First Impressions of the New World Part 5

After this young man's "experience" was ended, came another singing of hymns, and then another invitation for more "experiences;" when a tall, fat, important-looking man rose: his figure reminded one of a fat, burly London butler; and his account of himself was somewhat extravagant.

"Heart was hard as stone; a great sinner; was standing in an orchard; couldn't love G.o.d or pray; seemed as if a great light came from the sky; got behind a tree; the light came nearer; seemed as if drawing me," &c.

&c.; ending in the happy circ.u.mstance of _his_ complete conversion; and he sat down, his discourse producing the same agitating effects, and of an increasing kind on all the women, specially on my fat and thin friends. Then came another hymn, and another invitation; which was followed by the preacher's going up to a young negress and speaking a few words to her in a whisper; whereupon he told us, that a young person, who had been wonderfully "dealt with by the Lord," was about to give an account of herself. The young girl, of about twenty, black, but pleasing-looking, advanced, and standing straight up before the preacher, repeated to him her experience almost as if it were a lesson she had learnt by heart. There was a cadence, or sort of chant, in her delivery; but with the most perfect quietness of manner. She had been, she said, a great sinner; and she then gave an account of herself at much greater length than the others. In speaking of the difficulties that had met her in her spiritual path, there was a very musical and touching mournfulness in her voice that made her an object of great interest. The men, at least, seemed to think so; for they all became most lively, grinned gloriously, their splendid white teeth contrasting with their dark skins; my two friends became nearly frantic, the one in mourning especially, when shaken by the agitation of her fat friend, writhed her body in all directions. They both began shouting, "Glory!

Glory!" with a loud voice; and finally the younger one fell forward on her face, in a sort of trance. After a time she got back upon her seat; but I never witnessed such a state of excitement, except once, years ago, when I saw a young woman in an epileptic fit. All this was evidently in a sort of small camp-meeting style. August is the month for these meetings when out of doors; but this was a minor one. The woman in front grinned, and even laughed outright, having great hollows or dimples in her cheeks. The young girl was really interesting, so perfectly calm and so modest; never looking to the right or left. She said she felt ashamed to appear before them all, but that she should not be ashamed to appear before G.o.d: and whenever interrupted, she resumed the thread of her narrative with the utmost composure. She ended after a time, but remained standing before the preacher, who was seated, and who proceeded to examine her as to whether she thought she was _really_ converted to G.o.d. Her answers were faint, as if from fatigue and exhaustion, her narrative having been a very long one; but still there was a quiet, unfaltering decision in her replies, which were given with much humility of manner. I could not help sometimes doubting whether the whole thing was really unprepared and extemporaneous, or whether she might not have learnt her lesson and repeated it by rote, or whether, in short, it might not have been a piece of acting. This impression lasted only for a moment, for there was such an artless and modest manner in the young girl, that I could not fail on the whole to give her the fullest credit for sincerity, and was angry only with her black male friends for requiring from her such a display of herself and her feelings in a public congregation; which made me feel much for the young girl throughout. After various warnings that she would meet with difficulties, that she was joining a "plain set of old Baptist saints,"

&c., she said she wished and desired to do so. The preacher then asked, almost in the words of the Liturgy, "Wilt thou be baptized?" and she answered, "I will." Whereupon he asked the congregation to show by their hands if they approved of her being baptized; and there being a sufficient show of hands, she was told she was duly elected as a candidate for baptism; when another hymn being struck up in the same vociferous style as before, we rose and left the a.s.sembly, not liking to be longer absent from papa. We came out upon the lovely, calm, moonlight night, so sweet, so exquisitely heavenly; and I felt how differently nature looked without, to those distressing sights of bodily agitation and contortion we had witnessed within. I thought of the poor young negro girl's quiet testimony, and gentle voice and manner, and wondered if _she_, too, would learn in time to become uproarious, and shout, "Glory! Glory!" The probability is, that she will become like her neighbours; for I can tell you later other stories about the necessity these poor n.i.g.g.e.r women seem to be under to shout "Glory!" I was glad to have seen this specimen of the camp-meeting style.

