CHAPTER I.

_Journey to Liverpool—Lady and Child—Dine at Lancaster—Impostors at Manchester—Railway—Lateness of the season—Desecration of the Sabbath—Agricultural Details—Napoleon packet-ship—Cemetery—Mr Huskisson._

I left Mungoswells on the 20th of April, 1833, and proceeded from Haddington to Edinburgh by the Earl Grey stage-coach, drawn by a pair of thoroughbred bays, in charge of Quinten Campbell, a most excellent driver, who landed us at the end of the journey, a distance of seventeen miles, in less than an hour and a half, without an application of the whip.

After spending a few hours in Edinburgh, two friends, who intended accompanying me on a transatlantic tour, and myself, were seated in a Manchester coach, and we arrived at Carlisle about five in the morning of the following day.

During a few minutes’ delay which occurred in changing coaches at Carlisle, a waiter at the inn asked us to partake of breakfast; and resented our declining to do so, by saucily refusing to exchange small silver-money for a half-crown piece. My friend and I here agreed to take an outside place alternately, to accommodate a lady and child with an inside one. In course of the day I learned from the lady that she was booked as a passenger from Dumfries to London, and had, to her regret, been detained a whole day at Carlisle. It was evident that this unprotected female and her innocent charge had been imposed upon, and her escape from a second day’s detention was entirely owing to the little concession of my friend and self in her favour.

Breakfast was served at Penrith, and the party complained loudly of the fare placed before them. The stage passengers were joined by other travellers at Lancaster, where eighteen in number dined together, carving for themselves, and several partaking of hot punch, in the space of twenty minutes, which was the whole delay at Lancaster.

We reached Manchester a little after nightfall, where we spent the evening; and one of my friends not having sufficient change to settle with the guard and driver of the coach, he soon afterwards paid them in the coffeeroom. Next morning two different individuals presented themselves, as deputed by guard and driver to receive their allowance. My friend good-humouredly rallied the impostors on the hopelessness of their attempt, and they seemed to feel the force of his satire more than they perhaps would have done a scolding. I have noticed the treatment of the lady and child at Carlisle, as well as the impostors at Manchester, in consequence of a lecture from a fellow-passenger on Yankee knavery, and a well-meant advice to guard myself against American duplicity. Without meaning to impeach the character of my fellow-countrymen, I may remark that the natives of Britain need not illustrate moral delinquency by examples from other countries. Mankind seem to be, nationally as individually, sensible of the faults of others, although, at the same time, they are blind to their own.

We travelled from Manchester to Liverpool by the railway, on the morning of the 22d, and accomplished a distance of thirty miles in an hour and a half. Several miles were performed in two minutes, according to my stop-watch. At the request of a friend, I occupied a place on the outside of a way coach, and was much annoyed by the current of air and coke from the engine. My eyes did not recover the effects of the coke for forty-eight hours afterwards.

On the east coast of Scotland the season had proved to be one of the wettest and latest on record. At the time of our departure the vegetable kingdom had scarcely responded to the vivifying influence of spring—the buds of the hawthorn and the larch were expanding only in sheltered places. England did not present a more advanced vegetation. We were fortunate, however, in obtaining the first good weather of the season for our journey; and, notwithstanding the bleakness of nature, the ever varying scene afforded many objects fitted for contemplation. We crossed the line separating England from Scotland early on Sunday morning, and for many miles afterwards the roads were covered with herds of cattle and flocks of sheep, travelling towards the south. This was a novel sight to a Scotsman; such practices on Sabbath being prohibited by the laws of his country. The desecration of the Lord’s day may, perhaps, to a certain extent, be traced in the customs of every Christian country, but in no case whatever ought appearances to be regarded as the measure of religious feeling, the seat of which is hid from human eye. Without assigning to my countrymen purity and intensity of religious emotion, I may be permitted to say, a Scottish Sabbath is marked throughout by a still, quiet, external decorum, seldom met with in other parts of the world, which fosters piety, and checks an open display of profanity. I trust her inhabitants will ever respect and preserve its solemnity of character.

The land from Carlisle to Manchester seemed, generally, poor and indifferently cultivated. The enclosures are small in size, often surrounded by irregular fences, formed and maintained at a sacrifice of soil and labour. Many of the grass fields were studded with lean young horses and cattle, industriously seeking a repast which nature still sparingly supplied. Betwixt Manchester and Liverpool, much of the grass lands had been ploughed with a furrow slice, only two and three inches in depth. Three stout horses yoked in line, the first of which was led by a boy, were seen dragging a small harrow, kept on a narrow convex ridge, by means of a man with a rope operating like a rudder, and he was apparently the only severely worked animal engaged in the operation. The agriculturists of Britain being deemed enlightened, and her soil not producing a sufficient quantity of food for the population, it was painful to witness land so mismanaged and labour so misapplied. This anomaly may, perhaps, be accounted for, by the genius of the inhabitants of this district having long been successfully applied to manufactures; and neither soil nor climate being congenial to agriculture; together with entails, tythes, and corn laws, checking the devotion of skill and capital to cultivation. Chatmoss, through which the railway passes, seems, however, an exception, and I regretted time did not permit an examination of the interesting management it is under, with which I had become acquainted by means of periodicals devoted to rural affairs.

On reaching Liverpool, our first proceeding was to search for a conveyance to New York, which we obtained in the Napoleon packet-ship; the commander, Captain Smith, resigning his cabin to my friend and me, the other berths in the ship having been previously engaged, with exception of one which was required for our companion.

Part of the 22d, 23d, and 24th, was spent in viewing the attractions of Liverpool, the chief of which, in my estimation, is the cemetery. This repository of mouldering humanity has been recently formed, and its numerous beauties have not been matured or mellowed by time. Trees, shrubs, and flowers, were diminutive, and generally in their winter garb, which fully displayed the memorials to the gaze of visitants. The cenotaph to Mr Huskisson stands near the centre, and can seldom fail of fixing for a time the attention, and exciting the sympathies of his countrymen. The world is now enjoying the green fruits of his genius, with prospect of increasing and lasting supply, while the laurels of contemporary warriors are barren and fading. So long as the principles of free trade are cherished and acted on, the memory of Huskisson will endure.