Sunny Memories Of Foreign Lands, Volume 1Stowe, Harriet Beecher
History
Sunny Memories Of Foreign Lands, Volume 1
Stowe, Harriet Beecher
Europe -- Description and travel
After the return of the party from Hamilton Park, we sat down to an
elegant lunch, where my eye was attracted more than any thing else, by
the splendor of the hothouse flowers which adorned the table. So far as
I have observed, the culture of flowers, both in England and Scotland,
is more universally an object of attention than with us. Every family in
easy circumstances seems, as a matter of course, to have their
greenhouse, and the flowers are brought to a degree of perfection which
I have never seen at home.
I may as well say here, that we were told by a gentleman, whose name I
do not now remember, that this whole district had been celebrated for
its orchards; he added, however, that since the introduction of the
American apple into the market, its superior excellence had made many of
these orchards almost entirely worthless. It is a curious fact, showing
how the new world is working on the old.
After taking leave of our hospitable friends, we took to our carriages
again. As we were driving slowly through the beautiful grounds,
admiring, as we never failed to do, their perfect cultivation, a party
of servants appeared in sight, waving their hats and handkerchiefs, and
cheering us as we passed. These kindly expressions from them were as
pleasant as any we received.
In the evening we had engaged to attend another _soirée_, gotten up by
the working classes, to give admission to many who were not in
circumstances to purchase tickets for the other. This was to me, if any
thing, a more interesting _réunion_, because this was just the class
whom I wished to meet. The arrangements of the entertainment were like
those of the evening before.
As I sat in the front gallery and looked over the audience with an
intense interest, I thought they appeared on the whole very much like
what I might have seen at home in a similar gathering. Men, women, and
children were dressed in a style which showed both self-respect and good
taste, and the speeches were far above mediocrity. One pale young man, a
watchmaker, as I was told afterwards, delivered an address, which,
though doubtless it had the promising fault of too much elaboration and
ornament, yet I thought had passages which would do honor to any
literary periodical whatever.
There were other orators less highly finished, who yet spoke "right on,"
in a strong, forcible, and really eloquent way, giving the grain of the
wood without the varnish. They contended very seriously and sensibly,
that although the working men of England and Scotland had many things to
complain of, and many things to be reformed, yet their condition was
world-wide different from that of the slave.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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