EDWIN STANTONFICKES - HIS BOOK _^^» ^¦Jr. 4, e&ication. I DEDICATE THIS AUTOBIOGRAPHY TO MY BELOVED WIFE, HELEN MASON WOOD, one of the kindest-hearted of women, and the solace and comfort of my old age. William Wood. CONTENTS. CHAPTER PAGE I. My Ancestry, . i II. Childhood, . .... . .16 III. Youth, 26 IV. Early Manhood, 46 V. First Visit to America, 52 VI. I Meet Harriet Kane, ... ... 59 VII. Marriage and Wedding Trip, 68 VIII. Glasgow Life, 86 IX. Liverpool Life, .... . -91 X. Life in Liverpool, 1836, to September, 1837 — Death of my Mother, 102 XL Life in Bootle, — 1837-40, . . . . . .111 XII. Life in Liverpool 118 XIII. On the Journey to Trieste, 1841 — London to Ostend, 130 XIV. From Ostend to Trieste, 142 XV. I Reach Trieste, 157 XVI. In Trieste, January, 1842, 163 XVII. Life in Trieste, 177 XVIII. Correspondence Between Myself, at Trieste, and my Wife at Liverpool, 195 XIX. Still at Trieste, 231 XX. Resignation, Mingled with some Slight Enjoyment of THE GAYETIES OF TRIESTE, ON THE PART OF W. W., . 249 XXI. Leaving Trieste I Reach Milan on my Homeward Jour ney and Part from Phipps, 267 XXII. From Milan to Marseilles, 282 XXIII. Letters from H. A. Wood in Liverpool to her Husband in Trieste, 290 XXIV. Letters Between Husband and Wife During his Jour ney Homeward, 304 VI CONTENTS. CHAPTER XXV. XXVI. XXVII. XXVIII. XXIX. XXX. XXXI. XXXII. End of the Journey Home — Charlotte Heyworth's Death — Mrs. Walter Wood's Death — Minutes Ex tracted from Books of J. & A. Dennistoun — The Meanest Recognition of Great Services, . . . 3r7 Last Happy Days in Liverpool, 327 Close of my Liverpool Life — Our Last Christmas in Everton, 344 Arrival in New York and Summer Stay in a Malarious Hotel at Glen Cove, L. I., 374 My Trip to Canada in the Year 1844 382 Voyage to New Orleans ; Closing the Year 1844, . 405 My First Journey to Natchez, 414 Second Trip to Natchez and Visit to Pelton's Plan tation, 439 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD CHAPTER I. MY ANCESTRY. January 7, 1889, a wet, gloomy day. Since the 5th inst. an easterly wind has been blowing more or less of a gale. It is dead ahead of the Barracouta, which sailed on that day for St. Croix and other West India islands, having on board a member of my household, my grandson, G. B. Watts, Jr. He is a young man of about twenty-two who has been overworked and overworried, and is taking the voyage for the restoration of his health. Willing to forget the uncheerful time in the absorption of pleasant work, I sit down at last to begin my long-contemplated autobiography for the benefit of my numerous descendants in this country and in England. I propose to cover, as well as I can from memory and various- memoranda and documents, the time intervening between my birth in Glasgow, Scotland, on October 21, 1808, and my resignation from the New York Board of Education on November 1, 1888. Summing up the years of my life, I find that I have spent twenty- three years in Scotland, twelve in England, and forty-five in the United States, nearly all of the last in the city of New York. I was born in Glasgow on October 21, 1808, in an apartment house at the corner of West George and Balmanno streets, the eldest son of John Wood, an importing merchant in Glasgow, and Elizabeth Dennistoun, his wife, who were married on June 15, 1807. The other children of this marriage were : Mary Finlay, born October 16, 1810. Anna Chalmers, born September 18, 1812. 2 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. James Dennistoun, born September 28, 1815. Elizabeth Grundy, born December 12, 1817. These were all born at Villafield, a villa on the north side of Glas gow, having at that time a fine view of the cathedral, but now, I suppose, shut out from it by the erection of new houses. Villa- field was given to my mother by her father, James Dennistoun of Golfhill, a wealthy banker in Glasgow. Following my paternal ancestry backward, my father was the eldest son of William Wood of Elie, Fifeshire, and Anne Chalmers, his wife. They had six children : Ann, born March 3, 1776 ; died unmarried. Mary, born July, 1777 ; married a Mr. John Pearson of Kendal. John, born August 7, 1779 ; married Elizabeth Dennistoun, who was born August 31, 1787. Helen, born June 16, 1781 ; died unmarried April 16, 1867. Patrick, born January 25, 1783 ; married first a Miss Patterson, and second ; died July 29, 1846. Walter, born November 22, 1785 ; married Mary Dennistoun, my mother's younger sister; died February 13, 1822. My grandfather, William Wood, born December 13, 1723, was the second son of John Wood, who was born March 24, 1692, and Anne Carstairs, to whom he was married in 172 1. It was said of him that he built his house in Earlsferry, married his wife, and had his first child all in one year. The children of this marriage were James, William (my grandfather), John, Margaret, Jean, and Ann. The three daughters died unmarried — Margaret and Jean, tall, handsome women, in middle life. The youngest, Ann, a delicate little lady, was the " old Auntie Ann " of my boyish days, who lived and died in my old house at Elie ; she was born in 1730, and heard the guns firing at the battle of Prestonpans in 1745 ; she died in 1826, aged ninety-six, and was in possession of all her faculties till her death. I remember her well, and when I used to go from St. Andrews College in the session of 1824-25 to spend a holiday at Elie, she would repeat for my benefit : " By what means shall a young man learn his way to purify ? " The last word she pronounced more Scotlice, as if spelled "purifee." My great-grandfather, John Wood, entered Drumeldrie School in 1705, in which were four bursaries for Woods or Woods' bairns MY ANCESTRY. 3 founded by that John Wood who also founded the hospital at Largo, according to Walter Wood's " East Neuk of Fife," second edition, p. vi. of preface. My great-grandfather was Baillie of Earlsferry 1722-25, and was also a shipmaster and shipowner, trading in his own vessel to the West Indies. His son John settled in St. Kitts, and must have had a large family, because there was a son named " Decimus." Decimus was sent home to Elie from the West Indies, but I don't know what became of him or any of that generation except Henry, who married the sister of Theodore Walrond of Glas gow, and lived in Great King Street, Edinburgh. Henry's eldest son was John Stewart Wood, a great swell. He had also three daughters : Anne, who married the Rev. Dr. Tristrem, and was stepmother to Canon Tristrem of Durham, England ; Mary, who married a son of Sir Charles Hastings, at one time Commander of the Forces in Scotland ; and Grace, who married a Mr. Mackenzie. Henry's second son, Alexander, was at the Edinburgh High School with Archibald Tait, afterward Archbishop of Canterbury, and won the first prize, being a gold medal. He afterward studied at St. Andrews, and after that went to Cambridge. In 1834 he was admitted advocate at the Scottish bar, and in 1850 was appointed Sheriff Substitute of Berwickshire, and died in December, 186 1 (see printed obituary in my Memorandum Book, p. 634). He was my second cousin. The father of my great-grandfather, John aforesaid, was named William, and he was born at Carmurie in 1656. He was engaged in the West India trade and was a shipmaster. He was twice married, first to Elspeth Smith in 1690, by whom he had John (my great-grandfather, born 1692), Katherine, born 1695, and Ann, born in 1707. He married his second wife, Janet Wilson, in Elie, and died after 1720. The father of my great-great-grandfather, William Wood afore said, was (according to the " East Neuk of Fife," p. v. of preface) Alexander Wood " Carmurie," descended of the house of Grange (that is, Woods of Grange). He married on April 23, 1650, Agnes, daughter of John Pearson, in Elie. Their children were : Agnes, born June, 1654, married the Rev. John Arthur, minister of Abercorn ; William, my great-great-grandfather, mentioned above ; Christian, born 1658 ; John, born 1661, who married in 1690 Elspeth Hender son, and had by her a son, James, born in 1693. The Woods of Grange, I have understood, were descended from the third and 4 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. youngest son of Admiral Sir Andrew Wood of Largo, but I have no authority for this but tradition in the family, and I recollect when I was a boy some of them used to call me the " young admiral." Anyway, I am the male representative of Alexander Wood ''in Carmurie " and of the family of Grange, because the male descend ants of James Wood, my grandfather's eldest brother, all died out. His son Alexander had a son James, born 1781, who died unmarried when traveling in Persia, 1806; John, born 1785, died unmarried 1813; and Mary, his heiress, born February 18, 1783, married her cousin Dr. James Wood in 181 1. But Dr. James Wood was of another family — the Woods of Warriston, and his father, Walter Wood, was British Consul at Elsinore, who, being wrecked off Elie, fell in love with Anna Wood, daughter of James Wood, my grandfather's elder brother, and married her in 1774. Their son was James Wood, M. D., father of the Rev. Walter Wood of Elie, and of Alexander Wood, M. D., of Edinburgh, inventor of hypodermic injections. Neither son left any descendants. The following romantic account of the mar riage of his grandfather, Walter Wood of Elsinore, to his grandmother,. Anna Wood of Elie, is contained in a letter to me from the Rev. Walter Wood dated Elie, January 15, 1861 : "Walter Wood, my grand father, was born in Edinburgh and settled as a merchant in Elsinore. In one of his trading voyages, 1770, the vessel was wrecked near Elie and he was received and kindly entertained in the house I am now inhabiting by its then proprietor, James Wood, merchant (eldest son of John Wood and Anne Carstairs, and brother of William, your pro genitor). At this time James had a son, Alexander, about fifteen years of age and a daughter, Anna, about fourteen. Walter fell in love with the young lady, but on account of her tender age did not reveal his secret passion. Four years after [1774] he returned, and, marrying her at the age of eighteen, carried her to Elsinore, where James [M. D., of Edinburgh] was born. In the meantime Alexander, the brother of this young lady, had married Ann Nairne, by whom he had a daughter, Mary, my mother, so that my father and mother were first cousins." So much for the Wood ancestry at present, and now for my Chalmers ancestors. Mrs. William Wood, my grandmother [ne'e Anne Chalmers], was the eldest daughter of Patrick Chalmers (who was the third son of Rev. James Chalmers, ordained minister of MY ANCESTRY. 5 Elie in 1701), and Anne Scrymgeour, his wife. Anne Scrymgeour was the daughter of James Scrymgeour of Bowhill in the west of Fife, who was out with the Old Pretender in 1715. It was probably his father who was banished to the Bass Rock for being a Cove nanter in Charles II. or James II. 's time, and was so long in exile that when he got out, and walked up the Bowhill avenue, he met his, children, and, asking them whose children they were, they replied ; " Me Leddy's," having entirely forgotten their father. Both father and son were descended from the Rev. John Scrymgeour of Bowhill, minister of Kinghorn, who was chaplain to James VI. of Scotland, and accompanied him when he went to Denmark to marry his very ugly wife, Anne of Denmark. The Rev. John Scrymgeour was sub sequently imprisoned in his own house of Bowhill by King James for his strong Presbyterianism, and is one of the " Scottish worthies " whose lives are narrated in McGavin's " Scottish Worthies." My great-great-grandfather, James Scrymgeour, besides his daugh ter, Mrs. Patrick Chalmers, had a son, Henry, who was one of the physicians of the Empress Catherine II. of Russia. He married a Russian lady, but after his wife's death returned to Scotland with his only son, who succeeded him as Laird of Bowhill, and became a captain in the British Royals, and married his own cousin Anne Abercromby. Her mother was sister to Agnes Merchiston, wife of the Rev. James Chalmers, minister of Elie in 1701, and my great-great- grandmother. Captain Scrymgeour was so extravagant that he had to sell both his estate of Bowhill and his commission. The mother of Dr. Henry Scrymgeour and Mrs. Patrick Chalmers was Anne Bal four, and the tradition in the family is that she was either the daugh ter or the niece of John Balfour of Burley or Burleigh, who was one of the slayers of Archbishop James Sharpe of St. Andrews on Magus Muir in Fife on May 3, 1679. John Balfour of Kinloch, or " Burley " or " Burleigh," as he was called, was brother-in-law to Hackstoun of Rathillet, who was present at the death of Archbishop Sharpe (see p. 297, " Old Mortality," of my edition of Waverley Novels). On September 29, 1859, Dr. James C. Adamson, formerly of the Cape of Good Hope, and son of Dr. Lawrence Adamson of Cupar, Fife (Collegiate minister of that parish), with Dr. Campbell, father of Lord Chancellor John Campbell, called on me to say that he was 6 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. about to return to the Cape of Good Hope with his wife and family. Dr. James C. Adamson's great-grandfather was the Rev. Mr. Kay, minister of Kilrenny, Fife, and his wife was a Miss Chalmers, daugh ter of my great-great-grandfather, minister of Elie in 1701. She (Mrs. Kay) had John Balfour of Burley's Bible, with silver clasps. The male representatives of John Balfour of Kinloch or " Burley " are the Wemyses of Wemyses Hall in Fife (see p. 477 of my memoranda). This looks as if the tradition in the family about my great-great-grandmother, Anne Balfour's, descent were correct. In my house at Elie is a pretty little quarto Bible, bound in red morocco, and known in our family as " Anne Balfour's Bible." It was printed at Cambridge, 1663, and the following names are written in this order : I. Auchinleck. J. Scrymgeour. H. Scrymgeour. J. Scrymegour. Anne Balfour. Jean Alexander. Anne Balfour. On the titlepage of the New Testament part of the above Bible, printed at Cambridge, 1666, by John Field, printer to the university cum privilegio, is written : James Scrymgeour Bowhill 1748 July 27 O. S. and 1768 Ellie. The Bible has in gilt letters outside " I " on one board and " A " on the other, probably for " I. Auchinleck." These Auchinlecks, my aunt Helen Wood says, were relations of ours and were highly connected. Besides the above Bible, there is another heirloom in my house at Elie which came to us through our Chalmers-Scrymgeour descent, and that is a curious old leather tankard mounted with silver, and with a silver shield in front with arms on it, — if I recollect rightly, a St. Andrew's cross, which is part of the armorial bearings of MY ANCESTRY. 7 Russia, — and which tankard was given to Dr. Henry Scrymgeour by the Empress Catherine II. of Russia. The bottom of it is slightly charred, owing to a servant having got it filled with ale when she came with a message according to old usage, and she, not knowing the tankard was leather, put it down on the hob of the kitchen fire place to warm the ale, and so burned the bottom of it. Returning from the foregoing discussion upon the genealogy of my great-grandmother, Mrs. Patrick Chalmers, I follow my great grandfather, Patrick Chalmers', ancestry. His next eldest brother was James Chalmers, a merchant in Anstruther, " who was suc ceeded in a prosperous business " (see Dr. Hanna's " Life of Dr. Chalmers ") by his second son, John Chalmers, who by his wife, Elizabeth Hall, was the father of the celebrated Thomas Chalmers, D. D., who was their sixth child and fourth son, born March 17, 1780. The eldest brother of Patrick Chalmers was John Chalmers, D. D., who succeeded his father as minister of Elie, and from that living was translated to Kilconquhar. He married Helen An struther, daughter of Sir Alexander Anstruther and the Hon. Helen Leslie, eldest daughter of Lord Newark. Her father was the second lord of that title, and son of David Leslie, the first lord, who commanded a troop of horse under the King of Sweden (Gustavus Adolphus). He was originally a Presbyterian and Covenanter, and commanded the Scottish Army at Dunbar against Cromwell. Leslie occupied a splendid position, and Cromwell's army would have been starved had he remained there, but a committee of Presbyterian ministers insisted on Leslie's descending and attacking Cromwell, which he did against his own better judgment. As soon as Crom well saw his movement he exclaimed : " The Lord has delivered them into our hands," and sure enough he gained the crowning victory of Dunbar, and conquered Scotland. David Leslie afterward joined Charles II., and was created by him Lord Newark on August 31,1661. He was succeeded in his title by his only son, David, who died in 1694 leaving no sons, and was suc ceeded by his eldest daughter as Baroness Newark, but upon investi gation by the proper authorities, it was found that the barony of Newark did not descend to heirs female, and so Lady Anstruther had to give up the peerage title of Lady Newark, and therefore her daugh ter had no right to the courtesy title of the Hon. Mrs. Chalmers. 8 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. The Rev. Walter Wood told me a curious story of one of the results of this marriage. Dr. Chalmers had one son, William, and several daughters ; one of these he was anxious should marry her cousin, the then Sir Alexander Anstruther, and they became engaged, and the marriage was all arranged. Dr. Chalmers, his daughter and family, went to Kilconquhar Kirk to meet the bridegroom, but, after waiting, he never put in an appearance, and Dr. John Chalmers, in great wrath and indignation, there and then " took instruments " against Sir Alexander, which are recorded in the Session Books of Kil conquhar Kirk. The lady thus jilted by her cousin (who turned out a scamp ; see " East Neuk of Fife ") marrried Mr. Walker of Fawfiel,d in Fife, and became the mother of Bethune Walker, lieutenant in the Royal Navy, whom I have often seen when a boy at Elie ; he was a great friend of my uncle Captain Wood, H. E. I. C. S. William Chalmers, Dr. John Chalmers' only son, married first Miss Bethune, an heiress, and took her najne of Bethune ; she had no children and died from her cap catching fire.' He married second Miss Morrison of Naughton, also an heiress. By this marriage he had one daughter, who died at the age of twenty of consumption, so that the second Mrs. Bethune, or Chalmers, or Morrison, became heir to Naughton, and she was alive in 1850, an old lady of ninety. At her death the above-named Bethune Walker, R. N., fell heir to the Naughton property. He married a Miss Wright, a daughter of the minister of Kingsburns in Fife ; they have, I believe, no family. I now return to the ascending scale of Chalmers. My great grandfather, Patrick Chalmers', father was the Rev. James Chal mers, ordained minister of Elie, Fife, in 1701 ; he was the son of John Chalmers, Laird of Pitmedden. In 1702 the Rev. James Chalmers married Agnes Merchiston, daughter of the Episcopal clergyman of Kirkpatrick-Juxta in Dumfriesshire, who was ejected from his living and his house " rabbled " at the Revolution of 1688. Agnes Merchiston had a sister married to a Mr. Aber- cromby. Dr. Hanna says of Mrs. James Chalmers : " What he [Rev. James Chalmers] wanted in energy was amply made up by the vigorous activity of his wife. He was undistinguished by any superiority of talent, but was distinguished by simple kindliness of disposition, which endeared him to his parishioners, and the remem brance of which lingered in the neighborhood for 150 years after his MY ANCESTRY. 9 death." Mrs. James Chalmers was brought up in the school of adversity, where she learned a lesson of most thrifty economy. The estate of Radernie was purchased by her savings out of a slender income, which had also to bear the burden of twelve children's edu cation. Her father was descended from a branch of the family of Merchiston of Merchiston, according to a copy of a memorandum of the family of Chalmers, the original written by Mr. John Chalmers of Anstruther, Fife, the father of Dr. Thomas Chalmers, the copy made and sent me by Mr. Hanna and pasted into my edition of the "East Neuk of Fife." In this genealogical sketch it is stated that the Rev. James Chalmers, minister of Elie in 1701, was the son of John Chalmers, who was rector of the Grammar School of Cupar, Fife, in the end of the seventeenth century, and that he was of a younger branch of the family of Chalmers of Gadgirth, Ayrshire. This John Chalmers (my great-great-great-grandfather) married a daughter of Balfour of Barton in Fifeshire. John Chalmers, the rector of the Grammar School at Cupar, owned lands in the neigh borhood of Auchtermuchty in Fife, and also Pitmedden in Perth shire, to which his eldest son, John, succeeded. The estates were subsequently sold by his son Robert. " In 1558 (see Burton's " History of Scotland " vol. iv. pp. 59-61) James Chalmer or Chalmers of Gadgirth, a zealous and bold man, at an interview with Mary of Guise, queen regent, said : ' Madame, that this is the malice and device of the jefwellis and of that bastard [meaning the Bishop of St. Andrews] that stands by you we avow to God. We shall make ane day of it. They oppress us and our tenants for the feeding of their idle bellies ; they trouble our preachers, and would murder them and us. Shall we suffer this any longer ? No, madame, it shall not be.' And therewith every man put on his steel bonnet. There was heard nothing of the queen's part but : ' My joys, my hearts, what ails you ? We mean no evil to you nor your preachers. The bishops shall do you no wrong.' " So much for our Chalmers line and my father's family. I now turn to my mother's forbears. James Dennistoun of Golfhill near Glasgow, and founder of the Glasgow Bank in 1809, the last private bank of issue established in Scotland, was born in the parish of Campsie, Stirlingshire, in January, 1758, and baptized January 23, 1759. He was the fifth child and second son of Alexander Den- IO AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. nistoun and Margaret Brown, daughter of Archibald Brown of Lennox Mill, Campsie. In 1752 there lived in the parish of Campsie my great-grandfather, Alexander Dennistoun, and his two brothers, William and James, both of whom had families, and the eldest sons of all three brothers were named William, so the probability is that my great-great-grandfather's ' name was William Dennistoun. My mother always told me that we were descended from a minister of Campsie, I think of the name of Walter Dennistoun. My great-grandmother Dennistoun (whom I once saw when a little boy at Campsie) used to say that her husband, Alexander Dennistoun, was descended from one of the sons of a widow who fled from Ireland to Scotland during one of the persecutions of the Protestants in Ireland, and it is quite likely that she and her husband may have fled from Scotland to Ireland during the persecution of the Presbyterians by Charles II. and James II., as many Scotch people did. My grandfather, James Dennistoun, came to Glasgow in 1776 with the intention of going out to Virginia to the tobacco house of Dennistoun & Co., but the American Revolution broke out and he decided to remain and begin business in Glasgow. He fell in love with my grandmother, "bonnie Mary Finlay of the Moss," and used to walk out some eighteen miles to court her on Saturday, and back again. Her father and mother were opposed to the match, and I believe it was a runaway one, and the old Finlays were not appeased until after my mother's birth, when they came in to Glasgow to see the beautiful baby they had been told of. An old Highland nurse, whom I recollect seeing at Villafield when I was a boy, took the baby and toasted her face before the fire before she took her, in her best bib and tucker, to see her grandparents, who were delighted with her. She (my mother, Elizabeth) was born August 31, 1787. Alexander (M. P. for Dumbartonshire 1836-37) was born April 14, 1790. Mary (married to my father's younger brother, Walter Wood) was born April 16, 1792. William, born January 8, 1795, died young, when at college. James, born February 4, 1799, married Margery Gordon of Milrig; he died 1828. Margaret, born December 8, 1800, died young and unmarried. John, born March 19, 1803, was M. P. for Glasgow in four Parliaments from 1837 till 1847. MY ANCESTRY. II To my grandfather Dennistoun and my uncles and aunts I shall return further on in this memoir, if I live. My grandmother, Mrs. James Dennistoun, was the eldest daughter of William Finlay, Laird of the Moss of Killearn, Stirlingshire, Scotland, and his wife, Eliza beth Duncan. He (William Finlay) was the eldest son of John Finlay of the Moss and Agnes Adam of Glenboig ; John Finlay was the son of Willam Finlay and Elspa McGoun ; William Finlay was the son of Thomas Finlay and Agnes Galbraith of Drumchapple, and Thomas was the son of a Walter Finlay from the " North Countrie." All this and a great deal more was made out and sent to us by Archibald Lawrie, now married to my cousin Constance Mary Dennistoun, widow of William Hamilton. He (Lawrie) is her second cousin and also mine. His letter to me is dated March 14, 1856, and is pasted in my H. A. W. book, p. 539. In it he mentions that the genealogy down to his time was made up by his great-grand father and mine, William Finlay of the Moss. Besides being father of my grandmother, Mrs. Dennistoun, William Finlay was father of a son, William, an eccentric old bachelor, who was very fond of my mother (his niece), but never forgave her because she told him one day he did not know how to drive when he had taken her out with him in a gig. One day at Golfhill at dinner my grandfather said to him jokingly : " Mr. Finlay, if you don't marry soon, I suppose you will make my second son, James, Laird of the Moss." This deter mined Mr. Finley late in life to marry, which he did, a very worthy woman whose name I forget. He made a list of eligible women and asked them all straight down and got refused, gave up in despair, and of all places in the world went to Dumbarton for sea bathing. There he told his plight to a lady with whom he was stay ing, and asked her if she knew of any eligible person to make him a wife. She answered that she had a cousin who might suit, and invited her to tea to meet him. The result was she became his wife, and bore him two sons and one daughter, Janet, whom I knew very well. The two sons died in India, and Janet became heiress of the Moss, and she married Dr. James Adair Lawrie, professor of materia medica in the University of Glasgow. He had been in India and had had great experience in cholera, and came and settled in Glas gow in 1832, the year that scourge first broke out there. His knowl edge of the disease at once made him known, and brought him into 12 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. great practice. He was the son of Dr. Lawrie, minister of Mauchline, I think, in Ayrshire. After spending a night at his house Burns wrote the following beautiful lines referring to the children, J. Adair Lawrie and his sisters : " Their hope, their stay, their darling youth, In manhood's dawning blush ; Bless him, thou God of love and truth, Up to a parent's wish ! The beauteous seraph sister-band, With earnest tears I pray, Thou knowest the snares on every hand, Guide Thou their steps alway ! When soon or late they reach that coast, O'er life's rough ocean driven, May they rejoice, no wand'rer lost, A family in heaven ! " Archibald Lawrie was the son of the professor and his wife, Janet Finlay, and, as already stated, he married my cousin. He is now a judge in Ceylon. William Finlay, my great-grandfather, was born in Queen Anne's time, and was very religious. He and his wife refused to pay blackmail to Rob Roy, who was their near neighbor, and on one occasion, when expecting a raid from him, buried all their silver plate in a churn in the garden of the Moss. When the weather was so rainy on a Sunday as to render it impossible for him self and family to go to Killearn Kirk, about 1% mile distant, he would say : " Come, lads, let's worship," and have religious exercises at home. All relations far and near seem to have been welcome at the Moss, and on Sunday night all the household would resort to the kitchen, in the middle of which stood an immense " kail pot " filled with peeled but smoking potatoes ; into this was poured milk and pieces of butter flung in ; then each of the party with a wooden beetle in succession took a hand at mashing the potatoes ; and I have heard my mother say that, as a little girl, she thought these mashed potatoes the best thing she ever tasted. In his old age my great-grandfather Finlay became blind, and his daughter Mary (my grandmother), having come home from an Edinburgh boarding school, got carpets put down in the dining room and parlor, and when the old gentleman entered and felt the carpets MY ANCESTRY. 1 3 with his feet, he exclaimed : " Claith, claith under oor feet ! We hae aneuch ado to cover oor backs wi' it." Mary had been taught, as all young ladies were 150 years ago, to sew on a sampler, and her brother William had been taught to play on the flute, of which my great-grandfather spoke as " Mary boring at a cloot, and Wullie routing on a rung a' day ! " An article in the Scottish- American Journal of May 23, 1878 (written by Rev. William Ferrie, tutor to the present Duke of Argyll and formerly minister of Anstruther, Fife), says: "The Finlays are by Mr. Ballantyne traced to a Farquharson. Burke, in his ' Visita tion of Seafe and Arms,' says : ' The family of Finlays left Inverness- shire about the year 1600 and settled in Dumbartonshire (really Stirlingshire near the border of Dumbartonshire), where they have for a long time possessed the estate of the Moss of Killearn.' This seems to tally with Mr. Ballantyne's view, but somehow I think they had a higher origin than ' the great founder ' of the house of Farquhar son." Walter Finlay, who came from the " North Countrie " accord ing to Archibald Lawrie, and who was my great-great-great-great- great-grandfather, bought the Moss from the parents of George Buchanan, the great Scottish historian and Latinist, tutor to Queen Mary, and also to her son, James VI. of Scotland and I. of England. George Buchanan was born in the old house of the Moss (subse quently turned into the barn, and from which so many joists were taken to make chairs, etc., in memory of George Buchanan that it was nearly ruined). As he was born in 1506, the probability is that the Finlays bought the Moss rather before than after 1550, and must have left Inverness-shire fifty years earlier than the date assigned by Ballantyne. It is a curious circumstance that Margaret Finlay, the daughter of Walter, first Laird of the Moss, married John Buchanan, grandfather of the late James Buchanan of Carston. From this marriage was born a son, who married the heiress of Auchintoshan, and from said mar riage descended the Cross family, so that William Cross, who mar ried my sister Anna, is also lineally descended from her great-great- great-great-great-grandfather, Walter Finlay. On August 3, 1880, my cousin Constance Mary Dennistoun, now Mrs. Archibald Lawrie of the Moss, writes to my sister Mary Ferguson : " The views from the gate of the Moss House and the 14 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. road near are most beautiful. We see all the Loch Lomond hills with Ben Lomond towering above them all, and from the hill behind the house you see all the Loch Katrine hills. The house itself lies low and has no view except, from the drawing-room window, a peep of the valley of the Blune. There are trees all round, except this one peep. The trees are very fine ones, and very pretty, and there is such a nice old garden with grass walks." In a very valuable book called "Memoirs and Portraits of One Hun dred Glasgow Men," given to me by my cousin Alexander Dennis toun of Golfhill on 21st April, 1886, vol. i. p. 81, there is given a sketch of the Finlays of the Moss, but more especially of. James Finlay and his second son, Kirkman Finlay, the former the uncle and the latter the cousin of my grandmother, Mrs. Dennistoun of Golfhill. This James Finlay was the fourth son of my great-great grandfather, John Finlay. He was born in 1727, went to the city of Glasgow and there established the well-known old firm of James Finlay & Co., still in existence. James Finlay is said to have been an energetic man of business and an enthusiastic Celt. Glasgow went wild over the American War, which struck at its great tobacco trade with Virginia. Though , James Finlay was not directly interested in the Virginia trade, he was strongly against the Ameri can rebels. On Monday, January 26, 1778, a procession was formed at the townhall, and marched through the town, to beat up recruits to form a regiment to fight the rebels which was known as the " Royal Glasgow Volunteers." The musical stimulus to the procession was supplied by two young gentlemen playing on fifes, two young gentlemen beating drums, and a gentleman playing on the bagpipes. This piper was James Finlay. He left two sons. Major John Finlay, Royal Engineers and F. R. S., was military secretary to the Duke of Richmond, Commander of the Forces. The son of Major Finlay, George Finlay, I have seen at Villafield when I was a boy. He was educated as a Scottish advocate, but, becoming greatly interested in the Greeks, he joined Lord Byron in Greece, and afterward settled in Athens, marrying a Greek wife, whom I saw at her mother-in-law's in Liverpool. He continued to live in Athens, and wrote a history of Greece, which I have in my possession. I have read it was highly praised by the Edinburgh Review, which said it would eventually be to Greece what Gibbon's work was to MY ANCESTRY. IS Rome. George Finlay died in Athens January 26, 1876, aged ninety- six. James Finlay's second son, Kirkman Finlay, succeeded His father in the business of James Finlay & Co. in 1792. He was a man of very great natural ability and very good-looking. I have seen him, but do not recollect where. His fellow-citizens made him commander of a crack corps of sharpshooters, governor of the Forth and Clyde Navigation Co., president of the Chamber of Commerce, Lord Provost, and Member of Parliament, and the University of Glasgow made him Dean of Faculties and Lord Rector. For a full account of his doings and dignities see " Memoirs and Portraits of One Hundred Glasgow Men," pp. 82-86. The Buchanans who sold the Moss to Walter Finlay circa 1550 retained what in Scottish legal phrase is called a " superiority " over it, that is, the Finlays had to pay the Buchanans three ducks every year ; but this claim of superiority was bought up about forty- five or fifty years ago by one of Mrs. James Adair Lawrie's brothers when he was Laird of the Moss. Strange to say, the money, which I think was ten guineas, was paid to my brother-in-law, William Cross, when he was acting as executor of the estate of his eldest brother, John Cross Buchanan, who had taken the name of Buchanan on succeeding to his mother's estate of Auchintoshan. CHAPTER II. CHILDHOOD. My father, as far as I have heard, was educated mainly at Mussel burgh School near Edinburgh, then a celebrated place of education. One of his fellow-scholars was Sir John Hope of Pinkie. When his education was finished, he entered the counting-house of that well- known philanthropist David Dale of Glasgow and the New Lanark Mills, who was a correspondent of James and William Wood of Elie, and a personal friend and visitor of William Wood, my grandfather. My grandmother adopted Mr. Dale's peculiar religious views, aban doned the Kirk of Scotland, and joined the Daleites. After my father left David Dale's office he became connected in business with Colquhoun of Killermont, either then or subsequently a Lord of Session. The business they carried on was that of an inkle factory, or factory for making tape, and the foreman was a nice old man, John Dixon by name, who was in the factory when I was at college, and taught me how to use a turning lathe, and set one up for me in my room at Kensington Place. Whether my father continued his interest in the factory after he married my mother and became a partner of the house of James and Alexander Dennistoun I know not. My father was introduced to my mother by his second cousin Frederick Adamson, son of Dr. Adamson, professor of civil history in the University of St. Andrews, through whose influence Dr. Thomas Chalmers obtained his first living of Kilmany. Frederick Adamson was a great wit and a good-looking little man, and was himself an admirer of my mother, but my father was very handsome and six feet high, and soon cut him out. My father and mother were married, as already mentioned, on the 15th of June, 1807, and I was born October 21, 1808. My much loved and beautiful mother used to tell me that when, after my birth, she told the nurse to bring the baby to her that she might see CHILDHOOD. 17 her firstborn, she no sooner caught sight of me than she called out : " What an ugly child ! Take him away ; he is exactly like Dr. Por- teus " — the then leading minister, a very ugly man. My first recollection is of being with my father and mother and my sister Mary, then a baby in arms, at the house of Mr. Walter Fergus of Kirkcaldy on the way to or from Elie. I suppose I was about 2^ years old, and yelled and screamed all night, probably from being in a strange house. My nurse wore a calico gown, the pattern of which I think I could pick out yet. My next remi niscence is being set to fight with another little boy, when I could not have been above 3^, by my uncle Walter, in the wynd in front of the old house at Elie. I think I was still in petticoats and that / got a bloody nose. I was early taught to read, and my mother took great pains to make me spell correctly. I soon began to learn hymns, psalms according to the Scottish metrical version, and then chapters in the Bible. The first school I went to was that of Mr. William Angus, held in a building in Ingram Street, Glasgow, being a sort of annex to the Gaelic Chapel, which was at the corner of Ingram and Queen streets, on the north side of the former and opposite McNair's sugar refinery. Across Queen Street was the handsome mansion of the Sterlings, afterward converted into the Royal Bank of Scotland, and subse quently into the Royal Exchange, which I believe it continues to be. Mr. Angus was a fat little man, rather good-humored, wore a blue coat, brass buttons, and drab knee-breeches. He had an assistant named Gartley, tall and gaunt, dressed in a black suit with knee- breeches and black wig. He was " a terror to evil doers," but I don't recollect that he was " a praise to them that did well." He cuffed and scolded both boys and girls, for the school was a mixed one of both sexes. There was a second assistant, a younger man, of the name of Munsie. At this very school, ten years before my time, my illustrious countryman Sir William Hamilton was a pupil. It had for many years been the fashionable day school of the city of Glasgow. At the mature age (!) of nine I was taken from this English school and sent to the Grammar School, founded by King David II. of Scotland, who also built the Cathedral of Glasgow, and was called by his successor, James VI. of Scotland and I. of England, a " sair 1 8 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. saunt to the croon " because he had alienated so much crown land to religious and educational purposes. He reigned from i329 till 137 1, and when I was at it, the Grammar School had been founded about 450 years. I entered the Grammar School on October 10, 1817. Here we were taught nothing but Latin, except that on Fridays we had to repeat some verses from the Bible. The school was opened at 9 a. m. by the master reading the Bible, and, I think, offering a prayer. He wore a black gown like a minister, and always held in his right hand a bundle of rattans, some thing like a Roman lictor's rods ; with these he smote us over the legs, and mine used to be striped like a zebra. For more serious offenses we held out our hands and were whipped with a pair of taws. The taws consisted of a broad leather cut into nine thongs about nine inches long. When still severer punishment was merited, the culprit had to put the back of his hand on a stool, and then the taws stung him on the palm and the stool simultaneously bruised the back of his hand. There were about 120 boys in the class, and these continued with the same master for four years. My master's name was David Donie. We began with Dr. Ruddiman's Rudiments of Latin Grammar, all in Latin, and for a long time I thought the word " rudiments " was derived from Ruddiman. I think after the first year a more rational plan was pursued, and we got Valpy's Latin Grammar with the explanatory parts in English. As well as I recollect, our first Latin book was " Corderius " or Cordery's Colloquies — short conversations in Latin, then Cornelius Nepos, then the first books of Caesar's Gallic War, then the first four books of Virgil's ^Eneid, with some of the Eclogues and Georgics, and some of Ovid. I don't think that during the four years we attempted Horace. We read Sallust's Catiline, but I don't think we attempted Cicero. I have an idea that we did something in Moore's Greek Grammar. Neither writing nor arithmetic was taught at the Grammar School, and we had to run between noon and 1 p. m. to Sanderson's writing school or to Rennie's to learn to write and acquire a knowledge of arithmetic. I went first to Sanderson, who was an Englishman and rather gentlemanly, but my mother was not satisfied with his teaching, and she sent me to Rennie, who was a good teacher, a Scotsman, CHILDHOOD. 19 and a savage, underbred fellow. Both when I was at Angus' school and at the Grammar School we always passed the time of the summer vacations with my grandmother Wood and my aunts at Elie in an old house there. The schoolmaster of Elie parish was Robert Kilgour, a really skilled teacher ; he was also parish precentor or clerk in the parish church. He was well read in pedagogy, and during my own vacations I was sent to his parish school, where were about one hundred boys and girls, sons and daughters of neighboring farmers, fishermen, and villagers. Mr. Kilgour taught all these and taught them well, from A B C up to the first and second books of Caesar, two first books of the^neid, first six books of Euclid, with trigonome try, surveying, and navigation. I don't mean to say he taught all the boys and girls these studies, but they were all taught by Mr. Kilgour to those who wanted them, so that from the Elie and other parish schools boys could enter into the universities. The Scottish parish schools were the great affluents of the universities. How one man like Mr. Kilgour could teach such a school puzzles me to this day. The scholars paid a small fee, and the schoolmaster was provided with a dwelling house and schoolhouse by the parish, that is, by the landowners of the parish. Mr. Kilgour was very kind to me, and we took country walks together, and " With rod and line we sued the sport Which that sweet season gave, A pair of friends, though I was young And Robert [not Matthew] forty-two," not seventy-two, like Wordsworth's schoolmaster. In the Scottish schools on Candlemas Day, February 2, it was the custom to make what was called a " Candlemas offering" to the master. In the Glasgow Grammar School this ran from five shillings to one pound, and we boys believed the more we gave the less likely we were to be thrashed. At Elie in my father's and uncles' time every boy brought a fighting cock, and there was a regular cockfight, and the dead ones belonged to the schoolmaster. I recollect that one summer I had as a chum at Kilgour's school William Rollo, the Master of Rollo, eldest son of Lord Rollo, who 20 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. was passing the summer at Elie. This proves that others besides my father and mother thought well of the Elie parish school. The last summer we went to Elie as a family was that of 1820. Owing to the death and misconduct of a partner in our Charleston house of Buchanan, Wood & Co. my father had to go to America. The firm had lost a great deal of money, and my father who, some years before, had thought of retiring from business, and buying an estate in Fifeshire, found himself comparatively poor. He wrote, Glasgow, August 17, 1820, as follows : " Mr. Patrick Wood and Mr. Walter Wood: " My Dear Brothers : On the eve of my departure for America I beg to address to you a few lines regarding my affairs and family. " In consequence of the very disastrous state in which my business matters are, and with which you are fully acquainted, I have been prevented from making a regular will and testament, and mean that this letter should serve as a substitute should I, almost contrary to my hopes, die possessed of anything. I have to beg that you will act as my executors in conjunction with my wife, and take the entire charge of said property, of which I should wish my wife to get the interest of one-half the amount during her life, and the interest of the other half should go to the maintenance of our children in equal proportions, they becoming entitled to their share of the principal upon their attaining the age of twenty-one, and the other half of the property, upon their mother's death, I have to request may also be equally divided among the survivors. The old house in Elie I wish my sisters to enjoy the life rent of, and thereafter to go to my son William. If his mother and sisters would like to live in it, I wish them also to get their life rent of it, without paying any interest or rent. It is my anxious wish that my children should be very thoroughly educated, and I have to entreat that you will assist their mother in the attainment of this most important object ; and my hope is that, in the event of my dying abroad, you will act toward them as parents, and that they will respect and love you as if you were really such. In the event of my brother Patrick actually going abroad, this charge will wholly devolve on my brother Walter, and who in that case I hereby authorize and invest with full power to act as my sole executor, and who I trust will take this CHILDHOOD. 21 office upon him, in which case I feel perfectly assured that every justice will be done to my wife and family. I remain, my dear brothers, " Yours, sincerely affectionate, " John Wood." My father sailed for New York in the packet ship Albion, some time in September, 1820. The Albion was wrecked next year on the south coast of Ireland, I think, on her voyage from New York to Liverpool. When my father sailed for New York, we children were left at Elie with my aunts, and I suppose my mother must have gone with him to see him off. Anyhow, we were taken home to Glasgow by our nurse, Peggy Wishart. I presume that we went to Leith by the Elie packet, and from thence to Grangemouth, where we took the Forth and Clyde canal boat to Glasgow. It was on this boat that I first felt my father's loss of money, for Peggy, to save money, kept us all in the steerage part of the boat, at which my pride was greatly offended, and I recollect that I sat and sulked, and kept as near as I possibly could to the cabin passengers' part of the deck. I was then not quite twelve, and was dressed in sailor's jacket and trousers of dark blue. My first recollection of going to Elie was that we went from Glasgow to Newhaven or Leith, and crossed in an open pinnace, a boat with two masts, two fore-and-aft sails, and a jib. As the Firth of Forth was usually stormy, it was a very uncomfortable voyage. When we reached Kinghorn or Kirkcaldy, I fancy we posted to Elie, changing horses at the Windygates ; there were no stagecoaches in that part of Fife for years after that. When the family grew larger, and we had become too many for a post chaise, we went by Forth and Clyde canal boat to Grangemouth, thence by steam to Leith, where we spent the night at an inn on the pien and embarked the next morning in the Elie packet (one packet was called the Mary Laing Mason, I recollect). These packets were sloops of about seventy or eighty tons burden, and the voyage might last from three to twenty-four hours. Although the distance was but twenty-three miles, or thereabouts, I was always deadly sick. There was a very pleasant society at Elie of retired officers of the 22 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. army and navy, old East and West Indians, ministers, etc., etc. One of the navy men was Admiral Duddingston, who was, as nearly as I can make out, my father's second or third cousin, as was, of course, his brother, Major Duddingston. They were sons of Duddingston of St. Fort, one of the oldest families in Fife. Their father was very proud. The story is told that when he lost his money, and had to sell his estate to his neighbor, Sir John An struther, he was sitting with his hands up to his head, and his elbows on his knees, mourning over his misfortunes, when one of his ten ants came to condole with him. Duddingston was so enraged by his presumption in daring to condole with the Laird of St. Fort that he took the live coals out of the fire and threw them at his tenant. When I was a boy of seven or eight, I was taken to see Admiral Duddingston at his house in Earlsferry. He was sitting leaning on his staff, and looking at the fire — a bent old man with inflamed eyes, and little did I then think that in the distant future I should come to know about his early adventure in America. When he was Lieuten ant William Duddingston, commander of the Gaspee, he was sent by the British Government, in 1772, to watch off Newport, R. I., and prevent if possible the operations of the American smugglers. One of the principal of these was the patriotic John Hancock, the signer of the Declaration of Independence with the most beautiful signa ture of any of those appended to that celebrated document. On June 9, 1772, in the evening, the Providence packet came sailing down to Newport and did not lower her flag to his Majesty's vessel Gaspee. Her commander fired, but it produced no effect. He then fired a shot, but still the packet sailed on, taking care to sail over a shallow, where she knew if the Gaspee followed .her she would get aground, which she did. The same night sixty-four armed men went down from Providence in boats, captured the people on board the Gaspee, and burned her, wounding Lieu tenant Duddingston, who was, however, carried ashore and kindly nursed. A large reward was offered for the discovery of the per petrators (who were well known in Providence), but they were not betrayed. The British Government offered in addition to the sum offered by the colonial authorities five thousand dollars for the apprehension of the leader, with the promise of a pardon if the informer should be an accomplice, but none was betrayed. The CHILDHOOD. 23 leader was Abraham Whipple, afterward a commodore in the Ameri can Navy. A ballad was written at the time containing fifty-eight lines of doggerel verse, of which the following are the concluding lines : " Now, for to find these people out, King George has offered very stout One thousand pounds to find out one That wounded William Duddingston. One thousand more, he says, he'll spare For those who say the sheriffs were [?] ; One thousand more there doth remain For to find out the leader's name ; Likewise five hundred pounds per man For any one of all the clan. But let him try his utmost skill I'm apt to think he never will Find out any of those hearts of gold, Though he should offer fiftyfold." This first hostile shot was fired by the Gaspee about a year and a half before the Boston " Tea Party," which took place in December, 1773. These details about the Gaspee and Admiral Duddingston are taken from Harpers' " Cyclopedia of United States History," by Benson J. Lossing. As a little boy I recollect his sisters, Miss Duddingston and Miss Clara, the latter at seventy dressed like a girl, and painted both red and white, and I have been told that I asked her : " Miss Clara, why do you put flour on your face ?" Another sister married Mr. Bar clay, minister of the parish of Kettle in Fife, whose son was Captain Barclay, R. N., who fought on Lake Erie in the War of 1812, was captured, and in the fight had his arm shot off. He was a great friend of my uncle Captain Wood, and I have seen him swimming off Elie Harbor with his one arm. As well as I can make out, Captain Barclay, R. N., was my third cousin (see H. A. W., p. 468). It was he who wrote to the lady he was engaged to that, having lost an arm, he would, if she wished it, free her from her engagement, and she replied that she would marry him so long as he had body enough left to hold his soul. Captain Barclay, R. N., was a nephew of Admiral Duddingston. I never met his conqueror, Captain Oliver Perry, but I have more than once met Perry's brother, Commodore 24 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. M. C. Perry, at the house of my sister-in-law, Mrs. De Peyster, at dinner. Commodore Perry's daughter, Jane, married Mrs. De Peyster's son, John Hone. These Barclays were connected with the celebrated Quaker Barclay of Ury. I return to my own boyish days after my father's departure for Charleston, S. C. While I still attended the Grammar School, my mother tried the effect of private tuition in addition. One of my tutors was a Mr. McGregor, connected with Dr. Chalmers' Parish of St. John's School ; he was a sickly looking man, and that was all I recollect about him. Another and far better was a Mr. Phillips, a stalwart Irishman of full six feet height. He had a private school in Cochrane Street, Glasgow, and over the entrance had this inscription from Virgil : " Tros, Tyriusve, mihi nullo discrimine agetur." He had the reputation of being very severe, and I was monstrously frightened at his advent, but in some preliminary talk with him I found out that he had an only son to whom he was very much attached. " Ah, ha ! " thought I, " there's my chance to get on his kindly side." So I fetched from my room some French candies, then a great rarity in Scotland, and which had been given me by Mrs. Dennistoun, my grandfather's second wife, and gave him a large portion of them for his son. It worked like a charm, and we were always the best of friends afterward. He was a good Latin scholar, and got me inter ested in that weary language by bringing me to read to him a fat little duodecimo volume, printed at Amsterdam about 1650, and called " The Colloquies of Erasmus." As many of the stories in it were directed against the Roman Catholic priests, I fancy Mr. Phillips must have been an Irish Orangeman. He told my mother that " Mr. William " would never be very much of a linguist, but would do credit to himself in mathematics and ethics. I have some sort of an idea that about this time (summer of 182 1) I began French with M. Harmand, who was French Consul in Glas gow, and a royalist emigre'. It may have been later, but I know I did not make much progress with him, nor with M. Brard, a Bona- partist ex-captain, whose classes I subsequently attended. Some time in or about August, 182 1, my father returned from America in the ship Friends to Greenock. A fellow-passenger was a Mr. Ronalds, who came and stayed at Villafield, and we thought that CHILDHOOD. 25 he would never go away. My father died in September, 1821. I shall never forget how forlorn I felt when walking as chief mourner at my father's funeral, with white weepers on my coat sleeves at the wrists and a high hat with an immense pendant of crape behind it. Soon after my father's death my mother let Villafield to Mr. John Young, who subsequently purchased it, and she took a house in Kensington Place, on the northwest of Glasgow, where we lived for two or three years. Dr. Chalmers and his family lived in Windsor Place close to us, and my uncle Walter and his wife in Kensington Place within three doors of us. At the time of my father's death I must have been about twelve years and ten months old. CHAPTER III. YOUTH. I entered the Latin and Greek classes in the University of Glas gow on October 10, 1821, just eleven days before I was thirteen. The professor of humanity, as it was called, or Latin, was Josiah Walker, the author of a Life of Burns, and the professor of Greek was Mr. Daniel K. Sandford, then a young man fresh from Balliol College, Oxford, a son of Dr. Sandford, Scottish Episcopal Bishop of Edinburgh. The professor eventually became Sir Daniel K. Sandford, and M. P. for Paisley under the Reform Bill of 1832. He was quite a fine gentleman, and attended all the balls and assemblies, and married a Miss Hamilton, the daughter of a Glasgow gentleman who was nicknamed " Earl Tim," why or wherefore I don't recollect. Professor Sandford read Greek splendidly. I think it was in 1821-22 that I wrote out the " Paradigma Verborum in il," which I still have, and which missed the prize by my stupidly putting a period instead of a comma after the nominative case of the participles. I had to reach the Greek class in the old college building at 7.30 a. m. after walking from Kensington Place on the then extreme west of Glasgow to the High Street near the extreme east, and, of course, in the dark, for in winter it was hardly light before 8.30 a. m. From the Greek class I went to the Latin class at 8.30 and till 9.30 a. m., and then to breakfast, which I got at the house of a Miss Jeannie Barr, an old lady who lived in the High Street near the Cross, and I think on the third story. She gave me and a fellow-student capital breakfasts, to which we did most ample justice. After breakfast we returned to college and had another hour at Greek and another at Latin. All the conversation in both classes was carried on in Latin, and the punishments consisted in fines instead of thrashings, from which we were emancipated when we left the Grammar School. The roll was called every morning in each class, and I suppose I must have been occasionally late, for all I recollect of the result is among 26 YOUTH. 27 those late : " Non respondentes in classe Grceca horce matutince, Gulielmus Wood," and the order of Professor Sandford : " Notes eum assem sterlingensem." I fancy that my mother did not leave Villafield until the May following my father's death, because I recollect that she sent for the Rev. Edward Irving ("Orator Irving," Carlyle's friend) to reason with me on the impropriety of reading Scott's novels under the desk in college. They were then coming out, and devoured by everyone. I was told to go up to the drawing room at Villafield, and there I found Irving standing before the fire, a man 6% feet high, with long curly black hair falling on his shoulders, with a ferocious squint, and dressed in clerical black with knee-breeches. I entered with some fear, and as I came in he said : " Well, William, they tell me that thou readest novels in college." Now, thought I, I'm going to catch it ; but imagine my surprise when he said : " Read everything thou canst lay thy hand on ; " and then, taking me by the shoulders, he lifted me clear over his head and set me down on his other side. As I did not think " small beer " of myself, like most boys of thirteen, I felt very much insulted, and would have liked to knock him down, but, looking at the giant, I saw there was nothing for me but, like Ancient Pistol, to " eat my leek and swear." Edward Irving was then assistant to Dr. Chalmers, and very intimate with my uncle and aunt Walter Wood, and also a visitor at my mother's house. I ought to have mentioned that, during my father's absence in America in 1821, my uncle Captain Patrick Wood, having got a large grant of land from the British Government in Van Diemen 's Land (now called Tasmania), went out there, taking out shepherds, plowmen, agricultural implements, and our old nurse, Peggy Wish- art, as housekeeper. She was from Largo in Fife, and had been long in the service of my father and mother, and was in every way trust worthy. She was a member of their church, the " Old Independ ents " or " David Daleites." One evening I heard in the drawing room the story of how a minister in Fife, when Paul Jones was sailing up the Firth of Forth, to attack Edinburgh, on the very day of my father's birth in 1779, had prayed that he (Paul Jones) "might just be shaken owre the mooth o' hell, but no drapped into it." Next day for some offense I was caught up under Peggy's arm, to be taken to my mother for punishment, when I called out : " Oh ! 28 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. Peggy, I wish you were shaken owre the mooth o' hell, but no drapped into it." When taken to my mother, I was not only punished for the original offense, but for the added imprecation, which I considered extremely unjust, because I thought it quite neat and appropriate, and I had heard them all laughing at it in the drawing room the evening before. When I was quite a child, my father and mother had been off on some jaunt, and when they returned, my mother asked me how I had been behaving, to which I replied : " Oo, I've just been doited wi' guidness ! " When I must have been about six or seven years old, my father, coming to Elie from Edinburgh, brought with him a new novel called " Waverley," which he read aloud in the Elie drawing room, I sitting and listening with interest to all that was told about " Prince Charlie." Strange to say, there was in the house and prob ably in the room among the other listeners, old Auntie Ann Wood, who, when a girl of fifteen, had heard the guns firing at the battle of Prestonpans. From the window of the room could be seen Edin burgh, twenty-three miles distant across the Firth of Forth, and at least the position of Prestonpans. Right opposite, and seven or eight miles across the Firth of Forth, was Tantallon Castle, the ancient hold of the Douglases, and also in sight the Bass Rock, where so many Covenanters were confined in the persecuting times of Charles II. and his brother, James II. Many persons born in these reigns, " Auntie Ann " must have seen. In those days, say 1 8 14-19, we often on Sundays walked to the Old Independent meetinghouse at Balchristie. The road lay along beautiful Largo Bay, and I recollect that between sermons there was a sort of " love feast " of bread and cheese and porter, which as a boy I thought by far the most interesting part of the services. I believe this meetinghouse was established by David Dale and Ebenezer Erskine, but I am not quite sure. My father used to read the Bible in it, and David Wishart, Peggy's father, used to preach wearing a wig and clad in a long light-blue coat with silver buttons the size of half a dollar, corduroy knee-breeches and fur stockings, and shoes with big silver buckles. I think the meeting house was sold about the time of my father's death, and for years after ward there was a sum of about twenty-eight pounds at credit of an YOUTH. 