distinction between these extremes, but would cheerily follow +up 'Tom Bowling' with 'Around her splendid form.' + +The father, an old, cheery, small piece of man-hood, could do +everything connected with tinwork from one end of the process to +the other, use almost every carpenter's tool, and make picture +frames to boot. 'I sat down with silver plate every Sunday,' said +he, 'and pictures on the wall. I have made enough money to be +rolling in my carriage. But, sir,' looking at me unsteadily with +his bright rheumy eyes, 'I was troubled with a drunken wife.' He +took a hostile view of matrimony in consequence. 'It's an old +saying,' he remarked: 'God made 'em, and the devil he mixed 'em.' + +I think he was justified by his experience. It was a dreary story. +He would bring home three pounds on Saturday, and on Monday all the +clothes would be in pawn. Sick of the useless struggle, he gave up +a paying contract, and contented himself with small and ill-paid +jobs. 'A bad job was as good as a good job for me,' he said; 'it +all went the same way.' Once the wife showed signs of amendment; +she kept steady for weeks on end; it was again worth while to +labour and to do one's best. The husband found a good situation +some distance from home, and, to make a little upon every hand, +started the wife in a cook-shop; the children were here and there, +busy as mice; savings began to grow together in the bank, and the +golden age of hope had returned again to that unhappy family. But +one week my old acquaintance, getting earlier through with his +work, came home on the Friday instead of the Saturday, and there +was his wife to receive him reeling drunk. He 'took and gave her a +pair o' black eyes,' for which I pardon him, nailed up the cook- +shop door, gave up his situation, and resigned himself to a life of +poverty, with the workhouse at the end. As the children came to +their full age they fled the house, and established themselves in +other countries; some did well, some not so well; but the father +remained at home alone with his drunken wife, all his sound-hearted +pluck and varied accomplishments depressed and negatived. + +Was she dead now? or, after all these years, had he broken the +chain, and run from home like a schoolboy? I could not discover +which; but here at least he was out on the adventure, and still one +of the bravest and most youthful men on board. + +'Now, I suppose, I must put my old bones to work again,' said he; +'but I can do a turn yet.' + +And the son to whom he was going, I asked, was he not able to +support him? + +'Oh yes,' he replied. 'But I'm never happy without a job on hand. +And I'm stout; I can eat a'most anything. You see no craze about +me.' + +This tale of a drunken wife was paralleled on board by another of a +drunken father. He was a capable man, with a good chance in life; +but he had drunk up two thriving businesses like a bottle of +sherry, and involved his sons along with him in ruin. Now they +were on board with us, fleeing his disastrous neighbourhood. + +Total abstinence, like all ascetical conclusions, is unfriendly to +the most generous, cheerful, and human parts of man; but it could +have adduced many instances and arguments from among our ship's +company. I was, one day conversing with a kind and happy Scotsman, +running to fat and perspiration in the physical, but with a taste +for poetry and a genial sense of fun. I had asked him his hopes in +emigrating. They were like those of so many others, vague and +unfounded; times were bad at home; they were said to have a turn +for the better in the States; a man could get on anywhere, he +thought. That was precisely the weak point of his position; for if +he could get on in America, why could he not do the same in +Scotland? But I never had the courage to use that argument, though +it was often on the tip of my tongue, and instead I agreed with him +heartily adding, with reckless originality, 'If the man stuck to +his work, and kept away from drink.' + +'Ah!' said he slowly, 'the drink! You see, that's just my +trouble.' + +He spoke with a simplicity that was touching, looking at me at the +same time with something strange and timid in his eye, half- +ashamed, half-sorry, like a good child who knows he should be +beaten. You would have said he recognised a destiny to which he +was born, and accepted the consequences mildly. Like the merchant +Abudah, he was at the same time fleeing from his destiny and +carrying it along with him, the whole at an expense of six guineas. + +As far as I saw, drink, idleness, and incompetency were the three +great causes of emigration, and for all of them, and drink first +and foremost, this trick of getting transported overseas appears to +me the silliest means of cure. You cannot run away from a +weakness; you must some time fight it out or perish; and if that be +so, why not now, and where you stand? Coelum non animam. Change +Glenlivet for Bourbon, and it is still whisky, only not so good. A +sea-voyage will not give a man the nerve to put aside cheap +pleasure; emigration has to be done before we climb the vessel; an +aim in life is the only fortune worth the finding; and it is not to +be found in foreign lands, but in the heart itself. + +Speaking generally, there is no vice of this kind more contemptible +than another; for each is but a result and outward sign of a soul +tragically ship-wrecked. In the majority of cases, cheap pleasure +is resorted to by way of anodyne. The pleasure-seeker sets forth +upon life with high and difficult ambitions; he meant to be nobly +good and nobly happy, though at as little pains as possible to +himself; and it is because all has failed in his celestial +enterprise that you now behold him rolling in the garbage. Hence +the comparative success of the teetotal pledge; because to a man +who had nothing it sets at least a negative aim in life. Somewhat +as prisoners beguile their days by taming a spider, the reformed +drunkard makes an interest out of abstaining from intoxicating +drinks, and may live for that negation. There is something, at +least, NOT TO BE DONE each day; and a cold triumph awaits him every +evening. + +We had one on board with us, whom I have already referred to under +the name Mackay, who seemed to me not only a good instance of this +failure in life of which we have been speaking, but a good type of +the intelligence which here surrounded me. Physically he was a +small Scotsman, standing a little back as though he were already +carrying the elements of a corporation, and his looks somewhat +marred by the smallness of his eyes. Mentally, he was endowed +above the average. There were but few subjects on which he could +not converse with understanding and a dash of wit; delivering +himself slowly and with gusto like a man who enjoyed his own +sententiousness. He was a dry, quick, pertinent debater, speaking +with a small voice, and swinging on his heels to launch and +emphasise an argument. When he began a discussion, he could not +bear to leave it off, but would pick the subject to the bone, +without once relinquishing a point. An engineer by trade, Mackay +believed in the unlimited perfectibility of all machines except the +human machine. The latter he gave up with ridicule for a compound +of carrion and perverse gases. He had an appetite for disconnected +facts which I can only compare to the savage taste for beads. What +is called information was indeed a passion with the man, and he not +only delighted to receive it, but could pay you back in kind. + +With all these capabilities, here was Mackay, already no longer +young, on his way to a new country, with no prospects, no money, +and but little hope. He was almost tedious in the cynical +disclosures of his despair. 'The ship may go down for me,' he +would say, 'now or to-morrow. I have nothing to lose and nothing +to hope.' And again: 'I am sick of the whole damned performance.' +He was, like the kind little man, already quoted, another so-called +victim of the bottle. But Mackay was miles from publishing his +weakness to the world; laid the blame of his failure on corrupt +masters and a corrupt State policy; and after he had been one night +overtaken and had played the buffoon in his cups, sternly, though +not without tact, suppressed all reference to his escapade. It was +a treat to see him manage this: the various jesters withered under +his gaze, and you were forced to recognise in him a certain steely +force, and a gift of command which might have ruled a senate. + +In truth it was not whisky that had ruined him; he was ruined long +before for all good human purposes but conversation. His eyes were +sealed by a cheap, school-book materialism. He could see nothing +in the world but money and steam-engines. He did not know what you +meant by the word happiness. He had forgotten the simple emotions +of childhood, and perhaps never encountered the delights of youth. +He believed in production, that useful figment of economy, as if it +had been real like laughter; and production, without prejudice to +liquor, was his god and guide. One day he took me to task--novel +cry to me--upon the over-payment of literature. Literary men, he +said, were more highly paid than artisans; yet the artisan made +threshing-machines and butter-churns, and the man of letters, +except in the way of a few useful handbooks, made nothing worth the +while. He produced a mere fancy article. Mackay's notion of a +book was Hoppus's Measurer. Now in my time I have possessed and +even studied that work; but if I were to be left to-morrow on Juan +Fernandez, Hoppus's is not the book that I should choose for my +companion volume. + +I tried to fight the point with Mackay. I made him own that he had +taken pleasure in reading books otherwise, to his view, +insignificant; but he was too wary to advance a step beyond the +admission. It was in vain for me to argue that here was pleasure +ready-made and running from the spring, whereas his ploughs and +butter-churns were but means and mechanisms to give men the +necessary food and leisure before they start upon the search for +pleasure; he jibbed and ran away from such conclusions. The thing +was different, he declared, and nothing was serviceable but what +had to do with food. 'Eat, eat, eat!' he cried; 'that's the bottom +and the top.' By an odd irony of circumstance, he grew so much +interested in this discussion that he let the hour slip by +unnoticed and had to go without his tea. He had enough sense and +humour, indeed he had no lack of either, to have chuckled over this +himself in private; and even to me he referred to it with the +shadow of a smile. + +Mackay was a hot bigot. He would not hear of religion. I have +seen him waste hours of time in argument with all sorts of poor +human creatures who understood neither him nor themselves, and he +had had the boyishness to dissect and criticise even so small a +matter as the riddler's definition of mind. He snorted aloud with +zealotry and the lust for intellectual battle. Anything, whatever +it was, that seemed to him likely to discourage the continued +passionate production of corn and steam-engines he resented like a +conspiracy against the people. Thus, when I put in the plea for +literature, that it was only in good books, or in the society of +the good, that a man could get help in his conduct, he declared I +was in a different world from him. 'Damn my conduct!' said he. 'I +have given it up for a bad job. My question is, "Can I drive a +nail?"' And he plainly looked upon me as one who was insidiously +seeking to reduce the people's annual bellyful of corn and steam- +engines. + +It may be argued that these opinions spring from the defect of +culture; that a narrow and pinching way of life not only +exaggerates to a man the importance of material conditions, but +indirectly, by denying him the necessary books and leisure, keeps +his mind ignorant of larger thoughts; and that hence springs this +overwhelming concern about diet, and hence the bald view of +existence professed by Mackay. Had this been an English peasant +the conclusion would be tenable. But Mackay had most of the +elements of a liberal education. He had skirted metaphysical and +mathematical studies. He had a thoughtful hold of what he knew, +which would be exceptional among bankers. He had been brought up +in the midst of hot-house piety, and told, with incongruous pride, +the story of his own brother's deathbed ecstasies. Yet he had +somehow failed to fulfil himself, and was adrift like a dead thing +among external circumstances, without hope or lively preference or +shaping aim. And further, there seemed a tendency among many of +his fellows to fall into the same blank and unlovely opinions. One +thing, indeed, is not to be learned in Scotland, and that is the +way to be happy. Yet that is the whole of culture, and perhaps +two-thirds of morality. Can it be that the Puritan school, by +divorcing a man from nature, by thinning out his instincts, and +setting a stamp of its disapproval on whole fields of human +activity and interest, leads at last directly to material greed? + +Nature is a good guide through life, and the love of simple +pleasures next, if not superior, to virtue; and we had on board an +Irishman who based his claim to the widest and most affectionate +popularity precisely upon these two qualities, that he was natural +and happy. He boasted a fresh colour, a tight little figure, +unquenchable gaiety, and indefatigable goodwill. His clothes +puzzled the diagnostic mind, until you heard he had been once a +private coachman, when they became eloquent and seemed a part of +his biography. His face contained the rest, and, I fear, a +prophecy of the future; the hawk's nose above accorded so ill with +the pink baby's mouth below. His spirit and his pride belonged, +you might say, to the nose; while it was the general shiftlessness +expressed by the other that had thrown him from situation to +situation, and at length on board the emigrant ship. Barney ate, +so to speak, nothing from the galley; his own tea, butter, and eggs +supported him throughout the voyage; and about mealtime you might +often find him up to the elbows in amateur cookery. His was the +first voice heard singing among all the passengers; he was the +first who fell to dancing. From Loch Foyle to Sandy Hook, there +was not a piece of fun undertaken but there was Barney in the +midst. + +You ought to have seen him when he stood up to sing at our +concerts--his tight little figure stepping to and fro, and his feet +shuffling to the air, his eyes seeking and bestowing encouragement- +-and to have enjoyed the bow, so nicely calculated between jest and +earnest, between grace and clumsiness, with which he brought each +song to a conclusion. He was not only a great favourite among +ourselves, but his songs attracted the lords of the saloon, who +often leaned to hear him over the rails of the hurricane-deck. He +was somewhat pleased, but not at all abashed, by this attention; +and one night, in the midst of his famous performance of 'Billy +Keogh,' I saw him spin half round in a pirouette and throw an +audacious wink to an old gentleman above. + +This was the more characteristic, as, for all his daffing, he was a +modest and very polite little fellow among ourselves. + +He would not have hurt the feelings of a fly, nor throughout the +passage did he give a shadow of offence; yet he was always, by his +innocent freedoms and love of fun, brought upon that narrow margin +where politeness must be natural to walk without a fall. He was +once seriously angry, and that in a grave, quiet manner, because +they supplied no fish on Friday; for Barney was a conscientious +Catholic. He had likewise strict notions of refinement; and when, +late one evening, after the women had retired, a young Scotsman +struck up an indecent song, Barney's drab clothes were immediately +missing from the group. His taste was for the society of +gentlemen, of whom, with the reader's permission, there was no lack +in our five steerages and second cabin; and he avoided the rough +and positive with a girlish shrinking. Mackay, partly from his +superior powers of mind, which rendered him incomprehensible, +partly from his extreme opinions, was especially distasteful to the +Irishman. I have seen him slink off with backward looks of terror +and offended delicacy, while the other, in his witty, ugly way, had +been professing hostility to God, and an extreme theatrical +readiness to be shipwrecked on the spot. These utterances hurt the +little coachman's modesty like a bad word. + + +THE SICK MAN + + +One night Jones, the young O'Reilly, and myself were walking arm- +in-arm and briskly up and down the deck. Six bells had rung; a +head-wind blew chill and fitful, the fog was closing in with a +sprinkle of rain, and the fog-whistle had been turned on, and now +divided time with its unwelcome outcries, loud like a bull, +thrilling and intense like a mosquito. Even the watch lay +somewhere snugly out of sight. + +For some time we observed something lying black and huddled in the +scuppers, which at last heaved a little and moaned aloud. We ran +to the rails. An elderly man, but whether passenger or seaman it +was impossible in the darkness to determine, lay grovelling on his +belly in the wet scuppers, and kicking feebly with his outspread +toes. We asked him what was amiss, and he replied incoherently, +with a strange accent and in a voice unmanned by terror, that he +had cramp in the stomach, that he had been ailing all day, had seen +the doctor twice, and had walked the deck against fatigue till he +was overmastered and had fallen where we found him. + +Jones remained by his side, while O'Reilly and I hurried off to +seek the doctor. We knocked in vain at the doctor's cabin; there +came no reply; nor could we find any one to guide us. It was no +time for delicacy; so we ran once more forward; and I, whipping up +a ladder and touching my hat to the officer of the watch, addressed +him as politely as I could - + +'I beg your pardon, sir; but there is a man lying bad with cramp in +the lee scuppers; and I can't find the doctor.' + +He looked at me peeringly in the darkness; and then, somewhat +harshly, 'Well, _I_ can't leave the bridge, my man,' said he. + +'No, sir; but you can tell me what to do,' I returned. + +'Is it one of the crew?' he asked. + +'I believe him to be a fireman,' I replied. + +I dare say officers are much annoyed by complaints and alarmist +information from their freight of human creatures; but certainly, +whether it was the idea that the sick man was one of the crew, or +from something conciliatory in my address, the officer in question +was immediately relieved and mollified; and speaking in a voice +much freer from constraint, advised me to find a steward and +despatch him in quest of the doctor, who would now be in the +smoking-room over his pipe. + +One of the stewards was often enough to be found about this hour +down our companion, Steerage No. 2 and 3; that was his smoking-room +of a night. Let me call him Blackwood. O'Reilly and I rattled +down the companion, breathing hurry; and in his shirt-sleeves and +perched across the carpenters bench upon one thigh, found +Blackwood; a neat, bright, dapper, Glasgow-looking man, with a bead +of an eye and a rank twang in his speech. I forget who was with +him, but the pair were enjoying a deliberate talk over their pipes. +I dare say he was tired with his day's work, and eminently +comfortable at that moment; and the truth is, I did not stop to +consider his feelings, but told my story in a breath. + +'Steward,' said I, 'there's a man lying bad with cramp, and I can't +find the doctor.' + +He turned upon me as pert as a sparrow, but with a black look that +is the prerogative of man; and taking his pipe out of his mouth - + +'That's none of my business,' said he. 'I don't care.' + +I could have strangled the little ruffian where he sat. The +thought of his cabin civility and cabin tips filled me with +indignation. I glanced at O'Reilly; he was pale and quivering, and +looked like assault and battery, every inch of him. But we had a +better card than violence. + +'You will have to make it your business,' said I, 'for I am sent to +you by the officer on the bridge.' + +Blackwood was fairly tripped. He made no answer, but put out his +pipe, gave me one murderous look, and set off upon his errand +strolling. From that day forward, I should say, he improved to me +in courtesy, as though he had repented his evil speech and were +anxious to leave a better impression. + +When we got on deck again, Jones was still beside the sick man; and +two or three late stragglers had gathered round, and were offering +suggestions. One proposed to give the patient water, which was +promptly negatived. Another bade us hold him up; he himself prayed +to be let lie; but as it was at least as well to keep him off the +streaming decks, O'Reilly and I supported him between us. It was +only by main force that we did so, and neither an easy nor an +agreeable duty; for he fought in his paroxysms like a frightened +child, and moaned miserably when he resigned himself to our +control. + +'O let me lie!' he pleaded. 'I'll no' get better anyway.' And +then, with a moan that went to my heart, 'O why did I come upon +this miserable journey?' + +I was reminded of the song which I had heard a little while before +in the close, tossing steerage: 'O why left I my hame?' + +Meantime Jones, relieved of his immediate charge, had gone off to +the galley, where we could see a light. There he found a belated +cook scouring pans by the radiance of two lanterns, and one of +these he sought to borrow. The scullion was backward. 'Was it one +of the crew?' he asked. And when Jones, smitten with my theory, +had assured him that it was a fireman, he reluctantly left his +scouring and came towards us at an easy pace, with one of the +lanterns swinging from his finger. The light, as it reached the +spot, showed us an elderly man, thick-set, and grizzled with years; +but the shifting and coarse shadows concealed from us the +expression and even the design of his face. + +So soon as the cook set eyes on him he gave a sort of whistle. + +'IT'S ONLY A PASSENGER!' said he; and turning about, made, lantern +and all, for the galley. + +'He's a man anyway,' cried Jones in indignation. + +'Nobody said he was a woman,' said a gruff voice, which I +recognised for that of the bo's'un. + +All this while there was no word of Blackwood or the doctor; and +now the officer came to our side of the ship and asked, over the +hurricane-deck rails, if the doctor were not yet come. We told him +not. + +'No?' he repeated with a breathing of anger; and we saw him hurry +aft in person. + +Ten minutes after the doctor made his appearance deliberately +enough and examined our patient with the lantern. He made little +of the case, had the man brought aft to the dispensary, dosed him, +and sent him forward to his bunk. Two of his neighbours in the +steerage had now come to our assistance, expressing loud sorrow +that such 'a fine cheery body' should be sick; and these, claiming +a sort of possession, took him entirely under their own care. The +drug had probably relieved him, for he struggled no more, and was +led along plaintive and patient, but protesting. His heart +recoiled at the thought of the steerage. 'O let me lie down upon +the bieldy side,' he cried; 'O dinna take me down!' And again: 'O +why did ever I come upon this miserable voyage?' And yet once +more, with a gasp and a wailing prolongation of the fourth word: +'I had no CALL to come.' But there he was; and by the doctor's +orders and the kind force of his two shipmates disappeared down the +companion of Steerage No.1 into the den allotted him. + +At the foot of our own companion, just where I found Blackwood, +Jones and the bo's'un were now engaged in talk. This last was a +gruff, cruel-looking seaman, who must have passed near half a +century upon the seas; square-headed, goat-bearded, with heavy +blond eyebrows, and an eye without radiance, but inflexibly steady +and hard. I had not forgotten his rough speech; but I remembered +also that he had helped us about the lantern; and now seeing him in +conversation with Jones, and being choked with indignation, I +proceeded to blow off my steam. + +'Well,' said I, 'I make you my compliments upon your steward,' and +furiously narrated what had happened. + +'I've nothing to do with him,' replied the bo's'un. 'They're all +alike. They wouldn't mind if they saw you all lying dead one upon +the top of another.' + +This was enough. A very little humanity went a long way with me +after the experience of the evening. A sympathy grew up at once +between the bo's'un and myself; and that night, and during the next +few days, I learned to appreciate him better. He was a remarkable +type, and not at all the kind of man you find in books. He had +been at Sebastopol under English colours; and again in a States +ship, 'after the Alabama, and praying God we shouldn't find her.' +He was a high Tory and a high Englishman. No manufacturer could +have held opinions more hostile to the working man and his strikes. +'The workmen,' he said, 'think nothing of their country. They +think of nothing but themselves. They're damned greedy, selfish +fellows.' He would not hear of the decadence of England. 'They +say they send us beef from America,' he argued; 'but who pays for +it? All the money in the world's in England.' The Royal Navy was +the best of possible services, according to him. 'Anyway the +officers are gentlemen,' said he; 'and you can't get hazed to death +by a damned non-commissioned--as you can in the army.' Among +nations, England was the first; then came France. He respected the +French navy and liked the French people; and if he were forced to +make a new choice in life, 'by God, he would try Frenchmen!' For +all his looks and rough, cold manners, I observed that children +were never frightened by him; they divined him at once to be a +friend; and one night when he had chalked his hand and clothes, it +was incongruous to hear this formidable old salt chuckling over his +boyish monkey trick. + +In the morning, my first thought was of the sick man. I was afraid +I should not recognise him, baffling had been the light of the +lantern; and found myself unable to decide if he were Scots, +English, or Irish. He had certainly employed north-country words +and elisions; but the accent and the pronunciation seemed +unfamiliar and incongruous in my ear. + +To descend on an empty stomach into Steerage No. 1, was an +adventure that required some nerve. The stench was atrocious; each +respiration tasted in the throat like some horrible kind of cheese; +and the squalid aspect of the place was aggravated by so many +people worming themselves into their clothes in twilight of the +bunks. You may guess if I was pleased, not only for him, but for +myself also, when I heard that the sick man was better and had gone +on deck. + +The morning was raw and foggy, though the sun suffused the fog with +pink and amber; the fog-horn still blew, stertorous and +intermittent; and to add to the discomfort, the seamen were just +beginning to wash down the decks. But for a sick man this was +heaven compared to the steerage. I found him standing on the hot- +water pipe, just forward of the saloon deck house. He was smaller +than I had fancied, and plain-looking; but his face was +distinguished by strange and fascinating eyes, limpid grey from a +distance, but, when looked into, full of changing colours and +grains of gold. His manners were mild and uncompromisingly plain; +and I soon saw that, when once started, he delighted to talk. His +accent and language had been formed in the most natural way, since +he was born in Ireland, had lived a quarter of a century on the +banks of Tyne, and was married to a Scots wife. A fisherman in the +season, he had fished the east coast from Fisherrow to Whitby. +When the season was over, and the great boats, which required extra +hands, were once drawn up on shore till the next spring, he worked +as a labourer about chemical furnaces, or along the wharves +unloading vessels. In this comparatively humble way of life he had +gathered a competence, and could speak of his comfortable house, +his hayfield, and his garden. On this ship, where so many +accomplished artisans were fleeing from starvation, he was present +on a pleasure trip to visit a brother in New York. + +Ere he started, he informed me, he had been warned against the +steerage and the steerage fare, and recommended to bring with him a +ham and tea and a spice loaf. But he laughed to scorn such +counsels. 'I'm not afraid,' he had told his adviser; 'I'll get on +for ten days. I've not been a fisherman for nothing.' For it is +no light matter, as he reminded me, to be in an open boat, perhaps +waist-deep with herrings, day breaking with a scowl, and for miles +on every hand lee-shores, unbroken, iron-bound, surf-beat, with +only here and there an anchorage where you dare not lie, or a +harbour impossible to enter with the wind that blows. The life of +a North Sea fisher is one long chapter of exposure and hard work +and insufficient fare; and even if he makes land at some bleak +fisher port, perhaps the season is bad or his boat has been unlucky +and after fifty hours' unsleeping vigilance and toil, not a shop +will give him credit for a loaf of bread. Yet the steerage of the +emigrant ship had been too vile for the endurance of a man thus +rudely trained. He had scarce eaten since he came on board, until +the day before, when his appetite was tempted by some excellent +pea-soup. We were all much of the same mind on board, and +beginning with myself, had dined upon pea-soup not wisely but too +well; only with him the excess had been punished, perhaps because +he was weakened by former abstinence, and his first meal had +resulted in a cramp. He had determined to live henceforth on +biscuit; and when, two months later, he should return to England, +to make the passage by saloon. The second cabin, after due +inquiry, he scouted as another edition of the steerage. + +He spoke apologetically of his emotion when ill. 'Ye see, I had no +call to be here,' said he; 'and I thought it was by with me last +night. I've a good house at home, and plenty to nurse me, and I +had no real call to leave them.' Speaking of the attentions he had +received from his shipmates generally, 'they were all so kind,' he +said, 'that there's none to mention.' And except in so far as I +might share in this, he troubled me with no reference to my +services. + +But what affected me in the most lively manner was the wealth of +this day-labourer, paying a two months' pleasure visit to the +States, and preparing to return in the saloon, and the new +testimony rendered by his story, not so much to the horrors of the +steerage as to the habitual comfort of the working classes. One +foggy, frosty December evening, I encountered on Liberton Hill, +near Edinburgh, an Irish labourer trudging homeward from the +fields. Our roads lay together, and it was natural that we should +fall into talk. He was covered with mud; an inoffensive, ignorant +creature, who thought the Atlantic Cable was a secret contrivance +of the masters the better to oppress labouring mankind; and I +confess I was astonished to learn that he had nearly three hundred +pounds in the bank. But this man had travelled over most of the +world, and enjoyed wonderful opportunities on some American +railroad, with two dollars a shift and double pay on Sunday and at +night; whereas my fellow-passenger had never quitted Tyneside, and +had made all that he possessed in that same accursed, down-falling +England, whence skilled mechanics, engineers, millwrights, and +carpenters were fleeing as from the native country of starvation. + +Fitly enough, we slid off on the subject of strikes and wages and +hard times. Being from the Tyne, and a man who had gained and lost +in his own pocket by these fluctuations, he had much to say, and +held strong opinions on the subject. He spoke sharply of the +masters, and, when I led him on, of the men also. The masters had +been selfish and obstructive, the men selfish, silly, and light- +headed. He rehearsed to me the course of a meeting at which he had +been present, and the somewhat long discourse which he had there +pronounced, calling into question the wisdom and even the good +faith of the Union delegates; and although he had escaped himself +through flush times and starvation times with a handsomely provided +purse, he had so little faith in either man or master, and so +profound a terror for the unerring Nemesis of mercantile affairs, +that he could think of no hope for our country outside of a sudden +and complete political subversion. Down must go Lords and Church +and Army; and capital, by some happy direction, must change hands +from worse to better, or England stood condemned. Such principles, +he said, were growing 'like a seed.' + +From this mild, soft, domestic man, these words sounded unusually +ominous and grave. I had heard enough revolutionary talk among my +workmen fellow-passengers; but most of it was hot and turgid, and +fell discredited from the lips of unsuccessful men. This man was +calm; he had attained prosperity and ease; he disapproved the +policy which had been pursued by labour in the past; and yet this +was his panacea,--to rend the old country from end to end, and from +top to bottom, and in clamour and civil discord remodel it with the +hand of violence. + + +THE STOWAWAYS + + +On the Sunday, among a party of men who were talking in our +companion, Steerage No. 2 and 3, we remarked a new figure. He wore +tweed clothes, well enough made if not very fresh, and a plain +smoking-cap. His face was pale, with pale eyes, and spiritedly +enough designed; but though not yet thirty, a sort of blackguardly +degeneration had already overtaken his features. The fine nose had +grown fleshy towards the point, the pale eyes were sunk in fat. +His hands were strong and elegant; his experience of life evidently +varied; his speech full of pith and verve; his manners forward, but +perfectly presentable. The lad who helped in the second cabin told +me, in answer to a question, that he did not know who he was, but +thought, 'by his way of speaking, and because he was so polite, +that he was some one from the saloon.' + +I was not so sure, for to me there was something equivocal in his +air and bearing. He might have been, I thought, the son of some +good family who had fallen early into dissipation and run from +home. But, making every allowance, how admirable was his talk! I +wish you could have heard hin, tell his own stories. They were so +swingingly set forth, in such dramatic language, and illustrated +here and there by such luminous bits of acting, that they could +only lose in any reproduction. There were tales of the P. and O. +Company, where he had been an officer; of the East Indies, where in +former years he had lived lavishly; of the Royal Engineers, where +he had served for a period; and of a dozen other sides of life, +each introducing some vigorous thumb-nail portrait. He had the +talk to himself that night, we were all so glad to listen. The +best talkers usually address themselves to some particular society; +there they are kings, elsewhere camp-followers, as a man may know +Russian and yet be ignorant of Spanish; but this fellow had a +frank, headlong power of style, and a broad, human choice of +subject, that would have turned any circle in the world into a +circle of hearers. He was a Homeric talker, plain, strong, and +cheerful; and the things and the people of which he spoke became +readily and clearly present to the minds of those who heard him. +This, with a certain added colouring of rhetoric and rodomontade, +must have been the style of Burns, who equally charmed the ears of +duchesses and hostlers. + +Yet freely and personally as he spoke, many points remained obscure +in his narration. The Engineers, for instance, was a service which +he praised highly; it is true there would be trouble with the +sergeants; but then the officers were gentlemen, and his own, in +particular, one among ten thousand. It sounded so far exactly like +an episode in the rakish, topsy-turvy life of such an one as I had +imagined. But then there came incidents more doubtful, which +showed an almost impudent greed after gratuities, and a truly +impudent disregard for truth. And then there was the tale of his +departure. He had wearied, it seems, of Woolwich, and one fine +day, with a companion, slipped up to London for a spree. I have a +suspicion that spree was meant to be a long one; but God disposes +all things; and one morning, near Westminster Bridge, whom should +he come across but the very sergeant who had recruited him at +first! What followed? He himself indicated cavalierly that he had +then resigned. Let us put it so. But these resignations are +sometimes very trying. + +At length, after having delighted us for hours, he took himself +away from the companion; and I could ask Mackay who and what he +was. 'That?' said Mackay. 'Why, that's one of the stowaways.' + +'No man,' said the same authority, 'who has had anything to do with +the sea, would ever think of paying for a passage.' I give the +statement as Mackay's, without endorsement; yet I am tempted to +believe that it contains a grain of truth; and if you add that the +man shall be impudent and thievish, or else dead-broke, it may even +pass for a fair representation of the facts. We gentlemen of +England who live at home at ease have, I suspect, very insufficient +ideas on the subject. All the world over, people are stowing away +in coal-holes and dark corners, and when ships are once out to sea, +appearing again, begrimed and bashful, upon deck. The career of +these sea-tramps partakes largely of the adventurous. They may be +poisoned by coal-gas, or die by starvation in their place of +concealment; or when found they may be clapped at once and +ignominiously into irons, thus to be carried to their promised +land, the port of destination, and alas! brought back in the same +way to that from which they started, and there delivered over to +the magistrates and the seclusion of a county jail. Since I +crossed the Atlantic, one miserable stowaway was found in a dying +state among the fuel, uttered but a word or two, and departed for a +farther country than America. + +When the stowaway appears on deck, he has but one thing to pray +for: that he be set to work, which is the price and sign of his +forgiveness. After half an hour with a swab or a bucket, he feels +himself as secure as if he had paid for his passage. It is not +altogether a bad thing for the company, who get more or less +efficient hands for nothing but a few plates of junk and duff; and +every now and again find themselves better paid than by a whole +family of cabin passengers. Not long ago, for instance, a packet +was saved from nearly certain loss by the skill and courage of a +stowaway engineer. As was no more than just, a handsome +subscription rewarded him for his success: but even without such +exceptional good fortune, as things stand in England and America, +the stowaway will often make a good profit out of his adventure. +Four engineers stowed away last summer on the same ship, the +Circassia; and before two days after their arrival each of the four +had found a comfortable berth. This was the most hopeful tale of +emigration that I heard from first to last; and as you see, the +luck was for stowaways. + +My curiosity was much inflamed by what I heard; and the next +morning, as I was making the round of the ship, I was delighted to +find the ex-Royal Engineer engaged in washing down the white paint +of a deck house. There was another fellow at work beside him, a +lad not more than twenty, in the most miraculous tatters, his +handsome face sown with grains of beauty and lighted up by +expressive eyes. Four stowaways had been found aboard our ship +before she left the Clyde, but these two had alone escaped the +ignominy of being put ashore. Alick, my acquaintance of last +night, was Scots by birth, and by trade a practical engineer; the +other was from Devonshire, and had been to sea before the mast. +Two people more unlike by training, character, and habits it would +be hard to imagine; yet here they were together, scrubbing paint. + +Alick had held all sorts of good situations, and wasted many +opportunities in life. I have heard him end a story with these +words: 'That was in my golden days, when I used finger-glasses.' +Situation after situation failed him; then followed the depression +of trade, and for months he had hung round with other idlers, +playing marbles all day in the West Park, and going home at night +to tell his landlady how he had been seeking for a job. I believe +this kind of existence was not unpleasant to Alick himself, and he +might have long continued to enjoy idleness and a life on tick; but +he had a comrade, let us call him Brown, who grew restive. This +fellow was continually threatening to slip his cable for the +States, and at last, one Wednesday, Glasgow was left widowed of her +Brown. Some months afterwards, Alick met another old chum in +Sauchiehall Street. + +'By the bye, Alick,' said he, 'I met a gentleman in New York who +was asking for you.' + +'Who was that?' asked Alick. + +'The new second engineer on board the So-and-so,' was the reply. + +'Well, and who is he?' + +'Brown, to be sure.' + +For Brown had been one of the fortunate quartette aboard the +Circassia. If that was the way of it in the States, Alick thought +it was high time to follow Brown's example. He spent his last day, +as he put it, 'reviewing the yeomanry,' and the next morning says +he to his landlady, 'Mrs. X., I'll not take porridge to-day, +please; I'll take some eggs.' + +'Why, have you found a job?' she asked, delighted. + +'Well, yes,' returned the perfidious Alick; 'I think I'll start to- +day.' + +And so, well lined with eggs, start he did, but for America. I am +afraid that landlady has seen the last of him. + +It was easy enough to get on board in the confusion that attends a +vessel's departure; and in one of the dark corners of Steerage No. +1, flat in a bunk and with an empty stomach, Alick made the voyage +from the Broomielaw to Greenock. That night, the ship's yeoman +pulled him out by the heels and had him before the mate. Two other +stowaways had already been found and sent ashore; but by this time +darkness had fallen, they were out in the middle of the estuary, +and the last steamer had left them till the morning. + +'Take him to the forecastle and give him a meal,' said the mate, +'and see and pack him off the first thing to-morrow.' + +In the forecastle he had supper, a good night's rest, and +breakfast; and was sitting placidly with a pipe, fancying all was +over and the game up for good with that ship, when one of the +sailors grumbled out an oath at him, with a 'What are you doing +there?' and 'Do you call that hiding, anyway?' There was need of +no more; Alick was in another bunk before the day was older. +Shortly before the passengers arrived, the ship was cursorily +inspected. He heard the round come down the companion and look +into one pen after another, until they came within two of the one +in which he lay concealed. Into these last two they did not enter, +but merely glanced from without; and Alick had no doubt that he was +personally favoured in this escape. It was the character of the +man to attribute nothing to luck and but little to kindness; +whatever happened to him he had earned in his own right amply; +favours came to him from his singular attraction and adroitness, +and misfortunes he had always accepted with his eyes open. Half an +hour after the searchers had departed, the steerage began to fill +with legitimate passengers, and the worst of Alick's troubles was +at an end. He was soon making himself popular, smoking other +people's tobacco, and politely sharing their private stock +delicacies, and when night came he retired to his bunk beside the +others with composure. + +Next day by afternoon, Lough Foyle being already far behind, and +only the rough north-western hills of Ireland within view, Alick +appeared on deck to court inquiry and decide his fate. As a matter +of fact, he was known to several on board, and even intimate with +one of the engineers; but it was plainly not the etiquette of such +occasions for the authorities to avow their information. Every one +professed surprise and anger on his appearance, and he was led +prison before the captain. + +'What have you got to say for yourself?' inquired the captain. + +'Not much,' said Alick; 'but when a man has been a long time out of +a job, he will do things he would not under other circumstances.' + +'Are you willing to work?' + +Alick swore he was burning to be useful. + +'And what can you do?' asked the captain. + +He replied composedly that he was a brass-fitter by trade. + +'I think you will be better at engineering?' suggested the officer, +with a shrewd look. + +'No, sir,' says Alick simply.