Although I have felt it scarcely possible to describe the scene without a certain mixture of the ludicrous, no feeling of irreverence crossed my mind at the time. On the contrary, my sympathies were greatly drawn out towards these our poor fellow-creatures; and there was something most instructive in the sight of them there a.s.sembled to enjoy those highest blessings--blessings of which no man could rob them. Religion seemed to be to them not a mere sentiment or feeling, but a real tangible possession; and one could read, in their appreciation of it, a lesson to one's own heart of its power to lift man above all earthly sorrow, privation, and degradation into an upper world, as it were, even here below, of "joy and peace in believing."

To-day, after posting our letters for England, papa went to General Ca.s.s, Secretary of State for the United States, and delivered his letter of introduction from Mr. Dallas, the American Minister in London. He had a long and interesting interview with him.

We went afterwards to the Capitol, and all over it, under the guidance of our coachman, a very intelligent and civil Irishman. We were quite taken by surprise at what we saw; for not only is the building itself, which is of white marble, a very fine one, but the internal fittings, or "fixings," as they perpetually call them here, show a degree of taste for which before leaving England we had not given the Americans credit.

Two wings are now being added to the original building, and are nearly completed; and a new and higher dome than the original one is being built over the centre. The wings are destined to be occupied, one by the Senate, and the other by the House of Representatives: in fact, the House of Representatives already make use of their wing; but the Senate will still hold another session in the old Senate House, as the Senators have not yet quite decided upon their "fixings." The new chamber is, however, sufficiently advanced to enable us to form a judgment of what it will be; and although, perhaps, inferior in beauty to that of the House of Representatives, it is in very good taste: but the room where the Representatives meet is really most beautiful. The seats are ranged in semi-circles, with desks before each, in much the same manner as in Paris; which gives a more dignified appearance than the arrangement of the seats in our House of Commons. The floors throughout a great part of the building are in very good tesselated work, made by Minton, in England; as the tiles made in this country do not preserve their colour like the English ones. The ceilings of some of the pa.s.sages are beautifully decorated; and one of the committee rooms, appropriated to agricultural matters, is remarkably well painted in fresco; all the subjects have allusion to agricultural pursuits. In the centre of the building, round the circular part, under the dome, are some very indifferent pictures, representing subjects connected with the history of America, beginning with the landing of Columbus. Two out of the eight represented incidents in the war of independence; one being the surrender of Lord Cornwallis, who seemed very sorry for himself. The view from the Capitol is fine; the gardens round it are kept in good order, and there being a great deal of maple in the woods, the redness of the leaf gave a brilliant effect to the scene.

From the Capitol we went to the Patent Office, in which are contained an endless variety of models. It is immediately opposite the Post Office, and both are splendid buildings of white marble. The Post Office is still unfinished, but it will be of great size. The Patent-Office is an enormous square building. The four sides, which are uniform, have large flights of stairs on the outside, leading to porticos of Corinthian pillars. We entered the building, and went into a large apartment, where we were lost in contemplation of the numerous models, which we admired exceedingly, though the shortness of the time we had to devote to them prevented our examining them as minutely as they seemed to deserve.

Papa, indeed, was disposed to be off when we had gone through this room, as we had still much to do, and he professed his belief that we must have seen the whole. I, having my wits more about me, could not conceive how this could well be the case, seeing we had only looked at one out of four sides. There is no one in these places to show them to strangers, so we asked a respectable-looking person if there were any more rooms, when he replied, "Oh, yes! you have only been looking at the _rejected_ models." Whereupon we entered on the second side of the square; but, to confess the truth, the rejected and accepted ones seemed to us much of a piece, and we were not sorry, on arriving at the third side, to find it shut up and apparently empty, so we beat a retreat. We were told at Baltimore that the collection was a very fine one, and doubtless it may be very interesting to a person competent to judge of the details; but the models, besides being shut up in gla.s.s-cases, and consequently very inaccessible, were generally on too small a scale to be comprehended by ordinary observers, and in this respect, the collection was of much less interest to us than the exhibition we had lately seen in the unfortunate Crystal Palace at New York, where the models exhibited were of the full size of the machines meant to be used, and consequently almost intelligible to an unprofessional person. Besides what may be strictly considered models, there were in the rooms some objects more suited to an ordinary museum. Such were various autographs, and many relics of Was.h.i.+ngton; and a case containing locks of the hair of all the presidents, from the time of Was.h.i.+ngton downwards.