29 account called "Balchristie Meetinghouse," which everyone but myself had forgotten all about. Ultimately I said the money belonged to the Balchristie church members, who had migrated to a little conventicle between Elie and Earlsferry, hired from a woman named Bell Jack, and so the church was called "Bell Jack's Meetinghouse," and the money was handed to that congregation, I think, in my aunt Helen's lifetime. There was a fine view of the Firth of Forth and the Bass Rock from Bell Jack's Meetinghouse, and well do I recollect on fine Sundays in summer listening to my handsome father reading the Bible, followed up by long prayers and a sermon from the aforesaid old David Wishart. What edification my gentlemanly father and my beautiful and somewhat sarcastic mother could get from the good old illiterate weaver's discourses I am at a loss to imagine. My grand mother Wood was the first of the family who left the Kirk of Scot land and went over to the Old Independents or Daleites, but her husband remained an elder of the Established Kirk till the day of his death. In Glasgow we sat in the Old Independent meetinghouse in the old Grammar School wynd. It was called the " Cannle Kirk " because built by a Mr. Patterson, who was a candlemaker, and who had a son, called Archie Patterson, who was a colonel in the militia. The preachers in the " Cannle Kirk " were Robert Gray, the leading jeweler in Glasgow, Mr. Peterkin, an official of the Royal Bank, and Mr. Corbet, in the cotton-spinning business. They preached in rotation. About every six months after the Circuit Court had been held, and when there were usually two or three men sentenced to death, two town's officers would enter in the middle of the sermon and cry out : "The prayers of this congregation are requested for [say] Donald McKay and Sandy Campbell, now lying under sentence of death in the Tolbooth." This is a long digression, and if I ever live to get through with this autobiography, the foregoing facts must be inserted in their proper sequence. During my first session at college (1821-22) I became acquainted and very intimate with George John and Wallace Duncan, the two sons of Dr. Henry Duncan of Ruthwell, Dumfriesshire, who was the in ventor of savings banks, the author of several books, and part proprietor of and writer in the Dumfries and Galloway Courier. Another of my 30 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. friends and of the Duncan lads was Charles Morehead, the son of an Episcopal minister in Edinburgh, who was a colleague of the Rev. Mr. Alison, who wrote the " Essay upon Taste," and was the father of Sir Archibald Alison, Sheriff of Lanarkshire, and author of a " History of Europe from the French Revolution " and other works. These three lads, the two Duncans and Morehead, were often guests at my mother's house at Kensington Place, and very intimate chums of mine. My mother was extremely kind to us all, and my sisters' governess, Miss Euphemia Mutter, added to a very pleasant, hilarious little society. The summer following the college session of 1821-22, my mother, instead of going to Elie as heretofore, took a furnished cottage by the seaside in Rothesay Bay, Isle of Bute, where we had bathing, jaunts over the island, and sea fishing in Rothesay Bay. One day I noticed an advertisement in the Glasgow Herald stating that a steamer was to leave Glasgow, for the first time, for Staffa and Iona. I urged my mother to let me join her, as she was to touch at Rothesay on the way. She said if I could go and return for a guinea she would allow me to do so. On the day the steamer touched I was on the quay with my guinea in my pocket ; she lay outside of another steamer, and, standing with one foot on the paddle box of each steamer, I made my bargain with the captain of the Staffa boat, and got into her with the clothes in which I stood, and not a stitch else, — no combs and no brushes, — and I was to be away for a week ! We sailed through the Kyles of Bute, and after ward through the Crinan Canal, where I recollect a drunken lieu tenant of the navy, Blair by name, tried to push the vessel along by standing on the deck and pushing with all his might against the paddle box. When we got to Staffa, it was blowing fresh, but I got ashore and visited Fingal's Cave. When we got on board again, it blew still fresher, with a heavy sea. I lay down on the bunk in the cabin, very sick and miserable, with my boots on, and an English clergyman who was on board took pity on my wretched plight, pulled off my boots, and did his best to make me comfortable. This clergyman was the Rev. Edward Maltby, made Bishop of Durham in 1836, resigned in 1856, and died in 1859 aged ninety. After Staffa we visited Iona, where I was very much interested in the ruins and tombs. No one in the island could speak English but the YOUTH. 31 schoolmaster, and the only reply which you got if you addressed any of the people was : " Ha nil Sassenach " — / have no English. In the steamer was Ranald Macdonald, the Laird of Staffa, and, as I under stood, chief of the Macdonalds. He took a sprig of heather and stuck it into my Highland cap, and, as he said, thereby adopted me into his clan. This is all I recollect about my first visit to Staffa. The rest of the summer of 1822 we spent at Rothesay very happily, often going out fishing in the bay. At least, once I crossed over to Towardpoint, where there was a trout stream, and on one occasion, with my rod and two fly hooks at the end of my line, I hooked two trout at the same time, greatly to my delight. We returned home to Kensington Place in September, and on October 10 I resumed my studies at the college of Latin and Greek, and appear to have had an additional hour at Greek in what was called the private Greek class. In Latin we had Cicero de Senectute, Livy, and Tacitus, and in Greek Homer, Xenophon's Anabasis, the Ranse of Aristophanes, and a most delightful book, Herodotus' travels in Egypt. The book was called "Euterpe," after one of the Nine Muses, and was as entertaining as the Arabian Nights. Then it was thought that all his stories about lakes in the center of Africa, and high mountains covered with snow, and that the lakes were the sources of the Nile, and that pygmies dwelt there, were all a parcel of lies. But in the last sixty years all these tales have been proved to be true, even including the pygmies, represented by the Nigritos, who are found to the south of the Desert of Sahara, and are only about four feet high. The same small people exist in the Andaman Islands in the Bay of Bengal, and in the mountains of Manila (auctoritate Professor Bickmore.) During the winter of 1822-23 my intimacy with George and Wallace Duncan and Charles Morehead continued, and Miss Mutter, my sisters' governess, became more and more like one of the family, and the time passed very pleasantly. In the spring of 1823 I began to think that I had gone too soon to college, and that, at all events, it would be a good thing for me to pass the following sum mer with the two Duncans at their father's manse at Ruthwell, where there was a tutor, the Rev. William Dow, and five or six other boys ; there had been originally several of Dr. Duncan's nephews from Liverpool, but they had all grown up and left. It 32 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. was difficult to get admitted as a resident boarder at Ruthwell manse, but my mother managed to get me taken through the influ ence of Dr. Chalmers. When I went there, the boarders were Douglas Graham, a son of Graham of Gartmore, the eldest ; James Campbell from Jamaica ; another Campbell, the son of a clergyman in Jamaica ; John Frazer, son of an officer ; Cornelius Lundy, son of the minister of Kelso ; George Bogle of Glasgow. I went with the two Duncans when college closed on May i, 1823, by stage to Dumfries, and so to Ruthwell, the stage beyond. When I got there, I was dreadfully homesick. I recollect Dr. Duncan read at family worship that evening the Epistle to Philemon, and I always for years afterward associated it with the depths of sadness. Dr. Duncan was a most pleasant, genial gentleman, a great punster, and Mrs. Duncan was an equally kind, pleasant, motherly woman ; all we boarders addressed them as Uncle and Aunt Henry. The glebe of Ruthwell consisted of about forty acres, the main part of which was under tillage, and superintended by a man of the name of James Moore, I think, but several acres about the manse were laid out with great taste in ornamental grounds ; there was a pretty little pond or lakelet, and a large garden, and in the latter a very fine and ancient runic cross, which had at one time stood in the churchyard. The Dumfries coach passed en route to Carlisle every afternoon at the foot of a lane about half a mile from the manse. It was a favorite pastime for us boys to go and meet the coach and get the letter bag. On one of these occasions I saw seated on the top of the coach the Rev. Edward Maltby, who had been so kind to me at Staffa when I was seasick ; we recognized each other, and had a hurried talk while the guard was handing us down the letter bag, etc. The Rev. William Dow was the second son of Dr. Anthony Dow of Irongray, a parish in Dumfriesshire ; the eldest son was David Dow, who, I think, succeeded his father in Irongray parish, and was his assistant when I once visited Irongray manse along with William Dow. The latter was a rather thin, determined-looking fellow, with a very long upper lip, a good classical scholar, and a first-rate geometrician ; he understood and appreciated Newton's "Principia." It was he under whom I began to study Euclid and algebra. It was a month or six weeks before I could get any geometrical idea YOUTH. 33 into my head, and I only learned the propositions by rote, without understanding them ; at the end of this period of stupid perplexity I suddenly acquired the capacity of dealing with the abstract, and took quite kindly to the study both of geometry and algebra. I also began the study of mental philosophy, and read twice over from beginning to end that to me driest of dry books, Locke's " Essay on the Human Understanding." We lads had a very pleasant time of it at Ruthwell. Out of school we were treated like sons of the family. Dr. Duncan sat in the middle of one side of the table at dinner ; Douglas Graham, the eldest boarder, sat at the bottom of the table and carved ; while Mrs. Duncan, — " Aunt Henry," as we called her, — sat at the top of the table. Whatever company came, we all sat at table and had the benefit of all the conversation going. One of the visitors was the Rev. Edward Irving, after he had married Miss Martin and become a London celebrity ; another was Edward Montagu, the son of Basil Montagu, who came to bring his brother Charles as a pupil to Ruthwell. Edward was an English barrister, and had held some judicial position in Australia ; he was a good-looking and very dandified fellow. It was of him when a boy that Wordsworth wrote: " I have a boy of five years old, His face is fair and bright to see, His limbs are cast in beauty's mold, And dearly he loves me," etc., etc., etc. Edward Montagu was at that time boarded with Wordsworth. Charles Montagu was introduced to Dr. Duncan by Edward Irving, who at that time was a great friend of the Basil Montagus, as his friend Thomas Carlyle subsequently became and afterward abused them all roundly. Out of school hours we lads took long walks, usually with leaping poles of ten or twelve feet long in our hands, as there was a great deal of muirland with water gaps between Ruthwell and the Sol way, and over these water gaps we could jump easily with our leaping poles. Dr. Duncan sometimes took me in his gig to Annan when he went to attend the meetings of presbytery, and while he was at the presby tery I went and called on the mother of Edward Irving, and once or twice took tea with her ; she was a very ladylike person. 34 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. We also went bathing in an affluent of the Solway called " a pow " — deep and narrow, and filled to the brim with salt water at high tide. I recollect in the month of February, 1823, when all the Cumberland Hills were covered with snow, a whole batch of us plunged into the water and came out as red as boiled lobsters. Near where we bathed was a miserable thatched cottage with only " a but and a ben," i. e., only two rooms, a kitchen and a sleeping room ; to this miserable hut poor Robert Burns went when almost in articulo mortis for sea bathing, and where he was indebted to the kindness of the landlord of the inn at Clarencefield for a bottle of port wine when he had no money to pay for that or any other luxury. Some of our lads were expert bowmen ; George Bogle, who afterward became a cavalry officer, could hit a bird on the wing with an arrow. I was so much pleased with Ruthwell that, instead of returning to Glasgow College in October, 1823, I petitioned my mother to be allowed to remain there under Mr. Dow's tuition for another year, which request my mother granted. I used to take very long walks with Mr. Dow in all directions from Ruthwell. Sometimes I was allowed to walk into Dumfries, and sometimes we were driven in there to see celebrated actors or actresses ; I recol lect once hearing Miss Stephens, afterward Countess of Essex, sing '' Comin' through the rye " and also " Home, sweet home." One of my excursions into Dumfries was to see the tomb and statue of Robert Burns, and in order to see the latter properly it was neces sary to get the door of the mausoleum opened, and to do that I called at the house of the poet's widow, " Bonnie Jean." She accom panied me with the key to the kirkyard. She looked like a decent old family servant, apparently about sixty, and with no trace of beauty. And yet this was she of whom he sang : " Of a' the airts the wind can blaw I dearly like the west, For there the bonnie lassie lives, The lassie I lo'e best." Time went on very pleasantly at Ruthwell manse, which, by the way, was the first place where Tom Carlyle came in contact with ladies and gentlemen. Afterward, and possibly through Dr. Duncan's influence, he became tutor in the family of General Dirome of Mount Annan. The general was a friend of Dr. Duncan. I recollect when I was at YOUTH. 35 Ruthwell there came an invitation to a dance at Mount Annan, ask ing Dr. and Mrs. Duncan and their "young gentlemen." I objected to going, as I had not received a special invitation. Dr. Duncan remarked : " I'm afraid, Willie, you're one of those who would ' rather reign in hell than serve in heaven.' " However, I afterward repented and went. Whether Carlyle was then (say 1824) tutor at Mount Annan or not I don't know, but, if he were, I have no recollection of him. The Rev. William Dow and I got more and more into the habit of taking long walks together. On returning from one of these we sat down under a haystack to rest ourselves, and, as it was getting near to October, I broached the subject of going with him, the two Duncans, and three other boarders to St. Andrews to attend the next college session. Greatly to my surprise and disgust he replied : " No, Wood, I won't take you ; you'll be idle yourself, and make all the rest idle." " Well," said I, " I'll go by myself and we'll see who will win the most prizes." Before leaving the subject of Ruthwell and Dumfriesshire I wish to note in relation to Robert Burns that, at a dinner at Golfhill, which I think must have taken place in the summer of 182 1, when my father was in America, I was sitting next to my grandfather when he told a story to the company of how he and his partner, Walter Fergus, had to go to London in the last decade of the last century, and determined to post the journey together. The first night out of Glasgow they put up at Moffat, the second night at Dumfries, where, said my grandfather, we sent for Burns to come to dinner, and had a very jolly night of it. Young as I was, and much as I loved my grandfather, my blood boiled at the idea of these two respectable Philistines sending for that great intellectual Samson to come and make sport for them. I think it was at this very dinner that my grandfather said to my mother : " 'Lizabeth, give us a song," and she began : " ' From thee, Eliza, I must go, And from my native shore ; A boding voice is in my ear We part to meet no more,' " and here she broke down and had to leave the table. 7,6 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. In looking over letters, etc., in my escritoire to-day I find I have forty-three letters from my mother to me from May 2, 1823, till July 14, 1836, and two letters from her to my father when at Charles ton dated March and May, 1821, and also two letters from her to my uncle John Dennistoun when at New Orleans dated October 10, 1827, and March 31, 1828. In her letter to me of November 26, 1824, at St. Andrews she says : " I was yesterday greatly delighted to learn from a letter of Dr. Chalmers to your grandfather that you were doing so well in his class. You may think how your mother's heart leaped for joy at the news. He expressed himself highly pleased with your industry and the manner in which you had executed your essay. I mention this merely to excite you to fresh spirit and industry. Your grand father seemed almost as much gratified as I was." I think it would be a fine filial tribute from me to my ever blessed mother to get a book and copy into it all these letters, they are so full of sound sense and simple religion, and recall so many reminiscences of my boyhood and young manhood. If I live long enough, I think I will do it. At St. Andrews I was boarding with two nice old ladies of the name of Bowers. Their father had been printer to the university, and they themselves great beauties and toasts when Dr. Chalmers was a student at St. Andrews (1791-95). The old ladies lived over a book seller's shop, kept one servant, Jennie by name, a large, strapping Fife lass ; the only other inhabitant was an immense and very hand some tomcat. The old ladies were exceedingly kind and hospitable, and at dinner always gave me a glass of excellent currant wine of their own manufacture, and when I remarked how good it was, the younger of the two used to reply : " Aye, aye ! Mr. William, its guidness '11 be the death o' it." In the course of the winter I was asked to Lathattan, the property of a Dr. Lumsdaino, who had married my distant cousin Sophia Lindesay of Balmango. I there saw the Spanish gun which Alexander Selkirk had with him in the island of Juan Fernandez, and which is mentioned as belonging to Robinson Crusoe in the delightful fiction so named. No doubt Defoe heard of Lieutenant Selkirk's adventure when he was down in Scotland, circa 1707, as secretary to the commissioners for adjusting the union of the two kingdoms. YOUTH. 37 One day I had the honor of walking with Dr. and Mrs. Chalmers and a Mrs. Major Knox in the Links, and we passed down to the seashore, on which the waves were beating in consequence of a heavy northeaster. The waves had thrown on the beach a middle- sized haddock which was still alive ; when the wave receded, Dr. Chalmers caught up the fish and threw it beyond the incoming wave, running backward up the beach to get out of its way, but getting his boots pretty well wet in performing this act of mercy. "He prayeth well who loveth well;] Both men and bird and beast, He prayeth best who loveth best All things both great and small, For the dear God who loveth us He made and loveth all." Dr. Chalmers was an immense favorite with his students, who came from Oxford and Cambridge, and all parts of Great Britain and Ireland to attend his lectures. Many grown-up men also attended them. Among the latter was a Captain Felix of the Royal Navy, and one of the Irishmen was a William Ponsonby, connected with some noble Irish family. But Dr. Chalmers' brother professors were nearly all Tories and jealous of him, so they never asked him to preach in the college church, St. Andrews, and the consequence was that whenever it was known that he was to preach anywhere in the neighborhood there was a regular stampede of the students. On one Sunday in the spring of 1825 some of us heard that Dr. Chalmers was going to preach in his native town of Anstruther, so the two Duncans, two Lewises, and myself started bright and early to walk fourteen miles across the muirs to Anstruther. We got there in good time, and went to call on the doctor at his mother's. He gave us a hearty welcome, and asked us to come back to dinner, but in the meantime he was busy with his sermon, and said we had better go and take a walk on the seashore and gather cardemmas, a pretty little shell so called. And, added he, " when you come to church, look up to the magistrate's seat in the gallery for the town's officer, and you will see the ugliest man you ever saw in your lives." We went to the seabeach accordingly, and strolled about till church time, and then went to the kirk and took our seats. The doctor, hav ing us in mind, and also being somewhat absent-minded, began his 38 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. discourse with " Gentlemen " instead of " My brethren," but immediately corrected himself. After the sermon we went to dine at his mother's, and she apologized for the dinner, as " Tammas " had not given her warning, but he said : " Oh, mother ! never mind, it will do very well ; '' the fact is, if we had had more sense we would have gone to the inn. I went and called on old Miss Chalmers, the doctor's aunt, who had been with him in Glasgow when he first settled there. I told her that since I saw her in Glasgow I had been living with Dr. Henry Duncan at Ruthwell, and that we could see the Cumberland Mountains across the Solway Firth. "Oh, then!" says she, " ye maun hae been near Berwick-upon-Tweed." I said not within about one hundred miles of it. "Weel," said she, " I thocht that everyane that came frae England came through Berwick-upon- Tweed." Which showed how little Fife ladies born one hundred years ago knew of Scotland beyond the " Kingdom o' Fife." After dinner Dr. Chalmers and we five lads set off on our return to St. Andrews across the muirs. He had a strong orange-tree stick with a buckhorn head which some of his American admirers had sent to him. About halfway across the muirs a large dog ran out of a cottage to attack us, but the doctor, like Mr. Greatheart in " Pilgrim's Progress," showed fight and drove the brute away from us. There was a ball given in the townhall at St. Andrews under the patronage or matronage of Lady Whyte-Melville. I believe she was a daughter of the Duke of Leeds. I was very anxious to go, but had no dress suit, so I borrowed George J. Duncan's and went in it, as he was not going. Finally toward the end of April, 1825, the college prizes came to be adjudged, and I was one of the students who was summoned to count the votes, for at St. Andrews, as at the University of Glasgow, the prizes are awarded per suffragia condiscipulorum, and to my great joy I found that I had been awarded the fifth prize in moral philosophy, which was Cowper's Poetical Works, and on the fly leaf in Dr. Chalmers' handwriting is this inscription : " United College of St. Andrews. " Mr. William Wood of Glasgow gained this prize in the class of moral philosophy on account of general eminence during the last session. (Signed) " Thomas Chalmers. "April 29, 1825." YOUTH. 39 In the second mathematical class, under Professor Thomas Duncan, I gained the sixth prize ; Charles Baillie of Jerviswood, afterward a Scottish judge by the title of Lord Jerviswood, gained the third ; and in the third or highest mathematical class I gained the fifth prize, and Charles Baillie the fourth. Long years afterward, on April 4, 1868, Lord Jerviswood wrote to me, when acknowl edging a remittance of five hundred pounds which I sent him from New York as chairman of the Wallace Monument Committee : " The reference which you kindly make personally to former days, when we were fellow-students, is very interesting to me. Most of the good I received in the way of education was at St. Andrews. I have never forgotten it, nor has it altogether forgotten me, as I have for some years had the honor of holding the appointment of assessor to the General Council of the university." The prize book given for both mathematical classes was " The Principles of Mechanics," designed for the use of students in the University of Cambridge, by James Wood, D. D., and has this inscription : "United College of St. Andrews, April 29, 1825. "In the second and third mathematical classes Mr. William Wood obtained this prize on account of general eminence during the last session. (Signed) " Thomas Duncan, "Professor of Mathematics." Of the other five lads from Dr. Duncan's, Ruthwell, the only one who got a prize was John Campbell of Jamaica, for success in one competition in Latin, in which he ranked third. And so I fulfilled my threat to Mr. Dow. Dr. Chalmers wrote to my mother from St. Andrews May 16, 1825 : " My Dear Madam : "I have great pleasure in transmitting to you the accompanying list of our prizes, and in assuring you of the entire satisfaction I felt in the ability, progress, and whole conduct of your son at St. Andrews. "It is a point on which one should give an honest testimony, and I do feel myself warranted to say that in regard both of scholarship and of exemplary behavior he stood pre-eminent among his class- fellows. 40 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. "Mrs. Chalmers unites with me in best compliments to yourself and your family. I beg my remembrances to Mr. William. I am, my dear madam, " Yours most truly, (Signed) " Thomas Chalmers. " St. Andrews, May 16, 1825." Before leaving my St. Andrews life it occurs to me to mention that on a Sunday, about a month after my Sunday walking trip to Anstruther, I took two of my Ruthwell friends from St. Andrews to Elie. These were George Bogle of Glasgow, and John Campbell, son of a clergyman in Jamaica. I took them on Sunday to Kilconquhar Kirk, and there we heard the Rev. Dr. Ferrie, minister of that parish, and professor of civil history in the University of St. Andrews, the latter a sinecure, as he never delivered a lecture, and got his salary for • doing nothing. Besides being a pluralist and a sinecurist, I think he belonged to the moderate party, and was a very inferior man in ability, power, and religion to Dr. Chalmers ; yet while the latter sent us to pick up cardemmas on the beach till the church opened, Dr. Ferrie shook his head and spoke solemnly about breaking the Sabbath when I proposed, between sermons, to take my companions to Kincraig braes and show them the caves. When he died, he died in debt, although married to a wife with money of her own, and his son William, who had been minister of the kirk at Anstruther, as by law established, and then Free Church minister there, had got into debt, expecting to get out of debt at his father's death ; but he was dis appointed, as his father left him nothing, and his congregation, not liking to have a minister hopelessly in debt, dismissed him. He came to this country, where he had and still may have a hard struggle with poverty. A daughter of his within the last few years wanted to become a teacher in one of our schools. I did what I could for her, but unsuccessfully, but I think she got a situation in a Brooklyn school. William Ferrie, himself, before he was presented to the living of Anstruther, was tutor to the present Duke of Argyll and his brother, when they were plain Messrs. Campbells, sons of Lord John Campbell, who at his brother's death succeeded to the dukedom. Ferrie used to bring the boys to visit my aunt Mrs. Walter Wood at YOUTH. 41 her pretty cottage on the Gairloch, of which I reminded the duke when he was here in 1878. He said he remembered Mrs. Wood very well. There is a curious episode about this dukedom of Argyll. The present duke's uncle had a natural son, who was plain Mr. Campbell. His father was very much attached to him, and gave him a first-rate education. As long as his mother lived the duke, his father, might have married the mother, and so by the Scottish law have legitimated his natural son, who would have succeeded to the title and estates of the Argyll family, but he didn't. So at his death his brother, Lord John Campbell, succeeded to the dukedom, and his eldest son is now (1889) Duke of Argyll. I returned home to Glasgow from St. Andrews early in May, 1825, but of what I did during the summer of 1825, and up till Octo ber 10, 1825, when I entered the natural philosophy and chemistry classes of the University of Glasgow, I have not the faintest recol lection or any record. I studied very hard at St. Andrews, being up till 1 and 2 a. m., and keeping myself awake by washing my eyes with strong tea. Dr. Chalmers took quite an interest in my mathematical studies, and used to ask me to give him some of the problems given me by Professor Duncan to solve. On one occa sion he sent me his proof, and wasn't I delighted to take it back to him and point out a flaw ! I am inclined to think that in the summer of 1825 I must have begun French with M. Harmand, the French Consul at Glasgow, a royalist, and fencing and gymnastics with Lieutenant Foucart of Bonaparte's Moscow army, who was wounded and left for dead on the retreat from Moscow, and finally drifted to Glasgow and opened a fencing school. On October 28, 1825, I entered the natural philosophy class of the University of Glasgow under Professor Meckleham, a fat little man, whom we irreverently called the " Pig o' Knowledge," and on November ' 8 the chemistry class under Professor Thomas Thomson, and I became a member of the Chemical Society Decem ber 24, 1825. My ticket of election to the Chemical Society is signed by Thomas Graham, afterward a great chemist himself, and eventually holding the same office as Sir Isaac Newton did, that of Master of the Mint. In natural philosophy or applied mathematics I had the great 42 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. advantage of having studied pure mathematics under Professor Duncan at St. Andrews, while the mathematical class in Glas gow University was taught, and very badly taught, by Professor " Jimmy " Miller, the son of a great man, John Miller, professor of law in the university, under whom more than one English statesman studied. The son was a good enough mathematician, but he could not maintain order in his class. When my uncle John Dennistoun was in it, one day some of the students attacked the professor with peas, fired through a tin spitter, when he remarked from his desk : " Gentlemen, that is not only treating your professor varra disre spectfully, but its deevilish sair ! " some of the peas having hit him on the face. I entered the natural philosophy class with a determina tion, if possible, to win the first prize, and I studied very hard and did every one of the voluntary problems given out. I have still my notebooks of that and the chemistry class, the former containing very neat diagrams and operations both in fluxions and the differ ential calculus, and which now, sixty-three years afterward, I can neither make head nor tail of. My main adversary or competitor was a lad of the name of Hugh Ferguson, and the strife between us for the first prize had not certainly a good effect upon me, for I well recollect that I would not have been the least sorry to have him taken ill so that I might have an easy "walk-over." In spite of my hard studying I managed to go to some balls in the course of the winter, and coming home from one of them I fancied I saw a double star in a certain part of the heavens. We had reached astronomy in our natural philosophy course, and next morning I told Professor Meckle ham of my discovery, who, with a merry twinkle of his eye, merely said: "Had you been dining out, Mr. Wood?" When May i, 1826, arrived, the prizes were to be balloted for, and, beginning with the first prize, I saw on the professor's desk one heap of papers getting much larger than the other ; but whether this was my heap or Ferguson's I could not tell until Professor Meckleham announced the result. When he did, / proved to be the successful candidate. The prize was Hatty's " Natural Philosophy " in two vol umes, translated from the French by Olinthus Gregory of the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. The prizes were given on May 1 in the great hall of the college, and the nobility and gentry, prin cipal and professors, were all present ; but there was one there who YOUTH. 43 was more to me than all of them put together, and that was my mother ! The prize bears this inscription : " Gulielmus Wood, Universitatis Glasguensis, In Classe Physica, Alumnus Concertantum Condiscipulorum Suffragiis. Locum inter optime merentes, Primum adeptus, Hocce Praemium Academicum, Publice tulit, Calendis Maiis, MDCCCXXVI : Gulielmus Meckleham, Phy. Prof." I ought to have mentioned that while at St. Andrews (1824-25) there came to the ancient city George Lillie Craik, who afterward edited Knight's " Pictorial History of England," and became a pro fessor in the Queen's College, Belfast, and married Miss Muloch, the novelist, authoress of " John Halifax, Gentleman." He delivered a series of lectures on poetry, and particularly on Wordsworth and Cole ridge. Dr. Chalmers and other professors and many students, myself among the number, attended these lectures, and they developed in me a taste for poetry which has lasted through life, and which enables me truly to say in the words of Coleridge, though with a different meaning from that to which he gave utterance : "Poetry has been to me its own exceeding great reward ; it has soothed my afflictions, it has multiplied and refined my enjoyments, it has endeared solitude, and it has given to me the habit of wishing to discover the good and the beautiful in all that meets and surrounds me." Perhaps even before this, when I was nine or ten, I used to love Scott's poetry as repeated by my uncle Captain Wood, particularly the " Lay of the Last Minstrel," spoken as he spoke it, with a military air and voice : ' ' The way was long, the wind was cold, The minstrel was infirm and old," etc., etc. In May, 1826, after the winter session of the college was finished, I entered the botanical class of Dr. W. J. Hooker, afterward Sir 44 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. William Jackson Hooker, conservator of the Royal Gardens at Kew, but then professor of botany in the University of Glasgow. About the middle of June it was decided by Dr. Hooker to hire a steam boat and visit all the Hebrides as far north as Skye. All the class contributed to the cost, and many scientists from Edinburgh joined us, and also some ladies. Among the latter were three daughters of Sir John Sinclair, the statistical writer. They were each six feet high, and the three were called eighteen feet of Sinclairs. We went round the Mull of Cantire, visiting Mull, Islay, Staffa, Iona, and Skye, botanizing and mineralizing. My future partner, William Mylne, son of Professor Mylne, was one of the party, and another was a Rev. Mr. Urquhart, an Episcopal minister, a very queer fish. After leaving Skye we sailed up Loch Linnhe and landed near Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in Scotland, which we began to ascend, I think, on June 21, at 2 a. m. I had, as I thought, all the materials for making punch on the summit, where we could see there was still plenty of snow. After a weary climb we did reach the top and the snow, and I got out my materials for punch, when I was dis gusted to find that I had no sugar ! If I remember rightly, we saw the sun rise from near the top of Ben Nevis. On our return to Glasgow we stopped off the entrance to Glencoe, and I with some others proceeded up the glen of the infamous massa cre. On returning to the steamer, the sun being very hot, I entered a Highland sheeling and asked the woman of the house if she could give me some milk. There was a peat fire, but no chimney, and the smoke found its way out either by a hole in the roof or at the door. She took down a bowl from a shelf, and was going to put some milk in it, when I saw some flakes of soot in it, and asked her to clean out the bowl. Thereupon she called her little boy to her, who had a napkin round his " scawed heid," and, taking it off, began to wipe the bowl. I at once made tracks for the door, and never tasted that milk ! We got all safely back to Glasgow, and I enjoyed the trip very much. One Sunday after our return I went to the English chapel to hear my fellow-passenger the Rev. Mr. Urquhart, who had a bad squint. He gave out his text, and then, placing a large folio on the reading desk, said : " My brethren, Dr. Barrow has written a far better ser mon on this text than I could make, and so I will just read you his," which he did. YOUTH. 45 I spent the most of the rest of the summer of 1826 at my uncle Alexander Dennistoun's house of Kelvinside, a delightful place about three miles from Glasgow, with a fine old-fashioned terraced garden overhanging the River Kelvin. During the summer my uncle, who was a great admirer of William Cobbett, offered to give me twenty pounds if I would write out all Cobbett's grammar, about 250 pages, which I did, and got my sister Anna, who was on a visit with me at Kelvinside, to go over my manuscript with me to see that it was correct, for which I paid her five pounds. There was a pigeon-shooting match at Kelvinside that summer, and after it was over four or five birds were left, and I was allowed to try my hand, and killed every one. CHAPTER IV. early manhood. It was, I think, during this summer of 1826 that I had so much trouble in deciding what profession I should adopt. I thought of going to the Scottish bar, of being a physician or a merchant. My uncle and guardian, Walter Wood, said that, if I would study and become an advocate, he would guarantee me ^"150 per annum for three years, but I feared I would not be able to speak in public, and finally decided against being a lawyer, mainly on that account ; I also decided not to be a physician, and finally drifted into being a merchant, and entered the office of James & Alexander Dennistoun as a clerk, and was almost at once set to bookkeeping, their old bookkeeper, William Harper, having taken to drinking and having got the books into a muddle. I can't say that my collegiate educa tion fitted me very well to set them right, but I worked away at them and, I presume, got them in order at last. The winter of 1826- 27 I attended Professor Cooper's class in mineralogy, and also went a good deal into society and was very fond of dances and balls, and, being a good dancer, managed to dance with the handsomest women in Glasgow society. Then as now I had also a good deal to say for myself. My mother at this time lived in West George Street, corner of Buchanan Street, north side, now and for many years past the law office of Bannatynes & Kirkwood, our family lawyers. In the summer of 1827 my work was in the office of J. & A. Dennistoun, and my amusement in paying various visits to Kelvinside and to other friends having country places. I think it was in the summer that I paid a visit at Camis Eskan, the estate in Dumbartonshire of the Dennistoun of Dennistoun. I knew two of the sons, George and Dick ; the latter was at school with me. It was on George's invita tion that I went with my future brother-in-law, William Cross, to spend Saturday and Sunday at Camis Eskan. On Sunday we drove in a large family coach with coat of arms and supporters on the panels to Cardross Kirk, the parish church. Here Mr. Dennistoun had a 46 EARLY MANHOOD. 47 large pew, occupying the whole width of the gallery opposite the pulpit, and fitted up with armchairs, etc., just like a drawing room. It was at the entrance of this church that about the year 1376 Lord Dennistoun stabbed and killed a gentleman who entered the kirk before him, and had to fly the country in consequence, and the title fell into abeyance, but about 1845 the then Dennistoun of Dennis toun, James by name, and author of the " Lives of the Dukes of Urbino," had intended to try and recover the title, but died child less and without doing it. He married a Miss Murray of Cringletie, who, it was said, induced him to sell Camis Eskan. He asked my grandfather, James Dennistoun, to buy the estate, who consulted with my uncle Alick, who dissuaded him, but my grandfather told James Dennistoun of Dennistoun that he would offer him _^6o,ooo sterling, and with that offer he could go into the market and try to do better. He succeeded in selling it to Colin Campbell for ^63,000 sterling. At his death his brother George became Dennistoun of that Ilk, but had only a small property, called Dennistoun, in Ren frewshire. He was succeeded by Dennistoun, his son, a lieutenant in the Royal Navy, who was out here (New York) about twenty years ago, and, my granddaughter Catherine Bell tells me, he has since mar ried a Miss Gore Booth, the daughter, I think, of an Irish baronet. Another place I visited this summer (1827) was Croy, the country place of Mr. Garden, who had been Lord Provost of Glasgow, and was son-in-law of my grandfather's old friend Henry Monteith of Carstairs. The latter had also been Lord Provost of Glasgow. I remember see ing him at Golfhill at dinner in a full court suit of black velvet, where he entertained me by putting a piece of paper over a glassful of wine and then turning the wineglass upside down without spilling the wine. At Croy I met Mrs. Hooker, wife of the professor of botany. She was a Miss Turner, daughter of Sharon Turner of Norwich. One day Mrs. Garden and all of us went to Macdonald Buchanan's beautiful place called The Ross on Loch Lomond. Mrs. Hooker, not being acquainted with the Buchanans, did not choose to go into the house, but she and I sat on the grass under some shady trees, and I, in imitation of Sir Walter Raleigh's polite ness to Queen Elizabeth, took off my coat and laid it upon the grass for Mrs. Hooker to sit upon. In the winter of 1827-28 I attended the class in surgery of Dr. 48 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. John Burns, who, besides being professor of surgery in the University of Glasgow, had a large general practice, and brought both me and my son John Walter into this wicked world. My reasons for going to the surgery class were that Allan Burns, Dr. B.'s younger son, was a great friend of mine. He was one of our botanical party to Skye, etc., in 1826. He was his father's demonstrator, preparing the sub jects for him to lecture upon, and I wished to have his company in the lecture room as well as out of it. I also wished to get over my horror at seeing dead bodies and to know something of this house in which we dwell. The sights in the lecture room were shocking, the subjects, male and female, being very difficult to get, in fact, being mainly stolen from kirkyards at the risk of the stealers' lives. They were kept long and were hopping with maggots, and I have seen lads who were going to be surgeons being carried out quite sick. The young surgeons, when operating on the cadaver, wore oilskin coats, and when you went into the dissecting room to see them, it was a favorite trick of theirs to offer to shake hands with you when their hands were all covered with bloody matter. At one time there was a female corpse on the table in pretty good preservation, and we lads determined to have a lunch in the dissecting room and cut steaks from the gluteal muscles, but when we began to cut them, we found the corpse was too far gone, and so we were saved from being canni bals, but we had a fine lunch all the same of bread and cheese and porter, with several corpses about us. That winter of 1827-28 I went a great deal into society, attending assemblies and the very exclusive "oyster balls." Coming home one night from a ball, I opened and read before going to bed a letter from the Rev. William Dow, my tutor at Ruthwell, expressing his deep grief at the useless life I was leading, and stating that he had hoped much better things from me. I was as mad as a hornet, and threw the letter into a drawer, and never saw it again till I chanced to find it in the winter of 1830-31 after I was married, and won dered at my own folly for being angry at such a kind, well-inten tioned letter. I never saw Mr. Dow again until I was living in Liverpool, about 1843. By that time he had been some years minis ter of Tongueland, and had been expelled from the Kirk for being a follower of Edward Irving. We met in Lord Street, and he was in a great hurry about some important business, but said he would call EARLY MANHOOD. 49 upon me before he left Liverpool, to talk over old times, etc., and " he went on his way, and I saw him no more." I believe he mar ried a Miss Maitland, a sister of the Scottish judge, Lord Dundren- nan. I fancy he is dead long ago. I think his brother David was also put out for his adhesion to the Irvingite heresy, and I have heard emigrated to the Cape of Good Hope. In the spring and summer of 1828, my uncle John Dennistoun being in America, I had the use of his hunter, and used to ride about in great style with my uncle Walter's groom behind me. This was the only time that I ever had any pleasure in riding on horse back. In the course of that summer I got a holiday from the office, and also eighty pounds for salary, out of which I took twenty pounds and presented my mother with a set of silver dessert knives and forks. Out of the rest I took a jaunt to Liverpool, Wales, and Ireland. At Liverpool I was joined by William C. Mylne, a son of the professor of moral philosophy in the University of Glasgow. He had been in our Glasgow office, and from thence went to our Liverpool agency, then Alexander Dennistoun & Co. The clerks in the house of Den nistoun were of gentle birth. One of their clerks was the Hon. Francis Gordon, afterward, when his father became Marquis of Huntly, Lord Francis Gordon, and another was a Mr. Beckwith, a son of Sir Sidney Beckwith, who went into the army, and a third was a son of Mr. Burnet of Gadgirth. Mylne only went with me through Wales and as far as Holyhead. I went on to Dublin, and put up at the most fashionable hotel in Sackville Street, called, I think, the Gresham. I had letters of introduction to Mr. Chambers of Chambers, Todd & Co., with whom for many years we had done a large business in linen for Charleston and New Orleans and Trini dad. Mr. Chambers was then governor of the Bank of Ireland, and was very kind and attentive to me, showing me the Linen Hall, the old Houses of Parliament, the Courts, and Trinity College. There was great political excitement at that time in Ireland. The Test and Corporation Acts were repealed in the summer of 1828, and with their repeal the Roman Catholics thought that they could get into Parliament, and under that delusion Daniel O'Connell became a candidate for the representation of County Clare, won the election, and was returned as M. P. (I recollect seeing one of his franks), but 50 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. when he tried to enter the House of Commons, it was decided that the repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts did not apply to Roman Catholics, but only to Protestant Dissenters ! I saw the mail coaches leaving Sackville Street for the country with two guards in scarlet armed with blunderbusses. Mr. Chambers asked me down to his country house at Blackrock by the seaside, and invited a party of Dublin ladies and gentlemen to meet me — a very hilarious and pleasant party. I had on one side of me at table a lady, and on the other a Dr. Ferguson of Dublin, an old gentleman, who, wishing to drink wine with the lady on my other side, prefaced his request to drink wine with her by saying : " If you please, Mr. Wood, we'll make a bridge o' your nose." After dinner the vexed question of Catholic emancipation was introduced. As well as I recollect, they were all Orange Tories, I being the only Liberal, and, being but a boy, listened rather than spoke. Imagine my horror when I heard my venerable neighbor, Dr. Ferguson, exclaim with the most bitter accent : " Give them emancipation ! Why, I'd rather throw cowitch in their eyes, and I wouldn't give them their own nails to scratch themselves with ! " I used this bitter speech with great effect on March 28, 1844, when I quoted it in the Amphitheater at Liverpool, in a great meeting of four thousand people, convened to back up Daniel O'Connell on his appeal to the House of Lords from the con viction of a Dublin Orange jury for sedition. Besides seeing all the sights in Dublin, and being delighted with the apparent cheerfulness of the city, I went down to the country and saw the beauties of County Wicklow; and being, like most lads of that period, a great admirer of Tom Moore's poetry, I was delighted with the actual vision of the " Meeting of the Waters : " ' ' There's not in the wide world a valley so sweet As that vale in whose bosom the bright waters meet. Oh ! the last ray of feeling and life must depart Ere the bloom of that valley shall fade from my heart. Sweet Vale of Avoca ! how calm could I rest In thy bosom of shade with the friends I love best, Where the storms that we feel in this cold world should cease, And our hearts like thy waters be mingled in peace." I left Dublin for Belfast, traveling outside the coach through Drogheda, Armagh, etc., and was impressed with the beauty of the EARLY MANHOOD. Si country and the poverty of the people. I don't recollect how long I stayed in Belfast, nor whom I knew there, if anybody, and I stupidly did not go to the Giant's Causeway. I went by coach from Belfast to Donaghadee and crossed thence to Port Patrick in Scotland. From thence I went by coach to Dumfries, and thence on a short visit to my old friends the Duncans at Ruthwell Manse, but I recollect no incidents of the visit. I then returned to Glasgow. My mother had suitable quarters at Largo in Ayrshire, where I enjoyed myself swimming and boating and fishing. I was a great dandy in those times and pretty conceited. I recollect one day walking along the Largo promenade on the beach with my mother when a little boy looked up at me, and to her great amusement exclaimed : " Eh, sir ! a prood body." One day in August, 1828, my mother got a short letter from my uncle Alick almost in these very words : " Dear Eliza beth : We have decided to open a house in New York, and to send out William Mylne as a partner ; if William chooses to go, we will make him a partner also." Of course " William " was delighted at the idea of being made a partner, not being yet twenty, and of going to America, but my mother was by no means of my opinion. She thought it infra dig. for me, the eldest son of the former head of the house, to be sent to an out-of-the-way place like New York, which she seemed to look upon much in the same way as if in these days it had been proposed to send me to the Fiji Islands or the Congo Territory. However, my wishes prevailed. CHAPTER V. FIRST VISIT TO AMERICA. Mylne and I were ordered to sail by the packet ship Britannia, Captain Charles H. Marshall, of the then celebrated Black Ball Line, so called because there was painted on the fore topsails of the packets an immense circle of black to distinguish them at sea. The Britannia was to sail from Liverpool on October i, 1828. I had written to Mylne, who was in our Liverpool office, to secure a stateroom for us as near the center of the vessel as possible, but, whether from being too late in applying or not I don't know, we got the very farthest aft stateroom in the vessel. The first note of discord between my uncle Walter Wood and myself was struck at this time. I think he was jealous that my uncle Alick had not consulted him about offering me a partnership, and when I was about to leave Glasgow for Liverpool, he wanted me to go by sea to the latter place, which, as I suffered dreadfully from seasick ness, I declined to do, and went by stagecoach. Strange to say, I have no recollection of the parting with my mother and sisters and James. She was then living at 145 West George Street. I left Glasgow about September 27, and on arrival at Liverpool went to stay with Alexander McGregor, Jr., in Abercromby Square. He had been in America, and, finding I had no under-flannels, very kindly gave me some of his own. On October 1 the wind was blowing a gale from the southwest and we could not sail, nor did we get away till October 3, the wind still adverse and we crossed, tacking between Holyhead and Dublin some sixty times. The eighth day out we were driven back to and nearly wrecked on the Calf of Man ; then the wind changed to the eastward, and we had a fine run down Channel and out to sea, but I continued to suffer dreadfully from seasickness, and the fifteenth day out I was vom iting blood, after which I got quite well and gained flesh. I shall never forget the feeling of vagueness which I .felt sailing day FIRST VISIT TO AMERICA. 53 after day into the beyond. However, on November 3 we arrived off Sandy Hook in a heavy easterly storm and thick fog, could get no pilot, and came to anchor off the Jersey coast. When the fog occasionally lifted, we could see a vessel in the breakers, which frightened the home-returning passengers very much, who feared that they also were going to be wrecked, as it were, at their own doors. It turned out afterward that the vessel had been wrecked some weeks or months before, not in our gale. I felt lonely and desolate, even if we were not wrecked. I only knew one person in New York, a Wil liam C. Maitland, whom I had known when at Ruthwell. I felt very homesick, wished I were beside my mother, and did not care if I were drowned. The wind shifted to west during the night, and on the morning of November 4, in beautiful weather, we passed Sandy Hook and entered the lower bay of New York. When the pilot boarded us, the first question that was asked was : " Is there yellow fever in the city ? " and we were thankful when he replied in the negative. Such a question nowadays would never be asked, as it is sixty-seven years since the last epidemic of yellow fever in 1822. We arrived only six years after the last appearance of that dread scourge, when all the city from Rector Street southward was in quarantine, and all the banks, etc., had moved from Wall Street up to wooden houses in the village of Greenwich, where they were still standing in 1828 and long afterward. We were met by a large sailing boat as we proceeded up the bay, into which many of us got and were landed at Whitehall Slip. There we were met by Daniel McGregor, our future partner, and by him taken to the City Hotel, a very celebrated hostelry in those days, and standing where the Boreel Building now does. It was well known to all travelers as the largest and best hotel in the United States, and celebrated for the extraordinary memory of its landlord, Jennings, who never forgot any of his numerous guests. We did not, however, dine there that day, but were taken by McGregor to Niblo's eating house, which then stood in William Street immediately behind where the Bank of New York now stands, and opposite what is now the building of the Liverpool, London & Globe Insurance Co. Niblo's was then what Delmonico's is now. The only thing I remember about the dinner is that we had venison steaks served on metal plates with circular pieces of red-hot iron under them, and 54 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. had cranberry sauce. I never had tasted venison but once before, and that was at Dr. Burns' when my friend Allan had got a stag's head, which he prepared for stuffing, and, saving all the bits of flesh, he got them cooked for our dinner. Venison was a great rarity in those days in Glasgow. After dinner we adjourned to the Park Theater, where we heard the " School for Scandal," the third time I had heard it in six weeks : first at Glasgow, then at Liverpool, and finally at New York. This I thought at the time a wonderful instance of quick transition. Between the acts I went to get something to eat, and very innocently asked for an American apple. I finally got to bed at the City Hotel and recollect I was well bitten by mosquitoes. Next day, Novem ber 5, Mylne and I went to deliver our letters of introduction, and took a carriage to do so. The first place we drove to was the house of Charles Wilkes, president of the Bank of New York, and nephew of the celebrated John Wilkes, Mayor of London, and M. P. for Middlesex. One of his daughters was the second wife of Francis Jeffrey, editor of the Edinburgh Review, and subsequently a Scottish judge by the title of Lord Jeffrey. As Byron says in " English Bards and Scotch Reviewers " : " All hail, great Jeffrey ! Heaven preserve thy life To flourish on the fertile shores of Fife. . . . Once in name England could boast a judge almost the same." Mylne had a letter of introduction, which we left with our cards and address. The letter was from Dr. Brown of Laudfin, a con nection of the Jeffreys, and also a friend of my grandfather, James Dennistoun. From Hudson Square we drove to Madison Street. I think it was to deliver a letter of introduction I had from Dr. Chalmers to Dr. Griscom, a Quaker physician, whose son, also an M. D., I knew fifty years afterward in relation to school matters. I then told the driver to take us to the house of Cadwallader D. Colden, to whose wife I had a letter of introduction from a Miss Black, a friend of my mother. The driver said : " Why, sir, Mr. Colden lives just next door in Hudson Square to Mr. Charles Wilkes, where you were this morning." Well, we drove to Mr. Colden's. He had himself been Mayor of New York, and his father FIRST VISIT TO AMERICA. 55 had been either Governor or Lieutenant-Governor of the colony of New York. Mrs. Colden was a very pleasant, kind-hearted, hospita ble lady, her husband rather a grim-faced, but pleasant enough gentleman, and we found that their only son, David Colden, was married to Miss Fanny Wilkes, daughter of Mr. Charles Wilkes, next door. These two families, the Wilkeses and Coldens, were extremely kind and hospitable to Mylne and myself, and invited us to dinners and evening parties time and again. Some time in November, but I cannot recollect the date, Mylne and I were asked to a ball at the British Consul's, James Buchanan, who lived on the east side of Hudson Square, which, by the way, in those days and long after was the most beautiful square in New York. The ball was given in honor of a Mr. and Mrs. Taylor, a newly married couple. She was a Miss Laura Jephson, the daughter of a Mr. Jephson who claimed to be an Irish baronet. She was a great beauty, and her sister was married to a son of Consul Buchanan. I danced a good deal with Mrs. Taylor, and in the course of the dancing her sandal ribbon got untied, and I stooped down on my knee to tie it round her pretty little ankle. I had got very fat after my voyage, and it was the fashion to have dress trousers made very tight, so in stooping I felt my trousers tear right across my hips, but I put one hand into my coat pocket behind, and so kept my coat tail over the gap, and finished the dance, then rushed to the door, took the first carriage I could find, and drove down to my lodgings, put on another pair of dress trousers, went back to the ball, and stayed till its close, no one being a bit the wiser. Before this ball we had taken rooms at the boarding house of Mrs. Storer, corner of Broadway and Exchange Place, then the most fashionable boarding house in New York. I joined the St. Andrew's Society the last week in November, but as St. Andrew's Day, November 30, fell on a Sunday in 1828, the St. Andrew's festivities were held on Monday, December 1, and in some scraps of an old notebook, most of the pages of which have been destroyed, I find the following notes: "December 1, 1828. Dined with the St. Andrew's Society ; met Gideon Pott, who was acquainted with my mother before I was born. I have heard that he and my father were the two handsomest men in Glasgow in the beginning of the century, and I have also heard my uncle Alexander 56 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. Dennistoun say that my father and mother were the handsomest couple in Glasgow when they were married in 1807. Mr. David Colden was present at the dinner, representing the sixth generation, and, I add, " as pleasant as any public dinner can be. Plenty of singing." The dinner took place in the large hall of the City Hotel, on the site of the present Boreel Building. On December 2, 1828, I wrote in my old notebook : " Head ache, as a natural consequence of an artificial dinner. Went with George Mackie and Mr. Rutgers to Mrs. Edgar's [who then lived in Greenwich Street, in a white marble house, on the east side, just behind the present large building of Cyrus W. Field]. She is very like Miss Grundy, a very ladylike woman, and also a leader of the haut ton to be cultivated. Played at brag for the first time. This is the second time in my life, both times since I came here, that I felt awkward from not being able to play cards. Got oyley kooks and some other Dutch tea bread. " December 3, 1828. August Brower dined with us. I little thought when I saw him off from Edinburgh in August last that the next time I met him should be here. [Brower was the son of a large tobacco merchant in Bremen.] In the evening went to the theater." I again quote from the old notebook: "December 4, 1828. Thanksgiving Day, went to Newark in the interior of New Jersey. Passed across an immense plain full of burned roots of trees, a com plete picture of desolation. Went halfway on a stagecoach, first American one I had been on ; from Newark walked back to Hoboken, nine miles, where crossed. [I recollect that this was con sidered an immensely long walk by my New York friends.] This is the first day I have been on a continent. Had a conversation with an old Revolutionist named Ingram ; his ancestors came from Glasgow ; he helped to bury the first British soldier who fell in the war. " December 5, 1828. Got up and found all my clothes stolen ; this the more awkward as the key of my chest of drawers was at the office, and I could get no clothes.' After searching the premises the clothes were found tied up in a bundle, with a rope round them, in the yard of Mrs. Storer's boarding house [which abutted on New Street, corner of Exchange Place, north side]. The thief had probably been frightened just as he was getting over the FIRST VISIT TO AMERICA. 