State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1831-1836, 1836-02-23
RID. HUMPHREYS TOURING. 2.
First impressions Of England.

traveller SnOultl WIllC obOul Il tOtClBh NObh
try which he may happen to visit, till he
has time to revise and correct his MEM
ornntla, by the uid of familiar intercourse,
md leisurcly observation. That .his is a
good general rule does not admit ofa ques-
ton and if it had been better observed by
English tourists in the United States, many
of their sweeping remarks must have been
entirely withheld or greatly qualified. 1t is
literally impossible for any man, however
intelligent, observing and candid he may
be, to take in all the bearings and reasons
and relations of things at a glanceJ so that
if he makes up bis final judgment upon first
inprssions, he will be sure to err, and almost
certain to do injustice to the character and
institutions of the people among whom he
travels. At the same time, am far from
admitting that these first impressions are
unimportant. On the contrary they are
sometimes more to be depended on than
even the results of subsequent experience.
They are like the instant glance of quick
and well enlightened conscience, the more
likely to be correct because there is no time
for the intrusion of those subtle biases,
which are exceedingly apt to thrust them
selves in and warp the judgment.
Thus, when person brought up under
the religious institutions of England,
visits France for the first time, and witnes-
ses the entire dissertation of the Sabbath in
Havre or Paris, his first impressions are
right and if he were to tell lis, after speu-
ding wear in the French capital, that the
profanations of Gods holy day, which he
witnesses, are far less painful to him than
they were, we should ascribe to the blunt
ing of his moral sensibilitics, and not to a
more correct Judgment
And then again, there is a vividness, n
freshness about first impressions, which in
the nature of things cannot last. The mis-
take, then, docs not lie in noting down first
impressions, but in making an improper
use of them, or rather n stopping short and
resting satisfied, as if nothing more was to
be learned by continued observation and
inquiry. The true and the only safe way is,
to carry our first impressions along with us,
so that while we are gradully correcting
them by better opportunities, we may ut the
same time avail our selves of their aid in
coming to important conclusions. If they
need to be modified by subsequent expert
ence it is as true, that eXerience in its turn,
needs their presence and assistance.
had heard and read much, before 7
went to England, ofthe beauty ofits scenery
the perfection of its roads, and of the high
state of cultivation which prevails through
out the country. But when came to see
those things with my own eyes, found
that my previous conceptions were eXtrem-
ely inadequate. ] cannot do Justice, at all,
to any of those objects which interested and
delighted me SO much the moment j saw
them. But imagine yourself safely landed,
us ! was, at Liverpool, in the month of
April. You recoect that IN New England
and even much farther south winter still
IL. Al, II 49, Al.
leafess, and the roads bad. Not so in Eng
land. You take the coach for London.
As you 20 out of town you are very much
surprised to see deep June vegetation,
especially when you recollect that you are
in the fifty-fourth degree of North latitude,
and you ascribe it to some peculiar advan-
tage of soil or early exposure. But as you
nrc borne rapidly along, you find other fields
still more verdant. Field beyond field,
and lawn beyond lawn, rises in endless per-
spcctNe. The farms are regularly laid out
into squares and parallelograms, of from
no to forty acres; and in general they are
Js{d down as smooth level as the roller
can make them. Here is a luxurant wheat
Geld and there a fine meadow, and rich
pasture, and there busy preparations for
putting in potatoes or turnips, and there
barley or oats just shooting up from the dark
and rich soil. But scarcely rod of. fence,
such as we meet with every where in the
U. s. of America, do you see in your two
hundred miles ride from Liverpool TO the
metropolis. All is ho,othorn; and these
hedges, which are, for the most part, kept
neatly trimmed, about the gardens and and
farm-houses, and by the roadside add
more to the beauty of the country, than any
description had pictured upon my mind.
The common method Of making the hedge
is this; first ridge is thrown up, perhaps a
foot above the level of the fields which are
to be fenced off; then the young thorn is
planted in two parallel rows, about foot
or eighteen inches apart. The growth is
not very rapid but when it has attained the
height of four or five feet, in about as many
years, it becomes so dense that no domestic
animals would think ofbreaking through it.
The leaf is small, deeply verdant, and beau
tifully serTated. In the month of May these
hedges are clothed with white fragrant
blossom, very much resembling that of the
thorn in our own country; and it is then that
the houeysuckle and other wild flowers I'M
fold their bright hues and mingle their
sweetness with the hawthorn. In the hedges,
trees, such as the oak, the elm, and the horse
chestnut, are planted, sometimes in rows,
near together, but oftener far apart, so that
each one rises and waves by itself over the
humber, but not less charming growth
below. Single trees of great age, and
very large, are sprnkled here and there in
every drection,and every now and then YOU
catch glimpse in the distance, of grove
or circular clump, which adds not little to
the beauty of the landscape.
Let me not be understood as intending to
eonfine these remarks to what / saw of the
country between Liverpool and London, as
II that were richer or more highly cultivated
than other parts through which afterward:
lid g. II e. VxYs 4