often molested with scurvy, said to have first crept into England with the Norman conquest. In the field they are powerful, successful against their enemies, impatient of any thing like slavery; vastly fond of great noises that fill the air, such as the firing of cannon, drums, and the ringing of bells; so that it is common for a number of them, that have got a glass in their heads, to go up in some belfry and ring the bells for hours together, for the sake of exercise. If they see a foreigner very well made or particularly handsome, they will say it is a pity he is not an ENGLISHMAN."

Le Serre, who attended Mary de Medicis to England, when she visited her daughter Henrietta Maria, the queen of Charles I., and who partook of all the hospitalities of the English court, (whatever he might think) speaks of us in the most enthusiastic terms. Our ladies he describes as positive divinities, and the country and inhabitants generally, as worthy the highest admiration. To be sure, he was writing the description of a most splendid spectacle, of which he was the witness, where the people were all dressed in their holiday clothes, and as the same kind of ceremony attended the queen's mother, all the way from her landing at Dover, he may be said to have only seen the best side of us.

Jorevin de Rochford, another French traveller in the time of Charles II., says "This nation is tolerably polite, in which they, in a great measure, resemble the French, whose modes and fashions they study and imitate. They are in general large, fair, pretty well made, and have good faces. They are good warriors on the land, but more particularly so on the sea: they are dexterous and courageous, proper to engage in a field of battle, where they are not afraid of blows. And the honour of understanding the art of ship-building beyond all the other nations of Europe, must be allowed to the English. Strangers in general are not liked in London, even the Irish and Scots, who are the subjects of the same king. They have a great respect for their women, whom they court with all imaginable civility. They always sit at the head of the table, and dispose

of what is placed on it by helping every one, entertaining the company with some pleasant conceit or agreeable story. In fine, they are respected as mistresses, whom every one is desirous of obeying, so that to speak with truth, England is the paradise of women, as Spain and Italy is their purgatory."

The above travellers, it will be recollected, are describing our forefathers, and drawing a picture which, in some respects, is as new to us as it was to them. The next is a traveller of comparatively modern days—a man of information, and apparently good nature. He speaks, as indeed almost all foreigners do, of the same extreme rudeness of the lower orders of English, but bestows every praise on the higher ranks, as well as on the country generally. The person we allude to is M. Grossly, who wrote his Tour in the year 1772.-Our custom of shaking hands, he describes very ludicrously :—“To take a man by the arm," says he, "and shake it until his shoulder is almost dislocated, is one of the grand testimonies of friendship which the English give each other, when they happen to meet. This they do very coolly; there is no expression of friendship in their countenances, yet the whole soul enters into the arm which gives the shake; and this supplies the place of the embraces and salutes of the French."

The following sketches of London were drawn by Mr. Karamsin, a Russian traveller, who visited England about the year 1798:

"I sent for a barber, and they brought me a thick phlegmatic Englishman, who, having first unmercifully flayed my face, plastered my head with flour and tallow. Alas, I am no longer in Paris,' I said to myself, with a sigh, 'where the powder-puff of the ingenious lively Rulet played like a gentle zephyr around my head, and strewed it with a resplendent white aromatic rime.' To my complaints that he was flaying me, that his pomatum stunk, and that his hair-powder was only coarse flour, the unpolished English barber sullenly answered, I don't understand you, Sir "

"I put on my Parisian frock, bethought me of dear France

with a sigh, and walked out in a very melancholy mood. But the cloud that darkened my soul soon vanished at the sight of the beautiful illumination, which presented itself to my wondering eyes. Though the sun was scarcely set, all the lamps in the streets were lighted up. There are thousands of them, and which ever way I turn I behold a fiery string, as it were, extended through the air; I had never before seen any thing similar to it, and I no longer wondered at the mistake of a German prince, who on making his entry into London, imagined that it was an illumination provided on purpose to welcome him with peculiar marks of honour. The English are fond of light, and they spend millions to supply, by artificial, the want of the solar rays—an indubitable proof of the national wealth.