57 wall. Pleasanter things certainly than having one's room entered during the night, though on the third story, and one's clothes stolen ! [When living at Mrs. Storer's, there were among the boarders the widow of Gouverneur Morris [ne'e Anne C. Randolph] of Virginia. She had with her a young son, apparently about seventeen or eighteen, who went about shod in Indian moccasins, and seemed to be a good deal spoiled by his mother. Long years afterward I had deal ings with him in railway matters as head of Dennistoun, Wood & Co.] Dined to-day at Mr. James Heard's [corner of Broadway and Worth Street, northwest side], and met two commodores and four captains of the U. S. Navy in full uniform. Capital feed. [The elder commodore was Commodore Chauncey, in command at this port, and I think a brother of Mrs. Heard.] " December 6, 1828. Made up our minds to look for furnished lodgings. December 7, 1828. Went to the French church, and wrote home in the evening. " December 8, 1828. Put letters for Liverpool on board the steam boat, i. e., to be taken to a sailing packet lying in the Hudson. Walked twice up and down Broadway, and got one answer to our advertisement for lodgings, which was signed S. P. Q. R." Here comes a hiatus valde deflendus of notes regarding my next four or five months' sojourn in New York, so that now I must trust to my memory, refreshed by a diary begun in Glasgow in October, 1829, but which refers repeatedly to incidents of the previous year. It was, I think, some time in January, 1829, that Mylne and I received invitations to attend what were then called the city assemblies, and were presided over by a board of directors chosen from the leading men of New York, one of whom I recollect rejoiced in the queer name of Colonel " Preserved Fish." These assemblies were held in the ballroom of the City Hotel and were exceedingly select. The managers wore court dress, swords in white scabbards, knee- breeches, and white silk stockings. It was at one of these balls, held in the latter part of the last century, that the then Duchess of Gordon, who was present, and to whom the managers apologized for not placing her at the head of the room, made her saucy speech : "Oh, gentlemen! don't distress yourselves; wherever the Duchess of Gordon is, that is the head of the room." All I remember of these assemblies is that, as usual where there was dancing, I enjoyed 58 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. myself ; and on one occasion when a waltz was called I was one of three gentlemen who could waltz ; my partner was Miss Jane Lynch, a daughter of Dominick Lynch, and an intimate friend of my first wife. She afterward became Mrs. Julius Pringle of South Carolina, but I have not seen her for sixty years, although I believe she is still alive. CHAPTER VI. I MEET HARRIET KANE. Mylne and I received an invitation to a fancy ball to be given by Mme. Brugiere, a French lady, and the first fancy ball ever given in New York. It was to take place on January 20, 1829, in her house, which was on the east side of Broadway just above the Bowling Green. All the fashion of New York, Boston, and Philadelphia was to be there. Little did I know that it would be fraught with the most momentous consequences to me. I really did not want to go. I had seen a great deal of balls, etc., in Glasgow, and knew but few people here in New York, but Mylne, who, although four years older than I was, had seen very little of gay society, was most anx ious to go, so we accepted the invitation. He decided to go as a naval officer, and I think I see him yet with his spectacles and sol emn look. I went as a Highland chief, in a dress of gay Stuart tar tan, but with trousers and broad gold lace down the outside seams ; also a plaid round my shoulders, and a Highland bonnet on my head with a turkey's long feather stuck in it, instead of an eagle's, to mark my chieftainship. When I began to look about me in the ballroom, I saw Mylne dancing a cotillion with the most beautiful being I ever had seen in my life. She was dressed as a Turkish page, with a tunic of crimson velvet, wide white satin trousers tight at the ankles, and some sort of headdress with marabou feathers. Her tunic was ornamented with silver lace, and the bands round the ankles were also of silver lace. I said to my old acquaintance William C. Maitland : " Who is that beautiful girl that Mylne is dancing with ? " " Why," says he, " don't you know her ? That is Miss Harriet Kane, the prettiest and wittiest girl in New York." I asked him to introduce me to her as soon as the dance was finished, which he did. We danced together, and I was dead in love with her at first sight. From my Highland costume and accent she knew I was a Scotsman, and in the course of our conversation, de omnibus rebus et guibusdam aliis, she said : " Why, Mr. Wood, my first lover was a Scotsman," and the thought 59 60 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. immediately occurred to me : " I wonder if her last lover will also be a Scotsman ?" A celebrated beauty at that ball was a Miss Marshall of Boston, and one of the best-looking men was a Mr. Willing of Philadelphia. I was introduced to Mrs. Isaac Bell, the mother of my subsequent friend and colleague in the Board of Education. She was dressed as Night in a black dress spangled with silver stars, and held a leaden scepter in her right hand. I was also introduced to Miss Margaret Hone, the eldest daughter of Philip Hone, ex-Mayor of New York, and was asked by her to a ball on January 30, to be given at her father's very handsome house corner of Broadway and Park Place. This I attended on that night, and again danced with Miss Kane, and got more desperately in love than ever. I recollect I got one of the bonbons, and, taking out the printed motto, substi tuted for it my own rhymes : " At Mme. Brugiere's first I met My love, my life, my Harriet." So matters were developing pretty fast. She was residing, during her sister Mrs. John Hone's absence in Europe, with her sister Caroline (Mrs. P. L. Mills) at Niblo's boarding house, which stood where the Metropolitan Hotel now stands. The Metropolitan Hotel covers not only the site of the boarding house, but of a large garden which surrounded it. Opposite on Broadway was a large garden extending along the whole block and belonging to John Jacob Astor. In the center of the block was a two-story house, into which Mr. and Mrs. Mills moved in the summer of 1829, which house Mr. Astor subsequently occupied, and died in it. I was a constant vis itor at Mrs. Mills' house, and Harriet, who wrote rhyme as easily as she wrote prose, gave me the following little poem called "THE HIGHLAND LAD. " Some few weeks past I chanced to roam, Leaving my peaceful, quiet home For fashion's empty show. I love not this gay world of late, Yet still by some propitious fate I was induced to go. ' ' I heard the merry laugh go round, But caught not the infectious sound, For all to me was sad; I MEET HARRIET KANE. 6l And yet it was among this crowd Of giddy, thoughtless, and of proud I met my Highland lad. " There was a something in his air Which told ' no soul was wanting there,' Though gayest of the gay. I said : I'll be no longer sad, But smile upon this Highland lad, And dash the tear away. " With lightened heart I joined the dance, And oft and merry was the glance I gave this Highland lad. I echoed now the voice of mirth, I'd found a friend of real worth, And how could I be sad ? " Again among the crowd we met,* — I knew I never should forget The bonnie tartan plaid, — A graceful stranger 'fore me stood , They told me this was Willie Wood, My own true Highland lad. " Again he led me to the dance — I know not by what lucky chance His partner I became; But still I know when by his side I felt a glow of inward pride I scarcely could restrain. "He occupies the house, they say, Four hundred sixty-seven Broadway, With Mr. Mylne, ' his wife.' Indeed, I think he's much to blame For giving Mr. Mylne that name, To stick to him through life. " I hear that lest he go astray He watches o'er him night and day, As shepherd doth the lamb. And now they seldom go abroad, But stay at home with one accord, Oh ! happy Dr. Graur. * At Mr. Philip Hone's ball January 30, 1829. 62 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. ' ' Surely their path is strewn with flowers, Byron and Shakespere charm their hours — The works they so prefer. And there they'll sit at home and read, While Dr. Graur is blessed indeed : Oh ! that he knew he were ! " Some time in the end of April, 1829, my partner and "dry nurse," William C. Mylne, had to go to New Orleans to take charge of Alex ander & John Dennistoun & Co., our house there, the acting partner, Daniel McGregor, having taken to drinking, and being ordered home by my uncle and partners, so I was left in full charge of our New York house, Dennistoun, McGregor & Co., at the mature age of twenty. As far as I recollect, I managed matters fairly well, for even then I had a pretty good business head and looked twenty-four or twenty-five. I was now constantly at the house of Mrs. Mills, who was a beautiful, lively, brown-eyed woman of some twenty-nine years, and deeply attached to her youngest sister, Harriet. Harriet had the charge of Mr. and Mrs. John Hone's house, No. 40 Warren Street, and had to go there from time to time to see that it was kept in order, and to get books out of and to return them to Mr. Hone's very good library. On May 13, 1829, I accompanied her to 40 Warren Street to return some books to the library. " Then in that time and place I spoke to her, Requiring, though I knew it was mine own, Yet for the pleasure that I took to hear — Requiring at her hand the greatest gift : A woman's heart, the heart of her I loved ; And in that time and place she answered me, And in the compass of three little words, More musical than ever came in one, The silver fragments of a broken voice Made me most happy, faltering: ' I am thine.' " But while I muse comes Memory with sad eyes, Holding the folded annals of my youth, And speaks : ' Be wise ; not easily forgiven Are those who, setting wide the doors that bar The secret bridal chambers of the heart, Let in the day. Here then my words have end." I well recollect that she and I went from 40 Warren Street to I MEET HARRIET KANE. 63 Mr. Philip Hone's to tell his eldest daughter, Margaret, of our en gagement. Next day, according to a promise I had made to Miss Ann Wilkes that I would tell her if ever I got engaged to Harriet Kane, I went to Hudson Square and informed Miss Wilkes of my felicity. I recollect well how she called upstairs to her sister, Mrs. Colden : " Fanny, come down here ; Mr. Wood is engaged to little Harriet Kane." Since writing the foregoing on Sunday, April 5, 1889, Margaret D. Hone, my Harriet's dearest friend, died, in the eighty-first year of her age. After our engagement we saw one another constantly. As I have already mentioned, Mr. and Mrs. Mills had left Niblo's boarding house and taken a two-story house and a large garden opposite, belonging to John Jacob Astor, and where that old millionaire him self lived and died years afterward. I was then living in lodgings in Park Place, next door but one to College Place, and, of course, close by old Columbia College. I used to rise early, walk up Broad way, and call at Mr. Mills' by seven o'clock, and often opened the window shutters which I had closed the night before at say ten o'clock. There were no omnibuses in those days, so I had to foot it up and down morning and evening, and attend to my business during the day. Part of our business was to receive consignments of cotton and sugar from New Orleans. The latter article used to be sold in Hanover Square, and I recollect going there with primrose- colored kid gloves and an auger to sample the sugar hogsheads. In 1844, when I came out to establish our house here, I was intro duced to Murry Hoffman, a sugar and tea broker. " Oh ! " said he, " you need not introduce Mr. Wood to me. I recollect him here fourteen years ago sampling sugar with light-colored kid gloves." Well, those " old Mays had thrice the life of these," and we were both very happy, when news came of the death of Mr. John Hone at Rome, — " Brother John," as Harriet always called him, — and of the immediate return of Mrs. John Hone (Maria Antoinette Kane), Harriet's elder sister. The report carne also that she had been left with her son and two daughters very badly off, and with the proba bility that she and her children would need to live at her father-in- law's, old John Hone's, at the Bowling Green. Then there would be no room for her sister Harriet, who would therefore need to remain with Mr. and Mrs. Mills, who were not themselves very well 64 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. off. Some time early in July, 1829, the handsome young widow Mrs. Hone arrived from Europe, and she learned at Sandy Hook that, her youngest sister, Harriet, was engaged to a young Scotsman of the name of Wood, well connected, but with no immediate pros pect of being able to marry soon. As Harriet had had several wealthy suitors, here was a pleasant complication for me. Mrs. Hone nat urally preferred one of them to me, whose immediate prospects were not flattering, as my uncles had determined to give up the New York house, and I was to hand over its assets and concerns to the house of Buchanan, Colder & Co., and to return home early in September, 1829. After a little Mrs. Hone got reconciled to me, and we became fast friends. I knew that when I became twenty-one on October 21, 1829, I was entitled under my father's will to something like four thousand pounds, and with that capital I thought I might manage to get along, but I also knew that I ought to go home, and see my uncles, especially my uncle and guardian, Walter Wood, and endeavor to get into some sort of business, so as to sup port my wife to be and myself. Youth is sanguine, and I felt pretty sure that somehow I would be able to do this if I could tear myself away from Harriet for some months, and she would trust me so far as to keep our engagement sacred till my return. This she agreed to do, and so we lived on happily till the time for my departure arrived. I had taken my passage to Havre by the new packet ship Formosa, Captain Orne, on her first voyage, to sail from New York September 10, 1829. The reason I went to Havre was that we had a house there, James Dennistoun & Co., and that my uncle Alexander Dennistoun and his wife and family were living there, and I wished to try and make sure of his support and sympathy, as well as of his wife's, who was an admirable, kind-hearted woman. Harriet and I parted on the morning of September 10, 1829, at Mr. Mills' house, just above Prince Street, on Broadway, and a very sad parting it was: "... such as press The life from out young hearts, and choking sighs Which ne'er might be repeated ; who could guess If ever more should meet those mutual eyes ? " She wrote for me quite a funny poem, to be opened after I got to sea, warning me against flirting with any of the ladies on board, and I MEET HARRIET KANE. 65 especially with a certain pretty Miss Palmer. I fulfilled her wishes literally, and never spoke a word to any of the ladies on board. We had a fair passage, considering that the Formosa was a new vessel, and every few days we had to lie-to to make the rigging taut. We had a severe storm with thunder and lightning in the chops of the Channel, somewhere off Cornwall or Devonshire, and reached Havre on October 4, 1829. One of the passengers, a Spaniard, died just off Havre, and his body was taken into port, and we were put in quarantine for twenty-four hours only, as he died of consump tion. I spent some days at Havre with my uncle and aunt, and sailed thence for Southampton one afternoon in a steamer. It was a fine evening, and I paced the deck until quite late, and only another gentleman and myself were left. He was a very handsome man with curly black whiskers, and I had noticed him come on board at Havre with a stylish-looking lady who wore a curious trav eling cap of green velvet checked with gold embroidery. The gen tleman and I began to talk, and I told him I had just arrived from New York. He was surprised, and said: "I am a New Yorker," and he mentioned the names of several of his friends there who were friends of mine, among others the Kane family. Of course I was too happy to say I knew them well, and was engaged to be mar ried to the youngest daughter. "Why," said he, " that is my cousin Harriet, and a beautiful girl she is, and if you be engaged to her, I am sure you must have a miniature of her, and if so, I wish you would promise to show it to my wife when we arrive at Southamp ton to-morrow morning, for she is an Englishwoman, and has never seen any of my relatives." This I did, and Harriet's miniature was duly admired by Mrs. Codwise-Bertie. In the afternoon of the day after I landed at Southampton I took his Majesty's mail to London, traveling all night and arriving in London early on a Sunday morning. In the mail was a gentleman who had crossed with me from Havre to Southampton, and who asked me if I knew the history of the gentleman with whom I had been walking on the steamer's deck. I said : No; I only knew that he was an American from New York, and that I knew some of his relatives there. "Well," said he, " he was on the stage, and was acting ' the part of Ranger in a play at Southampton, when the lady who is now his wife, and was then a rich widow, saw him and 66 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. fell in love with him. She was of good English family, of the name of Bertie, and he took that name in addition to his own when he married her, and is now Mr. Codwise-Bertie." The fact is that he was a nephew of Mrs. John Kane, Harriet's mother, whose maiden name was Maria Codwise, a great beauty, and the sister of David Codwise, Master in Chancery. This Codwise-Bertie was, I believe, a wild sort of fellow, and took to the stage. I never saw him again till some twenty or twenty-five years afterward, when he called at my house, 5 West Sixteenth Street, and I think not long after died in Brooklyn. From London I went by mail coach to Glasgow, which then it took some forty-eight hours to do, traveling day and night. I must have arrived in Glasgow about October 14 or 15, 1829, and I record in my notebook that I spent the winter of 1829-30 there, and " I don't wish my worst enemy a greater punishment than to spend a similar one, as the following journal will testify." The journal referred to is a diary kept by me beginning on October 21, 1829, at Glasgow, being my twenty-first birthday, and kept up till December 14, 1830. My uncle Walter Wood had promised me a third share of his Trinidad business if I would prove my real love to Miss Kane by remaining in Glasgow for one year. After that I might go out to New York and be married. This was a sore trial, and if I felt it deeply myself, I made myself abundantly disagreeable to all my relatives and friends, and my diary gives the details. There is a queer mixture of the heart-sore lover, boyishness, and shrewdness in the diary. I have been looking over portions of it with a good deal of interest and amusement. In those days of sailing packets the course of post to and from Glasgow and New York was about sixty days, and how often I quoted to myself Pope's lines: " Ye gods, annihilate but space and time, And make two lovers happy," but this was not granted till some twenty-five years after ward by the completion of the Atlantic electric telegraph. I don't suppose my diary would interest any of my descendants half as much as myself, so I save myself the trouble of copying it out here. The understanding with my uncle Walter Wood was that I should sail for New York to be married about October 1, 1830. My I MEET HARRIET KANE. 67 objective point was to get at least two months knocked off this long and dreary period of probation, so as to sail for New York August 1. My uncle and aunt Walter, with my uncle and aunt Alexander Dennistoun, took a trip to the south of England and Paris about the middle of May, 1830, and I got my sister Anna, who was a great favorite with my uncle Walter, to intercede for me, and her interces sion prevailed. I secured my passage out by the packet ship Hiber- nia, Captain Maxwell, to sail from Liverpool August 1, and on June 4 a happy man I was. I received Anna's letter on June 4 telling me that my uncle Walter withdrew his objection to my going to New York whenever I chose, but that both she and he strongly advised me not to go for two months. My mother and I and the children had gone out to Germiston, my uncle Walter's place, about two miles out in the country, and it would not have done for me to leave my mother there without a man in the house, so I decided to wait till August 1, as above stated, when my mother intended to go to Elie. On one occasion, before leaving Glasgow, my grandfather said to me : " So, Wullie, you're going to throw yourself away upon a foreigner, you that might have married the best in the land." However, he got over his anger before I left, for I see that I say in my diary under date of July 28, 1830: "I bid good-by to my grandfather and Mrs. Dennistoun ; very kind both." CHAPTER VII. MARRIAGE AND WEDDING TRIP. On July 29, 1830, I left Glasgow for Liverpool in the steamer Majestic, and lived at Alexander McGregor's, Abercromby Square, till August 4, when I sailed in the Hibernia for New York. In the interval news had been received in Liverpool of the French Revo lution, and the "three days of July 29, 30, and 31, 1830." I knew that my sister Anna, my uncle and aunt Walter, and my uncle and aunt Alexander Dennistoun were all there, and I did not know what might happen to them, but selfishly hoped I might not be detained from New York by whatever might happen. I was thankful when a southwest storm, which had detained the Hibernia from August 1, moderated enough to let her go to sea on August 4, but the wind was still so strong from southwest that we went out by the north of Ireland, coasting along within sight of its rugged, mountainous coast. The only person I knew on board was Henry Parish of Hamburg, a very handsome, gentlemanlike fellow, and pretty wild. After a pleasant passage of twenty-nine days we ar rived in New York on September 2, 1830. Will Cross and Henry Norris came off for me in a boat, and I landed at Whitehall Slip, left my traveling bag at the Adelphi, a white marble hotel over looking the Bowling Green, burned down in the great fire of 1835, then off for Mr. John Hone's house, 73 Greenwich Street, where I found my beloved Harriet looking, if possible, more beautiful than ever. The first person that came down to meet me was Mrs. Hone, whom in the dusk I took for Harriet, and clasped to my heart, but Harriet came downstairs afterward and stood behind the door, not liking to enter. She wrote quite a funny ballad upon the meeting, which I quote from memory. I can only recall one or two of the lines. Those made on the occasion of our first meeting after my year's absence began something in this way : MARRIAGE AND WEDDING TRIP. 69 " He flew to Seventy-three, And loud and well he pulled the bell, Which answered quickly to his greeting. Scarce he spoke, for his heart was beating, Faithful William Wood ! Thoughts all intent on meeting, Faithful William Wood ! "The lady whom he thus addressed Was aged full thirty-three, And while she to his heart was pressed She sighed for liberty. ' Zounds, madam, have I thus offended ? ' 'Yes, you've taken me for your intended,' Blundering William Wood ! Thoughts all intent on meeting, Faithful William Wood ! " Then down his lady backward came, And stood behind the door. Scarce had she courage for to claim The man she did adore. He saw her stand and seized her hand And said : ' My love, what is't thou fearest ? We shall never, never part, No, never, never, Harriet dearest. ' Faithful William Wood ! " There were several more verses, and I am not sure but that the above from memory mixes up portions of those which I have for gotten. I should mention that we brought out in the Hibernia the news of the French Revolution of 1830, and that our news was telegraphed up from quarantine to the city by means of a semaphore. After a good deal of resistance on her part Harriet at last con sented that our marriage should take place on September 15 at her sister Mrs. Hone's house, 73 Greenwich Street, at 8 p. m. The fashion then was to have evening weddings. The intervening days were spent most happily, but I recollect two pieces of selfishness on my part. I would not let her accept an invitation for herself and me to take tea with her aunt Mrs. Gilbert Livingston, the eldest daughter of John Kane, the immigrating ancestor. Mrs. Livingston was a very lovely old lady, whose husband was a captain in the 70 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. British Army at the time of the Revolution, and three of whose four daughters were Mrs. David Codwise, Mrs. Beekman, and Mrs. Smith, wife of the Governor of Connecticut, all beauties in their day and called " the Three Graces." I have always regretted that I never saw Mrs. Livingston. The other piece of selfishness was refus ing to go to a high tea at Mrs. James V. H. Lawrence's, Harriet's sister, Emily Augusta Kane. It was the custom then for the bride and groom not to see each other the day before the wedding, so on September 14 I felt very solitary, and thought I would relieve the tedium of existence by walking past 73 Greenwich Street and up Rector Street. I was on the south side of Rector Street, and about halfway between Greenwich Street and Broadway, when whom should I see tripping down the north side with a gentleman but Harriet ! Of course I looked pretty black, but crossed over to them, when she burst into laughter at my blank astonishment, and could not for a little introduce the gentleman for laughing. He proved to be Captain Finch of the United States Navy, an old admirer of hers, who afterward took the name of Bolton, and who had met her acci dentally when she was out doing some shopping for her sister. We were married on Wednesday, September 15, by the Rev. Dr. Matthews of the Reformed Dutch Church in Washington Square, at Mrs. Hone's house, 73 Greenwich Street, a pretty building with a lit tle garden in front. The house was of brick with white marble fac ings. It was pulled down and warehouses built in its place, but the number remained until about three years ago (1886), when it was all changed, and now I can only guess at the site of the house which up to that time I paid my respects to every September 15. All the Kane and Hone connections were present at the wedding, but I forget the names. We remained at Mrs. Hone's all next day, as I had to make my money arrangements with our agents, Buchanan, Colder & Co., for our wedding jaunt traveling expenses. On the morning of Friday, September 17, we left New York for Albany in the steamer Albany; a fine morning, and many of Har riet's old beaux were at the wharf to see us off. I recollect that Pendleton Hosack proposed accompanying us to Albany, but he did not get any encouragement. We had a delightful sail up the Hud son, and were as happy as two young lovers could be. We arrived at Albany about 9 p. m., and, as I say in my journal, " under my MARRIAGE AND WEDDING TRIP. 71 wife's guidance," found out Drake's Hotel, where we took tea and breakfasted next morning, all for the small sum of three dollars, for which we had beefsteak, chicken, and peaches, besides coffee and tea. I made a bargain with the firm of Thorpe & Sprague to have what was called an " exclusive extra, " — that is, a coach with four horses, — entirely to ourselves, starting and stopping when we chose, from Albany to Utica for thirty-two dollars. We left Albany on September 18 at 10.30 a. m. Passing through Schenectady we went to see Colonel Charles Kane's house. We stopped for din ner at Amsterdam : roast beef, pork steaks, chicken, apple pie, pound cake, etc., all for the small sum of seventy-five cents for both. We drove on to Caughnawaga, where we took tea, slept, and breakfasted next morning, for % 1.75. I am sorry to say we seem to have traveled on Sunday, as we left Caughnawaga on Sep tember 19 at 8 a. m., dined at Little Falls at the cost of seventy- five cents, traveled all day along the banks of the Mohawk, enjoying splendid scenery, a mixture of the Trosachs, Killin, and Dunkeld, but on a larger scale and finer than any of them. We traveled on Saturday forty miles, and on Sunday fifty-six, arriving at Utica at 5 P. M. There I made an arrangement to be taken to Buffalo, and then back by way of Lewiston to Albany, in a four-horse coach all to ourselves, starting and stopping when we pleased, for $160. I am glad to see that at least we both read our Bibles that Sunday evening. In Utica we put up at Wells' Canal House. On Monday, September 20, 1830, we rose at six, and set off for Trenton Falls at 8 A. m., arriving there at 10 a. m., having driven over a horrible road. We were delighted with the falls. The rocks are imperfectly horizontal strata, and full of petrifactions, such as trilobites, curly-wurly stone serpents, etc., etc., imbedded in dark blue limestone. Plenty of beautiful rock crystals are found, and were kept for sale at the hotel, of which I bought twelve crystals, pyramidal at both ends, for 2s. 6d. sterling. We walked along by the water side, and were enraptured. Returning through the forest to the hotel, we looked down upon the path by which we had walked upstream. It was about 150 feet below us. We both thought that the falls looked better from the road along the top of the cliffs than from the lower road — that is to say that waterfalls 72 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. look better viewed through foliage than bare and with the foliage high above them. " We dined at the Rural Resort, the hotel near the falls, kept by a Mr. Sherman. Got a famous dinner and a bottle of porter, views and description of the falls, and the crystals for $2.25, and paid for the chaise there and back $5. In the evening we sat before a capital wood fire in the inn at Utica ; that sort of fuel was new to me, and it made a very cheerful fire, and was the only sort of fuel used there abouts. The landlord told me he would board a man and his wife, with bedroom and private parlor, for $12 per week — $624 per annum. Mr. T. Charles Winthrop, Harriet's brother-in-law, told me that he, his wife, child [the child was Frank], and servant boarded, with bedroom and parlor, in New York [and this was in Hudson Square, I recollect] for $612 per annum ; so I doubt not it could be done cheaper here [Utica]. I have just been asking the landlord what he would charge per annum for a man and his wife's board, with bed room and private parlor, and he said $416. We left Utica Tuesday, September 21, at 8 a.m., rather troubled in mind at being charged $8 for two days' board and lodging. We arrived at 5 p. m. at Syra cuse ; the country was much more cleared than that previously passed. We saw two Indian squaws and two Indian men with their blankets wrapped round them ; we presumed that they were Oneidas, as we passed through Oneida village soon after. Driving over some high ground, we saw a forest extending northward as far as the eye could reach ; the country below us seemed a dead level like the bottom of a lake, which it probably once was. Observed some new clearing and places in the forest burned, the black stumps still smok ing and most desolate-looking. We passed through a great many villages along the road, but more like young towns than what we old- world folks call villages ; nearly all the houses were two or three stories high, nicely painted outside white, yellow, or red, being built of frame or brick. Syracuse is a large, bustling place with a magni ficent hotel, and I observed several more of smaller size scattered about. We visited the salt works ; the brine is brought from salt springs at Salina, about a mile and a half distant, through bored logs, and is evaporated at Syracuse in large square wooden pans. The Erie Canal passes through Syracuse, and the branch canal to Lake Ontario, called the Oswego Canal, strikes off at Syracuse, so MARRIAGE AND WEDDING TRIP. Jl making it a place of great bustle with canal boats, stagecoaches, etc., etc. There are thirty-four annual boarders in this hotel, and a man and his wife, with bedroom and private parlor, pay five or six dollars per week, according to the size of the parlor. "Wednesday, September 22. Breakfasted in the public room, and left at 8 a. m. for Canandaigua, where we arrived at 6 p. m., having traveled sixty-five miles. In the course of our journey passed across Cayuga Lake by a wooden bridge one mile long. Cayuga Lake is forty miles long and from one to two miles in breadth. From the west end of the bridge it is thirty-nine miles to Ithaca, from which stages run to New York, Newburg, and the Catskills. Before reaching Cayuga Lake we came to Auburn, a beautiful place, where is the State prison. We had for lunch there apple pie and milk, costing fifty cents, in a magnificent hotel built of dark gray stone. All the way along we have been struck by the magnificent appear ance of the inns, far finer than any I have seen on any road I have traveled on in Great Britain. The country we passed through to day is cleared to a greater extent on both sides of the road than before, and looks more fertile and civilized. Great numbers of extensive orchards all along the road, the trees loaded with fruit ; I observed several fine peach trees and plum trees immensely loaded with fruit. The crops still out are all either Indian corn or buck wheat, principally the former, from which they first cut off the upper part and make it into little stacks to dry for fodder. The lower part, on which the corncobs are, is allowed to grow for some time longer, and all the juice of the plant goes to its nourishment. The cobs are then plucked by hand, and the rest of the plant is allowed to remain in the ground, after which cattle are driven in to eat up what remains. Good farms cleared, with farmsteadings, cost about thirty dollars per acre. To-day we passed one Indian woman. We also passed Seneca Lake, which is thirty-nine miles long, and at its head is the town of Geneva, through which we passed and stopped to change coaches, decidedly the prettiest place we have yet seen on our journey. It stands on a high bank facing the lake, which is very deep and looks like the sea. This American Geneva is said to resemble its Swiss namesake. On the way between Geneva and Canandaigua I got an apple thrown to me by a little fellow who meant to be particularly civil, but it hit me right in the eye, and gave 74 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. me a good deal of pain. We arrived at Canandaigua and spent the night there. It is situated on a lake of the same name." In refer ence to the apple hitting me I find written in my journal in Har riet's pretty little hand the following jeu d' esprit : " We regret to state that the above was not the only disagreeable occurrence which our unfortunate travelers have been called upon to sustain, for in passing a ditch 4 by 8 feet our absent bridegroom pushed his wife from beside him, and lodged her in the middle of the aforesaid puddle, together with many other unseasonable incivilities, which so annoyed the little lady that she took the tantrums and died in a quarter of an hour ! ! The next day appeared the following paragraph in the Daily Advertiser : " ' This morning by Mr. Sandemar, William Wood, Esq., of this city, to Janet, second daughter of James Pollock. " ' Also, " ' DIED. " ' Last night, in the twentieth year of her age, Harriet Amelia, wife of William Wood, Esq., and youngest daughter of the late John Kane. " ' And has she gone, the young, the gay, The child of fancy, fun, and frolic ? And her gudeman is off to-day To wed the lovely Janet Pollock. " ' —Shakespere.' " Janet Pollock was a great friend of my sister Anna when we were children, and one day she told Anna that if I danced with Phemie Ranken that evening, and not with her, she would know I did not care about her. She was a beautiful girl, and grew up a very handsome woman, and married Charles Tennent, who went in Glas gow by the nickname of " the Viper." He was a younger brother of John Tennent, a great political friend of my two uncles, and chair man of John's parliamentary committee when he stood for the rep resentation of the city of Glasgow in 1837. "On Thursday, September 23, 1830, we traveled all day through a well-cleared country, with great numbers of orchards. At East Bloom- MARRIAGE AND WEDDING TRIP. 75 field bought some black apples, peculiar to that part of the country; they are merely deep dark red. We lunched at West Avon on apple pie and milk, and only paid twenty-five cents for both. Arrived at Batavia at 5 p. m.; the dirtiest inn we have met with, but the people civil. Took tea at the public table for the first time, as we find it costs % 1.50 more when we have it and breakfast in a private parlor. Our board and lodging at the Canandaigua hotel cost us $4. We passed a cottage to-day which had a board hung out with ' Smallpox ' written on it, a warning to keep away. At the inn yard at Canan daigua was a board with ' Cross Dog ' in large letters. On the road we passed the following sign : ' Worthy L. Churchill's Store.' I observed the following notice frequently painted up along the road : ' Cash for Wheat.' The road to-day was good, although it had been raining ; it lay for a great way through the Genesee meadows, celebrated for producing very fine wheat. We passed through Caledonia, a place originally settled by Scottish folk. I was quite surprised at the number of villages and nice-looking houses with pretty locust trees in front. "September 24, 1830. Left Batavia at 8 a. m. Our bill was two dollars. Country still improving as we drive along. Took lunch at Williamsville. Before reaching Rathburn's Hotel, Buffalo, which we did at 3 P. m., we traveled over a horrid road- work, with trees laid alongside, and called a corduroy road. What with the jolting and heat Harriet had a very bad headache. I walked down to the harbor and saw a number of fine schooners. Lake Erie has exactly the appearance of the sea. Many Germans were encamped on the banks of the canal, which here enters Lake Erie, on their way to Ohio. Harriet and I took tea at the public table. About one hundred people sat down to the meal. The room was lit by 5 moon lamps and in spermaceti candles on the table and a chandelier above. This is a splendid hotel ; quite a pleasure to stay in it. Buffalo is situated on a high bank looking down upon Lake Erie. The principal street runs parallel to the lake shore. Bought a pair of very pretty Indian moccasins for $1.25." After these entries follows in Harriet's pretty Italian hand : " Find that I am much in the habit of writing what is not true ; must break myself of this evil practice, as I observe that I have told no less than three stories this very day. Mem. — Must endeavor, 76 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. as much as possible, to imitate in every respect my exemplary wife ! " My journal resumes : " Saturday, September 25, 1830. Left Buf falo at 8 a. m. with four men, one of whom stared at Harriet so as to excite my choler. We drove to Black Rock, and crossed the Niagara in a boat, the paddles of which were worked by horses mov ing a horizontal wheel on a level with the deck. The color of the water light green and the current very swift. I was not sorry when we got ashore, as I thought if any accident befell the horses we might be carried down the river and over the Falls. When landed, we got into a coach and drove along a good road to Forsyth's Hotel, the only one at that time near the Falls, where we arrived about n a. m. We got a bedroom looking right down on the Falls, which are magnificent, and one's admiration of them increases the longer you look at them. We are both struck with the goodness of Captain Basil Hall's simile : 'The sea falling from the moon.' We descended the wooden stairs to the foot of the Falls, and got quite drenched by the spray. The guide had not on his proper overalls for going under the Falls, and so would not go with me, and I had to postpone it till the next morning, when a young -English officer, Lieutenant Hill, of the 2d West India Regiment, went with me. Harriet and I went and sat on Table Rock, both before and after dinner, and since tea we have been out on the piazza viewing the Falls by moonlight. We saw a beautiful rainbow, caused by the refraction of the sun's rays by the spray, after dinner. " Sunday, September 26, 1830. Rose at 6 a. m. and with Lieuten ant Hill went under the sheet of water as far as Termination Rock, on which I sat, and of which fact I have got a certificate from the guide, for which I paid one dollar. The guide said that it was one of the most difficult days for going under the Falls he had ever tried, — four times more difficult than yesterday, — one other gentle man who wished to go with us he dissuaded from going on account of the difficulty, which, I fancy, was caused by the wind blowing up stream. I had on my boots, drawers, and an oilskin bathing gown with a hood. I was drenched to the skin, and several times my breath quite left me, but on the whole it was not near so bad as I had anticipated. If one should lose his presence of mind, he would be very apt to fall into the abyss below. I saw one eel, and the MARRIAGE AND WEDDING TRIP. JJ water spray was just like a water engine playing upon you, as Cap tain Basil Hall says. The water appeared white, not green ; but, except quite near the top, it was all like spray. Harriet and I went over in a small boat to Goat Island, and I think crossing there, just below the Falls, required quite as much courage as to go under them, the current is so strong and you go so close under the Ameri can Fall. We walked round Goat Island, crossing by a bridge to Bath Island. We both went to the extremity of the platform which projects over the British Fall, and there had the grandest and most terrific view in the world. We saw the so-called Hermit in a black dress. At the ferry, lying on the beach, was the body of a woman which had come over the Falls this morning. It was covered with a blanket, and looked like an Indian warrior who had been toma hawked. It was supposed to be one of the passengers on a steamer which had been blown up on Lake Erie about ten days ago. " Monday, September 27, 1830. We set off in a coach for Niagara, formerly Newark, where we dined. It rained heavily all day, but we accomplished our object, which was to see Lake Ontario, which is very like the sea, so blue and so boundless. Old Forsyth, the landlord of the hotel on the Canadian side of the Falls and the only one at the Falls, and his father were captured by ' the foe, the monster Brandt,' and brought into Canada some fifty years ago. His father possessed six hundred acres on the banks of the Susque hanna. He says that when he was a child rattlesnakes, eagles, and turkey buzzards used to haunt the Falls ; now there are none. He recollects when there was only one white man at Buffalo, of the name of Winnie, an Indian trader, a very handsome fellow ; and all along to Black Rock were to be seen the Indians fishing. Where Rochester now stands, he and his brother one night slept under a tree when they were hunting raccoons, and the only route from Niagara to Genesee was by an Indian trail. Brandt's son was here a few weeks ago. He has a fine property of twelve miles square on Grand River, with a fine house, and lives in European style. (See Campbell's ' Gertrude of Wyoming ' for all about Brandt.) " Tuesday, September 28, 1830. Left Niagara Falls at 9 a. m. and drove to Queenston, where we crossed the ferry and drove half a mile to Lewiston, where we got our 'extra,' and proceeded to Lock- port, where we arrived at 3 p. m., and took up our quarters at Lock- 78 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. port House. Here we found a sort of tawdry style for which doubtless we shall have to pay through the nose. Part of the way here we drove along the Ridge Road, which it is supposed was formerly the bank of Lake Ontario ; when we turned off it, the road was very bad ; both sides of it were lined with apple and peach orchards loaded with fruit. At a house on the roadside asked for peaches, and a large dishful was brought out. I selected fourteen of the best, for which I paid four cents ! and might have had the remaining ten without further cost. We passed several Tuscarora Indians on the road. After dinner went and looked at the double row of stone locks on the canal at the beginning of the deep cut, which runs for three miles through solid rock. "Wednesday, September 29, 1830. Left Lockport at 7.30 a. m. ; paid f 3.50 for board and lodging, and was asked to remember ' the por ter' for the first time in America. Traveled to-day sixty-five miles, and arrived at Rochester at 5 p. m. Dined on fourpence worth of crackers and cheese. Greater part of our journey to-day was along the Ridge Road. Coming through the forest saw ice as thick as a cent. We are staying at the Rochester House. There is a ball in it to-night to which the managers asked the honor of our company ; we declined on the plea of fatigue from traveling. Harriet and I sallied out in the moonlight after tea and strolled through the town ; it is quite a city, and contains eleven thousand inhabitants, hand some stores of brick and stone, a number of churches, one of which is Gothic, built throughout of dark gray stone, and by far the finest and most chaste church I have seen in America. Sixteen years ago this was pathless forest, and now it looks a great deal more like New York than Albany. On our return from our walk we passed the ballroom and saw a man dancing in a frock coat. " Thursday, September 30, 1830. Rose at seven and after breakfast visited the Genesee Falls ; very poor after Niagara ; also visited the aqueduct over the Genesee River. Paid at the Rochester House two dollars, and met there again Lieutenant Hill and party ; he came to our room to see us, and they seem determined to keep by us, now that we have come together again. Harriet and I walked out by the bank of the lake in the moonlight ; we arrived here [Geneva] at 5 p. m. " Friday, October 1, 1830. Left Geneva at 9 A. m., driving by the MARRIAGE AND WEDDING TRIP. 79 side of Seneca Lake ; the scene beautiful. The Hills left at the same time. Stopped and dined at Auburn, and visited the State prison, which left a disagreeable impression. We saw three mur derers ; one had been there ten years. The convicts looked very clean. Arrived at Syracuse by a new road via Skaneateles. The Hills and we took tea together. " Saturday, October 2. Drove from Syracuse to Utica, dining at Vernon with the Hill party. They have gone to Baggs' Hotel, and we to Wells', preferring it to the other. " Colonel Charles Kane of Schenectady, on horseback, stopped our coach near Amsterdam to tell us to be sure to call on his daughters in Schenectady. He himself was going on business to Herkimer and had left word, he said, all along the road for us to say he wished to see us. He gave Harriet and me quite a paternal benediction. " On October 5 called at Mr. Charles Kane's house in Schenec tady, and saw his beautiful daughter, Mrs. Ctibb of Boston ; also a picture of John Kane, the immigrating ancestor, which looked not unlike George III., probably from the style of dress. " When we arrived at Albany, we called on Mr. Oliver Kane, Har riet's uncle, who lived in quite a splendid old-fashioned house, called Kane's Place or the Mansion, quite in the country appar ently, although in the heart of Albany. Here I renewed my acquaintance with Helen Kane, the eldest daughter, and was intro duced to my new cousins, Anna and Lydia Kane, and to Mrs. Kane. There was a fine lawn in front of the house and fine old trees, with lots of white-crested pet pigeons flying and strutting about. You entered from the lawn into quite a large room with piano, chairs, sofas, etc., etc. Mr. Oliver Kane seemed to be a very pleasant old gentleman, who told me that his father [Harriet's grandfather) was next heir but one to the Shane's Castle estate [Lord O'Neill's] in Ire land, and came over to America very young, having been sent out of the way by the other claimants of the Shane's Castle property ; that when the American Revolution broke out he raised a regiment and at first fought for a time against the English, but joined them when the Americans declared their entire independence of Great Britain, and so got his fine estate in Dutchess County, N. Y., confiscated by the Americans, but the British Government, as a compensation, gave him an annuity of five hundred dollars, which was continued to his widow. 80 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. Exceedingly gratified at finding so many kind and highly respectable new relations, and only sorry that we cannot stay long enough to avail ourselves of their hospitality. " Wednesday, October 6, 1830. Drove to-day from Albany to Pitts- field, which is in New England, where we now are. Took three seats in the stage from Albany to Boston, so as to secure the whole of the back seat. For this we paid $26.25. We passed through New Leb anon, the Shaker village, also Lebanon Springs. A beautiful view from the Taconic Hills, over which we passed, and which separate New York from Massachusetts. There was a very disagreeable set of low hounds of passengers in the coach. One old ' hoary vice and gray iniquity ' was particularly annoying. " Friday, October 8, 1830, Northampton, Mass. Arrived here last night at seven, and slept this morning till nine. Harriet so ill and fatigued as to make it necessary to take breakfast in bed. After it, although still very ill, she got up, and we set off together in a barouche for Mount Holyoke. We crossed the Connecticut River in a horse boat, — i. e., a boat propelled by a horse, moving on a hor izontal wheel, which moved the machinery instead of steam, — and drove up Mount Holyoke to about half a mile from the top. The rest of the ascent was pretty tough work, especially for one so ill as my little wife. However, she persevered, and at last we reached the top, and had one of the most lovely views I ever saw — the Connecticut winding through a beautiful valley at our feet. The view resembles that of the 'mazy Forth unraveled' from Stirling Castle more than anything I have ever seen. Perhaps the Stirling Castle view is the finer of the two. We could see the East and West Rocks at New Haven, said to be ninety-three miles distant. The guide showed us a live rattlesnake in a jar, which he had caught on the mountain. We had rather a perilous drive down the mountain, but reached the foot in safety. We then drove to Old Hadley, through which runs a street a mile long and two hundred feet wide, planted with the most magnificent elms I ever saw. This beautiful street runs right across a peninsula formed by a curve of the lovely Connecticut. The Rev. John Russell, an ancestor of Harriet's [see the genealogical tree, p. 4, in H. A. W.], was minis ter of Old Hadley in 1659-62, and was the hider of Goffe and Whalley, two of the judges of Charles I., who came from their MARRIAGE AND WEDDING TRIP. 8 1 hiding place and assisted the villagers to repel an attack of the Indians, of which occurrence I have seen a print. The meadows of the Connecticut are beautiful and very fertile, and reminded me of the Carse of Gowrie. In Northampton there are many very fine frame houses, painted white. One, belonging to a Mr. Bowers, is built like a Grecian temple, with six Ionic pillars in front. There are numbers of fine old elm trees on each side of the streets, and we are staying at a very nice, clean inn, though not the largest, kept by a Mr. Warner, who tells me a man and his wife can have a private parlor and board for five dollars per week. "Monday, October n, 1830. Arrived at the Tremont House, Boston, on Saturday night, October 9, after a long, fatiguing ride from 3 a. m. Raining nearly all the way. Passed through Belcher- town, where we breakfasted ; Leicester and Worcester, at which last place we dined. The country resembles Galloway in Scot land, with hill and dale and well cleared, and stone fences in many places instead of the usual wooden zigzags. The Tremont Hotel is the finest in the United States, the front of gray granite, and it can accommodate two hundred guests. There is a dining room and drawing room for the single gentlemen, and separate ones for the married men and their wives, besides handsome private par lors and delightful bedrooms. I had a capital hot bath after ar riving on Saturday night. There is also a good reading room, where European and American newspapers, reviews, etc., can be had- Capital dinners ; each person has a bill of fare beside his plate. Harriet and I got a chaise and visited Bunker Hill, on which they are erecting a fine obelisk of granite. I ascended as far as I could,. and had a bird's-eye view of Boston, which is situated on a penin sula. There are communications with the mainland by five long bridges. Visited Harvard College, Watertown, Brookline, etc., and came into Boston again by the isthmus ; went out over Warren Bridge. Visited Fanueil Hall and the market, the latter of granite, much handsomer than the Liverpool one ; I should think as long, but not above half as broad. Mr. Sam Lawrence took us for a walk through the town yesterday. We are quite struck with the number of handsome private houses built of granite. Roads and many streets in and about Boston are macadamized. In the even ing went to Tremont Theater and saw ' The Jealous Wife ' and 82 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. 'Rip Van Winkle.' N. P. Willis joined us, and said he had just been appointed an attache to the United States Legation at London. "Tuesday, October 12, 1830. Left Boston for New York by way of Providence, R. I., in a stagecoach with the Patroon of Albany, Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Webster, and Judge Piatt. Harriet knew the first and last, and Mrs. Webster was introduced to them all. The Kanes are connected by a double marriage with the patroon's family, a Miss Kane, Harriet's aunt, having married General Jeremiah Van Rensselaer, and her uncle Elisha Kane having married his sister, a Miss Van Rensselaer, I think named Alida. We sailed from Provi dence in the steamer President for New York, where we arrived "Wednesday, October 13. A rainy day. Got two letters from Glasgow. "Thursday, October 14, 1830. We went to the fair of the Amer ican Manufacturers in the Masonic Hall, and were much pleased. Cross and Norris came to tea at Mrs. Hone's. " Friday, October 15,1 830. Set off at 7 a. m. for Philadelphia, which we reached at 7 p. m., via the Kills of Staten Island, New Brunswick, Princeton, Trenton, and then got into a steamboat on the Delaware which took us'to Philadelphia. "Saturday, October 16, 1830, spent in Philadelphia. Visited the Hall of Independence, where the Declaration was signed ; also the United States Bank, a fine Doric building of white marble, two fronts, with eight fluted Doric columns on each front ; we also visited Girard's Bank, of white marble with Corinthian columns. We after ward ascended to the top of the State House, and had a fine view of the city. Visited also Franklin's tomb and knelt on it ; the inscrip tion on it is thus : Benjamin ) Deborah \ Franklln> so his economical habits were carried even to the inscription on his gravestone. "We visited the Schuylkill Water Works, for supplying the city with water, and were much pleased ; also the Academy of Arts. " Walking near the United States Bank, Harriet saw a lady on the opposite side of the street, and said : ' Oh ! there is a cousin of mine, and her name is either Alida Van Rensselaer or Alida Kane [it hap pened to be both, A. V. R. Kane, afterward Mrs. Constable] ; let us MARRIAGE AND WEDDING TRIP. 83 try to avoid her,' but she caught sight of us, and insisted on taking us to call upon her father, Harriet's uncle, Elisha Kane, a very hos pitable and frank old gentleman, who pressed us to stay to dinner, but when I begged off, he said : 'Oh! we don't mind about you ; it's my niece I am so anxious to have remain.' However, we didn't, and in the evening he and his son, John K. Kane, a very intelligent, hand some fellow (afterward Judge Kane), called upon us at Head's Hotel. They wished Harriet to go to her uncle's, while I was to go with her cousin to one of the celebrated Wistar conversational parties, but we declined on the plea of fatigue, both of us being fonder of each other's company than anything else. Mr. John K. Kane gave me a letter of introduction to President Andrew Jackson, and another to Charles Carroll of Carrollton, the only surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence, and like a young fool as was I did not take the trouble to go to Carrollton and deliver it, and since I came to years of discretion have ever regretted my folly. "Sunday, October 17, 1830. Rose at 6 and set off at 7 for Balti more by steamboat, where we arrived about 6 p. m. The steamboat took us to Delaware Canal; then we went by a canal boat for four teen miles to Chesapeake Bay, where we got into another steamboat, which took us to Baltimore. We passed the mouth of the Susque hanna. The Delaware and Chesapeake Canal is ten feet deep. There is a deep cut for five miles, varying frem eight to seventy feet deep. To-day we have been in three States, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland. We had my friend William Cross, who had been my groomsman, with us all day on his way to Virginia to visit some of his mother's relatives, the Buchanans, in whose veins, and of course in his own, runs the blood of Pocahontas. We had also with us, and were introduced to him, the celebrated actor Hackett, the father of the future Judge Hackett. "Monday, October 18, 1830. After visiting the cathedral at Balti more, and also the fine column of white marble raised as a monu ment to Washington, we set out for the city of Washington at noon; it rained the whole way; we arrived there at 7 p. M. " Tuesday, October 19, 1830. We visited the Capitol, ascended to the top, and had a very extensive view, comprehending part of Virginia. Visited the Senate and House of Representatives, both semicircular, supported by pillars of Potomac pudding stone 84 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. with white marble bases and capitals. In the grand circular hall of the Capitol under the dome are four interesting paintings, viz.: the " Signing of the Declaration of Independence," the " Surrender of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown," the " Surrender of Burgoyne at Sara toga," and " Washington Resigning his Commission as Commander- in-Chief to Congress at Annapolis." Called at the White House on President Jackson, but the manservant with a strong Irish accent said the general had gone out riding with Mr. Andrew [Donaldson, his wife's son by her first husband], so I left my card with Mr. J. K. Kane's letter of introduction. We visited the Patent Office. While in Washington put up at Gadsby's Hotel. Returned on the evening of the 19th to Baltimore. On Wednesday, October 20, returned to Philadelphia, and on Thursday, October 21, my twenty-second birth day, returned to New York. Our marriage jaunt to Niagara, Boston, and Washington cost in all $475." Some day of the last ten in October was asked with Harriet to a large party at Mr. Philip Hone's given by him on his fiftieth birth day; I recollect thinking that was a great age, about as I consider one hundred now ! Mrs. Hone also gave us a reception at her house, 73 Greenwich Street. We sailed from New York for Liverpool in the Black Ball packet ship Canada, Captain Graham. My groomsman, William Cross, sailed with us. I think we sailed November 1, and had a very stormy passage with easterly winds nearly the whole way. We arrived off Holyhead on Tuesday, December 7, 1830, being the thirty-seventh day from New York, and so nearly out of provisions that there was serious talk of killing the cow. We came to anchor under some cliffs near Holyhead, waiting for a pilot ; when he did come, we found he had been three weeks out from Liverpool, and this news, although old, was new and very interesting to us. We heard that Henry Brougham was Lord Chancellor and the Tory ministry turned out, and did not know but that Daniel O'Connell might be King of Ireland. Harriet and I and some more of us decided to land at Holyhead and go thence by land to Liverpool, as the wind was still blowing a gale from the east, and we did not know how long we might be in reaching Liverpool. A schooner running into Holyhead in distress came alongside, and each of us was put in an armchair, securely fixed in it, and then hoisted up to the yardarm of the Canada, and thence MARRIAGE AND WEDDING TRIP. 85 lowered to the deck of the schooner, which we reached in safety, but it was rather a risky sort of transfer. When those who wanted to land at Holyhead had got on board, the schooner sailed for the harbor, where we landed, and got to a most com fortable inn, where we had a capital dinner, which we thoroughly enjoyed after our long voyage. We started for Liverpool by mail coach, I think that very night, and when crossing the suspension bridge over the Menai Strait, which joined the Island of Anglesea to the mainland, got the guard to procure a light, and so got a glimpse of the bridge which / had crossed by daylight in the autumn of 1828. We remained in Liverpool till Monday, December 13, waiting for the arrival of the Canada with our baggage. We left Liverpool by the mail coach on the afternoon of December 13, and arrived at Glasgow on Tuesday, December 14, at 4 P. m. My mother had left her house at 145 West George Street and gone to No. 137 West Bath Street, where we were warmly welcomed on our arrival. My sister Anna was dressed in the height of Parisian style and her hair in the extreme French mode, as she was just returning from France with her aunts and uncles, they having been in Paris during the " Trots Jours" of 1830 and the revolution of that year. Next day my mother took Harriet down to the kitchen to introduce her to old Betty, the cook. She had been fretted and bothered by me the previous winter, when I was in the worst of humors at being separated from my lady-love, and probably had vented some of my moroseness on the cook and her works, for which she paid me off by replying to my mother when she asked her what she thought of my young wife : " Weel, mem, I've seen a hantle bonnier folk and less wark made aboot them." CHAPTER VIII. GLASGOW LIFE. Besides my one-third of the Trinidad business, which was carried on in Glasgow under the firm name of William Wood & Co., and in Port of Spain, Trinidad, under that of George Reid & Co., my uncles Alexander and John Dennistoun gave me one-twelfth interest in J. & A. Dennistoun and A. & J. Dennistoun & Co., New Orleans, and the corresponding share of the portion held by them of James Dennistoun & Co., Havre, and A. Dennistoun & Co., Liverpool. I went to work in J. & A. Dennistoun's office in Mon trose Street, Glasgow, just behind where the Glasgow Bank then was. My wife and I spent all the winter of 1830-31 in 137 West Bath Street very happily, dining- frequently at Golfhill and at Ger- miston, where my uncle Walter lived, and where we spent some days in January, 1831, my aunt Helen being also there on a visit. The only large party that I recollect our attending was the Celtic ball, given, I believe, once every twenty-five years. It was held in the Assembly Rooms, Ingram Street, and was a very select affair. Every lady and gentleman had to wear something of tartan. Harriet wore a very rich satin plaid of Campbell tartan which belonged to my mother, and she was greatly admired. Many of the gentlemen wore dresses and arms which their ancestors had worn in the battles of the rebellion of 1745. During the spring of 183 1 my mother gave a ball at her house, 137 West Bath Street. What makes me remember it particularly is that Mr. Ramsay, professor of " humanity " (Latin) in the University of Glasgow, came in a sedan chair, and was carried up into the hall by his bearers, the top thrown back, and the front door opened, and out walked the dapper little gentleman in full evening costume and wear ing, I think, a cocked hat. It was the last time I ever saw a sedan chair in use. In May, 1831, 1 took the house No. 54 St. Vincent Street, Glasgow, GLASGOW LIFE. 87 then just behind the Western Club, my mother thinking we had better be settled in a house of our own. During the spring and summer of 1831 we paid visits to my uncle Walter's house at Germiston near Glasgow, which was owned by the Lockhart family. One of them, John Gibson Lockhart, was Sir Walter Scott's son-in-law, and three of them, Robert, -Dick, and Archie, were at school or college with me. Dick became an Indian officer, and was drowned in the Ganges, Archie rose to be colonel of one of the Highland regiments — I think the 92d — and Bob was, I think, a wine merchant in Glasgow. The father of the whole of them, and of the eldest brother, Captain Lockhart, of Mil ton Lockhart, and of the Rev. Lawrence Lockhart, who married Miss Blair, an heiress, was the Rev. Dr. Lockhart, of the College Church, Glasgow. The only excursion I recollect making in the summer of 1831 was with my wife to Dunoon, when she caught a bad cold by sitting on deck not warmly enough clad for our northern climate. At Germiston we met Aunt Helen Wood from Elie, my father's youngest sister, who took a great fancy to my wife, which lasted through Harriet's life, and she then, my wife not being very strong at the time, agreed to come and keep house for me at 54 St. Vin cent Street. It must have been during this summer that we had a visit at our own house from a Mrs. Nott, if I recollect, the wife of the president of Union College, who had been on a visit to Captain Archie Morrison, the cousin-german of Harriet's father. How Mrs. Nott heard of us in Glasgow I don't know, but she told Harriet that Mr. Morrison was exceedingly attached to all his American rela tions, although he had left New York at the Revolution, and looked upon all Americans as rebels. He had during the Revolution got a commission in the British Royals, and had risen to be a captain. His first wife was an English lady of great wealth, who died child less, leaving her property to her husband. His second wife was a Miss Harvey, the sister of Sir Felton Harvey, an aid-de-camp to the Duke of Wellington, who nursed the first Mrs. Morrison in her last illness, fell in love with the widower, and in due time married him, also dying childless, and leaving him a life interest in her estate. Captain Morrison was the son of a Malcolm Morrison, a Scots- 88 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. man, who had an estate in the Dover valley, Dutchess County, N. Y., contiguous to John Kane's, which latter was called Shar- vogues, after a place his father, Bernard Kane, had in Ireland, now forming part of Lord O'Neill's Shane's Castle property. Malcolm Morrison married Mary Kent, the sister of Sybil Kent (Mrs. John Kane), both daughters of the Rev. Elisha Kent, and sisters of Moss Kent, the father of the distinguished chancellor, James Kent. Captain Morrison lived in great style at Eaton Hall, near Norwich, England, associating with all the county people. He sent Harriet and me an invitation to come and visit him, but we could not con veniently go, and declined. He subsequently sent us a famous Nor folk turkey and roast of beef, for both of which edibles that county is celebrated. Aunt Helen took up her residence with us at 54 St. Vincent Street in the end of September or early in October, 1831. On October 16, 183 1, my eldest son, John Walter, was born. About March, 1832, I began to feel restless in Glasgow, finding that my relatives continued to look upon me as a boy, although I had been a married man for a year and a half. At that time our Liver pool house, Alexander Dennistoun & Co., was under the manage ment of a Mr. Joseph Lobley, a good bookkeeper, but not a gentleman by birth or education. I proposed to my uncle John Dennistoun that, as I was a partner of A. Dennistoun & Co., they should let me go up to Liverpool and manage the house there, as I felt that I would be more independent if I were away from the supervision of my elder relatives and were thrown entirely among strangers. My experience in New York had given me unbounded youthful confidence in my own capabilities. The only difficulty was to get my uncles to have the same confidence in their nephew of the mature age of 23^. John Dennistoun, who was only five years older than myself, and more like an elder brother than an uncle, tried to dissuade me from going, stating that I knew no one in Liverpool, and was cutting myself off from all my relations without benefiting myself pecuniarily, and taking a great deal of responsibility and additional work on my shoulders. That was just what I wanted, to have an opportunity of " showing my paces," and after some weeks' deliberation and discus sion I carried my point, which I might not have been able to do had my uncle Walter Wood been alive, but he died on February 10, 1832. GLASGOW LIFE. 89 We had never been on our previous very friendly footing since I was sent out to New York in 1828, and I am sorry to say that I think I was a good deal to blame for this. As my guardian he assumed, and had a right to assume, a certain parental charge of me which I would not allow anyone to have but my mother, and except to her I fancy I have been a sort of natural rebel all my life. One day, several months before his death, we were in the office in Montrose Street together, and he said to me across the desk : "William, I have been making my will, and it is so made that those of my nephews and nieces who show most attention to your aunt will be best provided for." I struck my hand on the desk and said : " Then, Uncle Walter, she shall never have any attention from me." Of course this speech of mine did not add to our cordiality ; yet he continued always exceedingly kind to Harriet, and my aunt was very kind to us both. One day in the beginning of February or end of January, 1832, I was down in the office, and my uncle Walter and my grandfather were present. Asiatic cholera had just made its appearance in Sunderland, and was working northwestward, and was expected in Glasgow. My uncle, who was then, and long had been, a visitor in Dr. Chalmers' former parish of St. John among the poor classes of that poor district, said he was not half as much afraid of cholera as he was of typhus fever. He went home to Germiston that day and never left it alive, being stricken with a most violent type of typhus fever, so bad that at his funeral on February 10, 1832, none of the company was allowed to enter the house, and the services were performed on the front steps, the company being assembled on the lawn. He was buried in the Dennistoun burying ground next my father in the high church yard, right under the steeple, in a corner formed by it and the church, facing westward. Long after that his body and my father's and mother's, and more of the family, were removed to my uncle Alexander Dennistoun's ground in the Glasgow necropolis, close to John Knox's monument.