Herald of the times. [volume] (Newport, R.I.) 1830-1846, 1835-11-05

Correspondence Of The Portland advertiser
THINGS IN ENGLAND.

il iOkk, JUNE IL, lCoo.
am now in what was once the North
ern Metropolis of England where the
Barbarian and the Roman have had al
ternaic sway-where the Roman stand
ard has been planted, and the Roman
Emperor has lived, and where the feu-
dal lord has summoned his vassals and
his riiiains for wrathful contest. The
dead Of many centuries here lie COM
mingled. Britain, Roman, Saxon, Dane,
Pict, Scot and Norman have had here
divided sway. The blood that has been
split in battle around its walls for their
possession, would food this little river
Ouse, that now runs through the city
Who would have thought, that this, now
at best but an ugly town, with many
shabby houses and narrow streets, could
ever have been thus erected, thus made
Roman capital, as it was, vieing so
much in splendor with the clone mother
of Empires" on the Tiber, as to be titled
.Atera Roma! A Roman Palatium was
here-here yet are Roman tumui that
even time cannot tumble down, and the
ruins of Roman Towers and Roman
Walls-and here too, were temples for
Roman idols; and Bellona, and Wooden
and Thor were worshIpped long before
the Christian God was known in the
aisles of the towering and massy Cathe-
dral before me.
lett London on the 18th, after short
tarry. The heat and smoke toe ether,
we're far too much for me, after had so
long been breathing the pure air Of the
ocean, and | therefore determined to
make my trip into the country, in com
pany with friend from Connecticut
/ left London in steamboat for Hull, in
the early morning, when perhaps for the
only hour, there is silence in this vast
den of human beings-a silence then un
broken, save by the degraded woman re-
turning from her revelries, or the start
Of solitary Cab-man who is slumberine
on his post, seeking, watching for early
employ. The streets then are empty
A wandering policeman in his dark uni
form, may be seen, or an early-rising
news-monger, but one feels as If he were
in vast charnel.house, and that the few
moving spirits were but spirits Of the
dead. After riding near three miles in
Cab towards the Steam Boat, a boat
man with his ticklish wherry, skilfully
twirling himself in the tide, landed us
safely on the Boat then fastened to buoys
in the stream, fastened as almost all
vessels are here,-which seldom or new
Ler are on the banks Of the river, but fast
ened in ranks side by side, bow and stern,
TO buoys fixed fast in the river, so that
there is free passage on either side OF
!, them. This is necessary to preserve or
der amid such fleets, else in narrow nav
igation there would be no passing at all.
1.-THE Tower was in our sight, and we pas
sed this ancient home Of the kings, and
the more modern Prison of freemen -
Anon the famous London docks were in
! view,-those immense reservoirs Of wa
ter made for the reception ofwhole fleets
of ships-and then every FORM and va
! ,riety of building every form and varle-
ty Of water craft too,-one thick coniu-
sion of Commerce, as if the trade Of the
whole world was clustered here. | can
not understand the art of such various
navigation as this. We wind snakelike
in mysterious contortions. We turn and
return-dodge and pause-and yet we
are safe, and all is safe about us, though
the wake of the boat, and the swash oi
the paddles produce wild disturbance
of the water. The best "whip" could
not guide his horse more skillully,-and
were a pilot not thoroughly acquainted
with his art, he would smash to pieces
half the craft in the river, and himsel!
with them. As we went down, there
seemed for miles to be but a succession
of buildings and of shipping. Many OF
the quick and light steamboats, that ply
on the Thames passed us, moving at a
| rate yet more rapid than we moved, IN
spite Of the law and the fine, for they
make up in the increase of passengers
what they lose in fines. Some of the
boats were well built, and pretty for such
a navigation. Among them was one cal.
led the Sylph, Of a sylph-like form and
painted in a sylph-like manner; but, gen.
orally speaking, they would not compare
with ours in neatness or beauty, employ
ed for like purposes, dark, black mon
sters as they were, saturated with smoke
and grease.
/ I was right glad to be free from the
smoke and heat Of London, so smoky,
that your bed room, in the morning, was
full Of it, and in 90 heavy an atmosphere,
that the SCOT Of the chimnies will blacken
your shirt collar as if you had been liv-
ing in a coal-pen,-so hot too, that New
| Orleans would almost lose her patent
right for hot weather, a very unusual
circumstance however, and one which
! The Inhabitants so mourned oyer as to