Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1858-1860, 1858-07-29
For he Daily Patriot
Incidents ofTravel-A nay I'm London

with the personal experiences of travellers IN
foreign countries. and so frequent are the
publications of foreign correspondence" in
almost every village newspaper throughout
the States, that one is almost inclined to
shrink from an undertaking, which, from its
commonness, may prove rather dry detali
than an interesting compendium OF news.
However. a promise made should be fulfilled.
and would begin by stating that we left
New York on the 2Sth of May, at which place
YOU were apprised of our arrival through a
previous paper. L VIII not dwell upon every
incident of the passage, which was, perhaps
one OF the most delightful and tranquil ever
made across the Atlantic. Nor will | oc-
cupy valuable time to express with words,
how much we were impressed with awe when
we awoke one fine morning to find that no
vestige of anything connected with tardJri-
ma was disrenible on the horizon, save an
occasional sail which appeared like mere
floating speck on the broad expanse OF water
The sights and wonders of the deep are too
numerous for numerical calculation. and viii
not enumerate them--the countless curiosities
l.
Who that "go down to the sea in ships but
are familiar with such scenes.-The little Pc
trel coquetting with he waves; the beauti-
full little Nautilus with tiny sails of gossamer
glittering in the sunlight; the white-winged
sea gull. spreading his pinions to the breeze
frolicksome porpoises playing round the YES
sells cut-water: myriads of sun fish; ard last,
though not least the monster OF the deep spout
log in the distance and only near enough to
afford glimpse of his dosral fin as he turns
in the water
said the passage was delightful. So it
was; with the exception of the first two days
out. We experienced the delights of sea-sck-
ness occasioned by head winds and chop-seas,
which became so excessively annoying that
QuACKLEBUM, my compagnon du Uoyage mo-
destly suggested to the ships surgeon the
propriety of preparing lotion to take the
swell out of the ocean," and on being assured
of the imprudence of such a betiSs in marine
anatomy, he family CALCULATED "state-room
and basins for two" But pass over this to
more enlivening picture. Sailing up ST.
Georges Channel. Ships, steamers, coasters,
fishing smacks, and pilot boats plying in every
direction. Cape Clear, Holyhead, and the
Skerries were passed in rapid succession and
we arrived at Liverpool.
Since we left the ships side and landed on
the beautiful docks of Liverpool. we have
been in IA very whirl of excitement and confu-
sion, from the novelty of the scene. Let me
see. But l will not 90 into details;-how we
passed successfully through the custom house
after slowing away letters and cigars into a
side pocket;-how we stopped at the Water
Loo aud Jared sumptuously in the real Eng
fish style-how after beautiful "white-bait"
dinner last Sunday and bottle of sherry, we
walked all over Liverpool and looked in at
the Geological Gardens,-and how after hav-
ing settled a very long tavern bill with the
Queens stamp on it, we were comfortably
seated in "a comfortable car to be carried sixty
miles an hour over the finest road in the
United Kingdom. 1t was like driving through
a beautiful garden-in so excellent "a state of
preservation were the hedgc-bound farms
along the line of railway.
An incident occurred in our Car which, to
ton that we were approaching the city of
"prigs' and ''artful dodgers" The railway
carriages are divided into partitions large
enough to seat six or seven persons. In the
apartment with Quacklebum and myself
were two individuals--one, apparently an
honest tradesman and the other red-faced but
remarkably civil Briton who might have been
a cheesemonger, and who expressed much anx-
iety that mo ladies should come into our
car" Both of these gentlemen were very
talkative and soon engaged us in converse
tion. In the course of the journey another
individual stepped into 'our car" much to
the discontinue of the cheesemonger, who de- |
clared that the car was already too full. The |
gentleman who last entered the car proved to
be brass jewelry dealer and penny gambler, |
with a decidedly Israelitish cast of features
and cockney accent which betokened that |
he might have first come to light within the |
sound of Bow Bells. He was no sooner seat |
ed than he produced three large rings which |
the cheesemonger vowed were worthless and |
advised me very confidentially not to pur- |
chase. The jewel-dealer failing to effect a |
trade offered TO ratie the rings of at half /
crown u chance and produced three cards |
from pack which he had with him and in
trodueed us to the game called French Monte
This game is played with three cards moved |
with astonishing dexterity by the dealer from
one position TO another. The king OF clubs
and two inferior cards were used in the pre-
sent instance and the bettsrs were allowed to
guess which was the king and wager according
a half-crown, and ID few moments gold SOW
ercigns ana halfsovereigns were circulating
freely. The contagion reached the talkative
tradesman and he lost great deal of money
/ endeavored to dissuade
him from SO foolishly wasting his hard earned
gold. Quacklebum turned up his nose In
peculiar manner. smiled contemptuou-ly, aud
said nothing. When the train reached the
station nearest the city of London-all of our
fellow-passengers got out together--the sports
man and his supposed victims, and II was then
that learned from the travelled and expert
enced Quackiebum that the three Individuals
were speculative company. and that the suppos-
ed tradesman and cheeesemonger were the
sleeping partners.'
We arrived in London at in the evening.
Quacklebum ordered cabman to drive us
to a certain hotel in a certain street, where
he told me he had been in the habit Of stop
ping eleven years ago. Arrived at the point |
designated We discovered that the hotel had
4 a