London Sep. 5th 1879.
"Here my friends and kindred dwell" Yes, I should know immediately that the Clapps bailed from this quarter -
The old channel separates two people more widely different than it would seem possible. The contrast between the cities Paris & London is striking enough, but the contrast in the nationalities is still more so - you feel it in every breath you draw, you see it every where. So I say, though I have been on British soil less than 24 hours.
You should have seen the exuberance of spirit when our party first landed at New Haven wharf, and discovered that the people could actually understand what we said, without a gesture of any kind - in short without any fuss what ever. It is a sensation unlike anything before experienced to get back where we can talk to any body & be understood, but one needs to try it. The look that comes over the face of the German or Frenchman when you address him in English & he cannot understand!! He evidently thinks it absurd that you dont [sic] know his language - & you think it quite as absurd that he should not understand the simplest sentence of English - It seems strange to me that the English nation should be ignored so completely by the continentals or that the influence of the English people should be so slightly felt, apparently, on the continent. But I have not lived long enough on this side to be weighing any such questions, for I am taking such a superficial view of things. One needs to know German & French & talk with the people, live with them for some time, in order to judge correctly, I know. I never regretted any thing more than my neglect to study German & French enough to speak it for ordinary use, for I am perfectly amazed at the ease with which some of our party speak with my little book knowledge of the languages. When once the construction of sentences is mastered, one picks up words fast, living in the midst of people speaking only these languages[.] But I am back among "my kindred" and I will proceed to tell you something of them & the biggest city which they inhabit. Oh, I was going to say in speaking of the high spirits of our party that you would have been amused to have seen the whole fifteen distributed around the waiting room at the wharf where we landed at 10 oclock [sic] at night, reading placards & advertisements in English, as tho' we had found some choice reading -
I wrote from Paris the last Sunday we were there - We enjoyed Paris. The weather was of the finest sort, and we staid just about long enough - for this trip, I mean - We left on Tuesday noon - some of the party earlier to stop off at Rouen where Joan of Arc was burned - the party were reunited at Dieppe at night - a dirty, high priced hotels place - something of a watering place. The next morning we went out to the beach and took baths once more in the channel waters - It was awfully cold water - The soil in the region of Dieppe is very like that of England - chalk cliffs for miles of the coast. We dont [sic] like Dieppe! In fact we did not like any place in France except Paris. The country is different from that of other countries in that you see no scattered farm houses at all. The houses are all huddled in towns without exception, as we could observe from the cars riding through the country. I dont [sic] think that the average French or Italian man or town is much admired by any of this party -
Well, I commenced to write about "my kindred", but how I do wander from my subject! - But, come to think of it I have not been here long enough to tell you any thing about the objects of interest, and can only tell of our getting here. We left Dieppe on the boat that runs daily between Dieppe and New Haven, & one funny thing about the sailing of this coat - It sails at a different hour each day according to the tide - for the harbor at Dieppe and also at New Haven is so shallow that no steamer can get in to either of them except at high tide, consequently we did not start until 3 P.M. whereas we had planned for 10 A.M. Then another performance which would be interesting to travelers - we hurry across the channel and wait out side the harbor bar for two hours or more for the tide to lift us in. Think of that - when it is rough!! We had the loveliest kind of a trip, across - the waters of the proverbially nausea provoking channel, were calm & lovely as an Italian lake - We did find it cool, but we huddled together on the forward deck and succeeded in keeping warm with numerous wraps & spread umbrellas to keep off the mist - the moon was full, and we landed on English soil about 10 in the evening - staid at New Haven all night - took cars for London yesterday morning - came in on a fast train - actually the first fast train since leaving America. The cozy farmhouses, the green pastures, the cultivated fields, the flocks of sheep on the South Downs, thro' which we passed, the long horned cattle, the heather in bloom, the hawthorn hedges every where, chalk cliffs cropping out occasionally - the quiet, peaceful, happy looking country in the bright morning sun - for we did not find it raining or even foggy when we landed or when we reached London, though since then it has been growing darker & darker until this morning it is regular pleasant weather in London, I expect - for we can still see across the streets -
Yesterday afternoon we went to the British Museum to improve our time while Prof Jordan hunted up our boarding place.
We went into the Library, & to see the Elgin Marbles & then Prof came back & took the "troop" to No 13 Charlotte St - the first st west of the Museum - It is central and not very high priced, tho' rather "tony" for us. "We girls" have a large room with two large windows over looking quite a little back garden. The people are very pleasant, we are to have our breakfasts at 8 A.M. & dinner at 6 P.M. which will make it convenient for us - as we shall be out all day. Breakfast bell rings -
Sunday morning early 7th
The other girls are still quiet, so I will write a few words on this letter, as I happened to wake up & get up first - The sun actually shines this morn. about as brightly as on a regular smoky dog day at home. I dare say this is to be our finest weather here. Yesterday it was said that a hot day was predicted. You can hardly imagine the sun shining this hot enough to make it very sultry[.]