--'There's few can beat me at a lie,' +was his engaging commentary to me as he recounted the affair. + +'Have you been to sea?' again asked the captain. + +'I've had a trip on a Clyde steamboat, sir, but no more,' replied +the unabashed Alick. + +'Well, we must try and find some work for you,' concluded the +officer. + +And hence we behold Alick, clear of the hot engine-room, lazily +scraping paint and now and then taking a pull upon a sheet. 'You +leave me alone,' was his deduction. 'When I get talking to a man, +I can get round him.' + +The other stowaway, whom I will call the Devonian--it was +noticeable that neither of them told his name--had both been +brought up and seen the world in a much smaller way. His father, a +confectioner, died and was closely followed by his mother. His +sisters had taken, I think, to dressmaking. He himself had +returned from sea about a year ago and gone to live with his +brother, who kept the 'George Hotel'--'it was not quite a real +hotel,' added the candid fellow--'and had a hired man to mind the +horses.' At first the Devonian was very welcome; but as time went +on his brother not unnaturally grew cool towards him, and he began +to find himself one too many at the 'George Hotel.' 'I don't think +brothers care much for you,' he said, as a general reflection upon +life. Hurt at this change, nearly penniless, and too proud to ask +for more, he set off on foot and walked eighty miles to Weymouth, +living on the journey as he could. He would have enlisted, but he +was too small for the army and too old for the navy; and thought +himself fortunate at last to find a berth on board a trading dandy. +Somewhere in the Bristol Channel the dandy sprung a leak and went +down; and though the crew were picked up and brought ashore by +fishermen, they found themselves with nothing but the clothes upon +their back. His next engagement was scarcely better starred; for +the ship proved so leaky, and frightened them all so heartily +during a short passage through the Irish Sea, that the entire crew +deserted and remained behind upon the quays of Belfast. + +Evil days were now coming thick on the Devonian. He could find no +berth in Belfast, and had to work a passage to Glasgow on a +steamer. She reached the Broomielaw on a Wednesday: the Devonian +had a bellyful that morning, laying in breakfast manfully to +provide against the future, and set off along the quays to seek +employment. But he was now not only penniless, his clothes had +begun to fall in tatters; he had begun to have the look of a street +Arab; and captains will have nothing to say to a ragamuffin; for in +that trade, as in all others, it is the coat that depicts the man. +You may hand, reef, and steer like an angel, but if you have a hole +in your trousers, it is like a millstone round your neck. The +Devonian lost heart at so many refusals. He had not the impudence +to beg; although, as he said, 'when I had money of my own, I always +gave it.' It was only on Saturday morning, after three whole days +of starvation, that he asked a scone from a milkwoman, who added of +her own accord a glass of milk. He had now made up his mind to +stow away, not from any desire to see America, but merely to obtain +the comfort of a place in the forecastle and a supply of familiar +sea-fare. He lived by begging, always from milkwomen, and always +scones and milk, and was not once refused. It was vile wet +weather, and he could never have been dry. By night he walked the +streets, and by day slept upon Glasgow Green, and heard, in the +intervals of his dozing, the famous theologians of the spot clear +up intricate points of doctrine and appraise the merits of the +clergy. He had not much instruction; he could 'read bills on the +street,' but was 'main bad at writing'; yet these theologians seem +to have impressed him with a genuine sense of amusement. Why he +did not go to the Sailors' House I know not; I presume there is in +Glasgow one of these institutions, which are by far the happiest +and the wisest effort of contemporaneous charity; but I must stand +to my author, as they say in old books, and relate the story as I +heard it. In the meantime, he had tried four times to stow away in +different vessels, and four times had been discovered and handed +back to starvation. The fifth time was lucky; and you may judge if +he were pleased to be aboard ship again, at his old work, and with +duff twice a week. He was, said Alick, 'a devil for the duff.' Or +if devil was not the word, it was one if anything stronger. + +The difference in the conduct of the two was remarkable. The +Devonian was as willing as any paid hand, swarmed aloft among the +first, pulled his natural weight and firmly upon a rope, and found +work for himself when there was none to show him. Alick, on the +other hand, was not only a skulker in the brain, but took a +humorous and fine gentlemanly view of the transaction. He would +speak to me by the hour in ostentatious idleness; and only if the +bo's'un or a mate came by, fell-to languidly for just the necessary +time till they were out of sight. 'I'm not breaking my heart with +it,' he remarked. + +Once there was a hatch to be opened near where he was stationed; he +watched the preparations for a second or so suspiciously, and then, +'Hullo,' said he, 'here's some real work coming--I'm off,' and he +was gone that moment. Again, calculating the six guinea passage- +money, and the probable duration of the passage, he remarked +pleasantly that he was getting six shillings a day for this job, +'and it's pretty dear to the company at that.' 'They are making +nothing by me,' was another of his observations; 'they're making +something by that fellow.' And he pointed to the Devonian, who was +just then busy to the eyes. + +The more you saw of Alick, the more, it must be owned, you learned +to despise him. His natural talents were of no use either to +himself or others; for his character had degenerated like his face, +and become pulpy and pretentious. Even his power of persuasion, +which was certainly very surprising, stood in some danger of being +lost or neutralised by over-confidence. He lied in an aggressive, +brazen manner, like a pert criminal in the dock; and he was so vain +of his own cleverness that he could not refrain from boasting, ten +minutes after, of the very trick by which he had deceived you. +'Why, now I have more money than when I came on board,' he said one +night, exhibiting a sixpence, 'and yet I stood myself a bottle of +beer before I went to bed yesterday. And as for tobacco, I have +fifteen sticks of it.' That was fairly successful indeed; yet a +man of his superiority, and with a less obtrusive policy, might, +who knows? have got the length of half a crown. A man who prides +himself upon persuasion should learn the persuasive faculty of +silence, above all as to his own misdeeds. It is only in the farce +and for dramatic purposes that Scapin enlarges on his peculiar +talents to the world at large. + +Scapin is perhaps a good name for this clever, unfortunate Alick; +for at the bottom of all his misconduct there was a guiding sense +of humour that moved you to forgive him. It was more than half a +jest that he conducted his existence. 'Oh, man,' he said to me +once with unusual emotion, like a man thinking of his mistress, 'I +would give up anything for a lark.' + +It was in relation to his fellow-stowaway that Alick showed the +best, or perhaps I should say the only good, points of his nature. +'Mind you,' he said suddenly, changing his tone, 'mind you that's a +good boy. He wouldn't tell you a lie. A lot of them think he is a +scamp because his clothes are ragged, but he isn't; he's as good as +gold.' To hear him, you become aware that Alick himself had a +taste for virtue. He thought his own idleness and the other's +industry equally becoming. He was no more anxious to insure his +own reputation as a liar than to uphold the truthfulness of his +companion; and he seemed unaware of what was incongruous in his +attitude, and was plainly sincere in both characters. + +It was not surprising that he should take an interest in the +Devonian, for the lad worshipped and served him in love and wonder. +Busy as he was, he would find time to warn Alick of an approaching +officer, or even to tell him that the coast was clear, and he might +slip off and smoke a pipe in safety. 'Tom,' he once said to him, +for that was the name which Alick ordered him to use, 'if you don't +like going to the galley, I'll go for you. You ain't used to this +kind of thing, you ain't. But I'm a sailor; and I can understand +the feelings of any fellow, I can.' Again, he was hard up, and +casting about for some tobacco, for he was not so liberally used in +this respect as others perhaps less worthy, when Alick offered him +the half of one of his fifteen sticks. I think, for my part, he +might have increased the offer to a whole one, or perhaps a pair of +them, and not lived to regret his liberality. But the Devonian +refused. 'No,' he said, 'you're a stowaway like me; I won't take +it from you, I'll take it from some one who's not down on his +luck.' + +It was notable in this generous lad that he was strongly under the +influence of sex. If a woman passed near where he was working, his +eyes lit up, his hand paused, and his mind wandered instantly to +other thoughts. It was natural that he should exercise a +fascination proportionally strong upon women. He begged, you will +remember, from women only, and was never refused. Without wishing +to explain away the charity of those who helped him, I cannot but +fancy he may have owed a little to his handsome face, and to that +quick, responsive nature, formed for love, which speaks eloquently +through all disguises, and can stamp an impression in ten minutes' +talk or an exchange of glances. He was the more dangerous in that +he was far from bold, but seemed to woo in spite of himself, and +with a soft and pleading eye. Ragged as he was, and many a +scarecrow is in that respect more comfortably furnished, even on +board he was not without some curious admirers. + +There was a girl among the passengers, a tall, blonde, handsome, +strapping Irishwoman, with a wild, accommodating eye, whom Alick +had dubbed Tommy, with that transcendental appropriateness that +defies analysis. One day the Devonian was lying for warmth in the +upper stoke-hole, which stands open on the deck, when Irish Tommy +came past, very neatly attired, as was her custom. + +'Poor fellow,' she said, stopping, 'you haven't a vest.' + +'No,' he said; 'I wish I 'ad.' + +Then she stood and gazed on him in silence, until, in his +embarrassment, for he knew not how to look under this scrutiny, he +pulled out his pipe and began to fill it with tobacco. + +'Do you want a match?' she asked. And before he had time to reply, +she ran off and presently returned with more than one. + +That was the beginning and the end, as far as our passage is +concerned, of what I will make bold to call this love-affair. +There are many relations which go on to marriage and last during a +lifetime, in which less human feeling is engaged than in this scene +of five minutes at the stoke-hole. + +Rigidly speaking, this would end the chapter of the stowaways; but +in a larger sense of the word I have yet more to add. Jones had +discovered and pointed out to me a young woman who was remarkable +among her fellows for a pleasing and interesting air. She was +poorly clad, to the verge, if not over the line, of +disrespectability, with a ragged old jacket and a bit of a sealskin +cap no bigger than your fist; but her eyes, her whole expression, +and her manner, even in ordinary moments, told of a true womanly +nature, capable of love, anger, and devotion. She had a look, too, +of refinement, like one who might have been a better lady than +most, had she been allowed the opportunity. When alone she seemed +preoccupied and sad; but she was not often alone; there was usually +by her side a heavy, dull, gross man in rough clothes, chary of +speech and gesture--not from caution, but poverty of disposition; a +man like a ditcher, unlovely and uninteresting; whom she petted and +tended and waited on with her eyes as if he had been Amadis of +Gaul. It was strange to see this hulking fellow dog-sick, and this +delicate, sad woman caring for him. He seemed, from first to last, +insensible of her caresses and attentions, and she seemed +unconscious of his insensibility. The Irish husband, who sang his +wife to sleep, and this Scottish girl serving her Orson, were the +two bits of human nature that most appealed to me throughout the +voyage. + +On the Thursday before we arrived, the tickets were collected; and +soon a rumour began to go round the vessel; and this girl, with her +bit of sealskin cap, became the centre of whispering and pointed +fingers. She also, it was said, was a stowaway of a sort; for she +was on board with neither ticket nor money; and the man with whom +she travelled was the father of a family, who had left wife and +children to be hers. The ship's officers discouraged the story, +which may therefore have been a story and no more; but it was +believed in the steerage, and the poor girl had to encounter many +curious eyes from that day forth. + + +PERSONAL EXPERIENCE AND REVIEW + + +Travel is of two kinds; and this voyage of mine across the ocean +combined both. 'Out of my country and myself I go,' sings the old +poet: and I was not only travelling out of my country in latitude +and longitude, but out of myself in diet, associates, and +consideration. Part of the interest and a great deal of the +amusement flowed, at least to me, from this novel situation in the +world. + +I found that I had what they call fallen in life with absolute +success and verisimilitude. I was taken for a steerage passenger; +no one seemed surprised that I should be so; and there was nothing +but the brass plate between decks to remind me that I had once been +a gentleman. In a former book, describing a former journey, I +expressed some wonder that I could be readily and naturally taken +for a pedlar, and explained the accident by the difference of +language and manners between England and France. I must now take a +humbler view; for here I was among my own countrymen, somewhat +roughly clad to be sure, but with every advantage of speech and +manner; and I am bound to confess that I passed for nearly anything +you please except an educated gentleman. The sailors called me +'mate,' the officers addressed me as 'my man,' my comrades accepted +me without hesitation for a person of their own character and +experience, but with some curious information. One, a mason +himself, believed I was a mason; several, and among these at least +one of the seaman, judged me to be a petty officer in the American +navy; and I was so often set down for a practical engineer that at +last I had not the heart to deny it. From all these guesses I drew +one conclusion, which told against the insight of my companions. +They might be close observers in their own way, and read the +manners in the face; but it was plain that they did not extend +their observation to the hands. + +To the saloon passengers also I sustained my part without a hitch. +It is true I came little in their way; but when we did encounter, +there was no recognition in their eye, although I confess I +sometimes courted it in silence. All these, my inferiors and +equals, took me, like the transformed monarch in the story, for a +mere common, human man. They gave me a hard, dead look, with the +flesh about the eye kept unrelaxed. + +With the women this surprised me less, as I had already +experimented on the sex by going abroad through a suburban part of +London simply attired in a sleeve-waistcoat. The result was +curious. I then learned for the first time, and by the exhaustive +process, how much attention ladies are accustomed to bestow on all +male creatures of their own station; for, in my humble rig, each +one who went by me caused me a certain shock of surprise and a +sense of something wanting. In my normal circumstances, it +appeared every young lady must have paid me some tribute of a +glance; and though I had often not detected it when it was given, I +was well aware of its absence when it was withheld. My height +seemed to decrease with every woman who passed me, for she passed +me like a dog. This is one of my grounds for supposing that what +are called the upper classes may sometimes produce a disagreeable +impression in what are called the lower; and I wish some one would +continue my experiment, and find out exactly at what stage of +toilette a man becomes invisible to the well-regulated female eye. + +Here on shipboard the matter was put to a more complete test; for, +even with the addition of speech and manner, I passed among the +ladies for precisely the average man of the steerage. It was one +afternoon that I saw this demonstrated. A very plainly dressed +woman was taken ill on deck. I think I had the luck to be present +at every sudden seizure during all the passage; and on this +occasion found myself in the place of importance, supporting the +sufferer. There was not only a large crowd immediately around us, +but a considerable knot of saloon passengers leaning over our heads +from the hurricane-deck. One of these, an elderly managing woman, +hailed me with counsels. Of course I had to reply; and as the talk +went on, I began to discover that the whole group took me for the +husband. I looked upon my new wife, poor creature, with mingled +feelings; and I must own she had not even the appearance of the +poorest class of city servant-maids, but looked more like a country +wench who should have been employed at a roadside inn. Now was the +time for me to go and study the brass plate. + +To such of the officers as knew about me--the doctor, the purser, +and the stewards--I appeared in the light of a broad joke. The +fact that I spent the better part of my day in writing had gone +abroad over the ship and tickled them all prodigiously. Whenever +they met me they referred to my absurd occupation with familiarity +and breadth of humorous intention. Their manner was well +calculated to remind me of my fallen fortunes. You may be +sincerely amused by the amateur literary efforts of a gentleman, +but you scarce publish the feeling to his face. 'Well!' they would +say: 'still writing?' And the smile would widen into a laugh. +The purser came one day into the cabin, and, touched to the heart +by my misguided industry, offered me some other kind of writing, +'for which,' he added pointedly, 'you will be paid.' This was +nothing else than to copy out the list of passengers. + +Another trick of mine which told against my reputation was my +choice of roosting-place in an active draught upon the cabin floor. +I was openly jeered and flouted for this eccentricity; and a +considerable knot would sometimes gather at the door to see my last +dispositions for the night. This was embarrassing, but I learned +to support the trial with equanimity. + +Indeed I may say that, upon the whole, my new position sat lightly +and naturally upon my spirits. I accepted the consequences with +readiness, and found them far from difficult to bear. The steerage +conquered me; I conformed more and more to the type of the place, +not only in manner but at heart, growing hostile to the officers +and cabin passengers who looked down upon me, and day by day +greedier for small delicacies. Such was the result, as I fancy, of +a diet of bread and butter, soup and porridge. We think we have no +sweet tooth as long as we are full to the brim of molasses; but a +man must have sojourned in the workhouse before he boasts himself +indifferent to dainties. Every evening, for instance, I was more +and more preoccupied about our doubtful fare at tea. If it was +delicate my heart was much lightened; if it was but broken fish I +was proportionally downcast. The offer of a little jelly from a +fellow-passenger more provident than myself caused a marked +elevation in my spirits. And I would have gone to the ship's end +and back again for an oyster or a chipped fruit. + +In other ways I was content with my position. It seemed no +disgrace to be confounded with my company; for I may as well +declare at once I found their manners as gentle and becoming as +those of any other class. I do not mean that my friends could have +sat down without embarrassment and laughable disaster at the table +of a duke. That does not imply an inferiority of breeding, but a +difference of usage. Thus I flatter myself that I conducted myself +well among my fellow-passengers; yet my most ambitious hope is not +to have avoided faults, but to have committed as few as possible. +I know too well that my tact is not the same as their tact, and +that my habit of a different society constituted, not only no +qualification, but a positive disability to move easily and +becomingly in this. When Jones complimented me--because I 'managed +to behave very pleasantly' to my fellow-passengers, was how he put +it--I could follow the thought in his mind, and knew his compliment +to be such as we pay foreigners on their proficiency in English. I +dare say this praise was given me immediately on the back of some +unpardonable solecism, which had led him to review my conduct as a +whole. We are all ready to laugh at the ploughman among lords; we +should consider also the case of a lord among the ploughmen. I +have seen a lawyer in the house of a Hebridean fisherman; and I +know, but nothing will induce me to disclose, which of these two +was the better gentleman. Some of our finest behaviour, though it +looks well enough from the boxes, may seem even brutal to the +gallery. We boast too often manners that are parochial rather than +universal; that, like a country wine, will not bear transportation +for a hundred miles, nor from the parlour to the kitchen. To be a +gentleman is to be one all the world over, and in every relation +and grade of society. It is a high calling, to which a man must +first be born, and then devote himself for life. And, unhappily, +the manners of a certain so-called upper grade have a kind of +currency, and meet with a certain external acceptation throughout +all the others, and this tends to keep us well satisfied with +slight acquirements and the amateurish accomplishments of a clique. +But manners, like art, should be human and central. + +Some of my fellow-passengers, as I now moved among them in a +relation of equality, seemed to me excellent gentlemen. They were +not rough, nor hasty, nor disputatious; debated pleasantly, +differed kindly; were helpful, gentle, patient, and placid. The +type of manners was plain, and even heavy; there was little to +please the eye, but nothing to shock; and I thought gentleness lay +more nearly at the spring of behaviour than in many more ornate and +delicate societies. I say delicate, where I cannot say refined; a +thing may be fine, like ironwork, without being delicate, like +lace. There was here less delicacy; the skin supported more +callously the natural surface of events, the mind received more +bravely the crude facts of human existence; but I do not think that +there was less effective refinement, less consideration for others, +less polite suppression of self. I speak of the best among my +fellow-passengers; for in the steerage, as well as in the saloon, +there is a mixture. Those, then, with whom I found myself in +sympathy, and of whom I may therefore hope to write with a greater +measure of truth, were not only as good in their manners, but +endowed with very much the same natural capacities, and about as +wise in deduction, as the bankers and barristers of what is called +society. One and all were too much interested in disconnected +facts, and loved information for its own sake with too rash a +devotion; but people in all classes display the same appetite as +they gorge themselves daily with the miscellaneous gossip of the +newspaper. Newspaper-reading, as far as I can make out, is often +rather a sort of brown study than an act of culture. I have myself +palmed off yesterday's issue on a friend, and seen him re-peruse it +for a continuance of minutes with an air at once refreshed and +solemn. Workmen, perhaps, pay more attention; but though they may +be eager listeners, they have rarely seemed to me either willing or +careful thinkers. Culture is not measured by the greatness of the +field which is covered by our knowledge, but by the nicety with +which we can perceive relations in that field, whether great or +small. Workmen, certainly those who were on board with me, I found +wanting in this quality or habit of the mind. They did not +perceive relations, but leaped to a so-called cause, and thought +the problem settled. Thus the cause of everything in England was +the form of government, and the cure for all evils was, by +consequence, a revolution. It is surprising how many of them said +this, and that none should have had a definite thought in his head +as he said it. Some hated the Church because they disagreed with +it; some hated Lord Beaconsfield because of war and taxes; all +hated the masters, possibly with reason. But these failings were +not at the root of the matter; the true reasoning of their souls +ran thus--I have not got on; I ought to have got on; if there was a +revolution I should get on. How? They had no idea. Why? +Because--because--well, look at America! + +To be politically blind is no distinction; we are all so, if you +come to that. At bottom, as it seems to me, there is but one +question in modern home politics, though it appears in many shapes, +and that is the question of money; and but one political remedy, +that the people should grow wiser and better. My workmen fellow- +passengers were as impatient and dull of hearing on the second of +these points as any member of Parliament; but they had some +glimmerings of the first. They would not hear of improvement on +their part, but wished the world made over again in a crack, so +that they might remain improvident and idle and debauched, and yet +enjoy the comfort and respect that should accompany the opposite +virtues; and it was in this expectation, as far as I could see, +that many of them were now on their way to America. But on the +point of money they saw clearly enough that inland politics, so far +as they were concerned, were reducible to the question of annual +income; a question which should long ago have been settled by a +revolution, they did not know how, and which they were now about to +settle for themselves, once more they knew not how, by crossing the +Atlantic in a steamship of considerable tonnage. + +And yet it has been amply shown them that the second or income +question is in itself nothing, and may as well be left undecided, +if there be no wisdom and virtue to profit by the change. It is +not by a man's purse, but by his character that he is rich or poor. +Barney will be poor, Alick will be poor, Mackay will be poor; let +them go where they will, and wreck all the governments under +heaven, they will be poor until they die. + +Nothing is perhaps more notable in the average workman than his +surprising idleness, and the candour with which he confesses to the +failing. It has to me been always something of a relief to find +the poor, as a general rule, so little oppressed with work. I can +in consequence enjoy my own more fortunate beginning with a better +grace. The other day I was living with a farmer in America, an old +frontiersman, who had worked and fought, hunted and farmed, from +his childhood up. He excused himself for his defective education +on the ground that he had been overworked from first to last. Even +now, he said, anxious as he was, he had never the time to take up a +book. In consequence of this, I observed him closely; he was +occupied for four or, at the extreme outside, for five hours out of +the twenty-four, and then principally in walking; and the remainder +of the day he passed in born idleness, either eating fruit or +standing with his back against a door. I have known men do hard +literary work all morning, and then undergo quite as much physical +fatigue by way of relief as satisfied this powerful frontiersman +for the day. He, at least, like all the educated class, did so +much homage to industry as to persuade himself he was industrious. +But the average mechanic recognises his idleness with effrontery; +he has even, as I am told, organised it. + +I give the story as it was told me, and it was told me for a fact. +A man fell from a housetop in the city of Aberdeen, and was brought +into hospital with broken bones. He was asked what was his trade, +and replied that he was a TAPPER. No one had ever heard of such a +thing before; the officials were filled with curiosity; they +besought an explanation. It appeared that when a party of slaters +were engaged upon a roof, they would now and then be taken with a +fancy for the public-house. Now a seamstress, for example, might +slip away from her work and no one be the wiser; but if these +fellows adjourned, the tapping of the mallets would cease, and thus +the neighbourhood be advertised of their defection. Hence the +career of the tapper. He has to do the tapping and keep up an +industrious bustle on the housetop during the absence of the +slaters. When he taps for only one or two the thing is child's- +play, but when he has to represent a whole troop, it is then that +he earns his money in the sweat of his brow. Then must he bound +from spot to spot, reduplicate, triplicate, sexduplicate his single +personality, and swell and hasten his blows., until he produce a +perfect illusion for the ear, and you would swear that a crowd of +emulous masons were continuing merrily to roof the house. It must +be a strange sight from an upper window. + +I heard nothing on board of the tapper; but I was astonished at the +stories told by my companions. Skulking, shirking, malingering, +were all established tactics, it appeared. They could see no +dishonesty where a man who is paid for an bones work gives half an +hour's consistent idling in its place. Thus the tapper would +refuse to watch for the police during a burglary, and call himself +a honest man. It is not sufficiently recognised that our race +detests to work. If I thought that I should have to work every day +of my life as hard as I am working now, I should be tempted to give +up the struggle. And the workman early begins on his career of +toil. He has never had his fill of holidays in the past, and his +prospect of holidays in the future is both distant and uncertain. +In the circumstances, it would require a high degree of virtue not +to snatch alleviations for the moment. + +There were many good talkers on the ship; and I believe good +talking of a certain sort is a common accomplishment among working +men. Where books are comparatively scarce, a greater amount of +information will be given and received by word of mouth; and this +tends to produce good talkers, and, what is no less needful for +conversation, good listeners. They could all tell a story with +effect. I am sometimes tempted to think that the less literary +class show always better in narration; they have so much more +patience with detail, are so much less hurried to reach the points, +and preserve so much juster a proportion among the facts. At the +same time their talk is dry; they pursue a topic ploddingly, have +not an agile fancy, do not throw sudden lights from unexpected +quarters, and when the talk is over they often leave the matter +where it was. They mark time instead of marching. They think only +to argue, not to reach new conclusions, and use their reason rather +as a weapon of offense than as a tool for self-improvement. Hence +the talk of some of the cleverest was unprofitable in result, +because there was no give and take; they would grant you as little +as possible for premise, and begin to dispute under an oath to +conquer or to die. + +But the talk of a workman is apt to be more interesting than that +of a wealthy merchant, because the thoughts, hopes, and fears of +which the workman's life is built lie nearer to necessity and +nature. They are more immediate to human life. An income +calculated by the week is a far more human thing than one +calculated by the year, and a small income, simply from its +smallness, than a large one. I never wearied listening to the +details of a workman's economy, because every item stood for some +real pleasure. If he could afford pudding twice a week, you know +that twice a week the man ate with genuine gusto and was physically +happy; while if you learn that a rich man has seven courses a day, +ten to one the half of them remain untasted, and the whole is but +misspent money and a weariness to the flesh. + +The difference between England and America to a working man was +thus most humanly put to me by a fellow-passenger: 'In America,' +said he, 'you get pies and puddings.' I do not hear enough, in +economy books, of pies and pudding. A man lives in and for the +delicacies, adornments, and accidental attributes of life, such as +pudding to eat and pleasant books and theatres to occupy his +leisure. The bare terms of existence would be rejected with +contempt by all. If a man feeds on bread and butter, soup and +porridge, his appetite grows wolfish after dainties. And the +workman dwells in a borderland, and is always within sight of those +cheerless regions where life is more difficult to sustain than +worth sustaining. Every detail of our existence, where it is worth +while to cross the ocean after pie and pudding, is made alive and +enthralling by the presence of genuine desire; but it is all one to +me whether Croesus has a hundred or a thousand thousands in the +bank. There is more adventure in the life of the working man who +descends as a common solder into the battle of life, than in that +of the millionaire who sits apart in an office, like Von Moltke, +and only directs the manoeuvres by telegraph. Give me to hear +about the career of him who is in the thick of business; to whom +one change of market means empty belly, and another a copious and +savoury meal. This is not the philosophical, but the human side of +economics; it interests like a story; and the life all who are thus +situated partakes in a small way the charm of Robinson Crusoe; for +every step is critical and human life is presented to you naked and +verging to its lowest terms. + + +NEW YORK + + +As we drew near to New York I was at first amused, and then +somewhat staggered, by the cautious and the grisly tales that went +the round. You would have thought we were to land upon a cannibal +island. You must speak to no one in the streets, as they would not +leave you till you were rooked and beaten. You must enter a hotel +with military precautions; for the least you had to apprehend was +to awake next morning without money or baggage, or necessary +raiment, a lone forked radish in a bed; and if the worst befell, +you would instantly and mysteriously disappear from the ranks of +mankind. + +I have usually found such stories correspond to the least modicum +of fact. Thus I was warned, I remember, against the roadside inns +of the Cevennes, and that by a learned professor; and when I +reached Pradelles the warning was explained--it was but the far- +away rumour and reduplication of a single terrifying story already +half a century old, and half forgotten in the theatre of the +events. So I was tempted to make light of these reports against +America. But we had on board with us a man whose evidence it would +not do to put aside. He had come near these perils in the body; he +had visited a robber inn. The public has an old and well-grounded +favour for this class of incident, and shall be gratified to the +best of my power. + +My fellow-passenger, whom we shall call M'Naughten, had come from +New York to Boston with a comrade, seeking work. They were a pair +of rattling blades; and, leaving their baggage at the station, +passed the day in beer saloons, and with congenial spirits, until +midnight struck. Then they applied themselves to find a lodging, +and walked the streets till two, knocking at houses of +entertainment and being refused admittance, or themselves declining +the terms. By two the inspiration of their liquor had begun to +wear off; they were weary and humble, and after a great circuit +found themselves in the same street where they had begun their +search, and in front of a French hotel where they had already +sought accommodation. Seeing the house still open, they returned +to the charge. A man in a white cap sat in an office by the door. +He seemed to welcome them more warmly than when they had first +presented themselves, and the charge for the night had somewhat +unaccountably fallen from a dollar to a quarter. They thought him +ill-looking, but paid their quarter apiece, and were shown upstairs +to the top of the house. There, in a small room, the man in the +white cap wished them pleasant slumbers. + +It was furnished with a bed, a chair, and some conveniences. The +door did not lock on the inside; and the only sign of adornment was +a couple of framed pictures, one close above the head of the bed, +and the other opposite the foot, and both curtained, as we may +sometimes see valuable water-colours, or the portraits of the dead, +or works of art more than usually skittish in the subject. It was +perhaps in the hope of finding something of this last description +that M'Naughten's comrade pulled aside the curtain of the first. +He was startlingly disappointed. There was no picture. The frame +surrounded, and the curtain was designed to hide, an oblong +aperture in the partition, through which they looked forth into the +dark corridor. A person standing without could easily take a purse +from under the pillow, or even strangle a sleeper as he lay abed. +M'Naughten and his comrade stared at each other like Vasco's +seamen, 'with a wild surmise'; and then the latter, catching up the +lamp, ran to the other frame and roughly raised the curtain. There +he stood, petrified; and M'Naughten, who had followed, grasped him +by the wrist in terror. They could see into another room, larger +in size than that which they occupied, where three men sat +crouching and silent in the dark. For a second or so these five +persons looked each other in the eyes, then the curtain was +dropped, and M'Naughten and his friend made but one bolt of it out +of the room and downstairs. The man in the white cap said nothing +as they passed him; and they were so pleased to be once more in the +open night that they gave up all notion of a bed, and walked the +streets of Boston till the morning. + +No one seemed much cast down by these stories, but all inquired +after the address of a respectable hotel; and I, for my part, put +myself under the conduct of Mr. Jones. Before noon of the second +Sunday we sighted the low shores outside of New York harbour; the +steerage passengers must remain on board to pass through Castle +Garden on the following morning; but we of the second cabin made +our escape along with the lords of the saloon; and by six o'clock +Jones and I issued into West Street, sitting on some straw in the +bottom of an open baggage-wagon. It rained miraculously; and from +that moment till on the following night I left New York, there was +scarce a lull, and no cessation of the downpour. The roadways were +flooded; a loud strident noise of falling water