* I have often thought of erecting there some tablet to their memories, especially * The reason of this removal was that the ground near and around the cathedral or high church had been used for centuries as a burying ground, and had by constant accretion been raised up eight or ten feet, and pressed against the cathedral walls, so that by Act of Parliament all this accretion was cleared away in order to preserve the walls of the cathedral from caving in. 90 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. to that of my mother, but so far it has ended in thought ; but I think if I ever reach Glasgow again I will take steps to have it done ; but I fear that date is like the Greek kalends. Not being on the best of terms with my uncle Walter at the time of my eldest son's birth, I had intended to name and did call him only John, after my father, by way of showing my independence. But when he came to be baptized on August 5, 1833, by the Rev. John Kelly, after I had joined the Congregational church called Bethesda in Duncan Street, Liverpool, I repented me of my bad temper, and had my boy christened John Walter, which name he has borne ever since, and more frequently Walter than the joint name. CHAPTER IX. LIVERPOOL LIFE. A house was secured for us in Liverpool at 52 Shaw Street, Everton, and the furniture of 54 St. Vincent Street, Glasgow, transferred there somehow ; and we, — that is, Harriet, myself, baby, and nurse, — sailed from Glasgow for Liverpool per steamer John Wood (no connection of ours) on May 7, 1832, and I took charge of our Liverpool house, carried on under the firm name of Alexan der Dennistoun & Co. In order to let my descendants understand the position which I occupied when I went to Liverpool I think it well to give here some account of the mercantile houses and agencies of the mother house of James & Alexander Dennistoun of Glasgow. In the end of last century or beginning of this my grandfather Dennistoun had a partner of the name of Alexander McGregor, who was subsequently in partnership with my father. I believe he came from [Kirkintilloch near Glasgow. The word picture of Mr. Osbaldisione and Tresham in "Rob Roy" might have been drawn from Alexander McGregor. He was an over bearing and disagreeable man, but a clever merchant. He married Mrs. Finlay, the widow of Major Finlay of the Engineers, military secretary to the Duke of Richmond. She was a very pretty little woman and McGregor a handsome man, and they had tempers to match. He lived in good style in Everton in a large house sur rounded with trees, all long since torn down. At a great dinner party Mr. and Mrs. McGregor had a tremendous falling out, and he said : " Madam, if you don't know how to behave yourself, you had better retire to your nursery," which she did. Fancy the feelings of the guests ! Mrs. McGregor was the mother, by her first hus band, of George Finlay, the companion of Byron in Greece, and author of the " History of Greece." She had three sons by her sec ond husband — James, William, and Walter. The first was manager of the Bank of Liverpool when I went there, afterward chairman of the Southwestern Railway, and M. P. for Sandwich. 92 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. Alexander McGregor & Co. was originally the Liverpool house of J. & A. Dennistoun, but somewhere about 1822 Alexander Den nistoun & Co. was established, and my uncle Alexander Dennistoun took charge of it, living at Backwood on the Dee in Cheshire. My uncle James Dennistoun had founded our Havre house under the firm name of James Dennistoun & Co., and lived at Havre for some time, but left that place and put the house under the charge of George Anderson and a Mr. Jones. The former had been a purser in the royal navy, and the latter had so long resided in France that he had almost forgotten English. James Dennistoun married Miss Margery Gordon of Milrig, Ayrshire, and took up house in Abercromby Square, Liverpool, taking charge of A. Den nistoun & Co. Alexander McGregor the elder was in 1826 or thereabouts made manager of the Branch Bank of England in Manchester, but the firm of Alexander McGregor & Co. was carried on by his nephew, also named Alexander McGregor, a very hospitable, eccentric, and cynical old bachelor, whom I knew very well. My uncle James Dennistoun died in the spring of 1828, and the business, which was little, was carried on by a confidential clerk of the name of Joseph Lobley, who was not a partner, but, I think, signed the firm name per procuration. Of course he had no friendly feeling to a young fellow like me coming up to assume command, and I finally got rid of him, and I think he went down to Glasgow to keep the books there of J. & A. Dennistoun. Alexander McGregor was friendly to me in his cynical way, and his cousin James, the banker, who married a Miss Small, daughter of my father's old friend Robert Small of the London and East India house of Small, Colquhoun & Co., was in clined to be friendly in a patronizing sort of way, which I did not like. I must have shown that I didn't, as I recollect he once said to me : " You must have forgotten what the Bible says — ' A man to have friends must show himself friendly.' " By this time his father was dead, and his mother had returned from Manchester to live at Everton. She and Harriet kept up a visiting acquaint ance, and on one occasion, when I went to call on her, I was in troduced to Mrs. George Finlay, an Athenian lady and wife of Mrs. McGregor's only son by her first husband, Major Finlay. Up to the time of my father's death in 1821 the subsidiary firms LIVERPOOL LIFE. 93 of J. & A. Dennistoun were Alexander McGregor & Co., Liverpool ; Buchanan, Wood & Co., Charleston, S. C; Dennistoun, Hill & Co., New Orleans ; about 1823-24 there was added to these James Den nistoun & Co., Havre ; and in 182 1 Buchanan, Wood & Co. was dissolved by my father, owing to Buchanan's death, etc., and the business was transferred to John Fraser & Co., who were for many years our agents. That firm eventually became Fraser, Trenholm & Co., and at the time of the rebellion George Trenholm became Secretary of the Treasury of the rebel government. John Fraser was from Inverness, and I recollect his sending a live alligator to J. & A. Dennistoun to be forwarded to his sister at Inverness. We sent it by his Majesty's mail coach. Well, our advent to Liverpool, as will be seen from the foregoing, was not accompanied by any "troops of friends." Outside of busi ness the only people we knew were old Mrs. McGregor and a nice old West India lady, a Mrs. Young, who was an aunt of my aunt Mrs. Alexander Dennistoun. I felt very keenly that I had to make my own way, and I looked so painfully young that I had serious thoughts of wearing blue spectacles. I never did, however, but put on a bold face, and assumed at once on 'Change the position I knew that I was en titled to as the sole representative of an old and well-known house. And as I had brokerages on cotton, flour, etc., to give away, I very soon found myself at home and getting the respect and confidence to which I was entitled as the representative of J. & A. Dennistoun. Our principal cotton brokers were Haywood & Ridgway, the former a good classical, French, and German scholar, and very much of a gentleman; he had married a Miss Lucy Vernon of Hanbury Hall, Worcestershire, of a very old family with the punning motto: "Ver non se?nper viret." Frank Haywood and I became great personal friends, and so did his wife and Harriet ; in fact, they were the only intimate friends we had in Liverpool for many years. He was the first translator into English of Kant's " Critique of Pure Reason," of which he gave me a presentation copy, but which I have never read beyond the preface up to this time (1889). It was published by Pickering & Co., London, in 1838. Ridgway was a fine, jolly, pleasant Englishman, but except on 'Change and as a broker we had no further intimacy. Another of our brokers was George Holt, a leading man in Liverpool, a Unita- 94 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. rian and good Radical. Haywood was an Episcopalian and Tory, so neither in religion nor politics did we agree, but our love of literature was a common bond, and of course his business interests naturally led him to be intimate with me. He used to have the barristers of the northern circuit dining with him when the judges came to Liv erpool twice a year, and he often asked me to meet them, and famous company they were. Among them I met Ellis, then Recorder of Leeds, and Adolphus, son of the well-known police magistrate of London. The two were the authors of the law reports known as those of "Ellis and Adolphus." A guest at these dinners was Rushton, the police magistrate of Liverpool, and christened by William Cob bett " Roaring Rushton." He was an excellent public speaker and a good Whig-Radical. First when I went to Liverpool Haywood lived in Abercromby Square, but afterward moved to a country place one or two miles from Liverpool, the name of which I forget. One day Rushton and I dined there together. It was in summer, and we agreed to walk home to Liverpool. In the course of our walk we began talking about books, and I recollect his saying to me : " Mr. Wood, you are a young man, and if you want to make your way in the world, devote yourself to historical reading," and, including biog raphies of celebrated men, I have to a large extent followed his advice. Haywood had a very pretty daughter, Lucy, and two sons, whom he had educated at Eton ; for, like Tony Lumpkin's friend, the bear leader, he "hated everything that was low," and would only allow his children to "dance to the genteelest of tunes." I think the two lads went into the army, but I have long lost sight of them and of Lucy, who was married, but I have forgotten to whom. Haywood & Ridgway was dissolved, and Haywood took his nephew Duncan Macvicar into partnership with him under the firm name of Haywood & Macvicar. His father was dead, but his mother, Hay wood's sister, was alive, and a very ladylike woman. Her brother- in-law was Sir John Macvicar, holding a high office in the army, who, when he came to Liverpool, visited Earl Derby at Knowsley, and there introduced his nephew Duncan Macvicar, greatly to the glory and satisfaction of the latter and of his uncle Frank Haywood. The latter was on friendly terms with Antonio Panizzi, librarian of the British Museum, and with whom he asked me to dine more than once. Panizzi was a great Italian Liberal and introduced Garibaldi LIVERPOOL LIFE. 95 to Haywood, and when the latter came to New York long years afterward, Haywood wrote to me saying he had not given him a letter of introduction to me, as he knew I did not like to be bothered with strangers, and for the same reason he wrote to me he did not give a letter of introduction to his friend Bishop Spencer, but begged me if I happened to meet him in society to introduce myself to him as a friend of his (Haywood). I never did. But I have here anticipated many years, during the whole of which Haywood was the most inti mate friend I had in Liverpool. He was elected member of the London Athenaeum Club, a very high honor. I think both his sons after leaving Eton went into the army, probably through the influ ence of Sir John Macvicar. The last time I saw Haywood was in 1855, when I dined at his house near Liverpool, and met George Trenholm, the subsequent Secretary of the Treasury of the rebel government. Now, to return to 1832. As may be supposed, Harriet felt pretty lonely by herself at 52 Shaw Street, Everton, as I was at the office all day ; so, with my cordial assent, she wrote to New York and invited her next elder sister, Charlotte Matilda Kane, to come to Liverpool and pay us a visit. She was Harriet's intimate friend as well as sister, although the elder born looked up to her with almost filial love and respect. She was a pretty, petite bru nette, with hazel eyes and a neat figure. She sailed from New York in the John Jay packet ship, Captain Halridge, on June 24, and arrived in Liverpool July 12. After a separation of nearly two years the two sisters had a most joyous meeting. On December 7, 1832, at 52 Shaw Street, Everton, I was pre sented with my first daughter, called after her aunt Charlotte Matilda. Her mother made a good recovery, and had the pleasure of nursing her baby, who was not baptized until August 5, 1833, by the Rev. John Kelly, Congregationlist minister, then of Bethesda Chapel, Duncan Street, Liverpool, but subsequently of Crescent Chapel, Everton, Liverpool. Mr. Kelly was a Scotsman from St. Monans in Fifeshire, not far from Elie. He and I became great friends. I think it was in the summer of 1832 that Harriet and I joined his church. Strange to say, I have no record of that to us important event, and I have an impression that Harriet and I were alone at the time, living at 52 Shaw Street, and both of us under 96 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. deep religious conviction, so probably we joined the church in or about August, 1832, before Charlotte Kane's arrival. Subsequently to this Mr. Kelly married a Miss Dunbar, the daughter of a poor Scottish baronet. Among the members of Mr. Kelly's church were Mr. and Mrs. Ormerod Heyworth, and their son, Lawrence Heyworth, then a young man of about twenty-three or twenty-four, who had been edu cated in Switzerland, and lived in the house of the Rev. Caesar Malan in Geneva. Malan was a religious enthusiast, and, coming to Liverpool on a visit to the Heyworths, was introduced to us. One day, on coming home from 'Change, I found him, my wife, and Charlotte on their knees in the drawing room, he praying, among other things, for the soul of " Brother Wood," which struck me at the time as a piece of impudence on his part, but I have no doubt now that it was all well meant. At Malan's house as a fellow- boarder of Lawrence Heyworth was Sir James Colquhoun of Luss, who in future years succeeded my uncle Alexander Dennistoun as M. P. for Dumbartonshire. Both were very silent men, and the Dumbartonshire ladies said, after Sir James' election, that Mr. Dennistoun could speak when he was spoken to, but Sir James couldn't even do that. Ormerod Heyworth was the head of the house of Ormerod Hey worth, Phipps & Co., very extensively engaged in the Brazilian and South American trade, and very wealthy. He was a very handsome oldish gentleman who dropped his " h's." Mrs. Ormerod Heyworth was a handsome woman who had been a Miss Barlow. Rich as they were, I did not consider them in our set, and only associated with them as "church" or rather "meetinghouse" people. They kept their carriage and Lawrence his gig, indicating, as Tom Carlyle would say, that he belonged to respectable " gigomanity." He had also a tendency to drop his " h's " in spite of his Genevan education. His mother ruled his father and also himself. She was a high-tempered, spoiled, good-looking, and vulgarish Christian, also with a tendency to drop her " h's." She took a great fancy to Charlotte Kane, and kept calling on her and Harriet, expressing a wish to be more inti mate with us, which I did not at all care that she should be. She gave Charlotte a book called " Guide to Domestic Happiness," the motto being " Hail, wedded love," etc., and said to Harriet, why LIVERPOOL LIFE. 97 could not Charlotte remain here (Liverpool) and marry an English man ? The outcome of all this was that Charlotte Kane was married to Lawrence Heyworth, Jr., by the Rev. Dr. Buddicom, rector of St. George's Church, Everton, on March 18, 1835. The young couple went off on an extended marriage jaunt, their first visit being to Archibald Morrison, Esq., of Eaton Hall near Norwich, a cousin of Charlotte's father, John Kane. Captain Morrison lived in great style at Eaton Hall, associating with all the county people, lords and ladies, etc., whom he asked to meet the young couple on their arrival at his house, and entertained them very hospitably for several weeks. I shall have more to say of Archie Morrison, if I ever live to narrate my biography for 1840 and afterward. Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence Heyworth went to London, Brighton, Exeter, Falmouth, Land's End, back to Falmouth, and embarked on May 8 for Cadiz, thence to Gibraltar and Tangier in Morocco, then back to Gibraltar, Malaga, Seville, Lisbon, Oporto, Madrid, which they reached October 15, 1835, and from thence by Saragossa, Fon- tainebleau, Paris, and London, home to a house they had taken at Bootle near Liverpool just opposite the Black Rock Lighthouse at the mouth of the Mersey, and in full view of it and the sea beyond. I continued to live at Shaw Street, Everton, during 1833-34, attending to my business in Liverpool, which was carried on at 8 Old Hall Street, just behind the Exchange. I think it was in the summer of 1834 that we took for summer quarters a cottage on the seashore between Bootle and Seaforth, and liked the seabeach and the salt air so much that when our lease of the Shaw Street house expired in May, 1835, we took a house at Bootle. There were two double houses together, like right and left shoes, with some ground in front, and a garden behind extending back to the Liverpool and Leeds Canal, over which there was a bridge just back of my house, which was the furthest north of the four. Lawrence Hej'worth sub sequently took the one furthest south. Each house had a stable, etc., and a fine view of the Mersey and the coast of Cheshire opposite. I should say the Mersey was about a mile wide at its mouth. These four houses belonged to a Liverpool attorney of the name of Miller who lived right down below them on the seashore in a house with battlements on the roof, and called in consequence Miller Castle. As I was the first tenant of the row of four houses, I had it called 98 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. Fort Place, Bootle, as it was opposite the fort at the mouth of the Mersey. Besides liking the sea air and the quasi-isolation from everyone but my beloved Harriet and our two children, I had a further fancy for Bootle because it was nearer Scotland than any other part of Liverpool, with only the sea between me and my native country. I have always been a Scotsman from the top of my head to the soles of my feet, although I have lived so much of my life away from my native land. Perhaps some jeering English man may say that is the very reason I continue so fond of it. I recollect that early in 1835 I planted sprigs of ivy all along a brick wall which ran along the path up to my front door. I said nothing to Harriet about my design, expecting to surprise her before summer was over with a fine growth of greenery over the ugly brick. Coming home one summer afternoon from Liverpool, Harriet met me with the two children at the gate, her face radiant with beauty and happiness, and said : " O Will, we've had such a de lightful day walking on the seashore, and after that the children and I have been quite busy pulling up all those weeds along the wall! " And that was the ending of my first planting of ivy ; she had never seen any in America. During the summer of 1835 we had a visit from my grandfather Dennistoun, and my sister Mrs. Ferguson and her husband ; she and he were traveling with my grandfather to keep him company, and on their journey they visited Liverpool and came out to Bootle to dine with Harriet and me. We had a very pleasant time, and the old gentleman and they walked back to Liverpool in the long summer evening. They were going to London, and I said to my grandfather : " Of course you will go to the House of Commons to hear, or at least see, Uncle Alick" (then a M. P. for Dumbartonshire). "Why," says he, " I wouldn't step across the street to see him." This was the first hint I ever got that there was some sort of coolness between him and his eldest son, the reason of which to this day I have never found out. This was the last I ever saw of my grandfather, who had always been very fond of and kind to me from my earliest boyhood. When someone complained to him of my violent temper, he replied : " Well, I don't think Wullie has such a bad temper ; it's gey and like my ain." LIVERPOOL LIFE. 99 On October 18, 1835, my uncle John had a party of young gentle men dining with him at Golfhill. About 9 p. m. my grandfather arose from the table and said : " Weel, lads, I daur say ye can get on withoot me, so I'll go to bed." He said good-night and left them. Next morning he did not make his appearance at breakfast as usual, and old James, the butler, was sent up to see if he were well. He found my grandfather dead in his bath, with one foot out, as if he had just been going to leave the bath and had fallen back dead. The bath had been a hot one, and, taken after a hearty dinner, probably pro duced apoplexy. There never was a more honest, upright, liberal, fearless man than my grandfather. The Glasgow Argus of October 26, 1835, wrote of him as follows : "At Golfhill on the 19th inst., aged seventy-eight, James Dennis toun, Esq., of Golfhill. " We observe with regret the death of one of our oldest and most respected citizens, Mr. James Dennistoun of Golfhill, well known for his long connection with the Glasgow Bank, and his many acts of public spirit and private integrity during a long, industrious, and honorable career. His death, we understand, was sudden and unex pected, no previous illness of a serious nature having indicated its approach. Mr. Dennistoun was universally respected, and received a marked proof of his being so in the public dinner given to him a few years since on his retiring into private life. His decease chal lenges more than a passing notice in a newspaper, and we doubt not the subject will be taken up and done justice to by some of his more intimate friends and acquaintances." It never was until fifty-one years afterward, when a notice of his eldest son, Alexander, in a work called " Memoirs and Portraits of One Hundred Glasgow Men," published in 1886, a copy of which was presented to me April, 1886, by my cousin Alexander Dennis toun, now of Golfhill, was prefaced by the following remarks : " About the end of the last century, and during the first third of the present one, no man in Glasgow was better known or more highly esteemed than James Dennistoun of Golfhill. He had been born in Campsie parish, Stirlingshire, in 1758. In 1 781 we hear of him as an enterprising and successful manufacturer in Glasgow, and soon afterward, in conjunction with his brother Alexander, he estab lished the firm of James & Alexander Dennistoun, which, in process IOO AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. of time, became one of the greatest of our Glasgow mercantile houses, with branches at Liverpool, New Orleans, Havre, and sub sequently at New York, Melbourne, and London. James Den nistoun made the first shipment of goods ever made from the Clyde to New Orleans, loading a brig and clearing one hundred per cent, profit on the cargo. About 1786 he married Mary, daughter of William Finlay of the Moss, Stirlingshire, a cousin of the well- known Kirkman Finlay, M. P. for Glasgow. In 1809, in conjunc tion with Lord Kinnaird of that day, Walter Fergus, Kirkcaldy, W. B. Cabbell, London, John Baxter, Dundee, and a few other influ ential merchants, James Dennistoun formed the latest of the private banks of issue in Scotland under the name of the Glasgow Bank. The office was at the west corner of Montrose and Ingram streets ; there, and at its one solitary branch at Kirkcaldy, it for many years carried on a most successful business under the able management of James Dennistoun. He retired in 1829, and on" the occasion the merchants of Glasgow entertained him at a magnificent banquet in the great hall of the Royal Exchange, then just opened, a compli ment of no mean significance in proving the high esteem in which he was held. His portrait was also painted on their behalf by Graham Gilbert, R. S. A., and still hangs in the directors' room of the Union Bank of Scotland (with which the Glasgow Bank became merged). Engravings of that picture are still far from uncommon in the houses of our older citizens [one hangs in my drawing room in this house, 4 West Eighteenth Street, New York]. James Den nistoun died in 1835. Many still remember him as the very best type of a British merchant of the old time : high-minded and honor able in all his dealings ; prudent, yet enterprising and successful. He enjoyed intimate friendship with Dr. Chalmers and Edward Irving. He warmly backed Dr. Chalmers' work in the east end of Glasgow. He was also on friendly terms with the leading Whigs of the day, such as Brougham, Cockburn, and Jeffrey, for he was a keen politician, and spent his money freely in promoting the Reform Bill of 1832, a cause which he had much at heart. For his services in that way Earl Grey offered him a baronetcy, but, to his credit, he declined it, lest it might be thought he was working for selfish ends." My own opinion is that this was scarcely his reason. I think he did not care for a title, and neither did my uncle Alick, his eldest LIVERPOOL LIFE. IOI son, to whom the title would have descended. Had my uncle John been the eldest son instead of the youngest, I think my grandfather would probably have accepted the baronetcy, to which he was fully entitled from his long and ardent support of the Whig cause when to be a Whig was to be a political martyr. He was offered the nomination for one of the seats for Glasgow in the first reform Parliament, but declined it. I went down from Liverpool to attend his funeral at Golfhill as one of the chief mourners. When the carriage left Golfhill and drove after the hearse, it seemed to me that the world was out of joint, and I felt that I had suffered an irreparable loss. He had always been par ticularly kind to me as his eldest grandson. I had from childhood looked up to him as the chief of the family, and, although I was a married man and twenty-seven years old, I lifted up my voice and wept bitterly. He was buried in a vault belonging to him in the Ramshorn churchyard, just across Montrose Street from the orig inal Glasgow Bank offices. My grandfather left ^350,000 sterling, a very large fortune for those days. Of this sum ^20,000 sterling was left to my mother. To her sister Mary (Mrs. Walter Wood), who had no children, an annuity of ^400 per annum, to be paid by her brothers, Alexander and John, but if she should marry again and have a child, then she was to have ^12,000, and the annuity to cease. My mother's half sisters, Maria, Anna, and Isabella, had ^20,000 sterling each, and a joint interest in the estate of Backwood in Cheshire on the Dee, which had belonged to their grandfather, old Mr. Bennet. To my uncle John was left Golfhill with all the silver plate, pictures, wine, and furniture, and then my uncle Alick and he were left residuary legatees. Uncle Alick was grieved and annoyed at not having Golfhill left to him as the eldest son, and he never rested until he had made an amicable arrangement with John by which the latter gave him Golfhill, and he took Alick's house in West Bath Street, and I fancy some money besides. Of course my two uncles and partners having inherited so much from their father added still further to the high commercial standing of J. & A. Dennistoun of Glasgow, and its branch houses at Liver pool, Havre, and New Orleans. CHAPTER X. LIFE IN LIVERPOOL, 1836, TO SEPTEMBER, 1837 — DEATH OF MY MOTHER. When my grandmother died, I was living at Fort Place, Bootle, and doing a large business in Liverpool ; I usually walked into Liv erpool in the morning and out in the afternoon. If I did not walk, I went in and returned by a canal boat which stopped at the bridge behind my house for passengers to Liverpool, and in the afternoon about five started from a canal basin at the north end of Old Hall Street for Bootle and places beyond. On May 12, 1836, my second daughter, Elizabeth Dennistoun, now Mrs. T. L. Kane, was born. Our accoucheur at that time was Mr. Robert Bickersteth, an eminent practitioner in Liverpool, and brother of Lord Langdale, Master of the Rolls, and uncle of the future Bishop of Ripon. He was very late in coming, and his absence gave me a great fright and serious loss of temper. How ever, " All's well that ends well," and Bessie's life was preserved for her to become a blessing to all about her as daughter, wife, and mother. That winter of 1836-37 was spent at Fort Place, Law rence Heyworth and his wife living close by us. In the summer of 1836 we had a visit from my wife's favorite nephew, John Hone of New York, and received from my mother a letter of July 14 inviting us all to Moore Park near Glasgow on the Renfrew road, of which place she had just taken a lease, after we had finished a tour by way of Edinburgh, Elie, and the High lands. I had hired a very handsome traveling carriage, in which we left Liverpool, traveling with post horses in good style, and stop ping over night at Lancaster, Burton, and Carlisle on the way to the Scottish border. I recollect that on the top of Shap Fells I was traveling with four horses and two postilions, when on the very top ridge of the fells, coming from the north, who should we meet but Mr. Sandbach of the great West India house of Sandbach, Tinne" & Co., traveling with only two horses. We stopped for a little and LIFE IN LIVERPOOL, 1 836, TO SEPTEMBER, 1 837. 103 had some conversation, and then went on our respective routes, /feel ing that he would think me a very extravagant fellow. From Car lisle we went through the vale of Yarrow, and I saw that classical stream for the first time. We also visited Abbotsiord and Melrose, and so on to Edinburgh. From thence we drove to South Queens- ferry, and at North Queensferry got post horses to take us to Kin ross and Loch Leven. It was the custom in England to pay the postilion 2s. per stage and in Scotland is.6d. per stage. One postilion used to tell the next one how much the travelers had given him, and if under the usual rate, the new postilion would drive very slowly. I always paid the top price and got along at top speed. In England post horses were fed on oats, in Scotland only on hay. Our postilion from North Queensferry was a little humpbacked fellow, and I told him I would give him the English rate if he reached Kinross in a certain time. Well, he drove along famously, but about halfway one of the horses knocked up entirely, and had to be led along, and the other one, which the humpback rode, of course pro gressed very slowly, and when we did reach Kinross, we found there was a fair being held there, and we entered the town through a crowd, all staring at us, with our grand traveling chariot, well filled by our selves, nurses, and children, and only one horse to draw us ; we no doubt had a very ludicrous appearance. After that in Scotland I only paid Scottish rates to the postilions. In a letter to me of July 14, 1836, my mother writes to me in reference to this jaunt: "I received your characteristic letter of yesterday, the 12th. I shall be delighted to see you all. It strikes me that you will have got enough of traveling (at least so accompanied) by the time you arrive in Elie, and so if you are a wise man you will just turn your head toward Moore Park. Travel ing with two nursery maids and three infants is no joke, as I can well remember; and as to taking a pleasure jaunt through the High lands, it is deplorable even to think of it. However, 1 say no more. When you arrive at Elie, you will be quite able to judge for yourself, but Cross and I have a much more rational plan in view, namely, to leave the nursing mothers and nurslings at Moore Park, and for you and me and Eliza, and perhaps Cross, to take a jaunt to ourselves ; but I have no hope of this being put into execution, these wives being a sad bar to us jolly fellows." From Kinross we went, I I04 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. think, to St. Andrews, and thence to Elie, where we spent a few days. Thence somehow we reached Stirling, the Trosachs, and round the head of Loch Lomond, — and I well recollect the beautiful drive we had along its southern side on a fine calm day, — and so by Dumbarton to Glasgow and Moore Park. So I did make out and enjoy our Highland jaunt in spite of nurses and children. We stayed some time at Moore Park, but how long I can't say. I remember my mother, Anna, Eliza, and Cross used to play whist in the evenings, and my mother advised me to try and learn the game. I recollect laughing and saying : " Well, that is pretty advice from you, who brought me up never to touch a card, and now I have no taste for them." We got back to Liverpool and Bootle some time in August, I fancy, and spent the winter of 1836-37 at Bootle, having Mr. and Mrs. L. Heyworth living close by us, and the two sisters very happy in each other's society. In 1837, if I remember rightly, business was not very good, and I had some dispute with my uncle Alick, but what it was about I don't remember, but I had serious thoughts of resigning from the business and setting up for myself, but took no steps that way, intending to see my uncles personally. On August 1, 1837, I left Liverpool in the steamer Eagle for Glasgow, with Harriet and our children, — J. Walter, Charlotte, and the baby Bessie, — with the nurses. We arrived safely next day at the Broomielaw (the port of Glasgow). I intended to have gone myself straight to the office of J. & A. Den nistoun, and then and there tendered my resignation to my two uncles, sed diis aliter visum. It happened that August 2, 1837, was election day for the counties of Stirling and Dumbarton, and my uncles had both gone to vote in these counties. There was also great difficulty in finding a carriage to take my wife and children to Moore Park, owing to their being engaged for election purposes. I ran to the Eagle inn, and there secured a carriage known in Glasgow as a " noddy," in which I packed Harriet, the children, nurse, and bag gage, and sent them off to Moore Park. I myself went to J. & A. Den- nistoun's office, but found no one there but clerks, so I got a seat in a Paisley coach and was set down at Ibrox gate, and walked down by the back way to Moore Park. The day was rainy and dismal, and my dear mother met me in the hall, looking pale, but better than I expected. She was very, very kind as usual. Harriet had lain down LIFE IN LIVERPOOL, 1836, TO SEPTEMBER, 1837. 105 in bed, and my mother insisted I should lie down beside her, which I did, and in a little time my mother herself brought up on a tray some beef tea and broth, and was particularly kind and tender in her manner to us both. On Thursday, August 3, my mother was feeling rather unwell, and said to me that, though she looked pretty well, she did not feel so. On Friday, August 4, 1837, my mother felt so ill that she kept her bed. Her brother John came out to see her after his election for Glasgow the second time, but she did not feel able to see and con gratulate him. And this puts me in mind that I have omitted to say anything about John's first election for Glasgow in the previous May. It was what was called a " by "-election, but a very impor tant one, for the Melbourne ministry of that day had been defeated by the Tories in several preceding "by "-elections, and it was thought that if they were defeated at Glasgow they would be obliged to resign, so that the eyes of the whole country were turned to Glasgow. John Dennistoun issued his address to the constituency on May 25, 1837. I have a copy of it in Harriet's memorandum book ; it is an excellent one, Liberal and free trade. His canvass went on swimmingly, when just a few days before the election his adversaries got up a canard that he had burned the Bible, and if that story could not get a thorough and authentic contradiction, he would have lost the election. His opponent was Robert Monteith, a son of his father's old friend Henry Monteith, ex-Lord Provost of Glasgow. Robert Monteith was at college with me. The chairman of his com mittee was Kirkman Finlay, who was a first cousin of my uncle John Dennistoun's mother ; so it was a sort of family fight, the Den- nistouns always having been Whigs and Liberals, and the Finlays and Monteiths Tories. The story about burning the Bible was hatched in Liverpool by a Tory politician of the name of Tom Bold, and the report was that John Dennistoun had burned the Bible at a supper party at the house of Tom Finlay, a son of Kirkman Finlay, who resided in Liverpool, and was, of course, a second cousin of John Dennistoun. I was written to on the subject, and had the not very agreeable task assigned to me of calling on Tom Finlay, and asking him to give me in writing a denial of the Bible-burning story. After some little demur I extracted it from him, the truth being that no Bible was burned, but that Tom Finlay, and not John Den- 106 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. nistoun, had burned, not the Bible, but the Prayer Book — a venial offense in Presbyterian eyes even if John Dennistoun had done it ! Tom Finlay's letter on the subject was a boomerang to his father's candidate, Robert Monteith, and John Dennistoun was triumphantly returned at the head of the poll. He came by way of Liverpool to London to take his seat, and arrived in Liverpool on a Sunday after noon, and went to spend the night at Alexander McGregor's in Abercromby Square. I walked in from Bootle in the evening to call upon him, but found he had gone to bed, so did not disturb him. McGregor had a party of leading Liverpool Liberals to meet him — William Rathbone, Rushton, Parson, Aspinwall, etc. McGregor had played the host vigorously, and when he went with me to the front door, he had great difficulty in opening it, and said to me in a husky and owl-like manner : " Wood, there's a mystery about every thing." I don't think Tom Finlay ever forgave me for getting that letter from him ; and after John Dennistoun's election Tom Bold came up to me on 'Change in Liverpool and wanted to shake hands with me, but I put both my hands behind my back and refused to do so. The last time I saw Tom Bold was when the Great Eastern arrived here in the summer of 1863, and was made a sort of show of in the North River. Tom Bold seemed to be a sort of supercargo. John Dennistoun was re-elected for Glasgow at the general elec tion in July or August, 1837, and, so far as I recollect, had a walk over. On Saturday, August 5, 1837, my mother must have felt better, for my sister Mary and her husband, Robert Ferguson, and their two children, came out to dinner, and my mother sat at table ; she felt rather tired in the evening after they left. Sunday, August 6, 1837, Harriet, Anna Cross, and I went to church in Glasgow. On coming home we met my mother and Eliza at the avenue gate ; they had walked round the garden. My mother was looking well, and had a cucumber in her hand, with which she was going to feed the pigs. I gave her my arm, and we went to the piggery, and she cut up the cucumber and fed the pigs, telling me at the same time how she was going to kill and cure a certain black pig and send me from it a ham and a flitch of bacon. We then walked to the front door of the house, and I remarked to my mother : " You are looking so well and the weather is so fine DEATH OF MY MOTHER. 107 that it is too much happiness." I then walked with Harriet and Anna to the garden, where we stayed about a quarter of an hour pulling gooseberries. We then returned to the house, and on open ing the front door I heard Eliza cry from the drawing room : " Oh, William, come up here ; mamma has fainted ! " I ran upstairs directly and found my dear mother on the floor, supported in Eliza's arms, her cheeks flushed, and her mouth drawn to one side, and her eyes dilated. I saw at once that she had had a stroke of paralysis. Harriet, Eliza, and I carried her to her bed. She could not speak, but looked very piteously at us. I sent at once into Glasgow for Dr. Burns, who on his arrival ordered my mother's head to be shaved and a large blister to be applied to the crown of her head. Eliza and I sat up with her that night, and until Monday, August 21, we had some hopes of her recovery. She several times at tempted to speak, but did not succeed in doing so. She seemed, however, to know us all, and once laughed heartily when I was with her alone, and tried to get her to write with her left hand, as she had lost the use of her right hand, but she could not write at all with her left hand. On Sunday, August 20, she kept time with her fingers when Harriet and Eliza sang hymns to her, and appeared to listen when the Bible was read, and she certainly managed to show that she did not wish me to leave her and go on business to Liver pool. The day she was struck no one was with her, but Eliza was near in her dressing room, and, hearing a noise, went into the draw ing room and found my mother lying on the floor, with the Bible, which she had been reading, beside her on one side, and her glasses on the other, so that she was really called with her " lamp burning." Before going to the drawing room to read she had visited the nursery to give John Walter and Charlotte some grapes. Both were great favorites with her. Bessie was rather too young to interest her, and had besides a rival in Libby Cross, Anna's baby, who had the gift of the gab better than our Bessie, who, however, could walk, while Libby Cross was unable to do so. My aunt Walter told me in reference to this that there was an old rhyme which ran : " Glas gow chit has the tongue afore the fit." On Monday, August 21, my mother had a painful attack of shiver ing and spasms. The pain she endured must have been very great, for she had had a similar attack in the previous June, and told me 108 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. she would rather die than go through such another. She grew grad ually worse and worse, and on Sunday, August 27, Dr. Cowan, who had also been called in, thought she could not live many minutes on that day. Harriet, Mary, and Anna saw her for the last time. Eliza and I and Phemie Anderson, a servant who had been long with us, remained with my mother to the last, expecting her to die every hour, but her breathing continued, though most laboriously, till Tuesday, August 29. I recollect looking out on the lawn about 4 a. m. It was covered with dew, and the foliage of the trees per fectly still. A large hare was slowly moving across the lawn. The scene is graven on my mind. The perfect serenity and peace out side and the sad and heavy breathing of my beloved mother inside made a mournful contrast. At 7.35 a. m. on August 29, 1837, she breathed her last, without sigh or struggle. Eliza had hold of her right hand and I of her left at that awful moment when the spirit returned unto God who gave it, and, as I believe, washed and puri fied in the blood of the Redeemer. Never was there a more noble, upright, honest woman than my mother. Her religion was pure, simple, and scriptural. She trusted for salvation to the blood of Christ alone. She was in communion with the church in which John Sandemar and William Ewing officiated as ministers. Personally she was a beautiful woman, with fine hazel eyes, of fully the middle size, and her figure tending to embonpoint, with, I think, the most perfect arms I ever saw. She usually wore her hair braided ; it was long and black, with hardly a gray hair. Her expression was a little satirical, and she had a great deal of fun about her ; was very fond of young people, and enjoyed a joke. She sang sweetly, especially Scottish songs. I think I was her favorite child, and after me her youngest, Eliza. Although she had only lived about a year and a half at Moore Park, yet she had become a favorite with the poor people in the neighborhood, and instead of getting a fashionable undertaker from Glasgow to attend to the funeral I sent for a country one from the village of Govan near by, and when he came, I proceeded to give him directions about the coffin and the inscription on it. I said, " Put : " ' Elizabeth Dennistoun Wood. " Born August 31, 1787. U I Died August 29, 1837.'" DEATH OF MY MOTHER. IO9 The undertaker looked at me solemnly, and said with a strong Scots accent : " We sometimes pit obiit, sir." This queer plea for the Latin word nearly upset my gravity in spite of my deep grief. The funeral took place September 2. The pallbearers were my self as chief mourner, James Robert Ferguson, William Cross, my uncle Alick and his three sons, James, Robert, and Alexander. My uncle John was in Kent, and could not reach Glasgow in time for the funeral. My mother was buried in my grandfather's burying ground, where also my father and my uncle Walter were buried, in the angle formed by the church and chapter house on the north side of the cathedral, but in 1848, owing to necessary repairs to the cathedral, all these bodies were removed to my uncle Alexander Dennistoun's burying ground in the Merchants' Park, close by John Knox's monument. My mother left a holograph will making me her sole executor. She virtually divided her personal estate and Villafield equally among her children. So far as Villafield was concerned, it, being real estate, would have come to me as the eldest son, the will not complying with the law as to the passing of real estate, but I carried out her evident wishes and treated her whole estate as personalty. After my mother's funeral I had to return to Liverpool to attend to the business, and my aunt Walter invited Harriet and the children to pay her a visit at Lagarie, to benefit by the fine air and scenery after our sad trial at Moore Park, and they went accord ingly, and I returned to Lagarie to fetch them home after finishing the more pressing business at Liverpool. In a memorandum book I write : " This same 1837 has been a beastly year, first with business, and lastly with my dear mother's death. God grant it may have no further evil in store for me and mine. Harriet and I had much pleasure in walking about in June and July, as the weather was very fine. I pray that she and I and our dear children may meet my mother round the Throne of God, washed and purified from all the wickednesses we have committed. While we remain in this world of sin and death, may we be guided by the Holy Spirit of God, and not left to our own evil inclinations." So I wrote when I was at Bootle alone in September, 1837. I have a most excellent miniature of my mother by Hargreaves of IIO AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. Liverpool, taken when she visited us in 1833. The cap she has on is old-fashioned and makes her look older than she was. Of all the many letters written to me by my mother I have only preserved forty-six ; these I have copied into a book this year (1889), along with two from her to my father when he was at Charleston in 1821, and two to her brother John when he was at New Orleans in 1828. CHAPTER XI. LIFE IN BOOTLE, 1 837-40. The bad business of 1837 was, so far as the American business was concerned, caused by the non-renewal of the charter of the United States Bank, which expired in 1836, and, although congress had a majority in both the Senate and the House to provide for its renewal for fifteen years, yet President Andrew Jackson vetoed the bill, and there was not a majority of two-thirds to pass the bill over the veto. Jackson had also withdrawn ten million dollars of government money from deposit in the United States Bank, and deposited the money in State banks, so that for the time the whole monetary system of the United States was disorganized, and wide commercial disaster fol lowed. Toward the end of 1837 it became a question how the cotton crop of the United States was to be forwarded to Europe, and for that year and time it was a very large one — about 1,850,000 bales, I think. Nicholas Biddle, the president of the United States Bank, opened a house in Liverpool, to receive consignments of cotton, under the firm name of Humphreys & Biddle. The latter was a young son of Nicholas Biddle, and Mr. May Humphreys was a shrewd and experienced merchant of Philadelphia. Nicholas Biddle, if my memory serve me rightly, after the non-renewal of the United States Bank charter by Congress, got a charter from the State of Pennsylvania for a bank which he called the United States Bank of Pennsylvania, and this bank issued notes or debentures to cotton planters on security of bills of lading for their cotton shipped to Humphreys & Biddle, Liverpool. We (Alex. Dennistoun & Co.) sent orders to A. & J. Dennistoun & Co. of New Orleans to advance to planters or other consignors nine pounds sterling per bale of aver age weight of four hundred pounds, and average quality of mid. fair. That year we did an immense business both at Liverpool and Havre, and a very prosperous one. I think I had nearly one hundred thousand bales through my hands at Liverpool, and James Den- 112 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. nistoun & Co. of Havre about thirty thousand bales, so that 1838 was a very pleasing contrast to 1837, and I was kept extremely busy accepting bills and selling cotton. Nothing can be pleasanter than a merchant's life when one is doing an immense and profitable busi ness, as we did in that year. In the middle of 1838 we became convinced that our partner and manager of James Dennistoun & Co. of Havre, Edwin Jones, had become deranged by the unwonted amount of business doing by that house, and my uncles thought that I had better leave my own business and go over to Havre to look into the actual state of matters. I went by way of Southampton, and it so happened that I arrived there the very day my uncle John Dennistoun was married to Miss Frances Ann Onslow, the Aunt Fanny of subsequent days. I arrived in Southampton when the wedding was over, but saw Mrs. Royds (Maria Dennistoun), Anna and Isabella, my mother's half sis ters, and I never saw any of them again. The wedding took place July, 1838. I sailed that evening from Southampton. When I arrived next morning at Havre, poor Jones was down at the pier to meet me, said I would find everything in order, and walked with me to our office to introduce me to the clerks, after which ceremony we walked into the private office. He immediately began turning over things, and telling me that there was an important paper which he had lost. This was the harmless way his insanity manifested itself. There was no paper lost, but all the same he was continually in search of it. My first business was to get rid of him, so that very evening I got him and his wife safely on board the steamer for Southampton. After he got to Southampton his disease became more developed, and he had to be put in an asylum for a year or more. I never saw him again. I at once began business, which was to sell about three thousand bales of cotton within a week, when I had to be back in Liverpool to look after my own special business. In these days (1889) three thousand bales in a week does not seem a large operation, but fifty years ago, and at Havre, it was considered a large quantity for one house to sell, so I sent for my brokers, gave them my orders, and in a week had sold my cotton at satisfactory prices and was ready to start home again. Before I went I thought it expedient to give my brokers and many of my fellow-merchants a grand supper at Laiter's (the Del- monico of Havre). It went off very well, and we kept it up till LIFE IN BOOTLE, 1837-40. 113 " the sma' 'oors ayont the twal " — until, in fact, all the French were trying to speak English, and all the English trying their best at French. That supper was remembered and spoken of for many a day afterward. I returned home by way of Paris ; at least, so it is so stated on p. 17 of H. A. W., but I have no. recollection of that visit, unless it be that I went there to see our banker, Rouge- mont de Lowenbery, who gave me a grand dinner in his beautiful house in the Boulevard Poissoniere, which I did not wish to go to, being conscious of the weakness of my French, but he said he would seat me at table next his partner, M. Levy, who spoke English, and he did so, but I found that I understood the French of the other guests more easily than M.' Levy's English. We had a splen did dinner, and beside each guest was a conserve of orange flow ers and sugar, to be put in' his tumbler of iced water. After dinner the old baron (Rougemont) took me out into his pretty garden and gave me many anecdotes of the Empress Josephine, whom he had known well as Mile, de la Pagerie, and subsequently as Mme. Beauhar- nais, and who he said was dreadfully extravagant. I returned from France to England byway of Calais* and Dover, starting early in the morning. I had a beautiful sail across, and saw the sun rising to the eastward of Calais. I ought to have mentioned before that this year we had a delight ful visit from Mrs. John Hone (ne'e Maria Antoinette Kane) and sub sequently Mrs. Frederic de Peyster, and her daughter Emily and son John. They afrived on May 24, 1838, and they remained at Bootle with us until of the birth of my little Harriet Maria on August 31, 1838, soon after which the Hones, — Maria, Emily, and John, — visited London. She had letters to Mr. Stevenson, then United States Minister to St. James', and at his house she met Sydney Smith and other celebrities. The Hones returned to my house, I think, about November, and John Hone began the study of law under a barrister of the name of Wilkinson, a Liberal, and who subsequently became a governor of one of the smaller West India islands. * Boulogne to Calais, and it was at Boulogne I met a party of Liverpool friends who had with them the celebrated Beau Brummel, then British Consul at Cadiz; he was not a man of very exalted celebrity, but still I was glad to have met him, as a sort of historical character. 114 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. Even with prosperous business, hard work and excitement tell on the strongest constitution, and in December, 1838, I had a queer attack of ague in my jaws at a certain time each day, with a general feeling of " malaise," as George Eliot says, and the doctor ordered me immediate change of air and scene, so my brother James and I set off for the English lakes via Kendal, where we stopped the first night, and even then I felt better. Next day we got into the regu lar Lake Country, and I felt quite well, with an enormous appetite and no ague. We went by Carlisle in the mail, and soon after cross ing the Scottish border, on looking down a declivity, saw the mail coach of the previous day lying upset at the bottom of it. We journeyed on safely to Glasgow, where I was very kindly and hos pitably entertained by my relations. I got home to Bootle about the end of December, perfectly well, and after a most pros perous year's business. The year 1839 was a sad contrast to 1838. On January 6 occurred the dreadful cyclone which wrought such havoc to the shipping near Liverpool, blowing down houses also, and creating great damage all over the west of England and Ireland. On Sun day, January 5, Lawrence Heyworth and I walked in to church together to Liverpool. The wind was southeast after having blown a long time from southwest to northwest, preventing vessels from leaving Liverpool. With the change we counted about 250 sail of all sorts of craft going out of the Mersey, with wind and tide in their favor. I said to Heyworth : " I don't like the look of the sky, and I shouldn't wonder if before night the wind hauled round to northwest, and then these vessels will catch it." However, we went on to church, and after sermon returned home, he going to his house and I to mine. We all retired pretty early to bed, as usual on Sun day nights. About midnight we were all awakened by a terrific gale shaking the house and blowing the slates off the roof. Harriet and I were in a large, handsome, four-posted bed, and soon after midnight Mrs. Hone and Emily came to our room in a great fright, and asked if they might spend the night in our room, so Harriet asked both of them to lie down on her side of the bed, which they did ; but the gale got worse and worse, so we all got up and, with the children, went downstairs to the dining room, where we had a large, strong dining table, and I suggested that we should all get LIFE IN BOOTLE, 1837-4O. 1 1 5 under it and camp there for the night, as, even if the roof fell in, the table was so strong that we should be safe under it ; and this we did. When morning broke, the gale still continued, and our windows toward the sea, about one-eighth of a mile distant, were so thickly incrusted with salt from the drifted spray that we could not see through them. After breakfast John Hone went to the stable at the back of the house to get storm shutters, which had been stored away there, to put on the large windows of the ground floor, which, had they been blown in, would probably have caused the entire wreck of the house. When John Hone and I carried out one of those, a strong gust blew it out of our hands as if it had been a sheet of paper. It struck me across my nose, making a bad cut on it, and set my nose bleeding internally also, making me a pretty figure. When we finally succeeded in getting the storm shutters fixed, I got washed and dressed, and managed to get into the office at Liverpool. I found that the roofs had been blown off many houses, and that the strong and high wall round Kirkdale Prison had been blown down, and soldiers quartered around the prison to prevent the escape of the convicts. Three New York packet ships and many other vessels were ashore at the mouth of the Mersey, and Captain Smith, the commander of one of them, was drowned. He was married to a Miss Lawrence, called " the White Plume," who afterward married my friend Wilson G. Hunt. When in Liverpool, I saw on the street several people who had been saved from the wreck and had been in the rigging all night. Their cheeks were livid and sunken, and they looked like living corpses. This gale lasted for three days, and it took most of the roof off Lawrence Heyworth's house and mine. The slates on both roofs were very large, and the wind blew them off with such violence that when they struck the grass outside they stuck in so deep that it was almost impossible to pull them out. Heyworth got such a fright that he determined to get a house elsewhere as soon as he could. In May, 1839, Harriet and I and the four children went to Lagarie, my aunt Walter's place, and spent a most joyous month there. On our way back to Liverpool we stopped at Golfhill, and my uncle Alick had the Crosses to meet us. When we sat down to dinner, the trees were in all their spring greenth and loveliness, and when we rose, they and all the ground were covered thick with snow, Il6 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. a harbinger of the bad grain crops which followed. We returned home in early June, and then the bad times set in, and we were severely tried by loss of fortune, but my sweet Harriet bore up cheer fully, as she always did, and was in very deed a helpmeet for me. Charlotte Heyworth was ill most of the summer, and, having been taken ill in our house, she could not be moved to her own, and so occupied our room in the front of the house, while we lay in a little back bedroom. I was dreadfully harassed about business, and used to wake at sunrise every morning, or before it, and watch the eastern sky reddening with the dawn, while Butler's rhyme always kept run ning in my head : " And like a lobster boiled the morn From black to red began to turn." Maria, Emily, John Hone, my sister Eliza, and our Scottish cousin William Hamilton, our old servant Phemie Anderson as Eliza's maid, and a French courier named Michaeli, who had before traveled with Lawrence Heyworth, set off on an extensive, tour on the Continent in May and returned in August Maria, Emily, and John Hone sailed for New York on September 29, 1839, per packet ship. We felt the loss of their society very much, and poor Charlotte Heyworth was too ill to be told of their intended departure until after they had actually gone. The packet was to have sailed on September 28, and we had taken farewell, and Harriet was looking through a telescope to see, if possible, their vessel passing, when behold ! all three came walking up to the piazza where Harriet was. The vessel had been detained until the next day, and so they all came back and passed the night with us at Bootle. Their loss only drew Harriet and me closer to each other. About the end of 1839 Lawrence Heyworth hired a newly built house in Breck Lane, Everton, which separated the two sisters by three miles, and as Bootle was so far from town, Harriet and I were more than ever left to ourselves. Soon after their arrival in New York, Mrs. Hone married Frederic de Peyster, who had been courting her for many years. He was gentlemanly and well read, a lawyer of fair standing, and of an old Dutch family prominent even in the colonial days. His father, like the Kanes, was a loyalist, and I have heard had a pension from the British Government, but all his sons were good American Democrats. Frederic de Peyster was a most kind-hearted LIFE IN BOOTLE, 1837-40. 