St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1879-09-12
To the Continent.

After a week in London,-we might
as well try to write the history of the
world as to attempt any detailed ac-
count of our sight-seeings in the meg
alopolis,-in the Tower, magazine of
armor of the last ten centuries, i'll st.
Paul's and Westminster abbey, where
rest the stOried dead, and where stories
are told of dead Englishmen that rest
elsewhere, but of none else except two,
Mary Queen of Scots and DR.. Simpson
(Scotch) who discovered and success
fully used chloroform i'll surgery, in the
British and South KensingtOn Museums
DR.. Schlieman's trophies from the
Troad here interested us most, Wind
sor Castle, Kew Gardens, the National
Gallery, and the myriad-streeted city
itself, since really the most peculiar,
characteristic thing about this
Mighty mass of brick, and stone, and shipping,
as Tom Hood called it, is that a single
thOrOughfare is often made up of a
dozen streets, practically one, and that
in the nomenclature of the streets, we
find thirty Charles streets, as many
more of another name, and-we passed
through one street which had only two
doors in tive packed up again and
on our way to the Continent spent an
afternoon in that old and famous city
of Canterbury.
First, of course we went to the ca
| thedral, for the restoring and preserva-
tion of which, at least, in part, the
whole world may nearly as much thank
Dean Afford, as they are indebted to
Dean Howson for similar work at Ches-
ter. We gazed with delight on the
grand exterior, trifle shorter and mar
rover than York Minister, yet higher,
fof better stone, more imposing, aud
! more interesting in that it presents a
| greater variety of style of architecture
than any other English cathedral. Be
gun by st. Augustine, about thousand
years ago, it grew under the eyes OF
ArchbishOps Lanfranc and Anselm, and
of Priors Ermelph and Conrad, was
made the Mecca of England by the en-
shrining of Thomas Beckett who was
murdered within its walls, and is to-
day visited by so many people that IL
the summer months for seven or eight
hours daily there is required the con
slant service of two to four vergers az
guides. That night at Dover-the mex
morning over the channel to Calais up
on so smooth sea that very few suf
fered at all from paying the custOmar!
deuoirs to Neptune.
The railway drive of five hours en-
suing to Brussels, was exceedingly in
: teresting. England was trying, almOs
in vain, to secure her hay-crop; Belgi
um under sunny skies was in the mids
of the wheat harvest and the follOwin
plowing and sowing of turnips or buck
wheat on the same ground. Here W
saw cows drawing the plough, wome
cleaning and doing heavier work in tn
fields, an occasional hedge, but n
fences of either wood or stone-ditche
: drawn by deep plough-furrow, genel
ally marking the boundaries of fields,-
= trees trimmed high, and few at tha
: but almost every inch of the land undt
high state of cultivation. The croI
Z are chiefly wheat, oats, potatoes an
> other vegetables. In France not fl
:. from Calais, single field of tobacC
!, met the eye.
; Brussels, of nearly 100000 people,
5, a neat, well-built, modern city. Near
a. every old building has been torn dow
l. or encased in new exterior, and Il
II grayish-brown stone generally used f
ig walls is usually covered with a viii
or light-cream paint. We visited Il
ld9 Hotel de Vile, or city council hous
the Parliament house, the oldest la
C manufactory in the city, seeing the
how numberless the threads with viii
=, women weave for wOman's pride, al
rs the ball room, where
k There was a sound of revelry by night
rs rs on the eve of Waterloo but our tin
vs. did not permit us to see the battl
rs field.
A day in Antwerp gave us quite
ro contrast to Brussels. An hours riC
ill the time by rail between the two citi
pit takes us back three centuries. He
an an are quaint, high-gabled Dutch a
,ia Flemish houses of three hundred a
in more years ago; narrow, crooked stree
ss 'co windows barred as in the days of t
Spanish occupation under the Duke
Alva, the old residence of Charles
mirrors hung outside of windows
that the people within can, witht
pa, pa protruding their heads, view the VIII
. street; churches that contain rare a
- rich carvings in wood and ivory, and
the churches and the museum the fin
paintings of the Flemish masters, l
AN bens, the two Teniers, and Van Dy
eet Moreover we had the good fortune
). see private cOlleetion,-said to be