filled the air; the +restaurants smelt heavily of wet people and wet clothing. + +It took us but a few minutes, though it cost us a good deal of +money, to be rattled along West Street to our destination: +'Reunion House, No. 10 West Street, one minutes walk from Castle +Garden; convenient to Castle Garden, the Steamboat Landings, +California Steamers and Liverpool Ships; Board and Lodging per day +1 dollar, single meals 25 cents, lodging per night 25 cents; +private rooms for families; no charge for storage or baggage; +satisfaction guaranteed to all persons; Michael Mitchell, +Proprietor.' Reunion House was, I may go the length of saying, a +humble hostelry. You entered through a long bar-room, thence +passed into a little dining-room, and thence into a still smaller +kitchen. The furniture was of the plainest; but the bar was hung +in the American taste, with encouraging and hospitable mottoes. + +Jones was well known; we were received warmly; and two minutes +afterwards I had refused a drink from the proprietor, and was going +on, in my plain European fashion, to refuse a cigar, when Mr. +Mitchell sternly interposed, and explained the situation. He was +offering to treat me, it appeared, whenever an American bar-keeper +proposes anything, it must be borne in mind that he is offering to +treat; and if I did not want a drink, I must at least take the +cigar. I took it bashfully, feeling I had begun my American career +on the wrong foot. I did not enjoy that cigar; but this may have +been from a variety of reasons, even the best cigar often failing +to please if you smoke three-quarters of it in a drenching rain. + +For many years America was to me a sort of promised land; 'westward +the march of empire holds its way'; the race is for the moment to +the young; what has been and what is we imperfectly and obscurely +know; what is to be yet lies beyond the flight of our imaginations. +Greece, Rome, and Judaea are gone by forever, leaving to +generations the legacy of their accomplished work; China still +endures, an old-inhabited house in the brand-new city of nations; +England has already declined, since she has lost the States; and to +these States, therefore, yet undeveloped, full of dark +possibilities, and grown, like another Eve, from one rib out of the +side of their own old land, the minds of young men in England turn +naturally at a certain hopeful period of their age. It will be +hard for an American to understand the spirit. But let him imagine +a young man, who shall have grown up in an old and rigid circle, +following bygone fashions and taught to distrust his own fresh +instincts, and who now suddenly hears of a family of cousins, all +about his own age, who keep house together by themselves and live +far from restraint and tradition; let him imagine this, and he will +have some imperfect notion of the sentiment with which spirited +English youths turn to the thought of the American Republic. It +seems to them as if, out west, the war of life was still conducted +in the open air, and on free barbaric terms; as if it had not yet +been narrowed into parlours, nor begun to be conducted, like some +unjust and dreary arbitration, by compromise, costume forms of +procedure, and sad, senseless self-denial. Which of these two he +prefers, a man with any youth still left in him will decide rightly +for himself. He would rather be houseless than denied a pass-key; +rather go without food than partake of stalled ox in stiff, +respectable society; rather be shot out of hand than direct his +life according to the dictates of the world. + +He knows or thinks nothing of the Maine Laws, the Puritan sourness, +the fierce, sordid appetite for dollars, or the dreary existence of +country towns. A few wild story-books which delighted his +childhood form the imaginative basis of his picture of America. In +course of time, there is added to this a great crowd of stimulating +details--vast cities that grow up as by enchantment; the birds, +that have gone south in autumn, returning with the spring to find +thousands camped upon their marshes, and the lamps burning far and +near along populous streets; forests that disappear like snow; +countries larger than Britain that are cleared and settled, one man +running forth with his household gods before another, while the +bear and the Indian are yet scarce aware of their approach; oil +that gushes from the earth; gold that is washed or quarried in the +brooks or glens of the Sierras; and all that bustle, courage, +action, and constant kaleidoscopic change that Walt Whitman has +seized and set forth in his vigorous, cheerful, and loquacious +verses. + +Here I was at last in America, and was soon out upon New York +streets, spying for things foreign. The place had to me an air of +Liverpool; but such was the rain that not Paradise itself would +have looked inviting. We were a party of four, under two +umbrellas; Jones and I and two Scots lads, recent immigrants, and +not indisposed to welcome a compatriot. They had been six weeks in +New York, and neither of them had yet found a single job or earned +a single halfpenny. Up to the present they were exactly out of +pocket by the amount of the fare. + +The lads soon left us. Now I had sworn by all my gods to have such +a dinner as would rouse the dead; there was scarce any expense at +which I should have hesitated; the devil was in it, but Jones and I +should dine like heathen emperors. I set to work, asking after a +restaurant; and I chose the wealthiest and most gastronomical- +looking passers-by to ask from. Yet, although I had told them I +was willing to pay anything in reason, one and all sent me off to +cheap, fixed-price houses, where I would not have eaten that night +for the cost of twenty dinners. I do not know if this were +characteristic of New York, or whether it was only Jones and I who +looked un-dinerly and discouraged enterprising suggestions. But at +length, by our own sagacity, we found a French restaurant, where +there was a French waiter, some fair French cooking, some so-called +French wine, and French coffee to conclude the whole. I never +entered into the feelings of Jack on land so completely as when I +tasted that coffee. + +I suppose we had one of the 'private rooms for families' at Reunion +House. It was very small, furnished with a bed, a chair, and some +clothes-pegs; and it derived all that was necessary for the life of +the human animal through two borrowed lights; one looking into the +passage, and the second opening, without sash, into another +apartment, where three men fitfully snored, or in intervals of +wakefulness, drearily mumbled to each other all night long. It +will be observed that this was almost exactly the disposition of +the room in M'Naughten's story. Jones had the bed; I pitched my +camp upon the floor; he did not sleep until near morning, and I, +for my part, never closed an eye. + +At sunrise I heard a cannon fired; and shortly afterwards the men +in the next room gave over snoring for good, and began to rustle +over their toilettes. The sound of their voices as they talked was +low and like that of people watching by the sick. Jones, who had +at last begun to doze, tumbled and murmured, and every now and then +opened unconscious eyes upon me where I lay. I found myself +growing eerier and eerier, for I dare say I was a little fevered by +my restless night, and hurried to dress and get downstairs. + +You had to pass through the rain, which still fell thick and +resonant, to reach a lavatory on the other side of the court. +There were three basin-stands, and a few crumpled towels and pieces +of wet soap, white and slippery like fish; nor should I forget a +looking-glass and a pair of questionable combs. Another Scots lad +was here, scrubbing his face with a good will. He had been three +months in New York and had not yet found a single job nor earned a +single halfpenny. Up to the present, he also was exactly out of +pocket by the amount of the fare. I began to grow sick at heart +for my fellow-emigrants. + +Of my nightmare wanderings in New York I spare to tell. I had a +thousand and one things to do; only the day to do them in, and a +journey across the continent before me in the evening. It rained +with patient fury; every now and then I had to get under cover for +a while in order, so to speak, to give my mackintosh a rest; for +under this continued drenching it began to grow damp on the inside. +I went to banks, post-offices, railway-offices, restaurants, +publishers, booksellers, money-changers, and wherever I went a pool +would gather about my feet, and those who were careful of their +floors would look on with an unfriendly eye. Wherever I went, too, +the same traits struck me: the people were all surprisingly rude +and surprisingly kind. The money-changer cross-questioned me like +a French commissary, asking my age, my business, my average income, +and my destination, beating down my attempts at evasion, and +receiving my answers in silence; and yet when all was over, he +shook hands with me up to the elbows, and sent his lad nearly a +quarter of a mile in the rain to get me books at a reduction. +Again, in a very large publishing and bookselling establishment, a +man, who seemed to be the manager, received me as I had certainly +never before been received in any human shop, indicated squarely +that he put no faith in my honesty, and refused to look up the +names of books or give me the slightest help or information, on the +ground, like the steward, that it was none of his business. I lost +my temper at last, said I was a stranger in America and not learned +in their etiquette; but I would assure him, if he went to any +bookseller in England, of more handsome usage. The boast was +perhaps exaggerated; but like many a long shot, it struck the gold. +The manager passed at once from one extreme to the other; I may say +that from that moment he loaded me with kindness; he gave me all +sorts of good advice, wrote me down addresses, and came bareheaded +into the rain to point me out a restaurant, where I might lunch, +nor even then did he seem to think that he had done enough. These +are (it is as well to be bold in statement) the manners of America. +It is this same opposition that has most struck me in people of +almost all classes and from east to west. By the time a man had +about strung me up to be the death of him by his insulting +behaviour, he himself would be just upon the point of melting into +confidence and serviceable attentions. Yet I suspect, although I +have met with the like in so many parts, that this must be the +character of some particular state or group of states, for in +America, and this again in all classes, you will find some of the +softest-mannered gentlemen in the world. + +I was so wet when I got back to Mitchell's toward the evening, that +I had simply to divest myself of my shoes, socks, and trousers, and +leave them behind for the benefit of New York city. No fire could +have dried them ere I had to start; and to pack them in their +present condition was to spread ruin among my other possessions. +With a heavy heart I said farewell to them as they lay a pulp in +the middle of a pool upon the floor of Mitchell's kitchen. I +wonder if they are dry by now. Mitchell hired a man to carry my +baggage to the station, which was hard by, accompanied me thither +himself, and recommended me to the particular attention of the +officials. No one could have been kinder. Those who are out of +pocket may go safely to Reunion House, where they will get decent +meals and find an honest and obliging landlord. I owed him this +word of thanks, before I enter fairly on the second {1} and far +less agreeable chapter of my emigrant experience. + + + +CHAPTER II--COCKERMOUTH AND KESWICK--A FRAGMENT--1871 + + + +Very much as a painter half closes his eyes so that some salient +unity may disengage itself from among the crowd of details, and +what he sees may thus form itself into a whole; very much on the +same principle, I may say, I allow a considerable lapse of time to +intervene between any of my little journeyings and the attempt to +chronicle them. I cannot describe a thing that is before me at the +moment, or that has been before me only a very little while before; +I must allow my recollections to get thoroughly strained free from +all chaff till nothing be except the pure gold; allow my memory to +choose out what is truly memorable by a process of natural +selection; and I piously believe that in this way I ensure the +Survival of the Fittest. If I make notes for future use, or if I +am obliged to write letters during the course of my little +excursion, I so interfere with the process that I can never again +find out what is worthy of being preserved, or what should be given +in full length, what in torso, or what merely in profile. This +process of incubation may be unreasonably prolonged; and I am +somewhat afraid that I have made this mistake with the present +journey. Like a bad daguerreotype, great part of it has been +entirely lost; I can tell you nothing about the beginning and +nothing about the end; but the doings of some fifty or sixty hours +about the middle remain quite distinct and definite, like a little +patch of sunshine on a long, shadowy plain, or the one spot on an +old picture that has been restored by the dexterous hand of the +cleaner. I remember a tale of an old Scots minister called upon +suddenly to preach, who had hastily snatched an old sermon out of +his study and found himself in the pulpit before he noticed that +the rats had been making free with his manuscript and eaten the +first two or three pages away; he gravely explained to the +congregation how he found himself situated: 'And now,' said he, +'let us just begin where the rats have left off.' I must follow +the divine's example, and take up the thread of my discourse where +it first distinctly issues from the limbo of forgetfulness. + + +COCKERMOUTH + + +I was lighting my pipe as I stepped out of the inn at Cockermouth, +and did not raise my head until I was fairly in the street. When I +did so, it flashed upon me that I was in England; the evening +sunlight lit up English houses, English faces, an English +conformation of street,--as it were, an English atmosphere blew +against my face. There is nothing perhaps more puzzling (if one +thing in sociology can ever really be more unaccountable than +another) than the great gulf that is set between England and +Scotland--a gulf so easy in appearance, in reality so difficult to +traverse. Here are two people almost identical in blood; pent up +together on one small island, so that their intercourse (one would +have thought) must be as close as that of prisoners who shared one +cell of the Bastille; the same in language and religion; and yet a +few years of quarrelsome isolation--a mere forenoon's tiff, as one +may call it, in comparison with the great historical cycles--has so +separated their thoughts and ways that not unions, not mutual +dangers, nor steamers, nor railways, nor all the king's horses and +all the king's men, seem able to obliterate the broad distinction. +In the trituration of another century or so the corners may +disappear; but in the meantime, in the year of grace 1871, I was as +much in a new country as if I had been walking out of the Hotel St. +Antoine at Antwerp. + +I felt a little thrill of pleasure at my heart as I realised the +change, and strolled away up the street with my hands behind my +back, noting in a dull, sensual way how foreign, and yet how +friendly, were the slopes of the gables and the colour of the +tiles, and even the demeanour and voices of the gossips round about +me. + +Wandering in this aimless humour, I turned up a lane and found +myself following the course of the bright little river. I passed +first one and then another, then a third, several couples out love- +making in the spring evening; and a consequent feeling of +loneliness was beginning to grow upon me, when I came to a dam +across the river, and a mill--a great, gaunt promontory of +building,--half on dry ground and half arched over the stream. The +road here drew in its shoulders and crept through between the +landward extremity of the mill and a little garden enclosure, with +a small house and a large signboard within its privet hedge. I was +pleased to fancy this an inn, and drew little etchings in fancy of +a sanded parlour, and three-cornered spittoons, and a society of +parochial gossips seated within over their churchwardens; but as I +drew near, the board displayed its superscription, and I could read +the name of Smethurst, and the designation of 'Canadian Felt Hat +Manufacturers.' There was no more hope of evening fellowship, and +I could only stroll on by the river-side, under the trees. The +water was dappled with slanting sunshine, and dusted all over with +a little mist of flying insects. There were some amorous ducks, +also, whose lovemaking reminded me of what I had seen a little +farther down. But the road grew sad, and I grew weary; and as I +was perpetually haunted with the terror of a return of the tie that +had been playing such ruin in my head a week ago, I turned and went +back to the inn, and supper, and my bed. + +The next morning, at breakfast, I communicated to the smart +waitress my intention of continuing down the coast and through +Whitehaven to Furness, and, as I might have expected, I was +instantly confronted by that last and most worrying form of +interference, that chooses to introduce tradition and authority +into the choice of a man's own pleasures. I can excuse a person +combating my religious or philosophical heresies, because them I +have deliberately accepted, and am ready to justify by present +argument. But I do not seek to justify my pleasures. If I prefer +tame scenery to grand, a little hot sunshine over lowland parks and +woodlands to the war of the elements round the summit of Mont +Blanc; or if I prefer a pipe of mild tobacco, and the company of +one or two chosen companions, to a ball where I feel myself very +hot, awkward, and weary, I merely state these preferences as facts, +and do not seek to establish them as principles. This is not the +general rule, however, and accordingly the waitress was shocked, as +one might be at a heresy, to hear the route that I had sketched out +for myself. Everybody who came to Cockermouth for pleasure, it +appeared, went on to Keswick. It was in vain that I put up a +little plea for the liberty of the subject; it was in vain that I +said I should prefer to go to Whitehaven. I was told that there +was 'nothing to see there'--that weary, hackneyed, old falsehood; +and at last, as the handmaiden began to look really concerned, I +gave way, as men always do in such circumstances, and agreed that I +was to leave for Keswick by a train in the early evening. + + +AN EVANGELIST + + +Cockermouth itself, on the same authority, was a Place with +'nothing to see'; nevertheless I saw a good deal, and retain a +pleasant, vague picture of the town and all its surroundings. I +might have dodged happily enough all day about the main street and +up to the castle and in and out of byways, but the curious +attraction that leads a person in a strange place to follow, day +after day, the same round, and to make set habits for himself in a +week or ten days, led me half unconsciously up the same, road that +I had gone the evening before. When I came up to the hat +manufactory, Smethurst himself was standing in the garden gate. He +was brushing one Canadian felt hat, and several others had been put +to await their turn one above the other on his own head, so that he +looked something like the typical Jew old-clothes man. As I drew +near, he came sidling out of the doorway to accost me, with so +curious an expression on his face that I instinctively prepared +myself to apologise for some unwitting trespass. His first +question rather confirmed me in this belief, for it was whether or +not he had seen me going up this way last night; and after having +answered in the affirmative, I waited in some alarm for the rest of +my indictment. But the good man's heart was full of peace; and he +stood there brushing his hats and prattling on about fishing, and +walking, and the pleasures of convalescence, in a bright shallow +stream that kept me pleased and interested, I could scarcely say +how. As he went on, he warmed to his subject, and laid his hats +aside to go along the water-side and show me where the large trout +commonly lay, underneath an overhanging bank; and he was much +disappointed, for my sake, that there were none visible just then. +Then he wandered off on to another tack, and stood a great while +out in the middle of a meadow in the hot sunshine, trying to make +out that he had known me before, or, if not me, some friend of +mine, merely, I believe, out of a desire that we should feel more +friendly and at our ease with one another. At last he made a +little speech to me, of which I wish I could recollect the very +words, for they were so simple and unaffected that they put all the +best writing and speaking to the blush; as it is, I can recall only +the sense, and that perhaps imperfectly. He began by saying that +he had little things in his past life that it gave him especial +pleasure to recall; and that the faculty of receiving such sharp +impressions had now died out in himself, but must at my age be +still quite lively and active. Then he told me that he had a +little raft afloat on the river above the dam which he was going to +lend me, in order that I might be able to look back, in after +years, upon having done so, and get great pleasure from the +recollection. Now, I have a friend of my own who will forgo +present enjoyments and suffer much present inconvenience for the +sake of manufacturing 'a reminiscence' for himself; but there was +something singularly refined in this pleasure that the hatmaker +found in making reminiscences for others; surely no more simple or +unselfish luxury can be imagined. After he had unmoored his little +embarkation, and seen me safely shoved off into midstream, he ran +away back to his hats with the air of a man who had only just +recollected that he had anything to do. + +I did not stay very long on the raft. It ought to have been very +nice punting about there in the cool shade of the trees, or sitting +moored to an over-hanging root; but perhaps the very notion that I +was bound in gratitude specially to enjoy my little cruise, and +cherish its recollection, turned the whole thing from a pleasure +into a duty. Be that as it may, there is no doubt that I soon +wearied and came ashore again, and that it gives me more pleasure +to recall the man himself and his simple, happy conversation, so +full of gusto and sympathy, than anything possibly connected with +his crank, insecure embarkation. In order to avoid seeing him, for +I was not a little ashamed of myself for having failed to enjoy his +treat sufficiently, I determined to continue up the river, and, at +all prices, to find some other way back into the town in time for +dinner. As I went, I was thinking of Smethurst with admiration; a +look into that man's mind was like a retrospect over the smiling +champaign of his past life, and very different from the Sinai- +gorges up which one looks for a terrified moment into the dark +souls of many good, many wise, and many prudent men. I cannot be +very grateful to such men for their excellence, and wisdom, and +prudence. I find myself facing as stoutly as I can a hard, +combative existence, full of doubt, difficulties, defeats, +disappointments, and dangers, quite a hard enough life without +their dark countenances at my elbow, so that what I want is a +happy-minded Smethurst placed here and there at ugly corners of my +life's wayside, preaching his gospel of quiet and contentment. + + +ANOTHER + + +I was shortly to meet with an evangelist of another stamp. After I +had forced my way through a gentleman's grounds, I came out on the +high road, and sat down to rest myself on a heap of stones at the +top of a long hill, with Cockermouth lying snugly at the bottom. +An Irish beggar-woman, with a beautiful little girl by her side, +came up to ask for alms, and gradually fell to telling me the +little tragedy of her life. Her own sister, she told me, had +seduced her husband from her after many years of married life, and +the pair had fled, leaving her destitute, with the little girl upon +her hands. She seemed quite hopeful and cheery, and, though she +was unaffectedly sorry for the loss of her husband's earnings, she +made no pretence of despair at the loss of his affection; some day +she would meet the fugitives, and the law would see her duly +righted, and in the meantime the smallest contribution was +gratefully received. While she was telling all this in the most +matter-of-fact way, I had been noticing the approach of a tall man, +with a high white hat and darkish clothes. He came up the hill at +a rapid pace, and joined our little group with a sort of half- +salutation. Turning at once to the woman, he asked her in a +business-like way whether she had anything to do, whether she were +a Catholic or a Protestant, whether she could read, and so forth; +and then, after a few kind words and some sweeties to the child, he +despatched the mother with some tracts about Biddy and the Priest, +and the Orangeman's Bible. I was a little amused at his abrupt +manner, for he was still a young man, and had somewhat the air of a +navy officer; but he tackled me with great solemnity. I could make +fun of what he said, for I do not think it was very wise; but the +subject does not appear to me just now in a jesting light, so I +shall only say that he related to me his own conversion, which had +been effected (as is very often the case) through the agency of a +gig accident, and that, after having examined me and diagnosed my +case, he selected some suitable tracts from his repertory, gave +them to me, and, bidding me God-speed, went on his way. + + +LAST OF SMETHURST + + +That evening I got into a third-class carriage on my way for +Keswick, and was followed almost immediately by a burly man in +brown clothes. This fellow-passenger was seemingly ill at ease, +and kept continually putting his head out of the window, and asking +the bystanders if they saw HIM coming. At last, when the train was +already in motion, there was a commotion on the platform, and a way +was left clear to our carriage door. HE had arrived. In the hurry +I could just see Smethurst, red and panting, thrust a couple of +clay pipes into my companion's outstretched band, and hear him +crying his farewells after us as we slipped out of the station at +an ever accelerating pace. I said something about it being a close +run, and the broad man, already engaged in filling one of the +pipes, assented, and went on to tell me of his own stupidity in +forgetting a necessary, and of how his friend had good-naturedly +gone down town at the last moment to supply the omission. I +mentioned that I had seen Mr. Smethurst already, and that he had +been very polite to me; and we fell into a discussion of the +hatter's merits that lasted some time and left us quite good +friends at its conclusion. The topic was productive of goodwill. +We exchanged tobacco and talked about the season, and agreed at +last that we should go to the same hotel at Keswick and sup in +company. As he had some business in the town which would occupy +him some hour or so, on our arrival I was to improve the time and +go down to the lake, that I might see a glimpse of the promised +wonders. + +The night had fallen already when I reached the water-side, at a +place where many pleasure-boats are moored and ready for hire; and +as I went along a stony path, between wood and water, a strong wind +blew in gusts from the far end of the lake. The sky was covered +with flying scud; and, as this was ragged, there was quite a wild +chase of shadow and moon-glimpse over the surface of the shuddering +water. I had to hold my hat on, and was growing rather tired, and +inclined to go back in disgust, when a little incident occurred to +break the tedium. A sudden and violent squall of wind sundered the +low underwood, and at the same time there came one of those brief +discharges of moonlight, which leaped into the opening thus made, +and showed me three girls in the prettiest flutter and disorder. +It was as though they had sprung out of the ground. I accosted +them very politely in my capacity of stranger, and requested to be +told the names of all manner of hills and woods and places that I +did not wish to know, and we stood together for a while and had an +amusing little talk. The wind, too, made himself of the party, +brought the colour into their faces, and gave them enough to do to +repress their drapery; and one of them, amid much giggling, had to +pirouette round and round upon her toes (as girls do) when some +specially strong gust had got the advantage over her. They were +just high enough up in the social order not to be afraid to speak +to a gentleman; and just low enough to feel a little tremor, a +nervous consciousness of wrong-doing--of stolen waters, that gave a +considerable zest to our most innocent interview. They were as +much discomposed and fluttered, indeed, as if I had been a wicked +baron proposing to elope with the whole trio; but they showed no +inclination to go away, and I had managed to get them off hills and +waterfalls and on to more promising subjects, when a young man was +descried coming along the path from the direction of Keswick. Now +whether he was the young man of one of my friends, or the brother +of one of them, or indeed the brother of all, I do not know; but +they incontinently said that they must be going, and went away up +the path with friendly salutations. I need not say that I found +the lake and the moonlight rather dull after their departure, and +speedily found my way back to potted herrings and whisky-and-water +in the commercial room with my late fellow-traveller. In the +smoking-room there was a tall dark man with a moustache, in an +ulster coat, who had got the best place and was monopolising most +of the talk; and, as I came in, a whisper came round to me from +both sides, that this was the manager of a London theatre. The +presence of such a man was a great event for Keswick, and I must +own that the manager showed himself equal to his position. He had +a large fat pocket-book, from which he produced poem after poem, +written on the backs of letters or hotel-bills; and nothing could +be more humorous than his recitation of these elegant extracts, +except perhaps the anecdotes with which he varied the +entertainment. Seeing, I suppose, something less countrified in my +appearance than in most of the company, he singled me out to +corroborate some statements as to the depravity and vice of the +aristocracy, and when he went on to describe some gilded saloon +experiences, I am proud to say that he honoured my sagacity with +one little covert wink before a second time appealing to me for +confirmation. The wink was not thrown away; I went in up to the +elbows with the manager, until I think that some of the glory of +that great man settled by reflection upon me, and that I was as +noticeably the second person in the smoking-room as he was the +first. For a young man, this was a position of some distinction, I +think you will admit. . . . + + + +CHAPTER III--AN AUTUMN EFFECT--1875 + + + +'Nous ne decrivons jamais mieux la nature que lorsque nous nous +efforcons d'exprimer sobrement et simplement l'impression que nous +en avons recue.'--M. ANDRE THEURIET, 'L'Automne dans les Bois,' +Revue des Deux Mondes, 1st Oct. 1874, p.562. {2} + + +A country rapidly passed through under favourable auspices may +leave upon us a unity of impression that would only be disturbed +and dissipated if we stayed longer. Clear vision goes with the +quick foot. Things fall for us into a sort of natural perspective +when we see them for a moment in going by; we generalise boldly and +simply, and are gone before the sun is overcast, before the rain +falls, before the season can steal like a dial-hand from his +figure, before the lights and shadows, shifting round towards +nightfall, can show us the other side of things, and belie what +they showed us in the morning. We expose our mind to the landscape +(as we would expose the prepared plate in the camera) for the +moment only during which the effect endures; and we are away before +the effect can change. Hence we shall have in our memories a long +scroll of continuous wayside pictures, all imbued already with the +prevailing sentiment of the season, the weather and the landscape, +and certain to be unified more and more, as time goes on, by the +unconscious processes of thought. So that we who have only looked +at a country over our shoulder, so to speak, as we went by, will +have a conception of it far more memorable and articulate than a +man who has lived there all his life from a child upwards, and had +his impression of to-day modified by that of to-morrow, and belied +by that of the day after, till at length the stable characteristics +of the country are all blotted out from him behind the confusion of +variable effect. + +I begin my little pilgrimage in the most enviable of all humours: +that in which a person, with a sufficiency of money and a knapsack, +turns his back on a town and walks forward into a country of which +he knows only by the vague report of others. Such an one has not +surrendered his will and contracted for the next hundred miles, +like a man on a railway. He may change his mind at every finger- +post, and, where ways meet, follow vague preferences freely and go +the low road or the high, choose the shadow or the sun-shine, +suffer himself to be tempted by the lane that turns immediately +into the woods, or the broad road that lies open before him into +the distance, and shows him the far-off spires of some city, or a +range of mountain-tops, or a rim of sea, perhaps, along a low +horizon. In short, he may gratify his every whim and fancy, +without a pang of reproving conscience, or the least jostle to his +self-respect. It is true, however, that most men do not possess +the faculty of free action, the priceless gift of being able to +live for the moment only; and as they begin to go forward on their +journey, they will find that they have made for themselves new +fetters. Slight projects they may have entertained for a moment, +half in jest, become iron laws to them, they know not why. They +will be led by the nose by these vague reports of which I spoke +above; and the mere fact that their informant mentioned one village +and not another will compel their footsteps with inexplicable +power. And yet a little while, yet a few days of this fictitious +liberty, and they will begin to hear imperious voices calling on +them to return; and some passion, some duty, some worthy or +unworthy expectation, will set its hand upon their shoulder and +lead them back into the old paths. Once and again we have all made +the experiment. We know the end of it right well. And yet if we +make it for the hundredth time to-morrow: it will have the same +charm as ever; our heart will beat and our eyes will be bright, as +we leave the town behind us, and we shall feel once again (as we +have felt so often before) that we are cutting ourselves loose for +ever from our whole past life, with all its sins and follies and +circumscriptions, and go forward as a new creature into a new +world. + +It was well, perhaps, that I had this first enthusiasm to encourage +me up the long hill above High Wycombe; for the day was a bad day +for walking at best, and now began to draw towards afternoon, dull, +heavy, and lifeless. A pall of grey cloud covered the sky, and its +colour reacted on the colour of the landscape. Near at hand, +indeed, the hedgerow trees were still fairly green, shot through +with bright autumnal yellows, bright as sunshine. But a little way +off, the solid bricks of woodland that lay squarely on slope and +hill-top were not green, but russet and grey, and ever less russet +and more grey as they drew off into the distance. As they drew off +into the distance, also, the woods seemed to mass themselves +together, and lie thin and straight, like clouds, upon the limit of +one's view. Not that this massing was complete, or gave the idea +of any extent of forest, for every here and there the trees would +break up and go down into a valley in open order, or stand in long +Indian file along the horizon, tree after tree relieved, foolishly +enough, against the sky. I say foolishly enough, although I have +seen the effect employed cleverly in art, and such long line of +single trees thrown out against the customary sunset of a Japanese +picture with a certain fantastic effect that was not to be +despised; but this was over water and level land, where it did not +jar, as here, with the soft contour of hills and valleys. The +whole scene had an indefinable look of being painted, the colour +was so abstract and correct, and there was something so sketchy and +merely impressional about these distant single trees on the horizon +that one was forced to think of it all as of a clever French +landscape. For it is rather in nature that we see resemblance to +art, than in art to nature; and we say a hundred times, 'How like a +picture!' for once that we say, 'How like the truth!' The forms in +which we learn to think of landscape are forms that we have got +from painted canvas. Any man can see and understand a picture; it +is reserved for the few to separate anything out of the confusion +of nature, and see that distinctly and with intelligence. + +The sun came out before I had been long on my way; and as I had got +by that time to the top of the ascent, and was now treading a +labyrinth of confined by-roads, my whole view brightened +considerably in colour, for it was the distance only that was grey +and cold, and the distance I could see no longer. Overhead there +was a wonderful carolling of larks which seemed to follow me as I +went. Indeed, during all the time I was in that country the larks +did not desert me. The air was alive with them from High Wycombe +to Tring; and as, day after day, their 'shrill delight' fell upon +me out of the vacant sky, they began to take such a prominence over +other conditions, and form so integral a part of my conception of +the country, that I could have baptized it 'The Country of Larks.' +This, of course, might just as well have been in early spring; but +everything else was deeply imbued with the sentiment of the later +year. There was no stir of insects in the grass. The sunshine was +more golden, and gave less heat than summer sunshine; and the +shadows under the hedge were somewhat blue and misty. It was only +in autumn that you could have seen the mingled green and yellow of +the elm foliage, and the fallen leaves that lay about the road, and +covered the surface of wayside pools so thickly that the sun was +reflected only here and there from little joints and pinholes in +that brown coat of proof; or that your ear would have been +troubled, as you went forward, by the occasional report of fowling- +pieces from all directions and all degrees of distance. + +For a long time this dropping fire was the one sign of human +activity that came to disturb me as I walked. The lanes were +profoundly still. They would have been sad but for the sunshine +and the singing of the larks. And as it was, there came over me at +times a feeling of isolation that was not disagreeable, and yet was +enough to make me quicken my steps eagerly when I saw some one +before me on the road. This fellow-voyager proved to be no less a +person than the parish constable. It had occurred to me that in a +district which was so little populous and so well wooded, a +criminal of any intelligence might play hide-and-seek with the +authorities for months; and this idea was strengthened by the +aspect of the portly constable as he walked by my side with +deliberate dignity and turned-out toes. But a few minutes' +converse set my heart at rest. These rural criminals are very tame +birds, it appeared. If my informant did not immediately lay his +hand on an offender, he was content to wait; some evening after +nightfall there would come a tap at his door, and the outlaw, weary +of outlawry, would give himself quietly up to undergo sentence, and +resume his position in the life of the country-side. Married men +caused him no disquietude whatever; he had them fast by the foot. +Sooner or later they would come back to see their wives, a peeping +neighbour would pass the word, and my portly constable would walk +quietly over and take the bird sitting. And if there were a few +who had no particular ties in the neighbourhood, and preferred to +shift into another county when they fell into trouble, their +departure moved the placid constable in no degree. He was of +Dogberry's opinion; and if a man would not stand in the Prince's +name, he took no note of him, but let him go, and thanked God he +was rid of a knave. And surely the crime and the law were in +admirable keeping; rustic constable was well met with rustic +offender. The officer sitting at home over a bit of fire until the +criminal came to visit him, and the criminal coming--it was a fair +match. One felt as if this must have been the order in that +delightful seaboard Bohemia where Florizel and Perdita courted in +such sweet accents, and the Puritan sang Psalms to hornpipes, and +the four-and-twenty shearers danced with nosegays in their bosoms, +and chanted their three songs apiece at the old shepherd's +festival; and one could not help picturing to oneself what havoc +among good peoples purses, and tribulation for benignant +constables, might be worked here by the arrival, over stile and +footpath, of a new Autolycus. + +Bidding good-morning to my fellow-traveller, I left the road and +struck across country. It was rather a revelation to pass from +between the hedgerows and find quite a bustle on the other side, a +great coming and going of school-children upon by-paths, and, in +every second field, lusty horses and stout country-folk a- +ploughing. The way I followed took me through many fields thus +occupied, and