Yesterday we had a fine day so they all said - We improved the time - as we do each day, here. In the morning we went round by Waterloo bridge and to see Cleopatra's Needle - then to the Houses of Parliament where we spent an hour - The house of Lords is a little room, hardly big enough to turn around in when you think of 434 members. The seats rise on either side - bright red leather covered benches. In the center of the room in front of the throne is a tremendous ottoman, also covered with red cloth which is the "woolsack" of the Lord Chancellor[.]
Of course the gilded throne with its canopy and steps - with the two chairs on a lower level on each side for the Prince consort & Prince of Wales - take up a good deal of room, & the room is beautifully, yes magnificently decorated with oak carved panels & niches filled by statues & 12 fine stained glass windows - but for an audience room it must be a complete failure as the galleries are so arranged that one could hear very little. The house of commons is a more business like looking place[.] We saw the benches for the Government Party, for the "Opposition" - and the doors on each side of the room opening into the rooms where the "Ayes" & "Nays" go, to be counted. Ayes to the right of the speaker and Nays to the left -
We went into the old Westminster Hall where some of the earliest Parliaments were held - where Cromwell was proclaimed Protector &c, &c.
We spent the rest of the day at the South Kensington Museum - a place especially devoted to the Exhibition of objects of art, and connected with different school for the training of teachers &c &c - It is a mighty big place and of exceeding interest - I had anticipated this visit and want to go again more than ever before -
I cannot endure this pen & ink any longer - We enjoy this boarding place - The table is extraordinary! and the gentleman & lady - brother & sister - are the regular nice English people - They tell us so many interesting things. They have both traveled in America and have many American boarders first & last, so they understand us pretty well, and tell us just the kind of thing we want to know - Miss Mogridge is the lady's name - a Miss Hattie Ward from the vicinity of Boston, Mass. is here - she is studying in the art school at So. Kensington - Day before yesterday we started out in the morning - several of us - for the Bank region - to get some money. We went into several banks, and didn't it sound funny to be directed to the end of "such a lane["] to find such a Bank[.] We went to Thread needle St finally - such funny names as we constantly hear. It is real fun to read the names of the streets as we walk along - Love lane, Mincing lane &c &c still here in the heart of the city and they still have roads everywhere the "South Kensington Road" instead of Street.
Well after money matters were fixed we took a ride on the top of an omnibus to the Tower where an old "beef-eater", as they call the soldier guides, took us to see the wonders of the place - Then to St Paul's cathedral, then to Westminster Abbey, right near Parliament Houses. I always supposed that the Abbey was in the suburbs of the city - Here we staid the rest of the day - No attempt to describe such a place is necessary, for so much has been written about this place that one can hardly be surprised, still I was somewhat - not having read very intelligently about any thing, I find - I really wish that I was going to enter the Sem as a Junior when I get back & "try it again" - Breakfast -
Noon -
Just back from church. In the land of Sabbaths once more. It seemed quite refreshing this morning to see the shops closed and the streets comparatively quiet - and people going to church. Four of us girls wanted to go to Westminster Abbey this morning even tho' we could not hear Dean Stanley - as I wanted to - so we went, and I enjoyed the service much better than I expected. It was intoned, of course, but it was impressive - the full responses, especially so. I can understand, now, that this intoning is appropriate for an immense cathedral, & for no other place. It is grand, some way, I cannot tell how or why - The music in a vast cathedral is a different thing, from music any where else. Then we had a good sermon from the text "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God" &c by the vicar of St. Marks, one Duckworth. The lesson for the day was the "resurrection chapter" from Corinthians, and it seemed more impressive than any other could, as we sat there in the midst of the tombs of so many of the famous ones of earth who "will rise again one day." when "this mortal shall put on immortality." Our seat was in the North transept, just opposite the Poets Corner, and right in front of us we could see the marble statues & memorial stones of so many, from old Geoffrey Chaucer the Father of them all, down to Charles Dickens for whom there is a simple slab in the floor bearing his name, date of birth & death[.] We visited this place day before yesterday & had become a little familiar with this corner so we enjoyed it the more to day. There are not so many in this Poets Corner as I had supposed[.] It is only the most eminent writers - On the base of the bust of Johnson is the inscription "O rare Ben Johnson"
Dinner bell - have dinner at 1 1/2 today.
4 oclock [sic] - It rains this afternoon & we are really staying in. Some of us proposed to try Norman Hall's church, this P.M. but we could not find out certainty that he had returned to town & his church was so far away that we gave it up. We are going to hear Spurgeon this eve. Prof. & Mrs. Jordan heard him this morning, but we girls wanted to go to Westminster. At dinner I learned that we heard the celebrated Canon Duckworth.
