Knoxville weekly chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1875, 1873-11-26
FOREIGN TRAVEL.
France 10 Great Britain--Sca sickness on
the ChanneI--JOhu KnON's House and
Church..A Scottish Snbbnth.


We give below to our readers the last of
the series of the very interesting European
letters by Col. Thornburgh which have
from time to time appeared in onr columns.
Our readers will regret to learn that it Is
the last. Not only have warm commenda-
lions here at home attested the interest
the public has felt in their perusal, but
portion of them have, we notice, been
copied into other journals and laid before
readers to whom the author is stranger.
Taken as whole, the letters give an in
teresting and instructive account of much
that is valuable, and furnish to the reader
the pleasure and profit derived from in
teresting and historic scenes observed by a
new eye and portrayed bya graphic pen
MANCHESTER, ENGLAND,
Sept. -, 1873.
MY DEAR -: After seeing Paris and
Versailles, L took the train for London,
and enjoyed the scenery of the Sunny
land of France to Calais, where we have
but eighty minutes run across the channel
to Dover. My enjoyment of scenery, or
anything else, for few hours after reach
ing the French coast, was limited-I may
add was infinitely small. l felt almost
like salt water veteran. Had not l been
folk to Boston? crossed our Northern
lakes? crossed the wide Atlantic, the Ger
man Ocean, the Baltic? been on the Adri-
attic, etc., etc? And yet 1 had been on
that vessel crossing over from Calais to
England, twenty-five miles only. but a
very few minutes until l felt very much
like a new recruit. In short, sir, that
channel, "played it that day upon William
and me in a way l despise" 1t only took
ME a week to get over it. So now feel
that my return trip across the
Atlantic-just in time for the Sep
TENDER and October storms-is not
Just the thing to be desired.
On reaching London, found it as ever,
crowded. busy, immense. That word i'm
mense best describes this place. The many
railroads take into the city in the morning
and out to their homes in the evening on
AN AVERAGE OF S., 900 PEOPLE.
But I will not affiict you with another
description of London.
next went to York, one of the oldest
of these English cities, formerly the resi-
dence of the Roman Emperors, when they
visited this Province.
CONSTANTINE THE GREAT
was born here and both the Emperors,
Septimus Severus and Constantius Chlor-
is, died at this place-when this, now one
of the most powerful and wealthy of all
countries, was but
CONQUERED PROVINCE OF ANCIENT ROME,
now so poor and feeble in all save the bril-
liant pages that illumine her past history.
Portions of an old Roman wall which for
merly encircled the city is still standing,
and upon going just beyond its limits
where found labOrers excavatlng for a
railroad, [ saw a number of stone collins,
and some old Roman coins which they
had found there, where they had been
resting so many centuries.
tba hara
which some think one of the grand
est in existence. There is also
:: ruin of an extensive old Gothic Abbey,
which is very picturesque, and interest
ing. firing OF York and wildly remem-
boring, the many scenes of beauty painted
by Scott and Burns, of streams, lakes and
mountains, / turn my face toward the
"Grampian Hills" and soon find myself
in
"EpINA, sCoTIA's DARLING sEAT,o
Which to my mind is one of the hand
soonest cities have ever seen. On high,
precipitous hill, which on the east and
north presents perpendicular cliffs down
TO the valley below is built, the ''castle OF
Edinburgh which covers seven acres of
ground, and has been one of the original
strongholds of this Island, and palace
for that race of old Pictish kings, whose
very history is almost fading away.
Around this castle, jutting out over the
Y,
"Arthur's Seat" salisbury Crags," and
Carleton Hill" On these hills and in
the narrow valleys, which on account OF
the precipitous nature of the ground, are
SPAWNED in places by excellent bridges,
this city, often called the "modern Ath-
ens,n has been built. "Arthur's Seat " as
ISOLATED with so many old Armoric legends
makes a singular public park, and has q
drive around its steep sides from which
YOU have some splendid views of the city,
the surrounding country, the German
ocean and the far off highlands. After Wis
iting Holy-rood palace and seeing there
the portraits on the walls OF that long line
of Scotch kings, Macbeth included,
and many things of interest connected
with the Unfortunate Queen Mary, l went
to see the house and the church where that
most extraordinary man j Ohm Knox, lived
aud preached. On his house you can still
read, cut in the stone, these words
"LUFE GOD ABOFE AL THINGS AND ~
NEIGHBOR AS YIsELF."
Then, after a visit to carleton Hill, )
whose summit is crowned with beautiful
monuments-one to Nelson, Playfair, Du
gald Stuart and a magnificent national
monument, built after the model OF tho
Parthenon at Athens, lin other parts o
the city are elaborate monuments to Scott
Burns and others), wend my way to
4 a III 4 De- H.. Nln