117 but rather prosy and long-winded man. His first wife was a Miss Watts, the only daughter of John Watts, one of the founders of the Leake and Watts Orphan Asylum ; she died in childbirth about eleven months after her marriage. Her son was that queer eccentric fish John Watts de Peyster, who was in love with Emily Hone. For tunately for herself she would not have him, for which I believe he never forgave her, her mother, or her brother. Maria de Peyster was a complete contrast to her husband ; with great personal beauty she had most captivating manners, and was full of wit and fun, and made her husband's house noted for its hospitality, and for the intel lectual and pleasant society which frequented it. CHAPTER XII. LIFE IN LIVERPOOL. During the spring of 1840 we saw a great deal of, and were very intimate with, Mrs. -May Humphreys and her pretty sister, Miss Esther Hoppin, who spent some time with us at Bootle before she sailed for New York on April 14, 1840. She had been asked in mar riage by George Peabody, the great philanthropist, but refused him, having been all the time in love with a Mr. Lardner, whom she after ward married. Of the sisters Harriet writes to her sister Maria on February 19, 1840: "Esther is a very nice girl, but not half so attractive as Mrs. Humphreys. Mrs. Humphreys is the most impru dent woman I ever knew in my life, without that other is yourself. She is a lovely woman, and most fascinating." Toward the end of 1840 we found a house, — No. 1 Netherfield Road, South Everton, — within a quarter of a mile of L. Heyworth's. I bought this house from a Mr. Dixon, who had built it for himself, and a most comfortable dwelling place it was. The front on the street was in reality the back, and the back looked into a very nice garden with two graperies and a stable and coach house. " And the view which we had on a sunshiny day Was grand through the chimney pots over the way." We saw across the northern part of Liverpool, the Cheshire coast, the lower Mersey, and the Black Rock Lighthouse at the mouth of the Mersey. But I must give Harriet's description of the house as contained in an enthusiastic letter of July 21, 1840, to her sister Maria : " There is a house in Netherfield Road that is a perfect gem in its way. It is built as substantially as the bank — a large double-house, unpretending in its exterior, but the very thing inside, the rooms beautiful and plenty of them, a glorious shower bath, hot and cold plunge baths off the bedroom, the best I ever saw any where ; every convenience as to closets, a glorious kitchen, wash- LIFE IN LIVERPOOL. 119 house, milk house, scullery, butler's pantry, china and glass closets, napery press, real mahogany doors, iron plate safe under the stairs, a fine garden stocked with fruit and vegetables, a conservatory, two grape houses stocked with grapes, and the expense of keeping them up only amounting to five pounds a year ; a three-stall stable and coach house, pig house, dog house, hen house, and all that possibly could be wanted. This house is not to be rented at all, but sold." I bought this most comfortable house. It cost to build ^2800, but my impression is that I got it eventually for ^2400. Toward the end of May or beginning of June, 1840, Mr. May Humphreys said to me on 'Change : " There is a young relative of your wife's staying at Mrs. Blodgett's boarding house, where Mrs. Hum phreys and I are residing at present before setting off for the Con tinent. He is a lad of about sixteen, a son of Mr. John K. Kane, Attorney-General of Pennsylvania, and his name is Thomas L. Kane." So that afternoon I got a carriage, drove to Mrs. Blodgett's, captured Thomas L. Kane, and carried him off to my house at Bootle. Harriet was delighted to see her little kinsman, for he was then a little fellow with a round-about jacket, and full of mannerism, which, indeed, rarely left him even in after life. He remained at Bootle about a fort night, and then went off to Paris via Havre. I gave him a letter of introduction to James Dennistoun & Co. there ; I think James Thomson, Mrs. A. Dennistoun's brother, was then in charge of the house and was very kind to him. When he was about leaving for Paris, the wheel of the diligence passed over his toe and crushed it. He (Tom Kane) while on his visit to Paris at this time was arrested by the police as a supposed emissary of Louis Napoleon. They could not imagine such a little young-looking fellow traveling by himself except for some such sinister purpose. Tom made a great row about his arrest and the seizure of his letters, and ample apologies were made, and Delassert (I think that was the name), the head of police, became quite a friend of his, and showed him a great deal of Paris life behind the scenes. About May 12, 1840, I had a letter from my uncle John Dennis toun, then M. P, for Glasgow, asking me to come to London and pay him a visit, as he had got a ticket for me for admission to the House of Commons to hear a debate on Lord Stanley's motion regarding the registration of voters in Ireland. L. Heyworth happened to drop 120 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. in just as I had opened John's letter, and he expressed a desire to go up to London with me to hear the debate, and begged that I would ask John to get a ticket also for him, which was a great bore and was asking a good deal on his part. However, I did it, and it was on this visit to the House of Commons that I heard Robert Peel, Daniel O'Connell, and Joseph Hume. I think Lord Charles Russell then made his maiden speech, and hemmed and hawed a great deal in making it, but it read quite smoothly in the Times next day. This was in the temporary House of Commons, and " Bellamy's Kitchen " was the place where the M. P.'s lunched and dined and supped, and there I was introduced to the celebrated reformer and economist Joseph Hume, M. P. for the Aberdeen boroughs. At Bellamy's the beef steaks, roast beef, salads, etc., were all better than they could be got anywhere else, and the wines were superb, but there was no great variety either of meats or drinks. In December, 1840, we moved from Bootle to No. 1 Netherfield Road, South Everton. I regretted much leaving Bootle, where we had lived so happily and so much within ourselves. But I ought to have mentioned that while still at Bootle I made my first public speech on September 21, 1840. I was asked to stand on the Liberal side as candidate for the representation in the Liverpool Common Council in Exchange Ward. My opponent was Thomas Sands, a Methodist and Tory, who beat me by thirty votes. It was said that his election cost him ^1500, but afterward paved the way for his being Mayor of Liverpool. Mine cost me £,1$. I, and of course Sands, made a personal canvass of my constituents, which had some funny elements in it, but was, on the whole, disgusting and degrading. I never would have made another had I ever been induced to stand an election of any kind. I wrote out my first speech and committed it to memory, and was in a great state of excitement about it. I could not sleep for three nights before I delivered it, nor for three nights afterward, on account of the applause it elicited. I take the following account of the meeting (curtailed) from the Liverpool Times of September 22, 1840 : " A meeting of the reformers of the Exchange Ward took place last night at 7.30 o'clock at Lindon's large room, bottom of Hunter Street, for the purpose of nominating a candidate to represent the LIFE IN LIVERPOOL. 121 ward in the Town Council. The room was densely crowded, and many influential reformers were present. Charles Holland, Esq., was called to the chair, and explained the object of the meeting, which was for the purpose of nominating a candidate to contest the representation of the Exchange Ward at the coming municipal elec tion on the Liberal side. The gentleman who would be proposed to them was a thoroughgoing and honest reformer — he did not mean to say a nominal reformer, but one who considered that reform meant and was identical with the spirit of improvement, etc., etc. " Mr. T. R. Robinson then rose and said that he had very great pleasure in proposing as a candidate to represent Exchange Ward a gentleman of high standing ; he was no new reformer, but one who had been long well known among his friends as a liberal-minded man, and whose uncle, the member for Glasgow, was one of the best reformers in the House of Commons. He begged leave to propose that William Wood, Esq., of the firm of Alexander Den nistoun & Co., is a fit and proper person to be nominated as a can didate for the representation of Exchange Ward. " Mr. R. E. Harney seconded the nomination. He was extremely happy that they had been enabled to find so excellent a candidate as Mr. Wood. He was very well known and highly respected, and sometimes feared by a certain party who called themselves ' the lads of the flags ' [meaning the merchants and brokers who did business on the flagstones of the Exchange]. The motion having been unanimously carried, William Wood, Esq., was introduced to the meeting by the mover and seconder amid enthusiastic applause. " Mr. Wood said he felt deeply sensible of the honor which had been conferred upon him in having been nominated as a candidate for the representation of Exchange Ward. Being wholly unaccus tomed to public speaking, he must claim every allowance from the meeting. He felt that he should little grace his cause by speaking for himself ; but as it was necessary to state what his political sen timents were, he should proceed to do so without further preface or apology. First, then, of municipal matters, and first in this class, of the corporation schools. " Being of opinion that the education of the people was a most important measure, inasmuch as education taught them to know their own power, and how to use it, and that it was intimately con- 122 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. nected with their physical and moral well-being, he should do every thing in his power to support the system of education at present pursued in the corporation schools ; for he was quite convinced that they would never be so generally useful as they now were if placed under the superintendence and control of the clergy of any denomination however great or powerful. Believing that the physical condition of the people was closely connected with their moral well-being, he was therefore of opinion that one of the most legitimate modes of expending the funds of the corporation would be in erecting baths and providing parks for the use and benefit o^ the operative portion of the community. " The great municipal question now agitating the community was that of the erection of warehouses on the dock quays. From his experience as a merchant he was certain that the carrying out of that measure would tend to the dispatch of business and to the security of property ; and should they return him one of the representatives of the ward, he would support the measure now in progress for bringing about this, in his opinion, most desirable object. But as on this great question of municipal polity parties were divided, some of the reform ers being allied with those who were only solicitous for their indi vidual interests, and declaring that vested rights should be attended to, while some of the most liberal of the Tories joined with those whose only object was the advancement of the interests of the com munity at large, this could not be taken as a touchstone of those general opinions on which he asked for the suffrages of the electors. He should therefore state his opinions briefly on some of the most prominent of political questions in order to put the meeting in pos session of them, and to show that they differed very materially from those maintained by the Tories. As a merchant he was in favor of the utmost possible freedom of trade. He was opposed to the present obnoxious system of corn laws. As the father of a family he was a great admirer of cheap bread and plenty of it ; therefore he again said he was heart and soul opposed to the corn laws. He admired the old constitutional term of triennial parliaments, and wished to see the practice again adopted, combined with the modern improvements of vote by ballot and household suffrage. It was his opinion that it was the bounden duty of the legislature to provide the means of education for all those whose parents were either LIFE IN LIVERPOOL. 1 23 unable or unwilling to have them taught at their own expense ; and he thought that this national system of education should be under the superintendence of Parliament, and wholly untrammeled by the clergy of any religious sect whatever. He knew that in these opin ions he went further than many highly respectable men of his own party ; but he thought that on an occasion like the present he was bound to put the electors in full possession of his political sentiments, and leave them to decide whether they were such as to be worthy of their confidence and support. " Although he had never before taken any prominent part in local politics, yet since he had been in the town there had been three parliamentary elections at which he had voted. At the first one he voted for that worthy, sound-headed, and practical reformer Mr. Thomas Thonely, the second for the no less worthy Mr. William Ewart, at the third for Messrs. Ewart and Morris, and if a fourth should come, he hoped to record his vote in favor of our patriotic chief magistrate Sir Joshua Walmsley. The Tories on the present occasion were acting against the Liberal party with even more than their usual energy, because they knew that in the year 1841 the election of aldermen would come on, and that a bare majority in this and the succeeding year would enable them to choose eight alder men of their own political opinions. They were making loud boasts that at the present municipal registration numbers were with them. It was well known that they had all along boasted that the wealthy and higher classes were on their side, but the reformers cared little for that if the numbers and worth were with them. He hoped that the electors would use every exertion to place him at the head of the poll by a handsome majority. He had not the presumption to ask this for his own sake, because he was aware that they knew little about him, but he asked it on behalf of the good cause which he had the honor to represent. He had always when attending public meetings been there in the character of a listener, and had imbibed a strong antipathy against long-winded orators. He should there fore conclude by saying that, should he have the honor of being elected their representative in the Town Council, all the offices, so far as he was concerned, should be bestowed on the trustworthy and true-hearted friends of the good old cause of civil and religious liberty. Before sitting down Mr. Wood intimated that if any 124 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. elector wished to ask him any questions on any general matter of policy to which he had not adverted, he would have great pleasure in replying to them. A moment's pause ensued, and then there followed a burst of most vehement applause. " A vote of thanks on the motion of Mr. Wood was passed to the chairman, and the meeting terminated at nine o'clock." In 1841 business was bad, and I suffered greatly from bilious headaches and obscurations of vision, so that when walking up to Everton from my office, No. 8 Old Hall Street, I often wished that I might not fall down in any of the intermediate streets before I reached the Everton district, where I was well known. However, in spite of bad business and bilious attacks, I spoke frequently at free trade and political meetings, and became one of the vice-presidents of the Liverpool Anti-Monopoly Association, which was in reality the Liverpool branch of the Corn Law League, but, as there was rather a jealousy of Manchester in Liverpool, we took a name of our own. I was chairman of the Agitation Committee, and as such sent out some very radical pronunciamentoes, and it was for one of these that the London Times said I should be arrested for sedition and sent to Botany Bay ! On April 14, 1841, my dear Willie was born at No. 1 Netherfield Road, South, a giant of a child. The only record I have of any of my free trade speeches in 1841 is in a printed report in a Liverpool newspaper, the name of which I have not preserved, dated June 22, 1841, which reads as follows : " Mr. William Wood moved the second resolution, which pledged the meeting to make united exertions to secure the return to Parlia ment of two free trade candidates. " He said that, though privately unknown to Sir Joshua Walms ley, a thrill of pleasure went through his heart when he heard that a requisition had been presented to that gentleman to represent Liv erpool in Parliament. It showed that the dominion of cliques and coteries had been cast off, and that there was a desire of conferring the highest honor in the gift of the people on one of the worthiest of Liverpool's own sons. So far from thinking that the fact of his being a townsman unfitted Sir Joshua Walmsley for the high office of representing the town in Parliament, he thought it one of his best recommendations, and should like to see the day when the post LIFE IN LIVERPOOL. 1 25 should be kept open as an object of ambition for our young men. Sir Joshua Walmsley's ««-friends said that he was ambitious, and if so, was it not an honorable and noble ambition which actuated him ? Let the electors support him not only for his own sake, but for the sake of the cause which he advocated. Let them support also our other candidate, Lord Palmerston, the first diplomatist and states man of the day, but whose glorious speech on free trade had, he must confess, earned his (Mr. Wood's) support more than his high intellectual qualities. The present struggle was eminently that of the working men, and he hoped that they would strain their ener gies to put the cheap bread candidates at the head of the poll. Let them not be deceived by the fallacious statement that wages were dependent on the price of corn. He ought to know some thing of this, for he paid ^1500 to ^2000 a year in wages. In 1835, when wheat was under 40s. a quarter, he paid porters 3s. 6d. per day ; in 1839 and 1840, when the average price of wheat was 70s. to 80s. per quarter and upward, did he pay 7s.? No ! he did not even pay 3s. 9d. He paid 3s. 6d. still, and he had far more applica tions for work than in the first-named period. Wages were regulated by the supply of and demand for labor. They were like everything else. It might as well be said that the length of an ass's tail regu lated the length of its ears as that the price of food regulated wages. (Laughter and cheers)." I think it was in June, 1841, that I received an invitation from Mr. Mellor of the firm of Mellor & Russell, in the Brazilian trade, which did business with our Havre house, to dine with him to meet Richard Cobden, M. P., and a young Quaker free trader of the name of John Bright from Rochdale. In accepting the invitation, so far as John Bright was concerned, I considered that / was doing him honor by going to meet him, I representing the Scottish house of Dennistoun, one of whose partners was then M. P. for Glas gow and another had been M. P. for Dumbartonshire. I have often laughed at myself since about this idea when John Bright sub sequently became one of the greatest English statesmen of this cen tury. He was then a chubby, rosy-faced young man of about thirty, and did not look as old. The conversation at table ran upon free trade and the currency. Mr. Mellor, as well as myself, was deeply interested in both subjects. 126 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. In the spring of 1841 my sister Eliza came to reside with us, and some time in June was taken suddenly and alarmingly ill, so that her life was in danger. In July Harriet, my wife, unknown to me, wrote to my uncle Alexander Dennistoun that I had received such a shock from anxiety about Eliza that she wished he would come up and stay at our house and take care of the business while I had a holiday of six weeks, not having had one since 1837. He kindly consented to this, and I hired a remarkably fine traveling carriage, belonging to which were all sorts of convenient packing cases, so that we had no need of trunks or valises. In this convenient vehi cle Harriet and I, John Walter, Charlotte, Bessie, Harriet Maria, and little Willie, with two maidservants, started off on our jaunt. We posted to London, where I think we put up at a hotel — I think the St. James, Jermyn Street, and occupied the very rooms which in 1832 had been occupied by Sir Walter Scott and his family on his return from the Continent. John Dennistoun and his wife (ne'e Frances Ann Onslow), Aunt Fanny, were very kind and attentive, and among other places took us to Vauxhall Garden to see the fireworks, etc., and there we were introduced to the notorious Duke of Brunswick, a cousin of the queen, and son of him who sat " within a windowed niche of that high hall " at the ball given by the Duchess of Richmond in Brussels the night preceding the battle of Waterloo. From London we posted to Brighton, and thence along the south coast of England to Southampton, where we took the steamer to Havre, taking our traveling carriage with us. I recollect that to prevent seasickness I took a good deal of creo sote on lumps of sugar, and made myself quite ill with it. We re mained a day or two at Havre, and then posted along the banks of the Seine to Rouen, where we stayed two or three days visiting the magnificent churches and the monument to Joan of Arc, erected at the place where the English burned her to death. At the hotel one day there was served up an immense fish, carried by six waiters on a board, covered with a tablecloth prepared for it. The French people called the fish I'aigle. It was caught off Dieppe, and I am inclined to think that it was nothing more than a gigantic striped bass. While we remained at the hotel, every day portions of our friend I'aigle were served up in stew or pie, or some sort of con coction, so that we were all heartily sick of it. From Rouen we LIFE IN LIVERPOOL. 1 27 posted to Mantes, where in 1087 William the Conqueror met with an accident which soon after caused his death. We stayed here all night, and I recollect got the most delicious tarts, made with rice and eggs and flavored with orange-flower water. From Mantes we posted to Paris, entering it through the Arc de Triomphe, and driving down the Champs Elysees with four horses, and two pos tilions in great jack-boots cracking their whips as they drove and making a sort of time. We put up at the Hotel Bristol, Place Ven- d6me. One of the guests there was Queen Hortense, Louis Napo leon's mother, who took a great fancy to our children, and had them several times up to her room. During this visit to Paris we drove out to St. Germain, the resi dence of James II. of England when he had fled to France and lost his crown. The palace stands on high ground, with a fine view of Paris in the distance. We also visited Versailles and St. Cloud, and, of course, Notre Dame, the Madeleine, the Palais Royal, Pere la Chaise, and all the other sights in Paris, besides ascending the Column Venddme. I recollect that at Notre Dame about half a dozen priests in robes were performing some act of worship, and one of them took out his snuffbox and took a pinch of snuff, and at the same time took a good look at my beautiful wife. The only places I recollect on our way home are Montreuil and Beauvais. At the former we stopped all night. It stands on a pretty steep eminence, and when we drove off in the morning with our four horses and two postilions, the latter drove their horses at full gallop down the hill, greatly to my fright, as I thought wife, children, and servants would all be killed. However, we reached the level plain in safety. At Beauvais, there is a beautiful old cathedral, which we visited. Then on to Calais and Dover. From the latter place we drove to Canterbury, and slept there, visiting the cathedral, of course. Our two English handmaidens, who had been asking for tea all the time we were in France, now the first night of our return to England clamored for coffee, which they could not get. From Canterbury we proceeded via London to Liverpool, arriving there about the middle of August, 1841. Harriet and I were de lighted with this excursion, which did us all a great deal of good, but, as she and I were together, I have not letters to refer to for par ticulars, but have had to trust to my memory. 128 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. Besides our own houses at Glasgow, Liverpool, Havre, and New Orleans, we had agencies at Lyons, Marseilles, Genoa, and Trieste, and with the last named were doing a large business, sending there cargoes of American cotton, and receiving in payment bills of exchange and consignments of Egyptian cotton not only from Trieste, but direct from Alexandria, Egypt. I recollect that our letters from Alexandria were cut across by the post office authorities and fumigated with asafetida to prevent infection from the plague. For something like a year before the beginning of December, 1841, I had had my suspicions aroused about the integrity and solvency of our agent Alexander Shiras at Trieste, and spoke or wrote to my uncle Alexander Dennistoun on the subject, but he pooh- poohed the suggestion, said Shiras was an honest Scotsman, etc., etc. Well, in November, 1841, there was a dull cotton market at Trieste, and in order to raise money Shiras drew upon us largely at three months, the usance of that sort of business, and then remit ted us bills for about the amount he had drawn. It will be seen from this that he not only had several of our cargoes of American cotton in his hands, but, as he had the power of drawing for twenty thousand to thirty thousand pounds sterling, he might, if dishonest, cease remitting, and then he would have all our cotton and all our money — a perilous state of affairs. Early in December, 1841, he wrote advising me (Alexander Dennistoun & Co.) that he had drawn certain bills to his own order for nineteen thousand pounds in all. He desired me to accept the firsts and send them to Glyn & Co. to be held at the disposal of the seconds, as was usual with such conti nental bills, which I did. In two or three days afterward he wrote, saying that he had been unable to negotiate the seconds, and that he had told Glyn & Co. by that mail to return me the accepted firsts, and if I had not received them, to write for them ; but Glyn & Co. sent them to me by the very same mail that I received Shiras' letter, ordering me to withdraw them. From this statement it will be seen that / had no hand in withdrawing the firsts. They were sent to me by Glyn & Co. without any interference on my part (that is, on A. Dennistoun & Co.'s). After an interval of a day or two I received another letter from Shiras stating that he had now succeeded in negotiating the seconds, and requesting me to send the accepted firsts back to Glyn LIFE IN LIVERPOOL. 1 29 & Co. to be held at the disposal of the seconds. If I remember correctly, I received this last-named letter from Shiras on a Satur day morning, and decided not to send the firsts back to Glyn & Co. until Monday afternoon, by which time I could get a letter from my uncle Alexander Dennistoun at Glasgow expressing his views and wishes on this very important matter, in which I did not wish to act, as I thought I ought to act, without his sanction. It so happened that Bob Dennistoun was going to Glasgow by the steamer on Saturday, and would arrive there on Sunday in time for my uncle to write by Sunday's mail what his wishes were. I had written by Bob what my own ideas were. Well, on the Monday I got a letter from Uncle Alick saying briefly : "Don't reissue the accepted firsts. Start for London immediately, and from thence for Trieste. Let John get a secretary of state's passport for you, and a courier and letters of introduction to some good banking house in Trieste." I consulted our lawyers in Liverpool, Messrs. Duncan & Radcliffe, regarding my rights as to seizing our own property in Shiras' hands. They said that the law merchant was different on the Continent from what it was in England, but they would give me a letter to Olivierson, Denby & Lavie, lawyers in London, and well acquainted with the Austrian laws, whom I had better fully consult on my arrival in London. John Dennistoun and I did so, and they gave me a letter to a reliable lawyer in Trieste, whose name I have for gotten, but it will doubtless occur in my letters written from Trieste ; and the letters I wrote on the journey thither, there, and on my way home, with my wife's replies, I shall now proceed to copy out. The latter I copied into the book marked H. A. W. immediately after her death, and wish them edited and published after my death. But mine to her I have never copied, but hope to do so now, as with hers they form part of this narrative. I left Liverpool for Trieste via London on Tuesday, December 21, 1841, and my wife wrote the following letter next day, addressed to " Care of John Dennistoun, Esq., M. P., 32 Grosvenor Place, London." CHAPTER XIII. ON THE JOURNEY TO TRIESTE, DECEMBER, 1841 — LONDON TO OSTEND. "Liverpool, Wednesday, December 22, 1841. " My Own Beloved Husband : "I feel that yesterday was my worst, — the first great pang was endured then, — and now I am calm and more resigned, and, though I have a heavy heart, yet I am looking forward with confidence to the jaunt and change of air doing you good. Strive to get all the benefit of it that a cheerful mind can give, and remember that a few short months will bring you back, if it be God's will and for our good, to your doting wife and lovely children, a good house and every comfort. " Poor Uncle Alick, who came in about fifteen minutes after you left, looks far more deserving of pity and sympathy than either you or I. He looks pale and miserable, and falls into a sort of stupor every now and then. He read your letter over twice, and said it was all he needed. He was disappointed at not seeing you — thought you would have waited till night. I told him your dilemma, not knowing what to do, as he did not arrive, kept you from sleeping, etc., etc. He got here at twelve at night, and lay on board till morning ; had a miserable voyage of it ; seems very kind to me, and sympathizes (most wonderfully for him) with my being obliged to part with you ; says Tom Sellarwill be here in less than two months, and will go on to Trieste immediately to let you come home ; says Charlotte Heyworth will, perhaps, do him good, and wishes she would come ; asks does she sing. He will take John Walter's room, but said any one most convenient for me ; will always dine in town at two o'clock, and we shall take tea all together at six o'clock, children and all — will make it more cheerful, and let me keep a good watch over them as well. I shall dine at two with the children. Have written Charlotte Heyworth to come ; not yet got her answer. He thinks Willie a famous chap. Little Harriet got hold of his slippers and says : ' Why, Alick, what old slippers ! ' He thinks her very fat and much improved. I am going soon to take a long walk. Got a 130 ON THE JOURNEY TO TRIESTE, DECEMBER, 1841. 131 very kind letter from Eleanor, saying Uncle Alick thought it would be so much pleasanter for him to stay here with me, and hopes it won't much inconvenience me, etc., etc. God bless you, dearest. I am in great haste ; will write to-morrow. , " Ever thine own, my beloved William, " H. A. W." " My Dearest Will : " The silly things from the office have just brought me back my letter, together with one from James, saying that if there is anything of importance in either they will take them back to the office. I broke the seal of this, not knowing my own hand writing. James' letter merely expresses his pleasure at your last kind one to him regarding the offer of money, and says that, if such a time ever should come as you to be in want of assistance, he hopes you will find him more like Uncle Patrick than merely in appearance, and not think he would then offer the paltry amount he had just now offered. He says he is to write soon a long letter to Eliza, which you may read, and also that, fearing for Shiras, he had sold five hundred bales of cotton to stand well with their bankers. I shall advise A. D. of this when he comes home. I have been to see Charlotte Heyworth,* and she to see me after having been to Mrs. H. The old lady has at last ' buried her resentment in the same grave with the corn laws,' and says that of course C. will do her duty, and go and see her sister ; that she is to get rid of Miss Fern, and go to Mrs. Wood on Wednesday next, when C. can come, as until then Miss Fern must stay, having no place to go. Mrs. Wheatly [ne'e Heyworth] goes there to-morrow. I dined at three with the dear children, but felt rather sick. I am keeping up won derfully, though, and rather enjoyed my walk. Willie and Mary [the nurse] have been a great amusement. I have read and cried over your dear letters to Cross and James and Mr. Blackburn, and I am just going to read your unborn speech [on the corn laws, I suppose]. Heaven protect and bless and comfort you, my ever beloved William. " Thine own "H. A. W." * I shall mention that Charlotte Heyworth had also been left alone, Lawrence, her husband, having gone to Bombay to establish a house either there or at Calcutta; he traveled across India from the former to the latter place. — W. W. 132 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. " Morley's Hotel, Trafalgar Square, " London, December 23, 1841. " My Beloved, Darling Wife : " I arrived here about a quarter past seven last night, after a pretty melancholy journey. If I had not said it before, I would say now that, as I passed station after station, and got farther and farther from you and my darling children, I felt that at 'each remove I drag a lengthening chain.' So far from the idea that the last time I passed along the road it was in your dear company cheering me, I think it makes me feel more melancholy than usual from the con trast of being then with you, and now without you ; and then I began to take it into my head that you might get ill and die, and on my return I should find my cheerful and happy home desolate indeed. Then I began to think this was all want of faith in ' Our Father who is in heaven,' and how much meaning there seemed to be in these words — words which we often repeat as words of course, and then I felt comforted, because I knew that not one hair of our head could fall to the ground without his knowledge. I felt that you and I and our sweet children had in him a friend that sticketh closer than a brother ; whom, having not seen, we love ; in whom, though now we see him not, yet, believing, we rejoice with joy unspeakable, receiving the end of our faith, even the salvation of our souls. Then more cheerful thoughts would arise, and I individual ized each of you, beginning with my dear, dear wife, and the last look I had of her at the window, and then my noble John Walter, and sweet, kind little Tot, and innocent, lamblike Bessie, and the pretty little ' Mink,' and fat, healthy, sensible Willie — all passed in turns through, my mind, and all seemed dearer and felt more entwined in my heartstrings than they had ever done before, and I prayed that God would take you under his special care, and keep all evil away from you, watch over us in our absence, and bring us together again in health and happiness. " I had only two companions in the coach, or three if you call a dog one, who had nearly as much sense as the other two. One hunted six days a week (not the dog), and talked of horses and foxes ; the other, a lad of color, responded ; while the dog, a very beautiful small spaniel, belonging to the colored gentleman, slept and said nothing ; he did not even bark at me, so I had not the trouble of LONDON TO OSTEND. 1 33 saying anything to him, and spoke but little to the other two, one of whom, by the bye, abused the Duke of Brunswick at a great rate, and said he was a very bad character as regarded the female sex. I read three newspapers and a good part of the British Almanac. " I had some roast mutton and porter at Birmingham, and thought of the last time I dined in that room with you all. I had no pas senger opposite me in the coach, and so lay with my feet out, wrapped up in my plaid, all the way, and felt very warm and comfortable. At Wolverton I had a bowl of soup, and in z\ hours reached London (sixty miles). The first thing that fairly shook off my melancholy and roused my energies was thinking I had lost my carpetbag, and it was nearly ten minutes before I could lay my hands on it, but at last I got it and my portmanteau safe in a cab and drove here, where I got a very decent room, and, having got some hot water to wash with, cleansed myself and walked to John's. I found him and Fanny (nee Frances Ann Ons low). They had waited for me till seven, and had a room prepared for me with a fire, but, having got one engaged here, I did not think it worth while to bother them by staying. Both were very kind to me, and are looking remarkably well, and so is Constance, who, however, don't appear to be larger than our magnificent Willie. She toddles about on her feet now. " John has engaged a very smart-looking courier for me, quite a young man, say about twenty-eight, a German, who has just arrived from down the Rhine. My present intention, if I can get through my business, is to start for Dover by to-night's mail, cross from there to Ostend to-morrow, and so by Frankfort, Cologne, and up the Rhine to Munich and Innspruck to Trieste. If we find we can't get through the Tyrol for the snow, we will then go to Vienna, and from thence to Trieste, by which route you avoid the mountains. That is John's plan, who has been at Trieste, it seems. He tells me the passage from Dover to Ostend is only about seven hours. I would, however, have gone from London to Ostend, only there is no boat before Saturday. " It is a great relief to me having got a good courier. John had also got a secretary of state's passport for me, and two good let ters of introduction to Trieste. I am just going to his house now, where I hope to get a letter from yon. 134 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. " You must write to me on Saturday, and address the letter William Wood, Esq., Poste Restante (I think that is the way to spell it, and not Post Restante), Frankfort. Then write again on Tuesday, and address your letter Poste Restante, Munich ; then after that Poste Restante, Trieste, say on Saturday week. Then on Tuesday week write to me care of Alexander Shiras, Esq., Trieste ; then every other day, or perhaps every third day, as the postage is heavy. I would like you to direct your letters alternately Poste Restante, Trieste, beginning with the first, and to care of Alexander Shiras, Esq., beginning with the second, so that in case of any quarrel with him I may he sure of getting some of your letters. All letters to Frankfort, Munich, Trieste must be prepaid ; so send them to the office to have this done. The postage is one or two shillings. " I hope poor Charlotte H. is better and coming to stay with you ; give my kind love to her. My taking her present with me will be literally carrying coals to Newcastle, since I am going to Cologne. Make J. W. and Charlotte trace my route on the map, and be sure and tell me all about Bessie when it comes. " The butchers' shops are beautifully ornamented with evergreens in expectation of Christmas ; the raw beef and mutton are actually made to look quite pretty." "32 Grosvenor Place. " My Darling : " I have your kind letter of yesterday. I am delighted to hear that Uncle Alick would like Charlotte Heyworth to stay in the house, and most truly rejoice that she and the old lady are reconciled. I am very busy and have no time for more. Your letter of to-day will be sent after me. Remember me kindly to Uncle Alick, and tell him to keep up his spirits. I think we will get out of this scrape yet in time. God Almighty bless and preserve you and my dear children, and watch over me also. " Ever your deeply attached husband, " William Wood. " P- S. — Cross writes to me that if anything should happen to me he will take the best care of you and- the children. Your letter to Frankfort must be addressed Frankfort-on-the-Main, as there is another Frankfort." LONDON TO OSTEND. 1 35 I recollect that John and I not only consulted the lawyers Olivier- son, Denby & Lavie in London, but also called on our bankers, Glyn, Halifax, Mills & Co., and saw the head partner, George Carr Glyn, an old friend of my uncle James Dennistoun ; they had traveled together on the Continent in their young days, and through that intimacy the main part of our London banking business was transferred from our old bankers, Ransom & Co., to Glyn & Co. George Carr Glyn was eventually created Lord Wolverton, after a place on the London and Northwestern Railway, of which concern I think he was chairman. He said : " Gentlemen, have you any business to propose ? " and looked right through us with his keen piercing eye. We told him I was going to Trieste, etc., etc. In these latter days my associate on the Board of Education, Robert M. Gallaway, as far as his eyes are concerned, puts me always in mind of Lord Wolverton. The next letter to me from Harriet was dated Liverpool, Thurs day, December 23, 1841, and was addressed to me at John Dennis- toun's, but reached his house after I had left London, was forwarded by him to Frankfort-on-the-Main, where it also arrived after my departure, and finally only reached me at Trieste on January 10, 1842. I shall therefore go on copying my own letters up to the time at which I received her letter of December 23, 1841. "London, December 23, 1841. " My Darling Harriet : "I wrote to you this morning, and have now merely to say that I start this evening at a quarter past seven per coach to Dover, from thence per steamer to-morrow morning at nine for Ostend (seventy miles), and then to Cologne, Frankfort-on- the-Main, etc., as already mentioned. My courier, whose name is Fr. Tretter, goes with me per coach. Of course I shall not be able to write to you to-morrow, and don't know on which day I shall have that happiness. Mind and don't put your letters to me in envelopes, as they will cost double postage on the Continent. I inclose Cross' letters to me of 20th and 21st insf., which please read and keep safely. God forever bless you and my dear children. " Your own affectionate and admiring and loving husband, "William Wood." 136 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. "Ship Hotel, Dover, December 24, 1841. " My Own Beloved Harriet : " I left Morley's Hotel last night at a quarter past seven by the Dover coach, having ascertained when I took our seats that the coach reached Dover at five this morning, and that the steamer for Ostend sailed at nine, giving four hours to get washed and make ourself com fortable. Well, we drove on about three miles on the Kent road, where our West End coach stopped for the principal coach which came from the city. We waited and better waited for a good hour. Then when the other coach came up, all the lading of ours had to be piled on it, which took fully half an hour more, and then the coach was heaped as high above the roof nearly as it was from the ground itself. The packages seemed to consist of game and all sorts of things for Christmas. The roads were very heavy, and at every stage there were so many parcels to deliver and receive that when we reached Chatham, thirty-two miles from London, it was already half past two. I had some intention of taking a post chaise, as I felt certain we never should reach Dover in time at the rate we were going. However, my baggage was next the roof, and the pile of parcels above it was so high that the guard said he could not get it out, and advised me to remain till I got to Canterbury, and I would then be better able to judge whether the coach could reach Dover by nine o'clock or not. Well, I stayed, and we did not reach Canter bury till half past six, and the coach was to remain there about half an hour. The road thence to Dover is very hilly, you may recollect, and was besides very heavy, so I knew that the coach could not reach it by nine. I therefore ordered a chaise and four from the nearest inn, and told the postboys I would pay them well if they put me down in Dover by half past eight. Well, off we set, galloped up hill and down brae at a glorious rate, horses foaming, and everybody turning and looking. Well, into Dover we got at a quarter past eight. I rubbed my hands and thought I had done the trick well ; arrived at the door of the Ship Hotel and found that the Ostend boat had sailed fifteen minutes ago ! ! ! her regular hour being six instead of nine, but she had been detained till eight owing to the late arrival of the London mail. " Wasn't this provoking ? detained here for twenty-four hours, besides spending some £3 9s. unnecessarily. However, ' What LONDON TO OSTEND. 1 37 can't be cured must be endured.' It is well that it did not happen one day later, as then I should have been detained till Tuesday next. As it is, if no accident again cause my detention, I shall leave at eight to-morrow morning. It is a great pity I have missed going to day, as the weather is calm and fine. My courier was much cha grined at having got wrong information, but it was not his fault, poor chap, as both John and I called at the coach office and were told that the Ostend boat sailed at nine. However, " There is a root of goodness in things evil, would men observingly distill it out," for I have the pleasure of again writing to my darling wife, which I would not have had, had I sailed to-day, and I hope also to get a decent sleep to-night, as I have scarcely closed my eyes since Monday last. " There is a pleasant-looking young man eating his breakfast beside me who has just returned via Marseilles from Malta. He went out to the latter place in the same steamer with Lawrence Heyworth, who, however, he does not appear to have known except by name, which is not to be wondered at, as there were about one hundred passengers. " I find your Bible a great comfort ; it is so easily carried in one's coat pocket, and is of such an un -Bible-looking shape, that you can take it into the public room at an inn and read it at the fireside without appearing to be hypocritical or righteous overmuch. " I can't tell you what a relief it is to my mind that poor Charlotte Heyworth is coming to stay with you, and that the ' old uns ' have made it up with her. "After a little I am going to take a walk to Shakspere's Cliff, and perhaps also to Dover Castle. You would, no doubt, get my yes terday's letter this morning at breakfast time, and be thinking that I was on my way to Ostend, instead of sitting quietly in the Ship Hotel. " I have got a great deal of information about my route from a gentleman who is here, and who, from his conversation, appears to do nothing but fly about from one part of Europe to another. He says I cannot reach Trieste from Dover in less than ten days, traveling day and night, nor in less than sixteen if I take occasional rest. This is above what I had thought I might have done it in : ten days from this, resting occasionally. I will need to get a car- 138 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. riage at Frankfort, which will cost twenty-five to thirty pounds, and sell for perhaps half that at Trieste. " When I arrived at London on Wednesday night, I felt for the first time in my life that I was quite ready to start once again for Liv erpool in spite of the fatigue, and would have given ten pounds to get leave to do so. How I would like to be at home this even ing to assist you in putting things into the dear children's stockings from Santa Claus, and to-morrow to see all their happy faces and hear little Harriet's opinion of ' Kissem ' when it does come. Kiss them all round for me ; and may our Heavenly Father bless and keep them and you and me, and bring us all together again in hap piness and peace, is the prayer of your deeply attached husband, " William Wood. " P. S. — Since writing the above I have walked to Shakspere's Cliff, and then to Dover Castle Cliff. I think this place is duller than even Brighton. The day has ended in drizzly rain, and, though it was a clear, bright morning, it has been a dismal day since one o'clock. I hope it won't blow to-morrow, but fear my usual ill luck. I have brought down Shakspere in my pocket, and intended to read part of ' Lear ' about Dover Cliff. It is now a quarter past four, so in about an hour and a quarter I shall have dinner, which will help to kill the evening. I don't know a duller thing than for one to be idle in an inn on a wet day. I wish I had you and the dear ones here. The room I am sitting in is handsome and large, with Turkey carpets, but, although it is called the public room, it is private enough in all conscience, for there has been nobody in it for an hour or two. Fifteen Old Hall Street [my Liverpool office] is not such a bad place even in a dull market. What Dover would be with a dull cotton market passes my comprehension ; how James could like it, ditto. It is as bad as Boulogne. Hoping I may get safely away from it to-morrow, and that this will be my last from England for some weeks, I again say, God forever bless you, my sweet, cheer ful wife. Keep up your heart, and be thankful you are not in Dover toute seule. How I would like to see fat Willie and Mary Crow; the very idea of the darling makes me cheerful. Pray that I may be ' wise as a serpent, and harmless as a dove ' in my undertakings, and may get through them prosperously if it please God, and soon be brought safely back to you. This is J. Walter and Charlotte's LONDON TO OSTEND. 1 39 last day with Mr. Howard. Kiss them and Bess and the ' Mink ' ('I not a mink,' says she) and Willie for me. " Again, your own devoted husband, "Wm. W." "Christmas, 1841, Ship Hotel, Dover, 7 a. m. " My Darling Harriet : " Many, many happy returns of this day to you, and my beloved children, and God grant that you and I, at least may not again be separated, nor our children either, for many a long day. May Time, who lays his blight on all, And daily dooms some joy to death, On thee let years so lightly fall They shall not crush one flower beneath; As half in sun and half in shade,* The world along its path advances, May that side the sun's upon Be all that e'er shall meet thy glances — at least if it's good for your spiritual welfare. You will be happy to hear that I had a glorious sleep last night, and the courier had to knock half a dozen times before he got me up this morning at six. We embark at eight. I don't hear the wind blowing. I am sitting in my bedroom, which is precious cold, and, as I have my breakfast to get and bill to pay, I must conclude. Kiss the dear children all round for me — John Walter, Charlotte, Miss Elizabeth dear, the ' Mink,' and dear, fat Willie. I love to name them all, and think of their looks and qualities as I do" so. John Walter must write and tell me what he thinks of Dr. Iliff and the lessons he sets him. Give my love to poor Charlotte H., and remember me kindly to Uncle Alick. God forever bless and protect you and our dear children. " Your attached, fondly attached husband, "William Wood." * In England say one-eighth and seven-eighths. I40 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. " H6tel de la Cour Imperiale, " Ostend, Christmas, 1841. " My Dear Harriet : ' Do tell ! ' " I told you in my letter from Dover this morning that we should start at eight, but the mail was delayed by the state of the roads, and it was half past ten before we left Dover Harbor, and a ¦ most wearisome wait of it we had. The rain was pouring, with but little wind, and that little in our favor, and had we left at eight, we should have been here in time to start per railway for Li£ge at 3 p. m., and have reached that town to-night, but the delay at Dover of 2^ hours made us too late for the tide, and, although we had a very smooth and even quick passage, all things considered, we did not reach this till 5.30 p. m., and the steamboat had to lie off the shore half a mile, and we landed in a small boat by moon light. We first saw land off Dunkirk, a low sandy coast, then Nieu- port, and then Ostend. The entrance to the harbor of Ostend is through two long wooden piers or jetties something like that of Boulogne. On landing we were met by some regular Dutch dou- aniers, smoking short pipes. We went to the passport office, and had ours vis/ed, then to the customhouse, and had our baggage passed, and then under the wing of the commissioner to the hotel, the landlady of which is the image of Mrs. Humphreys, only rather shorter, but just her face and plump figure. I think Mrs. Humphreys must have some Dutch blood in her veins. The servants are very Dutch-looking, with their petticoats sticking out behind in fine style. One of them is about six feet high, and large in proportion, and puts one in mind of Henry VIII.'s description of Anne of Cleves, that she was like a Flanders mare. Only one passenger came over with us ; he is a Belgian and has come to this hotel. We dined together in the large salle a manger, which has no carpet, but is sanded about half an inch thick, and that, I understand, is the usual state of things in Flanders, where you may recollect Corporal Trim says : ' Our armies swore horribly.' For dinner I had a capital fried sole, mutton chops, potatoes (good), bread (bad, that is, dark and doughy), excellent Dutch cheese, some apples and Savoys, and une demi-bouteille de vin de Moselle, the last very good. The sauce to the soles was butter melted quite clear. " I am at this present sitting in my bedroom, which has a com- LONDON TO OSTEND. 141 fortable fire on, a small French bed in one corner, clean, white win dow curtains, and three looking-glasses and a marble mantelpiece. My portmanteau, having got wet, is drying before the fire. As it was a hazy moonlight night when I landed, I can say nothing about the look of the country or town, but the one appears flat and the other uninter esting. We start (G. W.) at seven to-morrow morning per railway to Liege, thence by coach to Aix-la-Chapelle, and then all night by coach to Cologne, so I must now (a quarter to nine) go to bed and try to have a good sleep. I was not sick crossing. I went to bed for two hours at first, as there was a great swell off Dover. The rest of the passage was smooth, and I got up and walked about. It was the smoothest passage the boat has had for four months. The post office is shut to-night, and we start before it opens to-mor row, so that this has to be intrusted with the postage money to the commissioner, and whether the villain will pocket the money and burn my letter remains to be seen. Please own receipt of all my letters ; mention the dates and the places they were written : " Sunday, December 26, 1841, 6.10 a. m. " I am just dressed and going to get breakfast before starting for Li6ge (the better day the better deed). I have reason to be thank ful for having had so good a passage. Farewell, dear one, for the present. I don't suppose I shall be able to write again till I reach Frankfort, where I hope to get a letter from you. God bless and preserve you and my dear children. I find the novelty of the traveling keeps up my spirits. I have never been so low as I was on the railway from Liverpool. " Your affectionate husband, " William Wood." CHAPTER XIV. from ostend to trieste. " Aix-la-Chapelle, Prussia "(in German, Aachs), December 26, 1841. " My Dearest Harriet : " I sent off a letter to you this morning from Ostend, which town I left by the railway or eisen wag, i. e., iron way, as it is called in Flemish, at 7.15 a. m. The first ten or eleven miles out of Ostend are like what Chatmoss may have been a few days after the pri meval deluge. It was difficult to find out whether one was traveling on land or water except for the trees, which it was to be presumed had roots, although I saw nothing but a trunk above and a trunk below, and branches above and branches below, the water. There was a perfect calm, so that it was difficult to decide where the tree ended and the shadow began. The inces sant rains had quite flooded the flat, level country through the midst of which the railway takes its course. The first town we came to was Ghent, the birthplace of ' Old John of Gaunt, time-honored Lancaster '; rather this was the second town, Bruges (pronounced ' Brooch ') being the first. After this we came to Mechlin or Malines, celebrated for its lace and for Sterne having met Maria near it. From this place branch railways go to Brussels and Antwerp, both equidistant about south and north, i. e., Brussels south and Antwerp north. I suppose both are only about fifteen or twenty miles from Mechlin, but of course I saw nothing of them. On our way to Mechlin we passed Uncle Toby's town of Oudenarde, and after Mechlin, Louvain, where there is a very fine old town- hall. The country is extremely uninteresting all the way. At the length and the long we came to Ans, aj place about 1% mile from Liege, where the railway at present terminates. Here we got into a car and drove to Li6ge, which is called Luyk in Flemish. It is a fine old town, and has a very strange old palace, built round a quadrangle, the scene, I suppose, of the murder of the Prince FROM OSTEND TO TRIESTE. 143 Bishop of Lidge by the ' Wild Boar of Ardennes ' in ' Quentin Durward.' " The railway carriages are very large and comfortable, as large as those on the Great Western Railway, but not so showy or handsome. We arrived at Lidge (150 miles) at about 3.30. I dined there at a capital hotel, D'Angleterre : soup, fish, mutton chops, and wild duck, with a demi-bouteille of Nierstein. We left Li^ge at 4.30 and arrived here at ten o'clock. The German name of this place is Aachen. We start . to-morrow morning at 8.30 by railway for Cologne (thirty miles), and from there we go up the Rhine to Frankfort by steam or post chaise, as we find will be most expe ditious. We came in post chaise from Li6ge and found it very com fortable. The distance thence is about thirty-two miles, the country rather hilly, like the upper ward of Lanarkshire from Hamilton to Lesmahagow. This is a great big hotel, and my bedroom is on the ground floor, and a room twice as big and twice as high as our dining room, with two little French beds in the corner, and a great big stove. Mighty cold and comfortless looking. My feet and hands are frozen, so I have ordered some hot water for the former. The name of the hotel is Grand Monarque. It is abeautiful moon light night, and freezing hard. One doesn't travel 182 miles in 15 hours without being a little tired. My plaid is of great use and seems to astonish the natives. My feet get horribly cold, however, so when I get to Frankfort, and we begin, as it were, our travels in earnest, I must buy some sort of fur leggings. We must buy a car riage or caliche of some sort at Frankfort, as after that only horses are to be had as in France. We saw enormous heaps of priests in Belgium with their three-corner cocked hats. One of them came with us from Mechlin to Louvain, and offered me a pinch of snuff and wished us a bon voyage when we parted. About six miles from this we crossed the frontier from Belgium into Prussia. There was a great bar across the road, and we had to stop, have our passports exam ined and my good portmanteau opened and overhauled in the mid dle of the road, which was far north of agreeable. It hurries me too much leaving this open till morning, so I will close to-night. Make the dear children trace my route on the map. God bless and protect you and them and me, and bring us together again in health and safety. I think of you and each of them often and fondly, 144 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. and only wish I were beside you. I saw a child de neuf mois which put me in mind of Willie. He was nearly as large, but wanted his intelligent expression. It is now ten minutes to eleven o'clock. The stove feels warm and comfortable, and so I will off to bed. " Thine own tender and true husband, " William Wood. " I don't know when my next opportunity of writing will occur. I intended to read 'Tristram Shandy' to-day in the railway, but, recollecting it was Sunday, I took my Bible and read it a little, but the print was too small for railway reading, the wayfaring man being apt to make mistakes therein when running at the rate of twenty miles an hour. God bless you, my dear, dear treasure of a wife ; the more I think of all your worth the more I love and respect you, and thank God for giving you and your five pledges to me. "Wm. W." " Frankfort-on-the-Main " (a free town or sovereignty in itself), "Tuesday, December 28, 1841, 9.45 a. m. " My Dearest Harriet : " My last to you was dated Aix-la-Chapelle, 26th inst. Yester day, at a quarter past seven, I think, we started from Aix-la- Chapelle per railway for Cologne, about thirty-two miles. We there found that the steamer up the Rhine had started some hours before we arrived, so I determined to post on all yesterday and last night. At Cologne I went to Jean Maria Farino's and bought a small bottle of cologne. I had suffered much from cold feet in traveling, so at Cologne I bought what the Germans call a 'foot sack,' that is, a great bag all lined with sheepskin, covering the front part of the body and completely enveloping the lower portion ; it is very warm and comfortable. (By the way, before I go farther, let me say that it was not Oudenarde, but Dendermonde, which I passed between Bruges and Mechlin, that Uncle Toby talks so much about.) Well, we started from Cologne, and about halfway between that and Bonn came on the Rhine, for I did not see it at Cologne. Bonn is a pretty place and the seat of a university, where Prince Albert was educated. I made a famous dinner here at the Stein Gasthaus, that is, Star Guesthouse or hotel. After dinner we started FROM OSTEND TO TRIESTE. 145 again, and shortly before coming to Coblentz struck the picturesque part of the Rhine, beginning with the convent on the top of the hill of Griefsberg ; then the castle of Godesberg ; then ' the castled crag of Drachenfels ' ; then across the ' blue Moselle,' by the starry light of a winter's night, just before it flows into the Rhine below Coblentz and opposite the magnificent fortress of Ehrenbreitstein. At Coblentz I took coffee and a partridge for supper ; walked across the bridge of boats over the Rhine (400 of my paces=iooo feet long) to Ehrenbreitstein ; then back to Coblentz, and started at nine on our night's journey. We had a splendid full moon, and, although there were no leaves on the trees, and the vineyards just looked like a collection of rotten pea-sticks, yet such is the grandeur and natural beauty of the Rhine and its banks that, although in mid winter, I must say I never saw anything before fit to be named in the same day with it. There are parts of the Hudson at the High lands like part of the Rhine ; but I traveled last night sixty miles close by the water's edge, like the road on the upper part of Loch Lomond (and, by the way, the scenery there is not unlike the Rhine), and all that great distance was like, or superior to, the Highlands of the Hudson — the river constantly landlocked between magnificent mountains, and cliffs crowned with most romantic towers and ruined castles. Just get Bulwer's ' Pilgrims of the Rhine ' and look at the pictures. I can assure you the reality even in winter beats the pictures all to sticks. What must it be in spring and summer and autumn ! How I regretted not having you beside me. Oh ! how you would have enjoyed it, piercing cold as it was. I thought over and over again : Well, I must bring Harriet and the children here as soon as I can afford it ; and, had I been up to trap, I should have made a bargain with the good folks at Glasgow to get leave to come over here with you and the children some summer for my own pleasure, since I am now going for theirs. It is impossible for me to name half the glorious sights and old castles I saw, but will just name a few and refer you to the ' Pilgrims of the Rhine ' for their description : the island of Nonnenwerth, and Rolandseck, or Ro land's Corner, Rheinstein, Stolgenfels, Rheinfels, St. Goar, Lurlei- berg, etc., etc., Johannisberg and Rudesheim, celebrated for wines. At the Lurleiberg is a famous echo. We made our postilion sound his bugle many times and listened. There we were at midnight with 146 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. a full moon, no living soul near, and the fairy-haunted Lurlei rocks opposite to us, giving back the most distinct echoes you ever heard in your life ; it was sublime. Well, on we drove, and better drove, and at last at 6.30 a. m. reached Mayence, my feet like lead in spite of my foot sack. I went to a room, got a fire put on, undressed, washed, shaved, and redressed, and had just time to swallow a hearty breakfast, when it was time to start per railway for Frankfort. On the way we passed the village of Hochheim, which gives the name of Hock to all the Rhine wines, although it itself stands on the Main. I dare say you think, Why does Will tell me all this stuff ? You see, dear, Will, being a selfish dog, is putting down this informa tion for himself ; killing two dogs with one stone — in short, writing to you, and also keeping a sort of journal, which may be of use here after, to recall things to one's memory. My courier has just been at the post. No letters ! but another English mail comes in at eleven, so I will live in hope. He is now looking for a carriage to take on with us. I am now distant from you, say : Liverpool to London, ..... London to Dover, Dover to Ostend, ...... Ostend to Aix-la-Chapelle, Aix-la-Chapelle to" Coblentz, .... Coblentz to Mayence, ..... Mayence to Frankfort, ..... 