through many strips of plantation, and then over a +little space of smooth turf, very pleasant to the feet, set with +tall fir-trees and clamorous with rooks making ready for the +winter, and so back again into the quiet road. I was now not far +from the end of my day's journey. A few hundred yards farther, +and, passing through a gap in the hedge, I began to go down hill +through a pretty extensive tract of young beeches. I was soon in +shadow myself, but the afternoon sun still coloured the upmost +boughs of the wood, and made a fire over my head in the autumnal +foliage. A little faint vapour lay among the slim tree-stems in +the bottom of the hollow; and from farther up I heard from time to +time an outburst of gross laughter, as though clowns were making +merry in the bush. There was something about the atmosphere that +brought all sights and sounds home to one with a singular purity, +so that I felt as if my senses had been washed with water. After I +had crossed the little zone of mist, the path began to remount the +hill; and just as I, mounting along with it, had got back again, +from the head downwards, into the thin golden sunshine, I saw in +front of me a donkey tied to a tree. Now, I have a certain liking +for donkeys, principally, I believe, because of the delightful +things that Sterne has written of them. But this was not after the +pattern of the ass at Lyons. He was of a white colour, that seemed +to fit him rather for rare festal occasions than for constant +drudgery. Besides, he was very small, and of the daintiest +portions you can imagine in a donkey. And so, sure enough, you had +only to look at him to see he had never worked. There was +something too roguish and wanton in his face, a look too like that +of a schoolboy or a street Arab, to have survived much cudgelling. +It was plain that these feet had kicked off sportive children +oftener than they had plodded with a freight through miry lanes. +He was altogether a fine-weather, holiday sort of donkey; and +though he was just then somewhat solemnised and rueful, he still +gave proof of the levity of his disposition by impudently wagging +his ears at me as I drew near. I say he was somewhat solemnised +just then; for, with the admirable instinct of all men and animals +under restraint, he had so wound and wound the halter about the +tree that he could go neither back nor forwards, nor so much as put +down his head to browse. There he stood, poor rogue, part puzzled, +part angry, part, I believe, amused. He had not given up hope, and +dully revolved the problem in his head, giving ever and again +another jerk at the few inches of free rope that still remained +unwound. A humorous sort of sympathy for the creature took hold +upon me. I went up, and, not without some trouble on my part, and +much distrust and resistance on the part of Neddy, got him forced +backwards until the whole length of the halter was set loose, and +he was once more as free a donkey as I dared to make him. I was +pleased (as people are) with this friendly action to a fellow- +creature in tribulation, and glanced back over my shoulder to see +how he was profiting by his freedom. The brute was looking after +me; and no sooner did he catch my eye than he put up his long white +face into the air, pulled an impudent mouth at me, and began to +bray derisively. If ever any one person made a grimace at another, +that donkey made a grimace at me. The hardened ingratitude of his +behaviour, and the impertinence that inspired his whole face as he +curled up his lip, and showed his teeth, and began to bray, so +tickled me, and was so much in keeping with what I had imagined to +myself about his character, that I could not find it in my heart to +be angry, and burst into a peal of hearty laughter. This seemed to +strike the ass as a repartee, so he brayed at me again by way of +rejoinder; and we went on for a while, braying and laughing, until +I began to grow aweary of it, and, shouting a derisive farewell, +turned to pursue my way. In so doing--it was like going suddenly +into cold water--I found myself face to face with a prim little old +maid. She was all in a flutter, the poor old dear! She had +concluded beyond question that this must be a lunatic who stood +laughing aloud at a white donkey in the placid beech-woods. I was +sure, by her face, that she had already recommended her spirit most +religiously to Heaven, and prepared herself for the worst. And so, +to reassure her, I uncovered and besought her, after a very staid +fashion, to put me on my way to Great Missenden. Her voice +trembled a little, to be sure, but I think her mind was set at +rest; and she told me, very explicitly, to follow the path until I +came to the end of the wood, and then I should see the village +below me in the bottom of the valley. And, with mutual courtesies, +the little old maid and I went on our respective ways. + +Nor had she misled me. Great Missenden was close at hand, as she +had said, in the trough of a gentle valley, with many great elms +about it. The smoke from its chimneys went up pleasantly in the +afternoon sunshine. The sleepy hum of a threshing-machine filled +the neighbouring fields and hung about the quaint street corners. +A little above, the church sits well back on its haunches against +the hillside--an attitude for a church, you know, that makes it +look as if it could be ever so much higher if it liked; and the +trees grew about it thickly, so as to make a density of shade in +the churchyard. A very quiet place it looks; and yet I saw many +boards and posters about threatening dire punishment against those +who broke the church windows or defaced the precinct, and offering +rewards for the apprehension of those who had done the like +already. It was fair day in Great Missenden. There were three +stalls set up, sub jove, for the sale of pastry and cheap toys; and +a great number of holiday children thronged about the stalls and +noisily invaded every corner of the straggling village. They came +round me by coveys, blowing simultaneously upon penny trumpets as +though they imagined I should fall to pieces like the battlements +of Jericho. I noticed one among them who could make a wheel of +himself like a London boy, and seemingly enjoyed a grave pre- +eminence upon the strength of the accomplishment. By and by, +however, the trumpets began to weary me, and I went indoors, +leaving the fair, I fancy, at its height. + +Night had fallen before I ventured forth again. It was pitch-dark +in the village street, and the darkness seemed only the greater for +a light here and there in an uncurtained window or from an open +door. Into one such window I was rude enough to peep, and saw +within a charming genre picture. In a room, all white wainscot and +crimson wall-paper, a perfect gem of colour after the black, empty +darkness in which I had been groping, a pretty girl was telling a +story, as well as I could make out, to an attentive child upon her +knee, while an old woman sat placidly dozing over the fire. You +may be sure I was not behindhand with a story for myself--a good +old story after the manner of G. P. R. James and the village +melodramas, with a wicked squire, and poachers, and an attorney, +and a virtuous young man with a genius for mechanics, who should +love, and protect, and ultimately marry the girl in the crimson +room. Baudelaire has a few dainty sentences on the fancies that we +are inspired with when we look through a window into other people's +lives; and I think Dickens has somewhere enlarged on the same text. +The subject, at least, is one that I am seldom weary of +entertaining. I remember, night after night, at Brussels, watching +a good family sup together, make merry, and retire to rest; and +night after night I waited to see the candles lit, and the salad +made, and the last salutations dutifully exchanged, without any +abatement of interest. Night after night I found the scene rivet +my attention and keep me awake in bed with all manner of quaint +imaginations. Much of the pleasure of the Arabian Nights hinges +upon this Asmodean interest; and we are not weary of lifting other +people's roofs, and going about behind the scenes of life with the +Caliph and the serviceable Giaffar. It is a salutary exercise, +besides; it is salutary to get out of ourselves and see people +living together in perfect unconsciousness of our existence, as +they will live when we are gone. If to-morrow the blow falls, and +the worst of our ill fears is realised, the girl will none the less +tell stories to the child on her lap in the cottage at Great +Missenden, nor the good Belgians light their candle, and mix their +salad, and go orderly to bed. + +The next morning was sunny overhead and damp underfoot, with a +thrill in the air like a reminiscence of frost. I went up into the +sloping garden behind the inn and smoked a pipe pleasantly enough, +to the tune of my landlady's lamentations over sundry cabbages and +cauliflowers that had been spoiled by caterpillars. She had been +so much pleased in the summer-time, she said, to see the garden all +hovered over by white butterflies. And now, look at the end of it! +She could nowise reconcile this with her moral sense. And, indeed, +unless these butterflies are created with a side-look to the +composition of improving apologues, it is not altogether easy, even +for people who have read Hegel and Dr. M'Cosh, to decide +intelligibly upon the issue raised. Then I fell into a long and +abstruse calculation with my landlord; having for object to compare +the distance driven by him during eight years' service on the box +of the Wendover coach with the girth of the round world itself. We +tackled the question most conscientiously, made all necessary +allowance for Sundays and leap-years, and were just coming to a +triumphant conclusion of our labours when we were stayed by a small +lacuna in my information. I did not know the circumference of the +earth. The landlord knew it, to be sure--plainly he had made the +same calculation twice and once before,--but he wanted confidence +in his own figures, and from the moment I showed myself so poor a +second seemed to lose all interest in the result. + +Wendover (which was my next stage) lies in the same valley with +Great Missenden, but at the foot of it, where the hills trend off +on either hand like a coast-line, and a great hemisphere of plain +lies, like a sea, before one, I went up a chalky road, until I had +a good outlook over the place. The vale, as it opened out into the +plain, was shallow, and a little bare, perhaps, but full of +graceful convolutions. From the level to which I have now attained +the fields were exposed before me like a map, and I could see all +that bustle of autumn field-work which had been hid from me +yesterday behind the hedgerows, or shown to me only for a moment as +I followed the footpath. Wendover lay well down in the midst, with +mountains of foliage about it. The great plain stretched away to +the northward, variegated near at hand with the quaint pattern of +the fields, but growing ever more and more indistinct, until it +became a mere hurly-burly of trees and bright crescents of river, +and snatches of slanting road, and finally melted into the +ambiguous cloud-land over the horizon. The sky was an opal-grey, +touched here and there with blue, and with certain faint russets +that looked as if they were reflections of the colour of the +autumnal woods below. I could hear the ploughmen shouting to their +horses, the uninterrupted carol of larks innumerable overhead, and, +from a field where the shepherd was marshalling his flock, a sweet +tumultuous tinkle of sheep-bells. All these noises came to me very +thin and distinct in the clear air. There was a wonderful +sentiment of distance and atmosphere about the day and the place. + +I mounted the hill yet farther by a rough staircase of chalky +footholds cut in the turf. The hills about Wendover and, as far as +I could see, all the hills in Buckinghamshire, wear a sort of hood +of beech plantation; but in this particular case the hood had been +suffered to extend itself into something more like a cloak, and +hung down about the shoulders of the hill in wide folds, instead of +lying flatly along the summit. The trees grew so close, and their +boughs were so matted together, that the whole wood looked as dense +as a bush of heather. The prevailing colour was a dull, +smouldering red, touched here and there with vivid yellow. But the +autumn had scarce advanced beyond the outworks; it was still almost +summer in the heart of the wood; and as soon as I had scrambled +through the hedge, I found myself in a dim green forest atmosphere +under eaves of virgin foliage. In places where the wood had itself +for a background and the trees were massed together thickly, the +colour became intensified and almost gem-like: a perfect fire +green, that seemed none the less green for a few specks of autumn +gold. None of the trees were of any considerable age or stature; +but they grew well together, I have said; and as the road turned +and wound among them, they fell into pleasant groupings and broke +the light up pleasantly. Sometimes there would be a colonnade of +slim, straight tree-stems with the light running down them as down +the shafts of pillars, that looked as if it ought to lead to +something, and led only to a corner of sombre and intricate jungle. +Sometimes a spray of delicate foliage would be thrown out flat, the +light lying flatly along the top of it, so that against a dark +background it seemed almost luminous. There was a great bush over +the thicket (for, indeed, it was more of a thicket than a wood); +and the vague rumours that went among the tree-tops, and the +occasional rustling of big birds or hares among the undergrowth, +had in them a note of almost treacherous stealthiness, that put the +imagination on its guard and made me walk warily on the russet +carpeting of last year's leaves. The spirit of the place seemed to +be all attention; the wood listened as I went, and held its breath +to number my footfalls. One could not help feeling that there +ought to be some reason for this stillness; whether, as the bright +old legend goes, Pan lay somewhere near in siesta, or whether, +perhaps, the heaven was meditating rain, and the first drops would +soon come pattering through the leaves. It was not unpleasant, in +such an humour, to catch sight, ever and anon, of large spaces of +the open plain. This happened only where the path lay much upon +the slope, and there was a flaw in the solid leafy thatch of the +wood at some distance below the level at which I chanced myself to +be walking; then, indeed, little scraps of foreshortened distance, +miniature fields, and Lilliputian houses and hedgerow trees would +appear for a moment in the aperture, and grow larger and smaller, +and change and melt one into another, as I continued to go forward, +and so shift my point of view. + +For ten minutes, perhaps, I had heard from somewhere before me in +the wood a strange, continuous noise, as of clucking, cooing, and +gobbling, now and again interrupted by a harsh scream. As I +advanced towards this noise, it began to grow lighter about me, and +I caught sight, through the trees, of sundry gables and enclosure +walls, and something like the tops of a rickyard. And sure enough, +a rickyard it proved to be, and a neat little farm-steading, with +the beech-woods growing almost to the door of it. Just before me, +however, as I came upon the path, the trees drew back and let in a +wide flood of daylight on to a circular lawn. It was here that the +noises had their origin. More than a score of peacocks (there are +altogether thirty at the farm), a proper contingent of peahens, and +a great multitude that I could not number of more ordinary barn- +door fowls, were all feeding together on this little open lawn +among the beeches. They fed in a dense crowd, which swayed to and +fro, and came hither and thither as by a sort of tide, and of which +the surface was agitated like the surface of a sea as each bird +guzzled his head along the ground after the scattered corn. The +clucking, cooing noise that had led me thither was formed by the +blending together of countless expressions of individual +contentment into one collective expression of contentment, or +general grace during meat. Every now and again a big peacock would +separate himself from the mob and take a stately turn or two about +the lawn, or perhaps mount for a moment upon the rail, and there +shrilly publish to the world his satisfaction with himself and what +he had to eat. It happened, for my sins, that none of these +admirable birds had anything beyond the merest rudiment of a tail. +Tails, it seemed, were out of season just then. But they had their +necks for all that; and by their necks alone they do as much +surpass all the other birds of our grey climate as they fall in +quality of song below the blackbird or the lark. Surely the +peacock, with its incomparable parade of glorious colour and the +scannel voice of it issuing forth, as in mockery, from its painted +throat, must, like my landlady's butterflies at Great Missenden, +have been invented by some skilful fabulist for the consolation and +support of homely virtue: or rather, perhaps, by a fabulist not +quite so skilful, who made points for the moment without having a +studious enough eye to the complete effect; for I thought these +melting greens and blues so beautiful that afternoon, that I would +have given them my vote just then before the sweetest pipe in all +the spring woods. For indeed there is no piece of colour of the +same extent in nature, that will so flatter and satisfy the lust of +a man's eyes; and to come upon so many of them, after these acres +of stone-coloured heavens and russet woods, and grey-brown +ploughlands and white roads, was like going three whole days' +journey to the southward, or a month back into the summer. + +I was sorry to leave Peacock Farm--for so the place is called, +after the name of its splendid pensioners--and go forwards again in +the quiet woods. It began to grow both damp and dusk under the +beeches; and as the day declined the colour faded out of the +foliage; and shadow, without form and void, took the place of all +the fine tracery of leaves and delicate gradations of living green +that had before accompanied my walk. I had been sorry to leave +Peacock Farm, but I was not sorry to find myself once more in the +open road, under a pale and somewhat troubled-looking evening sky, +and put my best foot foremost for the inn at Wendover. + +Wendover, in itself, is a straggling, purposeless sort of place. +Everybody seems to have had his own opinion as to how the street +should go; or rather, every now and then a man seems to have arisen +with a new idea on the subject, and led away a little sect of +neighbours to join in his heresy. It would have somewhat the look +of an abortive watering-place, such as we may now see them here and +there along the coast, but for the age of the houses, the comely +quiet design of some of them, and the look of long habitation, of a +life that is settled and rooted, and makes it worth while to train +flowers about the windows, and otherwise shape the dwelling to the +humour of the inhabitant. The church, which might perhaps have +served as rallying-point for these loose houses, and pulled the +township into something like intelligible unity, stands some +distance off among great trees; but the inn (to take the public +buildings in order of importance) is in what I understand to be the +principal street: a pleasant old house, with bay-windows, and +three peaked gables, and many swallows' nests plastered about the +eaves. + +The interior of the inn was answerable to the outside: indeed, I +never saw any room much more to be admired than the low wainscoted +parlour in which I spent the remainder of the evening. It was a +short oblong in shape, save that the fireplace was built across one +of the angles so as to cut it partially off, and the opposite angle +was similarly truncated by a corner cupboard. The wainscot was +white, and there was a Turkey carpet on the floor, so old that it +might have been imported by Walter Shandy before he retired, worn +almost through in some places, but in others making a good show of +blues and oranges, none the less harmonious for being somewhat +faded. The corner cupboard was agreeable in design; and there were +just the right things upon the shelves--decanters and tumblers, and +blue plates, and one red rose in a glass of water. The furniture +was old-fashioned and stiff. Everything was in keeping, down to +the ponderous leaden inkstand on the round table. And you may +fancy how pleasant it looked, all flushed and flickered over by the +light of a brisk companionable fire, and seen, in a strange, tilted +sort of perspective, in the three compartments of the old mirror +above the chimney. As I sat reading in the great armchair, I kept +looking round with the tail of my eye at the quaint, bright picture +that was about me, and could not help some pleasure and a certain +childish pride in forming part of it. The book I read was about +Italy in the early Renaissance, the pageantries and the light loves +of princes, the passion of men for learning, and poetry, and art; +but it was written, by good luck, after a solid, prosaic fashion, +that suited the room infinitely more nearly than the matter; and +the result was that I thought less, perhaps, of Lippo Lippi, or +Lorenzo, or Politian, than of the good Englishman who had written +in that volume what he knew of them, and taken so much pleasure in +his solemn polysyllables. + +I was not left without society. My landlord had a very pretty +little daughter, whom we shall call Lizzie. If I had made any +notes at the time, I might be able to tell you something definite +of her appearance. But faces have a trick of growing more and more +spiritualised and abstract in the memory, until nothing remains of +them but a look, a haunting expression; just that secret quality in +a face that is apt to slip out somehow under the cunningest +painter's touch, and leave the portrait dead for the lack of it. +And if it is hard to catch with the finest of camel's-hair pencils, +you may think how hopeless it must be to pursue after it with +clumsy words. If I say, for instance, that this look, which I +remember as Lizzie, was something wistful that seemed partly to +come of slyness and in part of simplicity, and that I am inclined +to imagine it had something to do with the daintiest suspicion of a +cast in one of her large eyes, I shall have said all that I can, +and the reader will not be much advanced towards comprehension. I +had struck up an acquaintance with this little damsel in the +morning, and professed much interest in her dolls, and an impatient +desire to see the large one which was kept locked away for great +occasions. And so I had not been very long in the parlour before +the door opened, and in came Miss Lizzie with two dolls tucked +clumsily under her arm. She was followed by her brother John, a +year or so younger than herself, not simply to play propriety at +our interview, but to show his own two whips in emulation of his +sister's dolls. I did my best to make myself agreeable to my +visitors, showing much admiration for the dolls and dolls' dresses, +and, with a very serious demeanour, asking many questions about +their age and character. I do not think that Lizzie distrusted my +sincerity, but it was evident that she was both bewildered and a +little contemptuous. Although she was ready herself to treat her +dolls as if they were alive, she seemed to think rather poorly of +any grown person who could fall heartily into the spirit of the +fiction. Sometimes she would look at me with gravity and a sort of +disquietude, as though she really feared I must be out of my wits. +Sometimes, as when I inquired too particularly into the question of +their names, she laughed at me so long and heartily that I began to +feel almost embarrassed. But when, in an evil moment, I asked to +be allowed to kiss one of them, she could keep herself no longer to +herself. Clambering down from the chair on which she sat perched +to show me, Cornelia-like, her jewels, she ran straight out of the +room and into the bar--it was just across the passage,--and I could +hear her telling her mother in loud tones, but apparently more in +sorrow than in merriment, that THE GENTLEMAN IN THE PARLOUR WANTED +TO KISS DOLLY. I fancy she was determined to save me from this +humiliating action, even in spite of myself, for she never gave me +the desired permission. She reminded me of an old dog I once knew, +who would never suffer the master of the house to dance, out of an +exaggerated sense of the dignity of that master's place and +carriage. + +After the young people were gone there was but one more incident +ere I went to bed. I heard a party of children go up and down the +dark street for a while, singing together sweetly. And the mystery +of this little incident was so pleasant to me that I purposely +refrained from asking who they were, and wherefore they went +singing at so late an hour. One can rarely be in a pleasant place +without meeting with some pleasant accident. I have a conviction +that these children would not have gone singing before the inn +unless the inn-parlour had been the delightful place it was. At +least, if I had been in the customary public room of the modern +hotel, with all its disproportions and discomforts, my ears would +have been dull, and there would have been some ugly temper or other +uppermost in my spirit, and so they would have wasted their songs +upon an unworthy hearer. + +Next morning I went along to visit the church. It is a long-backed +red-and-white building, very much restored, and stands in a +pleasant graveyard among those great trees of which I have spoken +already. The sky was drowned in a mist. Now and again pulses of +cold wind went about the enclosure, and set the branches busy +overhead, and the dead leaves scurrying into the angles of the +church buttresses. Now and again, also, I could hear the dull +sudden fall of a chestnut among the grass--the dog would bark +before the rectory door--or there would come a clinking of pails +from the stable-yard behind. But in spite of these occasional +interruptions--in spite, also, of the continuous autumn twittering +that filled the trees--the chief impression somehow was one as of +utter silence, insomuch that the little greenish bell that peeped +out of a window in the tower disquieted me with a sense of some +possible and more inharmonious disturbance. The grass was wet, as +if with a hoar frost that had just been melted. I do not know that +ever I saw a morning more autumnal. As I went to and fro among the +graves, I saw some flowers set reverently before a recently erected +tomb, and drawing near, was almost startled to find they lay on the +grave a man seventy-two years old when he died. We are accustomed +to strew flowers only over the young, where love has been cut short +untimely, and great possibilities have been restrained by death. +We strew them there in token, that these possibilities, in some +deeper sense, shall yet be realised, and the touch of our dead +loves remain with us and guide us to the end. And yet there was +more significance, perhaps, and perhaps a greater consolation, in +this little nosegay on the grave of one who had died old. We are +apt to make so much of the tragedy of death, and think so little of +the enduring tragedy of some men's lives, that we see more to +lament for in a life cut off in the midst of usefulness and love, +than in one that miserably survives all love and usefulness, and +goes about the world the phantom of itself, without hope, or joy, +or any consolation. These flowers seemed not so much the token of +love that survived death, as of something yet more beautiful--of +love that had lived a man's life out to an end with him, and been +faithful and companionable, and not weary of loving, throughout all +these years. + +The morning cleared a little, and the sky was once more the old +stone-coloured vault over the sallow meadows and the russet woods, +as I set forth on a dog-cart from Wendover to Tring. The road lay +for a good distance along the side of the hills, with the great +plain below on one hand, and the beech-woods above on the other. +The fields were busy with people ploughing and sowing; every here +and there a jug of ale stood in the angle of the hedge, and I could +see many a team wait smoking in the furrow as ploughman or sower +stepped aside for a moment to take a draught. Over all the brown +ploughlands, and under all the leafless hedgerows, there was a +stout piece of labour abroad, and, as it were, a spirit of picnic. +The horses smoked and the men laboured and shouted and drank in the +sharp autumn morning; so that one had a strong effect of large, +open-air existence. The fellow who drove me was something of a +humourist; and his conversation was all in praise of an +agricultural labourer's way of life. It was he who called my +attention to these jugs of ale by the hedgerow; he could not +sufficiently express the liberality of these men's wages; he told +me how sharp an appetite was given by breaking up the earth in the +morning air, whether with plough or spade, and cordially admired +this provision of nature. He sang O fortunatos agricolas! indeed, +in every possible key, and with many cunning inflections, till I +began to wonder what was the use of such people as Mr. Arch, and to +sing the same air myself in a more diffident manner. + +Tring was reached, and then Tring railway-station; for the two are +not very near, the good people of Tring having held the railway, of +old days, in extreme apprehension, lest some day it should break +loose in the town and work mischief. I had a last walk, among +russet beeches as usual, and the air filled, as usual, with the +carolling of larks; I heard shots fired in the distance, and saw, +as a new sign of the fulfilled autumn, two horsemen exercising a +pack of fox-hounds. And then the train came and carried me back to +London. + + + +CHAPTER IV--A WINTER'S WALK IN CARRICK AND GALLOWAY--A FRAGMENT-- +1876 + + + +At the famous bridge of Doon, Kyle, the central district of the +shire of Ayr, marches with Carrick, the most southerly. On the +Carrick side of the river rises a hill of somewhat gentle +conformation, cleft with shallow dells, and sown here and there +with farms and tufts of wood. Inland, it loses itself, joining, I +suppose, the great herd of similar hills that occupies the centre +of the Lowlands. Towards the sea it swells out the coast-line into +a protuberance, like a bay-window in a plan, and is fortified +against the surf behind bold crags. This hill is known as the +Brown Hill of Carrick, or, more shortly, Brown Carrick. + +It had snowed overnight. The fields were all sheeted up; they were +tucked in among the snow, and their shape was modelled through the +pliant counterpane, like children tucked in by a fond mother. The +wind had made ripples and folds upon the surface, like what the +sea, in quiet weather, leaves upon the sand. There was a frosty +stifle in the air. An effusion of coppery light on the summit of +Brown Carrick showed where the sun was trying to look through; but +along the horizon clouds of cold fog had settled down, so that +there was no distinction of sky and sea. Over the white shoulders +of the headlands, or in the opening of bays, there was nothing but +a great vacancy and blackness; and the road as it drew near the +edge of the cliff seemed to skirt the shores of creation and void +space. + +The snow crunched under foot, and at farms all the dogs broke out +barking as they smelt a passer-by upon the road. I met a fine old +fellow, who might have sat as the father in 'The Cottar's Saturday +Night,' and who swore most heathenishly at a cow he was driving. +And a little after I scraped acquaintance with a poor body tramping +out to gather cockles. His face was wrinkled by exposure; it was +broken up into flakes and channels, like mud beginning to dry, and +weathered in two colours, an incongruous pink and grey. He had a +faint air of being surprised--which, God knows, he might well be-- +that life had gone so ill with him. The shape of his trousers was +in itself a jest, so strangely were they bagged and ravelled about +his knees; and his coat was all bedaubed with clay as tough he had +lain in a rain-dub during the New Year's festivity. I will own I +was not sorry to think he had had a merry New Year, and been young +again for an evening; but I was sorry to see the mark still there. +One could not expect such an old gentleman to be much of a dandy or +a great student of respectability in dress; but there might have +been a wife at home, who had brushed out similar stains after fifty +New Years, now become old, or a round-armed daughter, who would +wish to have him neat, were it only out of self-respect and for the +ploughman sweetheart when he looks round at night. Plainly, there +was nothing of this in his life, and years and loneliness hung +heavily on his old arms. He was seventy-six, he told me; and +nobody would give a day's work to a man that age: they would think +he couldn't do it. 'And, 'deed,' he went on, with a sad little +chuckle, ''deed, I doubt if I could.' He said goodbye to me at a +footpath, and crippled wearily off to his work. It will make your +heart ache if you think of his old fingers groping in the snow. + +He told me I was to turn down beside the school-house for Dunure. +And so, when I found a lone house among the snow, and heard a +babble of childish voices from within, I struck off into a steep +road leading downwards to the sea. Dunure lies close under the +steep hill: a haven among the rocks, a breakwater in consummate +disrepair, much apparatus for drying nets, and a score or so of +fishers' houses. Hard by, a few shards of ruined castle overhang +the sea, a few vaults, and one tall gable honeycombed with windows. +The snow lay on the beach to the tidemark. It was daubed on to the +sills of the ruin: it roosted in the crannies of the rock like +white sea-birds; even on outlying reefs there would be a little +cock of snow, like a toy lighthouse. Everything was grey and white +in a cold and dolorous sort of shepherd's plaid. In the profound +silence, broken only by the noise of oars at sea, a horn was +sounded twice; and I saw the postman, girt with two bags, pause a +moment at the end of the clachan for letters. + +It is, perhaps, characteristic of Dunure that none were brought +him. + +The people at the public-house did not seem well pleased to see me, +and though I would fain have stayed by the kitchen fire, sent me +'ben the hoose' into the guest-room. This guest-room at Dunure was +painted in quite aesthetic fashion. There are rooms in the same +taste not a hundred miles from London, where persons of an extreme +sensibility meet together without embarrassment. It was all in a +fine dull bottle-green and black; a grave harmonious piece of +colouring, with nothing, so far as coarser folk can judge, to hurt +the better feelings of the most exquisite purist. A cherry-red +half window-blind kept up an imaginary warmth in the cold room, and +threw quite a glow on the floor. Twelve cockle-shells and a half- +penny china figure were ranged solemnly along the mantel-shelf. +Even the spittoon was an original note, and instead of sawdust +contained sea-shells. And as for the hearthrug, it would merit an +article to itself, and a coloured diagram to help the text. It was +patchwork, but the patchwork of the poor; no glowing shreds of old +brocade and Chinese silk, shaken together in the kaleidoscope of +some tasteful housewife's fancy; but a work of art in its own way, +and plainly a labour of love. The patches came exclusively from +people's raiment. There was no colour more brilliant than a +heather mixture; 'My Johnny's grey breeks,' well polished over the +oar on the boat's thwart, entered largely into its composition. +And the spoils of an old black cloth coat, that had been many a +Sunday to church, added something (save the mark!) of preciousness +to the material. + +While I was at luncheon four carters came in--long-limbed, muscular +Ayrshire Scots, with lean, intelligent faces. Four quarts of stout +were ordered; they kept filling the tumbler with the other hand as +they drank; and in less time than it takes me to write these words +the four quarts were finished--another round was proposed, +discussed, and negatived--and they were creaking out of the village +with their carts. + +The ruins drew you towards them. You never saw any place more +desolate from a distance, nor one that less belied its promise near +at hand. Some crows and gulls flew away croaking as I scrambled +in. The snow had drifted into the vaults. The clachan dabbled +with snow, the white hills, the black sky, the sea marked in the +coves with faint circular wrinkles, the whole world, as it looked +from a loop-hole in Dunure, was cold, wretched, and out-at-elbows. +If you had been a wicked baron and compelled to stay there all the +afternoon, you would have had a rare fit of remorse. How you would +have heaped up the fire and gnawed your fingers! I think it would +have come to homicide before the evening--if it were only for the +pleasure of seeing something red! And the masters of Dunure, it is +to be noticed, were remarkable of old for inhumanity. One of these +vaults where the snow had drifted was that 'black route' where 'Mr. +Alane Stewart, Commendatour of Crossraguel,' endured his fiery +trials. On the 1st and 7th of September 1570 (ill dates for Mr. +Alan!), Gilbert, Earl of Cassilis, his chaplain, his baker, his +cook, his pantryman, and another servant, bound the Poor +Commendator 'betwix an iron chimlay and a fire,' and there cruelly +roasted him until he signed away his abbacy. it is one of the +ugliest stories of an ugly period, but not, somehow, without such a +flavour of the ridiculous as makes it hard to sympathise quite +seriously with the victim. And it is consoling to remember that he +got away at last, and kept his abbacy, and, over and above, had a +pension from the Earl until he died. + +Some way beyond Dunure a wide bay, of somewhat less unkindly +aspect, opened out. Colzean plantations lay all along the steep +shore, and there was a wooded hill towards the centre, where the +trees made a sort of shadowy etching over the snow. The road went +down and up, and past a blacksmith's cottage that made fine music +in the valley. Three compatriots of Burns drove up to me in a +cart. They were all drunk, and asked me jeeringly if this was the +way to Dunure. I told them it was; and my answer was received with +unfeigned merriment. One gentleman was so much tickled he nearly +fell out of the cart; indeed, he was only saved by a companion, who +either had not so fine a sense of humour or had drunken less. + +'The toune of Mayboll,' says the inimitable Abercrummie, {3} +'stands upon an ascending ground from east to west, and lyes open +to the south. It hath one principals street, with houses upon both +sides, built of freestone; and it is beautifyed with the situation +of two castles, one at each end of this street. That on the east +belongs to the Erle of Cassilis. On the west end is a castle, +which belonged sometime to the laird of Blairquan, which is now the +tolbuith, and is adorned with a pyremide [conical roof], and a row +of ballesters round it raised from the top of the staircase, into +which they have mounted a fyne clock. There be four lanes which +pass from the principall street; one is called the Black Vennel, +which is steep, declining to the south-west, and leads to a lower +street, which is far larger than the high chiefe street, and it +runs from the Kirkland to the Well Trees, in which there have been +many pretty buildings, belonging to the severall gentry of the +countrey, who were wont to resort thither in winter, and divert +themselves in converse together at their owne houses. It was once +the principall street of the town; but many of these houses of the +gentry having been decayed and ruined, it has lost much of its +ancient beautie. Just opposite to this vennel, there is another +that leads north-west, from the chiefe street to the green, which +is a pleasant plott of ground, enclosed round with an earthen wall, +wherein they were wont to play football, but now at the Gowff and +byasse-bowls. The houses of this towne, on both sides of the +street, have their several gardens belonging to them; and in the +lower street there be some pretty orchards, that yield store of +good fruit.' As Patterson says, this description is near enough +even to-day, and is mighty nicely written to boot. I am bound to +add, of my own experience, that Maybole is tumbledown and dreary. +Prosperous enough in reality, it has an air of decay; and though +the population has increased, a roofless house every here and there +seems to protest the contrary. The women are more than well- +favoured, and the men fine tall fellows; but they look slipshod and +dissipated. As they slouched at street corners, or stood about +gossiping in the snow, it seemed they would have been more at home +in the slums of a large city than here in a country place betwixt a +village and a town. I heard a great deal about drinking, and a +great deal about religious revivals: two things in which the +Scottish character is emphatic and most unlovely. In particular, I +heard of clergymen who were employing their time in explaining to a +delighted audience the physics of the Second Coming. It is not +very likely any of us will be asked to help. if we were, it is +likely we should receive instructions for the occasion, and that on +more reliable authority. And so I can only figure to myself a +congregation truly curious in such flights of theological fancy, as +one of veteran and accomplished saints, who have fought the good +fight to an end and outlived all worldly passion, and are to be +regarded rather as a part of the Church Triumphant than the poor, +imperfect company on earth. And yet I saw some young fellows about +the smoking-room who seemed, in the eyes of one who cannot count +himself strait-laced, in need of some more practical sort of +teaching. They seemed only eager to get drunk, and to do so +speedily. It was not much more than a week after the New Year; and +to hear them return on their past bouts with a gusto unspeakable +was not altogether pleasing. Here is one snatch of talk, for the +accuracy of which I can vouch- + +'Ye had a spree here last Tuesday?' + +'We had that!' + +'I wasna able to be oot o' my bed. Man, I was awful bad on +Wednesday.' + +'Ay, ye were gey bad.' + +And you should have seen the bright eyes, and heard the sensual +accents! They recalled their doings with devout gusto and a sort +of rational pride. Schoolboys, after their first drunkenness, are +not more boastful; a cock does not plume himself with a more +unmingled satisfaction as he paces forth among his harem; and yet +these were grown men, and by no means short of wit. It was hard to +suppose they were very eager about the Second Coming: it seemed as +if some elementary notions of temperance for the men and seemliness +for the women would have gone nearer the mark. And yet, as it +seemed to me typical of much that is evil in Scotland, Maybole is +also typical of much that is best. Some of the factories, which +have taken the place of weaving in the town's economy, were +originally founded and are still possessed by self-made men of the +sterling, stout old breed--fellows who made some little bit of an +invention, borrowed some little pocketful of capital, and then, +step by step, in courage, thrift and industry, fought their way +upwards to an assured position. + +Abercrummie has told you enough of the Tolbooth; but, as a bit of +spelling, this inscription on the Tolbooth bell seems too delicious +to withhold: 'This bell is founded at Maiboll Bi Danel Geli, a +Frenchman, the 6th November, 1696, Bi appointment of the heritors +of the parish of Maiyboll.' The Castle deserves more notice. It +is a large and shapely tower, plain from the ground upwards, but +with a zone of ornamentation running about the top. In a general +way this adornment is perched on the very summit of the chimney- +stacks; but there is one corner more elaborate than the rest. A +very heavy string-course runs round the upper story, and just above +this, facing up the street, the tower carries a small oriel window, +fluted and corbelled and carved about with stone heads. It is so +ornate it has somewhat the air of a shrine. And it was, indeed, +the casket of a very precious jewel, for in the room to which it +gives light lay, for long years, the heroine of the sweet old +ballad of 'Johnnie Faa'--she who, at the call of the gipsies' +songs, 'came tripping down the stair, and all her maids before +her.' Some people say the ballad has no basis in fact, and have +written, I believe, unanswerable papers to the proof. But in the +face of all that, the very look of that high oriel window convinces +the imagination, and we enter into all the sorrows of the +imprisoned dame. We conceive the burthen of the long, lack-lustre +days, when she leaned her sick head against the mullions, and saw +the burghers loafing in Maybole High Street, and the children at +play, and ruffling gallants riding by from hunt or foray. We +conceive the passion of odd moments, when the wind threw up to her +some snatch of song, and her heart grew hot within her, and her +eyes overflowed at the memory of the past. And even if the tale be +not true of this or that lady, or this or that old tower, it is +true in the essence of all men and women: for all of us, some time +or other, hear the gipsies singing; over all of us is the glamour +cast. Some resist and sit resolutely by the fire. Most go and are +brought back again, like Lady Cassilis. A few, of the tribe of +Waring, go and are seen no more; only now and again, at springtime, +when the gipsies' song is afloat in the amethyst evening, we can +catch their voices in the glee. + +By night it was clearer, and Maybole more visible than during the +day. Clouds coursed over the sky in great masses; the full moon +battled the other way, and lit up the snow with gleams of flying +silver; the town came down the hill in a cascade of brown gables, +bestridden by smooth white roofs, and sprangled here and there with +lighted windows. At either end the snow stood high up in the +darkness, on the peak of the Tolbooth and among the chimneys of the +Castle. As the moon flashed a bull's-eye glitter across the town +between the racing clouds, the white roofs leaped into relief over +the gables and the chimney-stacks, and their shadows over the white +roofs. In the town itself the lit face of the clock peered down +the street; an hour was hammered out on Mr. Geli's bell, and from +behind the red curtains of a public-house some one trolled out--a +compatriot of Burns, again!