The Cathedral Towns and Intervening Places of England, Ireland and Scotland:: A Description of Cities, Cathedrals, Lakes, Mountains, Ruins, and Watering-places.Silloway, Thomas W. (Thomas William)
History
The Cathedral Towns and Intervening Places of England, Ireland and Scotland:: A Description of Cities, Cathedrals, Lakes, Mountains, Ruins, and Watering-places.
Silloway, Thomas W. (Thomas William)
Great Britain -- Description and travel
The extensive grounds are laid out in Dutch style, with fine avenues.
In its greenhouse is the largest and the most productive grapevine in
Europe. It was planted in 1767, and at the time of our visit it was
said to have over three thousand bunches of Black Hamburg grapes upon
it. The roots of the vine are in a garden, and the trunk, which is
about six inches in diameter, extends three feet from the ground, along
the wall of the house, which it then enters. Inside, the vine spreads
over the entire top, which is built in the usual conservatory style,
with a roof having but one slope. It is hardly needful to say that
these grapes are raised solely for the royal family.
There are hundreds of acres in the grounds, and adjoining it is a park,
the circumference of which is over five miles,--a delightful spot to
visit. The trees, embowered avenues, terraces, gardens, and long vistas
yet remain as they were centuries ago. The soil, once sacred to the
tread of royalty, is now a republican delight to the multitude.
A remarkable depositary of the sainted dead is Bunhill Burial-ground,
in one of the busiest parts of London, on a great thoroughfare,
opposite the house in which John Wesley died on the 2d of March,
1791. Almost adjoining this is the church in which Wesley preached.
The burial-ground was laid out for a sacred purpose; the burial of
Non-conformists and their friends, who have made the ground classic.
No cathedral cemetery, to which they could not be admitted, has an
honor greater than this. Here rests the sacred poet, Isaac Watts, whose
monument tells us that he died Nov. 25, 1748. There is a monument to
the memory of Susannah Wesley, the mother of nineteen children, two
of whom were John and Charles. Here is the grave of John Bunyan, who
died Aug. 31, 1688; and that of Daniel Defoe, the author of "Robinson
Crusoe." Could the doctrine of a literal resurrection be true, no
grander company would assemble at one spot, or walk forth into glory
clad in whiter robes than theirs. No pope or bishop, of Roman Church
or English, could understand the plaudit, "Well done good and faithful
servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord," better than would they.
These came up out of great tribulation, and so would shine resplendent.
London is great. A volume appropriated to each of a thousand things
would not tell the story. Her history has a vast reach and the records
have been well kept. Her population is a round four and a half
millions,--as much as New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Cincinnati,
Boston, and ten more of our largest New England cities combined. Her
great Library at the Museum has as many books as Harvard and Yale
colleges, and the Boston Public Library, all put together.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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