When mentioning our visit to General Ca.s.s, I omitted to state the magnificence of the Treasury, which adjoins his official residence; an enormous structure, also of white marble. We counted thirty pillars in front, of the Ionic order, besides three more recently added on a wing, these three pillars of great height being cut out of single blocks of marble. We pa.s.sed this building again in going from the Patent-Office to Lord Napier's, where we had an appointment with Mr. Erskine.

The n.o.ble mansion of England's representative is a cube of brick-work painted dark-brown, equal in size, and very much resembling in appearance, our own D. P. H.; but standing in a melancholy street, without the appendages of green-house, conservatory, and gate, as in that choice London mansion. The Honourable Secretary's apartment was downstairs in the area, and the convenience of its proximity to the kitchen, with the thermometer at 85 in the shade, as it was to-day, was doubtless duly appreciated by him, he having just arrived from Turin. We found him waiting for us, and he accompanied us to the President's residence, called the White House. It is a handsome but unpretending building, not like its neighbours, of marble, but painted to look like stone; the public reception-rooms are alone shown, but a good-natured servant let us see the private rooms, and took us out on a sort of terrace behind, where we had a lovely view of the Potomac. The house is situated in a large garden, opposite to which, on the other side of the road, is a handsome, and well-kept square. The house has no pretensions about it, but would be considered a handsome country house in England; and the inside is quite in keeping, and well furnished. The furniture is always renewed when a new President takes possession; and as this is the case every four years, it cannot well become shabby.

In a line directly opposite the back of the house, and closing up the view at the end of the gardens, stands the monument which is being erected to Was.h.i.+ngton. This, when finished, is to be a circular colonnaded building, 250 feet in diameter, and 100 feet high, from which is to spring an obelisk 70 feet wide at the base, and 500 feet high, so that, when completed, the whole will be as high as if our monument in London were placed on the top of St. Paul's. At present nothing but its ugly shaft is built, which has anything but a picturesque appearance, and it is apparently likely to remain in this condition, as it is not allowed to be touched by any but native republican hands, here a rather scarce commodity. It is being built of white stone, one of the many kinds found in this country. By the by, we omitted to state, in describing the Capitol, that the bal.u.s.trades of the staircases, and a good deal of ornamental work about the building, are of marble, from a quarry lately discovered in Tennessee, of a beautiful darkish lilac ground, richly grained with a shade of its own colour; it is very valuable, costing seven dollars per cubic foot.

From the President's house we went to the Observatory, which, though unpretending in its external appearance, is said to be the finest in the world next to the one at St. Petersburgh; so at least says the Was.h.i.+ngton Guide Book, for I like to give our authority for what we ourselves should not have supposed to be the case. Mr. Erskine introduced himself, and then us, to Lieutenant Maury, who is at the head of it, and is well known as a writer on meteorological subjects. He is a most agreeable man, and we talked much about the comet, meteoric stones, &c.; we asked him what he thought of Professor Silliman's notion about the comet's tail being an electric phenomenon, but he seemed to think little was known on the subject. He said this comet had never been seen before, and might never return again, as its path seemed parabolic, and not elliptical; but he said that what was peculiarly remarkable about it was the extreme agitation observed in the tail, and even in the nucleus, the motion appearing to be vibratory. With regard to meteoric stones, he said the one we saw at New Haven, though of such a prodigious size, being 200 lbs. heavier than the one in the British Museum, was a fragment only of a larger stone. We asked permission to go to the top of the observatory, and at a hint from papa, I expressed the great desire I had to see Venus by daylight, through the great telescope; whereupon, he sent for Professor B----, and asked him to take us up to the observatory, and to direct the great telescope to Venus. We mounted accordingly, and I was somewhat alarmed when the whole room in which we were placed, began to revolve upon its axis.

Setting the telescope takes some minutes, and the Professor ejected us from the room at the top of the building on to a balcony, from which we had a most lovely view of the neighbouring country. By means of a very good small telescope placed on a swivel, we could see most distinctly the Military Retreat (the Chelsea of America), beautifully situated upon a high hill about three miles off. We saw also through this telescope the Smithsonian Inst.i.tute, which we were glad to be able to study in this way in detail, as we found we should not have time to go to it. It is a very large building of the architecture of the twelfth century, and the only attempt at Mediaeval architecture which we have seen in the United States.

