The Project Gutenberg EBook of Letters from England, Volume 1 (of 3), by Don Manuel Alvarez Espriella This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. Title: Letters from England, Volume 1 (of 3) Author: Don Manuel Alvarez Espriella Translator: Robert Southey Release Date: January 6, 2020 [EBook #61122] Language: English Character set encoding: UTF-8 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LETTERS FROM ENGLAND, VOLUME 1 *** Produced by MWS, Barry Abrahamsen, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain. I LETTERS FROM ENGLAND BY DON MANUEL ALVAREZ ESPRIELLA. TRANSLATED FROM THE SPANISH. IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. I. THIRD EDITION. LONDON: PRINTED FOR LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, AND BROWN, PATERNOSTER-ROW. 1814. Edinburgh: Printed by James Ballantyne and Co. II PREFACE BY THE TRANSLATOR. The remarks of Foreign Travellers upon our own country have always been so well received by the Public, that no apology can be necessary for offering to it the present Translation, The Author of this work seems to have enjoyed more advantages than most of his predecessors, and to have availed himself of them with remarkable diligence. He boasts also of his impartiality: to this praise, in general, he is entitled; but there are some things which he has seen with a jaundiced eye. It is manifest that he is bigotted to the deplorable superstitions of his country; and we may well suppose that those parts of the work in which this bigotry is most apparent, have not been improved by the aid for which he thanks his Father Confessor. The Translator has seldom thought it necessary to offer any comments upon the palpable errors and mis-statements which this spirit has sometimes occasioned: the few notes which he has annexed are distinguished by the letters Tr. III IV PREFACE. A volume of Travels rarely or never, in our days, appears in Spain: in England, on the contrary, scarcely any works are so numerous. If an Englishman spends the summer in any of the mountainous provinces, or runs over to Paris for six weeks, he publishes the history of his travels; and if a work of this kind be announced in France, so great a competition is excited among the London booksellers, that they import it sheet by sheet as it comes from the press, and translate and print it piece-meal. The greater number of such books must necessarily be of little value: all, however, find readers, and the worst of them adds something to the stock of general information. We seldom travel; and they among us who do, never give their journals to the public. Is it because literature can hardly be said to have become a trade among us, or because vanity is no part of our national character? The present work, therefore, is safe from comparison, and will have the advantage of novelty. If it subject me to the charge of vanity myself, I shall be sorry for the imputation, but not conscious of deserving it. I went to England under circumstances unusually favourable, and remained there eighteen months, during the greater part of which I was domesticated in an English family. They knew that it was my intention to publish an account of what I saw, and aided me in my enquiries with a kindness which I must ever remember. My remarks were communicated, as they occurred, in letters to my own family, and to my Father Confessor; and they from time to time suggested to me such objects of observation as might otherwise perhaps have been overlooked. I have thought it better to revise these letters, inserting such matter as further research and more knowledge enabled me to add, rather than to methodize the whole; having observed in England, that works of this kind wherein the subjects are presented in the order wherein they occurred, are always better received than those of a more systematical arrangement: indeed, they are less likely to be erroneous, and their errors are more excusable, in those letters which relate to the state of religion, I have availed myself of the remarks with which my Father Confessor instructed me in his correspondence. He has forbidden me to mention his name; but it is my duty to state, that the most valuable observations upon this important subject, and, in particular, those passages in which the Fathers are so successfully quoted, would not have enriched these volumes, but for his assistance. In thus delineating to my countrymen the domestic character and habits of the English, and the real state of England, I have endeavoured to be strictly impartial; and, if self-judgment may in such a case be trusted, it is my belief that I have succeeded. Certainly, I am not conscious of having either exaggerated or extenuated any thing in any the slightest degree—of heightening the bright or the dark parts of the picture for the sake of effect—of inventing what is false, nor of concealing what is true, so as to lie by implication. Mistakes and misrepresentations there may, and, perhaps, must be: I hope they will neither be found numerous nor important, as I know they are not wilful; and I trust that whatever may be the faults and errors of the work, nothing will appear in it inconsistent with that love of my country, which I feel in common with every Spaniard; and that submission, which, in common with every Catholic, I owe to the Holy Church. V VI VII VIII CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME. LETTER I. Page Arrival at Falmouth.—Custom House.—Food of the English.