We hear a great many things at table of interest to us, for instance this noon we got to talking about Queen Victoria, & the gentleman of the house went on to say that the Queen was very unpopular in England - that she was selfish, cared only for her own ease & did not regard herself as the servant of the people at all. That she was stingy - did not give to benevolent or charitable institutions, hoarded her money &c, &c. He did say that she was a good respectable woman & that Prince Albert was a good man but how he ever came to be considered great he could never imagine & so on. I was much surprised because I had the idea that the English people almost worshipped their Queen, perhaps this man is a disaffected party, but from some other remarks I concluded that he thoroughly believed in monarchy.
This letter is getting long I see, but I find so much in my mind that I wish I could tell you & that I shall forget about when the freshness of first impressions is gone. London interests me more than any other city, unless it be Venice. I can hardly compare my feelings about the two places. There I could not talk, read nor understand the language, but here it is so delightfully different that I almost like this the best.
The London season includes the months May, June & July, so we are out of season for seeing much of any body, as they are out of town, as at home - We went to see Madam Tussand's Wax work Exhibition, for description of which ask Hattie who will remember Mark Trains or somebodys [sic] - We went there Monday evening[.]
The good plays are not going at the theaters & operas, so the "children" dont [sic] go to those places here in London. We go to the National Gallery tomorrow and I dont [sic] know certainly where else Tues & Wed. then Thursday we take a boat up the Thames to some place, the cars to Oxford, where we spend Friday the[n] we walk & ride some way thro' the country down to Southampton in time for the steamer which sails Tuesday - Some of us want to get to Southampton in season for a trip to the Isle of Wight with which we fell in love on our approach to Southampton on the steamer last June - but I dont [sic] know how it will be. I shall not set my heart on it as I presume we shall not have time - My trunk, which I left at S. will have to be over hauled & repacked & various & sundry last things done to get ready for the voyage. We expect a cold time going home & I am young to provide myself with mittens & wraps enough as I can stay on deck, and then as we have the German cooking on ship board, we girls are going to lay in a store of soft crackers, a box of figs apiece some apples, oranges &c. We found out what tasted good last summer on the ocean - The German steamers set a splendid table for the kind, but alas for the kind - I cannot put down such strong highly seasoned food. I might get used to it in time but not in our ten or twelve days voyage.
Miss Ellis is in Scotland so we just miss her here. Not a single person here that I know, that I am aware of. Franc is coming about the time we leave - Talmage preaches to-day in one of the churches & lectures during the week - The people at this house despise him thoroughly - They have their opinions of our public men right along - They are people who read & think a great deal I am sure. They certainly know an amazing amount about America - as well as England.
We are having quite a time getting used to the currency of this old country. The shilling is the thing here as the Franc in France & the Mark in Germany. I find myself reducing to American money every time, to take my bearings - We pay "two pence" for riding a certain distance in the bus, four pence if you ride farther & sixpence if farther still & so on - Then I must tell you how delightful it is to have the conductor of the bus stop the vehicle, get down, & come to the side walk, ask you where you are going & on being told, give you all the information you could desire about taking another 'bus, very likely. They have all the time in the world here, and each splendiferous policemen every where, those in charge of the museums are so painstaking, not simply accommodating, seem interested to have you see & understand about every thing. I was perfectly amazed yesterday at the So Kensington picture rooms, one of them actually told us the story of several of the pictures &c[.] But the Hansom cabs are unlike anything ever seen in America. An old fashioned two wheeled chaise with the driver sitting on a seat up behind some thing like this
You can find a picture in the unabridged, but it will not convey to you the exact idea of them, I am sure, as they dash along the streets - the commonest vehicle seen besides the 'bus. The wood work shutting down in front of you - boxing you in - your head appearing over the top - I must try one of them & also the underground railroad, called here the Metropolitan -
Prof. Jordan just shouts to us that he is going to Billingsgate fish market at six in the morning - Think I shall go -
It is getting time to start for church if we are to get a seat & Spurgeon's church is about three or four miles from here over the river.
If I get into New York Friday morning I shall reach home Sat. morn. by New London route. If we should not get in until later I should not be able to reach home before Sunday & dont [sic] know certainly what I will do - I want to go home before going to Sem. but suppose that I am due there as soon as possible as the first three weeks will be over & my Zoology classes will be waiting. However I trust that we shall get in Friday. The time is 10 or 11 days fr Southampton to N.Y.
I am beginning to think & look homeward now. There is no place like America & no home like the one on "the Hill" -
I am going out to Clapton - by the Clapton road to Clapton Sq. just for the sake of the name -