The view of the Potomac and of the hill and buildings of George Town was very extensive and remarkable; but before we had feasted our eyes sufficiently on it, we were summoned to see one of the most lovely sights I ever witnessed. Though it was mid-day, and the sun was s.h.i.+ning most brilliantly, we saw the exquisitely sharp crescent of Venus in the pale sky, and about half the apparent size of the moon. The object-gla.s.s of the instrument was divided into squares, and she pa.s.sed rapidly across the field of the telescope, sailing, as it were, in ether; by the slightest motion of a tangent-screw of great length, we were able to bring her back as often as we liked, to the centre of the field. This mechanical process might, however, have been rendered unnecessary, had the machinery attached to the instrument been wound up; for when this is the case, if the telescope is directed to any star or point in the heavens, it continues to point to it for the whole twenty-four hours in succession, the machine revolving round in the plane to which it is set.

The instrument is a very powerful one, and, like the smaller one we looked through before, was made by Fraunhofer, a famous optician at Munich. There are some other very wonderful instruments which we had not time to see, as we had to make desperate haste to get some dinner, and be off by the late train to Baltimore. But before I take leave of this subject, I must return for a minute or two to that most perfectly lovely creature Venus. She was a true crescent; we could imagine we saw the jagged edge of the inner side of the crescent, but the transition from the planet to the delicate sky was so gradual, that as far as this inner edge was concerned, this was probably only imagination. Her colouring on this jagged side was of the most transparent silvery hue. The outer edge was very sharply defined against the sky, and her colour shaded off on this side to a pale golden yellow with a red or pink tint in it; this being the side she was presenting to the sun. No words can express her beauty. She is the planet that I told you lately looked so very large.

On our way to the station, and in our drives about the town, we had an opportunity of seeing the City of Was.h.i.+ngton. The town was originally laid out by Was.h.i.+ngton himself, and divided off into streets, or rather wide avenues, which are crossed by other streets of great breadth; but though the streets are named, in many of them no houses are yet built, and those that are have a mean appearance, owing to their being unsuited in height to the great width of the streets, which are in many cases, I should think, three times the width of Portland Place, and long in proportion. Notwithstanding, therefore, the beauty of the public buildings, the town greatly disappointed us.

On our arrival at Baltimore this evening, Mr. Garrett, the princ.i.p.al director of the Baltimore and Ohio Railway, called upon us and brought with him Mr. Henry Tyson, the chief engineer, or as he is called, the master of machinery of the road, whom he was kind enough to appoint to go with us as far as Wheeling, the western terminus of the line.

This is the most remarkable railway in America for the greatness of the undertaking and the difficulties encountered in pa.s.sing the Alleghanies, which the projectors of the road could only do by crossing the range at a height of 2700 feet, a project that most people looked upon as visionary. We are to start to-morrow morning at eight o'clock.

_Wheeling, Oct. 21st._--We have accomplished the great feat of pa.s.sing the Alleghanies, and Mr. Tyson has proved a Cicerone of unequalled excellence, from his great attention to us, added to his knowledge of the country, and his talents, which are of no ordinary kind. He is the engineer who has invented, or at least constructed on a new plan, the locomotives which are used upon this road: but besides being a very clever engineer, he is remarkably well read in general literature, and has a wonderful memory for poetry and a great knowledge of botany.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plan of Directors' car]

Though Mr. Garrett talked of the directors' car, we presumed it was only a common carriage such as we had been accustomed to, but appropriated to their use; instead of this we found a beautiful car, forty feet long by eight wide, of which the accompanying diagram shows a plan drawn to scale. Outside: painted maroon, highly varnished with Canada balsam: the panels picked out with dark blue. Inside: painted pure white, also varnished. Ceiling the same, divided into small narrow panels, with excellent ventilators at each end. Round the car there were twenty-two windows, not shown in the plan, and three brilliant lamps in the sitting-room and hall, and one in the bed-room; these were lighted when pa.s.sing through the tunnels. There were three hooks in the wall serving for hat pegs, and at the same time to support two flags for signals. A large map of the mountain pa.s.s from c.u.mberland to Wheeling hung over the sofa opposite the table. The table was covered with green baize stretched tightly over it. On the table were placed a large blotting-book, ink, and pens, three or four daily newspapers which were changed each day, the yearly report of the railway, a peculiar time-table book, containing rules for the guidance of the station men, times of freight and pa.s.senger trains meeting and pa.s.sing each other, &c. Papa has these. The sofas are covered with a pretty green Brussels carpet (small pattern) quilted like a mattress with green b.u.t.tons, chairs covered with corded wollen stuff, not a speck or spot of ink or s.m.u.t on anything. A neat carpet, not a speck or spot on it, a sheet of tin under and all round the stove. Pantry cupboard containing knives and forks, spoons, and mugs. Bed-room berths much higher and wider than in a s.h.i.+p. Red coloured cotton quilts, with a shawl pattern, two pillows to each bed, pillowcases of brilliant whiteness, sofa bed larger and longer than a German bed. White Venetian blinds occupied the places usually filled by the door panels and window shutters. Green Brussels carpet like the cover of the sofa; three chairs to match. The windows in the sitting-room had grey holland curtains running on wires with very neat little narrow strips of leather, and a black b.u.t.ton to fasten them, and a b.u.t.ton and well made b.u.t.ton-hole below to keep them from blowing about when the window is open. Looking-gla.s.s in neat gilt frame, hung over a semicircular console in the bed-room, another near the washhandstand, where a towel also hangs. Two drawers for clothes, &c. under berths.