--'The saut tear blin's my e'e.' + +Next morning there was sun and a flapping wind. From the street +corners of Maybole I could catch breezy glimpses of green fields. +The road underfoot was wet and heavy--part ice, part snow, part +water, and any one I met greeted me, by way of salutation, with 'A +fine thowe' (thaw). My way lay among rather bleak bills, and past +bleak ponds and dilapidated castles and monasteries, to the +Highland-looking village of Kirkoswald. It has little claim to +notice, save that Burns came there to study surveying in the summer +of 1777, and there also, in the kirkyard, the original of Tam o' +Shanter sleeps his last sleep. It is worth noticing, however, that +this was the first place I thought 'Highland-looking.' Over the +bill from Kirkoswald a farm-road leads to the coast. As I came +down above Turnberry, the sea view was indeed strangely different +from the day before. The cold fogs were all blown away; and there +was Ailsa Craig, like a refraction, magnified and deformed, of the +Bass Rock; and there were the chiselled mountain-tops of Arran, +veined and tipped with snow; and behind, and fainter, the low, blue +land of Cantyre. Cottony clouds stood in a great castle over the +top of Arran, and blew out in long streamers to the south. The sea +was bitten all over with white; little ships, tacking up and down +the Firth, lay over at different angles in the wind. On Shanter +they were ploughing lea; a cart foal, all in a field by himself, +capered and whinnied as if the spring were in him. + +The road from Turnberry to Girvan lies along the shore, among sand- +hills and by wildernesses of tumbled bent. Every here and there a +few cottages stood together beside a bridge. They had one odd +feature, not easy to describe in words: a triangular porch +projected from above the door, supported at the apex by a single +upright post; a secondary door was hinged to the post, and could be +hasped on either cheek of the real entrance; so, whether the wind +was north or south, the cotter could make himself a triangular +bight of shelter where to set his chair and finish a pipe with +comfort. There is one objection to this device; for, as the post +stands in the middle of the fairway, any one precipitately issuing +from the cottage must run his chance of a broken head. So far as I +am aware, it is peculiar to the little corner of country about +Girvan. And that corner is noticeable for more reasons: it is +certainly one of the most characteristic districts in Scotland, It +has this movable porch by way of architecture; it has, as we shall +see, a sort of remnant of provincial costume, and it has the +handsomest population in the Lowlands. . . . + + + +CHAPTER V--FOREST NOTES 1875-6 + + + +ON THE PLAIN + + +Perhaps the reader knows already the aspect of the great levels of +the Gatinais, where they border with the wooded hills of +Fontainebleau. Here and there a few grey rocks creep out of the +forest as if to sun themselves. Here and there a few apple-trees +stand together on a knoll. The quaint, undignified tartan of a +myriad small fields dies out into the distance; the strips blend +and disappear; and the dead flat lies forth open and empty, with no +accident save perhaps a thin line of trees or faint church spire +against the sky. Solemn and vast at all times, in spite of +pettiness in the near details, the impression becomes more solemn +and vast towards evening. The sun goes down, a swollen orange, as +it were into the sea. A blue-clad peasant rides home, with a +harrow smoking behind him among the dry clods. Another still works +with his wife in their little strip. An immense shadow fills the +plain; these people stand in it up to their shoulders; and their +heads, as they stoop over their work and rise again, are relieved +from time to time against the golden sky. + +These peasant farmers are well off nowadays, and not by any means +overworked; but somehow you always see in them the historical +representative of the serf of yore, and think not so much of +present times, which may be prosperous enough, as of the old days +when the peasant was taxed beyond possibility of payment, and +lived, in Michelet's image, like a hare between two furrows. These +very people now weeding their patch under the broad sunset, that +very man and his wife, it seems to us, have suffered all the wrongs +of France. It is they who have been their country's scapegoat for +long ages; they who, generation after generation, have sowed and +not reaped, reaped and another has garnered; and who have now +entered into their reward, and enjoy their good things in their +turn. For the days are gone by when the Seigneur ruled and +profited. 'Le Seigneur,' says the old formula, 'enferme ses +manants comme sous porte et gonds, du ciel a la terre. Tout est a +lui, foret chenue, oiseau dans l'air, poisson dans l'eau, bete an +buisson, l'onde qui coule, la cloche dont le son au loin roule.' +Such was his old state of sovereignty, a local god rather than a +mere king. And now you may ask yourself where he is, and look +round for vestiges of my late lord, and in all the country-side +there is no trace of him but his forlorn and fallen mansion. At +the end of a long avenue, now sown with grain, in the midst of a +close full of cypresses and lilacs, ducks and crowing chanticleers +and droning bees, the old chateau lifts its red chimneys and peaked +roofs and turning vanes into the wind and sun. There is a glad +spring bustle in the air, perhaps, and the lilacs are all in +flower, and the creepers green about the broken balustrade: but no +spring shall revive the honour of the place. Old women of the +people, little, children of the people, saunter and gambol in the +walled court or feed the ducks in the neglected moat. Plough- +horses, mighty of limb, browse in the long stables. The dial-hand +on the clock waits for some better hour. Out on the plain, where +hot sweat trickles into men's eyes, and the spade goes in deep and +comes up slowly, perhaps the peasant may feel a movement of joy at +his heart when he thinks that these spacious chimneys are now cold, +which have so often blazed and flickered upon gay folk at supper, +while he and his hollow-eyed children watched through the night +with empty bellies and cold feet. And perhaps, as he raises his +head and sees the forest lying like a coast-line of low hills along +the sea-level of the plain, perhaps forest and chateau hold no +unsimilar place in his affections. + +If the chateau was my lord's, the forest was my lord the king's; +neither of them for this poor Jacques. If he thought to eke out +his meagre way of life by some petty theft of wood for the fire, or +for a new roof-tree, he found himself face to face with a whole +department, from the Grand Master of the Woods and Waters, who was +a high-born lord, down to the common sergeant, who was a peasant +like himself, and wore stripes or a bandoleer by way of uniform. +For the first offence, by the Salic law, there was a fine of +fifteen sols; and should a man be taken more than once in fault, or +circumstances aggravate the colour of his guilt, he might be +whipped, branded, or hanged. There was a hangman over at Melun, +and, I doubt not, a fine tall gibbet hard by the town gate, where +Jacques might see his fellows dangle against the sky as he went to +market. + +And then, if he lived near to a cover, there would be the more +hares and rabbits to eat out his harvest, and the more hunters to +trample it down. My lord has a new horn from England. He has laid +out seven francs in decorating it with silver and gold, and fitting +it with a silken leash to hang about his shoulder. The hounds have +been on a pilgrimage to the shrine of Saint Mesmer, or Saint Hubert +in the Ardennes, or some other holy intercessor who has made a +speciality of the health of hunting-dogs. In the grey dawn the +game was turned and the branch broken by our best piqueur. A rare +day's hunting lies before us. Wind a jolly flourish, sound the +bien-aller with all your lungs. Jacques must stand by, hat in +hand, while the quarry and hound and huntsman sweep across his +field, and a year's sparing and labouring is as though it had not +been. If he can see the ruin with a good enough grace, who knows +but he may fall in favour with my lord; who knows but his son may +become the last and least among the servants at his lordship's +kennel--one of the two poor varlets who get no wages and sleep at +night among the hounds? {4} + +For all that, the forest has been of use to Jacques, not only +warming him with fallen wood, but giving him shelter in days of +sore trouble, when my lord of the chateau, with all his troopers +and trumpets, had been beaten from field after field into some +ultimate fastness, or lay over-seas in an English prison. In these +dark days, when the watch on the church steeple saw the smoke of +burning villages on the sky-line, or a clump of spears and +fluttering pensions drawing nigh across the plain, these good folk +gat them up, with all their household gods, into the wood, whence, +from some high spur, their timid scouts might overlook the coming +and going of the marauders, and see the harvest ridden down, and +church and cottage go up to heaven all night in flame. It was but +an unhomely refuge that the woods afforded, where they must abide +all change of weather and keep house with wolves and vipers. Often +there was none left alive, when they returned, to show the old +divisions of field from field. And yet, as times went, when the +wolves entered at night into depopulated Paris, and perhaps De Retz +was passing by with a company of demons like himself, even in these +caves and thickets there were glad hearts and grateful prayers. + +Once or twice, as I say, in the course of the ages, the forest may +have served the peasant well, but at heart it is a royal forest, +and noble by old associations. These woods have rung to the horns +of all the kings of France, from Philip Augustus downwards. They +have seen Saint Louis exercise the dogs he brought with him from +Egypt; Francis I. go a-hunting with ten thousand horses in his +train; and Peter of Russia following his first stag. And so they +are still haunted for the imagination by royal hunts and +progresses, and peopled with the faces of memorable men of yore. +And this distinction is not only in virtue of the pastime of dead +monarchs. + +Great events, great revolutions, great cycles in the affairs of +men, have here left their note, here taken shape in some +significant and dramatic situation. It was hence that Gruise and +his leaguers led Charles the Ninth a prisoner to Paris. Here, +booted and spurred, and with all his dogs about him, Napoleon met +the Pope beside a woodland cross. Here, on his way to Elba not so +long after, he kissed the eagle of the Old Guard, and spoke words +of passionate farewell to his soldiers. And here, after Waterloo, +rather than yield its ensign to the new power, one of his faithful +regiments burned that memorial of so much toil and glory on the +Grand Master's table, and drank its dust in brandy, as a devout +priest consumes the remnants of the Host. + + +IN THE SEASON + + +Close into the edge of the forest, so close that the trees of the +bornage stand pleasantly about the last houses, sits a certain +small and very quiet village. There is but one street, and that, +not long ago, was a green lane, where the cattle browsed between +the doorsteps. As you go up this street, drawing ever nearer the +beginning of the wood, you will arrive at last before an inn where +artists lodge. To the door (for I imagine it to be six o'clock on +some fine summer's even), half a dozen, or maybe half a score, of +people have brought out chairs, and now sit sunning themselves, and +waiting the omnibus from Melun. If you go on into the court you +will find as many more, some in billiard-room over absinthe and a +match of corks some without over a last cigar and a vermouth. The +doves coo and flutter from the dovecot; Hortense is drawing water +from the well; and as all the rooms open into the court, you can +see the white-capped cook over the furnace in the kitchen, and some +idle painter, who has stored his canvases and washed his brushes, +jangling a waltz on the crazy, tongue-tied piano in the salle-a- +manger. 'Edmond, encore un vermouth,' cries a man in velveteen, +adding in a tone of apologetic afterthought, 'un double, s'il vous +plait.' 'Where are you working?' asks one in pure white linen from +top to toe. 'At the Carrefour de l'Epine,' returns the other in +corduroy (they are all gaitered, by the way). 'I couldn't do a +thing to it. I ran out of white. Where were you?' 'I wasn't +working. I was looking for motives.' Here is an outbreak of +jubilation, and a lot of men clustering together about some new- +comer with outstretched hands; perhaps the 'correspondence' has +come in and brought So-and-so from Paris, or perhaps it is only So- +and-so who has walked over from Chailly to dinner. + +'A table, Messieurs!' cries M. Siron, bearing through the court the +first tureen of soup. And immediately the company begins to settle +down about the long tables in the dining-room, framed all round +with sketches of all degrees of merit and demerit. There's the big +picture of the huntsman winding a horn with a dead boar between his +legs, and his legs--well, his legs in stockings. And here is the +little picture of a raw mutton-chop, in which Such-a-one knocked a +hole last summer with no worse a missile than a plum from the +dessert. And under all these works of art so much eating goes +forward, so much drinking, so much jabbering in French and English, +that it would do your heart good merely to peep and listen at the +door. One man is telling how they all went last year to the fete +at Fleury, and another how well so-and-so would sing of an evening: +and here are a third and fourth making plans for the whole future +of their lives; and there is a fifth imitating a conjurer and +making faces on his clenched fist, surely of all arts the most +difficult and admirable! A sixth has eaten his fill, lights a +cigarette, and resigns himself to digestion. A seventh has just +dropped in, and calls for soup. Number eight, meanwhile, has left +the table, and is once more trampling the poor piano under powerful +and uncertain fingers. + +Dinner over, people drop outside to smoke and chat. Perhaps we go +along to visit our friends at the other end of the village, where +there is always a good welcome and a good talk, and perhaps some +pickled oysters and white wine to close the evening. Or a dance is +organised in the dining-room, and the piano exhibits all its paces +under manful jockeying, to the light of three or four candles and a +lamp or two, while the waltzers move to and fro upon the wooden +floor, and sober men, who are not given to such light pleasures, +get up on the table or the sideboard, and sit there looking on +approvingly over a pipe and a tumbler of wine. Or sometimes-- +suppose my lady moon looks forth, and the court from out the half- +lit dining-room seems nearly as bright as by day, and the light +picks out the window-panes, and makes a clear shadow under every +vine-leaf on the wall--sometimes a picnic is proposed, and a basket +made ready, and a good procession formed in front of the hotel. +The two trumpeters in honour go before; and as we file down the +long alley, and up through devious footpaths among rocks and pine- +trees, with every here and there a dark passage of shadow, and +every here and there a spacious outlook over moonlit woods, these +two precede us and sound many a jolly flourish as they walk. We +gather ferns and dry boughs into the cavern, and soon a good blaze +flutters the shadows of the old bandits' haunt, and shows shapely +beards and comely faces and toilettes ranged about the wall. The +bowl is lit, and the punch is burnt and sent round in scalding +thimblefuls. So a good hour or two may pass with song and jest. +And then we go home in the moonlit morning, straggling a good deal +among the birch tufts and the boulders, but ever called together +again, as one of our leaders winds his horn. Perhaps some one of +the party will not heed the summons, but chooses out some by-way of +his own. As he follows the winding sandy road, he hears the +flourishes grow fainter and fainter in the distance, and die +finally out, and still walks on in the strange coolness and silence +and between the crisp lights and shadows of the moonlit woods, +until suddenly the bell rings out the hour from far-away Chailly, +and he starts to find himself alone. No surf-bell on forlorn and +perilous shores, no passing knell over the busy market-place, can +speak with a more heavy and disconsolate tongue to human ears. +Each stroke calls up a host of ghostly reverberations in his mind. +And as he stands rooted, it has grown once more so utterly silent +that it seems to him he might hear the church bells ring the hour +out all the world over, not at Chailly only, but in Paris, and away +in outlandish cities, and in the village on the river, where his +childhood passed between the sun and flowers. + + +IDLE HOURS + + +The woods by night, in all their uncanny effect, are not rightly to +be understood until you can compare them with the woods by day. +The stillness of the medium, the floor of glittering sand, these +trees that go streaming up like monstrous sea-weeds and waver in +the moving winds like the weeds in submarine currents, all these +set the mind working on the thought of what you may have seen off a +foreland or over the side of a boat, and make you feel like a +diver, down in the quiet water, fathoms below the tumbling, +transitory surface of the sea. And yet in itself, as I say, the +strangeness of these nocturnal solitudes is not to be felt fully +without the sense of contrast. You must have risen in the morning +and seen the woods as they are by day, kindled and coloured in the +sun's light; you must have felt the odour of innumerable trees at +even, the unsparing heat along the forest roads, and the coolness +of the groves. + +And on the first morning you will doubtless rise betimes. If you +have not been wakened before by the visit of some adventurous +pigeon, you will be wakened as soon as the sun can reach your +window--for there are no blind or shutters to keep him out--and the +room, with its bare wood floor and bare whitewashed walls, shines +all round you in a sort of glory of reflected lights. You may doze +a while longer by snatches, or lie awake to study the charcoal men +and dogs and horses with which former occupants have defiled the +partitions: Thiers, with wily profile; local celebrities, pipe in +hand; or, maybe, a romantic landscape splashed in oil. Meanwhile +artist after artist drops into the salle-a-manger for coffee, and +then shoulders easel, sunshade, stool, and paint-box, bound into a +fagot, and sets of for what he calls his 'motive.' And artist +after artist, as he goes out of the village, carries with him a +little following of dogs. For the dogs, who belong only nominally +to any special master, hang about the gate of the forest all day +long, and whenever any one goes by who hits their fancy, profit by +his escort, and go forth with him to play an hour or two at +hunting. They would like to be under the trees all day. But they +cannot go alone. They require a pretext. And so they take the +passing artist as an excuse to go into the woods, as they might +take a walking-stick as an excuse to bathe. With quick ears, long +spines, and bandy legs, or perhaps as tall as a greyhound and with +a bulldog's head, this company of mongrels will trot by your side +all day and come home with you at night, still showing white teeth +and wagging stunted tail. Their good humour is not to be +exhausted. You may pelt them with stones if you please, and all +they will do is to give you a wider berth. If once they come out +with you, to you they will remain faithful, and with you return; +although if you meet them next morning in the street, it is as like +as not they will cut you with a countenance of brass. + +The forest--a strange thing for an Englishman--is very destitute of +birds. This is no country where every patch of wood among the +meadows gibes up an increase of song, and every valley wandered +through by a streamlet rings and reverberates from side to with a +profusion of clear notes. And this rarity of birds is not to be +regretted on its own account only. For the insects prosper in +their absence, and become as one of the plagues of Egypt. Ants +swarm in the hot sand; mosquitos drone their nasal drone; wherever +the sun finds a hole in the roof of the forest, you see a myriad +transparent creatures coming and going in the shaft of light; and +even between-whiles, even where there is no incursion of sun-rays +into the dark arcade of the wood, you are conscious of a continual +drift of insects, an ebb and flow of infinitesimal living things +between the trees. Nor are insects the only evil creatures that +haunt the forest. For you may plump into a cave among the rocks, +and find yourself face to face with a wild boar, or see a crooked +viper slither across the road. + +Perhaps you may set yourself down in the bay between two spreading +beech-roots with a book on your lap, and be awakened all of a +sudden by a friend: 'I say, just keep where you are, will you? +You make the jolliest motive.' And you reply: 'Well, I don't +mind, if I may smoke.' And thereafter the hours go idly by. Your +friend at the easel labours doggedly a little way off, in the wide +shadow of the tree; and yet farther, across a strait of glaring +sunshine, you see another painter, encamped in the shadow of +another tree, and up to his waist in the fern. You cannot watch +your own effigy growing out of the white trunk, and the trunk +beginning to stand forth from the rest of the wood, and the whole +picture getting dappled over with the flecks of sun that slip +through the leaves overhead, and, as a wind goes by and sets the +trees a-talking, flicker hither and thither like butterflies of +light. But you know it is going forward; and, out of emulation +with the painter, get ready your own palette, and lay out the +colour for a woodland scene in words. + +Your tree stands in a hollow paved with fern and heather, set in a +basin of low hills, and scattered over with rocks and junipers. +All the open is steeped in pitiless sunlight. Everything stands +out as though it were cut in cardboard, every colour is strained +into its highest key. The boulders are some of them upright and +dead like monolithic castles, some of them prone like sleeping +cattle. The junipers--looking, in their soiled and ragged +mourning, like some funeral procession that has gone seeking the +place of sepulchre three hundred years and more in wind and rain-- +are daubed in forcibly against the glowing ferns and heather. +Every tassel of their rusty foliage is defined with pre-Raphaelite +minuteness. And a sorry figure they make out there in the sun, +like misbegotten yew-trees! The scene is all pitched in a key of +colour so peculiar, and lit up with such a discharge of violent +sunlight, as a man might live fifty years in England and not see. + +Meanwhile at your elbow some one tunes up a song, words of Ronsard +to a pathetic tremulous air, of how the poet loved his mistress +long ago, and pressed on her the flight of time, and told her how +white and quiet the dead lay under the stones, and how the boat +dipped and pitched as the shades embarked for the passionless land. +Yet a little while, sang the poet, and there shall be no more love; +only to sit and remember loves that might have been. There is a +falling flourish in the air that remains in the memory and comes +back in incongruous places, on the seat of hansoms or in the warm +bed at night, with something of a forest savour. + +'You can get up now,' says the painter; 'I'm at the background.' + +And so up you get, stretching yourself, and go your way into the +wood, the daylight becoming richer and more golden, and the shadows +stretching farther into the open. A cool air comes along the +highways, and the scents awaken. The fir-trees breathe abroad +their ozone. Out of unknown thickets comes forth the soft, secret, +aromatic odour of the woods, not like a smell of the free heaven, +but as though court ladies, who had known these paths in ages long +gone by, still walked in the summer evenings, and shed from their +brocades a breath of musk or bergamot upon the woodland winds. One +side of the long avenues is still kindled with the sun, the other +is plunged in transparent shadow. Over the trees the west begins +to burn like a furnace; and the painters gather up their chattels, +and go down, by avenue or footpath, to the plain. + + +A PLEASURE-PARTY + + +As this excursion is a matter of some length, and, moreover, we go +in force, we have set aside our usual vehicle, the pony-cart, and +ordered a large wagonette from Lejosne's. It has been waiting for +near an hour, while one went to pack a knapsack, and t'other +hurried over his toilette and coffee; but now it is filled from end +to end with merry folk in summer attire, the coachman cracks his +whip, and amid much applause from round the inn door off we rattle +at a spanking trot. The way lies through the forest, up hill and +down dale, and by beech and pine wood, in the cheerful morning +sunshine. The English get down at all the ascents and walk on +ahead for exercise; the French are mightily entertained at this, +and keep coyly underneath the tilt. As we go we carry with us a +pleasant noise of laughter and light speech, and some one will be +always breaking out into a bar or two of opera bouffe. Before we +get to the Route Ronde here comes Desprez, the colourman from +Fontainebleau, trudging across on his weekly peddle with a case of +merchandise; and it is 'Desprez, leave me some malachite green'; +'Desprez, leave me so much canvas'; 'Desprez, leave me this, or +leave me that'; M. Desprez standing the while in the sunlight with +grave face and many salutations. The next interruption is more +important. For some time back we have had the sound of cannon in +our ears; and now, a little past Franchard, we find a mounted +trooper holding a led horse, who brings the wagonette to a stand. +The artillery is practising in the Quadrilateral, it appears; +passage along the Route Ronde formally interdicted for the moment. +There is nothing for it but to draw up at the glaring cross-roads +and get down to make fun with the notorious Cocardon, the most +ungainly and ill-bred dog of all the ungainly and ill-bred dogs of +Barbizon, or clamber about the sandy banks. And meanwhile the +doctor, with sun umbrella, wide Panama, and patriarchal beard, is +busy wheedling and (for aught the rest of us know) bribing the too +facile sentry. His speech is smooth and dulcet, his manner +dignified and insinuating. It is not for nothing that the Doctor +has voyaged all the world over, and speaks all languages from +French to Patagonian. He has not come borne from perilous journeys +to be thwarted by a corporal of horse. And so we soon see the +soldier's mouth relax, and his shoulders imitate a relenting heart. +'En voiture, Messieurs, Mesdames,' sings the Doctor; and on we go +again at a good round pace, for black care follows hard after us, +and discretion prevails not a little over valour in some timorous +spirits of the party. At any moment we may meet the sergeant, who +will send us back. At any moment we may encounter a flying shell, +which will send us somewhere farther off than Grez. + +Grez--for that is our destination--has been highly recommended for +its beauty. 'Il y a de l'eau,' people have said, with an emphasis, +as if that settled the question, which, for a French mind, I am +rather led to think it does. And Grez, when we get there, is +indeed a place worthy of some praise. It lies out of the forest, a +cluster of houses, with an old bridge, an old castle in ruin, and a +quaint old church. The inn garden descends in terraces to the +river; stable-yard, kailyard, orchard, and a space of lawn, fringed +with rushes and embellished with a green arbour. On the opposite +bank there is a reach of English-looking plain, set thickly with +willows and poplars. And between the two lies the river, clear and +deep, and full of reeds and floating lilies. Water-plants cluster +about the starlings of the long low bridge, and stand half-way up +upon the piers in green luxuriance. They catch the dipped oar with +long antennae, and chequer the slimy bottom with the shadow of +their leaves. And the river wanders and thither hither among the +islets, and is smothered and broken up by the reeds, like an old +building in the lithe, hardy arms of the climbing ivy. You may +watch the box where the good man of the inn keeps fish alive for +his kitchen, one oily ripple following another over the top of the +yellow deal. And you can hear a splashing and a prattle of voices +from the shed under the old kirk, where the village women wash and +wash all day among the fish and water-lilies. It seems as if linen +washed there should be specially cool and sweet. + +We have come here for the river. And no sooner have we all bathed +than we board the two shallops and push off gaily, and go gliding +under the trees and gathering a great treasure of water-lilies. +Some one sings; some trail their hands in the cool water; some lean +over the gunwale to see the image of the tall poplars far below, +and the shadow of the boat, with the balanced oars and their own +head protruded, glide smoothly over the yellow floor of the stream. +At last, the day declining--all silent and happy, and up to the +knees in the wet lilies--we punt slowly back again to the landing- +place beside the bridge. There is a wish for solitude on all. One +hides himself in the arbour with a cigarette; another goes a walk +in the country with Cocardon; a third inspects the church. And it +is not till dinner is on the table, and the inn's best wine goes +round from glass to glass, that we begin to throw off the restraint +and fuse once more into a jolly fellowship. + +Half the party are to return to-night with the wagonette; and some +of the others, loath to break up company, will go with them a bit +of the way and drink a stirrup-cup at Marlotte. It is dark in the +wagonette, and not so merry as it might have been. The coachman +loses the road. So-and-so tries to light fireworks with the most +indifferent success. Some sing, but the rest are too weary to +applaud; and it seems as if the festival were fairly at an end - + +'Nous avons fait la noce, +Rentrons a nos foyers!' + +And such is the burthen, even after we have come to Marlotte and +taken our places in the court at Mother Antonine's. There is punch +on the long table out in the open air, where the guests dine in +summer weather. The candles flare in the night wind, and the faces +round the punch are lit up, with shifting emphasis, against a +background of complete and solid darkness. It is all picturesque +enough; but the fact is, we are aweary. We yawn; we are out of the +vein; we have made the wedding, as the song says, and now, for +pleasure's sake, let's make an end on't. When here comes striding +into the court, booted to mid-thigh, spurred and splashed, in a +jacket of green cord, the great, famous, and redoubtable Blank; and +in a moment the fire kindles again, and the night is witness of our +laughter as he imitates Spaniards, Germans, Englishmen, picture- +dealers, all eccentric ways of speaking and thinking, with a +possession, a fury, a strain of mind and voice, that would rather +suggest a nervous crisis than a desire to please. We are as merry +as ever when the trap sets forth again, and say farewell noisily to +all the good folk going farther. Then, as we are far enough from +thoughts of sleep, we visit Blank in his quaint house, and sit an +hour or so in a great tapestried chamber, laid with furs, littered +with sleeping hounds, and lit up, in fantastic shadow and shine, by +a wood fire in a mediaeval chimney. And then we plod back through +the darkness to the inn beside the river. + +How quick bright things come to confusion! When we arise next +morning, the grey showers fall steadily, the trees hang limp, and +the face of the stream is spoiled with dimpling raindrops. +Yesterday's lilies encumber the garden walk, or begin, dismally +enough, their voyage towards the Seine and the salt sea. A sickly +shimmer lies upon the dripping house-roofs, and all the colour is +washed out of the green and golden landscape of last night, as +though an envious man had taken a water-colour sketch and blotted +it together with a sponge. We go out a-walking in the wet roads. +But the roads about Grez have a trick of their own. They go on for +a while among clumps of willows and patches of vine, and then, +suddenly and without any warning, cease and determine in some miry +hollow or upon some bald knowe; and you have a short period of +hope, then right-about face, and back the way you came! So we draw +about the kitchen fire and play a round game of cards for ha'pence, +or go to the billiard-room, for a match at corks and by one consent +a messenger is sent over for the wagonette--Grez shall be left to- +morrow. + +To-morrow dawns so fair that two of the party agree to walk back +for exercise, and let their kidnap-sacks follow by the trap. I +need hardly say they are neither of them French; for, of all +English phrases, the phrase 'for exercise' is the least +comprehensible across the Straits of Dover. All goes well for a +while with the pedestrians. The wet woods are full of scents in +the noontide. At a certain cross, where there is a guardhouse, +they make a halt, for the forester's wife is the daughter of their +good host at Barbizon. And so there they are hospitably received +by the comely woman, with one child in her arms and another +prattling and tottering at her gown, and drink some syrup of quince +in the back parlour, with a map of the forest on the wall, and some +prints of love-affairs and the great Napoleon hunting. As they +draw near the Quadrilateral, and hear once more the report of the +big guns, they take a by-road to avoid the sentries, and go on a +while somewhat vaguely, with the sound of the cannon in their ears +and the rain beginning to fall. The ways grow wider and sandier; +here and there there are real sand-hills, as though by the sea- +shore; the fir-wood is open and grows in clumps upon the hillocks, +and the race of sign-posts is no more. One begins to look at the +other doubtfully. 