Year: 1877

word 'really." l am getting very
much confused as to ranks and caste.
The waiter who answers my bell, and
is known as "Boots," looks in face and
dress like priest of the Church OF
England. 1t requires no small effort
on my part to tell him to hurry up, or
to ask him to accept a sixpence.
Powerful is the English shilling
am amazed at the doors it opens and its
effect on the dinner


Our three days at the English lakes
could not well have been better. ! am
sorry that | am not better read in the
lake poets. Southy is to me but a
name. But at Windermere I came
upon the cottage of Christopher North
and was at once at home. Here he
lived in the days before the heydey of
his blood was tanned. Here he wrote
his "Recreations," the book of the best
descriptive writing I know. I was
pleased to sit in his study and look out
at 'the cloud regions of the setting sun :"


In the church at Grussmere | found
the tablet inscribed "William
Wordworth, philosopher and poet, who
by the special gift and calling of AL
mighty God, whether discoursed by
man or nature, failed not to lift up the
heart to holy things, and tired not of
maintaining the cause of the poor and
the simple" F."


| have looked vainly through West
minister Abbey to find so good an cpl
taph as that. | would like to deserve
one like it. 1t touches me to-day to
hear the people inquire for the grave of
Dickens. They trod on the dust of
kings to get to the slab inscribed with
the name Of him who in bis life time
had an eye for the poor and the lowly.


So 1t is IN Scotland-the name oil
Robert Burns is we'll remembered.
Very happy were my days in Ayr and
Mauchl!ne and Dumfries [ was glad
to go down into the field of the daisy Of
the poem. Good folks are the people
IN those towns [ had unlimited kind
ness from them, simply because in my
way / showed some apprehension OF
tier famous townsman, who was next
door nelghbor to every man. [ saw
{ the nook in which he first saw the
light, and | stood in the room In which
ne laid him down to die. And now
feel that | know him better and love
h,m more. Hard was the time in
which be lived. Harder than the
''mossgiel' that he plowed IF he
could only come back again and see the
troops of pilgrims from over the sea
that visit his cradle!


;, Edlnburg is to me the great city.
I took it in somewhat. Beginning
with Sunday [ went to church and
heard an excellent sermon from rev.
, erend Presbyterian. liked to hear
the fsutter of leaves when the text was
announced. They seem familiar with
the book from which it was taken, and
knew where to find it.


But very uncomfortable are the
churches Of Scotland. In Glasgow
went to the Barony Church, for the
sake of Norman Mcleod whose minis
try made it famous. and found myself
in pew not more than twenty inches
wide from back to front, on a seat
about five inches wide It was like the
stocks. The preacher was a new one
and the sermon was an old one. All
the sermons | have heard in the king
. dom have been written and read, and
that closely. | am disappointed on
that. | had expected an extempore
speech. Whatever else the Scotch
people DO, they keep the Sabbath.
Glasgow was as still on Sunday as a
con.try village.


Of courae [ went to Abbotsford, and
was rushed through by superior per-
son who spoke Of ''Sir Walter" as one
would speak Of . second cousin.


| ventured a question or two in the
most abject American manner, but was
Immediately sat on" and so shut up'
and meeklv fell into the procession,
and did in fifteen minutes what [ in
tended to use up day on. This per-
son impressed me more than both hous-
es Of Parliament and the crown Jewels.
He smiled on me and my question as a
nurse on baby, and moved on.


[ think that ii Sir Walter were alive
he would kick this person out. It is a
pity to be hurried in this vile manner
through what you have crossed the
ocean to see.


Melrose Abbey is chiefly memorable
to me for the place in the floor marked
as lover the heart of Bruce the
heart that the Douglas wore with him
to the crusades. When the fight was
hot be would take the heart from
the silver casket and send it
forward saying: Pass on brave
heart as thou vast. wont to do, irto the
midst Of the battle. The Douglas will
follow thee Or die"


| am concious OF strinsing this letter
out, but once down to it have many
things to say; but the time fails me
The throb of London is in my ears, and