656 " " I suppose I am now better than halfway to Trieste in distance, but not in time, as there are now no more railways. I keep up my spirits and feel wonderfully well. There is nothing like traveling for health. My courier is an excellent one, quiet and obliging, and if I had only you and my darling children, I should really enjoy the jaunt, winter though it be, and bleak and uninteresting as the country is excepting the ' Rheingau.' You would be much struck with the similarity of many of your New York customs to those of Germany. Brick houses painted light yellow, or rather primrose color ; the general appearance of the houses and furniture, which are both very nice in Germany, although but indifferent in Belgium. I 208 miles 72 a 72 a 182 a 32 it 65 tt 25 it FROM OSTEND TO TRIESTE. 147 got a good lot of " waffles ' to eat at Ghent, which put me in mind of you and old Charlotte H. The villages on the banks of the Hudson are not unlike those on the Rhine, except that they want the great cliff s crowned with castles rising above them. The hotels in Germany are very large and excellent, some capital ones at Coblentz and else where just on the brink of the Rhine, where I would like to spend a week or two with you. I wonder my uncle Alick does not take Eleanor and his children from London to Antwerp by steam, and thence to Li6ge by railway ; post thence to Cologne, and then up and down the Rhine to any place on fine steamers. You can pay your way to Strasbourg and stop as often as you like, going on in one or two days afterward by the same company's steamers without extra charge. The fare is excellent and the wine prime. With my two greatcoats, plaid, and foot sack I cannot keep myself warm. Yet the frost is very slight ; but I suppose it is the want of my usual exercise which prevents the circulation. I count upon you letting Anna know how and where I am, as I have no time to write to anyone but you ; also Aunt Walter, telling her to keep it a secret. I suppose Mary does not know where I am, and I suppose ought not to know, as Ferguson has to do with Mr. S. in business. Kiss my dear Walter and Charlotte, Bessie and little Harriet, and little dear, fat Willie for me. I continue to think of them all with fond affection, and their dear mother is constantly in my heart of hearts. Give poor Charlotte my best love, and remember me kindly to Uncle Alick. "P. S. — 4.10 p. m. I have waited here till this time expecting the post from England, which has not arrived, and so I have no letters. I start immediately for Heidelberg, fifty miles. I have bought a caleche for thirty-four pounds sterling. I saw at the table d'hdte a Glasgow boy of the name of Clunie, whose brother knows Robert Dennistoun. He is learning German in this neigh borhood. My letters are to be forwarded to Munich, so I will not get them for four days. It is hard frost. God bless you and my dear children. In haste. " Wm. Wood." 148 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. "Bayreus Hof Hotel, " Munich, Capital of the Kingdom of Bavaria, " Thursday, December 30, 1841, 7.45 p. m. " My blessed, blessed Harriet, how much I love you ! It seems to me that when I was with you I never properly appreciated the happi ness of being beside you ; and yet I am sure few married people have been less separated than we have, and God grant we may never again need to be so, and that He in His great mercy will bring us together again in health and happiness. And then my dear children, how often I think of them, each and all, and how dearly I love them. ' But you know my feelings, Miss Kane,' and it is needless for me to attempt to describe them ; they lie too deep for words. My last to you, my sweet love, was written from Frankfort-on-the-Main on Tuesday, 28th inst. I left that place at half past four on a fine cold winter afternoon, fell asleep in the carriage soon after, and hardly awoke until we reached Heidelberg (about forty miles) at a quarter to twelve (midnight). I got a cup of tea and to bed by 1 a. m. Heidel berg is beautifully situated, and in summer must be a most lovely place. The town lies in the opening of a valley, out of which runs the Neckar ; high hills surround it on all sides, but are covered with vineyards, and on a high cliff, looking down on the town, stands the Castle of Heidelberg, a magnificent old ruin. I saw St. Peter's Church in Heidelberg, where Jerome of Prague preached or addressed the people at the Reformation. Well, the next morning I rose at six, and we started at eight for Stuttgart, the capital of the kingdom of Wttrtemberg, which is ' more as I know'd ' until yesterday. Heidelberg is, I believe, in the archduchy of Hesse Darmstadt, where the Hessians came from who fought against the Americans for English pay at the Revolution. Out of Hesse Darmstadt we passed into the kingdom of Wttrtemberg. The boundaries between the countries are marked either by posts painted in diagonal stripes, as red and black for Wttrtemberg, white and black for Prussia, white and light blue for Bavaria, or by a sort of large beams which are let fall across the road or lifted up by a windlass. The King of Prussia, by virtue of an agreement called the Prussian Customs League, col lects the customs for a .great number of the minor German states, such as Wttrtemberg, Bavaria, etc., so that, once past the Prussian frontier, you have no more overhauling of your baggage till you come FROM OSTEND TO TRIESTE. 149 to Austria, which is a great comfort. The roads were very good, and only one bad kicking horse all the way to Stuttgart, — pronounced 'Startgart,' — where we arrived at 6 p. m. (72^ miles). It was dark when we entered the town, so I only observed that the king's stables occupy an entire square bigger than Abercromby Square. The king is celebrated for his fine breed of horses. I made a very good dinner, and had some effervescing Neckar wine, like cham pagne, but did not like it. At 7 p. m. we started on our journey again in the middle of a heavy snowstorm, and traveled all night to Ulm (pronounced ' Oolm ') on the Danube (only think of my being on the 'banks of the deep rolling Danube!'), which we reached this morning at six o'clock — the distance from Stuttgart fifty-three miles English. The drive was very wearisome ; the road hilly, the stages long, and the snow deep. " At Ulm I undressed, washed myself, redressed, and had break fast. Started again at seven, drove past the ' Mttnster,' the largest cathedral in Germany, and across the Danube into Bavaria, and, hav ing our passports examined, was allowed to proceed. Our object was to reach Augsburg — forty-eight miles — before three o'clock, so as to catch the railway from thence to Munich, the last train leaving at that hour. The road was very hilly, very bad, and just like ice for slip- periness ; the snow deep, and the frost intense. In our first stage, if the trace broke once, it broke five times ; on the second, going up a high hill our horse fell down, out jumped the courier and I, and he held the wheel while I found two pieces of brick, clapped them under the wheels, and so prevented the carriage running backward downhill. At last the horse got up, but I thought it was all up with us as to reaching Augsburg by 3 p. m. However, a little postilion who rode the third stage said that we had two hours to do six teen miles, so I ordered four horses, told the postilion he would get a good allowance of ' trinkgeld ' if he reached Augsburg in time for the railway train. Well, he mounted one of the wheelers and drove the four horses with a long whip, and by dint of trotting and even galloping the heavy German horses we reached the railway five minutes before 3 p. m., just in time for the train. We drove round the outside of the walls of Augsburg, and did not enter the town, which I regretted, as it was one of the principal of the Free Towns of Germany, and has some very singular buildings in it. It was in 150 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. the Rathhaus, which I saw over the walls, that the citizens read to the Emperor Charles V. their celebrated apology for adhering to the Protestant faith, called the Augsburg Confession. The distance from Augsburg to Munich is 41 miles, and took us three hours to go per railway, as the Germans like to do things soberly and quietly. So, from seven yesterday morning till six this evening, I have been constantly traveling, and have done 201 miles, which makes me, I think, upward of 800 miles from you. I don't think many people can say that they were on the banks of the Thames on Thursday evening and on those of the Danube the next Thursday morning, and in Munich on Thursday evening, and but for the unfortunate delay at Dover I might have been here last night. " This is an immense hotel, the biggest I ever was in. The salle a manger is a very large, handsome room; all the chairs and sofas in it are of pure white satinwood with crimson buttons, which looks very pretty. I am sitting in my bedroom, which is a large slip of a room, uncarpeted, just a rug in front of a little French bed without curtains, and on the bed is a feather bed to lay on top of me as you have in New York. My bedroom belongs to a fine salle, but that I have not taken. Although the hotel is so immense, it is all full, and I am au troisieme. By the way, it is a mercy I took a German courier with me ; French is in just as little use here as English — indeed, I think more know English than French, but with out German it would be quite impossible to get along. I can only say 'Ya, mynheer' (yes, sir), and 'Nein' (no), and 'Ich forstein nich Deutsch ' (I don't understand German), and ' Brod und booter.' " The peasantry in Wttrtemberg and Bavaria are very queerly dressed, with three-cornered cocked hats, the narrow peak behind; and the broad in front, exactly like an English bishop's shovel hat ; nearly all of them wear high jack-boots, like the Life Guards. I saw a little chap the size of John Walter with a pair of them on to-day. I have also found out the original country of the Jersey wagons. I have seen hundreds of them in Wttrtemberg and Bavaria, and they were no doubt introduced into New Jersey by the emigrants from these countries. They are very primitive-looking vehicles, and I dare say Caesar when he invaded this country nineteen hundred years ago found the inhabitants using just such wagons as their descendants now employ. Tell Bessie and Harrie I saw two little girls just about FROM OSTEND TO TRIESTE. 151 their age at Augsburg to-day driving in a very nice carriage drawn by two beautiful black goats. By the way, the women about Bonn dress their hair in a very ancient but very becoming fashion ; it is called 'chignon,' and is the way the ancient Franks and Suevi dressed theirs. If you recollect, the statue of Joan of Arc at Versailles has the hair dressed in the way I mean. The curls instead of being curled outward like Totty's are turned inward in one large sausage curl, pretty far down the back, and a black ribbon is somehow or other passed through this, and is brought over the head or forehead; the front hair is passed smooth behind the ear, and forms part of the large curl behind. This would be very becoming to Charlotte. " I start to-morrow morning, after taking a look at the Glyptothek and Pinakothek (sculpture and picture galleries) for Innspruck, ninety-nine miles distant. I don't think, however, we shall be able to make out above half of the journey to-morrow, the roads are so heavy with snow. From Innspruck we are going to try a new and short cut through the Alps, opened by the Austrian Government within the last few years. You go over the pass called the Brenner, and then by the vale of Ampezzo. By this route the road from Innspruck to Trieste is about three hundred miles, so I have still four hundred miles to go before reaching my destination. It would not surprise me much if when we got to Innspruck we found the Alps impassable and had to proceed to Salzburg and Vienna and thence to Trieste, which would add three or four hundred miles to my journey. I really stand the fatigue of traveling very well so far, and feel famously sleepy to-night. The weather is extremely cold ; with all manner of wrap pings it is most difficult to keep warm in the carriage. I shall just keep this open till to-morrow, to see if any letters reach me from you. I hardly expect they will, as we have beaten the post, and so the first letters I get will probably not be for some days after I reach Trieste. I feel rather nervous about business matters as I get near Trieste, but I pray that I may be ' wise as a serpent and harmless as a dove.' God Almighty bless you, dear one, and our darling children. Good night. "December 31, 1841. " The last day of the year. I had a good sleep last night, and awoke dreaming I was going to fight a duel with Bully, as I had struck him 152 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. and told him he was a d — d scoundrel for acting as he had done to Lawrence. After this Christian dream I rose and dressed, and prayed fervently for every blessing on my darling Harriet and my dear chil dren during next year. I prayed for all spiritual blessings in rich abundance to us all, and as many temporal ones as were good for us. I felt much comforted in having my Father in heaven, to whom I could pour out my inmost soul in the midst of strangers, and felt that even here I might feel at home, for ' the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof.' After a good breakfast of 'excellent' tea (as dear John Walter would say) and two fried trout, no doubt caught in the ' Iser rolling rapidly,' which passes Munich, I sallied out with a laquais de place, and visited the Glyptothek, a new church in process of building, and being painted in fresco, and the Pinakothek, beauti fully painted in fresco, and full of fine paintings. The porter of the Glyptothek is the biggest and tallest man I ever saw, a perfect ogre both in height and appearance : the top of my head did not reach his shoulder by two inches when I held myself as straight as I could. We then saw the king's new palace, the walls of which are being painted in encaustic, but I prefer fresco, the whole method of which I have made myself fully master of, so that I can talk quite learnedly of the intended decorations of the new Houses of Parliament, and I have made up my mind that fresco painting is very superior to oil, and much better adapted to beautifying large public buildings. The front of the theater here is painted in fresco outside and looks beautiful. This hotel that I am staying in has most of the ceilings painted in fresco. The salle a manger and salle de danse are magnificent rooms ; the latter is laid out this morning for a grand supper that is to take place in it to-night at twelve o'clock to welcome the new year ; there are three crystal chandeliers in it handsomer than anything I ever saw, and the walls are beautifully done in fresco as well as the ceiling. If ever I live to be rich, I will have my house painted in fresco with arabesques, etc. Think how beautiful large halls must look done in the style of the caf£s in the Palais Royal. The Glyptothek and Pinakothek contain some finer rooms than any in Versailles, but as a whole they are smaller and inferior to that grand place. " It has come on thaw, which will make the roads heavier than ever. I dine here at 1 p. m., and shall start at two. I could not FROM OSTEND TO TRIESTE. 1 53 have gone to Innspruck to-night at any rate. I shall go better than halfway before I stop. The people here think I will have no diffi culty in getting through the pass of Ampezzo. No letters from you or anyone have reached me here, we have gone so fast, so I will get none till some days after I reach Trieste. You will not hear from me again till I get to Trieste, as after this I get out of the usual line of travelers, and I don't know if there be any post to England, so you must not be disappointed if you don't hear again for a week or ten days after you get this. God preserve you and keep you and me from evil, and bless us and our dear children, and grant that for Christ's sake we may all be heirs of eternal life. Kiss John Wal ter and Charlotte and Bessie and little Harriet and dear, innocent, fat Willie for me. I rejoice to think you will have poor Charlotte Heyworth with you now. Give her my kind love, and with oceans of love to your dear self, believe me, darling Harriet, " Your own fondly attached husband, "William Wood. " P. S. — The women in Germany generally are desperately ugly, but I have seen some pretty faces in Munich. The country women here wear a sort of straw crown on the back of the head, with five or six long, broad black ribbons hanging down their shoulders from it. I can hardly find it in my heart to stop writing, dear, dear Harriet. Good-by for the present. God forever bless you. " Wm. W. " I wish you would write to James a few lines and tell him where I am. I have no time to write to anyone but you, but should like to hear from James and Cross. Again God bless you. "William Wood." " Innspruck, Capital, of Tyrol " (CEni Pons' of the Romans), " January i, 1842. " My Beloved Harriet : " I have only just a moment to wish you and my darling chil dren a happy New Year and many of them, and may the richest blessings of God Almighty descend upon you during this year and all the years of your appointed time upon earth, and upon me also, and may God in his great mercy bring us together again in health 154 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. and safety, watch over us while absent, and be ever with us to guide and direct and bless us for Jesus Christ's sake. " I left Munich yesterday at half past two, and as I had stayed two hours longer than was necessary for my own pleasure, I determined to do more than make up to the concern for that by traveling all night, which I did, and arrived here (ninety-eight miles) at 9.30 a. m., or nineteen hours' traveling. I have passed over the Tyrolese Alps by roads which, unless I had passed them, I could not believe were passable. Grand and sublime the passes were, but far north of pleasant to travel over. Think of driving miles up and down hills steeper than that at the Toffes House, Everton. The pass of Geislerberg was so steep that it was all the four horses could do to take up our light caleche with nobody in it. The roads were like glass, and the frost so intense that our lamps would not burn, so we were left to make our way as we best could by the light of a very indifferent, hazy moon. Thank God we are here in safety, which is more than I expected. I shall not try crossing the Alps by night in a hurry again on the last day of the year. One cliff which overhung our road was 1770 feet perpendicular, and one mountain we passed upward of 9000 feet high. We see plenty of Tyrolese peasants with their peaked hats, etc.; immense numbers of crucifixes along the roadside with Christ crucified on them, painted the natural color, wounds, blood, and all very disgusting ; also pictures of the Virgin, etc., on front of the houses in fresco ; but I have no time to dilate, only the Alps surpass my expectations in their grandeur, as did the Rhine. " I have just breakfasted on three trout out of the river Inn. I am at the Gasthaus der Golden Sonne. " My courier says the pass of the Brenner over the High Alps, which we are going to essay to-day, is not so bad or difficult as what we have passed through. God bless you. In great haste. Write again, I hope from Trieste, in four or five days. " Your attached and fond husband, " William Wood. " I have my doubts if this will reach you, it is such an out of the way place. Kiss John, Walter, Charlotte, Bessie, little Harriet, and Willie for me, and wish them all a good New Year, and old Charlotte Heyworth also." FROM OSTEND TO TRIESTE. 1 55 1 I did not mention in the above letter that, getting out of the caleche to stretch my legs as we were descending the mountain to Innspruck in the morning, when I was mounting the carriage again> my foot slipped on the iron step and the skin was scraped off my leg from the knee to the ankle. I had time at Innspruck to see the tombs of a great many German emperors and great men, but seem to have made no note of it. " Sterzing, First Post Station beyond the Brenner "(i. e., on the Italian side), " Saturday evening, 10 o'clock, January 1, 1842. " My Dearest Harriet : " I wrote you a few hurried lines this morning from Innspruck, and now sit down to say that I arrived here safely at 9 p. m. We left Innspruck at half past twelve ; the distance is only thirty-six miles, but for the first twenty-seven all uphill, and the first nine of these very steep indeed, but nothing like so dangerous as the pass of the Geislerberg in the Tyrolese Alps, which we went over last night. The Alpine scenery is beautifully grand and magnificent. I walked nearly the whole of the first stage, as the three horses had to walk very slowly ; the next two stages the ascent was much more gradual, and we trotted the most part of them, and arrived at the Brenner or summit of the pass at a little before eight. This is the lowest and least picturesque of all the passes of the Alps, so the others must be truly sublime, for the Brenner pass is beyond anything I ever saw in beauty except the Catskills. It was intensely hard frost, and the stars looked like enormous diamonds. About halfway or more up the Brenner I involuntarily exclaimed to the courier : ' God bless my soul ! Is that a mountain above our heads ? ' This was a great black thing above the white clouds, which I had taken for a black cloud high in the heavens, when, the sun shining out brilliantly, I saw by the outline it must be a mountain ; and so, to be sure, it was — one of the High Alps called 'Somethingberg,' and I suppose 9000 or 10,000 feet high. On the ridge of it I saw clear ice glittering in the sun, also the blue appearance with which distance robes the mountains. Whereupon, having nobody else to say it to, I must needs repeat to the courier ' At summer eve,' and I don't think it was altogether cast ing pearls before swine, for, like most Germans, I think he has a taste 156 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. for the poetical. The Brenner pass, although the lowest in the Alps, is 4500 feet high, or about 1000 feet higher than Ben Lomond, and 500 feet higher than Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in Scotland. Our last stage was downhill all the way, and we came it at a spanking rate, the carriage sliding down corner foremost most of the time. We had the drag with a chain under the wheel for about six or seven miles out of the nine. Neither yesterday nor to-day has the drag alone been of the least use, the roads being so slippery that we had to fasten a heavy chain under the locked wheel, which makes a deep rut in the snow, and so retards the motion of the carriage. " I suppose I have descended some 1500 or 2000 feet, or rather less than half of my descent to Italy, which country I expect to enter to-morrow. " It is so intensly cold that I can hardly hold my pen, and so must to bed. At the Brenner the streams divide, some flowing from it into the Black Sea by way of the Danube, and others into the Adriatic. This place is in a sort of valley in the very middle of the Alps. Moun tains on all sides. I don't know if I can dispatch this^from here to morrow or not. Good-night and God bless you. " Your own " William Wood. " P. S. — As I have seen all Europe from Ostend to Munich and Innspruck covered with snow, I now suppose that about December 28 you would begin to have east winds and hard frost. Let me know if my theory be correct, and take care of the water pipes. "January 2, 8.30 a. m. Just going to start after a decent sleep. Hard, hard frost. God bless you and my dear children. " Your attached husband, " Wm. W." CHAPTER XV. i reach trieste. " Trieste, Province of Illyria, Empire of Austria " (I love to give it all its honors), " Tuesday, January 4, 1842, n.30 p. m. " My Darling Harriet : " Here I am after a most rapid, and in the latter part difficult, if not dangerous, journey. I arrived about an hour ago, and have just had a cup of chocolate and a slice of dry bread in the salle for my dinner, tea, and supper. " My last to you was dated at Sterzing,the first station on the Ital ian side of the Brenner, although not in Italy. It was written on Sunday morning, 2d inst, just before I started. Well, with the exception of four hours that I lay down in bed, but did not sleep, except half an hour, I have been traveling ever since, or for about sixty hours, and feel much less exhausted than you would imagine. " But to proceed regularly with my story. I imagined in my foolish heart that when I was safe over the Brenner pass I had nothing to do but to roll pleasantly downhill into the classic realms of sunny Italy. In place of which from Sunday4morning at nine till twelve that night I was driving up hill and down brae, through one succession of Alps after another, covered with snow and pine trees, the cold intense, and in the evening it began to snow heavily. Well, at midnight we arrived at Cortina, the first village in Italy. The guidebook said there are three decent hotels : at the Post, the Due Spade, and another. We found, however, that there was no longer one at the Post, so drove to the Due Spade, knocked at the door, made the postilion blow his bugle, and at last after waiting half an hour (ther mometer below zero, and after fifteen hours' traveling) we heard people up, who came and let us in. All the fires out, but let into a dirty, filthy salle j no beds ready," no nothing" ; nearly stepped into a great hole in the lobby ; at last got a fire kindled in the kitchen, and by 1.30 a. m. got a little bad coffee, sour bread, and ' mealy- faced ' butter. Kept my temper like an angel ; thought if bad for 158 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. me, worse for people getting up out of their warm beds ; thought of everything by comparison ; have thought it hard to come late from office and find you in bed, though good fire in library ; wished I was as well off again. At last (2 a. m.) bedroom ready ; damp sheets, no blankets, but mattresses above and below ; otherwise room well furnished, 'cause vy' : landlord a carpenter; had had his house well furnished and clean and nice ; two months ago went to Venice ; on his return found his house dismantled, even windows out, floors gone, and furniture ; also wife and six children. It seems an earth- slip from the mountain overhead had threatened the whole village with destruction, so his wife had had all his things removed to the houses of friends living a good way off. The earthslip moved on gradually for sixteen days, and then stopped without touching his house, although it destroyed ten others ; but it covered two good fields of his, and his furniture and house were damaged by the removal some two hundred pounds, so, poor fellow, I felt quite sorry for him. At this inn I saw the names of Mr., Mrs., and Miss Heyworth, ditto Allison. I wrapped myself up in my plaid between the sheets, and lay awake till 6 a. m., and then fell asleep for half an hour, and rose at 7.15. To tell the truth, I left my candle burn ing in the room all night, for after we arrived some two or three cut-throat-looking Italians came into the house for no purpose that I could see, and that, with the idea of a possible landslip from the mountain above, made me desirous of having a farthing candle to light me decently out of this world into the next, and the notion of that, with the excessive cold, kept me awake all night. After some nasty coffee started on our travels at 8 a.m.; intensely cold ; drove down the Val d'Ampezzo by the finest road and most picturesque I ever saw. For miles and miles it ran in galleries cut out in the face of the moun tains, and you saw far down below you trees and spires and cottages, and lower still a rushing mountain torrent 1500 to 2000 feet below. I never saw a road which did greater credit to the skill of the engineer. It is perfectly wonderful, and, although passing through mountains perfectly perpendicular in many places, we trotted down nearly the whole way without a drag. We passed en route Pieve di Cadore, a little village, the birthplace of- Titian, the back grounds of whose pictures are said all to partake of the scenery of the Friuli Alps, through which we were passing, and among which I REACH TRIESTE. 1 59 he was born. Tell John Walter that the strata of this part of the Alps are horizontal ; also that the peasantry cut the pines high up in the mountains, and slide them down to the rivers below. I saw the pines floating down the rivers and men collecting them into rafts, and finally saw one great raft guided by four men floating rapidly down the Piave to the sea. In one of the penny magazines is an article called, I think, ' The Slide of Alpnach,' which John Walter would find interesting, and perhaps even my dear Charlotte might stand on one foot and read. Well, on we came, and down we came to the plain at last, and issued out of the Alps at a place called Lon- garone, where we dined and were waited on by a remarkably pretty Italian girl, about Charlotte's age and size, who si, signored away at a great rate. By the way, the Tyrolese women are very ugly, and high- shouldered ; they almost universally wear bright scarlet stockings and very ugly black hats, without a rim, like beehives. The men wear green or black hats, generally peaked, with a yellow cord and tassel, the tassel behind, and also behind, which looks odd, a bunch of artificial flowers. Some of the men wear immense broad- brimmed green hats, the upper part of the brim yellow. Men and boys wear knee breeches, more particularly in Italy. " Well, on we drove to a place called Ceneda, which we reached about 7 p. m. We walked.into the kitchen (the general rendezvous^ and saw all manner of meat, fowls, sausages, cauliflower, etc., laid out on the dresser in a most Dutch picture style. Four cooks frying and roasting for dear life. A waiter, a perfect Figaro in the tone of his voice and the way he skipped about, asked what I would have, so I fixed on some capital stewed pears and part of a turned out rice pudding which I saw, and found ' excellent,' as my eldest born says. By this time it was snowing heavily again, and we here left the great road to Venice and struck off by a crossroad toward Trieste. We expected to reach Udine (about fifty-two miles) by two or three this morning, instead of which the snow got so deep and drifted so much that it was with the utmost difficulty we reached it at all by half past eight this morning. And what a night we had ! The caleche keeps out slight rain, but the snow was very small, the wind high and piercing cold, and at every crack in came the snow, and tickled my face so much that I could not sleep a wink ; and I also felt wet and damp about the legs. And well I might, for when daylight l6o AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. came, I found myself and the courier literally covered half an inch thick with snow from head to feet, the carriage full of snow, and plenty more blowing in at all manner of holes. Outside the poor postilions — for we had four horses — were groaning and grunting and puffing and blowing, and whipping their horses through snowdrifts up to the horses' knees. Well, it was with great difficulty we got into Udine, where we breakfasted, washed, etc., and with still greater that we got out of it. The postmaster said it was quite impossible for us to proceed, the roads were so deep of snow. All this time the wind was blowing a hurricane, and the snow falling so thickly that you could hardly see' ten yards ahead. When the postmaster saw that we were determined to start, he insisted on our taking six horses. This we refused to do, but started with four horses and two postilions. All the people in Udine turned out to see our departure, and came to the gates with us. The courier heard them saying in Italian : ' These foreigners are so courageous.' Well, we could only go through the drifts at a slow walk, the postilions most unwilling to proceed, and the postmaster followed us for half a mile, saying it was in vain to try to proceed. However, I had no idea of coming so fast and with such fatigue from England to be snowed up, it might be for a week or two, at Udine within forty miles of Trieste ; so I said I forget what to the postmaster, but it was accom panied by that amiable look which hinted he had better go to the devil, and not pester me any more, as I was determined to try to proceed at all events. Well, on we went till we fairly stuck. One postilion got off and walked up to his middle in snow, and said it was impossible to proceed farther. Then Tretter, my courier, got out. He is a plucky little fellow, and he said, on sounding the depth of the snow, that we could get on. Well, on we did go a little bit farther, and then stuck again. Out I got and across the fields to reconnoiter the road further on, and found it full of snow up to my waist for a long way, and saw it was quite impossible to proceed. So we turned back, but before returning to Udine tried another road, along which a soldier had come, who said that two carts had passed him. Even on this road the snow was at one place as high as the carriage lamps on one side, and on going too near the other side of a drift down went one side of the carriage into a ditch. For tunately, the postilions whipped up their horses and dragged us out I REACH TRIESTE. l6l before we had time to upset. A little after this we were delighted to see a post coach and six horses coming toward us through the snow. This, we found, had left Trieste last night. Our postilions had now no excuse for not going on, as the snow 'had ceased, although it still continued to drift. Well, at last, in five hours, we reached Palma Nuova (twelve miles). After the first stage the snow had been dug through, and with four horses we got along pretty well till the last stage, when it began to snow heavily again, and to blow hard. The postilion had great difficulty in making his way to Trieste, which we reached in about twelve hours from Udine (forty miles). You descend to Trieste from high ground by a series of zig zags, and, I dare say, it is prettily situated, but, as I entered it on a dark night in a heavy snowstorm, I can't say much about it yet, but ' Sunny Italy ' is all a flam. I believe England, after all, has the best climate in the world. One does not expect much of it, and therefore one is not disappointed. I thought of taking a parlor and bedroom here, but found them so unconscionably dear (fourteen francs a day) that I have not done so, but have taken a bedroom au troisieme, large and cheerless, with two beds in it close to each other, and a stove in one corner. This alone costs six francs or five shillings a day, which is enormous, so that Trieste is not the place to live cheaply. Of course I have not seen Mr. Shiras, nor have I heard anything of him, but it will be my pleasant duty to wait on him to-morrow, and, as I shall be busy with that, I have written to you to-night. It is now one o'clock in the morning, so good-night, dear one. I thank God for all his mercy in bringing me safely here. I am quite well, except that I scraped the skin off my leg in getting into the carriage near Innspruck, when my foot slipped. It was pretty sore and bled a bit, but made me laugh by thinking it was just one of those hurts that would have made dear Bessie roar as if she had been murdered. Both my feet are covered with chillblains. I hope you see I arrived here in exactly 13^ days from the time I left you, including 24 hours spent in London and 26 in Dover. That is less than 11^ days, without these stoppages, in the depth of winter, or as quick as a letter at midsummer. Since I left London I have traveled 5 entire nights and the most part of several others. God bless you all, not forgetting poor Charlotte Kane. Good-night again, dear one. l62 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. " January 5, 1842. No letter from my darling Harriet or anyone else, so I have beaten the mails, at any rate. I hear that no mail leaves this for England to-day, so I shall write no business letters to-day, but shall send off this, and hope to write to you again to morrow if I can find time. " I fear my worst anticipations regarding Shiras will prove correct, and that we shall lose sixty thousand pounds by him, which, of course, entirely cleans me out, so be as economical as possible. Thank God, I have nothing to blame myself for ; things are exactly as bad, or worse, than I said they were a year ago. Had Mylne gone to Trieste when I urged it, much, if not all of the loss would have been saved, but we are in the hands of a higher Power, who does all things well. God grant that in every situation of life we may ever feel our entire dependence on him for everything, and that he doeth all things well. So far I feel comforted and built up in the faith, and trust that God in his own way and time will bring me and those connected with me out of our present difficulties. So far as I can judge, what has happened ought not to make us fail, provided no other losses occur which I do not know of, and if we live, it may all be made up to us ; but in any event you and I and our dear children have our treasure in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth cor rupt, and where thieves cannot break through nor steal. " I have not seen Mr. Shiras yet ; he is, it seems, afraid to see me. He is an old man with children, and his wife is insane ; so his confi dential clerk, Rutherford, tells me, who has been with him twenty years, and who seems to fear Shiras will kill himself. I hope not. I shall not upbraid him when I do see him. His clerk has gone to his country house to bring him in, if possible, to see me. Don't men tion anything of this to my uncle Alick until after he says they have had a letter from me, as I shall not write to them till to-morrow, and if this reach first, it would be odd your knowing about business be fore them. Keep a good heart, my darling, and put your trust in God. I can assure you that I feel perfect reliance on Him, and am not at all cast down, but sorrow for Shiras more than myself. Read the 20th Psalm, which I did to-day. I imagined that it was you praying for me. God bless and protect you and my dear children, and me also. "Your affectionate and fond husband, " Wm. W." CHAPTER XVI. IN TRIESTE, JANUARY, 1842. " (I address my letter to you to the office to save postage.) "Trieste, January 6, 1842. " My Darling, Darling Harriet : " Now I am going to have the only pleasure I have here, except reading the Bible : that is, writing to you. Oh ! how tenderly I love you and my dear little children. God bless and protect you all, and unite us again in health and happiness. I wrote to you yester day about the dreadful loss we shall have here. My share of it will be at least _^8ooo or ^9000, so that I, as an individual, am utterly beggared in the meantime, and all that is left is the ^4500 settled on you ; and if, unfortunately, J. & A. D. should fail, it is possible the creditors might take that too, but I hope and think not, and I hope J. & A. D. will get safe through the next two months without failing, and then, with God's blessing, as I am but a young man, although my head is bald, I may live to make it up. But, at any rate and in any case, we know that our heavenly Father does all things well. ' Shall we receive good at the hands of the Lord, and shall we not also receive evil ? ' ' Wherefore lift up the hands that hang down, and the feeble knees,' and don't be cast down too much, my beloved one. If we be spared to meet, we shall, I know, be happy, how ever poor we may be. We know by experience that riches do not bring happiness, and, although poverty is forbidding enough, yet it is not necessarily connected with unhappiness, especially to the people of God. I am afraid poor Uncle Alick will feel this blow heavily, and he, I fear, as yet at least, has not that treasure of great price which we, by the infinite mercy and grace of God, possess. Do what you can to comfort him, poor fellow ; and, oh ! my darling Harriet, for my sake, try to keep up and take care of yourself. I long intensely for letters from you, but I have had none since the one I got in London. No mail has arrived here either 163 164 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. to-day or yesterday, being stopped by the snow, so it is a mercy I got safely through. I fear that this and my yesterday's letter may be long in reaching you from that cause, but I hope my letter from Sterzing will allay any apprehension you might have on my account. Dear, dear Harriet, if you could see at this moment my heart of hearts, how satisfied you would be of the pureness and intensity of its love for you ! If God will only permit me to pass the rest of my days beside you, any other evil than that of absence from my beloved one appears trifling by comparison. Not to say that extreme poverty is not a great evil, but I think together, by God's grace, we can even bear that meekly ; but I trust — indeed, I know — that he will not try us beyond what we are able to bear ; but as our day is, so shall our strength be. When I think I am so far from you, and of the serious pecuniary loss I have suffered, I am sur prised that I keep up as well as I do. As my day is, so has been my strength, and I never have felt more of the peace and joy of believing — of that peace which the world cannot give, neither can take away. I hope the worst of the trial is over, and that I shall soon have good accounts of you and my darling children, and that J. & A. D. will carry on safely. " I am to dine with Mr. Shiras to-day at his place in the country. There will be nobody there but Rutherford, his confidential clerk. I have no stomach for going, but did not like to hurt the man's feelings by refusing. I have written business letters to John, Cross, and Uncle Alick to-day, and also to Cross and John separately, pri vate letters, but chiefly about business. I gave Cross a rapid sketch of my journey. I am afraid poor Lawrence will lose something, although not much, by Shiras. " It continues extremely cold here — very like New York in winter ; hard frost and strong northeast wind (there it would be northwest) called the bora. I am sitting at present in one corner of my bed room next a porcelain stove. My windows (as, indeed, most windows here and in Germany) are double. The hotel is on the quay, and I look down on the shipping close to me, and over the blue, cold- looking Adriatic, crested with white waves, and in the distance are the high-peaked Alps covered with snow. This cold weather usually lasts for two months. It seems December was quite fine, IN TRIESTE, JANUARY, 1842. 165 and we shall have no improvement in the temperature till we have ram. There is no tide in the Adriatic, and so there are no docks, and the vessels lie either at the stone quays or at anchor in the roads if they be too large to come close. " This is Epiphany and a strict holiday. Most of the people are rigged out in their best, and I saw on the street Greeks, Jews, and Illyrians (or the peasantry of the neighborhood), all dressed in their appropriate costumes. I dare say in summer and warm weather this must be rather a pleasant place. By the way, I think you ought to discontinue my subscription to liquidate the chapel debt. I don't think I have now any right to subscribe money not my own. Perhaps you will have paid the first quarter before this reaches you ; in that case you need not mind. I hope to be home myself before the next becomes due. Tell my dear John Walter and Charlotte that there is now more need than ever for them to improve the natural talents God has blessed them with, and that when they do go to school I hope they will continue to study just as well as with Mr. Howard. " I wish we could get our stable let, and we must try and sell the grapes when they get ready. However, you need not mind about these things till I come home. How I wish I were safe there ! However, some lexers from you would be a cordial, but till this bora ceases I am afraid I shall get none. " In my bedroom are two beds close together with white muslin curtains ; the beds are iron, and on the top have eight sleigh bells depending from a sort of crown ornament. Whenever you turn, the bells jingle, which is very odd, all things considered ; in fact, I can't account for the bells being there at all. There is no carpet in the room, but the floor is inlaid parquet and waxed. There is a nice rug at the side of each bed, and one in front of the sofa, a chest of drawers, and two tables and several chairs, and there are two windows ; the room is lofty, and the ceiling very prettily painted ; white muslin curtains to the windows and green silk blinds. The room is about the size of our bedroom, perhaps rather larger. I do hope we won't need to turn out of our good, comfortable house ; however, we may be just as happy in a small one, so let us submit to every ordinance of God without mur- l66 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. muring. I would like to hear particularly what my uncle Alick feels and thinks about matters. If J. & A. D. get through the next two months well, I don't know but it might suit us to set up a house here and have Tom Sellar and Mr. Rutherford to manage it. In that case I could stay here till Sellar came to see the thing fairly set a-going, but if not, I don't see there can be much to keep me here after the middle of February. Of course going to Rome is now out of the question, but I may, if I be spared, go home by Florence, Milan, Genoa, and Marseilles. However, there is time enough to think about my route home, only I know my present feeling is I would rather see Netherfield Road and the dear ones in it than Rome, Florence, or anything else, and so I suppose when I have the happiness to set out home I will go straight to Venice and Genoa, and thence by steam to Marseilles, and so on to Lyons, Paris, Calais, and Dover. God Almighty bless and protect and comfort you and my darling children ! I hope dear John Walter and Charlotte will write to me and tell me all their news. Kiss them and dear Bess, the sweet little ' sweep's sister,' if she will ' permit me to use the expression,' and the dear little Harriet and fat Willie. How they all rise before me, headed by your dear self in your Paris dress, and poor Charlotte Kane Heyworth too ; give her my love. I know she and Lawrence will meet us in happiness around the throne of the Redeemer, if we have not met before that time, but I hope we shall. Remember me kindly to Mr. Blackburn and to Mr. Kelly when you see them. Be sure and live comfortably ; good food, but plain, is necessary for health, and so don't stint yourself or the children. John Walter might get a jacket made for him at Richardson's, with black silk buttons, and get Clucas to put black buttons on his best old blue one. Perhaps Clucas might make him a jacket. You might ask his price, he finding good cloth and but tons, and making it after the pattern of J. W.'s jacket made by Richardson. If you think that saving an object, taking into consid eration that it will not be so well made, then let Clucas make it, and not Richardson, but I leave it entirely to you. Get some large thin paper from the office and tell me all you are doing, and write as often as you can, care of A. Shiras, Esq., Trieste. All your letters must be sent to the office to be postpaid or they will not come for ward. There is a theater here where there is good singing, and cost- IN TRIESTE, JANUARY, 1 842. 167 ing only sixteen pence. Again, God bless you ! Pray for me, that I may be comforted and upheld in the faith. " Your attached husband, "William Wood." " The Jay to-day was admirable. I hope you go on with it and the chapters. I read mine about 9 a. m." " Hotel de Prince Metternich, " Trieste, January 7, 1842. " My Darling Harriet : " Another day has passed and no mail has arrived from England, so that I am still without any letter from my sweet wife or any news of my dear children. People here rise late, and don't appear to go to their offices till ten o'clock, so to-day I didn't get up till half past seven, instead of rising by candle-light at half past six. Mr. Rutherford was to call for me at ten, but, not making his ap pearance up till half past ten, I went to Mr. Shiras' office and remained there till half past one, making various business arrange ments. The bora still continues, and it is fearfully cold. I never felt anything so piercing as the wind. It is just like the great gale in January, 1839, but as the houses here are very strongly built, and have all double windows, it is not so much felt inside the house. " Yesterday I dined at Mr. Shiras' house at five. He sent in his carriage for Rutherford and me. The house is about ij£ mile from the center of the town, and I can assure you that in driv ing out I was really frightened ; the wind was so strong that I thought it would have blown both horses and carriage over. How ever, we got safely out. Mr. Shiras appears to keep two carriages and a coachman and manservant. There is a considerable vineyard attached to the house, where enough grapes are grown to be made into wine, which we drank during dinner. He has a son about four teen and three daughters younger, all ugly ; but really my heart bled for him and them, although I knew he had used us infamously, and had ruined me (for the present, at any rate) individually. But to see a respectable-looking old man of sixty in a comfortable home, which he had possessed for twenty years, with his family and servants about him — to know that he was not worth a sixpence in the world, had acted in a most rascally manner, and that in a few l68 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. days his house would be transferred to me in part payment of his heavy debt, really made me sick. However, some glasses of decent sherry and good hock brought me round a little, and I sat chatting till after nine o'clock, when the carriage was ordered, and I returned home — no, not home, — I would not profane that dear name, — but to 'mine inn,' where I went to bed and slept till about 6 a. m., and then lay awake till I got up, thinking of the agreeableness of losing all the money I had in the world. I have been busy to-day arranging matters as well as I can, but where one has no confidence in the thieves and rob bers with whom one is dealing, business becomes most irksome and dis agreeable. I hope, however, that if my arrangements succeed I shall have saved at least twenty thousand pounds by coming here ; but even then we shall lose about seventy-three thousand pounds, my share of which would be upward of eight thousand pounds, or double what I have in the world, exclusive of what I have settled on you. " The table d'hdte here is at 2 p. m., and to-day I dined there. I found a wild, harum-scarum Irishman, whom I am sure I have met somewhere, but cannot tell where, a dissipated young English officer returning to England overland from India, and another Englishman, a young man, — I suppose a merchant, — who asked me when I left Liverpool. He says he knows me by sight very well. I don't know him. I don't know the names of these people, but we are all hail-fellow well met ! The Irishman and I had a bottle of porter and a bottle of port at dinner. They and everybody else here smoke after dinner, so I was in a minority of one. " I am now sitting in the corner of my bedroom beside the por celain stove. It is particularly dull for me, because I cannot for a while go to the Exchange or reading room, as I do not wish anyone to know who I am, or that I am here, until I get certain business arrangements completed. " One odd custom here is that they take grated Parmesan cheese to soup — two or three spoonfuls to a plate of soup. The fare is in the French style, but I must say, with Don Juan, when hungry ' I long for food, but chiefly a beefsteak.' "While the bora continues, no one attends to business, as the offices have no fireplaces, and are so cold as to make one's teeth chatter in his head. The mail for England only leaves here four days a week, viz., Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. IN TRIESTE, JANUARY, 1 842. 1 69 " I find that there is a steamer four times a month hence to Ancona, just at the thick part of the calf of the leg of Italy, from whence you easily go to Rome, from Rome to Naples in twenty-four hours, and from Naples by steam to Genoa and Marseilles. This would be as cheap a way of going home as any other. I should like to take that route. To see Venice I might leave here on a Saturday night, stay there Sunday and Monday, and return here on Tuesday. It would be a pity not to see all these celebrated places when I am so near them, and yet, even if I had the means, and had my business here arranged, I am so homesick that it would take a great effort to go anywhere else than straight home. If J. & A. D. don't fail, let me know what you think of ray going home by Ancona, Rome, and Naples. God bless you, my darling, and my dear children ! I was very nearly showing the courier your picture to-night to let him see what a pretty wife I had, only I thought it would be absurd, and did not do it. Again, good-night ! " Saturday, January 8, 1842. My beloved Harriet, I have got no letters from you yet. There are Liverpool dates to-day in town of December 25, but I suppose your letter of that date to me has gone round by Frankfort and Munich, so I may not get it for a week yet. I have, therefore, still no later accounts of you than those in your letter of December 22, the day I left. I am to dine at two o'clock at Rutherford's, and must go and dress for dinner now (half past one, primitive hours). The bora still continues, but is not quite so bad as it was, though still very cold. Living here I find very expensive, and very poor things — bad tea, bad coffee, bad milk, bad butter ; the only thing good is the bread. " Half past 4 p. m. I have just come back from Rutherford's. His mother thinks me the image of my father, whom she had met at Mrs. McKean's along with my mother, and also my uncle Walter. Ask my uncle Alick if he knows what Rutherfords they are. Ruth erford's wife is a modest-looking lady, — a Greek, — and might pass for Eleanor's sister. She understands English, but does not speak it. She speaks Greek, Italian, French, and German. Rutherford's daughter, just Charlotte's age, speaks Italian and German, but not English. My heart warmed to her from being Charlotte's age exactly, although she is a plain-looking little thing. I feel a good deal better this afternoon, having had a glass or two of good cham- 170 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. pagne and some good plum pudding. I must close this to catch the mail. God bless you ! I hope to write again to-morrow. Kiss all my dear children for me. " Ever your own " Wm. W." " Trieste, Sunday, January 9, 1842. "My Darling Harriet: " Another post in, but no letter from you. The post brings Liverpool letters of Tuesday, December 28. I suppose your letter of that date would go first to Munich, but still it is odd that I have got no letters from anyone. The only document that has reached me is a power of attorney, which came to hand from London to-day, signed by John on December 29. In the course of the week I think I must have several letters from you, my sweet, dear, dear wife. I went back to Rutherford's to tea last night for half an hour. The tea was very indifferent. He and I then went to the opera, and stayed about an hour. It was a Greek ballet. The Greek dresses were very fine, but the ballet stupid and wearisome to the last degree, and I got dead tired of it, and went to the inn, and so to bed. " The dullness of the inn and of the town is quite awful. The bora still continues, and freezes one's very soul in his body. My bed room has a stove in it, but there is not even a sight of fire, as, by what is considered an improvement, it is lighted from outside the room. The room has no carpet, and there is nobody in the hotel who speaks English. A few of the waiters can say a few words of French, but German and Italian are their proper languages. I am glad to see my courier come in and speak to me occasionally. I find him of great use. He mends my clothes, sews on buttons, etc., etc., gives out my things to be washed, and positively without him I should have great difficulty in getting anything to eat. There are no Italian and English or German and English conversation books in town, but some are expected next week, when I shall get one. I never was in such an infernally dull, stupid hole in all my life. The only physical comfort I have is to get into bed and sleep if possible, but that I cannot always do for thinking of business arrangements ; but I am warm in bed, and that I am nowhere else. I rose at eight to-day and read the Jay for January 9, which brought tears to my eyes ; read the Bible and felt comforted. After this Rutherford IN TRIESTE, JANUARY, 1842. 171 came for me, and I took a walk with him through the town and along the seashore. I had some chocolate this morning for breakfast and the wing of a pheasant cold. The butter is so bad I can't eat it, but I made a hearty breakfast — the first I have made since I came here. While actually traveling there was some excitement, and I did not know how badly things would turn out, but now I feel my loneliness and absence from you extremely, and, bad as things are, have no certainty that they may not be worse — that is, that J. & A. D. may have to stop. However, I must not faint under the chasten ing hand of my heavenly Father, for I do know that he doeth all things well, and that not a hair of our heads can fall to the ground without his knowledge, and that, dull and disagreeable as my present situation is, it is much better than I deserve — much better than our blessed Lord and Master had when he exclaimed : ' The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.' Now, / have really a very decent bed, perhaps a thought too narrow, but comfortable enough. Now, don't bother yourself about my being dull ; this state of matters won't last forever, and I shall be better, I doubt not, when the wind changes and the weather gets warmer ; indeed, I am better now, as it relieves me to tell you of my state and prospects. " Since writing the foregoing I have had my dinner. I suppose there were twenty or thirty people at the table d'hdte, all speaking Italian or German. I got some Madeira wine, not being able to get sherry ; some glasses of it did me good, but I do think I would almost rather be a beggar in England or America than a prince anywhere else. I have become quite patriotic and am no more a cosmopolite, and would not live out of England or the United States for all the kingdoms of the earth and the glory of them. In future I shall never bid anybody go to the devil, but only to Trieste. I would not wish my worst enemy a drearier dwelling place. It would do old Lady Heyworth a world of good to be sent here by herself. " I did not go to the English church to-day, because I don't want to be known yet. I intended to go to a Greek church, but found them all shut when I went. I entered a Roman Catholic church for a few seconds, and, although it was very large, it was crammed, all the people standing, and packed as close as herrings 172 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. in a barrel. God bless you, dear one, and dear John Walter, Char lotte, Bess, little Harry, and dear fat Willie ! The more I see of other children the more I think of my own. I am going to take another walk, put this letter in the post, come home and read the Bible, and then to bed. Give my kind love to Charlotte H. There is no post again until Tuesday (the day after to-morrow), so you won't hear from me again for two days at least. " Ever your own " Wm. W." The following letter was addressed to me at John's house, Lon don, but after I left was forwarded to Frankfort-on-the-Main, where it also arrived after my departure, and finally reached me at Trieste January io, 1842 : "Liverpool, Thursday, December 23, 1841. " My Beloved, Precious William : " I feel to-day a little more conscious of the deepness of the trial I am passing through in being separated from you. The thought that you are so near now as a day's journey, and that you are to go so far distant before I see you, and when I know that my eyes shall not behold you for long, long, and still, I cannot rush forward for one last look and one embrace more, almost makes my heart swell too big to heave its sigh ! O God ! have mercy upon us and strengthen us each day to bear our burden ! Say ' amen,' dear William, to this prayer, and, oh ! how fervently I now pray when His hand is upon me ! May our prayers be heard and answered, for I know that you, too, are interceding with the whole heart for me. I pray that you may have strength for your day, be kept from temptation and from sin, guided and directed as to the duties and trials of each day, have great joy and peace in believing and in trusting in His promises ; that your bodily health may be strength ened and invigorated with the journey ; that your mind may be stayed in peace on Him who is our peace ; and that we may be restored to each other for a long life of health and happiness. John Walter, Charlotte, Bess, and Harrie each pray also that God will be with you on your journey, keep you in health, and send you safe home to us. So, you see, all our prayers are for you, and I think they are believing prayers, and we know that whatsoever we ask in His name, believing, we shall receive (if for our good). I shall ask IN TRIESTE, JANUARY, 1 842. 1 73 Mr. Kelly for an interest in his prayers, and I have asked Charlotte Heyworth. I shall also ask Aunt Helen, and we shall not ' let Him go except He bless us,' and even if we have not all we ask now, we must still trust, knowing that our prayers, if answered, might not be for our good, and that He is our Father and we His children, and what might seem a good to us might be our snare, and He has said He will not afflict us beyond what we are able to bear, and ' whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.' I feel that I am scourged now ; the lash is heavy when my darling is removed. I am sitting writing in the nursery, with my book on my knee. Willie is on the bed crying ' Ga-ga,' and lively as a young kid. Poor little Harrie was pert to Bessie and rather willful this morning, so I took her to my bedroom and gave her a pretty sharp whipping. She was as sweet and submissive as she always is imme diately after, and said her letters like a good girl. I have taught both Bessie and her to-day and yesterday, fulfilled all my duties ; to-day is very wet. John W. and C. have gone to dancing, and Bess and I have on our boots to go to Aunt Charlotte's before our half past two dinner. We are to have the capon boiled that was got for Mr. Kelly. I asked Uncle Alick what he would like for his Christ mas dinner ? He said without any hesitation, ' Turkey.' I said, ' Boiled or roasted ? ' He, ' Roasted.' He is very kind, mild, and polite, but very like himself, however ; but yesterday he actually got up, seeing Harrie fighting to get her chair out of a corner, and brought the chair out for her, asked where she wanted it, and actually car ried it the whole length of the room for her, and placed it as she directed. John Walter slept in the cot last night, placed where Mrs. Harvey used to have it, and Bess and Charlotte in my bed. We all slept comfortably ; my sleep was good, but in short naps, and in each sleep I dreamed of you. Some dreams were pleasant, some not ; but sleeping or waking my thoughts are with you! " Dear John Walter looked so like you in washing and dressing that he did me good. He got up first and, having dressed and washed, I got up ; he was then dressed by the time I wanted to take off my night dress. Charlotte and Bess were washed and dressed in the nursery as usual. I got up at 7.10, and told Uncle Alick we would breakfast at 8.30, meaning to have worship at 8, but my gentleman, though called at 8, was out of his room at 174 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. 