—Noise and Bustle at the Inn 1 LETTER II. Mode of Travelling.—Penryn.—Truro.—Dreariness of the Country.— Bodmin.—Earth-Coal the common Fuel.—Launceston.—Excellence of the Inns and Roads.—Okehampton.—Exeter 8 LETTER III. Exeter Cathedral and public Walk.—Libraries.— Honiton.—Dangers of English Travelling, and Cruelty with which it is attended.—Axminster.— Bridport 24 LETTER IV. Dorchester.—Gilbert Wakefield.—Inside of an English Church.—Attempt to rear Silk-worms.—Down-country.—Blandford.—Salisbury.— Execrable Alteration of the Cathedral.—Instance of public Impiety 37 LETTER V. Old Sarum.—Country thinly peopled.—Basingstoke.—Ruins of a Catholic Chapel.—Waste Land near London.—Staines.—Iron Bridges.— Custom of exposing the dead Bodies of Criminals.—Hounslow Brentford.—Approach to London.—Arrival 54 LETTER VI. Watchmen.—Noise in London Night and Morning.—An English Family.— Advice to Travellers 65 LETTER VII. General Description of London.—Walk to the Palace.—Crowd in the Streets.—Shops.—Cathedral of St Paul.—Palace of the Prince of Wales.—Oddities in the Shop Windows 72 LETTER VIII. Proclamation of Peace.—The English do not understand Pageantry.— Illumination.—M. Otto’s House.—Illuminations better managed at Rome 85 LETTER IX. IX X XI Execution of Governor Wall 97 LETTER X. Martial Laws of England.—Limited Service advised.—Hints for Military Reform 109 LETTER XI. Shopmen, why preferred to Women in England.—Division of London into the East and West Ends.—Low State of domestic Architecture.— Burlington-House 119 LETTER XII. Causes of the Change of Ministry not generally understood.—Catholic Emancipation.—The Change acceptable to the Nation.—State of Parties.—Strength of the new Administration.—Its good Effects.— Popularity of Mr Addington 127 LETTER XIII. Dress of the English without Variety.— Coal-heavers.—Post-men.—Art of knocking at the Door.—Inscriptions over the Shops.—Exhibitions in the Shop-windows.—Chimney-sweepers.—May-day.—These Sports originally religious 137 LETTER XIV. Description of the Inside, and of the Furniture, of an English House 149 LETTER XV. English Meals.—Clumsy Method of Butchery.—Lord Somerville.—Cruel Manner of killing certain Animals.—Luxuries of the Table.—Liquors 164 LETTER XVI. Informers.—System upon which they act.—Anecdotes of their Rascality. —Evil of encouraging them.—English Character a Compound of Contradictions 173 LETTER XVII. The Word Home said to be peculiar to the English.—Propriety of the Assertion questioned.—Comfort.—Curious Conveniences.—Pocket- fender.—Hunting-razors 180 LETTER XVIII. Drury-Lane Theatre.—The Winter’s Tale.—Kemble.—Mrs Siddons.— Don Juan 187 LETTER XIX. XII XIII English Church Service.—Banns of Marriage.—Inconvenience of having the Sermon a regular Part.—Sermons an Article of Trade.—Popular Preachers.—Private Chapels 200 LETTER XX. Irreverence of English towards the Virgin Mary and the Saints.—Want of Ceremonies in their Church.—Festival Dainties.—Traces of Catholicism in their Language and Oaths.—Disbelief of Purgatory.—Fatal Consequences of this Error.—Supposed Advantages of the Schism examined.—Clergy not so numerous as formerly 215 LETTER XXI. Show of Tulips.—Florists.—Passion for Rarities in England Queen Anne’s Farthings.—Male Tortoise-shell Cat.—Collectors.—The King of Collectors 228 LETTER XXII. English Coins.—Paper Currency.—Frequent Executions for Forgery.— Doctor Dodd.—Opinion that Prevention is the End of Punishment.— This End not answered by the Frequency of Executions.—Plan for the Prevention of Forgery rejected by the Bank 241 LETTER XXIII. Westminster Abbey.—Legend of its Consecration.—Its single Altar in bad Taste.—Gothic or English Architecture.—Monuments.—Banks the Sculptor.—Wax-work.—Henry the Seventh’s Chapel.—Mischievous Propensity of the People to mutilate the Monuments 256 LETTER XXIV. Complexion of the English contradictory to their historical Theories.— Christian Names, and their Diminutives.—System of Surnames.— Names of the Months and Days.—Friday the unlucky Day.—St Valentine.—Relics of Catholicism 274 LETTER XXV. Vermin imported from all Parts.—Fox-Hunting.— Shooting.—Destruction of the Game.—Rural Sports 285 LETTER XXVI. Poor-Laws.—Work-Houses.—Sufferings of the Poor from the Climate.— Dangerous State of England during the Scarcity.—The Poor not bettered by the Progress of Civilization 294 LETTER XXVII. Saint Paul’s.—Anecdote of a female Esquimaux.—Defect of Grecian Architecture in cold Climates.—Nakedness of the Church.— Monuments.—Pictures offered by Sir Joshua Reynolds, &c. and refused.—Ascent.—View from the Summit 307 LETTER XXVIII. XIV XV XVI State of the English Catholics.—Their prudent Silence in the Days of Jacobitism.—The Church of England jealous of the Dissenters.—Riots in 1780.—Effects of the French Revolution.—The Re-establishment of the Monastic Orders in England.—Number of Nunneries and Catholic Seminaries.—The Poor easily converted.—Catholic Writers.—Dr Geddes 322 LETTER XXIX. Number of Sects in England, all appealing to the Scriptures.—Puritans.— Nonjurors.—Rise of Socinianism, and its probable Downfall 333 LETTER XXX. Watering Places.—Taste for the Picturesque.—Encomiendas 346 LETTER XXXI. Journey to Oxford.—Stage-Coach Travelling and Company 354 XVII ESPRIELLA’S LETTERS FROM ENGLAND. 1 LETTER I. Arrival at Falmouth.—Custom House.—Food of the English.