Sunny Memories Of Foreign Lands, Volume 1Stowe, Harriet Beecher
History
Sunny Memories Of Foreign Lands, Volume 1
Stowe, Harriet Beecher
Europe -- Description and travel
One little incident occurred upon the road. As we were passing by a
quaint old mansion, which stood back from the road, surrounded by a deep
court, Mr. S. said to me, "There is a friend here who would like to see
thee, if thou hast no objections," and went on to inform me that she was
an aged woman, who had taken a deep interest in the abolition of slavery
since the time of its first inception under Clarkson and Wilberforce,
though now lying very low on a sick bed. Of course we all expressed our
willingness to stop, and the carriage was soon driving up the gravelled
walk towards the house. We were ushered into a comfortable sitting room,
which looked out on beautiful grounds, where the velvet grass, tall,
dark trees, and a certain quaint air of antiquity in disposition and
arrangement, gave me a singular kind of pleasure; the more so, that it
came to me like a dream; that the house and the people were unknown to
me, and the whole affair entirely unexpected.
I was soon shown into a neat chamber, where an aged woman was lying in
bed. I was very much struck and impressed by her manner of receiving me.
With deep emotion and tears, she spoke of the solemnity and sacredness
of the cause which had for years lain near her heart. There seemed to be
something almost prophetic in the solemn strain of assurance with which
she spoke of the final extinction of slavery throughout the world.
I felt both pleased and sorrowful. I felt sorrowful because I knew, if
all true Christians in America had the same feelings, that men, women,
and children, for whom Christ died, would no more be sold in my country
on the auction block.
There have been those in America who have felt and prayed thus nobly and
sincerely for the heathen in Burmah and Hindostan, and that sentiment
was a beautiful and an ennobling one; but, alas! the number has been few
who have felt and prayed for the heathenism, and shame of our own
country; for the heathenism which sells the very members of the body of
Christ as merchandise.
When we were again on the road, we were talking on the change of times
in England since railroads began; and Mr. S. gave an amusing description
of how the old lords used to travel in state, with their coaches and
horses, when they went up once a year on a solemn pilgrimage to London,
with postilions and outriders, and all the country gaping and wondering
after them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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