The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1870-06-11

Hawthorne's English Note Books" show
that peculiarities Of English character and
life were among the first things that drew his
American consulate at Liverpool. The first
date in his record is August A, 1858; and he
remarks that the climate s"cold and shivery,"
and not at all American. Four days later he
saw an excursion party crossing the Mersey,
whereupOn his impressions were recorded as
follows:
think never saw populace before COM
ing to England; but this crowd afforded a
specimen of one, both male and female. The
women were the most remarkable; though
they seemed not disreputable, there was in
them a coarseness, a freedom, an don't
know what, that was purely English. In fact,
men and women do things here that would
at least make them ridiculous in America.
They are not afraid to enjoy themselves in
their own way, and have no pseudo gentility
to support.
Riding to Poulton Hall, he saw an old
Church on the walls of which "dark green ivy
and "yelow wall-fowers in sull bloom" were
growing. This old church realized his "trans-
Atlantic fancies OF England" He adds:
Not far from it was the rectory, behind a
deep grove of ancient trees; and there lives
the rector, enjoying thousand pounds ayear
and his nothing-to-do, while curate per-
forms the real duty on stipend of eighty
pounds.
Being at Poulton Hall, he says:
The lawn around Poulton Hall, like thou
sands of other lawns in England, is very
beautiful, but requires great care to keep it SO,
being shorn every three or four days. No
other country will ever have this charm, nor
The charm OF lovely verdure, which almost
makes up for the absence of sunshine. With.
out the constant rain and shadow which
strike us as so dismal, these lawns would bt
as brown as an autumn leaf / have not
thus far, found any such magnificent trees a:
l expected.
August 9th, he saw another excursion par
| ty composed of 'the manufacturing people
about Liverpool" and wrote:
All these people were decently dressed; the
men generally in dark clothes, not SO smartly
as Americans on festal day, but so as not to
be greatly different in regard to dress. They
were paler, smaller, less whOlesOme-looking
less intelligent, and, think, less noisy than Sc
many Yankees would have been. The wO-
men and girls differed much more from what
American girls and women would be on q
pleasure excursion, being shabbily dressed
with no kind of smartness, no silks, nothing
but cotton gowns, and Unlocking bonnets.-
| Their persons looked generally better develop
| ed and healthier than the men but there wa:
woful lack of beauty and grace. The speecl
of these folks was, in some in stances, so broat
Lancashire that could not we'll understand
| it.
January 6, 1854, he says:
saw, yesterday, stopping at cabinet
makers shop, coach with four beautiful
white horses, and position on each nea
horse; behind, in the dickey. footman; and
on the box, coachman, dressed in livery
Inc coach panel bore coat of arms WIN a, q !
coronet, and presume it must have been 'ne y
equipage of the Earl of Derby, A crowa u
people stood round dazing at tne c1aoi na ,,,nu
horses; and when any of them spoke, IL was
| in a lower tone than usual. doubt not tney
| all had Kind of enjoyment OF the spectacle,
for thesa EngIish are strangely proud OF hav-
| ing a class above them.
Tn the practice in the English courts, as he
understood it, there was, he thought, "less
formality, and less distance between the judge,
| Jury, witnesses and bar than in our own," al
| though something of this may have been due
| to the personal character of the judge o
whose proceedings he saw most. The prac
tice, as he observed it, seemed to him adapted
to discover truth and promote justice. HI
says:
The judge takes very active part in the
| trial, constantly asking questions of the wit
| nesses, making remarks on the conduct of the
trial, putting in his word on all occasions, ant
| allowing his sense of the matter in hand tC
| be pretty plainly seen; so that, before the
| trial is over, and long before his own charge
is delivered, he must have exercised very
powerful influence over the minds of the iu
ry. All this is done, not without dignity, bu
in a familiar kind of way. 1t is a sort q
paternal supervision Of the whole matter
quite unlike the cold awfulness of an Amer
can judge.
And yet of English judges he says:
| The judges Of England, during the time G