"Whoever calls London noisy must either never have seen it, or must have no correct idea of what a noisy city is. London is populous it is true; but, compared with Paris, and even with Moscow, it is extraordinarily quiet. The inhabitants of London seem to be either half asleep, or overcome with lassitude from their excessive activity and exertion. If the rattling of the carriages did not, from time to time, shake the auditory nerve, a stranger might frequently suppose he had become deaf, while passing along some of the most populous and most frequented streets. I stepped into several coffee-houses, where I found from twenty to thirty persons reading the newspapers, and drinking their port; while the profoundest silence reigned in the room, except that perhaps every quarter of an hour, one hears a solitary Your health, Gentlemen! Can it then excite wonder, that the English are such deep thinkers, and that their parliamentary orators know not when to leave off, when once they have begun to speak? it would seem as if they were tired of, and willing to make amends for their usual taciturnity.

"But if my ears thus enjoy rest and quiet, my eyes are the more busily engaged. In London, too, the women are very handsome, and they dress with tasteful simplicity; they are all without either powder or paint, and wear hats, which seem to

have been invented by the Graces themselves; they seem rather to fly than to walk; their neat little feet, which peep out from under their snow-white muslin robe, scarcely touch the pavement. Over their white corset an Indian shawl is spread, on which their fair hair descends in charming ringlets: for to me, at least, it seems that the greater part of the English women have fair hair: the most beautiful of them, however, are brunettes. The physiognomies of the men may be arranged under three classes; they are either surly, good-natured, or brutish. I can safely swear, that in no other country have I seen so many brutish faces as here; and I am now convinced that Hogarth drew from nature.-Such physiognomies are, it is true, fonly to be met with among the populace; but then there is so much variety, so much characteristic expression in them, that ten Lavaters would scarcely be able to point out the bad qualities and propensities which they indicate."

Besides these, we have had Dr. WENDEBORN's view of England; a very flattering and well-tempered account of our manners, characters, and institutions, in the middle of the reign of George the third. Afterwards, M. Von ARCHENTOLTZ drew a picture of England: he praised the nation, and held it up as an example to others. But, during the last war, one PILLET, a Frenchman, published a most disgusting portrait of England, caricatured and libelled our women, and represented the men as universal and habitual drunkards.

The last severe strictures were those of a New Englandman, of which we gave the substance in a late number of this work. In every respect it is useful, as a means of improvement, and as a corrector of vanity, to read and study these notions of foreigners. Like English travellers in other countries, they make their own habits the standards of perfection: but their criticisms enable us to make comparisons, and rub off the rust of our own prejudices.

The veteran traveller, Dr. Niemeyer, will neither be found to play the critic or eulogist. He describes honestly what he saw, and, as a book of facts, his work merits respect and attention.

TRAVELS

IN

GERMANY, THE NETHERLANDS,

AND

ENGLAND.

An opportunity of furnishing this first Volume of my general Travels was afforded me by my Journey to England in the year 1819. The public anxiety evinced for the work, and the participation taken in my feelings, were alike pleasing and affecting to me. Still, the request made to me, that I would furnish the world with something to read upon this Country, gave rise to very serious reflection, and greatly encouraged my own inclinations; for it is far easier to expect, than it is possible to furnish, much matter, at least during the short stay I made in so remarkable a country; and the observations and reflections which strike every one, even during the shortest sojourn, are already known to most people.

However, as every person considers the objects with his own eyes, and as these objects may receive an appropriate character, even from the time in which they are contemplated, what is already known may be repeated, and even the contrast of the different views and ideas formed of them may afford an interest to their treatment. This individuality, as it were, of consideration, attended me in my contemplations, and I have endeavoured to lay the same before the public in a representation of all that I saw and heard in England. A simple description of the objects, a precise topography, and detailed narration of all that either was or was not remarkable, formed much less my plan, than the communication of those particular ideas and sentiments which the objects produced in me. Every man, without having stirred even from his own dwelling, may write and fill whole volumes with reflections, and may be enabled to complete a tenth work from the refuse of nine more ancient ones. But, by following this manner, it easily happens to the reader, like the young traveller in Italy, who, VOYAGES and TRAVELS No. XLIX. VOL. IX.

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