St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1910-03-02
Letter from Germany.
Annie Mason Grover Writes of Her Travels
Through Scotland. England and Holland.


The following letter was written by
Annie Mason Grover, daughter of the Rev.
and Mrs. Francis Grover formerly of st.
Tohnsbury Center, to Miss Ella Nc
Laughlin. Those parts relating to her
travels are reprinted.
81 will begin with our trip across
which was quite uneventful, though the
fog hung low and we had to move
slowly through the iceberg region and
one evening the boat stopped suddenly
and the CAPTAIN saw straight ahead OF
us a huge iceberg with which we would
have collided had we gone much farther.
was fortunate in being able to be on
deck all the time except when sleeping
and ate every meal, though L must say
at first it was rather hard to do. We
landed at Glasgow the tenth of July,
ten days passage from Montreal. we
stayed three days there to get little &C
customed to the land, for the first day OFT
the boat the streets had way of rolling
or suddenly rising or falling. 1t was a
queer sensation. We took a small lake
boat at a little village about an hours
ride by train from Glasgow and went
through the beautiful Loeb Lomond and
Loeb Katrine that Scott wrote so much
about and coached over the TrossOehs
that were covered with heather. We
spent the night at the Trossochs Hotel,
nestled close to a tiny lake with the
Trossochs towering over us, beautiful
first day to our real sight seeing. Ster-
ling castle was interesting. Edinburgh
was a lovely city, so clean, and the
'royal mile extended from the tremend-
ouslv we'll fortified old castle, through
the once aristOcratlc part OF the city, but
which is now the slums, to the palace at
the other end. 1t was interesting to see
how every man of prominence in olden
days had to have their homes built so
securely, winding staircases, walls four
or six feet thick with double, low doors,
so it would be difficult for the enemy to
attack. We went into several of these
houses and closes or courts-which
carried US back very wildly to the early
feuds. But Melrose Abbey :.
You know, perhaps this Abbey is
the ruins of what was once the home of
monks, and we were fortunate in the
time of day we visited it, for just as we
entered company of 40 Americans
went out. carrying every sound with
them, for we were left alone to wander
as did the monks in perfect quiet, with
only delicately colOred doves fitting
about to and from their secluded nests,
hidden in the moss grown ruin, and the
ever changing lights and shadows from
the sun and moon. To me it was the
most beautiful though smallest of the
Abbey ruins and we saw many in Scot
land and England. Dryburg Abbey of
course was lovely too, and here Scott
was buried and our dear old Scottish
driver told tales of Scott and of how
when the funeral procession passed over
the hills to bear his remains to Dryburg
Abbey for burial, the horse drawing the
hearse stopped at the top of one of the
highest by the side of the road, as was
his way when Scott was alive, for the
view from there was wonderfully beaut1-
full. AS he was telling us our horse stop
ped OF its own accord and the man said,
1T is here where Scott's horse stopped and
as this horse is a descendent of Scott's it
has inherited the same tendency Abbots-
ford was also interesting for here Scott
had lived so many years and many of his
works were written here. We stopped
at Carlisle for the cathedral and then
had a coaching trip through the English
lake region. We went up hill and down
dale on high coach with four horses.
In two days we drove SO miles in this
way. We drove in all. over 100 miles and
had taste of automobiling, about 80
miles. 1t is an ideal way to travel, espec-
tally in England, for the roads are perfect,
just as smooth as the floor and it gives
one a glimpse of the beautiful English
homes which are so carefully enclosed in
high beautifully kept hedges, or onecan see
the dear little houses along the way liter
ally covered with climbing roses not; our
kind of climbing roses, but huge blossoms,
as large sometimes as pint bowl and
the most gorgeous colors. Keswick,
where we spent the night was delight
full little city. Way out away from the
noise of the city on a projection of land
extending into peaceful little lake is a
monument OF Ruskin, the head only set
on pedestal. 1t was here that he and
his nurse used to come to play when he
was child. Durham, Ripon and Foun-
tains Abbey with three cathedrals and
Abbey, deserve more than the mere men
tioning of their names, but York comes
next and l simply cannot pass that over.
1--WE were indeed fortunate to be there
the week they gave their York pageant.
Now to me a pageant has meant pro-
cession of some sort, but it was not so IN
York, it was more on the order of ire
mendous opera, if you can imagine an
opera given out of doors, with a historic
Abbey for background, and on the very
spot where battles had been fought and
part of the 5000 performers descendants
of the noble families who fought in these
battles. 1t took up the history of York
and its immediate vicinity from the time
500 B. c., the first scene being savages
dressed in the skins of animals living in
reed houses, to 1865. We sat there four
hours and a half, spell bound, not mo-
ment being wasted in changing scenes,
for being out of doors so, and such as the
bringing on of throne ETC., was accom-
plished while others were singing. The
last part was grand march of these 5000
performers, with so mounted cavalry,
four chariots each drawn by four horses
on to the green, while two women repre-
senting queens took their places on the
throne, one carrying the English flag and
the other the good old stars and stripes,
while the whole number sang God save
the King. 1t was wonderfully effective!
Something which we will always remem-
>ber.
Lincoln, Peterborough and Ely came
just before Cambridge. Of course Cam
bridge was interesting with ;tS TJniver-