8.15, walking up and down with his hands behind him, so I had no worship to-day ; I told the servants we would assemble earlier in future, and I intend to get your prayers from Charlotte and read one every day, for I think in worship we should meet for prayer as well as reading, and it will do me good to read those blessed words of yours. " My appetite is better to-day, in fact, I am very much better, so make your mind easy about the health of all vour household. " I intend sending to Wareing Webb to-night for the book and his account. Are there many more Penny Magazines and ' Pic torials ' to come ? And what works am I to pay for ? Shall I dis continue the Evangelical Magazine, and am I to take the Eclectic Review ? Where shall I send if any of these are to be discon tinued ? Do you know where I had best get flour when I want it, and do you know if you have £\. 4s. of Alice Davis' in your busi ness, and shall I ask them at the office to send in her account and E. Williams' at the end of the year ? I have paid for the coal and Gardeau Mally's account. The old lady Heyworth said to Charlotte that it hurt her so that Mrs. Wood should think she wished to keep us separate, etc., etc. Would talk over the subject of the letter, but did not ask if anyone induced her to write. The old gentleman said : ' Stop, Betsy ; I tell you I will not have Charlotte spoken to on the subject ; she has done all that is right now, I am sure. Go, Charlotte, to your mother, and throw your arms about her, and say you will be friends henceforth.' Which Charlotte did, though in a laughing way, and said to the old lady : ' Now, you are very sweet.' Mrs. Wheatly is very far from well, and her ' high station ' is not such a happy station as was represented. She can tell this to Charlotte now, but before she thought C. did not take ' a sister's interest,' etc., etc. God bless you abundantly, my beloved, darling husband ! Keep up your spirits and all will go well. John Walter has just come in from dancing, and sends best, best love. I shall go now and take him with me to Charlotte's." "Trieste, January 10, 1842. " My Blessed Harriet : " Your welcome letter of December 23 [the day after I left] has only reached me to-day by way of Frankfort, so, notwithstanding IN TRIESTE, JANUARY, 1 842. 1 75 my detention in London and Dover, I came five days faster than it has done. I now proceed to answer your questions before I forget them. I wish W. Webb to continue sending the Penny Magazine and the 'Pictorial History of England'; they are excellent works and very cheap. I discontinued the Evangelical and Eclectic before I left ; they are got from D. Marples, bookseller, Lord Street, and should they by any mistake continue to be sent, you must return them to him, and say I countermanded them in December, as I had gone abroad. The only things you have to pay Wareing Webb for are the Penny Magazine, ' Pictorial History,' and three numbers of the Christian Traveller ; everything else I paid him for as I got it. There will be eleven numbers of the Penny to pay for, and you can count the numbers of the ' Pictorial.' The four volumes are already paid for. '' When you want flour, give Uncle Alick a memorandum, thus : ' Desire Mr. Ritchie to ask Dunlevie to get one or two barrels of best American flour.' I don't recollect what Alice and Elizabeth Wil liams have at their credit, but just you give Uncle Alick a memo randum as follows : ' Wanted copy of Alice Davis' account till December 31, 1841.' 'Wanted copy of E. Williams' account till December 31, 1841.' And then Mr. Ritchie will send them up to you. " I had some comfortable communings last evening after reading the Bible and Jay and felt strengthened and built up in the faith. The weather is much milder, and I hope in a day or two to have the business I am about arranged as well as circumstances wil' admit, but even the best arrangement will take eighty-five hun dred pounds out of my pocket. I am sitting in my bedroom wrapped up in my greatcoat, having countermanded the fire in the stove until the evening on account of economy, fuel being very dear ; however, it is so desperately cold and comfortless I must take — indeed, have taken — to the fire again. I got home my first washing to-day, and such washing ! The things look as if they had been dipped in coffee grounds, and are far browner and yellower than when I sent them out for dirty. However, that is but a minor evil. " I am delighted to think that I must now shortly have much later letters from you, as the snow must be melting and the roads becom ing passable. Dear, dear Harriet, may God support and bless and 176 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. comfort you and my dear children ! Read the Jay of January 2 ; it was a very great comfort to me yesterday. Be sure that you tell me most particularly about your health, and all that you are doing, and all about my dear children, and give each of them individually my kindest love, I am now going to take a little walk on the quay in front of the hotel until some business a lawyer is doing for me is finished. God Almighty bless you and me and our dear children ! Amen ! " January 11,1842. My sweet wife : No letters from you to-day, which is a great disappointment, especially as I have had another heavy trial to bear to-day. I have lost ^3500 more, that is, have not secured that amount, which I thought I had. It is, however, no fault of mine, as I had done all I could to secure the property. Uncle Alick will tell you about it if you ask him. I have not time to repeat the whole here, especially as I must go and look after cotton, etc., which I have laid my hands on. It is horrid to be among a set of people that you can't believe or trust. Do you, my darling, pray for me that I may be supported and comforted, made ' wise as a serpent, and harmless as a dove.' Young Phipps, the brother and partner of Mr. Lewis Phipps, has arrived to-day from Venice. Poor fellow, I am sorry for him, although I don't think he is so much to be pitied as I am. Yes, he is, though — more, for I fear he has not that great hope and support which I have. Bless you, my dear one, and my sweet children ; pray for me and for yourselves, and keep up your hearts, and don't let us faint under the chastening hand of the Lord. There is no mail again from this until the day after to-morrow. " It is well I came through from Udine when I did, as a gentle man who arrived yesterday took four days to come from it (thirty- five miles). A lady now in the hotel arrived last night from Vienna with her arm broken, the diligence having been upset in the snow, while I am here safely, and the Lord, who delivered me out of the hand of the lion and bear, is able also to deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine of poverty. God bless you, dear, dear Harriet ! Oh, may his protecting arm ever be around us and our dear children ! " Ever your own devoted husband, "William Wood." CHAPTER XVII. LIFE IN TRIESTE. " i Netherfield Road, South, Everton, Liverpool, " December 24, 1841. " My Beloved Will : " I am all expectation to-day for your welcome letter, for one line, I am sure, is coming. I have had a good night and my heart is lighter to-day, though the cause of sorrow remains the same, proving that we have it much in ourselves to be happy or miserable. Try, therefore, my precious one, to leave your burden at the foot of the Cross, and I will follow and do the same. Poor Uncle Alick has eaten less still this morning, and slept very ill. I said : ' Can I in any way make your bed more comfortable ? ' He smiled, and said : ' It is not the bed, Harriet, but the head. An anxious mind is my infirmity.' Poor fellow, I wish he could drop his load at the foot of the Cross, and, as nothing is too hard or impossible with God, I trust he may yet do so, and my prayers shall be to this end. I did not go to Charlotte's yesterday, for when I had finished my letter, it was pouring rain, and the fog made it so dark that I thought I was better at home. I, therefore, did not get your prayer book, so this morning I had the servants in precisely at eight, read your chapters in the course of reading, the 91st Psalm and 4th Hebrews, and ended with ' Our Father who art in heaven.' To-morrow, if spared, I shall be better able to read and enunciate yours. I prayed with J. Walter in my room this morning, kneeling at the foot of the otto man ; the dear boy was much affected. I prayed particularly for you, my darling, and then for him, that he might be kept from the snares and vices of a public school, and ever hear a voice behind him saying : ' This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.' I think occasional private prayers with him and Charlotte may, through God's grace, have a beneficial tendency on their minds. I now think clearly my duty was in remaining behind with them ; and if I find you are keeping 177 178 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. well, and 'lifting up the hands that hang down,' and perhaps even enjoying your trip, so as to get your body strengthened and mind diverted from business cares, I should be as happy as I could be (without you, I mean). To-night is Christmas Eve, and the children are in great force about hanging up their stockings. Charlotte Hey worth is going to send them each an orange and a horn of sugar plums to put in, and I shall add a fig and a few raisins, etc., etc. Uncle Alick says he will go down to the Athenaeum to-morrow. I shall take J. W., C, and Bess, if it be a fine day, in a car down to Bootle to see Mr. Malcolm, and walk back, or else walk to Sand Hills and back again, if I feel strong enough. C. Heyworth is to dine with Miss Ferns at the old lady's. She had agreed with me not to come here at any rate, on account of Uncle Alick, as Miss Ferns would have to come, too. She herself will be here by ten in the morning, however, to help me to arrange the play room and see the fun, and will remain until it is time to go home and dress and arrange for Mrs. H.'s dinner. She will come without Miss Ferns, which will be a great treat to us both, as being all day together without having Miss Ferns' company. " I wrote Eleanor last night and refused an invitation for us to dine with Lawrence Heyworth, Sr., at Yewtree on January 7. I merely said : ' Regret it is not in our power,' etc. There is a Mrs. Potter from Seaforth, coming at n a. m., to inquire about Ruth. I shall say she is a good servant, but, as the lady said before, an ' odd temper.' I am also going to bid Mr. Howard good-by before he leaves to-day, both trying things to a timid bird like me. The servants are behaving very well. I have not spoken yet to Alice, and think I shall wait for an occasion. It is another wet, beastly day, but I shall go out in spite of it. I shall put on my French cap with the carnation to see the lady and to take leave of Mr. Howard. I have on my French delaine, clean cuffs, etc. God bless you ! The car has come for Uncle Alick. It is 10 a. m. "Thine own " H." The foregoing must have been written before or immediately after breakfast, so as to be sent down to the post office by Uncle Alick. The following letter is addressed " William Wood, Esq., Poste LIFE IN TRIESTE. 1 79 Restante, Frankfort-on-the-Main," and readdressed " Munchen " (Munich), and then Trieste, where it found me : "Christmas Day, Saturday, December 25, 1841. " My Ever Blessed Will : " Oh, how I was rejoiced to see your dear handwriting, and to get such long, full letters ; bless you, bless you for it, my darling one ! Oh, how I wish I were with you to cheer and enliven your journey ! I am rejoiced that you are putting trust in ' our Father.' Oh, stick close to him as your guide and friend and conductor ! I long to hear of your being at Trieste, and the result of your journey there. C. Heyworth has not been able to see us to-day, but goes to dine at the ' old un's.' She wrote me that a brother of Miss Ferns' at Akeds' office was at her house last night, and when she came in, Miss Ferns said : ' So Mr. Wood has gone to Trieste ? ' ' Has he ? ' said Char lotte. ' Who said so ? ' Ferns replied young Kemp (or some such name), a clerk in Mr. A.'s office. Charlotte said : ' I think that is a mistake, for Mrs. W. told me he had gone to Havre, and I know Mr. Wood feared all along he would need to go to their house there to take charge, on account of his brother, who was ill.' I told Uncle Alick, who said : ' She had better, when questioned, say she knew nothing about it.' She is prepared to say at Mrs. Heyworth's to-day (if asked) that you had told her your brother was ill, and you might have to go to Havre, but that if you went farther, she would soon hear of it from me. Charlotte herself really thinks you went from Southampton to Havre, for I have never seen her alone to tell her the contrary. " Now for the 'kissum things.' Well, at five I was awakened by the ' Royal William.' He roused all the other four. Miss Harrie was brought into my bed, too, and long before it was light they groped at their stockings, and found first an orange from Charlotte H.; then two figs from H. W.; then two of Carr's biscuits from the same generous individual ; then a beautifully done up horn of sugar plums from Charlotte H.; then each four mottoes, with French paintings on them, finely done up, from Charlotte H.; then John Walter and Charlotte had in addition a half crown each from me to keep in their pocket. Uncle Alick took quite an interest in seeing me put up the things last night, and actually got up twice from the l8o AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. sofa to look at me. I slept, or rather lay, so long, to give the serv ants a little rest, that Uncle Alick was in the room before I could have prayers, so I assembled them in my bedroom and read the Bible and one of your prayers there. The first thing little Harrie said when we came out was : ' Alick, we've been having prayers in the other room.' ' Have you ?' said he, and smiled to me. " At ten o'clock I went up to the play room (having arranged every thing the night before), and I had a good fire made there, and got J. W. with me, who sounded the trumpet (a sixpenny one), while I rang the large bell, till they all assembled. Last of all came up, with his hands behind his back and smiling face, Uncle Alick. Well, you never heard such laughing and merriment in all your life. There was really as handsome a display as we have ever had. The baby-houses were beautiful, all arranged on a platform (the bot tom of a box that your picture came in from Scotland, with a piece of bright carpet upon it); this raised the houses from the floor and made them all in one. By the way, your picture is very like you in the glass, but, oh, how inferior ! I wish I had the daguerre otype, but I hope before that comes I shall have the original. Well, then, in front of the door, stretched out like a milliner's block, was Charlotte's silk dress with cuffs and habit shirt pinned on, and her black satin bead bag on the lap ; then the servants' dresses, with which they were highly delighted ; Ruth's Bible and collar, with which she seemed pleased ; then on the oilcloth box the little table, cups, and saucers set out; Bessie's pack of cards and Harrie'sbox of bricks, a box of sealing wax, cash for Charlotte and J. W., his penknife and pocketbook (delighted with the knife, which I said was from you), and to each a pretty silk purse from Charlotte H. Then on the mahogany dressing table (brought in from the second spare room for the occasion) was the ' Book of Beauty,' ' Pictur esque Annual ' (both were delighted with these, and thought Aunt Fanny-like, and J. W. knew most of the places in the ' Annual.') My portfolio and the pen magnificent, and my looking at them made my heart throb thinking of the angel donor. Then Slote's Bible Lessons, pencils, my box of quill pens, Harrie's book, and work- boxes fitted up. Then the eight dolls, all grandly dressed, the large wax one,' presented by Charlotte to Bessie, in a chair, with the little pink kid French one in long frock, in her arms ; then Bess' LIFE IN TRIESTE. l8l American doll, with a new head and blue satin bonnet, in another chair, with her old doll dressed up in a long frock, in her arms j then the little wax one that Charlotte used to nurse and dress, with a new head, for Bess, and Bess' French one dressed like a Turk in crimson, velvet, and gold, and white satin trousers ; then each a little, little doll in a cradle. The cook, etc., were all there ; old toys arranged to best advantage ; the dolls' clothes all clean washed and arranged in their trunks ; tubs painted, etc., for the kitchen, and poor Willie's dancing Johnny Tomfool doll to wind up. The whole affair went off and is still going off magnificently. We dine at three o'clock ; it is now twelve, a beautiful day, so I am now going out for a walk with the children immediately, but not to Bootle, as I don't feel strong enough, being fatigued with' the early awakening and the excitement. Yesterday I went into town with Charlotte H. and Miss Ferns in a car, taking J. W. and Charlotte. We went to Beazly's and Promoli's. She (C. H.) went to get a gift for the old lady. She got a most superb pink satin and gold handkerchief box ornamented with a sort of raised work of enameled flowers and gold, the inside white satin, and delightfully scented, the price thirty-five shillings. It was something quite new and unique — in fact, was only unpacked the night before from Paris. Also a white embroidered handkerchief purse for Elizabeth Heyworth ; that is, a place for money on one side, and a place for the corner of an embroidered handkerchief fastened with a ring at the other ; it was quite a bridal-looking thing ; price eighteen shillings only. (This was my advice, as she had given her the slap in the letter, and had made her no bridal present.) The things were extremely tasteful, and yet not expensive, so that they could not blame her for extravagance. She then wrote a nice note, saying that it was a small token of her good will and affection, and adding : ' The handkerchief purse is for Elizabeth, with my kind love.' Now, this I call 'compelling them to come in.' The lead pencil for Charlotte was not finished, but I told her she should have it, and the book for Bess is not yet in print. I told Mr. Blackburn (who called yesterday) of the reconciliation, at which he seemed much pleased. I am going to get a new housemaid, as I think it will make me more com fortable during your absence. Ruth's new mistress is Mrs. Pot ter, the ci-devant milliner ! I forgot to say that the play room is 1 82 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. beautifully done up with Christmas greens. I have just heard that Charlotte H. is not going to Mrs. Heyworth's to dinner, but Miss Ferns is. She has got a sick headache, so I shall call and see her in my walk. I have also got a letter from poor Mary Fer guson, very kind and tender to me, and full of sorrow at your leav ing. I shall answer it to-night. Cross' letters are very kind. I shall keep them safe. Heaven bless and prosper you, my dearest upon earth, and may your cup be full of blessings, temporal and spiritual, the best ingredient in the temporal being that we need never more be separated after this ! " Thine own deeply attached wife, " Harriet A. Wood." The following letter is addressed to me Poste Restante, Munich, but reached Munich after I left, and reached me at Trieste : " Liverpool, Monday evening, December 27, 1841. " Well, my beloved William, you are a trump of a husband ! Who would have got four letters in so short an absence but me ? You cannot think how unexpectedly delightful and how refreshing your dear letters were, received on Sunday morning. I read them thrice over, and then took them to church in my bag, where I peeped at the outside over and over again, and squeezed the paper when I thought of you. How very provoking it was, though, dear fellow, you should have had wrong information and lost a day ! Uncle Alick seemed much annoyed, but saw clearly that you had acted wisely and done your part, as I read to him those parts of your letter where you expressed your chagrin, and told what means you adopted to prevent any mistake. It was a great comfort and relief to me to find that you had slept so well, and were mending in health. Go on and prosper, my blessed darling, and all will yet go well with us, and, even though your business may be smashed for this year, and even for the next, we know who is ' caring for us,' and we can be as happy together with little as with much, and we shall still have something, and if we have each other and you safe home again, then ' How blithely will the evening close, How sweet the linnet sing repose ! ' LIFE IN TRIESTE. 1 83 Let us ever remember that 'this is not our rest'; that 'in thfe world we must have tribulation.' And who says this ? Our Father and our friend, but he adds : ' Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.' Our ' nest ' was cozy and warm before trouble came ; we were ' settling on our lees,' and began to think we were to make this world our home, and live forever. Then came our Friend, and ' stirred up our nest,' ' ruffled our feathers,' and sent the old bird off ! The poor mate pined, and the old male bird flapped his wings, and sighed to leave ' the hen and chickens,' and then it was that both began to think of a better country, where ' sorrow and death shall be no more.' Yes, dear Will, ' it is good for us to be afflicted.' Let us draw near now to ' our Father,' that we may obtain mercy and find ' grace to help in time of need.' For our ' light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we look not at the things which are seen, but the things which are not seen, for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which not seen are eternal ! ' " I wrote you a long letter on ' kissum,' but fear you may not receive it, as I sent it to the office as you told me, but being ' kissum ' there was no one there to receive it, and postpay it. I then sent it to the General Post Office with is. 2d., and went out to take along walk ; when I got in, it was after three o'clock, and Ruth had brought it back, saying the postage was is. rod. I then sent her again with it, but, as she seemed vexed, I fear she did not hurry her stately step. Let me know if you got it. I had a delightful long walk that day through those lanes that you pointed out near C. Heyworth's. I saw Mrs. Wheatly in church on Sunday, and to-day have sent our cards in an envelope, as I do not mean to call, and I wish to let them know that I wish to be formal, but polite. Mr. Kelly had an excellent sermon on the text ' Walking in the vanity of their mind,' ' being alienated from the life of God,' etc., being a contin uation of his discourses on that chapter in Ephesians. I have written a prayer of my own to say in the morning, to pray for thy servant, ' the father of this family.' I said it this morning, and intend writing more. " I have heard of a most excellent housemaid, whom I think I shall engage. " On Sunday, after dinner, I was sitting with Willie on my knee, 1 84 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. a/id all the children around the fire in the dining room, and began in an undertone of voice to hum ' Guide me, oh ! thou great Jehovah'; Charlotte joined in, and gradually her voice swelled more loudly, and she sung the whole hymn alone. Uncle Alick closed his eyes and listened, and then asked her to sing it over again. She did, and followed it by ' Rock of Ages,' ' Where'er I turn,' and ' From Greenland's icy mountains.' He worked about in his chair, frowned and frowned, and at last fairly burst into tears. He then said : ' Does Mr. Kelly have these hymns sung in his church ? The last time I heard " From Greenland's icy mountains " was when poor little Phemie repeated it.' He then asked J. Walter to repeat ' Guide me, oh ! thou great Jehovah,' and ' Rock of Ages,' slowly and distinctly. Poor little J. Walter was much affected and his voice trembled as he repeated them. I then left the room, and he stayed for some time in the dark, and made Char lotte sing ' Where'er I turn ' over again, ' Glory to thee, my God, this night,' and others. I have had two messages and notes from Eleanor since you left, and a long letter from Aunt Walter, and two notes from Mary Ferguson. I have written an answer to all three. John Walter and Charlotte had both begun to write to you, but on telling J. W. that you wished to hear of Dr. Iliffe and the school, we agreed it was best to put off his writing, especially as the postage is so heavy. But they all, — Bessie and little Harrie, too, — told me to be sure to give their love to dear papa. Good-night ! I shall leave this open till to-morrow, to add how I passed the night, and how sweet Willie is after his last drink. " Thine own fond wife. " I see by your memorandum book that you had subscribed £4 4s. for Swarbrick's ' Scottish Sketches.' I never saw such a work. Is it yet to come, and from where ? Also, when will our pew rent be due, and am I to pay it when due ? "P. S. — Tuesday, December 28, 1841. The children are all well, and I feel better in general health and spirits. C. Heyworth is also better and will probably come here this week. I read one of your prayers this morning — a very good one. I always carry about the little engagement Bible, that you left in New York, for my own private reading, and must think of that horrid year of separation, and take courage for this three months. There is one comfort : that you will LIFE IN TRIESTE. 1 85 have got over the worst of your traveling, and by the time you return it will be mild weather and longer days. How I shall watch the growing daylight and lengthening of days, knowing that each day as it passes brings us nearer to each other ! Then, perhaps, the mild climate of Trieste may benefit your health. I intend getting a book to read about Trieste and the places through which you will pass. I have already traced your route on the map with the chil dren. When I read your letter where you remember them all, when I came to little Harrie : ' No ! no ! I not a Harrie,' says she, before I came to the place where you say it. Bess, is delighted with the book and slate. John Walter has nearly read his through, and I am also reading it — it seems very pleasant reading. God bless thee, my darling husband, and send you safe home to your very devoted " H. A. W." Addressed to me Poste Restante, Trieste : "Liverpool, Friday evening, December 31, 1841. " My Beloved Precious Husband : " I have this day received another of your dear letters, dated December 26, Aix-la-Chapelle. Two I received from London, two from Dover, and one from Ostend, six in all. You do not tell me particularly about your health ; be sure and do this in your next. You say you have cold feet — do bear in mind that you cannot keep well without greater attention to so important a matter as keeping warm, dry feet. I am sorry your road is so uninteresting. Miss Ferns has gone, and' Charlotte Heyworth was here to-day, looking very well, and comes here to-morrow to stay. She will sleep with me, and the children go back to their own room. " I have engaged a good housemaid, to come to me on the 10th, named Alice Lloyd, an English woman, about five-and-twenty, from Preston. Uncle Alick is no better ; he neither eats nor sleeps ; he talks to me a great deal about business, which astonishes me, as Eleanor says he never opens his lips to her on the subject. Yes terday he refused acceptance to one of Shiras' bills presented by Phipps & Co. He is selling a good deal of cotton, and thinks if Shiras proves good that the business itself will do very well. Mr. Kelly was here yesterday in the afternoon, and desires to be remem bered to you. AlsoMr. Blackburn said: ' Give my love to Mr. Wood 1 86 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. when you next write.' I have had another kind letter from Mary Ferguson, and one from Aunt Helen to-night, and one from Mr. Haywood offering to take John Walter to Dr. Iliffe, and saying Mrs. Haywood would have called to sympathize with me, but was ill with cough, etc. I have answered all three notes, and shall send J. W. on Tuesday to him. Monday he goes to Mrs. Elliston. I am getting tailor Clucas to make him a new jacket with black silk buttons, for he says the boys in the street call out : ' There goes pearl buttons,' even when he has his greatcoat on. Mr. Howard presented him with ' Summer and Winter in the Pyrenees,' by Mrs. Ellis, and Charlotte with an 'Annual.' John Walter has read both his ' Picturesque Annual ' and his new book through, and is now reading Marcet's ' Natural Philosophy.' Charlotte has read her two books, and is now walking about and occasionally strumming on the piano. Bess and Harrie are progressing with their lessons, and vastly pleased with their new slates. " I wrote to you to Frankfort and also to Munich ; did you get the letters? Your last cost me is. iod. and the former one is. 6d. Had you not better send them to the office ? They will bring them out, I think, at once. I, however, don't begrudge one pound sterling for each, but thought you, perhaps, did not know the charge. " The steamer is in from Boston, and not a single business dis patch, not even a line from Murray or Mylne. I have a long letter from Maria. She says John De Peyster has got a son, and her dear Frederic is a grandpapa. Lord Morpeth is courted and feasted at a great rate. She and Em have never seen him, though invited often to meet him, as they are in too deep mourning to go out. She says he is attentive to a lady in Boston, a Miss Appleton, a very superior woman of wealth and family, whose sister married a son of Sir James Mackintosh. He came out in the same vessel with her, and is always with her. She says he is courteous and amiable to all, but rather awkward in his manner, dresses ill, and never wears gloves in the street, but is thought very clever. He is intimate with the Hosacks and Phil Hone. She is inviting nice little parties of twenty-six or thirty to come on the same night to supper, and after the New Year she and Em are going out, so they may likely meet Lord Morpeth. He attends Mr. Eastburn's church, and sits down with them at the sacrament. Caroline is LIFE IN TRIESTE. 1 87 well and hearty ; Emily looking beautiful. She likes Jane Perry more and more, and sends her carriage every day for her to pay her calls and do her errands in. One of her sisters is going to be married — a capital marriage in point of rank and money. I have written part of a long letter to her in answer, and also one to Mar garet Hone, leaving it to fill upon Monday. God bless you, love ! They have all long since gone to bed. I will close, invoking every earthly good upon your precious head for the new year. "Thine own " H. W. " I shall take Charlotte to school to introduce her during the holidays, and specify particularly what I wish her to learn." " Saturday, January 1, 1842. " Well, darling Will, a happy, happy New Year to us both. I trust we shall not long be separated in it, but brought together again in health and happiness when two months, at the farthest, have passed over our heads. Dear Willie and Harrie both came into my room before I was dressed to wish me a happy New Year, both looking fat and well. The children have a fire in the play room to day, and the little Lassels are coming to play there with them this afternoon. I thought their holidays were so dull, poor things, and when they go to school, all visiting will be at an end, that I have asked them. I intend also inviting Mary Humphreys to come one day this week and spend the day. Maria says she intends to buy the ' Book of Beauty ' in compliment to Fanny. It is a fine day, and I am just going out with the children for a walk. John Walter's jacket is going to fit very well ; it is of dark blue cloth, and I have selected very pretty buttons for it, such as you have on your coats. I forgot to tell you that I always perfume my pocket handkerchief every morning in remembrance of you with cologne. I have got in every bill of mine far and near, and paid every farthing I owe. I have got home C.'s lead pencil, but not the book ; Wareing Webb, therefore, is not yet paid. I shall pay for John Walter's jacket with this month's money, and have given to Mr. Kelly one pound for you for the poor tailor in our church. I shall also give 12s. 6d. for the poor on sacrament Sunday, and pay Anne Birch out of this month's money (I mean last month's money). God bless you, my own dear est one ! My whole heart is thine, and thine only. " H. A. W." 1 88 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. "Trieste, January 13, 1842. " My Dear, Dear Harriet : " What a treat I had yesterday ! No less than three letters from my soul's beloved, of December 24, 25 ('kissum'), and 27-28, and again to-day one of December 31-January 1 — that is, begun on the last night of the year and finished January 1, that dreadful night when I was passing over the Tyrolese Alps from Munich to Innspruck. Your dear letters are a source of unspeakable comfort to me, and tell me all I most wish to know. Many times the tears came to my eyes as I read, but when I came to the account of that Sunday night when poor Uncle Alick's heart was touched, the foun tains were indeed opened, and I wept like a child. Strange that during the last year or two, when I have prayed for his conversion and John's, the thought has occurred to me : Yes, but that can only be brought about by the entire loss of fortune. Are you pre pared to put up these petitions whatever may be the result ? And I ever felt constrained to continue my prayers for their conversion. God will not lay upon us a greater burden than we can bear, although it may sometimes feel very uncomfortably heavy, in our tramp through this sandy wilderness. I thought all yesterday what a delightful treat I should have reading your letters to myself last evening, and quite longed for night, but during the afternoon, find ing that no further purpose would be served by my remaining any longer incognito, I delivered some of my letters of introduction, and in the evening a German and a French gentleman came up to my room (the latter a pleasant, amiable man, an old friend of Hay wood's), and sat until quite late. Young Phipps* also, my brother in affliction, came in and took tea with me, and so it was 10 p. m. before I was left to myself. I was very glad to have got so much time killed innocently, but I would have put it to death more sat isfactorily to myself by reading your dear letters. To-day, again, I have been very busy with one thing and another, and was kept idle until twelve (noon) by a long call from Mr. Moore, the Amer ican Consul (an Englishman by birth). He is a gentlemanly man of about fifty, and asked me to dine with him to-morrow, which I * Young Phipps was Charles Paul Phipps, who, in long after years, became quite wealthy and Tory M. P. for Westbury. His son married a daughter of William Butler Duncan. LIFE IN TRIESTE. 1 89 declined ; but he still pressed me, and if I have nothing else to do I may go. He lives out of town, and his wife is a Baltimorean. The evenings and nights here are very cold, and the wind is still northeast, but during the day the weather is beautifully clear, and even warm occasionally. The view of the snow-covered Alps, with the sun shining on them, some thirty or forty miles off, across the blue, or rather beautifully green, Adriatic, is remarkably fine. I am in wonderfully good spirits. Poor Phipps is much depressed, and has a sore throat. I had a long, friendly crack with him last night, when he assented to my remark that the Bible was the only sure comfort in distress. It is, indeed, a blessed book, and dear old Jay a delightful commentator on its heavenly messages. I have been interrupted again and again by people calling. All are flock ing about me to try and get Shiras' place, I suppose, but their calls annoy me when I am writing to you, and want to pour out my whole soul to you. Dear, dear Harriet, do keep up and take care of yourself. I shall be most anxious for your next letter. God bless you, my dearest one. This is a very stupid, short letter, but I am so occupied about business matters that I have not had time to write a longer ; and now it is time for the mail. Bless you, dear one ; bless you and my darling children. " Your own attached husband, " William Wood." "Trieste, January 14, 1842, 10.10 p.m. " My Beloved Darling Harriet : " You may be sure from my dating my letter so late that I have got the time tolerably well killed this evening. Last evening Phipps came in and sat in my bedroom talking till half past nine or ten beside my cheerless stove. This morning I awoke early and began thinking about business ; lay still till eight o'clock, and then got up and dressed ; read Jay and the Bible, and prayed and felt rather better. During the day I delivered two of my letters of introduction, and heard some disagreeable reports : that some of the people who hold bills drawn by Shiras on A. D. & Co., which were refused acceptance, say they will detain me here until I pay them, or give bail that I will stand the issue of a suit in their court of law. I believe this is all fudge to frighten me, and that they can do nothing. 190 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. I said to the person who told me [Mr. Moore, the American Consul] that they might do their worst, as I had, and would have, nothing to do with the bills in question. I don't see how they possibly can detain me or make me liable in any way. Still the rumor was not especially pleasant, and I confess it did for a little make my pulse beat faster than usual. I have been making various business arrangements during the day, and have just about concluded one to-night, which, if I finally decide on to-morrow, will be a great relief to me, and take a weight of responsibility off my shoulders, to say nothing of relieving me of about a dozen keys of the most extraor dinary size, each about the weight of a moderate-sized pair of tongs. If I live to get home to you safe and sound, I will tell you some stories of my adventures here in the way of business which, though disagreeable enough at the time, will make you laugh in spite of the bad times. Young Phipps and I dined together again to-day at six o'clock (for I did not feel in sufficient spirits to go to Mr. Moore's, the U. S. Consul), and had a fish and two partridges and a pudding, with a bottle of the cheapest French wine (St. Julien) that I could get. The stove in the salle was pretty well kindled, and, as fortu nately it has a little door that opens, we caught a glimpse of the little fire inside, which is an uncommon comfort, I can assure you. Truly 'blessings brighten as they take their flight' No one can conceive the comfort of a good coal fire who has not been stewed up in a room with a pepper-box porcelain stove without any door on it opening into the room. " If I could manage to go from hence to Ancona, and thence to Rome and Naples, and so home by Genoa and Marseilles, and Phipps could manage to go with me, I think I might rather enjoy the trip, as I find him a good-hearted fellow, not unlike Murray Thomson in face, only six feet high. However, when I think of going home, I always long for the shortest and speediest 'traject,' and would rather get two days sooner to you and my dear children than see Rome or any place else ; but then, again, I think : Well, I hope I shall never be in this part of the world again, and if not, shall never see Rome ; and so I ought to go now when I am so near ; and then, again, arises the pleasant reflection : Well, perhaps you might have gone if you had been as well off in the world as you thought yourself two months ago ; but as things go now, if you went, you would go at LIFE IN TRIESTE. I9I other people's expense, and that you have no right to do ; but then I am not quite sure that it would cost ten pounds more (if anything) going by Rome than straight home, or at least as straight as I can go, which is by Venice, Milan, Marseilles, and Lyons. Then, again, I think I did not come here for my pleasure : " ' 'Twas for their pleasure I came here, I shall go back for mine ; ' but, as aforesaid, I don't know whether it would be for my pleasure to go by Rome and Naples, for it makes me sick the very idea of going farther away from you than I am. However, many weary days and nights are appointed to me yet, I fear, before I can turn my ' innocent nose ' homeward. Meanwhile your Bible is a great comfort to me ; it is full of your pencil marks. I have just been reading those verses of the 34th Psalm marked by your dear hand : ' The righteous cry and the Lord heareth,' etc. God knows I don't mean to call myself righteous, except through the imputed righteousness of the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the world. To our gracious God and Saviour I commend you and my beloved children and myself. Oh ! may he in his infinite mercy unite us speedily in health and happiness, and to his holy name be praise and glory everlasting. Amen ! Good-night, dear, dear Harriet. "Wm. W." " January 15, 1842. " My Darling Harriet : " No letters from you to me to-day, although there are Liverpool dates in town of Tuesday, January 4. My latest from you is Satur day, January 1. I am sorely bothered about business. However, I put my trust in God, and do my best. Pray for me, my dear one, and may God Almighty bless, protect, and watch over you and me and our dear children, and unite us again in health and happiness. This is a nasty, wet, gloomy day, but it is much warmer. Again God Almighty bless you. I must go and attend to my business. Don't bother yourself about me ; only pray for me, and keep up your own health and spirits as much as possible. I was much dis tressed at getting no letters from you to-day, fearing you might not be well. God forbid my fears should prove true. Your illness 192 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. would indeed be a crowning misfortune, but God has promised not to afflict us beyond what we are able to bear, so I will hope you are well. " P. S. — There is no post from England till Monday, but I recol lect now that in one of my letters I said you had better write on Wednesdays and Saturdays, which may be the reason of my not hearing from you to-day. Now, after you get this, you had better write every other day, beginning with Tuesday, and, of course, sending off your letter by Tuesday's mail — that is, before 4 p. m. You will thus write on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and again on Tuesday. " Again, ever your own fond hub., "Wm. W." "Trieste, Sunday, January 16, 1842. " My Beloved Harriet : " I have been to the English church this morning. It was pleasant to go to the house of God, and hear one's own language and the familiar words of the Episcopal service in a strange land. Although badly read, the service never seemed to me more beauti ful and comforting, with the exception of some parts of it. The clergyman was a miserable preacher, both as to matter and manner, but there is one good thing in a printed ritual : that it is always the same, and if it be intrinsically good, you are sure to hear good when it is read. The hymns were good, but badly sung, and altogether there is little wonder that there is such an apparent want of Christian vitality in this benighted land. Truly, Britons and Americans are ' a peculiar people,' and ought to be ' zealous of good works,' for they have the great and glorious privilege of hearing the blessed Gospel of our Lord and Saviour preached in simplicity and with Godly sincerity. Truly, when I think of my lassitude and indiffer ence, my wandering thoughts and evil imaginations, when I have been assembled with the Church of God to hear his blessed word, I may well say : 'Lord have mercy upon me, a sinner.' Thanks be to God that he looks not on us as we are in. ourselves, but as we are in the face of Jesus Christ. He is our Mediator, and what need we had of such a High Priest, who was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin ! Our present chastisements, my beloved Harriet, LIFE IN TRIESTE. 193 are indeed heavy. God grant they may work out the peaceable fruits of righteousness to us both, and to our darling children. The rest of this day quite refreshes me, mentally and bodily. I have had communion with God, and felt that all things are in his hand, that he knows all that will happen, and that all my fretting ' cannot make one hair white or black.' He has promised that he ' will not afflict us beyond what we are able to bear,' and has promised that he ' will surely do us good.' Therefore, darling Harriet, let us say with our lips, and feel in our hearts, that ' God doeth all things well,' and, oh ! may he ever enable us to say so under every dispensation of his providence, for we ourselves are weak, frail, erring creatures. I have just been looking into your Bible, and I see that beside Gen esis, 37th chapter and 35th verse, you have written : ' Many an affliction is a blessing in disguise.' Dear, dear Harriet, God grant that ours may prove so. After finishing my letter to you yesterday I had a consultation with my lawyer, and he assures me that as long as A. D. & Co. do not fail no one can detain me here longer than I choose to remain ; so you may make your mind easy on that score, if that additional misfortune has not happened. If it have, God will deliver me in some other way. Indeed, in that case, nothing could be got by keeping me, so I suppose I would be let go in a short time. I think, at present, that the many disagreeables I have had here will serve to make me supremely contented with any state of life in England, — if with you and my dear children, — short of abso lute starvation, and probably my present trials may be sent to fit me for a less comfortable life than I have hitherto had. How happy we have been in each other ; what infinite blessings we have had, my beloved, all through our married life ; our trials have also been many, but out of them all the Lord has delivered us. Yea, and he will deliver us out of our present troubles. " ' Ye feeble saints, fresh courage take, The clouds ye so much dread Are big with mercy, and will break In blessings on your head.' " My name has been put down at the German Casino or club, and also at the Club of the Nobles. Both give large balls during this month. The first of these comes off to-morrow night, and Phipps 194 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. and I have got invitations. If I can muster up sufficient spirit to take the trouble of dressing, I dare say I may go for half an hour, as it is close at hand, to see the style of things and observe the Triestine modes and habits. This is a dull, cloudy day, but warmer. It is now near three o'clock, and I am just going with Phipps to see a Colonel Armand, an English gentleman, off in the steamer for Athens. He has been all over the world, except Athens and Constantinople, and so he says he must go and see them. He has been living at Munich for five years, where he has left his wife and child, and says he would almost have turned back when he got to Venice, he thought it so absurd to go on his present jaunt merely for his own pleasure. He says he is more to be pitied than I am, because he is not com pelled by duty to leave home, and this reflection always comes across him, whereas he says, and truly, that I could not help myself. He is about fifty-five, and very tall. Was in New York in 1811. I sus pect he is a brother or cousin of the collector of customs at Liver pool. We have had a Prince Lichtenstein at the hotel, and a Mr. Crawford, a Scottish officer of the Austrian dragoons, also a Count Von Schelenberg. Phipps and I breakfast and dine together, the latter meal at half past five. It costs a little more than dining at the table d'hdte at two, but we nearly make up by taking no tea. Phipps thinks I brew very good tea in the morning, and certainly out of about a cupful of black and green mixed I make a decent enough beverage ; but how I would enjoy a cup of How- qua ! I feel better to-day. If I had a letter from you telling me you were as well as could be expected, it would do me good. I hope and trust I shall have one of that tenor to-morrow. Give my kindest love to J. Walter, Charlotte, Bess, little Harrie and Willie, and kiss each from me. God Almighty bless and protect and com fort you and me, and our darling children. " Your deeply attached husband, "William Wood." CHAPTER XVIII. CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN MYSELF AT TRIESTE AND MY WIFE AT LIVERPOOL. " Liverpool, Monday, January 3, 1842. " My Dearest William : " I have just heard of a most tender leave-taking to-day between poor Charlotte and Mr. Howard [her tutor]. He had called here before with Mrs. Howard, who had come on purpose from Seacombe to see them, and they were both out. He left their prizes for them, and this is his last leave-taking and John Walter was out J Charlotte came up, her eyes streaming with tears, and said : ' He goes to Lancaster to-morrow ! ' I said : ' Did Mr. Howard see you cry ? ' ' To be sure,' says Charlotte ; ' wasn't he crying as hard as he could himself ? ' And he said : ' God bless you ! God bless you ! May every good attend you through this life. I will write to John Walter from Lancaster.' I have not heard from you since the Aix- la-Chapelle letter, and will be sure to apprise you of every letter and the date. Yesterday, you know, was our sacrament, and Charlotte H. and I toddled down to the chapel together, finding, to our relief, that neither Mrs. Bruard H. nor Mrs. Wheatly were there, so that we had the pew to ourselves, with the exception of Mr. Wheatly in one corner. The discourse was solemn and excellent, and many were the prayers I offered up for you and the tears of affection I shed in thinking of you. Were your prayers for me that afternoon, or did you forget the day and the hour of communion ? Mr. King walked up with Charlotte H., giving her his arm, and, as there was to be a sermon for the young in the evening, on the commencement of the new year, he very kindly offered to take J. W. and C. and bring them home again. I declined, as it was a cold, damp night, and besides, I wished to spend a Sunday evening to the edification of Uncle Alick. We sang hymns together for an hour or two, and then Charlotte and old Charlotte solos. Charlotte sang 'From Green land's icy mountains' and ' Guide me, oh! thou great Jehovah,' I96 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. and Charlotte H. sang ' Yes, 'tis a rough and thorny road ' to the piano, and ' The star of Bethlehem,' ' Earth hath no sorrows that heaven cannot cure,' 'Rock of Ages,' 'Rose of Sharon,' 'Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me,' and some others. I did not dare to read myself. We had a very pleasant evening and a very devo tional one. My heart was full to the brim thinking of you in all T sang, and longing, longing, oh ! I dare not say how much, to fold you in my arms once more ! Blessed, blessed William, I can not tell you how dear you are to me — dearer, I think, than ever. I look back with such regret to the days when I had you here and made so little of you, and if you are spared to return, I think I shall profit by what I am now suffering in your absence, and you will also profit, for you shall have all your own way in everything. Baby has been out for a walk ; the first day for a week that the weather has been fine enough for either him or Harrie to get out. Charlotte has been to the music to-day, and John Walter to the dancing. Mrs. Elliston not taking it ill, I paid her one pound for the four lessons for Charlotte, and shall send her no more, as five shillings per lesson is a little too much of a good thing. She and John W. miss you very much indeed, and even wee little Harrie says : ' Why, why is not dear papa coming home?' She has asked for you six or seven times, and said : ' Oh ! I wis he would come.' Last night Uncle Alick said to her : ' Harrie, you're a little spoiled brat, to get tea and all the rest milk ' (she has not been very well for a few days, and I gave her tea instead of the cold milk). Her answer was : ' Ah ! but, Uncle Alick, you worse than me.' 'What ! ' says he, 'what do you say?' and gave his hands a great smack, saying: 'I'll whack you so.' ' Ah ! no, Alick, thee must go thwack thy own boys ! ' which I think was quick enough for a small ' mink ' of 3^ years. " I have just got a letter from James wishing me a happy New Year, and sending five pounds as New Year's gifts to the children. He says : ' I am much better for the last few days, so there is no need of change of air, as I once thought, but if I am not well when Tom Sellar arrives, and William is still at Trieste, I should like to join him and return through the Continent together.' I trust, how ever, you will be at home before Sellar comes, which will not be, at the soonest (A. D. tells me), till February 15. He (A. D.) thinks of sending Sellar to meet you there, and be put in the way of doing CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN MYSELF AND MY WIFE. 197 the work before you come home, but, if there be no absolute necessity for this, I think you had better write to that effect, for it is easy enough for A. D. to say you may stay six months or a year or half your life from your family, but he must find it is not so easy to be obeyed. I think he (A. D.) is planning to get out of the business himself entirely, so do you bear that in mind in all you do. He has slept rather better lately, but has no appetite. " Did you say that you did not wish the gardener to force either of the graperies, but just let them come on in the usual way ? Let me know when you next write. I have got the pew-rent bill in the seat ; it is to be paid next Sunday. I hope you began and continue Jay and the chapter in the Bible, according to the day, as I read it, imagining you to do the same. I often have to finish reading in the morning when A. D. is there, and one morning he caught us all on our knees — I was praying. He stood at the door till I had finished, and I said, laughing, to him : ' You will think we are always praying or preaching in this house.' He smiled, but said nothing. I saw poor Mrs. Young on Saturday, looking miserable, and grunting every five minutes her disapprobation that you had gone and Uncle Alick is here. It seems Eleanor has got her nervous fits back since Uncle A. came up here. I have had another kind letter from Aunt Walter to-day ; she thinks that, since the parting is over, the change of air and scene will do you good. I pray that she may be right, and then half my troubles will be over. God bless you, love. I will cross this in the morning. " Thine own " H. A. W." " Tuesday, January 4, 1842. We have another lovely day, and John Walter is preparing himself to go to Dr. Iliffe. Mr. Haywood sent for him yesterday to be there at eleven. I rang the little bell at twenty minutes past six for the servants, and commenced reading. However, they saw fit to lie till twenty minutes past seven ; so, when I came out at eight for prayers, the room was cold and untidy, and everything behindhand. I am now on the way to the kitchen to expostulate — alias scold, speak, lecture. I have seen that J. W. has his best clothes on, well brushed, shoes that Mr. H. liked, and good gloves. Charlotte wrote a note to Duncan Macviccar last night, who sent her the ' Picturesque Annual of Paris,' 198 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. on New Year's Eve, the same that you gave J. Walter. He is very unwell since his return from Leamington, and keeping the house. Poor William McGregor is again worse, and near his end. I called there yesterday. Did you read to-day's Jay ? ' As thy day is, so shall thy strength be.' There came a very queer note to you last night (I suppose from Mr. Holmes). It said : ' My dear Sir : Mr. Mellor and the Exchange Ward Committee dine with me on Thursday next. Will you do me the favor to dine with us at six o'clock ? ' — and there is no name to your inviter that you might know where to go. " Dear, wee, blessed Willie has had a bad night, so I have sent for Blackburn to consult as to food, etc. God bless you, pre cious William ! Keep up your spirits and trust in our Father. These means of his appointment are the medicine of the soul, to bring us nearer himself and prepare us for that hour when we must leave all and go to him, that we may watch always, and pray without ceasing, and be ready. Let us take our medicine, then, cheerfully. Bless him for not leaving us to ourselves and forgetfulness, and submit without murmur to what is so good for us. Charlotte H. sends her love, and so do Bess and Harrie, Charlotte and John Walter. " Thine own " H. W." "Trieste, January 17, 1842. " My Beloved Darling Harriet : " Your sweet letter of January 3-4 reached me this morning, and gave me great comfort and pleasure. It was like cold water to a parched and thirsty land. I did think of you, dear one, on Janu ary 2 ; thought of the very hour when you would be at the com munion table, and prayed for you. I was then traveling toward Cortina, and I believe at the very hour was at a place called Nei- derndorf, waiting for a change of horses for nearly an hour. I read Jay and the chapter every morning, and delight much in the 37th Psalm. "January 18. So far had I written yesterday when poor Phipps came into my room to say he felt so dull he could cut his throat, and asked me if I would go and take a walk. I said yes, and so off we started on our travels about one o'clock, and went right out to the country, and at last found ourselves at a place called Servallo or Cervallo, about three miles from Trieste, very prettily situated on CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN MYSELF AND MY WIFE. 1 99 a hill overhanging the sea, which here runs up into the land in deep bays, extremely like some of our Highland lochs. I have no doubt that in summer the scenery is beautiful, although not equal to Lagarie, in spite of having the Alps in view in the distance. We walked home by another road by the side of the sea, which was like a looking-glass, and the sun set beautifully. We got home at five, just in time for dinner. By the way, at Servallo we met a Mr. Budd of Liverpool, who joined and walked home with us, but Phipps and I both agree in hating any interruption to our tite-a-Utes, in which we agree very well, although he is a High Churchman and Tory, and I have grabbed his coffee. However, we agree in cordially detesting this place, in hating two o'clock dinners and coffee, and so we breakfast together every day on tea made by me, and dine at cinq heures et demi every day, also together, and club for a bottle of second quality St. Julien. I have told Shiras distinctly that it is his duty to supply us with some of the good wine he has, and not put us to the expense of buying for ourselves ; he has promised to send us some, but as yet we have only got one bottle of sherry. " At dinner time yesterday my courier told me the police had been inquiring for me, and had requested I would call at the Passport Office that evening before half past seven or this morning before half past nine. So Phipps and I, courier, and a Mr. Jeanrenaud (a friend of Haywood's) set out to the Passport Office. I was asked why I had not shown myself at the police within twenty-four hours after arrival. It was explained satisfactorily to them that it was the fault of the people at the hotel, who said it was not necessary. This morning again I had to go before the Director of the Police about Shiras' business. He seemed fully satisfied that I had acted quite honorably and properly, but still it was mighty disagreeable to be ' had up before his worship.' By the way, I have forgotten to tell you that Phipps and I went last evening for an hour to the ball at the German Casino. The room was very handsome and well filled, and, what was odd, a gallery runs all round it for spectators. Neither Phipps nor I danced, and we declined to be introduced to any of the ladies. The dancing was waltzing (very quick, and not very graceful), quadrilles, and a dance something like a quadrille called ' tompette,' or some name like that. I hoped to have got an ice, but 200 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. nothing was to be got without paying for it, and neither Phipps nor I had any money. " On returning to the hotel Phipps and I had a tumbler each of brandy toddy, and I think it has done me a deal of good, in combi nation with my long walk, as I feel better to-day than I have yet. It blows very hard to-day, but it is not the bora, so that it is not disagreeably cold. I don't see any use in Tom Sellar coming here, as things have turned out, so if he could replace James at Havre, and let the latter come on here, and return home with me, it would be pleasant for us both, as I should have no objections for James to frank me to Rome and Naples. You may mention this to my uncle Alick, and write to James what he thinks. T have no time at present to write to James. " I am staying at the Albergo Prince Metternich. Tell Jamie I have written to my uncle Alick to-day, but directed the let ter to John, in case, by any chance, it should be stopped. Dear, dear Harriet, I can see the hand of God in all that has happened to me since I came here. The trouble and bother I have had will make me more contented, a great deal, to lose my fortune if I can only get quietly beside you again, and my residence here has made me fully appreciate the inestimable privilege I possess in being, through the merits of the Redeemer, a child of God and a Briton. I feel that ' the Lord is on my side, and I shall not fear what man can do unto me.' I feel at present 'rooted and built up in him.' God grant that I may ever continue to feel that assured confidence which he only can give by means of the Holy Spirit. Oh ! may he fill our hearts and the hearts of our darling children with that peace which passeth all understanding, and may he, in his own good time, unite us together again in health and happiness. Kiss dear John Walter and Charlotte and Bess and Harrie and dear, fat Willie for me. There is a little statue over the store in the salle here which is the exact model of him. I almost love it for his sake. I might almost write a novel on the things that have hap pened to me since I left you. There is no mail from England to-day, owing to the storm, and no mail leaves this for England to-morrow. Ask my uncle Alick to stop the Examiner, Spectator, and Liverpool Times from coming here to me. I have only got one of the former and none of the last. I suspect the censor of the CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN MYSELF AND MY WIFE. 201 press stops them, for being too democratic. Give my. kind love to Charlotte H. and Uncle Alick. I have just received four bottles of sherry from Shiras, which is always something out of the fire. " Ever your own devoted "William Wood." . "Trieste, Thursday, January 20, 1842. " My Beloved Wife : " How I long for letters from you ! My last is still that of Janu ary 3-4, although there are letters to-day from A. D. & Co. of January 8, but they say nothing about you, and I am very anxious to know how you are. Since my last I have been pretty fully occupied with one thing and another, and have had many annoyances and bother ations. Some of these, I hope, are now over, and that the rest will be got over in time. I thank God that by the influence of his grace I continue to put my trust and confidence in him, and that I see his hand and feel his guiding power in all things. I have also seen, throughout the whole business, that the most Christian way of acting is also the best and wisest, and that if a man act steadily on Christian principles he is more likely to come off well in the long run than if he employ either violence or deceit, and that, in fact, it is possible, by God's blessing, to be 'wise as a serpent and harmless as a dove.' Nevertheless, it requires constant watchfulness while dealing with scamps not to fall into their ways, and I pray God that I may never again have the trials to pass through which I have recently had, or, if it be his will that I should, that he will be ever at my right hand to guide and direct me, and that I may ever ' hear a voice behind me saying : This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.' Truly, 