Knoxville Whig and chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1875-1882, 1875-07-21
OUR EUROPEAN LETTER.
4 Kn"NvtlIinn's Views of England
customs, scenes and News.

don, you cross the Island diagonally
az its widest port from the north,
southwark and eastward. 1t is dis
tance OF lSS miles by the most direct
route ami is made 10y the faslps' trains.
IN hours, including st0ppages. (which
however are not many. | am not suf-
licieutly up in the geography of Eng
land To say through what couutie, this
route lies, but il is sufficiently definite
to say that they are the finest and most
important Of the whole 80
1t has lever been my fortune
to took upon so beautiful country
anywhere. 1t is in truth one immense
garden. There is no ruggedness, no
harrenness, no natural roughness even,
but all j. smOothe, artistic and culti-
waited. Uncultivaied, il would be the
most dreary and forlorn country imae-
Unable, but cultivated as it il, il il as
pretty as picture. On either side YOU
see AN uudulating country, laid off in
fields, now bright with the greeuest of
verdure, bounded by neatly-trimmed
hawthorn hedges. Here and there are
patches of woodland, but even these
bear the marks of the artist, and are
made into beautiful groves. Little
streams, too, are seen winding in the
lowlands, aud across them are thrown
the prettiest of arched stone bridges.
The lanes running between the fields
are as smoothe as a city pavement.
Not a square inch Of ground, it seems
to me, is allowed to go to waste. Even
the railroad cuts and embankments
are transformed into vegetable or
flower gardens. 1t is needless to say
that all this makes travelling more
pleasant than it would otherwise be
and compensates TO some extent for
the lack of accommodations, and the
discOmforts of the present system of
railway travelling in England, which
every American coming here feels so
keenly. There is a prospect now,
however, that the managers on at least
two of the largest railways will give
ear TO the voice of reason
and adopt to some extent our
plan of cogtes but the English mind
is so slow of action that it will be
long while before they can be per-
suaded of the great Usefulness of the
check system for baggage and the use
lessness of "compa partments in rail
way carriages. An incident occurred
"A few days since which ought to teach
them the necessity of some change in
this matter Of compartments.b A
" compartment, it must be under
stood, is section Of coach, and you
enter it from the side aud not from
the end rs in our coaches; it has no
communication with the other COM
partments of the same coach, nor can
the conductor or any one else enter it,
except when the train stops at sta
tion.
One of these compartments, OH
team coming into London recently,
was solely occupied by lady and
Colonel of the 10th Hussars. When
the train stopped at one of the stations,
a little way out of the city, the lady
was found swinging on to the side Of
the carriage and in great state of eX-
element. On inquiry she stated that
while the train was in motion she had
been grossly insulted by this Colonel
of the 10th Hussars, and as she could
by her screams and signals make no one
come to her relief was forced to hang
herself out of the carriage door at the
risk of her life, To escape a worse fate.
The case is now in the courts, but as
the defendant is "A Colonel in the army,
there Is not any certainty that justice
will be done.
But | have digressed from the main
subject, which is the great beauty Of !
the country in England in the sum.
mer season. While in Manchester /
took short tour into the neighbour
country of Chesire, and found the !
country there as lovely as Manchester
is dingy and doleful. Bowden, the |
place we visited, is small town COM |
posed almost altogether of wealthy |
merchants, who have their business |
in the city, II miles distant. While |
there L visited very old churchyaTd, |
and saw the yew tree that is known |
to be more than a thousand years old |
There are also many old graves in this |
and three hundred |
years old, aud On some of them are |
very quaint inscriptions. l noticed |
one in particular, which L am sure |
some of your readers have heard of. |
Here IL j.:
Our lives are but winters day,
Some ~ breakfast and away,
Others tv dinner stay and are full fed
The oldest man but sups and goes to bed,
Large is his debt who fingers out the day,
Who goes the soonest has the least to pay.
The plan of burial in these church,
yards is different from that followed |
by us. As many as three or four are
buried in the same grave, one on top
Of the other A whole family, if il is |
not large, may be inferred in the same
vault. The obvious reason of this is |
TO save space, which is a matter of no
small moment in this densely popu-
lated country.
In the immediate vicinity of
there are also some most
lovely country places. We visited one
only a few days since. 1t is the Alex
lndria Palace Gardens, the place
where the celebrated Alexandra races
second only in importance, believe,
to the Derby-come off every spring.
The view from the hill in which the
Palace stands was perfectly enchant-
ing. Some of the effect, however, may
have come from the immense differ
ence between it and that to which /
had been accustomed. Doubtless our
and grandly rugged noun
tain scenery would be as pleasing to