Table-cloth for meals, light drab varnished cloth, imitating leather, very clean and pretty, china plates, and two metal plates in case of breakages. Luncheon consisted of excellent cold corned beef, tongue, bread and b.u.t.ter, Ba.s.s's ale, beer, whiskey, champagne, all Mr. Tyson's.

We supplied cold fowls, bread, and claret. The door at the end opens on a sort of platform or balcony, surrounded by a strong high iron railing, with the rails wide enough apart to admit a man to climb up between them into the car, which the workmen always do to speak to Mr. Tyson. Usual step entrance at the other end. The platform can hold three arm chairs easily, and we three sat there yesterday evening, talking and admiring the view. The door was always open and we were in and out constantly.

Thrower and Gaspar, a capital German man-servant, sat in the hall.

Carpet swept by Gaspar after dinner to remove crumbs. I wear neither bonnet nor shawl, but sit at the table and work, make mems., dry red leaves, and learn their names from Mr. Tyson. Papa is always moving about, and calling me out constantly to admire the view from the balcony. Yesterday on the lower ground it was much too hot in the middle of the day to be there, and we were glad to be within the car, and to shade the glare of the sun by means of our pretty grey curtains, though it was cooler on the mountain.

But I must begin to describe our road more methodically. As we wished to get over the early part of it as expeditiously as possible, we started by the mail train at 8.30. It will be impossible to describe at length all the pretty places we pa.s.sed, respecting each of which Mr. Tyson had always something to say. Soon after leaving the Was.h.i.+ngton junction, we came to a sweet spot called Ellicott's Mills, where he had spent his boyhood, and where every rock was familiar to him. The family of Ellicotts, who had resided there from the settlement of the country, were his mother's relations, and by his father's side he was descended from Lord Brooke, who was likewise one of the original settlers, the Warwick branch of the family having remained in England.

We first came in sight of the Blue Ridge at about forty miles from Baltimore. During the greater part of this distance we had been following up the Patapaco river; but soon after this, at the Point of Rocks, we came upon the Potomac. Here the Baltimore and Ohio ca.n.a.l, a work of prodigious magnitude, and the railway run side by side between the river and very high cliffs, though the s.p.a.ce apparently could afford room only for one of them. We reached Harper's Ferry a little after twelve, and the view is certainly splendid. Mr. Tyson had made arrangements to give the pa.s.sengers a little extra time for dinner, that he might take us to see the view from the heights above without materially detaining the train; but the sun was so powerful that we were glad to limit our walk in order to see a little in detail the bridge over which we had just pa.s.sed in the railway cars. It is a very wonderful work, but not so remarkable for its length as for its peculiar structure, the two ends of it being curved in opposite directions, a.s.suming the form of the letter S. It pa.s.ses not only over the river but over the ca.n.a.l, and before it reaches the western bank of the river it makes a fork, one road going straight on, and the other, which we went upon, forming the second bend of the S.

The curves in the railway are very sharp, and a speed of thirty-five miles an hour is kept up in going round those which have a radius of 600 feet. This, and repeatedly recurring ascents of a very steep grade, require engines which unite great power with precision in the movements, and these are admirably combined in Mr. Tyson's engines; which, moreover, have the advantage of entirely consuming their own smoke, and we had neither sparks nor cinders to contend with. The common rate of travelling, where the road is level, is forty miles an hour, and at this rate each engine will take eighteen cars with 2600 pa.s.sengers.

