Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1872-09-26
English Characterist,cs.


England is a mellow country, and the
English people are mellow people.
They have hung on the tree of nations
a long time, and'will, no doubt, hang as
much longer; for windfalls, l reckon.
are not the order In this island. We
are pitched several degrees higher in
this country. By contrast things here
are loud, sharp and:garlish. ban
In England, everything is on lower
key, slower, steadier, gentler. I, Life is,
no doubt, as full, or fuller, in its mate
rial forms and measures, but less violent
and aggressive. The buffers the Eng
hsh have between their ears TO break
the shock are typical of much one sees
there.
All sounds are softer in England; Z; the
surface of things is less hard. The eye
of day and the face Of nature are less
bright. Everything has a mellow, sub
dued cast. There is no abruptness in
the landscape, no sharp and violent con-
trasts, no brilliant and striking tints in
the foliage. Asoft, yellow, pale sunlight
is all one sees N the way of tints along
the borders of the autumn woods. Eng
lish apples (very small and inferior, by
the way) are not SO highly colored as
ours. The blackberries, Just ripening in
October, are less pungent and acid; and
the garden vegetables, such as cabbage,
celery, caulihower, beet and other root
crops, are less rank and fibrous; and
am very clear also that the meats are
tenderer and sweeter. There can be no
doubt about the superiority Of the NUT
ton, and the tender and succulent
grasses, and the moist and agreeable
climate must tell upon the beef also. II
English coal is all soft coal, and the
stone is soft stone. The stone with
which most of the old churches and
cathedrals are built would not endure in
our climate half century; bat in
Britain the tooth of time is much blunter,
and the ancient architecture stands half
millennium, until it IS slowly worn away
by the gentle attrition Of the wind and
rain. ,{sr. I s.Ia
At Chester, the old Roman wall that
surrounds the town, built in the first CEN
tury and repaired in the ninth, is still
standing without q break or swerve,
though in some places the outer face of
the wall is worn through.
The timber also lasts an incredibly
long time. Beneath one of the arched
ways, in the Chester wall above referred
to- saw timbers that must have been in
place five or six hundred years. The
beams of the old houses, also, fully ex-
posed to the weather, seem incapable of
decay; those dating from Shakespeare
time being apparently as firm as ever.
| notie4d that the characteristic aspect
of the Clouds in England was different
from ours-soft, heecy, vapory, undistin-
guishable = never the firm, compact.
sharply defined, deeply-dyed masses and
fragments, so common in our own sky.
1t rains easily but slowly. Storms ac-
companied by thunder are rare; while
the crashing, wrenching explosive thun-
der-gusts, so common with us, deluging
the earth and convulsing the heavens,
are never known.
In London, the boot-blaek salutes you
with respectable bow, and touches his
cap, and would no more think of pursu-
ing you or answering your refusal, than
he would of jumping into the Thames.
The same is true of the newsboys. Ifl
they were to scream and below in Lon
don, as they do in New York or Wash
ington, they would be suppressed by the |
police, as they ought to be. The vender |
of papers stands at the corner of the
street. with his goods in his arms and a
large placard spread out at his feet,
giving in big letters the principal news.
headings ~ G .3a Wsa
Even their locomotives are less noisy |
than ours, having shrill, infantile whis- |
tie that contrasts strongly with the loud, |
demoniac yell that makes q residence |
near railway, or depot in this country,
so unbearable. The trains themselves |
move with wonderful smoothness and |
celebrity, making mere fraction of the
racket made by our flying palaces as
they go swaying and jolting over our
hasty, ill-ballasted road.
1t is characteristic of the English pru-
1enee and plain dealing that they put so |
little on the cars and so much on the |
road, while the reverses process is
equally characteristic of American enter
prise. Our railway system, no doubt,
has certain advantages or rather cOnve-
nienoes over the English, but, for my
part, | had rather ride smoothly, swiftly |
aud safely, in a luggage-van, than be
srked and jolted to destruction in the
velvet and yeneering of our palace cars.
John BorrOHgh.