Hesperothen; Notes from the West, Vol. 1 (of 2): A Record of a Ramble in the United States and Canada in the Spring and Summer of 1881Russell, William Howard, Sir
History
Hesperothen; Notes from the West, Vol. 1 (of 2): A Record of a Ramble in the United States and Canada in the Spring and Summer of 1881
Russell, William Howard, Sir
United States -- Description and travel
been puzzled to detect the originals. Some of the limners thought us
"fair types of well-to-do, well-fed gentlemen, of the solid build and
florid features which English roast beef produces." Mr. Neale was
declared to have "a more elegant external appearance than the other
members of the party. On the outskirts of his features grow brown
whiskers." We all "talked more affectedly" than the Duke. Mr. Stephen
was complimented with reason on his "magnificent physique." It was
astonishing how "well posted," to use the Transatlantic idiom, the
papers were in Burke and Debrett. They gave full accounts of the ducal
house of Sutherland--of its history and possessions, expatiated on the
grandeurs of Trentham, Stafford House, and Dunrobin, the treasures of
their picture-galleries, the vast acreage of the estates, the richness
of the mines, the wealth of the salmon rivers, deer forests, and
grouse moors, with most un-Republican enthusiasm.
To millions of Americans the exact status of a Duke is as great a
mystery as the rank of a Jam or of a Thakoor is to the mass of
Englishmen out of India; but millions of Americans had heard of the
Duke of Sutherland. Stafford House is a name familiar to those who
remember the times when "Uncle Tom's Cabin," Mrs. Beecher Stowe, and
the anti-slavery agitation which emanated from Exeter Hall made noise
in the world. Still, the great gulf which the Revolution and the Act
of Independence made between the social systems of the New World and
the Old is only passed by the travelled American, except in rare
instances. The colonel who informed Martin Chuzzlewit that "your
Queen, sir, lives in the Tower of London," was scarcely an
exaggeration of popular American ignorance on such subjects. But,
after all, how many Englishmen are there who could give an exact
account of the working of the Electoral College in the election of one
of the most potential of sovereigns, or who could define the
differences between a Republican and a Democrat? An old lady on board
the "_Gallia_" who insisted that "the Duke of Sutherland was a cousin
of the Queen of England" represents a large number of people who
cannot or do not care to understand the functions and constitution of
what they call "your privileged classes." The authority to whom I
refer above was on her way to her home in the Far West after a tour in
Europe and a visit to Great Britain, and she told her auditory that
"she thought Ireland, at all events, would be a great deal better off
if there were more _dollars_ and less _dukes_ in it," which, seeing
that the Green Isle has only two peers of that rank, argued perhaps
some intolerance on her part towards the ducal aristocracy. A duke who
takes an active interest in the great works of national progress which
Americans exhibit with a just pride to all comers is sure to be
honoured in the Great Republic; and when he examines mechanical
inventions, ascends elevators, descends mines, dips into
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