The difficulties they have to contend with on this road are greatly increased by the snow drifts in winter. Mr. Tyson told us that on one occasion the snow had acc.u.mulated in one night, by drifts, to fourteen feet in the cuts, and it required ten freight engines of 200-horse power each, or 2000-horse power altogether, to clear it away. Three hundred men were employed, and the wind being bitterly cold, hardly any escaped being frost-bitten. One of the tenders was completely crushed up by the force applied; and in the middle of the night, with the snow still driving, and in a piercing wind, they had to clear away the wreck: nineteen engines, called snow ploughs, are kept solely to clear away the snow.

At five o'clock we reached c.u.mberland, where we slept. After dinner we walked out in the most lovely night possible to see the town, and the moon being nearly full, we saw the valley as distinctly almost as by daylight. There is a great gap here in the mountain, which forms a prominent feature in the landscape, and a church on the summit of a high hill rendered the picture almost perfect. We here saw the comet for the last time.

Next morning, the 20th October, we started early, in order to be able to take the mountain pa.s.s more leisurely, attached ourselves at 6.15 to the express train, and reached Piedmont at 7.30. During this part of our journey we continued to follow up the Potomac, but here we left it to follow up the Savage river, and for seventeen miles continued to ascend to Altamont, where we attained the summit level of 2700 feet above the sea. We cast ourselves off from the express at Piedmont, and afterwards tacked ourselves on to a train which left Piedmont at eight o'clock, and got to Altamont at 9.45; these seventeen miles occupied an hour and three quarters, the grade for eleven miles out of the seventeen being 116 feet per mile.

It is almost impossible to describe the beauty of the scenery here. The road goes in a zig-zag the whole way. We pa.s.sed several substantial viaducts across the Savage river, often at a great height above the valley, and on many occasions, when the road made one of its rapid turns, a vista of many miles up the gorges was obtained.

Of course the greatest skill is required in driving the engine up what is called the "Mountain Division." We mounted on the locomotive, to have a more perfect view of the ascent. This locomotive is very different to an English one, as the place where the driver sits is enclosed on three sides with gla.s.s, so as to shelter him and those with him from the weather. Mr. Tyson thought it necessary to drive a small part of the way himself; but after that, he resigned his position, as will be seen by the following certificate, to one equally qualified for an emergency, though hitherto his peculiar talent in that line had not been developed.

"Baltimore and Ohio Railway, Machinery Department.

"Baltimore, Oct. 21st, 1858.

"This is to certify that Mr. A. T. has occupied the position of 'Locomotive Engineer,' on the _Mountain Division_ (3rd) of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.

"The term of his occupation has been characterised by a close attention to his duties, and consequent freedom from accidents.

(Signed) "HENRY TYSON, "Master of Machinery, "Baltimore and Ohio R. R. Co."

Papa, in fact, drove the engine a considerable way up the steepest part of the ascent, and as the driver must command an uninterrupted view of the road before him, he had a capital opportunity of seeing the country.

Thrower and I sat on a seat behind him; but he alone had the full view, as the chimney of the engine rather obstructed ours in front, though on each side we saw perfectly. The whistle of the engine, when so close to our ears, was splendid, or perhaps you would have said, terrific.

From Altamont to Cranberry Summit, where the descent begins, there is a comparatively level country, called the Glades, which are beautiful natural meadows undulating and well cultivated, with high ranges of mountains, generally at no great distance from the road, but varying a good deal in this respect, so as sometimes to leave a considerable plain between it and the range. From these glades numerous valleys diverge, and, in looking down these, splendid vistas are obtained. The verdure even now is very bright, and the streams, which are everywhere to be seen, are remarkably clear and pure; so that although the interest of the road was less absorbing than when we were ascending the mountains, it was still very great. From Cranberry Summit the distant views to the westward were quite magnificent.

We now entered on what is called the "Cheat River Region," and the descent to Grafton (a distance of thirty miles) is even more beautiful than the ascent to Altamont. To give you some slight idea of the nature of the road and of the scenery, I enclose a photograph of one of the bridges over the Cheat River. This is called the Tray Run Viaduct, and it is 640 feet long; the masonry is seventy-eight feet high, and the iron-work above that is eighty feet. The road here is about seven hundred feet above the river, which runs in the valley below. This river, the Cheat, is a dark, rapid, mountain stream, the waters of which are almost of a coffee-colour, owing, it is said, to its rising in forests of laurel and black spruce, with which the high lands here abound.