'I am sure we should keep more to the right,' +says one; and the other is just as certain they should hold to the +left. And now, suddenly, the heavens open, and the rain falls +'sheer and strong and loud,' as out of a shower-bath. In a moment +they are as wet as shipwrecked sailors. They cannot see out of +their eyes for the drift, and the water churns and gurgles in their +boots. They leave the track and try across country with a +gambler's desperatin, for it seems as if it were impossible to make +the situation worse; and, for the next hour, go scrambling from +boulder to boulder, or plod along paths that are now no more than +rivulets, and across waste clearings where the scattered shells and +broken fir-trees tell all too plainly of the cannon in the +distance. And meantime the cannon grumble out responses to the +grumbling thunder. There is such a mixture of melodrama and sheer +discomfort about all this, it is at once so grey and so lurid, that +it is far more agreeable to read and write about by the chimney- +corner than to suffer in the person. At last they chance on the +right path, and make Franchard in the early evening, the sorriest +pair of wanderers that ever welcomed English ale. Thence, by the +Bois d'Hyver, the Ventes-Alexandre, and the Pins Brules, to the +clean hostelry, dry clothes, and dinner. + + +THE WOODS IN SPRING + + +I think you will like the forest best in the sharp early +springtime, when it is just beginning to reawaken, and innumerable +violets peep from among the fallen leaves; when two or three people +at most sit down to dinner, and, at table, you will do well to keep +a rug about your knees, for the nights are chill, and the salle-a- +manger opens on the court. There is less to distract the +attention, for one thing, and the forest is more itself. It is not +bedotted with artists' sunshades as with unknown mushrooms, nor +bestrewn with the remains of English picnics. The hunting still +goes on, and at any moment your heart may be brought into your +mouth as you hear far-away horns; or you may be told by an agitated +peasant that the Vicomte has gone up the avenue, not ten minutes +since, 'a fond de train, monsieur, et avec douze pipuers.' + +If you go up to some coign of vantage in the system of low hills +that permeates the forest, you will see many different tracts of +country, each of its own cold and melancholy neutral tint, and all +mixed together and mingled the one into the other at the seams. +You will see tracts of leafless beeches of a faint yellowish grey, +and leafless oaks a little ruddier in the hue. Then zones of pine +of a solemn green; and, dotted among the pines, or standing by +themselves in rocky clearings, the delicate, snow-white trunks of +birches, spreading out into snow-white branches yet more delicate, +and crowned and canopied with a purple haze of twigs. And then a +long, bare ridge of tumbled boulders, with bright sand-breaks +between them, and wavering sandy roads among the bracken and brown +heather. It is all rather cold and unhomely. It has not the +perfect beauty, nor the gem-like colouring, of the wood in the +later year, when it is no more than one vast colonnade of verdant +shadow, tremulous with insects, intersected here and there by lanes +of sunlight set in purple heather. The loveliness of the woods in +March is not, assuredly, of this blowzy rustic type. It is made +sharp with a grain of salt, with a touch of ugliness. It has a +sting like the sting of bitter ale; you acquire the love of it as +men acquire a taste for olives. And the wonderful clear, pure air +wells into your lungs the while by voluptuous inhalations, and +makes the eyes bright, and sets the heart tinkling to a new tune-- +or, rather, to an old tune; for you remember in your boyhood +something akin to this spirit of adventure, this thirst for +exploration, that now takes you masterfully by the hand, plunges +you into many a deep grove, and drags you over many a stony crest. +it is as if the whole wood were full of friendly voice, calling you +farther in, and you turn from one side to another, like Buridan's +donkey, in a maze of pleasure. + +Comely beeches send up their white, straight, clustered branches, +barred with green moss, like so many fingers from a half-clenched +hand. Mighty oaks stand to the ankles in a fine tracery of +underwood; thence the tall shaft climbs upwards, and the great +forest of stalwart boughs spreads out into the golden evening sky, +where the rooks are flying and calling. On the sward of the Bois +d'Hyver the firs stand well asunder with outspread arms, like +fencers saluting; and the air smells of resin all around, and the +sound of the axe is rarely still. But strangest of all, and in +appearance oldest of all, are the dim and wizard upland districts +of young wood. The ground is carpeted with fir-tassel, and strewn +with fir-apples and flakes of fallen bark. Rocks lie crouching in +the thicket, guttered with rain, tufted with lichen, white with +years and the rigours of the changeful seasons. Brown and yellow +butterflies are sown and carried away again by the light air--like +thistledown. The loneliness of these coverts is so excessive, that +there are moments when pleasure draws to the verge of fear. You +listen and listen for some noise to break the silence, till you +grow half mesmerised by the intensity of the strain; your sense of +your own identity is troubled; your brain reels, like that of some +gymnosophist poring on his own nose in Asiatic jungles; and should +you see your own outspread feet, you see them, not as anything of +yours, but as a feature of the scene around you. + +Still the forest is always, but the stillness is not always +unbroken. You can hear the wind pass in the distance over the +tree-tops; sometimes briefly, like the noise of a train; sometimes +with a long steady rush, like the breaking of waves. And +sometimes, close at band, the branches move, a moan goes through +the thicket, and the wood thrills to its heart. Perhaps you may +hear a carriage on the road to Fontainebleau, a bird gives a dry +continual chirp, the dead leaves rustle underfoot, or you may time +your steps to the steady recurrent strokes of the woodman's axe. +From time to time, over the low grounds, a flight of rooks goes by; +and from time to time the cooing of wild doves falls upon the ear, +not sweet and rich and near at hand as in England, but a sort of +voice of the woods, thin and far away, as fits these solemn places. +Or you hear suddenly the hollow, eager, violent barking of dogs; +scared deer flit past you through the fringes of the wood; then a +man or two running, in green blouse, with gun and game-bag on a +bandoleer; and then, out of the thick of the trees, comes the jar +of rifle-shots. Or perhaps the hounds are out, and horns are +blown, and scarlet-coated huntsmen flash through the clearings, and +the solid noise of horses galloping passes below you, where you sit +perched among the rocks and heather. The boar is afoot, and all +over the forest, and in all neighbouring villages, there is a vague +excitement and a vague hope; for who knows whither the chase may +lead? and even to have seen a single piqueur, or spoken to a single +sportsman, is to be a man of consequence for the night. + +Besides men who shoot and men who ride with the hounds, there are +few people in the forest, in the early spring, save woodcutters +plying their axes steadily, and old women and children gathering +wood for the fire. You may meet such a party coming home in the +twilight: the old woman laden with a fagot of chips, and the +little ones hauling a long branch behind them in her wake. That is +the worst of what there is to encounter; and if I tell you of what +once happened to a friend of mine, it is by no means to tantalise +you with false hopes; for the adventure was unique. It was on a +very cold, still, sunless morning, with a flat grey sky and a +frosty tingle in the air, that this friend (who shall here be +nameless) heard the notes of a key-bugle played with much +hesitation, and saw the smoke of a fire spread out along the green +pine-tops, in a remote uncanny glen, hard by a hill of naked +boulders. He drew near warily, and beheld a picnic party seated +under a tree in an open. The old father knitted a sock, the mother +sat staring at the fire. The eldest son, in the uniform of a +private of dragoons, was choosing out notes on a key-bugle. Two or +three daughters lay in the neighbourhood picking violets. And the +whole party as grave and silent as the woods around them! My +friend watched for a long time, he says; but all held their peace; +not one spoke or smiled; only the dragoon kept choosing out single +notes upon the bugle, and the father knitted away at his work and +made strange movements the while with his flexible eyebrows. They +took no notice whatever of my friend's presence, which was +disquieting in itself, and increased the resemblance of the whole +party to mechanical waxworks. Certainly, he affirms, a wax figure +might have played the bugle with more spirit than that strange +dragoon. And as this hypothesis of his became more certain, the +awful insolubility of why they should be left out there in the +woods with nobody to wind them up again when they ran down, and a +growing disquietude as to what might happen next, became too much +for his courage, and he turned tail, and fairly took to his heels. +It might have been a singing in his ears, but he fancies he was +followed as he ran by a peal of Titanic laughter. Nothing has ever +transpired to clear up the mystery; it may be they were automata; +or it may be (and this is the theory to which I lean myself) that +this is all another chapter of Heine's 'Gods in Exile'; that the +upright old man with the eyebrows was no other than Father Jove, +and the young dragoon with the taste for music either Apollo or +Mars. + + +MORALITY + + +Strange indeed is the attraction of the forest for the minds of +men. Not one or two only, but a great chorus of grateful voices +have arisen to spread abroad its fame. Half the famous writers of +modern France have had their word to say about Fontainebleau. +Chateaubriand, Michelet, Beranger, George Sand, de Senancour, +Flaubert, Murger, the brothers Goncourt, Theodore de Banville, each +of these has done something to the eternal praise and memory of +these woods. Even at the very worst of times, even when the +picturesque was anathema in the eyes of all Persons of Taste, the +forest still preserved a certain reputation for beauty. It was in +1730 that the Abbe Guilbert published his Historical Description of +the Palace, Town, and Forest of Fontainebleau. And very droll it +is to see him, as he tries to set forth his admiration in terms of +what was then permissible. The monstrous rocks, etc., says the +Abbe 'sont admirees avec surprise des voyageurs qui s'ecrient +aussitot avec Horace: Ut mihi devio rupee et vacuum nemus mirari +libet.' The good man is not exactly lyrical in his praise; and you +see how he sets his back against Horace as against a trusty oak. +Horace, at any rate, was classical. For the rest, however, the +Abbe likes places where many alleys meet; or which, like the Belle- +Etoile, are kept up 'by a special gardener,' and admires at the +Table du Roi the labours of the Grand Master of Woods and Waters, +the Sieur de la Falure, 'qui a fait faire ce magnifique endroit.' + +But indeed, it is not so much for its beauty that the forest makes +a claim upon men's hearts, as for that subtle something, that +quality of the air, that emanation from the old trees, that so +wonderfully changes and renews a weary spirit. Disappointed men, +sick Francis Firsts and vanquished Grand Monarchs, time out of mind +have come here for consolation. Hither perplexed folk have retired +out of the press of life, as into a deep bay-window on some night +of masquerade, and here found quiet and silence, and rest, the +mother of wisdom. It is the great moral spa; this forest without a +fountain is itself the great fountain of Juventius. It is the best +place in the world to bring an old sorrow that has been a long +while your friend and enemy; and if, like Beranger's your gaiety +has run away from home and left open the door for sorrow to come +in, of all covers in Europe, it is here you may expect to find the +truant hid. With every hour you change. The air penetrates +through your clothes, and nestles to your living body. You love +exercise and slumber, long fasting and full meals. You forget all +your scruples and live a while in peace and freedom, and for the +moment only. For here, all is absent that can stimulate to moral +feeling. Such people as you see may be old, or toil-worn, or +sorry; but you see them framed in the forest, like figures on a +painted canvas; and for you, they are not people in any living and +kindly sense. You forget the grim contrariety of interests. You +forget the narrow lane where all men jostle together in +unchivalrous contention, and the kennel, deep and unclean, that +gapes on either hand for the defeated. Life is simple enough, it +seems, and the very idea of sacrifice becomes like a mad fancy out +of a last night's dream. + +Your ideal is not perhaps high, but it is plain and possible. You +become enamoured of a life of change and movement and the open air, +where the muscles shall be more exercised than the affections. +When you have had your will of the forest, you may visit the whole +round world. You may buckle on your knapsack and take the road on +foot. You may bestride a good nag, and ride forth, with a pair of +saddle-bags, into the enchanted East. You may cross the Black +Forest, and see Germany wide-spread before you, like a map, dotted +with old cities, walled and spired, that dream all day on their own +reflections in the Rhine or Danube. You may pass the spinal cord +of Europe and go down from Alpine glaciers to where Italy extends +her marble moles and glasses her marble palaces in the midland sea. +You may sleep in flying trains or wayside taverns. You may be +awakened at dawn by the scream of the express or the small pipe of +the robin in the hedge. For you the rain should allay the dust of +the beaten road; the wind dry your clothes upon you as you walked. +Autumn should hang out russet pears and purple grapes along the +lane; inn after inn proffer you their cups of raw wine; river by +river receive your body in the sultry noon. Wherever you went warm +valleys and high trees and pleasant villages should compass you +about; and light fellowships should take you by the arm, and walk +with you an hour upon your way. You may see from afar off what it +will come to in the end--the weather-beaten red-nosed vagabond, +consumed by a fever of the feet, cut off from all near touch of +human sympathy, a waif, an Ishmael, and an outcast. And yet it +will seem well--and yet, in the air of the forest, this will seem +the best--to break all the network bound about your feet by birth +and old companionship and loyal love, and bear your shovelful of +phosphates to and fro, in town country, until the hour of the great +dissolvent. + +Or, perhaps, you will keep to the cover. For the forest is by +itself, and forest life owns small kinship with life in the dismal +land of labour. Men are so far sophisticated that they cannot take +the world as it is given to them by the sight of their eyes. Not +only what they see and hear, but what they know to be behind, enter +into their notion of a place. If the sea, for instance, lie just +across the hills, sea-thoughts will come to them at intervals, and +the tenor of their dreams from time to time will suffer a sea- +change. And so here, in this forest, a knowledge of its greatness +is for much in the effect produced. You reckon up the miles that +lie between you and intrusion. You may walk before you all day +long, and not fear to touch the barrier of your Eden, or stumble +out of fairyland into the land of gin and steam-hammers. And there +is an old tale enhances for the imagination the grandeur of the +woods of France, and secures you in the thought of your seclusion. +When Charles VI. hunted in the time of his wild boyhood near +Senlis, there was captured an old stag, having a collar of bronze +about his neck, and these words engraved on the collar: 'Caesar +mihi hoc donavit.' It is no wonder if the minds of men were moved +at this occurrence and they stood aghast to find themselves thus +touching hands with forgotten ages, and following an antiquity with +hound and horn. And even for you, it is scarcely in an idle +curiosity that you ponder how many centuries this stag had carried +its free antlers through the wood, and how many summers and winters +had shone and snowed on the imperial badge. If the extent of +solemn wood could thus safeguard a tall stag from the hunter's +hounds and houses, might not you also play hide-and-seek, in these +groves, with all the pangs and trepidations of man's life, and +elude Death, the mighty hunter, for more than the span of human +years? Here, also, crash his arrows; here, in the farthest glade, +sounds the gallop of the pale horse. But he does not hunt this +cover with all his hounds, for the game is thin and small: and if +you were but alert and wary, if you lodged ever in the deepest +thickets, you too might live on into later generations and astonish +men by your stalwart age and the trophies of an immemorial success. + +For the forest takes away from you all excuse to die. There is +nothing here to cabin or thwart your free desires. Here all the +impudencies of the brawling world reach you no more. You may count +your hours, like Endymion, by the strokes of the lone woodcutter, +or by the progression of the lights and shadows and the sun +wheeling his wide circuit through the naked heavens. Here shall +you see no enemies but winter and rough weather. And if a pang +comes to you at all, it will be a pang of healthful hunger. All +the puling sorrows, all the carking repentance, all this talk of +duty that is no duty, in the great peace, in the pure daylight of +these woods, fall away from you like a garment. And if perchance +you come forth upon an eminence, where the wind blows upon you +large and fresh, and the pines knock their long stems together, +like an ungainly sort of puppets, and see far away over the plain a +factory chimney defined against the pale horizon--it is for you, as +for the staid and simple peasant when, with his plough, he upturns +old arms and harness from the furrow of the glebe. Ay, sure +enough, there was a battle there in the old times; and, sure +enough, there is a world out yonder where men strive together with +a noise of oaths and weeping and clamorous dispute. So much you +apprehend by an athletic act of the imagination. A faint far-off +rumour as of Merovingian wars; a legend as of some dead religion. + + + +CHAPTER VI--A MOUNTAIN TOWN IN FRANCE {5} A FRAGMENT 1879 +Originally intended to serve as the opening chapter of 'Travels +with a Donkey in the Cevennes.' + + + +Le Monastier is the chief place of a hilly canton in Haute Loire, +the ancient Velay. As the name betokens, the town is of monastic +origin; and it still contains a towered bulk of monastery and a +church of some architectural pretensions, the seat of an arch- +priest and several vicars. It stands on the side of hill above the +river Gazeille, about fifteen miles from Le Puy, up a steep road +where the wolves sometime pursue the diligence in winter. The +road, which is bound for Vivarais, passes through the town from end +to end in a single narrow street; there you may see the fountain +where women fill their pitchers; there also some old houses with +carved doors and pediment and ornamental work in iron. For +Monastier, like Maybole in Ayrshire, was a sort of country capital, +where the local aristocracy had their town mansions for the winter; +and there is a certain baron still alive and, I am told, extremely +penitent, who found means to ruin himself by high living in this +village on the hills. He certainly has claims to be considered the +most remarkable spendthrift on record. How he set about it, in a +place where there are no luxuries for sale, and where the board at +the best inn comes to little more than a shilling a day, is a +problem for the wise. His son, ruined as the family was, went as +far as Paris to sow his wild oats; and so the cases of father and +son mark an epoch in the history of centralisation in France. Not +until the latter had got into the train was the work of Richelieu +complete. + +It is a people of lace-makers. The women sit in the streets by +groups of five or six; and the noise of the bobbins is audible from +one group to another. Now and then you will hear one woman +clattering off prayers for the edification of the others at their +work. They wear gaudy shawls, white caps with a gay ribbon about +the head, and sometimes a black felt brigand hat above the cap; and +so they give the street colour and brightness and a foreign air. A +while ago, when England largely supplied herself from this district +with the lace called torchon, it was not unusual to earn five +francs a day; and five francs in Monastier is worth a pound in +London. Now, from a change in the market, it takes a clever and +industrious work-woman to earn from three to four in the week, or +less than an eighth of what she made easily a few years ago. The +tide of prosperity came and went, as with our northern pitmen, and +left nobody the richer. The women bravely squandered their gains, +kept the men in idleness, and gave themselves up, as I was told, to +sweethearting and a merry life. From week's end to week's end it +was one continuous gala in Monastier; people spent the day in the +wine-shops, and the drum or the bagpipes led on the bourrees up to +ten at night. Now these dancing days are over. 'Il n'y a plus de +jeunesse,' said Victor the garcon. I hear of no great advance in +what are thought the essentials of morality; but the bourree, with +its rambling, sweet, interminable music, and alert and rustic +figures, has fallen into disuse, and is mostly remembered as a +custom of the past. Only on the occasion of the fair shall you +hear a drum discreetly in a wine-shop or perhaps one of the company +singing the measure while the others dance. I am sorry at the +change, and marvel once more at the complicated scheme of things +upon this earth, and how a turn of fashion in England can silence +so much mountain merriment in France. The lace-makers themselves +have not entirely forgiven our country-women; and I think they take +a special pleasure in the legend of the northern quarter of the +town, called L'Anglade, because there the English free-lances were +arrested and driven back by the potency of a little Virgin Mary on +the wall. + +From time to time a market is held, and the town has a season of +revival; cattle and pigs are stabled in the streets; and +pickpockets have been known to come all the way from Lyons for the +occasion. Every Sunday the country folk throng in with daylight to +buy apples, to attend mass, and to visit one of the wine-shops, of +which there are no fewer than fifty in this little town. Sunday +wear for the men is a green tailcoat of some coarse sort of +drugget, and usually a complete suit to match. I have never set +eyes on such degrading raiment. Here it clings, there bulges; and +the human body, with its agreeable and lively lines, is turned into +a mockery and laughing-stock. Another piece of Sunday business +with the peasants is to take their ailments to the chemist for +advice. It is as much a matter for Sunday as church-going. I have +seen a woman who had been unable to speak since the Monday before, +wheezing, catching her breath, endlessly and painfully coughing; +and yet she had waited upwards of a hundred hours before coming to +seek help, and had the week been twice as long, she would have +waited still. There was a canonical day for consultation; such was +the ancestral habit, to which a respectable lady must study to +conform. + +Two conveyances go daily to Le Puy, but they rival each other in +polite concessions rather than in speed. Each will wait an hour or +two hours cheerfully while an old lady does her marketing or a +gentleman finishes the papers in a cafe. The Courrier (such is the +name of one) should leave Le Puy by two in the afternoon and arrive +at Monastier in good on the return voyage, and arrive at Monastier +in good time for a six-o'clock dinner. But the driver dares not +disoblige his customers. He will postpone his departure again and +again, hour after hour; and I have known the sun to go down on his +delay. These purely personal favours, this consideration of men's +fancies, rather than the hands of a mechanical clock, as marking +the advance of the abstraction, time, makes a more humorous +business of stage-coaching than we are used to see it. + +As far as the eye can reach, one swelling line of hill top rises +and falls behind another; and if you climb an eminence, it is only +to see new and father ranges behind these. Many little rivers run +from all sides in cliffy valleys; and one of them, a few miles from +Monastier, bears the great name of Loire. The mean level of the +country is a little more than three thousand feet above the sea, +which makes the atmosphere proportionally brisk and wholesome. +There is little timber except pines, and the greater part of the +country lies in moorland pasture. The country is wild and tumbled +rather than commanding; an upland rather than a mountain district; +and the most striking as well as the most agreeable scenery lies +low beside the rivers. There, indeed, you will find many corners +that take the fancy; such as made the English noble choose his +grave by a Swiss streamlet, where nature is at her freshest, and +looks as young as on the seventh morning. Such a place is the +course of the Gazeille, where it waters the common of Monastier and +thence downwards till it joins the Loire; a place to hear birds +singing; a place for lovers to frequent. The name of the river was +perhaps suggested by the sound of its passage over the stones; for +it is a great warbler, and at night, after I was in bed at +Monastier, I could hear it go singing down the valley till I fell +asleep. + +On the whole, this is a Scottish landscape, although not so noble +as the best in Scotland; and by an odd coincidence, the population +is, in its way, as Scottish as the country. They have abrupt, +uncouth, Fifeshire manners, and accost you, as if you were +trespassing, an 'Ou'st-ce que vous allez?' only translatable into +the Lowland 'Whaur ye gaun?' They keep the Scottish Sabbath. +There is no labour done on that day but to drive in and out the +various pigs and sheep and cattle that make so pleasant a tinkling +in the meadows. The lace-makers have disappeared from the street. +Not to attend mass would involve social degradation; and you may +find people reading Sunday books, in particular a sort of Catholic +Monthly Visitor on the doings of Our Lady of Lourdes. I remember +one Sunday, when I was walking in the country, that I fell on a +hamlet and found all the inhabitants, from the patriarch to the +baby, gathered in the shadow of a gable at prayer. One strapping +lass stood with her back to the wall and did the solo part, the +rest chiming in devoutly. Not far off, a lad lay flat on his face +asleep among some straw, to represent the worldly element. + +Again, this people is eager to proselytise; and the postmaster's +daughter used to argue with me by the half-hour about my heresy, +until she grew quite flushed. I have heard the reverse process +going on between a Scotswoman and a French girl; and the arguments +in the two cases were identical. Each apostle based her claim on +the superior virtue and attainments of her clergy, and clenched the +business with a threat of hell-fire. 'Pas bong pretres ici,' said +the Presbyterian, 'bong pretres en Ecosse.' And the postmaster's +daughter, taking up the same weapon, plied me, so to speak, with +the butt of it instead of the bayonet. We are a hopeful race, it +seems, and easily persuaded for our good. One cheerful +circumstance I note in these guerilla missions, that each side +relies on hell, and Protestant and Catholic alike address +themselves to a supposed misgiving in their adversary's heart. And +I call it cheerful, for faith is a more supporting quality than +imagination. + +Here, as in Scotland, many peasant families boast a son in holy +orders. And here also, the young men have a tendency to emigrate. +It is certainly not poverty that drives them to the great cities or +across the seas, for many peasant families, I was told, have a +fortune of at least 40,000 francs. The lads go forth pricked with +the spirit of adventure and the desire to rise in life, and leave +their homespun elders grumbling and wondering over the event. +Once, at a village called Laussonne, I met one of these +disappointed parents: a drake who had fathered a wild swan and +seen it take wing and disappear. The wild swan in question was now +an apothecary in Brazil. He had flown by way of Bordeaux, and +first landed in America, bareheaded and barefoot, and with a single +halfpenny in his pocket. And now he was an apothecary! Such a +wonderful thing is an adventurous life! I thought he might as well +have stayed at home; but you never can tell wherein a man's life +consists, nor in what he sets his pleasure: one to drink, another +to marry, a third to write scurrilous articles and be repeatedly +caned in public, and now this fourth, perhaps, to be an apothecary +in Brazil. As for his old father, he could conceive no reason for +the lad's behaviour. 'I had always bread for him,' he said; 'he +ran away to annoy me. He loved to annoy me. He had no gratitude.' +But at heart he was swelling with pride over his travelled +offspring, and he produced a letter out of his pocket, where, as he +said, it was rotting, a mere lump of paper rags, and waved it +gloriously in the air. 'This comes from America,' he cried, 'six +thousand leagues away!' And the wine-shop audience looked upon it +with a certain thrill. + +I soon became a popular figure, and was known for miles in the +country. Ou'st que vous allez? was changed for me into Quoi, vous +rentrez au Monastier and in the town itself every urchin seemed to +know my name, although no living creature could pronounce it. +There was one particular group of lace-makers who brought out a +chair for me whenever I went by, and detained me from my walk to +gossip. They were filled with curiosity about England, its +language, its religion, the dress of the women, and were never +weary of seeing the Queen's head on English postage-stamps, or +seeking for French words in English Journals. The language, in +particular, filled them with surprise. + +'Do they speak patois in England?' I was once asked; and when I +told them not, 'Ah, then, French?' said they. + +'No, no,' I said, 'not French.' + +'Then,' they concluded, 'they speak patois.' + +You must obviously either speak French or patios. Talk of the +force of logic--here it was in all its weakness. I gave up the +point, but proceeding to give illustrations of my native jargon, I +was met with a new mortification. Of all patios they declared that +mine was the most preposterous and the most jocose in sound. At +each new word there was a new explosion of laughter, and some of +the younger ones were glad to rise from their chairs and stamp +about the street in ecstasy; and I looked on upon their mirth in a +faint and slightly disagreeable bewilderment. 'Bread,' which +sounds a commonplace, plain-sailing monosyllable in England, was +the word that most delighted these good ladies of Monastier; it +seemed to them frolicsome and racy, like a page of Pickwick; and +they all got it carefully by heart, as a stand-by, I presume, for +winter evenings. I have tried it since then with every sort of +accent and inflection, but I seem to lack the sense of humour. + +They were of all ages: children at their first web of lace, a +stripling girl with a bashful but encouraging play of eyes, solid +married women, and grandmothers, some on the top of their age and +some falling towards decrepitude. One and all were pleasant and +natural, ready to laugh and ready with a certain quiet solemnity +when that was called for by the subject of our talk. Life, since +the fall in wages, had begun to appear to them with a more serious +air. The stripling girl would sometimes laugh at me in a +provocative and not unadmiring manner, if I judge aright; and one +of the grandmothers, who was my great friend of the party, gave me +many a sharp word of judgment on my sketches, my heresy, or even my +arguments, and gave them with a wry mouth and a humorous twinkle in +her eye that were eminently Scottish. But the rest used me with a +certain reverence, as something come from afar and not entirely +human. Nothing would put them at their ease but the irresistible +gaiety of my native tongue. Between the old lady and myself I +think there was a real attachment. She was never weary of sitting +to me for her portrait, in her best cap and brigand hat, and with +all her wrinkles tidily composed, and though she never failed to +repudiate the result, she would always insist upon another trial. +It was as good as a play to see her sitting in judgment over the +last. 'No, no,' she would say, 'that is not it. I am old, to be +sure, but I am better-looking than that. We must try again.' When +I was about to leave she bade me good-bye for this life in a +somewhat touching manner. We should not meet again, she said; it +was a long farewell, and she was sorry. But life is so full of +crooks, old lady, that who knows? I have said good-bye to people +for greater distances and times, and, please God, I mean to see +them yet again. + +One thing was notable about these women, from the youngest to the +oldest, and with hardly an exception. In spite of their piety, +they could twang off an oath with Sir Toby Belch in person. There +was nothing so high or so low, in heaven or earth or in the human +body, but a woman of this neighbourhood would whip out the name of +it, fair and square, by way of conversational adornment. My +landlady, who was pretty and young, dressed like a lady and avoided +patois like a weakness, commonly addressed her child in the +language of a drunken bully. And of all the swearers that I ever +heard, commend me to an old lady in Gondet, a village of the Loire. +I was making a sketch, and her curse was not yet ended when I had +finished it and took my departure. It is true she had a right to +be angry; for here was her son, a hulking fellow, visibly the worse +for drink before the day was well begun. But it was strange to +hear her unwearying flow of oaths and obscenities, endless like a +river, and now and then rising to a passionate shrillness, in the +clear and silent air of the morning. In city slums, the thing +might have passed unnoticed; but in a country valley, and from a +plain and honest countrywoman, this beastliness of speech surprised +the ear. + +The Conductor, as he is called, of Roads and Bridges was my +principal companion. He was generally intelligent, and could have +spoken more or less falsetto on any of the trite topics; but it was +his specially to have a generous taste in eating. This was what +was most indigenous in the man; it was here he was an artist; and I +found in his company what I had long suspected, that enthusiasm and +special knowledge are the great social qualities, and what they are +about, whether white sauce or Shakespeare's plays, an altogether +secondary question. + +I used to accompany the Conductor on his professional rounds, and +grew to believe myself an expert in the business. I thought I +could make an entry in a stone-breaker's time-book, or order manure +off the wayside with any living engineer in France. Gondet was one +of the places we visited together; and Laussonne, where I met the +apothecary's father, was another. There, at Laussonne, George Sand +spent a day while she was gathering materials for the Marquis de +Villemer; and I have spoken with an old man, who was then a child +running about the inn kitchen, and who still remembers her with a +sort of reverence. It appears that he spoke French imperfectly; +for this reason George Sand chose him for companion, and whenever +he let slip a broad and picturesque phrase in patois, she would +make him repeat it again and again till it was graven in her +memory. The word for a frog particularly pleased her fancy; and it +would be curious to know if she afterwards employed it in her +works. The peasants, who knew nothing of betters and had never so +much as heard of local colour, could not explain her chattering +with this backward child; and to them she seemed a very homely lady +and far from beautiful: the most famous man-killer of the age +appealed so little to Velaisian swine-herds! + +On my first engineering excursion, which lay up by Crouzials +towards Mount Mezenc and the borders of Ardeche, I began an +improving acquaintance with the foreman road-mender. He was in +great glee at having me with him, passed me off among his +subalterns as the supervising engineer, and insisted on what he +called 'the gallantry' of paying for my breakfast in a roadside +wine-shop. On the whole, he was a man of great weather-wisdom, +some spirits, and a social temper. But I am afraid he was +superstitious. When he was nine years old, he had seen one night a +company of bourgeois et dames qui faisaient la manege avec des +chaises, and concluded that he was in the presence of a witches' +Sabbath. I suppose, but venture with timidity on the suggestion, +that this may have been a romantic and nocturnal picnic party. +Again, coming from Pradelles with his brother, they saw a great +empty cart drawn by six enormous horses before them on the road. +The driver cried aloud and filled the mountains with the cracking +of his whip. He never seemed to go faster than a walk, yet it was +impossible to overtake him; and at length, at the comer of a hill, +the whole equipage disappeared bodily into the night. At the time, +people said it was the devil qui s'amusait a faire ca. + +I suggested there was nothing more likely, as he must have some +amusement. + +The foreman said it was odd, but there was less of that sort of +thing than formerly. 'C'est difficile,' he added, 'a expliquer.' + +When we were well up on the moors and the Conductor was trying some +road-metal with the gauge - + +'Hark!' said the foreman, 'do you hear nothing?' + +We listened, and the wind, which was blowing chilly out of the +east, brought a faint, tangled jangling to our ears. + +'It is the flocks of Vivarais,' said he. + +For every summer, the flocks out of all Ardeche are brought up to +pasture on these grassy plateaux. + +Here and there a little private flock was being tended by a girl, +one spinning with a distaff, another seated on a wall and intently +making lace. This last, when we addressed her, leaped up in a +panic and put out her arms, like a person swimming, to keep us at a +distance, and it was some seconds before we could persuade her of +the honesty of our intentions. + +The Conductor told me of another herdswoman from whom he had once +asked his road while he was yet new to the country, and who fled +from him, driving her beasts before her, until he had given up the +information in despair. A tale of old lawlessness may yet be read +in these uncouth timidities. + +The winter in these uplands is a dangerous and melancholy time. +Houses are snowed up, and way-farers lost in a flurry within hail +of their own fireside. No man ventures abroad without meat and a +bottle of wine, which he replenishes at every wine-shop; and even +thus equipped he takes the road with terror. All day the family +sits about the fire in a foul and airless hovel, and equally +without work or diversion. The father may carve a rude piece of +furniture, but that is all that will be done until the spring sets +in again, and along with it the labours of the field. It is not +for nothing that you find a clock in the meanest of these mountain +habitations. A clock and an almanac, you would fancy, were +indispensable in such a life . . . + + + +CHAPTER VII--RANDOM MEMORIES: ROSA QUO LOCORUM + + + +Through what little channels, by what hints and premonitions, the +consciousness of the man's art dawns first upon the child, it +should be not only interesting but instructive to inquire. A +matter of curiosity to-day, it will become the ground of science +to-morrow. From the mind of childhood there is more history and +more philosophy to be fished up than from all the printed volumes +in a library. The child is conscious of an interest, not in +literature but in life. A taste for the precise, the adroit, or +the comely in the use of words, comes late; but long before that he +has enjoyed in books a delightful dress rehearsal of experience. +He is first conscious of this material--I had almost said this +practical--pre-occupation; it does not follow that it really came +the first. I have some old fogged negatives in my collection that +would seem to imply a prior stage 'The Lord is gone up with a +shout, and God with the sound of a trumpet'--memorial version, I +know not where to find the text--rings still in my ear from my +first childhood, and perhaps with something of my nurses accent. +There was possibly some sort of image written in my mind by these +loud words, but I believe the words themselves were what I +cherished. I had about the same time, and under the same +influence--that of my dear nurse--a favourite author: it is +possible the reader has not heard of him--the Rev. Robert Murray +M'Cheyne. My nurse and I admired his name exceedingly, so that I +must have been taught the love of beautiful sounds before I was +breeched; and I remember two specimens of his muse until this day:- + +'Behind the hills of Naphtali +The sun went slowly down, +Leaving on mountain, tower, and tree, +A tinge of golden brown.' + +There is imagery here, and I set it on one side. The other--it is +but a verse--not only contains no image, but is quite +unintelligible even to my comparatively instructed mind, and I know +not even how to spell the outlandish vocable that charmed me in my +childhood: + +'Jehovah Tschidkenu is nothing to her'; {6} - + +I may say, without flippancy, that he was nothing to me either, +since I had no ray of a guess of what he was about; yet the verse, +from then to now, a longer interval than the life of a generation, +has continued to haunt me. + +I have said that I should set a passage distinguished by obvious +and pleasing imagery, however faint; for the child thinks much in +images, words are very live to him, phrases that imply a picture +eloquent beyond their value. Rummaging in the dusty pigeon-holes +of memory, I came once upon a graphic version of the famous Psalm, +'The Lord is my shepherd': and from the places employed in its +illustration, which are all in the immediate neighbourhood of a +house then occupied by my father, I am able, to date it before the +seventh year of my age, although it was probably earlier in fact. +The 'pastures green' were represented by a certain suburban +stubble-field, where I had once walked with my nurse, under an +autumnal sunset, on the banks of the Water of Leith: the place is +long ago built up; no pastures now, no stubble-fields; only a maze +of little streets and smoking chimneys and shrill children. Here, +in the fleecy person of a sheep, I seemed to myself to follow +something unseen, unrealised, and yet benignant; and close by the +sheep in which I was incarnated--as if for greater security-- +rustled the skirt, of my nurse. 