—Noise and Bustle at the Inn. Wednesday, April 21, 1802. I write to you from English ground. On the twelfth morning after our departure from Lisbon we came in sight of the Lizard, two light-houses on the rocks near the Land’s End, which mark a dangerous shore. The day was clear, and showed us the whole coast to advantage; but if these be the white cliffs of England, they have been strangely magnified by report: their forms are uninteresting, and their heights diminutive; if a score such were piled under Cape Finisterre, they would look like a flight of stairs to the Spanish mountains. I made this observation to J—, who could not help acknowledging the truth, but he bade me look at the green fields. The verdure was certainly very delightful, and that not merely because our eyes were wearied with the gray sea: the appearance was like green corn, though approaching nearer I perceived that the colour never changed; for the herb, being kept short by cattle, does not move with the wind. We passed in sight of St Maurs, a little fishing-town on the east of the bay, and anchored about noon at Falmouth. There is a man always on the look-out for the packets; he makes a signal as soon as one is seen, and every woman who has a husband on board gives him a shilling for the intelligence. I went through some troublesome forms upon landing, in consequence of the inhospitable laws enacted at the beginning of the war. There were then the vexatious ceremonies of the custom-house to be performed, where double fees were exacted for passing our baggage at extraordinary hours. J— bade me not judge of his countrymen by their sea-ports: it is a proverb, said he, “that the people at these places are all either birds of passage, or birds of prey”; it is their business to fleece us, and ours to be silent.—Patience where there is no remedy!—our own aphorism, I find, is as needful abroad as at home. But if ever some new Cervantes should arise to write a mock heroic, let him make his hero pass through a custom-house on his descent to the infernal regions. The inn appeared magnificent to me; my friend complained that it was dirty and uncomfortable. I cannot relish their food: they eat their meat half raw; the vegetables are never boiled enough to be soft; and every thing is insipid except the bread, which is salt, bitter, and disagreeable. Their beer is far better in Spain, the voyage and the climate ripen it. The cheese and butter were more to my taste; manteca indeed is not butter, and the Englishman[1] who wanted to call it so at Cadiz was as inaccurate in his palate as in his ideas. Generous wines are inordinately dear, and no others are to be procured; about a dollar a bottle is the price. What you find at the inns is in general miserably bad; they know this, and yet drink that the host may be satisfied with their expences: our custom of paying for the house-room is more economical, and better. 1. This blunder has been applied to the French word eau. Which ever may be original, it certainly ought not to be palmed upon an Englishman.—Tr. Falmouth stands on the western side of the bay, and consists of one long narrow street which exhibits no favourable specimen either of the boasted cleanliness or wealth of the English towns. The wealthier merchants dwell a little out of the town upon the shore, or on the opposite side of the bay at a little place called Flushing. The harbour, which is very fine, is commanded by the castle of Pendennis; near its mouth there is a single rock, on which a pole is erected because it is covered at high tide. A madman not many years ago carried his wife here at low water, landed her on the rock, and rowed away in sport; nor did he return till her danger as well as fear had become extreme. Some time since the priest of this place was applied to to bury a certain person from the adjoining country. “Why, John,” said he to the sexton, “we buried this man a dozen years ago:” and in fact it appeared on referring to the books of the church that his funeral had been registered ten years back. He had been bed-ridden and in a state of dotage during all that time; and his heirs had made a mock burial, to avoid certain legal forms and expenses which would else have been necessary to enable them to receive and dispose of his rents. I was also told another anecdote of an inhabitant of this town, not unworthy of a stoic:—His house was on fire; it contained his whole property; and when he found it was in vain to attempt saving any thing, he went upon the nearest hill and made a drawing of the conflagration: —an admirable instance of English phlegm! The perpetual stir and bustle in this inn is as surprising as it is wearisome. Doors opening and shutting, bells ringing, voices calling to the waiter from every quarter, while he cries “Coming,” to one room, and hurries away to another. Every body is in a hurry here; either they are going off in the packets, and are hastening their preparations to embark; or they have just arrived, and are impatient to be on the road homeward. Every now-and-then a carriage rattles up to the door with a rapidity which makes the very house shake. The man who cleans the boots is running in one direction, the barber with his powder-bag in another; here goes the barber’s boy with his hot water and razors; there comes the clean linen from the washer-woman; and the hall is full of porters and sailors bringing in luggage, or bearing it away;— now you hear a horn blow because the post is coming in, and in the middle of the night you are awakened by another because it is going out. Nothing is done in England without a noise, and yet noise is the only thing they forget in the bill! 2 3 4 5 6 7