Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1877-08-13
LETTER FROM ENGLAND.
BRIERLEY HILL, july IL, 1877

| ia. monitor: According to promise
Issend you few lines, giving a little
sketch of my journey SO far. In coming
from Boston to st. John, a little Incl
dent transpired which perhaps is worthy
OF recording. 1t happened on board the
steamship New York
| saw rough looking man with a
countenance anything but amiable, look
ing over some books on one of the tables
in the saloon. He opened big book
and said IN a sneering tone, as another
was passing. "IHe Bible 7" "Yes !'
replied the other, boldly and emphatic
ally, "the more the better. l would
rther fight for that book than oar flag"
meaning, l suppose, the stars and
st'ipes). My trip from Halifax to Liv-
eDool was one of the most pleasant
Which it is possible to enjoy. The wa
tel was so smooth that could small
roH-boat have travelled at the same speed
we did, it might have traversed without
danger or inconvenience the whole of
TIE distance.
We had delightful steam along the
rugged coast of Newfoundland. The soil
arcund the coast, far as the eye could
see was the most barren and desolate l
ever saw indeed, so barren that for ff-
tymiles or more a goat would have had
hird work to find living. And yet
Iere and there stood a lone fsherman's
lut. They lead wild, dangerous life,
and well do they deserve all they get
the fishermen, mean, not their huts.
The entrance to st. Johns, Newfound-
hnd, is very narrow, and in rough or
toggy weather is very dangerous and
difficult to make. The city is quaint
looking, very odd, hard to be described !;
il fact, it must be seen to be appreciat-
led.
! After ten days sailing, or rather
steaming, | exchanged the decks of the
"Nova Scotian" for the dear soil of old
England. l am now in South Stafford
shire, commonly and appropriately call
ed, "The Black Country" 1t is situat-
ed about the centre of England, and is
rich in coal and ironstone it is studded
with lofty stocks, gigantic blast furnac-
es, and busy ironworks strewn over with
ever.burning coke fires and massive Gin
der heaps. shrouded all day by broad
J clouds or smuke, ana lit up all n1ght
with the perpetual illumination of a
thousand fires. 1t is intersected by can
ais and railroads at every point of the
compass, filled with teeming and busy
population, and containing some of the
largest towns and most valuable manu-
factures of the kingdom. 1t was once a
beautiful part of the land, but has liter
ally been turned upside down for what
was once down below is now on deck,
and what was once on deck is now in
the hold. A clear blue sky seldom shines
upon this throbbing heart of England,
and the poetry of nature is driven fal
away by the roar of steam engines and
the ceaseless noise of hammers and for.
ges. Yet this land of fire and smoke
has its redeeming features. 1t is one oi
the worlds busiest workshops, and some
of the hardest laborers of the earth live
here. The suspension bridges spanning
our rivers, the heaviest anchors, the fin
est steel pens, the richly colored win
dows for places of worship, the mos
brilliant electro-plate, the safest locks
the sheathing- plates for our war ships
with thousand other useful articles
are made by the clever heads and bus,
hands of the "Black Country" Her
and there, also, a green spot looms VI
like an oasis in the black but busy des
ert, made all the richer and brighter b,
the surrounding gloom. One of thes
bright spots is the Old Orchard, wher
my mother, brother and sister reside AM
where l am at present wearing the crow
and welding the sceptre.
A. III. WEBB.