We pa.s.sed hereabouts many curious-looking log houses, a photograph of one of which we enclose.[7] You will observe the man with a cradle by his side, and his whip, gun, bottle, jar, &c., also the chimney, which is a remarkable structure, consisting of a barrel above a heap of stones, showing the resources of the West.

Before reaching Grafton, we pa.s.sed the Great Kingwood tunnel, which is much thought of in America, being 4100 feet in length, though it is greatly beat by many of our tunnels in England; but tunnels are rare in America, as the roads generally run through the valleys.

We reached Grafton at four o'clock, and had a lovely afternoon to explore the beauties of the neighbourhood. We went into a number of cottages and log-huts, and were delighted with the people; but the details of our Grafton visit must be given to you _viva voce_ on our return. The night was brilliant, and it was one o'clock in the morning before we took our last look of the moonlit valley, and of the rivers which here joined their streams almost under the windows of our rooms.

We may mention that in this day's journey, we pa.s.sed the source of the Monongahela, the chief branch of what afterwards becomes the Ohio. It is here a tiny little clear stream, winding through the glades we have spoken of.

On Thursday morning, though it was past one before we went to bed, I was up at six, as soon as it was light, to make a sketch from our bed-room window, which will give you hereafter some notion of the scene, though neither description nor drawing can convey any real idea of it. After breakfast, papa and I and Thrower went up a tolerably steep hill to the cottage of three old ladies, whose characters I had an opportunity of studying while papa went on with the guide to the Great National or State Turnpike Road, or "Pike Road" as they called it, which used to be the connecting link between Was.h.i.+ngton and Southern Virginia. Though much disused it is still well kept up. After going along it for some distance, papa struck up to the top of a high hill, from whence he had a magnificent view of the valleys on both sides of the ridge he was on, and he was surprised to find what large tracts of cultivated ground were visible, while to those below there seemed nothing but forest-covered mountains, but between these he could see extensive glades, where every patch was turned to account. This we afterwards saw from other parts of the road.

While papa was taking his hasty walk, Thrower and I sat down in the log-hut where these three old spinster sisters had lived all their lives. They were quite characters, and cultivated their land entirely with their own hands; though, when we asked their ages, two of them said they were "in fifty," and one "in sixty;" they were most intelligent and agreeable, and two looked very healthy; but the third had just had a severe illness, and looked very ill. One was sc.r.a.ping the Indian corn grains off the cob, using another cob to a.s.sist her in the work; we watched the beautifully-productive plant, and admired its growth. Their cottage or hut looked quite comfortable, and there were substantial log stables and farm-buildings adjoining. When the weather permitted, they got down the hill to Grafton to the Methodist meeting. There is no Episcopal church there yet, excepting a Roman Catholic one, to which they will not go, though they speak with thankfulness of the kindness they have received from the priest.

They said their father used to tell them to read their Bible, do their duty, and learn their way to heaven, and this they wished to do. They were honest, straightforward good women, and _ladies_ in their minds, though great curiosities to look at.

This walk, and our subsequent explorings in Grafton, occupied the whole forenoon, the temptation to pick the red leaves and shake the trees for hickory nuts being very great, and having greatly prolonged the time which our walk occupied. But the village itself, for it is no more, though, having a mayor, it calls itself a city, had great objects of interest, and is a curious instance of what a railway will do in America to _make_ a town; for it scarcely had any existence three years ago, and is now full of artificers and others employed in the railway works, all fully occupied, and earning excellent wages.

The people marry so early that the place was almost overflowing with children, who certainly bore evidence in their looks to the healthiness of the climate.

This being a slave state, there was a sprinkling of a black population; and among the slaves we were shocked by observing a little girl, with long red ringlets and a skin exquisitely fair, and yet of the proscribed race, which made the inst.i.tution appear more revolting in our eyes than anything we have yet seen. The cook at the hotel was a n.o.ble-looking black, tall and well-made, and so famous for his skill at omelettes, that we begged him to give us a lesson on the subject, which he willingly did. I asked him if he were a slave, and he replied, making me a low bow, "No, ma'am, I belong to myself." The little red-haired girl was a slave of the mistress of the hotel.