'Death's dark vale' was a certain +archway in the Warriston Cemetery: a formidable yet beloved spot, +for children love to be afraid,--in measure as they love all +experience of vitality. Here I beheld myself some paces ahead +(seeing myself, I mean, from behind) utterly alone in that uncanny +passage; on the one side of me a rude, knobby, shepherd's staff, +such as cheers the heart of the cockney tourist, on the other a rod +like a billiard cue, appeared to accompany my progress; the stiff +sturdily upright, the billiard cue inclined confidentially, like +one whispering, towards my ear. I was aware--I will never tell you +how--that the presence of these articles afforded me encouragement. +The third and last of my pictures illustrated words:- + + 'My table Thou hast furnished + In presence of my foes: +My head Thou dost with oil anoint, +And my cup overflows': + +and this was perhaps the most interesting of the series. I saw +myself seated in a kind of open stone summer-house at table; over +my shoulder a hairy, bearded, and robed presence anointed me from +an authentic shoe-horn; the summer-house was part of the green +court of a ruin, and from the far side of the court black and white +imps discharged against me ineffectual arrows. The picture appears +arbitrary, but I can trace every detail to its source, as Mr. Brock +analysed the dream of Alan Armadale. The summer-house and court +were muddled together out of Billings' Antiquities of Scotland; the +imps conveyed from Bagster's Pilgrim's Progress; the bearded and +robed figure from any one of the thousand Bible pictures; and the +shoe-horn was plagiarised from an old illustrated Bible, where it +figured in the hand of Samuel anointing Saul, and had been pointed +out to me as a jest by my father. It was shown me for a jest, +remark; but the serious spirit of infancy adopted it in earnest. +Children are all classics; a bottle would have seemed an +intermediary too trivial--that divine refreshment of whose meaning +I had no guess; and I seized on the idea of that mystic shoe-horn +with delight, even as, a little later, I should have written +flagon, chalice, hanaper, beaker, or any word that might have +appealed to me at the moment as least contaminate with mean +associations. In this string of pictures I believe the gist of the +psalm to have consisted; I believe it had no more to say to me; and +the result was consolatory. I would go to sleep dwelling with +restfulness upon these images; they passed before me, besides, to +an appropriate music; for I had already singled out from that rude +psalm the one lovely verse which dwells in the minds of all, not +growing old, not disgraced by its association with long Sunday +tasks, a scarce conscious joy in childhood, in age a companion +thought:- + +'In pastures green Thou leadest me, +The quiet waters by.' + +The remainder of my childish recollections are all of the matter of +what was read to me, and not of any manner in the words. If these +pleased me it was unconsciously; I listened for news of the great +vacant world upon whose edge I stood; I listened for delightful +plots that I might re-enact in play, and romantic scenes and +circumstances that I might call up before me, with closed eyes, +when I was tired of Scotland, and home, and that weary prison of +the sick-chamber in which I lay so long in durance. Robinson +Crusoe; some of the books of that cheerful, ingenious, romantic +soul, Mayne Reid; and a work rather gruesome and bloody for a +child, but very picturesque, called Paul Blake; these are the three +strongest impressions I remember: The Swiss Family Robinson came +next, longo intervallo. At these I played, conjured up their +scenes, and delighted to hear them rehearsed unto seventy times +seven. I am not sure but what Paul Blake came after I could read. +It seems connected with a visit to the country, and an experience +unforgettable. The day had been warm; H--- and I had played +together charmingly all day in a sandy wilderness across the road; +then came the evening with a great flash of colour and a heavenly +sweetness in the air. Somehow my play-mate had vanished, or is out +of the story, as the sages say, but I was sent into the village on +an errand; and, taking a book of fairy tales, went down alone +through a fir-wood, reading as I walked. How often since then has +it befallen me to be happy even so; but that was the first time: +the shock of that pleasure I have never since forgot, and if my +mind serves me to the last, I never shall, for it was then that I +knew I loved reading. + + +II + + +To pass from hearing literature to reading it is to take a great +and dangerous step. With not a few, I think a large proportion of +their pleasure then comes to an end; 'the malady of not marking' +overtakes them; they read thenceforward by the eye alone and hear +never again the chime of fair words or the march of the stately +period. Non ragioniam of these. But to all the step is dangerous; +it involves coming of age; it is even a kind of second weaning. In +the past all was at the choice of others; they chose, they +digested, they read aloud for us and sang to their own tune the +books of childhood. In the future we are to approach the silent, +inexpressive type alone, like pioneers; and the choice of what we +are to read is in our own hands thenceforward. For instance, in +the passages already adduced, I detect and applaud the ear of my +old nurse; they were of her choice, and she imposed them on my +infancy, reading the works of others as a poet would scarce dare to +read his own; gloating on the rhythm, dwelling with delight on +assonances and alliterations. I know very well my mother must have +been all the while trying to educate my taste upon more secular +authors; but the vigour and the continual opportunities of my nurse +triumphed, and after a long search, I can find in these earliest +volumes of my autobiography no mention of anything but nursery +rhymes, the Bible, and Mr. M'Cheyne. + +I suppose all children agree in looking back with delight on their +school Readers. We might not now find so much pathos in 'Bingen on +the Rhine,' 'A soldier of the Legion lay dying in Algiers,' or in +'The Soldier's Funeral,' in the declamation of which I was held to +have surpassed myself. 'Robert's voice,' said the master on this +memorable occasion, 'is not strong, but impressive': an opinion +which I was fool enough to carry home to my father; who roasted me +for years in consequence. I am sure one should not be so +deliciously tickled by the humorous pieces:- + +'What, crusty? cries Will in a taking, +Who would not be crusty with half a year's baking?' + +I think this quip would leave us cold. The 'Isles of Greece' seem +rather tawdry too; but on the 'Address to the Ocean,' or on 'The +Dying Gladiator,' 'time has writ no wrinkle.' + +'Tis the morn, but dim and dark, +Whither flies the silent lark?' - + +does the reader recall the moment when his eye first fell upon +these lines in the Fourth Reader; and 'surprised with joy, +impatient as the wind,' he plunged into the sequel? And there was +another piece, this time in prose, which none can have forgotten; +many like me must have searched Dickens with zeal to find it again, +and in its proper context, and have perhaps been conscious of some +inconsiderable measure of disappointment, that it was only Tom +Pinch who drove, in such a pomp of poetry, to London. + +But in the Reader we are still under guides. What a boy turns out +for himself, as he rummages the bookshelves, is the real test and +pleasure. My father's library was a spot of some austerity; the +proceedings of learned societies, some Latin divinity, +cyclopaedias, physical science, and, above all, optics, held the +chief place upon the shelves, and it was only in holes and corners +that anything really legible existed as by accident. The Parent's +Assistant, Rob Roy, Waverley, and Guy Mannering, the Voyages of +Captain Woods Rogers, Fuller's and Bunyan's Holy Wars, The +Reflections of Robinson Crusoe, The Female Bluebeard, G. Sand's +Mare au Diable--(how came it in that grave assembly!), Ainsworth's +Tower of London, and four old volumes of Punch--these were the +chief exceptions. In these latter, which made for years the chief +of my diet, I very early fell in love (almost as soon as I could +spell) with the Snob Papers. I knew them almost by heart, +particularly the visit to the Pontos; and I remember my surprise +when I found, long afterwards, that they were famous, and signed +with a famous name; to me, as I read and admired them, they were +the works of Mr. Punch. Time and again I tried to read Rob Roy, +with whom of course I was acquainted from the Tales of a +Grandfather; time and again the early part, with Rashleigh and +(think of it!) the adorable Diana, choked me off; and I shall never +forget the pleasure and surprise with which, lying on the floor one +summer evening, I struck of a sudden into the first scene with +Andrew Fairservice. 'The worthy Dr. Lightfoot'--'mistrysted with a +bogle'--'a wheen green trash'--'Jenny, lass, I think I ha'e her': +from that day to this the phrases have been unforgotten. I read +on, I need scarce say; I came to Glasgow, I bided tryst on Glasgow +Bridge, I met Rob Roy and the Bailie in the Tolbooth, all with +transporting pleasure; and then the clouds gathered once more about +my path; and I dozed and skipped until I stumbled half-asleep into +the clachan of Aberfoyle, and the voices of Iverach and Galbraith +recalled me to myself. With that scene and the defeat of Captain +Thornton the book concluded; Helen and her sons shocked even the +little schoolboy of nine or ten with their unreality; I read no +more, or I did not grasp what I was reading; and years elapsed +before I consciously met Diana and her father among the hills, or +saw Rashleigh dying in the chair. When I think of that novel and +that evening, I am impatient with all others; they seem but shadows +and impostors; they cannot satisfy the appetite which this +awakened; and I dare be known to think it the best of Sir Walter's +by nearly as much as Sir Walter is the best of novelists. Perhaps +Mr. Lang is right, and our first friends in the land of fiction are +always the most real. And yet I had read before this Guy +Mannering, and some of Waverley, with no such delighted sense of +truth and humour, and I read immediately after the greater part of +the Waverley Novels, and was never moved again in the same way or +to the same degree. One circumstance is suspicious: my critical +estimate of the Waverley Novels has scarce changed at all since I +was ten. Rob Roy, Guy Mannering, and Redgauntlet first; then, a +little lower; The Fortunes of Nigel; then, after a huge gulf, +Ivanhoe and Anne of Geierstein: the rest nowhere; such was the +verdict of the boy. Since then The Antiquary, St. Ronan's Well, +Kenilworth, and The Heart of Midlothian have gone up in the scale; +perhaps Ivanhoe and Anne of Geierstein have gone a trifle down; +Diana Vernon has been added to my admirations in that enchanted +world of Rob Roy; I think more of the letters in Redgauntlet, and +Peter Peebles, that dreadful piece of realism, I can now read about +with equanimity, interest, and I had almost said pleasure, while to +the childish critic he often caused unmixed distress. But the rest +is the same; I could not finish The Pirate when I was a child, I +have never finished it yet; Peveril of the Peak dropped half way +through from my schoolboy hands, and though I have since waded to +an end in a kind of wager with myself, the exercise was quite +without enjoyment. There is something disquieting in these +considerations. I still think the visit to Ponto's the best part +of the Book of Snobs: does that mean that I was right when I was a +child, or does it mean that I have never grown since then, that the +child is not the man's father, but the man? and that I came into +the world with all my faculties complete, and have only learned +sinsyne to be more tolerant of boredom? . . . + + + +CHAPTER VIII--THE IDEAL HOUSE + + + +Two things are necessary in any neighbourhood where we propose to +spend a life: a desert and some living water. + +There are many parts of the earth's face which offer the necessary +combination of a certain wildness with a kindly variety. A great +prospect is desirable, but the want may be otherwise supplied; even +greatness can be found on the small scale; for the mind and the eye +measure differently. Bold rocks near hand are more inspiriting +than distant Alps, and the thick fern upon a Surrey heath makes a +fine forest for the imagination, and the dotted yew trees noble +mountains. A Scottish moor with birches and firs grouped here and +there upon a knoll, or one of those rocky seaside deserts of +Provence overgrown with rosemary and thyme and smoking with aroma, +are places where the mind is never weary. Forests, being more +enclosed, are not at first sight so attractive, but they exercise a +spell; they must, however, be diversified with either heath or +rock, and are hardly to be considered perfect without conifers. +Even sand-hills, with their intricate plan, and their gulls and +rabbits, will stand well for the necessary desert. + +The house must be within hail of either a little river or the sea. +A great river is more fit for poetry than to adorn a neighbourhood; +its sweep of waters increases the scale of the scenery and the +distance of one notable object from another; and a lively burn +gives us, in the space of a few yards, a greater variety of +promontory and islet, of cascade, shallow goil, and boiling pool, +with answerable changes both of song and colour, than a navigable +stream in many hundred miles. The fish, too, make a more +considerable feature of the brookside, and the trout plumping in +the shadow takes the ear. A stream should, besides, be narrow +enough to cross, or the burn hard by a bridge, or we are at once +shut out of Eden. The quantity of water need be of no concern, for +the mind sets the scale, and can enjoy a Niagara Fall of thirty +inches. Let us approve the singer of + +'Shallow rivers, by whose falls +Melodious birds sing madrigals.' + +If the sea is to be our ornamental water, choose an open seaboard +with a heavy beat of surf; one much broken in outline, with small +havens and dwarf headlands; if possible a few islets; and as a +first necessity, rocks reaching out into deep water. Such a rock +on a calm day is a better station than the top of Teneriffe or +Chimborazo. In short, both for the desert and the water, the +conjunction of many near and bold details is bold scenery for the +imagination and keeps the mind alive. + +Given these two prime luxuries, the nature of the country where we +are to live is, I had almost said, indifferent; after that inside +the garden, we can construct a country of our own. Several old +trees, a considerable variety of level, several well-grown hedges +to divide our garden into provinces, a good extent of old well-set +turf, and thickets of shrubs and ever-greens to be cut into and +cleared at the new owner's pleasure, are the qualities to be sought +for in your chosen land. Nothing is more delightful than a +succession of small lawns, opening one out of the other through +tall hedges; these have all the charm of the old bowling-green +repeated, do not require the labour of many trimmers, and afford a +series of changes. You must have much lawn against the early +summer, so as to have a great field of daisies, the year's morning +frost; as you must have a wood of lilacs, to enjoy to the full the +period of their blossoming. Hawthorn is another of the Spring's +ingredients; but it is even best to have a rough public lane at one +side of your enclosure which, at the right season, shall become an +avenue of bloom and odour. The old flowers are the best and should +grow carelessly in corners. Indeed, the ideal fortune is to find +an old garden, once very richly cared for, since sunk into neglect, +and to tend, not repair, that neglect; it will thus have a smack of +nature and wildness which skilful dispositions cannot overtake. +The gardener should be an idler, and have a gross partiality to the +kitchen plots: an eager or toilful gardener misbecomes the garden +landscape; a tasteful gardener will be ever meddling, will keep the +borders raw, and take the bloom off nature. Close adjoining, if +you are in the south, an olive-yard, if in the north, a swarded +apple-orchard reaching to the stream, completes your miniature +domain; but this is perhaps best entered through a door in the high +fruit-wall; so that you close the door behind you on your sunny +plots, your hedges and evergreen jungle, when you go down to watch +the apples falling in the pool. It is a golden maxim to cultivate +the garden for the nose, and the eyes will take care of themselves. +Nor must the ear be forgotten: without birds a garden is a prison- +yard. There is a garden near Marseilles on a steep hill-side, +walking by which, upon a sunny morning, your ear will suddenly be +ravished with a burst of small and very cheerful singing: some +score of cages being set out there to sun their occupants. This is +a heavenly surprise to any passer-by; but the price paid, to keep +so many ardent and winged creatures from their liberty, will make +the luxury too dear for any thoughtful pleasure-lover. There is +only one sort of bird that I can tolerate caged, though even then I +think it hard, and that is what is called in France the Bec- +d'Argent. I once had two of these pigmies in captivity; and in the +quiet, hire house upon a silent street where I was then living, +their song, which was not much louder than a bee's, but airily +musical, kept me in a perpetual good humour. I put the cage upon +my table when I worked, carried it with me when I went for meals, +and kept it by my head at night: the first thing in the morning, +these maestrini would pipe up. But these, even if you can pardon +their imprisonment, are for the house. In the garden the wild +birds must plant a colony, a chorus of the lesser warblers that +should be almost deafening, a blackbird in the lilacs, a +nightingale down the lane, so that you must stroll to hear it, and +yet a little farther, tree-tops populous with rooks. + +Your house should not command much outlook; it should be set deep +and green, though upon rising ground, or, if possible, crowning a +knoll, for the sake of drainage. Yet it must be open to the east, +or you will miss the sunrise; sunset occurring so much later, you +can go up a few steps and look the other way. A house of more than +two stories is a mere barrack; indeed the ideal is of one story, +raised upon cellars. If the rooms are large, the house may be +small: a single room, lofty, spacious, and lightsome, is more +palatial than a castleful of cabinets and cupboards. Yet size in a +house, and some extent and intricacy of corridor, is certainly +delightful to the flesh. The reception room should be, if +possible, a place of many recesses, which are 'petty retiring +places for conference'; but it must have one long wall with a +divan: for a day spent upon a divan, among a world of cushions, is +as full of diversion as to travel. The eating-room, in the French +mode, should be ad hoc: unfurnished, but with a buffet, the table, +necessary chairs, one or two of Canaletto's etchings, and a tile +fire-place for the winter. In neither of these public places +should there be anything beyond a shelf or two of books; but the +passages may be one library from end to end, and the stair, if +there be one, lined with volumes in old leather, very brightly +carpeted, and leading half-way up, and by way of landing, to a +windowed recess with a fire-place; this window, almost alone in the +house, should command a handsome prospect. Husband and wife must +each possess a studio; on the woman's sanctuary I hesitate to +dwell, and turn to the man's. The walls are shelved waist-high for +books, and the top thus forms a continuous table running round the +wall. Above are prints, a large map of the neighbourhood, a Corot +and a Claude or two. The room is very spacious, and the five +tables and two chairs are but as islands. One table is for actual +work, one close by for references in use; one, very large, for MSS. +or proofs that wait their turn; one kept clear for an occasion; and +the fifth is the map table, groaning under a collection of large- +scale maps and charts. Of all books these are the least wearisome +to read and the richest in matter; the course of roads and rivers, +the contour lines and the forests in the maps--the reefs, +soundings, anchors, sailing marks and little pilot-pictures in the +charts--and, in both, the bead-roll of names, make them of all +printed matter the most fit to stimulate and satisfy the fancy. +The chair in which you write is very low and easy, and backed into +a corner; at one elbow the fire twinkles; close at the other, if +you are a little inhumane, your cage of silver-bills are twittering +into song. + +Joined along by a passage, you may reach the great, sunny, glass- +roofed, and tiled gymnasium, at the far end of which, lined with +bright marble, is your plunge and swimming bath, fitted with a +capacious boiler. + +The whole loft of the house from end to end makes one undivided +chamber; here are set forth tables on which to model imaginary or +actual countries in putty or plaster, with tools and hardy +pigments; a carpenter's bench; and a spared corner for photography, +while at the far end a space is kept clear for playing soldiers. +Two boxes contain the two armies of some five hundred horse and +foot; two others the ammunition of each side, and a fifth the foot- +rules and the three colours of chalk, with which you lay down, or, +after a day's play, refresh the outlines of the country; red or +white for the two kinds of road (according as they are suitable or +not for the passage of ordnance), and blue for the course of the +obstructing rivers. Here I foresee that you may pass much happy +time; against a good adversary a game may well continue for a +month; for with armies so considerable three moves will occupy an +hour. It will be found to set an excellent edge on this diversion +if one of the players shall, every day or so, write a report of the +operations in the character of army correspondent. + +I have left to the last the little room for winter evenings. This +should be furnished in warm positive colours, and sofas and floor +thick with rich furs. The hearth, where you burn wood of aromatic +quality on silver dogs, tiled round about with Bible pictures; the +seats deep and easy; a single Titian in a gold frame; a white bust +or so upon a bracket; a rack for the journals of the week; a table +for the books of the year; and close in a corner the three shelves +full of eternal books that never weary: Shakespeare, Moliere, +Montaigne, Lamb, Sterne, De Musset's comedies (the one volume open +at Carmosine and the other at Fantasio); the Arabian Nights, and +kindred stories, in Weber's solemn volumes; Borrow's Bible in +Spain, the Pilgrim's Progress, Guy Mannering and Rob Roy, Monte +Cristo and the Vicomte de Bragelonne, immortal Boswell sole among +biographers, Chaucer, Herrick, and the State Trials. + +The bedrooms are large, airy, with almost no furniture, floors of +varnished wood, and at the bed-head, in case of insomnia, one shelf +of books of a particular and dippable order, such as Pepys, the +Paston Letters, Burt's Letters from the Highlands, or the Newgate +Calendar. . . . + + + +CHAPTER IX--DAVOS IN WINTER + + + +A mountain valley has, at the best, a certain prison-like effect on +the imagination, but a mountain valley, an Alpine winter, and an +invalid's weakness make up among them a prison of the most +effective kind. The roads indeed are cleared, and at least one +footpath dodging up the hill; but to these the health-seeker is +rigidly confined. There are for him no cross-cuts over the field, +no following of streams, no unguided rambles in the wood. His +walks are cut and dry. In five or six different directions he can +push as far, and no farther, than his strength permits; never +deviating from the line laid down for him and beholding at each +repetition the same field of wood and snow from the same corner of +the road. This, of itself, would be a little trying to the +patience in the course of months; but to this is added, by the +heaped mantle of the snow, an almost utter absence of detail and an +almost unbroken identity of colour. Snow, it is true, is not +merely white. The sun touches it with roseate and golden lights. +Its own crushed infinity of crystals, its own richness of tiny +sculpture, fills it, when regarded near at hand, with wonderful +depths of coloured shadow, and, though wintrily transformed, it is +still water, and has watery tones of blue. But, when all is said, +these fields of white and blots of crude black forest are but a +trite and staring substitute for the infinite variety and +pleasantness of the earth's face. Even a boulder, whose front is +too precipitous to have retained the snow, seems, if you come upon +it in your walk, a perfect gem of colour, reminds you almost +painfully of other places, and brings into your head the delights +of more Arcadian days--the path across the meadow, the hazel dell, +the lilies on the stream, and the scents, the colours, and the +whisper of the woods. And scents here are as rare as colours. +Unless you get a gust of kitchen in passing some hotel, you shall +smell nothing all day long but the faint and choking odour of +frost. Sounds, too, are absent: not a bird pipes, not a bough +waves, in the dead, windless atmosphere. If a sleigh goes by, the +sleigh-bells ring, and that is all; you work all winter through to +no other accompaniment but the crunching of your steps upon the +frozen snow. + +It is the curse of the Alpine valleys to be each one village from +one end to the other. Go where you please, houses will still be in +sight, before and behind you, and to the right and left. Climb as +high as an invalid is able, and it is only to spy new habitations +nested in the wood. Nor is that all; for about the health resort +the walks are besieged by single people walking rapidly with plaids +about their shoulders, by sudden troops of German boys trying to +learn to jodel, and by German couples silently and, as you venture +to fancy, not quite happily, pursuing love's young dream. You may +perhaps be an invalid who likes to make bad verses as he walks +about. Alas! no muse will suffer this imminence of interruption-- +and at the second stampede of jodellers you find your modest +inspiration fled. Or you may only have a taste for solitude; it +may try your nerves to have some one always in front whom you are +visibly overtaking, and some one always behind who is audibly +overtaking you, to say nothing of a score or so who brush past you +in an opposite direction. It may annoy you to take your walks and +seats in public view. Alas! there is no help for it among the +Alps. There are no recesses, as in Gorbio Valley by the oil-mill; +no sacred solitude of olive gardens on the Roccabruna-road; no nook +upon Saint Martin's Cape, haunted by the voice of breakers, and +fragrant with the threefold sweetness of the rosemary and the sea- +pines and the sea. + +For this publicity there is no cure, and no alleviation; but the +storms of which you will complain so bitterly while they endure, +chequer and by their contrast brighten the sameness of the fair- +weather scenes. When sun and storm contend together--when the +thick clouds are broken up and pierced by arrows of golden +daylight--there will be startling rearrangements and +transfigurations of the mountain summits. A sun-dazzling spire of +alp hangs suspended in mid-sky among awful glooms and blackness; or +perhaps the edge of some great mountain shoulder will be designed +in living gold, and appear for the duration of a glance bright like +a constellation, and alone 'in the unapparent.' You may think you +know the figure of these hills; but when they are thus revealed, +they belong no longer to the things of earth--meteors we should +rather call them, appearances of sun and air that endure but for a +moment and return no more. Other variations are more lasting, as +when, for instance, heavy and wet snow has fallen through some +windless hours, and the thin, spiry, mountain pine trees stand each +stock-still and loaded with a shining burthen. You may drive +through a forest so disguised, the tongue-tied torrent struggling +silently in the cleft of the ravine, and all still except the +jingle of the sleigh bells, and you shall fancy yourself in some +untrodden northern territory--Lapland, Labrador, or Alaska. + +Or, possibly, you arise very early in the morning; totter down +stairs in a state of somnambulism; take the simulacrum of a meal by +the glimmer of one lamp in the deserted coffee-room; and find +yourself by seven o'clock outside in a belated moonlight and a +freezing chill. The mail sleigh takes you up and carries you on, +and you reach the top of the ascent in the first hour of the day. +To trace the fires of the sunrise as they pass from peak to peak, +to see the unlit tree-tops stand out soberly against the lighted +sky, to be for twenty minutes in a wonderland of clear, fading +shadows, disappearing vapours, solemn blooms of dawn, hills half +glorified already with the day and still half confounded with the +greyness of the western heaven--these will seem to repay you for +the discomforts of that early start; but as the hour proceeds, and +these enchantments vanish, you will find yourself upon the farther +side in yet another Alpine valley, snow white and coal black, with +such another long-drawn congeries of hamlets and such another +senseless watercourse bickering along the foot. You have had your +moment; but you have not changed the scene. The mountains are +about you like a trap; you cannot foot it up a hillside and behold +the sea as a great plain, but live in holes and corners, and can +change only one for another. + + + +CHAPTER X--HEALTH AND MOUNTAINS + + + +There has come a change in medical opinion, and a change has +followed in the lives of sick folk. A year or two ago and the +wounded soldiery of mankind were all shut up together in some +basking angle of the Riviera, walking a dusty promenade or sitting +in dusty olive-yards within earshot of the interminable and +unchanging surf--idle among spiritless idlers; not perhaps dying, +yet hardly living either, and aspiring, sometimes fiercely, after +livelier weather and some vivifying change. These were certainly +beautiful places to live in, and the climate was wooing in its +softness. Yet there was a later shiver in the sunshine; you were +not certain whether you were being wooed; and these mild shores +would sometimes seem to you to be the shores of death. There was a +lack of a manly element; the air was not reactive; you might write +bits of poetry and practise resignation, but you did not feel that +here was a good spot to repair your tissue or regain your nerve. +And it appears, after all, that there was something just in these +appreciations. The invalid is now asked to lodge on wintry Alps; a +ruder air shall medicine him; the demon of cold is no longer to be +fled from, but bearded in his den. For even Winter has his 'dear +domestic cave,' and in those places where he may be said to dwell +for ever tempers his austerities. + +Any one who has travelled westward by the great transcontinental +railroad of America must remember the joy with which he perceived, +after the tedious prairies of Nebraska and across the vast and +dismal moorlands of Wyoming, a few snowy mountain summits alone, +the southern sky. It is among these mountains in the new State of +Colorado that the sick man may find, not merely an alleviation of +his ailments, but the possibility of an active life and an honest +livelihood. There, no longer as a lounger in a plaid, but as a +working farmer, sweating at his work, he may prolong and begin anew +his life. Instead of the bath-chair, the spade; instead of the +regulated walk, rough journeys in the forest, and the pure, rare +air of the open mountains for the miasma of the sick-room--these +are the changes offered him, with what promise of pleasure and of +self-respect, with what a revolution in all his hopes and terrors, +none but an invalid can know. Resignation, the cowardice that apes +a kind of courage and that lives in the very air of health resorts, +is cast aside at a breath of such a prospect. The man can open the +door; he can be up and doing; he can be a kind of a man after all +and not merely an invalid. + +But it is a far cry to the Rocky Mountains. We cannot all of us go +farming in Colorado; and there is yet a middle term, which combines +the medical benefits of the new system with the moral drawbacks of +the old. Again the invalid has to lie aside from life and its +wholesome duties; again he has to be an idler among idlers; but +this time at a great altitude, far among the mountains, with the +snow piled before his door and the frost flowers every morning on +his window. The mere fact is tonic to his nerves. His choice of a +place of wintering has somehow to his own eyes the air of an act of +bold contract; and, since he has wilfully sought low temperatures, +he is not so apt to shudder at a touch of chill. He came for that, +he looked for it, and he throws it from him with the thought. + +A long straight reach of valley, wall-like mountains upon either +hand that rise higher and higher and shoot up new summits the +higher you climb; a few noble peaks seen even from the valley; a +village of hotels; a world of black and white--black pine-woods, +clinging to the sides of the valley, and white snow flouring it, +and papering it between the pine-woods, and covering all the +mountains with a dazzling curd; add a few score invalids marching +to and fro upon the snowy road, or skating on the ice-rinks, +possibly to music, or sitting under sunshades by the door of the +hotel--and you have the larger features of a mountain sanatorium. +A certain furious river runs curving down the valley; its pace +never varies, it has not a pool for as far as you can follow it; +and its unchanging, senseless hurry is strangely tedious to +witness. It is a river that a man could grow to hate. Day after +day breaks with the rarest gold upon the mountain spires, and +creeps, growing and glowing, down into the valley. From end to end +the snow reverberates the sunshine; from end to end the air tingles +with the light, clear and dry like crystal. Only along the course +of the river, but high above it, there hangs far into the noon, one +waving scarf of vapour. It were hard to fancy a more engaging +feature in a landscape; perhaps it is harder to believe that +delicate, long-lasting phantom of the atmosphere, a creature of the +incontinent stream whose course it follows. By noon the sky is +arrayed in an unrivalled pomp of colour--mild and pale and melting +in the north, but towards the zenith, dark with an intensity of +purple blue. What with this darkness of heaven and the intolerable +lustre of the snow, space is reduced again to chaos. An English +painter, coming to France late in life, declared with natural anger +that 'the values were all wrong.' Had he got among the Alps on a +bright day he might have lost his reason. And even to any one who +has looked at landscape with any care, and in any way through the +spectacles of representative art, the scene has a character of +insanity. The distant shining mountain peak is here beside your +eye; the neighbouring dull-coloured house in comparison is miles +away; the summit, which is all of splendid snow, is close at hand; +the nigh slopes, which are black with pine trees, bear it no +relation, and might be in another sphere. Here there are none of +those delicate gradations, those intimate, misty joinings-on and +spreadings-out into the distance, nothing of that art of air and +light by which the face of nature explains and veils itself in +climes which we may be allowed to think more lovely. A glaring +piece of crudity, where everything that is not white is a solecism +and defies the judgment of the eyesight; a scene of blinding +definition; a parade of daylight, almost scenically vulgar, more +than scenically trying, and yet hearty and healthy, making the +nerves to tighten and the mouth to smile: such is the winter +daytime in the Alps. + +With the approach of evening all is changed. A mountain will +suddenly intercept the sun; a shadow fall upon the valley; in ten +minutes the thermometer will drop as many degrees; the peaks that +are no longer shone upon dwindle into ghosts; and meanwhile, +overhead, if the weather be rightly characteristic of the place, +the sky fades towards night through a surprising key of colours. +The latest gold leaps from the last mountain. Soon, perhaps, the +moon shall rise, and in her gentler light the valley shall be +mellowed and misted, and here and there a wisp of silver cloud upon +a hilltop, and here and there a warmly glowing window in a house, +between fire and starlight, kind and homely in the fields of snow. + +But the valley is not seated so high among the clouds to be +eternally exempt from changes. The clouds gather, black as ink; +the wind bursts rudely in; day after day the mists drive overhead, +the snow-flakes flutter down in blinding disarray; daily the mail +comes in later from the top of the pass; people peer through their +windows and foresee no end but an entire seclusion from Europe, and +death by gradual dry-rot, each in his indifferent inn; and when at +last the storm goes, and the sun comes again, behold a world of +unpolluted snow, glossy like fur, bright like daylight, a joy to +wallowing dogs and cheerful to the souls of men. Or perhaps from +across storied and malarious Italy, a wind cunningly winds about +the mountains and breaks, warm and unclean, upon our mountain +valley. Every nerve is set ajar; the conscience recognises, at a +gust, a load of sins and negligences hitherto unknown; and the +whole invalid world huddles into its private chambers, and silently +recognises the empire of the Fohn. + + + +CHAPTER XI--ALPINE DIVERSIONS + + + +There will be no lack of diversion in an Alpine sanitarium. The +place is half English, to be sure, the local sheet appearing in +double column, text and translation; but it still remains half +German; and hence we have a band which is able to play, and a +company of actors able, as you will be told, to act. This last you +will take on trust, for the players, unlike the local sheet, +confine themselves to German and though at the beginning of winter +they come with their wig-boxes to each hotel in turn, long before +Christmas they will have given up the English for a bad job. There +will follow, perhaps, a skirmish between the two races; the German +element seeking, in the interest of their actors, to raise a +mysterious item, the Kur-taxe, which figures heavily enough already +in the weekly bills, the English element stoutly resisting. +Meantime in the English hotels home-played farces, tableaux- +vivants, and even balls enliven the evenings; a charity bazaar +sheds genial consternation; Christmas and New Year are solemnised +with Pantagruelian dinners, and from time to time the young folks +carol and revolve untunefully enough through the figures of a +singing quadrille. + +A magazine club supplies you with everything, from the Quarterly to +the Sunday at Home. Grand tournaments are organised at chess, +draughts, billiards and whist. Once and again wandering artists +drop into our mountain valley, coming you know not whence, going +you cannot imagine whither, and belonging to every degree in the +hierarchy of musical art, from the recognised performer who +announces a concert for the evening, to the comic German family or +solitary long-haired German baritone, who surprises the guests at +dinner-time with songs and a collection. They are all of them good +to see; they, at least, are moving; they bring with them the +sentiment of the open road; yesterday, perhaps, they were in Tyrol, +and next week they will be far in Lombardy, while all we sick folk +still simmer in our mountain prison. Some of them, too, are +welcome as the flowers in May for their own sake; some of them may +have a human voice; some may have that magic which transforms a +wooden box into a song-bird, and what we jeeringly call a fiddle +into what we mention with respect as a violin. From that grinding +lilt, with which the blind man, seeking pence, accompanies the beat +of paddle wheels across the ferry, there is surely a difference +rather of kind than of degree to that unearthly voice of singing +that bewails and praises the destiny of man at the touch of the +true virtuoso. Even that you may perhaps enjoy; and if you do so +you will own it impossible to enjoy it more keenly than here, im +Schnee der Alpen. A hyacinth in a pot, a handful of primroses +packed in moss, or a piece of music by some one who knows the way +to the heart of a violin, are things that, in this invariable +sameness of the snows and frosty air, surprise you like an +adventure. It is droll, moreover, to compare the respect with +which the invalids attend a concert, and the ready contempt with +which they greet the dinner-time performers. Singing which they +would hear with real enthusiasm--possibly with tears--from a corner +of a drawing-room, is listened to with laughter when it is offered +by an unknown professional and no money has been taken at the door. + +Of skating little need be said; in so snowy a climate the rinks +must be intelligently managed; their mismanagement will lead to +many days of vexation and some petty quarrelling, but when all goes +well, it is certainly curious, and perhaps rather unsafe, for the +invalid to skate under a burning sun, and walk back to his hotel in +a sweat, through long tracts of glare and passages of freezing +shadow. But the peculiar outdoor sport of this district is +tobogganing. A Scotchman may remember the low flat board, with the +front wheels on a pivot, which was called a hurlie; he may remember +this contrivance, laden with boys, as, laboriously started, it ran +rattling down the brae, and was, now successfully, now +unsuccessfully, steered round the corner at the foot; he may +remember scented summer evenings passed in this diversion, and many +a grazed skin, bloody cockscomb, and neglected lesson. The +toboggan is to the hurlie what the sled is to the carriage; it is a +hurlie upon runners; and if for a grating road you substitute a +long declivity of beaten snow, you can imagine the giddy career of +the tobogganist. The correct position is to sit; but the fantastic +will sometimes sit hind-foremost, or dare the descent upon their +belly or their back. A few steer with a pair of pointed sticks, +but it is more classical to use the feet. If the weight be heavy +and the track smooth, the toboggan takes the bit between its teeth; +and to steer a couple of full-sized friends in safety requires not +only judgment but desperate exertion. On a very steep track, with +a keen evening frost, you may have moments almost too appalling to +be called enjoyment; the head goes, the world vanishes; your blind +steed bounds below your weight; you reach the foot, with all the +breath knocked out of your body, jarred and bewildered as though +you had just been subjected to a railway accident. Another element +of joyful horror is added by the formation of a train; one toboggan +being tied to another, perhaps to the number of half a dozen, only +the first rider being allowed to steer, and all the rest pledged to +put up their feet and follow their leader, with heart in mouth, +down the mad descent. This, particularly if the track