CHAPTER X.

Excursion to Bath and Bristol.

The cottage homes of England!

By thousands on her plains,

They are smiling o'er the silvery brooks,

And round the hamlet-fanes,

Through flowing orchards forth they peep,

Each from its nook of leaves,

And fearless there, the lowly sleep,

As a bird beneath their eaves.-HEMANS.

BATH and Bristol, two contiguous cities, one hundred and eight and one hundred and twenty miles west of London, are reached from the metropolis by the "Great Western Rail Road." A trip thither afforded me a fine opportunity of locating historical and biographical facts, as also of allowing me the pleasure of meeting at their English home, esteemed friends who formerly resided in the valley of the Genesee.

At early dawn, I was at the "Paddington Station," prepared for a three hours' ride through regions, illustrious in the annals of Britain and the world.

As no fitter occasion can offer, I will detain the reader with a few statistics respecting this prince of British railroads. The first idea of this important line of communication was published in the year 1833, and resulted in the formation of a Joint Stock Company, with a capital of two millions five hundred thousand pounds sterling (twelve and a half millions of dollars). This was, however, but about one-third of the actual expense for right of way, construction, rolling stock, and other incidentals.

Great Western Rail Road.

Paddington Station House.

In distinction from all other roads on the island, the broad guage principle was adopted--the width being seven feet the locomotives running on six wheels, with drivingwheels seven feet in diameter-the engine exercising the power of one hundred and twenty horses, and made to work at forty-five miles per hour. One of the engines on this road, "The Lord of the Isles," is capable of taking a passenger car of one hundred and twenty tons, at an average speed of sixty miles per hour-its effective power being that of seven hundred and forty horses. The average expense of the engines on this road is three thousand pounds sterling (fifteen thousand dollars) each an increase of at least two-thirds, on those made for the narrow guage. The express trains make the distance to Bristol, including all stoppages, at forty-two miles per hour: without stopping, at fifty-five! During the year 1852, there passed over this road,

First class passengers,

257,325

1,243,014

354,349

9,341

1,864,029

The "Paddington Station House," London, is noted, throughout the realm, for its size, and every needed commodiousness of arrangement, exceeding any building of the kind in this country, nor does it seem necessary to expend so vast a sum for such an object. Would any one learn how far and wofully our American pendulum has swung to the opposite extreme, he has but to spend a few hours at any,

Excursion Westward.

among the large proportion of the station houses throughout this land. We bid for low fare when in motion, and are compelled to put up with low fare when at rest!

Having purchased my ticket, bought a guide-book, and taken my seat, the door was locked close by the badged official. Slowly we move away from a spot, in whose immediate vicinity is Tyburn, where Jack Shephard, Jonathan Wild, Lord Ferrers, Dr. Dodd, and other great malefactors of the metropolis, expiated their crimes on the gallows. Two miles onward, and we skirt Kensal Green Cemetery, the "Père la Chaise" of Western London, covering fifty-four acres, where lie entombed many eminent literary characters of the current age-Allen Cunningham, Sydney Smith, Lockhart, Hood, &c., and where the present Queen has erected a mausoleum for herself and family, when the Angel of Death summons them away. May her majesty long be spared the occupancy of that mournful mansion! The next place of general interest is Acton, where Cromwell, after his victory at Worcester, was met on his return by a congratulatory letter, from the House of Commons, and where for several years resided on terms of Christian intimacy, the famous Chief Justice Hale and no less justly celebrated Rev. Richard Baxter. A mile onward and we pass over the Wharncliffe Viaduct, nine hundred feet long, raised eighteen feet above the earth on eight elliptical arches-giving a commanding view of the Lunatic Asylum, which occupies a space of eighty acres, and accommodates one thousand patients, with one hundred servants and attendants. A proof this, that we are in a Christian land! And here we are at Langley Station, near which is Ritching's Lodge, a favorite resort for the leading wits of the last century—as

Onward.

Vicar of Bray.

indicated by the stanzas cut in a bench upon the lawn:

"By Bathurst planted first, these shades arose,

Prior and Pope have sung beneath these boughs.
Here Addison his moral theme pursued,

And social Gay has cheered the solitude."

A little farther and we pass the house where once resided Sir William Herschel, the eminent astronomer, whose forty foot telescope may still be seen, encased for better preservation, in the garden attached to the mansion. At a short distance is Stoke Pogis, where lived and wandered and wrote and died, the Poet Gray. The bard's house is still standing, having been for a long time in possession of a son of William Penn, and a portion of the spreading elm under which Penn stood when making his compact with the American Indians, has been still preserved by the family. This celebrated dwelling was given at one time by James the First to the eminent Sir Edward Coke, and in 1647 was the temporary residence of Charles the First, when a prisoner in the power of the Parliamentary army.

We resume our westward course, noticing as we pass, the parish of Bray, world-noted as the pastorate of Thomas Brown, "who lived in the changeful times of Henry the Eighth, Edward the Sixth, Mary and Elizabeth-being three times a Protestant and twice a Papist, because of his conscientious (?) and immovable adherence to his own great principle, viz: to live and day Vicar of Bray!" Stopping a little time at Reading, where is an abbey founded by Henry the First,-"the remains of which prove it to have been both very extensive and all but impregnable, except to cannon;"-a town, too, illustrious as the locality. where Henry the Third held one of his earliest Parliaments,

Chiltern Hills.

Swindon Station.

and where in 1642, the armies of Charles the First and his hostile parliament were strongly garrisoned; and where in 1573, the eminent prelate, Archbishop Land resided; we ride as on the wings of the wind over a barren or badly wooded country, across the lower range of the Chiltern Hills, belonging from time immemorial to the crown, and by accepting the stewardship of which, a member of the "House of Commons" can retire honorably from his post, known in popular phrase as accepting the Chiltern hundreds. Off from the road, within a score or so of miles, either side are places of much historical interest, There is Basingtoke, famous as the birth-place of Lancaster, the navigator, and Wharton, the historian of poetry; and there is Newbury, where were fought two battles between Charles the First and his Parliament, in 1645; and there is Donnington Castle, where lived and died the Poet Chaucer; and there is Hungerford Park, the estate of Queen Elizabeth's unhappy favorite, the Earl of Essex. But to return from this mental tour (for we cannot visit all these places in body), we are soon at Didcot, from which are branches to Oxford, &c.

A little forward to Wantage Station, two miles south of which, King Alfred was born, in the year 849, and thence to Swindon, where are refreshment rooms which compare in respect to superior size, commodiousness, and luxury, with almost any other I ever entered, as does St. Nicholas' Hotel of New York with a fourth-rate tavern in the hum

blest city of our Republic. "But hark! the bell rings, passengers hurry along the platform, take their seats, and are locked in. The steam is turned on and away we go, passing within a few miles of one of the largest and most inter