begins with +a headlong plunge, is one of the most exhilarating follies in the +world, and the tobogganing invalid is early reconciled to +somersaults. + +There is all manner of variety in the nature of the tracks, some +miles in length, others but a few yards, and yet like some short +rivers, furious in their brevity. All degrees of skill and courage +and taste may be suited in your neighbourhood. But perhaps the +true way to toboggan is alone and at night. First comes the +tedious climb, dragging your instrument behind you. Next a long +breathing-space, alone with snow and pinewoods, cold, silent and +solemn to the heart. Then you push of; the toboggan fetches way; +she begins to feel the hill, to glide, to, swim, to gallop. In a +breath you are out from under the pine trees, and a whole heavenful +of stars reels and flashes overhead. Then comes a vicious effort; +for by this time your wooden steed is speeding like the wind, and +you are spinning round a corner, and the whole glittering valley +and all the lights in all the great hotels lie for a moment at your +feet; and the next you are racing once more in the shadow of the +night with close-shut teeth and beating heart. Yet a little while +and you will be landed on the highroad by the door of your own +hotel. This, in an atmosphere tingling with forty degrees of +frost, in a night made luminous with stars and snow, and girt with +strange white mountains, teaches the pulse an unaccustomed tune and +adds a new excitement to the life of man upon his planet. + + + +CHAPTER XII--THE STIMULATION OF THE ALPS + + + +To any one who should come from a southern sanitarium to the Alps, +the row of sun-burned faces round the table would present the first +surprise. He would begin by looking for the invalids, and he would +lose his pains, for not one out of five of even the bad cases bears +the mark of sickness on his face. The plump sunshine from above +and its strong reverberation from below colour the skin like an +Indian climate; the treatment, which consists mainly of the open +air, exposes even the sickliest to tan, and a tableful of invalids +comes, in a month or two, to resemble a tableful of hunters. But +although he may be thus surprised at the first glance, his +astonishment will grow greater, as he experiences the effects of +the climate on himself. In many ways it is a trying business to +reside upon the Alps: the stomach is exercised, the appetite often +languishes; the liver may at times rebel; and because you have come +so far from metropolitan advantages, it does not follow that you +shall recover. But one thing is undeniable--that in the rare air, +clear, cold, and blinding light of Alpine winters, a man takes a +certain troubled delight in his existence which can nowhere else be +paralleled. He is perhaps no happier, but he is stingingly alive. +It does not, perhaps, come out of him in work or exercise, yet he +feels an enthusiasm of the blood unknown in more temperate +climates. It may not be health, but it is fun. + +There is nothing more difficult to communicate on paper than this +baseless ardour, this stimulation of the brain, this sterile +joyousness of spirits. You wake every morning, see the gold upon +the snow-peaks, become filled with courage, and bless God for your +prolonged existence. The valleys are but a stride to you; you cast +your shoe over the hilltops; your ears and your heart sing; in the +words of an unverified quotation from the Scotch psalms, you feel +yourself fit 'on the wings of all the winds' to 'come flying all +abroad.' Europe and your mind are too narrow for that flood of +energy. Yet it is notable that you are hard to root out of your +bed; that you start forth, singing, indeed, on your walk, yet are +unusually ready to turn home again; that the best of you is +volatile; and that although the restlessness remains till night, +the strength is early at an end. With all these heady jollities, +you are half conscious of an underlying languor in the body; you +prove not to be so well as you had fancied; you weary before you +have well begun; and though you mount at morning with the lark, +that is not precisely a song-bird's heart that you bring back with +you when you return with aching limbs and peevish temper to your +inn. + +It is hard to say wherein it lies, but this joy of Alpine winters +is its own reward. Baseless, in a sense, it is more than worth +more permanent improvements. The dream of health is perfect while +it lasts; and if, in trying to realise it, you speedily wear out +the dear hallucination, still every day, and many times a day, you +are conscious of a strength you scarce possess, and a delight in +living as merry as it proves to be transient. + +The brightness--heaven and earth conspiring to be bright--the +levity and quiet of the air; the odd stirring silence--more +stirring than a tumult; the snow, the frost, the enchanted +landscape: all have their part in the effect and on the memory, +'tous vous tapent sur la tete'; and yet when you have enumerated +all, you have gone no nearer to explain or even to qualify the +delicate exhilaration that you feel--delicate, you may say, and yet +excessive, greater than can be said in prose, almost greater than +an invalid can bear. There is a certain wine of France known in +England in some gaseous disguise, but when drunk in the land of its +nativity still as a pool, clean as river water, and as heady as +verse. It is more than probable that in its noble natural +condition this was the very wine of Anjou so beloved by Athos in +the 'Musketeers.' Now, if the reader has ever washed down a +liberal second breakfast with the wine in question, and gone forth, +on the back of these dilutions, into a sultry, sparkling noontide, +he will have felt an influence almost as genial, although strangely +grosser, than this fairy titillation of the nerves among the snow +and sunshine of the Alps. That also is a mode, we need not say of +intoxication, but of insobriety. Thus also a man walks in a strong +sunshine of the mind, and follows smiling, insubstantial +meditations. And whether he be really so clever or so strong as he +supposes, in either case he will enjoy his chimera while it lasts. + +The influence of this giddy air displays itself in many secondary +ways. A certain sort of laboured pleasantry has already been +recognised, and may perhaps have been remarked in these papers, as +a sort peculiar to that climate. People utter their judgments with +a cannonade of syllables; a big word is as good as a meal to them; +and the turn of a phrase goes further than humour or wisdom. By +the professional writer many sad vicissitudes have to be undergone. +At first he cannot write at all. The heart, it appears, is unequal +to the pressure of business, and the brain, left without +nourishment, goes into a mild decline. Next, some power of work +returns to him, accompanied by jumping headaches. Last, the spring +is opened, and there pours at once from his pen a world of blatant, +hustling polysyllables, and talk so high as, in the old joke, to be +positively offensive in hot weather. He writes it in good faith +and with a sense of inspiration; it is only when he comes to read +what he has written that surprise and disquiet seize upon his mind. +What is he to do, poor man? All his little fishes talk like +whales. This yeasty inflation, this stiff and strutting +architecture of the sentence has come upon him while he slept; and +it is not he, it is the Alps, who are to blame. He is not, +perhaps, alone, which somewhat comforts him. Nor is the ill +without a remedy. Some day, when the spring returns, he shall go +down a little lower in this world, and remember quieter inflections +and more modest language. But here, in the meantime, there seems +to swim up some outline of a new cerebral hygiene and a good time +coming, when experienced advisers shall send a man to the proper +measured level for the ode, the biography, or the religious tract; +and a nook may be found between the sea and Chimborazo, where Mr. +Swinburne shall be able to write more continently, and Mr. Browning +somewhat slower. + +Is it a return of youth, or is it a congestion of the brain? It is +a sort of congestion, perhaps, that leads the invalid, when all +goes well, to face the new day with such a bubbling cheerfulness. +It is certainly congestion that makes night hideous with visions, +all the chambers of a many-storeyed caravanserai, haunted with +vociferous nightmares, and many wakeful people come down late for +breakfast in the morning. Upon that theory the cynic may explain +the whole affair--exhilaration, nightmares, pomp of tongue and all. +But, on the other hand, the peculiar blessedness of boyhood may +itself be but a symptom of the same complaint, for the two effects +are strangely similar; and the frame of mind of the invalid upon +the Alps is a sort of intermittent youth, with periods of +lassitude. The fountain of Juventus does not play steadily in +these parts; but there it plays, and possibly nowhere else. + + + +CHAPTER XIII--ROADS--1873 + + + +No amateur will deny that he can find more pleasure in a single +drawing, over which he can sit a whole quiet forenoon, and so +gradually study himself into humour with the artist, than he can +ever extract from the dazzle and accumulation of incongruous +impressions that send him, weary and stupefied, out of some famous +picture-gallery. But what is thus admitted with regard to art is +not extended to the (so-called) natural beauties no amount of +excess in sublime mountain outline or the graces of cultivated +lowland can do anything, it is supposed, to weaken or degrade the +palate. We are not at all sure, however, that moderation, and a +regimen tolerably austere, even in scenery, are not healthful and +strengthening to the taste; and that the best school for a lover of +nature is not to the found in one of those countries where there is +no stage effect--nothing salient or sudden,--but a quiet spirit of +orderly and harmonious beauty pervades all the details, so that we +can patiently attend to each of the little touches that strike in +us, all of them together, the subdued note of the landscape. It is +in scenery such as this that we find ourselves in the right temper +to seek out small sequestered loveliness. The constant recurrence +of similar combinations of colour and outline gradually forces upon +us a sense of how the harmony has been built up, and we become +familiar with something of nature's mannerism. This is the true +pleasure of your 'rural voluptuary,'--not to remain awe-stricken +before a Mount Chimborazo; not to sit deafened over the big drum in +the orchestra, but day by day to teach himself some new beauty--to +experience some new vague and tranquil sensation that has before +evaded him. It is not the people who 'have pined and hungered +after nature many a year, in the great city pent,' as Coleridge +said in the poem that made Charles Lamb so much ashamed of himself; +it is not those who make the greatest progress in this intimacy +with her, or who are most quick to see and have the greatest gusto +to enjoy. In this, as in everything else, it is minute knowledge +and long-continued loving industry that make the true dilettante. +A man must have thought much over scenery before he begins fully to +enjoy it. It is no youngling enthusiasm on hilltops that can +possess itself of the last essence of beauty. Probably most +people's heads are growing bare before they can see all in a +landscape that they have the capability of seeing; and, even then, +it will be only for one little moment of consummation before the +faculties are again on the decline, and they that look out of the +windows begin to be darkened and restrained in sight. Thus the +study of nature should be carried forward thoroughly and with +system. Every gratification should be rolled long under the +tongue, and we should be always eager to analyse and compare, in +order that we may be able to give some plausible reason for our +admirations. True, it is difficult to put even approximately into +words the kind of feelings thus called into play. There is a +dangerous vice inherent in any such intellectual refining upon +vague sensation. The analysis of such satisfactions lends itself +very readily to literary affectations; and we can all think of +instances where it has shown itself apt to exercise a morbid +influence, even upon an author's choice of language and the turn of +his sentences. And yet there is much that makes the attempt +attractive; for any expression, however imperfect, once given to a +cherished feeling, seems a sort of legitimation of the pleasure we +take in it. A common sentiment is one of those great goods that +make life palatable and ever new. The knowledge that another has +felt as we have felt, and seen things, even if they are little +things, not much otherwise than we have seen them, will continue to +the end to be one of life's choicest pleasures. + +Let the reader, then, betake himself in the spirit we have +recommended to some of the quieter kinds of English landscape. In +those homely and placid agricultural districts, familiarity will +bring into relief many things worthy of notice, and urge them +pleasantly home to him by a sort of loving repetition; such as the +wonderful life-giving speed of windmill sails above the stationary +country; the occurrence and recurrence of the same church tower at +the end of one long vista after another: and, conspicuous among +these sources of quiet pleasure, the character and variety of the +road itself, along which he takes his way. Not only near at hand, +in the lithe contortions with which it adapts itself to the +interchanges of level and slope, but far away also, when he sees a +few hundred feet of it upheaved against a hill and shining in the +afternoon sun, he will find it an object so changeful and +enlivening that he can always pleasurably busy his mind about it. +He may leave the river-side, or fall out of the way of villages, +but the road he has always with him; and, in the true humour of +observation, will find in that sufficient company. From its subtle +windings and changes of level there arises a keen and continuous +interest, that keeps the attention ever alert and cheerful. Every +sensitive adjustment to the contour of the ground, every little dip +and swerve, seems instinct with life and an exquisite sense of +balance and beauty. The road rolls upon the easy slopes of the +country, like a long ship in the hollows of the sea. The very +margins of waste ground, as they trench a little farther on the +beaten way, or recede again to the shelter of the hedge, have +something of the same free delicacy of line--of the same swing and +wilfulness. You might think for a whole summer's day (and not have +thought it any nearer an end by evening) what concourse and +succession of circumstances has produced the least of these +deflections; and it is, perhaps, just in this that we should look +for the secret of their interest. A foot-path across a meadow--in +all its human waywardness and unaccountability, in all the grata +protervitas of its varying direction--will always be more to us +than a railroad well engineered through a difficult country. {7} +No reasoned sequence is thrust upon our attention: we seem to have +slipped for one lawless little moment out of the iron rule of cause +and effect; and so we revert at once to some of the pleasant old +heresies of personification, always poetically orthodox, and +attribute a sort of free-will, an active and spontaneous life, to +the white riband of road that lengthens out, and bends, and +cunningly adapts itself to the inequalities of the land before our +eyes. We remember, as we write, some miles of fine wide highway +laid out with conscious aesthetic artifice through a broken and +richly cultivated tract of country. It is said that the engineer +had Hogarth's line of beauty in his mind as he laid them down. And +the result is striking. One splendid satisfying sweep passes with +easy transition into another, and there is nothing to trouble or +dislocate the strong continuousness of the main line of the road. +And yet there is something wanting. There is here no saving +imperfection, none of those secondary curves and little +trepidations of direction that carry, in natural roads, our +curiosity actively along with them. One feels at once that this +road has not has been laboriously grown like a natural road, but +made to pattern; and that, while a model may be academically +correct in outline, it will always be inanimate and cold. The +traveller is also aware of a sympathy of mood between himself and +the road he travels. We have all seen ways that have wandered into +heavy sand near the sea-coast, and trail wearily over the dunes +like a trodden serpent. Here we too must plod forward at a dull, +laborious pace; and so a sympathy is preserved between our frame of +mind and the expression of the relaxed, heavy curves of the +roadway. Such a phenomenon, indeed, our reason might perhaps +resolve with a little trouble. We might reflect that the present +road had been developed out of a tract spontaneously followed by +generations of primitive wayfarers; and might see in its expression +a testimony that those generations had been affected at the same +ground, one after another, in the same manner as we are affected +to-day. Or we might carry the reflection further, and remind +ourselves that where the air is invigorating and the ground firm +under the traveller's foot, his eye is quick to take advantage of +small undulations, and he will turn carelessly aside from the +direct way wherever there is anything beautiful to examine or some +promise of a wider view; so that even a bush of wild roses may +permanently bias and deform the straight path over the meadow; +whereas, where the soil is heavy, one is preoccupied with the +labour of mere progression, and goes with a bowed head heavily and +unobservantly forward. Reason, however, will not carry us the +whole way; for the sentiment often recurs in situations where it is +very hard to imagine any possible explanation; and indeed, if we +drive briskly along a good, well-made road in an open vehicle, we +shall experience this sympathy almost at its fullest. We feel the +sharp settle of the springs at some curiously twisted corner; after +a steep ascent, the fresh air dances in our faces as we rattle +precipitately down the other side, and we find it difficult to +avoid attributing something headlong, a sort of ABANDON, to the +road itself. + +The mere winding of the path is enough to enliven a long day's walk +in even a commonplace or dreary country-side. Something that we +have seen from miles back, upon an eminence, is so long hid from +us, as we wander through folded valleys or among woods, that our +expectation of seeing it again is sharpened into a violent +appetite, and as we draw nearer we impatiently quicken our steps +and turn every corner with a beating heart. It is through these +prolongations of expectancy, this succession of one hope to +another, that we live out long seasons of pleasure in a few hours' +walk. It is in following these capricious sinuosities that we +learn, only bit by bit and through one coquettish reticence after +another, much as we learn the heart of a friend, the whole +loveliness of the country. This disposition always preserves +something new to be seen, and takes us, like a careful cicerone, to +many different points of distant view before it allows us finally +to approach the hoped-for destination. + +In its connection with the traffic, and whole friendly intercourse +with the country, there is something very pleasant in that +succession of saunterers and brisk and business-like passers-by, +that peoples our ways and helps to build up what Walt Whitman calls +'the cheerful voice of the public road, the gay, fresh sentiment of +the road.' But out of the great network of ways that binds all +life together from the hill-farm to the city, there is something +individual to most, and, on the whole, nearly as much choice on the +score of company as on the score of beauty or easy travel. On some +we are never long without the sound of wheels, and folk pass us by +so thickly that we lose the sense of their number. But on others, +about little-frequented districts, a meeting is an affair of +moment; we have the sight far off of some one coming towards us, +the growing definiteness of the person, and then the brief passage +and salutation, and the road left empty in front of us for perhaps +a great while to come. Such encounters have a wistful interest +that can hardly be understood by the dweller in places more +populous. We remember standing beside a countryman once, in the +mouth of a quiet by-street in a city that was more than ordinarily +crowded and bustling; he seemed stunned and bewildered by the +continual passage of different faces; and after a long pause, +during which he appeared to search for some suitable expression, he +said timidly that there seemed to be a GREAT DEAL OF MEETING +THEREABOUTS. The phrase is significant. It is the expression of +town-life in the language of the long, solitary country highways. +A meeting of one with one was what this man had been used to in the +pastoral uplands from which he came; and the concourse of the +streets was in his eyes only an extraordinary multiplication of +such 'meetings.' + +And now we come to that last and most subtle quality of all, to +that sense of prospect, of outlook, that is brought so powerfully +to our minds by a road. In real nature, as well as in old +landscapes, beneath that impartial daylight in which a whole +variegated plain is plunged and saturated, the line of the road +leads the eye forth with the vague sense of desire up to the green +limit of the horizon. Travel is brought home to us, and we visit +in spirit every grove and hamlet that tempts us in the distance. +Sehnsucht--the passion for what is ever beyond--is livingly +expressed in that white riband of possible travel that severs the +uneven country; not a ploughman following his plough up the shining +furrow, not the blue smoke of any cottage in a hollow, but is +brought to us with a sense of nearness and attainability by this +wavering line of junction. There is a passionate paragraph in +Werther that strikes the very key. 'When I came hither,' he +writes, 'how the beautiful valley invited me on every side, as I +gazed down into it from the hill-top! There the wood--ah, that I +might mingle in its shadows! there the mountain summits--ah, that I +might look down from them over the broad country! the interlinked +hills! the secret valleys! Oh to lose myself among their +mysteries! I hurried into the midst, and came back without finding +aught I hoped for. Alas! the distance is like the future. A vast +whole lies in the twilight before our spirit; sight and feeling +alike plunge and lose themselves in the prospect, and we yearn to +surrender our whole being, and let it be filled full with all the +rapture of one single glorious sensation; and alas! when we hasten +to the fruition, when THERE is changed to HERE, all is afterwards +as it was before, and we stand in our indigent and cramped estate, +and our soul thirsts after a still ebbing elixir.' It is to this +wandering and uneasy spirit of anticipation that roads minister. +Every little vista, every little glimpse that we have of what lies +before us, gives the impatient imagination rein, so that it can +outstrip the body and already plunge into the shadow of the woods, +and overlook from the hill-top the plain beyond it, and wander in +the windings of the valleys that are still far in front. The road +is already there--we shall not be long behind. It is as if we were +marching with the rear of a great army, and, from far before, heard +the acclamation of the people as the vanguard entered some friendly +and jubilant city. Would not every man, through all the long miles +of march, feel as if he also were within the gates? + + + +CHAPTER XIV--ON THE ENJOYMENT OF UNPLEASANT PLACES--1874 + + + +It is a difficult matter to make the most of any given place, and +we have much in our own power. Things looked at patiently from one +side after another generally end by showing a side that is +beautiful. A few months ago some words were said in the Portfolio +as to an 'austere regimen in scenery'; and such a discipline was +then recommended as 'healthful and strengthening to the taste.' +That is the text, so to speak, of the present essay. This +discipline in scenery, it must be understood, is something more +than a mere walk before breakfast to whet the appetite. For when +we are put down in some unsightly neighbourhood, and especially if +we have come to be more or less dependent on what we see, we must +set ourselves to hunt out beautiful things with all the ardour and +patience of a botanist after a rye plant. Day by day we perfect +ourselves in the art of seeing nature more favourably. We learn to +live with her, as people learn to live with fretful or violent +spouses: to dwell lovingly on what is good, and shut our eyes +against all that is bleak or inharmonious. We learn, also, to come +to each place in the right spirit. The traveller, as Brantome +quaintly tells us, 'fait des discours en soi pour soutenir en +chemin'; and into these discourses he weaves something out of all +that he sees and suffers by the way; they take their tone greatly +from the varying character of the scene; a sharp ascent brings +different thoughts from a level road; and the man's fancies grow +lighter as he comes out of the wood into a clearing. Nor does the +scenery any more affect the thoughts than the thoughts affect the +scenery. We see places through our humours as through differently +coloured glasses. We are ourselves a term in the equation, a note +of the chord, and make discord or harmony almost at will. There is +no fear for the result, if we can but surrender ourselves +sufficiently to the country that surrounds and follows us, so that +we are ever thinking suitable thoughts or telling ourselves some +suitable sort of story as we go. We become thus, in some sense, a +centre of beauty; we are provocative of beauty, much as a gentle +and sincere character is provocative of sincerity and gentleness in +others. And even where there is no harmony to be elicited by the +quickest and most obedient of spirits, we may still embellish a +place with some attraction of romance. We may learn to go far +afield for associations, and handle them lightly when we have found +them. Sometimes an old print comes to our aid; I have seen many a +spot lit up at once with picturesque imaginations, by a +reminiscence of Callot, or Sadeler, or Paul Brill. Dick Turpin has +been my lay figure for many an English lane. And I suppose the +Trossachs would hardly be the Trossachs for most tourists if a man +of admirable romantic instinct had not peopled it for them with +harmonious figures, and brought them thither with minds rightly +prepared for the impression. There is half the battle in this +preparation. For instance: I have rarely been able to visit, in +the proper spirit, the wild and inhospitable places of our own +Highlands. I am happier where it is tame and fertile, and not +readily pleased without trees. I understand that there are some +phases of mental trouble that harmonise well with such +surroundings, and that some persons, by the dispensing power of the +imagination, can go back several centuries in spirit, and put +themselves into sympathy with the hunted, houseless, unsociable way +of life that was in its place upon these savage hills. Now, when I +am sad, I like nature to charm me out of my sadness, like David +before Saul; and the thought of these past ages strikes nothing in +me but an unpleasant pity; so that I can never hit on the right +humour for this sort of landscape, and lose much pleasure in +consequence. Still, even here, if I were only let alone, and time +enough were given, I should have all manner of pleasures, and take +many clear and beautiful images away with me when I left. When we +cannot think ourselves into sympathy with the great features of a +country, we learn to ignore them, and put our head among the grass +for flowers, or pore, for long times together, over the changeful +current of a stream. We come down to the sermon in stones, when we +are shut out from any poem in the spread landscape. We begin to +peep and botanise, we take an interest in birds and insects, we +find many things beautiful in miniature. The reader will recollect +the little summer scene in Wuthering Heights--the one warm scene, +perhaps, in all that powerful, miserable novel--and the great +feature that is made therein by grasses and flowers and a little +sunshine: this is in the spirit of which I now speak. And, +lastly, we can go indoors; interiors are sometimes as beautiful, +often more picturesque, than the shows of the open air, and they +have that quality of shelter of which I shall presently have more +to say. + +With all this in mind, I have often been tempted to put forth the +paradox that any place is good enough to live a life in, while it +is only in a few, and those highly favoured, that we can pass a few +hours agreeably. For, if we only stay long enough we become at +home in the neighbourhood. Reminiscences spring up, like flowers, +about uninteresting corners. We forget to some degree the superior +loveliness of other places, and fall into a tolerant and +sympathetic spirit which is its own reward and justification. +Looking back the other day on some recollections of my own, I was +astonished to find how much I owed to such a residence; six weeks +in one unpleasant country-side had done more, it seemed, to quicken +and educate my sensibilities than many years in places that jumped +more nearly with my inclination. + +The country to which I refer was a level and tree-less plateau, +over which the winds cut like a whip. For miles and miles it was +the same. A river, indeed, fell into the sea near the town where I +resided; but the valley of the river was shallow and bald, for as +far up as ever I had the heart to follow it. There were roads, +certainly, but roads that had no beauty or interest; for, as there +was no timber, and but little irregularity of surface, you saw your +whole walk exposed to you from the beginning: there was nothing +left to fancy, nothing to expect, nothing to see by the wayside, +save here and there an unhomely-looking homestead, and here and +there a solitary, spectacled stone-breaker; and you were only +accompanied, as you went doggedly forward, by the gaunt telegraph- +posts and the hum of the resonant wires in the keen sea-wind. To +one who had learned to know their song in warm pleasant places by +the Mediterranean, it seemed to taunt the country, and make it +still bleaker by suggested contrast. Even the waste places by the +side of the road were not, as Hawthorne liked to put it, 'taken +back to Nature' by any decent covering of vegetation. Wherever the +land had the chance, it seemed to lie fallow. There is a certain +tawny nudity of the South, bare sunburnt plains, coloured like a +lion, and hills clothed only in the blue transparent air; but this +was of another description--this was the nakedness of the North; +the earth seemed to know that it was naked, and was ashamed and +cold. + +It seemed to be always blowing on that coast. Indeed, this had +passed into the speech of the inhabitants, and they saluted each +other when they met with 'Breezy, breezy,' instead of the customary +'Fine day' of farther south. These continual winds were not like +the harvest breeze, that just keeps an equable pressure against +your face as you walk, and serves to set all the trees talking over +your head, or bring round you the smell of the wet surface of the +country after a shower. They were of the bitter, hard, persistent +sort, that interferes with sight and respiration, and makes the +eyes sore. Even such winds as these have their own merit in proper +time and place. It is pleasant to see them brandish great masses +of shadow. And what a power they have over the colour of the +world! How they ruffle the solid woodlands in their passage, and +make them shudder and whiten like a single willow! There is +nothing more vertiginous than a wind like this among the woods, +with all its sights and noises; and the effect gets between some +painters and their sober eyesight, so that, even when the rest of +their picture is calm, the foliage is coloured like foliage in a +gale. There was nothing, however, of this sort to be noticed in a +country where there were no trees and hardly any shadows, save the +passive shadows of clouds or those of rigid houses and walls. But +the wind was nevertheless an occasion of pleasure; for nowhere +could you taste more fully the pleasure of a sudden lull, or a +place of opportune shelter. The reader knows what I mean; he must +remember how, when he has sat himself down behind a dyke on a +hillside, he delighted to hear the wind hiss vainly through the +crannies at his back; how his body tingled all over with warmth, +and it began to dawn upon him, with a sort of slow surprise, that +the country was beautiful, the heather purple, and the far-away +hills all marbled with sun and shadow. Wordsworth, in a beautiful +passage of the 'Prelude,' has used this as a figure for the feeling +struck in us by the quiet by-streets of London after the uproar of +the great thoroughfares; and the comparison may be turned the other +way with as good effect:- + +'Meanwhile the roar continues, till at length, +Escaped as from an enemy, we turn +Abruptly into some sequester'd nook, +Still as a shelter'd place when winds blow loud!' + +I remember meeting a man once, in a train, who told me of what must +have been quite the most perfect instance of this pleasure of +escape. He had gone up, one sunny, windy morning, to the top of a +great cathedral somewhere abroad; I think it was Cologne Cathedral, +the great unfinished marvel by the Rhine; and after a long while in +dark stairways, he issued at last into the sunshine, on a platform +high above the town. At that elevation it was quite still and +warm; the gale was only in the lower strata of the air, and he had +forgotten it in the quiet interior of the church and during his +long ascent; and so you may judge of his surprise when, resting his +arms on the sunlit balustrade and looking over into the Place far +below him, he saw the good people holding on their hats and leaning +hard against the wind as they walked. There is something, to my +fancy, quite perfect in this little experience of my fellow- +traveller's. The ways of men seem always very trivial to us when +we find ourselves alone on a church-top, with the blue sky and a +few tall pinnacles, and see far below us the steep roofs and +foreshortened buttresses, and the silent activity of the city +streets; but how much more must they not have seemed so to him as +he stood, not only above other men's business, but above other +men's climate, in a golden zone like Apollo's! + +This was the sort of pleasure I found in the country of which I +write. The pleasure was to be out of the wind, and to keep it in +memory all the time, and hug oneself upon the shelter. And it was +only by the sea that any such sheltered places were to be found. +Between the black worm-eaten head-lands there are little bights and +havens, well screened from the wind and the commotion of the +external sea, where the sand and weeds look up into the gazer's +face from a depth of tranquil water, and the sea-birds, screaming +and flickering from the ruined crags, alone disturb the silence and +the sunshine. One such place has impressed itself on my memory +beyond all others. On a rock by the water's edge, old fighting men +of the Norse breed had planted a double castle; the two stood wall +to wall like semi-detached villas; and yet feud had run so high +between their owners, that one, from out of a window, shot the +other as he stood in his own doorway. There is something in the +juxtaposition of these two enemies full of tragic irony. It is +grim to think of bearded men and bitter women taking hateful +counsel together about the two hall-fires at night, when the sea +boomed against the foundations and the wild winter wind was loose +over the battlements. And in the study we may reconstruct for +ourselves some pale figure of what life then was. Not so when we +are there; when we are there such thoughts come to us only to +intensify a contrary impression, and association is turned against +itself. I remember walking thither three afternoons in succession, +my eyes weary with being set against the wind, and how, dropping +suddenly over the edge of the down, I found myself in a new world +of warmth and shelter. The wind, from which I had escaped, 'as +from an enemy,' was seemingly quite local. It carried no clouds +with it, and came from such a quarter that it did not trouble the +sea within view. The two castles, black and ruinous as the rocks +about them, were still distinguishable from these by something more +insecure and fantastic in the outline, something that the last +storm had left imminent and the next would demolish entirely. It +would be difficult to render in words the sense of peace that took +possession of me on these three afternoons. It was helped out, as +I have said, by the contrast. The shore was battered and bemauled +by previous tempests; I had the memory at heart of the insane +strife of the pigmies who had erected these two castles and lived +in them in mutual distrust and enmity, and knew I had only to put +my head out of this little cup of shelter to find the hard wind +blowing in my eyes; and yet there were the two great tracts of +motionless blue air and peaceful sea looking on, unconcerned and +apart, at the turmoil of the present moment and the memorials of +the precarious past. There is ever something transitory and +fretful in the impression of a high wind under a cloudless sky; it +seems to have no root in the constitution of things; it must +speedily begin to faint and wither away like a cut flower. And on +those days the thought of the wind and the thought of human life +came very near together in my mind. Our noisy years did indeed +seem moments in the being of the eternal silence; and the wind, in +the face of that great field of stationary blue, was as the wind of +a butterfly's wing. The placidity of the sea was a thing likewise +to be remembered. Shelley speaks of the sea as 'hungering for +calm,' and in this place one learned to understand the phrase. +Looking down into these green waters from the broken edge of the +rock, or swimming leisurely in the sunshine, it seemed to me that +they were enjoying their own tranquillity; and when now and again +it was disturbed by a wind ripple on the surface, or the quick +black passage of a fish far below, they settled back again (one +could fancy) with relief. + +On shore too, in the little nook of shelter, everything was so +subdued and still that the least particular struck in me a +pleasurable surprise. The desultory crackling of the whin-pods in +the afternoon sun usurped the ear. The hot, sweet breath of the +bank, that had been saturated all day long with sunshine, and now +exhaled it into my face, was like the breath of a fellow-creature. +I remember that I was haunted by two lines of French verse; in some +dumb way they seemed to fit my surroundings and give expression to +the contentment that was in me, and I kept repeating to myself - + +'Mon coeur est un luth suspendu, +Sitot qu'on le touche, il resonne.' + +I can give no reason why these lines came to me at this time; and +for that very cause I repeat them here. For all I know, they may +serve to complete the impression in the mind of the reader, as they +were certainly a part of it for me. + +And this happened to me in the place of all others where I liked +least to stay. When I think of it I grow ashamed of my own +ingratitude. 'Out of the strong came forth sweetness.' There, in +the bleak and gusty North, I received, perhaps, my strongest +impression of peace. I saw the sea to be great and calm; and the +earth, in that little corner, was all alive and friendly to me. +So, wherever a man is, he will find something to please and pacify +him: in the town he will meet pleasant faces of men and women, and +see beautiful flowers at a window, or hear a cage-bird singing at +the corner of the gloomiest street; and for the country, there is +no country without some amenity--let him only look for it in the +right spirit, and he will surely find. + + + +Footnotes: + +{1} The Second Part here referred to is entitled 'ACROSS THE +PLAINS,' and is printed in the volume so entitled, together with +other Memories and Essays. + +{2} I had nearly finished the transcription of the following pages +when I saw on a friend's table the number containing the piece from +which this sentence is extracted, and, struck with a similarity of +title, took it home with me and read it with indescribable +satisfaction. I do not know whether I more envy M. Theuriet the +pleasure of having written this delightful article, or the reader +the pleasure, which I hope he has still before him, of reading it +once and again, and lingering over the passages that please him +most. + +{3} William Abercrombie. See Fasti Ecclesia Scoticanae, under +'Maybole' (Part iii.). + +{4} 'Duex poures varlez qui n'ont nulz gages et qui gissoient la +nuit avec les chiens.' See Champollion--Figeac's Louis et Charles +d'Orleans, i. 63, and for my lord's English horn, ibid. 96. + +{5} Reprinted by permission of John Lane. + +{6} 'Jehovah Tsidkenu,' translated in the Authorised Version as +'The Lord our Righteousness' (Jeremiah xxiii. 6 and xxxiii. 16). + +{7} Compare Blake, in the Marriage of Heaven and Hell: +'Improvement makes straight roads; but the crooked roads, without +improvement, are roads of Genius.' + + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, ESSAYS OF TRAVEL *** + +This file should be named esstr10.txt or esstr10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, esstr11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, esstr10a.txt + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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