'it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.' ' " I have written to-day to my uncle Alick to say that I see no earthly good likely to result from my staying here after February 15, which will give ample time for reply to my letters, even of 23d inst. I also say that I see no use in Tom Sellar coming here, and there fore, if they think fit, he might go to Havre and relieve James, who might come on here and return home with me if he likes. " The weather is again very windy and pretty cold, but not so bad as at first. If I be spared to set off on my travels toward my 202 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. blessed home, I have no doubt that the journey, if the weather be at all decent, will very soon make me well, as even the disagreeable journey here did that ; it was only the bother that I had that made me ill. The sachet you gave me perfumes my shirts famously and keeps you constantly under my nose. Phipps and I are asked to dine with Joyce on Saturday, 2 2d inst, but have very little stomach for the fight. However, I suppose we must go. The post master of Udine, who, you may recollect, followed the carriage more than a mile out of that town trying to persuade us to turn back, was at this hotel the other day asking if 'we had ever arrived.' It seems that the day I had pushed through a count was in the hotel at Udine who wanted to go the same route, and accompanied the postmaster to see if we could get through. He, however, gave it up as a bad job, and returned to Udine, and there were three or four carriages snowed up there for four days after we left ; so it is well I pushed through. I have no doubt my doing so saved A. D. & Co. many thousand pounds. " Phipps and I sit in the salle a manger after dinner and read and talk, as the stove there opens in front, and lets us see a little bit of fire, which is not the case with those in either of our bedrooms. I have just had a couple of nice juicy pears for my lunch. I find it healthier to eat them now than after dinner, when they are always set down with oranges and apples. I don't recollect anything more to tell you at present, except to kiss each of my dear children for me and give them all my kindest love. I am anxious to hear the result of John Walter's first interview with Dr. Iliffe. Do you try and keep up your health and spirits, my darling Harriet. Whatever happens to us, we are in God's hands, and he will provide some way for us to make our daily bread, and support and educate our dear 'young ravens.' Pray for me, dear one, that God will ever be to me 'a very present help in trouble.' "Your own deeply attached husband, "William Wood." "Liverpool, Friday evening, January 7, 1842. " My Dearest, Dearest Will : " I have again a long, delightful letter from you. I believe I told you I had received the one from Frankfort. Oh, no ; I recollect CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN MYSELF AND MY WIFE. 203 now I got the letter the day I last wrote to you (Tuesday), just after I had sent off mine to you. That also was a most delightful one, recounting, you dear fellow, your perils by sea and land. It is strange, too, I thought : How delightful all this is ! what a clear, dis tinct, and pleasant account he gives of everything ; but I dare say he is doing it for himself, as a sort of journal, when out comes your phrase : 'What does Will write all this to me for ? ' etc., etc. But the best and pleasantest part of both letters is that your health and spirits improve. How merciful God is to my precious darling ! He has just taken you away from the horrid dull business here, and by the very trial we dreaded given you increase of health, increase of love and faith and trust in him, made you sensible of all your blessings at home, and given you increase of knowledge of the world, and so improved and cultivated your mind. "To me he has purged my mind from worldliness and vanity (or at least in part), pruned me of my comforts in taking my darling from me, only leaving the bare, leafless branch, that I might look around me, work hard, have more time to attend to all my duties, and so bear more fruit, for I find that it is only great activity that keeps up my spirits, and, as I feel so subdued with your being away, it causes me 'to walk softly,' and acts, in short, as a ' gentle forcing of the vine ' to bring forth good fruit. To-day with your dear letter (which has been read attentively four times, and your route traced on the map) I feel as if I could not be sufficiently grateful, and though you have yet to cross the Alps, and the road was slippery and heavy by turns, yet I think of your good health, and the pros pect of a speedy return, and so ' thank God and take courage.' " I take good care that Uncle Alick shall see and hear how hard you are traveling (for he is awfully impatient), and tell him and read aloud to him all that I can to entertain him concerning your travels, and particularly when you travel all night, late at night, and early in the morning. It is very wearing out, though, you blessed one, and I wish you were fairly done with it. I am thinking much of you just now, and praying most fervently, for I imagine you to have reached your journey's end. I wrote to James the other night, and have written so repeatedly to Mary, and also once or twice to Eleanor, and once or twice to Aunt Walter, that I thought Anna would be sure to hear of you, but, as you wish Anna to hear particularly, I 204 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. will write, though I don't much like to meddle with her. I regret very much that you would not get my letters one at a time, as they were written ; it is so provoking that you should be so long hear ing, and then get so many at once. I fear that when you were so much engaged they would only bother you instead of giving you pleasure. The overland mail from India is telegraphed off, but the letters will not be here for two or three days. Poor Charlotte Kane is in great force, and enjoying much being beside me. She was sit ting cross-legged on the sofa singing a ' buy a broom ' song. When I read to the children your mention of her, she shook her head and said it was well you thought of her after all that blarney to me. John Walter went on Tuesday to see Dr. Iliffe, with whom he was much pleased. The doctor did not examine him, but merely entered into conversation with him, and then said : ' Well, make the best you can of your holidays, and take full play. I'll give you nothing to learn ; you have only to keep up what you already know.' Mr. Haywood then took him to the hairdresser's with him and tried on a wig, but did not buy it, then to old Hodgson's and got his hair cut, then to Richardson's and several other places, and finally invited him to come there and dine on Thursday at one o'clock. On Thursday he went to dancing, and I told him he might go from there to Mr. Haywood's, and to be home by four o'clock. About n a. m. a note came from Mr. Haywood saying would I let J. W. stay in the even ing, and they would send him safely home. I said yes. Well, to my surprise, home comes poor J. W. at four o'clock, leaving a whole party of boys just beginning their frolics, and they were to have fire works in the evening. Mr. Haywood had not come home, and he only saw Mrs. Haywood at dinner, and consequently did not know I had consented to his staying. The dear little fellow resisted all entreaties of the boys, and came home as I had told him. I was very sorry for it, and gave him sixpence for his disappointment. Yes terday I had a call from Mrs. Crowder and Miss Perfest. I like the latter extremely ; she seems a plain, sensible, judicious Christian woman. They called to say that they had got the masters to dis pense with the one guinea entrance money, as they thought it an unnecessary and improper charge ; also that whatever books Charlotte had might be used if approved of by the masters without purchasing new ones. Bessie's ' Book of Kings' came home with one Penny CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN MYSELF AND MY WIFE. 205 Magazine. I told her you had sent it for her from London, and her delight knew no bounds. She now gets a history lesson from it, and writes on her slate in words very nicely every day. Harrie also now knows all her little letters, and begins to spell 'up,' ' so,' 'my,' etc., etc. They all keep very well except my cherub Willie, who is troubled with bad nights with teething. Mr. Blackburn lanced his gums yesterday ; he has four teeth just through, making eight in all. I am very tired to-night, having been down town with the children to purchase their New Year's gifts from James. The three girls have all bought a very pretty little muff each, for the weather is bitterly cold, and has been for a week past ; a carriage and horses each for Bessie and Harrie ; a silver coral and bells for Willie ; books for Bessie, Charlotte, and John Walter. They have got nice, useful books all of them, and their own choice. John Walter has read through all the last Penny Magazines, 'Hill and Valley,' ' Summer and Win ter in the Pyrenees,' ' The Annual of Paris,' A. M. Marcet's ' Natural Philosophy,' and ' Conversations on Vegetable Physiology,' and is now deep in ' Travels in Greece, Turkey, and Russia.' Good-night, my own precious love, you shall have more in the morning. "Thine own " H." " Saturday, 10 o'clock, a. m., January 8. Uncle Alick gets no better ; he can neither sleep nor eat. He takes great interest in your adventures, and last night sat up in a chair and traced your route on the map. He came in this morning just as I was reading one of your prayers, and stood very reverently in the middle of the room, with his shoes in his hand and his head down, till I went through the whole, which I did in a firm, clear voice. It was a very good prayer, and I fondly hope there was an ' amen ' then from him, too. " Dear, big Willie looks better to-day and slept better. I feel very well myself. Did you like my Jay to-day ? ' Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospers.' It is very hard frost to-day. God bless thee. Keep up your spirits and all will work together for our good. Trust, trust, trust, and think of " Thine own fondly attached "H. A. W. " Duncan Macviccar is still confined to the house. Uncle Alick 206 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. has never written one line to Cross since he came up ; sometimes, but rarely, to Eleanor. " H. W." " Monday Evening, January 10, 1842. " My Dearest William : " To my infinite surprise and dissatisfaction, I find I have not a single sheet of paper, and so am obliged to write on Charlotte's continental paper, and hope you will be able to understand it. I have received no letters from you since the last precious one from Miinchen or Munich. I am now more anxious than ever to hear, as you had just come to the worst part of your journey, but whenever I begin to faint in my mind, I think of the words in your last letter which had comforted you : ' The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof.' I again take courage, knowing that his arm can uphold his servant there as well as at home, and you are his serv ant and his child, and, oh ! my darling William, how this assur ance comforts me when I think of you. Even though death should separate us now, we must meet again, and dwell forever in a happy eternity not only together, but ' with the Lord.' You see, dear Will, that I am feeling rather sad to-night ; this is the night that Ruth goes, and the new servant has come, and Charlotte has been ill all day. The children have been out at Mrs. Lassel's, and the weather is intensely cold and cheerless. Willie so cross that he would not play with me, so I have been rather left to myself to-day, and have not been so full of hope about your success and happiness at Trieste as heretofore. But this is all want of trust, and I shall try as I pour out my heart to you upon paper to shake it off. Dear Willie is much better, but cross as he can live. He has cut four more teeth. The doctor was here to-day, and says they are quite through the gum, though I must confess I cannot see them. Charlotte had two more long letters from Lawrence ; he was quite well and in good spirits. Poor chap, he had not yet got his letters from Everton. He was fifty miles in the interior from Bombay, at a place called Agra. ^There were sixty blacks to convey their party, twelve to each palan quin. Each man had a palanquin to himself and his luggage. The country is very interesting, but here and there they met with Victoria hotels, not swarming with people, but with vermin. The consequence was they came out and built tents on the green in front, CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN MYSELF AND MY WIFE. 207 a common thing with the natives of Bombay, who leave their houses, and live in these little tents in front to avoid the heat. Lawrence lived in this way a fortnight, which he says was very pleasant ; the whole had the appearance of a vast army encamped. He was detained that length of time for want of proper conveyances. His next place will be Delhi, then Calcutta. " Mr. Blackburn brought me the receipt for Miss Bruce's bill, which, I believe, I told you I paid — the amount for tuition, books, music, etc., etc. " I wrote a long letter of twelve pages notepaper to Anna, telling her you wished me to write, and giving her all the nicest extracts from your letter. She is quite well again, going down into the town shop ping, and was out at a bazaar, Eleanor writes. So, if she feel kindly to her brother's widow, she will acknowledge the receipt of my very kind letter to her, for it was a kind one. Uncle Alick gets no better. He asked for and now gets fires in his bedroom, which always smoke and are a great bore, so I wish he would go home ; besides, he never offers the sofa to poor Charlotte, however ill she may be, and if she be lying down when he comes in, he stands till she rises, and then lies down himself most thoroughly selfish. He asked if I had fire in my room. I told him no ; I was trying to do without it. Bessie was asked where you had gone to-day. She said she did not know exactly, but believed to Newgate! Dear, wee Harrie seems to miss you more than any of them ; she asks after you several times in the day, and always at dark says : ' I wis, I wis the dear fellow would come home ! ' To-night she came leaning up against me and said : ' Dear, dear papa, if the bell would ring, I would run down and say : " Big Harrie asks how you do." ' She is getting very sweet and tractable. Charlotte has a bad cold in her head, but is other wise well. She and John Walter send you their best love, and so does old Charlotte Kane. J. Walter went to-day to Mrs. Elliston's but was sent away because she had a fine young son! I went to church on Sunday morning, and had a very good sermon from a stranger : ' By faith Abraham, when he was called, went out into a strange country, not knowing whither he went.' He tried to prove the mercy as well as the wisdom of God in not disclosing to us the future. He said trials in anticipation were always worse to bear than the reality; that many would say: 'If I had known all that was 208 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. before me, I could never have gone through with it,' but ' bit by bit, while we are hoping for a happier time, we may walk it.' With regard to our temporal course, we are to go out not knowing what may befall us, but doing the will of the Lord. In our spiritual course we also go out, but here the mercy of God reveals to us the end of our journey, that we may be like travelers journeying toward home, who will put up with much cheerfully when a happy home is in view. Mr. Kelly has gone to London ; he will be away next Sunday also. I saw Mrs. Wheatly and spoke to her ; she and Mr. Wheatly came after Charlotte that he might offer her his arm up the hill. The old lady is silent, but not cordial. Good-night, love ; I will finish this in the morning. I paid the pew rent, £3 ; and the water rent, £2 9s. 6d. There was another £j for the chapel build ing fund, which I see by your memorandum book is correct, so I shall pay it next Sunday. " Again thine own ' H." "Wednesday, January 12, 1842. " My Beloved Will : "Your precious letter has come, — Innspruck, January 1, — which has caused me a good, hard cry of delight. Precious fellow, what you have endured ! but it is all over now and you are safe, God be thanked for his infinite mercy. I shall be sure that Uncle Alick shall hear of your exertions on their behalf. I am better to-day and in better spirits. My new housemaid does well, and I have been much engaged all this morning. Have had a letter from Mary to-day ; all well at Glasgow. Charlotte and all the children and your fond wife send you oceans of love. The frost is intense. I have taken care of the pipes, and have fire on in the dining room. Before I forget ; remember that when you come home you are by no means to come through the Alps again, nor be without one night's sleep. I fear you have been thinking more of ' the concern ' in this traveling than you have of your wife and children. I have written to you now three letters to London, one to Frankfort, one to Munich, and this is the fourth to Trieste. Heigh-ho ! I thank God you have not broken your neck. Blessings be upon you, love. " Thine own devoted "H." CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN MYSELF AND MY WIFE. 209 " Trieste, January 22, 1840. " My Darling Harriet : " I have this morning received your two delightful letters of January 7-8 and January 10-n. It is strange that the former did not arrive by last post. I am glad dear, fat Willie is getting better. " I was pleased with the account of John Walter's interview with Dr. Iliffe, and delighted with my dear boy's conduct in coming home from the Haywoods, in strict conformity with your orders, although I was sorry the dear fellow lost the fun. However, if his father's and mother's warm approbation can make amerids for that loss, I am sure he has it. " Charlotte H. must make allowance for poor Uncle Alick's selfishness. When a man is suffering in body and mind, and not supported by the Bible, he is not in a particularly amiable frame of mind, and I am sure he would not resign his sofa for his wife or anyone else, so Charlotte need not feel hurt. " I am glad to hear poor Larry was so well, and enjoying himself, poor chap ; he would, I suppose, have trouble enow presently. I hope my dear Charlotte's cold in her head is quite well. Does the poor little thing still stand on one leg like a hen in a rainy day ? Kiss her for me, and dear little Bess. I just thought I saw her getting her ' Book of Kings,' and I am charmed that it pleased her. It was just like you, to give me the credit of getting her what you had asked for her yourself. Kiss for me the little Harrie ; how I would like to hug her in my arms, and dear, fat Willie, too. Why, I sup pose he will be almost walking when I return home. " After I wrote you last I got a summons to attend the Tribunal here, and underwent an examination of three mortal hours in Italian, translated into English forms, with my replies, written down by me in English, and translated before me into Italian. They wanted to swear me on a crucifix with two candles lighted, but I made them send for a good, decent English Bible, as I put no faith in crucifixes. I can't tell you the tenor of my examination, as part of your oath is not to divulge it till it is published by the court, but it was not of much consequence, one way or the other. I am getting gradually rid of my troubles, and hope the worst is now past, but until I am fairly out of this infernal place, I shall 'join trembling with my 2IO AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. mirth.' Poor Phipps is in miserable spirits, so that I do not like to leave him alone, and, in fact, I find that it does me good being with him also. Although I have lost by far the most, I am as cheerful as possible compared with him. I think, poor fellow, his trials have driven him to the Bible for consolation, and I pray they may be blessed to him, and mine to me, and all of us. I feel very anxious to learn how poor Uncle Alick and John bear the shock. I see your mind was getting prepared for some disagreeable news from Trieste. I do trust my first gloomy letters would not distress you too much about me, but you know I never can conceal anything from you, and if I feel dull, I must say so. I am much better now. ' Light heart and thin pair of breeches,' the latter part of the saying being a delicate way of hinting that a man's purse might be fuller. Joking apart, I feel pretty comfortable at present, and only pray I may not receive bad news from home. I think I have seen the worst here. If I do receive bad news from home, the same God who has so wonderfully supported me through my recent trials will, I know, and you may be sure, support and comfort me through what may be yet to happen to me. If you and my dear children be spared, and I be united in health and happiness to you, I doubt not, with God's blessing, that we shall in some way be able to support the ills of poverty, although I am well aware that ' poortith cauld is sair to bide,' especially looking to our dear children. But why should we doubt or faint by the way ? He has said : ' I will surely do thee good,' and the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save. He will bring us by a way that we know not, and safely guide us and our darling children in our pilgrimage, wherefore lift up the hands that hang down and the feeble knees. We have the God of Jacob for our help, and he can bring water from rocks, and send manna and quails from heaven, and, although the age of actual miracles be past, yet we know that not one word of all his gracious promises shall fail. I have just finished reading, for the second time, your delightful letters. Dear, dear Harriet, how I love you ! Phipps and I dine at Joyce's to-day. He lives in a house once inhabited by the Murats. I find that at the ' Casino Tedesco ' I can get a cup of chocolate and bread for lunch for fourpence, the only cheap thing I have seen or heard of in Trieste. God bless you, dearest, and watch over you and my dear children and myself, CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN MYSELF AND MY WIFE. 211 and bring us together again in health and happiness. Write on receipt of this to Trieste, as your reply will still reach me. " Thine own "Wm. W." " Trieste, January 23d, 1842. " My Darling Harriet : " No English post in to-day, so of course I have no letter from my sweet wife. Yesterday, Phipps and I, being duly dressed for din ner, walked to the ' Casa Bathicci ' at five o'clock. It is about a mile from the hotel, and stands upon an eminence at the south side of Trieste, looking right down on the sea and over the bay and town of Trieste. In summer it must be a lovely situation. It is an immense house, and I suppose several families live in it. Joyce's rooms are handsome. The drawing room is a fine oval, thirty-six feet long, and very lofty, painted coarsely in fresco, just as it was when Mme. Murat lived in it. There are open fireplaces and good fires of wood, which looked comfortable. Mrs. Joyce and her sister, Mme. or Signora Lazari, are Egyptian ladies, very little, cheerful creatures. The former speaks English well, and looks so young that I could not believe that two girls much taller than she was, of fourteen and fifteen, were her daughters. Joyce has three daughters and two sons, like me. His daughter Caroline is just my sweet Charlotte's age, and he has a fine boy the age of Bess. It did me good to see them. The drawing room had a fine Turkey carpet. The dining room opened off it. The party, besides ourselves and the Joyces, consisted of Signor Lazari, an Italian and brother-in-law of Joyce, a Mr. Pillans and an English lady, Joyce's governess. We had a cap ital dinner, to which I did more than justice. After dinner we had a rubber of whist, and long Turkish pipes six feet long, with amber mouthpieces, jessamine stems, and having the bowls supported on little salvers, were brought for Joyce, Phipps, and Pillans, who smoked away before the ladies. I declined one. We came away at nine and walked home. Clear moonlight night and intensely cold. I have left my gold pencil case, I find, which was used to mark the points at whist. I hope I may get it again. " To-day we have been at church. Miserable sermon. After it Phipps and I took a very long walk into the country, from which we 212 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. have just returned after taking a chocolate lunch at the Casino Te desco. We have got invitations to the ball at the Nobles' Casino to morrow night, but at present have no intention of going. " Mr. Pillans, whom I met yesterday, wore mustaches, and as he was talking French, I took him for a Frenchman. At last he said a few words in English. 'Ah! ' said I, 'you're a countryman of mine, and from the east coast.' I found after a little he was from Fifeshire, near Falkland, but has been here ten years. I am in a great hurry writing this to catch the post, having left myself too little time. There is no mail from this to England to-morrow. The walk has done me good, but I get more and more anxious to hear how you, my darling, and Uncle Alick stood the disagreeable intelligence I gave you on my first arrival here. If you have all borne it pretty well, I may hope the worst of my trials are over for the present. God Almighty bless you, my sweetest love, and my dear children, and unite us speedily in health and happiness. Give my kind love to Aunt Walter and Mary when you write to them, and to Charlotte H. " Ever your own attached " Wm. W." "Trieste, January 25, 1842. "My Blessed Harriet : " The English mail is in with Liverpool dates of Friday, January 14, but brings no letters from you or from anyone else to me. Neither are there any letters from A. D. & Co. to Shiras, which is strange. We have had here for two days a very cold bora, almost as bad as what we had the first four days I was here. It cuts into the very marrow and quite freezes up one's energies. Nevertheless Phipps and I took a pretty long walk yesterday, and went and called at Joyce's, where I was happy to receive back my little gold pencil case. It made me envious to see Joyce at home with his wife and children, and the table laid out for their family dinner. In spite of the disagreeableness of this place, I can imagine it very pretty indeed in summer, but I am told that it is then as oppressively hot as it is now the reverse. Neither Phipps nor I went to the ball at the Casino Vecchio last night ; if we had, we were to have been intro duced to Lady Sorrel, the British Consul-General's wife, that she might ask us to her soiries, but we were not in good enough spirits to go. The chief physical comfort which we have, after the impor- CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN MYSELF AND MY WIFE. 213 tant items of bed, breakfast, and dinner, is to hang over the small opening of the stove in the salle a manger, and look at the burning embers, and ever and anon put in a little bit of fresh wood. The wood is cut into bits about the length of this page, or an inch or two more. It is rather odd, but whether owing to the climate, or the state of botheration we are in, neither Phipps nor I can read more than a little bit of a newspaper, or something equally light. I can't fix my mind on a continuous narrative, but I give Phipps the benefit of long screeds of poetry from Coleridge, etc., etc. He is a great admirer of Scott, and occasionally repays me in kind. There is a Scotsman here at present of the name of Walker, who knew me by sight in Liverpool, and also James, en route from Vienna to Alexandria, Constantinople, etc. Now, you would think we would be glad to see these people, and hear them speaking English. ' Quite, quite the contrary ' ; with people speaking English you are obliged to hold some conversation, which is a great bore. This day is clear and piercingly cold, sun shining, and a tremendous bora. I am sitting in my bedroom writing at a table in the middle of it, Phipps lying reading on the sofa beside the stove. " The bill holders have not yet given up annoying me, and may yet find out some way of commencing a suit against me here instead of in England against A. D. & Co. This keeps me in hot water, as I have no confidence in getting justice here. I trust, however, that my lawyer, who appears to be a very clever fellow, will ' frustrate their knavish tricks,' by God's blessing. It is really hard after hav ing lost every sixpence I have in the world by Shiras, and a great deal more, to be set upon and worried by a set of thieves who have actually upward of thirty thousand pounds sterling, or about that, of our property, and, not content with that, wish to force me to dis gorge a large portion of that which I have saved out of the fire. However, I take the advice given in the 50th Psalm, 15th verse, and ' thank God and take courage ' I know I have justice and right on my side, whether I receive them or not, and that is a great comfort. " In spite of my abuse of Trieste and my dislike to it, I am forced to confess that the working and lower classes generally appear to be much better off than the corresponding classes in England. I see no abject misery — in fact, no misery at all. The people appear to be 214 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. uniformly well fed and well clothed, the men in cold weather all wrapped up in immense brown greatcoats with hoods over their heads. These greatcoats are trimmed with scarlet fringe, and lined with stuff like a rug, and must be very warm. They don't put their arms through the sleeves, but wear the greatcoat like a cloak, with the sleeves dangling down on each side ; even the Trieste gentlemen appear to wear their greatcoats generally in this way, which looks very funny. There are immense quantities of Greeks here and several Turks. The Greek dress is very odd and very ugly. The red cap and jacket are well enough, but what corresponds to trousers is the oddest and most inconvenient garment I ever saw ; it appears to be of blue linen, like an immensely wide pet ticoat full of plaits. Well, if it were a petticoat, there would be some sense in it, but this immense bag, like a balloon turned upside down, is all sewed up below, except two holes, one on each side, through which come the man's legs leaving, of course, an immense sack hanging down between his legs, nearly to the ground. I should think it impossible for him to run, or even to walk fast, yet this is the universal costume of the Greek of all classes, sailors and all. They either wear light blue stockings with white clocks, and shoes or Wellington boots, to the top of which that part of the sack through which their legs come descends, and between which, of course, hangs the middle part. The rich Greeks in cold weather wear a sort of pea jacket very richly trimmed with fur. I have seen no Greeks dressed in Lawrence's way, which, I believe, is not Greek, but Albanian, at least so far as the white kilt is concerned. The women here are extremely hard- featured and ugly. The lower classes wear a queer white towel, edged with lace, over their heads, tied under the chin, and with a long end down their backs, and look ' unkimmon ' like corpses or ghosteses. The class next above them go bareheaded, with their hair (which is luxuriant) braided and plaited behind, but twisted up very low in the neck. Only the better classes wear bonnets, which are very small, a la mode de Paris. Cloaks like C. Hey worth's, I mean of that shape, are all the go both here and every where in Germany. A favorite color is a very pretty shade of lilac. " Phipps and I thought we would breakfast yesterday morning at the Casino Tedesco. Nothing to be got but chocolate or coffee in CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN MYSELF AND MY WIFE. 21 5 glass tumblers, cold water, and dry bread. Made the best of it we could ; it taught us to be thankful for the tea and fish or omelettes we can get here in the salle a manger, although the salle is so large, cold, and comfortless. I think I have now told you all the news up to the present. You may still write to me here on receipt of this, for if I have the good fortune to be away when your letter comes, I will leave word to forward it to me. Kiss my dear John Walter and Charlotte and sweet Bess and little Harrie and dear, fat Willie for me. How I long for news of you and them ! Give my kindest love to Charlotte H., and believe me, my own darling Harriet, " Your deeply attached husband, " Wm. W. " P. S. — If you see Charles Robertson, say I was much pleased with his speech as reported in the Liverpool Times of January 11. " Thine, " Wm. W." " Liverpool, Friday Evening, January 14, 1842. " My Beloved Husband : " Ten thousand thanks for your thoughtfulness in so soon reliev ing my mind as to your next day's journey. I received your precious letter from the station beyond the Brenner the next day after the one from Innspruck — that was on Tuesday, but you had still a great distance to descend, so I rejoice with trembling. Since I last wrote you on Tuesday the weather has become more intensely cold ; it is almost impossible to keep yourself warm, even in our warm library, with an immense fire, and close to it. " On Wednesday I went down to see Mrs. Young, but no further, as there had been snow on the ground in the night, a slight thaw in the morning followed, then it froze again, and the slippery sludge was intolerable to walk upon. On Wednesday night it was hard frost, and yesterday so slippery I could not venture out. John Walter was the only one that could go. I kept Charlotte in even from her music. To-day the ground is covered halfway up the leg with snow and freezing hard frost, so I have not ventured out ; desperately cold and comfortless. My heels are much swelled with chillblains, and poor wee Bessie's the same. Mrs. Young said : ' I used to hear from Glasgow when Mr. Wood was here, but now, when you have not been here so often, I hear nothing. Oh, how I 2l6 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. miss his kind visits ! ' and then the old lady's eyes (cold as she is) filled with tears, and she said : ' God bless him for them ! ' " After going to her house I went to a grocer's and laid in a stock of groceries, saving five shillings on my sugars by going myself, so that I fear Mrs. Alice has been getting discounts. My sugars are firmer, whiter, sweeter, and more glistening than those bought by her, and three halfpence per pound less. " Poor, wee, sweet Willie has got quite well again, and eats famously of rusks, barley, and oatmeal gruel. Charlotte enjoys vastly sitting by the fire with me after Uncle Alick goes to bed, which he does regularly at nine ; and she laughs and talks as merry as you please of old times, while I sit on the low stool in my night clothes. We always undress this cold weather by the fire in the library. Char lotte is up every day to breakfast, and feels her health much improved. She seldom goes to the old people, and has an excuse in the bad weather. She sends to know ' how they are.' I have drawn thirty' pounds more to-day, but am paying everything as I go along. I have got into some fine economical habits, and arrange my work (though I say it) most methodically ; so, if my health be spared, I expect you will find a great saving in this year's expenses. My new housemaid promises to be quite a treasure ; does her work beauti fully, far better than Ruth. Our room quite shines, and she is very fond of children, and has made friends already with Willie, and is a capital seamstress. I give her eight guineas wages, and gave Ruth (you may remember) ten guineas. I got her from Preston ; her name is Alice Lloyd ; she seems about twenty-five years of age. " There was a letter to-day to you from Mr. Sellar, merely thank ing you for the apples, which arrived in good condition, and saying that, ' however Tom's fortunes should turn, he should always be grateful for your unwearied attentions and uniform kindness to him.' He says : ' Our wheat and barley weigh as light as comparatively about three or four pounds per bushel lighter than they used to weigh ; this is bad.' There was an invitation also for Mr. and Mrs. Wood to dine three weeks hence with ' Mrs. Cook and Mr. Holmes.' Mary also wrote again, and is quite well and in good spirits. Aunt Walter is now with Eleanor ; the latter very nervous, and fretting about Uncle Alick being away. Uncle Alick got a note from John CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN MYSELF AND MY WIFE. 217 on Wednesday telling him to go to the Adelphi and order dinner, and be there by six o'clock. Well, poor Uncle A. went and waited until near nine, and no John came ; so he took a good dinner, and put it down to John's expense — which you ought to have done when he once served you so. The next day John wrote, saying Fanny had taken fright, as she heard the Scotch mail had been snowed up, and, as he was on his way to the anti-monopoly meeting, he thought he had better not come. Poor William McGregor died last Friday, this day week. I intend calling on Monday to see his mother. Duncan Macviccar has got well again, and is out, but Mr. Haywood has taken ill and has kept the house for some days. God bless you and good-night. More to-morrow. " Thine own "H. " Saturday, January 15, 1842. Hard frost again and deep snow. By the way, the frost did commence again just about the time you supposed, after Christmas. I have had a good night, and feel in very good spirits to-day, and trust that you, my darling, do the same. I expect to hear about Monday or Tuesday the result of the Shiras business. I have never omitted to pray that you might be in this affair ' wise as a serpent, and harmless as a dove.' I shall not go out to-day ; it is thick and gloomy as well as cold. The steamer from New York is not in yet. Heaven bless and protect you, my own William, and send you safely and in health back to me. If you want me to keep well and keep in good spirits, do you keep up yours, and, though our worldly riches may have taken to themselves wings and flown away, yet, believing that ' we have a more enduring inheritance, we rejoice,' or at least let us not sorrow as those without hope, but show by our cheerful submission to our trials that we trust the wis dom of ' our Father,' who knows what is good for us and what is not good. May he ever be near you and me and our dear children is the prayer of " Thine own devoted " H. A. W. " J. Walter, Charlotte, Bessie, Harrie, and Charlotte H. send their best love. Harrie has run away, saying she has gone to ' fetch him home.' There go the guns — the steamer is in. " Thine "H." 2l8 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. " Trieste, January 27, 1842. " My Blessed Harriet : " I have this morning received your most welcome letter of Jan uary 14-15. Soon after that you would know the worst of our posi tion with Shiras, and I am glad to see that your mind seemed to be undergoing a preparation for it, that you had good and economical servants and were saving even five shilling on your sugars. Every little helps, and it is decidedly our duty to be as economical as cir cumstances will admit, and if we can get food and raiment, and a good education for our dear children, we have reason to be con tented, and I doubt not with God's blessing we shall be so. How wicked and discontented I was when I first went to Netherfield Road at leaving Bootle ; now I think if I can only get leave to live in our own house I don't care how hard I work and how plainly I fare. I feel that it is good for me that I have been afflicted. I feel that God is our only stay and refuge. He alone can comfort and support and bring us through our trials. • He alone keeps us from feeling the bitterness, it may be, of a temporary dependence on our relations, and of the evils' of poverty. However, as he has not seen fit to give us riches, perhaps in his mercy he may not see fit to try us with extreme poverty either. At any rate I thank God and take courage, feeling and knowing we could not possibly be in better hands, and that he doeth all things well, and if he has also graciously given you that resignedness of feeling, cherish it, my darling, and pray earnestly that it may be continued to us both and to all connected with us. We have had a tremendous bora, but that is now gone and the weather is quite decent. Phipps and I took a walk of six or seven miles yesterday, ascending a hill which overhung Trieste to a place called Opcina. Our path, called the ' Santa Scala,' or Holy Ladder, was very rugged and steep, but in summer must be pretty, as it led through vineyards ; and here, and generally in Italy, the vines are trained over trellis work, making pretty bowers, and all the way up the glen we ascended was a fine sea view, embracing Trieste on the one hand and the distant Alps on the other. The glen we went up was not unlike one near Lagarie, which we went up with Matilda B., you may recollect, only the one here is not so pretty, although it is much longer, steeper, and higher. CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN MYSELF AND MY WIFE. 219 "I hardly expect to hear from you before February 1, in reply to my first letter from this. You can still reply to this letter ad dressed ' Care of Messrs. Reyer & Schleck, Trieste.' If I be gone, as I trust I may, before your reply reaches, I will leave orders to have it forwarded to me at Marseilles or Lyons. I am delighted to hear that poor Charlotte H.'s spirits are pretty good. I suspect Lawrence will be pretty nearly as well cleaned out as I am, poor chap, by the time he comes home; however, I hope not. It is a great mercy I came here, or we should certainly have lost some twenty-three thousand to twenty-five thousand pounds more than we have done, and I question if any of the other partners would have done the job but myself, none of them being suspicious enough, and it is well for me I was suspicious, and not only got sale notes, leases of stores, etc., but actually went and saw the stores locked in my presence, and took away the enormous bunches of keys in the large pockets of my great coat hanging over my arm. If I had not got these keys I might have lost everything. Now that it appears to be over, nobody but myself knows the misery and anxiety I have gone through since I came here, but thank God, he has most wonderfully supported me in every trial. I see now, too, that it is much better that I lost Shiras' house, as I got in its stead securities of at least equal value, which I could not have got had I kept it, and might not have been easy to avoid a law plea here had it remained in my possession. Give my kindest love to dear John Walter, Charlotte, Bess, little Harrie, and Willie, and kiss each of them for me. God bless, pro tect, and watch over you and them and me, and in his own good time unite us in health and happiness. " Thine own fondly attached " Wm. W." "Trieste, January 29, 1842. " My Darling Harriet : " The English post is in, but brings me no letters from my sweet wife. I have, however, a letter of January 18 from A. D. & Co., in which it is mentioned that a letter from me to you had that morning been received. This must have been my first letter from Trieste. It is odd that my first letter to A. D. & Co. does not appear to have 220 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. reached Liverpool on the 18th, so that you would have the bad news before Uncle Alick, you dear little thing. " I have a letter from John to-day of 19th. He, poor fellow, really appears to have borne the shock remarkably well, although he says that after reading my letter of January 6, he felt for the first time in his life fairly floored. I do hope the flooring may be blest to him. My letter to him was merely a short note stating the result ; the par ticulars were given in a long letter addressed to A. D., J. D. and W. Cross, but sent first to A. D. at Liverpool. I expect to hear how you have borne the misfortune, you dear angel, by Monday's post (31st inst.). John says to me that he and I have at least the satis faction of being ' martyrs,' the blame resting solely with Alick and Cross, who, he says, ought to be made to pay our share of the loss out of their own pockets. " Poor Cross, I feel very sorry for him and Mylne, because both must blame themselves much for what has happened. However, I will drop this disagreeable subject. God grant that I know the worst, and that the old house will be able to keep its legs, and then, with God's blessing, we may make up our losses in a year or two ; but whatever happens, I know that we are in God's hands and could not be in better, and to him I commend myself and my wife and children, and expect for Jesus Christ's sake his blessing upon us all. "After taking my last letter (27th) to the post office, on coming home Phipps and I found invitations for us from Sir Thomas Sorrel to an evening party last night. He is British Consul-General for Austria, and resides here. Neither of us felt any inclination to go ; however, we thought it a kind of duty to do so. I particularly, after the sort of persecution I have gone through here, considered it but justice to myself to go and show that I had done nothing wrong, and had nothing to be ashamed of ; so we accepted, and went at nine o'clock to the ' Villa Neckar,' where Sir Thomas resides. He is a vulgar-looking little manny, who has been a colonel in the army. His wife is a little hook-nosed, bustling, fiddle-faddle sort of person. The entertainments were dancing and cards, in neither of which I participated. The refreshments were orgeat, lemonade, and bad negus, with good cakes handed round, also tea. Two rooms open — the dancing-room with a floor as slippery as glass, a good piano well played by a man ; dances chiefly waltzing. If you or Em. Hone had CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN MYSELF AND MY WIFE. 221 been there I think I could have taken a dance myself ; but to tell the real truth, dancing does seem to me the silliest, stupidest amuse ment I ever saw, and I don't wonder at the Turkish ambassador asking why the people did not get their servants to dance for them. This must be owing to the manner in which they dance here, for I used to think dancing a delightful amusement ; or am I actually growing old, and no mistake ? Is the change in my feelings, and not in the dancing ? I don't believe it can be in my feelings. " ' Life is but thought, so think I will That youth and I are housemates still.' [33X only. — Wm. W.] " There was one English girl there, Miss Mary Brummel, very hand some and had been pretty, was so still, in fact, but pass/. Another a handsome, thick-skinned, and pimply French girl. A very pretty- faced Mrs. Hayan, Italian, and like Maria. All the rest fearfully ugly, absolutely fearful : as hideous faces as you can see in a night mare after eating too much toasted cheese. Among the batch were four young German countesses, horrid frights. The men, or at least many of them, are rather good looking. Among those there were Count Staction, the governor of Trieste, a very gentlemanly looking man, something like my father. There was also another German Graf or count — Count Amenstein, or some name like that — for love of whom a Trieste lady poisoned herself last year. ' Can't say I saw anything particular about the cat's neck.' We came away a little after ten, well pleased to get to our own roost. We must go to the opera to-night to please a German gentleman, Mr. Reyer, with whom I have business here, but it is sorely against the grain, as both Phipps and I prefer our own company to that of anyone else, and like staying at the inn, comfortable as it is, to going out. I have a theory that Trieste society must be the quintessence of dullness, even to the natives, from the excessive difficulty both Phipps and I experience in getting rid of our callers. " Yesterday Phipps and I took really (to do the infernal place jus tice) a very pretty walk. We went nearly to St. Bartolomeo by a road along a cliff overhanging the sea, which in summer must be beautiful, as all the ground is covered with trellised vineyards. We returned home by the seashore under the cliffs, and had a very pleasant saunter over the rocks. The day was fine and the sun 222 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. bright and warm, like a fine day in September. We saw numbers of men breaking the rocks with hammers, and on going up to them found the said rocks full of cylindrical holes, as smooth and regular as possible. The look of the rock when broken was not unlike a great honeycomb with circular cells, each cell varying in size from little Harrie's little finger to my forefinger ; and in each cell was a shellfish something like a long cockle, which bores these holes with a long, soft tongue it has. They are called dattoh di mari or sea dates, also pediculi di mari, or sea lice, and are, I believe, good eating. I am certain I have seen the same animal in some rocks near Elie. The rock they bored is of a bluish color and not very hard. I think mineralogists call it ' shale.' While going along we also saw a man wading up to his knees, and ever and anon poking a long stick into the sea and bringing up something at the end of it. Upon investigation we found that he was picking up another sort of shellfish called Occhitte, or Eyes. The beast has a univalve shell, and is not unlike what a ' gouged ' human eye might be. The inside of the shell reflects the light beautifully, and I have often seen large ones polished on mantelpieces in England. I picked up a small one and intend to take it home as a specimen of my conchological pursuits. This day is cold again and rather cloudy, but it is pleasant to think January is so nearly giving up the ghost. To-morrow we intend, if the day be fine, to take a long country walk with Mr. Jeanrenaud, and I don't think I shall be home in time to write you by to-morrow's post, so I shall not have an opportunity again till Tuesday, February i. " I think you may still reply to this here, as I can have your letter sent after me. Not traveling at night it would take me from sixteen to twenty days to reach London from this by Venice, Milan, Genoa, Marseilles, Lyons, and Paris, which is the nearest way to go home, unless I were going back the way I came, which I shan't, having had quite enough of it already. " God bless and protect you, dear one, and all my sweet children ! " Your attached husband, "Wm. W." CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN MYSELF AND MY WIFE. 223 "Trieste, January 30, 1842. " My Dear Harriet : " The bora has set in again with, if possible, increased bitterness, which has knocked our country walk on the head. You may form some idea of the intense cold and great violence of the wind, when it keeps me in the house when there is neither snow nor rain. I think, by the way, we have only had rain one day since we came to Trieste, and I rather liked it than otherwise. They tell me that this is one of the hardest winters they have had here for years ; and well it may be, for the weather is more detestable than anything I ever saw in England, except during the great gale in 1839, and occa sionally when we have a violent east wind with frost. We went last night to the opera about 7.30, and sat in Mr. Reyer's box. We were treated both to the play and ices besides. It was terrifically dull and stupid. Almost all the respectable families here have private boxes, and the pit is a sort of evening Exchange, where bar gains of all sorts are made. The house is large and handsome, and the dresses of the actors and actresses superb. It was the benefit of the prima donna. I did not think her singing good, but she was well applauded, and had two large wreaths of flowers and all manner of sonnets on different colored paper thrown, or rather showered down, from the boxes to her. As in all the Continental theaters, the strictest propriety is observed, and no ladies of easy virtue are seen or admitted. We have been at church this afternoon. For the first time in my life I made most of the responses half aloud, and find that in so doing you derive much more benefit from the service. Coming out, Mr. Moore, the American consul, asked us to dine with him next Friday at five, and having at present no valid excuse we accepted. I hope our dining out may not be put a stop to by any bad news either of A. D. & Co. or poor Phipps' house, to be received during the week ; but both of us feel very anxious on the subject. They sang to-day at church : ' Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me,' but very badly. " To-morrow, dear, J. Walter and Charlotte go to their respective schools ; God bless and prosper them both, and enable them to profit by the instruction they may receive ! I shall be anxious to hear how they came on. 224 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. " Tell Uncle Alick, if he be with you, that the rest of the Cotton ex E. Perkins is sold at thirty-one florins less five per cent, discount, being the same price as obtained for the first half, excepting that the discount is one-half per cent more. Under the circumstance of the unfavorable advices from Liverpool, I consider the sale a good one. " I am sitting in my own room at present, shivering with cold, the wind roaring through the double windows and the vessels below rocking about, the sea covered with white waves, and the spray driven along like smoke. The doors of the room are creaking like the bulkheads of a ship in a gale of wind. Phipps is lying on my sofa beside the stove, reading a very old number of Blackwood 's, for we are sorely bestead for books. I have read some chapters aloud to him, and have repeated and sung, ' in my own sweet way,' some hymns. It is now 2.45, and we begin to look forward to dinner (the greatest event of each day) at 5.30 with interest. Our life here is exactly like being on board a ship, and we just take the same interest in our breakfast and dinner as one does at sea. I dare say I have written this to you before, but you must not mind that, for one's mind is fairly on its own resources. Nothing is to be picked up from those I meet, and books are not to be had; By the by, I did pick up this from Mr. Reyer, that the nobility of Austria, male and female, are called of the ' blue blood,' and cannot marry except into noble families, unless they choose to lose caste. Thus, a count, who is the eldest brother, if he marry a lady not of ' blue blood,' loses the family estate, which goes to the next eldest brother who may marry a noble. If a count marry a lady not of the noble blood, by law she is a countess, but she cannot be received at court. No ' blue-bloods ' will visit her or ask her to their parties, although they visit her husband ; and in the same way with the female scions of aristocracy if they marry beneath them. All the sons and daughters of counts are counts and countesses, and so on, so that unless some stop were put to their propagation by throwing impediments in the way of marriage the country would literally swarm with nobles. I thought all these absurdities had perished in the time of the first French Revolution, but they still exist, it would appear, in full force in this benighted country. God bless you, my CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN MYSELF AND MY WIFE. 225 darling wife ! Oh, may he protect and watch over you and me, and our dear children, and unite us again in health and happiness ! Kiss John Walter, Charlotte, Bessie, Harrie, and fat Willie for me, and give my love to poor Charlotte H. No mail from England to-day. " Ever your own deeply attached husband, " Wm. W." " Trieste, February 1, 1842. " Oh ! my darling Harriet, why do you not write to me ? My latest from you is January 15, and I have letters from A. D. & Co. of January 21, six days later, and in the interim they mention that you had received my first three letters from Trieste, and add, ' All remain well.' But I am sure all don't remain well, or my blessed wife would not have put me in the agony of suspense I am now in. I am afraid that your agitation, consequent upon my first letter from this vile place, has brought on a fever and cold, and that you are very ill. Sometimes I think you may be dead or have lost your reason, which goes near to make me lose mine ; then, again, I feel as if God would not so afflict me, and then, again, that if you have been taken from me, it must have been to take you from ' the evil to come.' Dear, sweet angel Harriet, are you now numbered among the blessed spirits round our Father's throne, or are you still of the earth earthy, still spared to bless my eyes with the sight of you ? God, in his infinite mercy, grant that you are still here, in sound health of mind and body, and then all other trials will, indeed, be dust in the balance ; not that I would like to lose any of my darling children either, but without you I would be indeed desolate. No post comes in to-morrow from England. The next due is on the 3d, and you may conceive how anxious I shall be till it comes. God grant it may bring me good accounts of you and my sweet children ! If you have written, and Uncle Alick or the lads at the office have forgotten to postpay or forward your letter, hanging is too good for them — that's all. What adds to my fear that there is something seriously wrong with either you or the children is that my uncle Alick has never sent me the scrape of a pen in answer to 226 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. my letters, and also (what a fool you will think me !) I saw at Cortina, on January 3, an immense winding sheet in the can dle. This is caused by the candle running. I did not half like it at the time, and have often thought of it since, and now more than ever. I got no less than six letters to-day, all business ones. They were handed in just as I was going to begin breakfast. When I saw none from you I lost all appetite, and my tea soured on my stomach. I hope my forebodings of evil may not be realized, but I am most anxious to hear from you. Surely, surely, if you had been ill Charlotte H. would have written to me, and yet, if you are not ill, why don't you write yourself? I think — indeed, I am sure, — I have felt the want of a letter from you to-day more than all I have suffered since I came here put together. The bora has much decreased to-day, and the sun is shining brilliantly. After I get my business letters finished I must go and take a walk, and see if that will do me good. I pray to God not to afflict me beyond what I am able to bear. I have had several business matters to attend to to-day, and have delivered a letter of introduction to Sir Thomas Sorrel, received to-day from John. He was particularly civil. As you know, I had already been introduced to him, and had been at his house, but I thought it as well to deliver the letter of introduc tion received to-day, in case I might stand in need of his assistance in any way before my departure. Will you ever read this ? God knows ! You may be hovering over me now, seeing what I write and knowing what I am to suffer when I come to know the worst. Well, if we never meet again here, at least we shall in another and a better world, where sorrow and sighing are forever done away. But what am I to do without you ? What is to become of the dear children ? For their sake, at least, I must try and bear up. O God, spare me this trial, and unite me even in this world, in health and happi ness, to my dear wife and children ! They couldn't have the heart to deceive me at the office, and say ' All were well ' if you were ill, surely. And yet your not writing is perfectly inexplicable. I will keep up as well as I can and hope for the best. God, who has sup ported me hitherto, will, I trust, for Christ's sake, not fail me now. Dear, dear, blessed Harriet, God Almighty bless you wherever you are, whether in heaven above or on the earth beneath, and, however . CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN MYSELF AND MY WIFE. 227 much I may wish for your eternal welfare, still human nature is human nature, and I cannot but wish that you are still, and may long be, a sojourner in this vale of tears. Kiss my darling children for us if you be, and if you be not, I know, if people pray in heaven, your prayers will ascend to the throne of grace for them and for me, and will find acceptance through the merits of the Redeemer. " Your own fondly attached husband, " William Wood. " P. S. — 3.30. — I have now finished my business letters, and I think giving vent to my fears to you has relieved my mind and done me good, and if I have good accounts of you, my darling, by next post, I shall be a happy man indeed. " Wm. W." Trieste, February 3, 1842. " My Blessed Harriet : " Another English post in to-day, and not a scrape of a pen from you or anyone else, the only letter I have received being a dupli cate of a letter from J. & A. D., containing seconds of Betts for six thousand pounds — and this duplicate is not even signed by Cross, so that I am perfectly at a loss to account for the continued silence of everyone. My latest letter from A. D. & Co., is January 21, in which, as I mentioned in my last, Mr. Ritchie mentions that my letters to you of January 9 and ro had been sent up, and that, 'all continue well.' Little did he think how these words would be pondered over. The 22d was a Saturday, and I know that A. D. & Co., would not, unless there were something very particular, write that day or on Sunday, so that there is nothing extraordinary in my not hearing from them. Your last letter was written Saturday, 15th ; if you wrote on Saturday, 2id, you might perhaps, not send it to the post till Monday, 24th, in that case it could not reach here, till Saturday, 5 th inst, but the strange thing is, that you should not write for a whole week, knowing how anxious I would be to hear from you. After sending off my last letter on the 1st, I went and took a walk by the seaside with Phipps, who suggested how easily a 228 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. letter sent through an office might be forgotten, and that my uncle, being bothered, might have kept your letter in his pocket. Knowing that he has a habit of doing so at any time, this idea was a great relief to my mind ; but I had suffered so much from my gloomy forebodings during the day, that after dinner I had a regular attack with swimming in the head. I took some hot brandy toddy, which did me good, and put away that swimming and the nervous anxiety which I had felt all day. Phipps and I were called upon yesterday, by Mr. Jeanrenaud, who proposed a walk to us, so out we sallied ; he tired in about two hours, and so turned home after I had engaged him to dine with us at half-past five, as I thought I owed him a dinner. Phipps and I then got into a boat, I steering, and sailed along the coast about two miles to St. Bartol omeo. The sail cost about tenpence, which Phipps paid, he having lost the toss for it. The sun was quite warm, although the snow still lies in the shade; the sea was lovely, covered with white-sailed vessels; behind us was Trieste with its white houses, looking really very pretty ; before us were the Carinthians and Friulian Alps, with their peaked summits glittering in the sun, and covered with snow. We landed at St. Bartolomeo and walked home, and the tide being in, had some fine climbering over cliffs to effect our passage. " At half past five, Mr. Jeanrenaud came, but the attendance is so bad here it was near six before we got dinner, at our usual post near the stove in the salle. Mr. Jeanrenaud brought me a small box full of Venetian glass beads ' for my little girls,' which I hope may yet amuse Bess and Harrie, or perchance even the learned Charlotte herself. After a weary sitting till nine, Mr. Jeanrenaud took himself off. This morning I awoke very early, nervous and anxious about the letters I might get at breakfast, twice got up, read Jay and the Bible, and prayed for comfort and support and ' good news from a far country.' At breakfast came in the solitary duplicate I have referred to. Phipps expected a letter from Liver pool, and he has none either, which gave me some comfort, as my not having any may be owing to something about the dispatch of the mails from Liverpool. I have of course imagined all manner of evil. You attacked with pleurisy, and then some of the children CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN MYSELF AND MY WIFE. 229 dying, then my uncle Alick losing his reason, or speaking harshly or unkindly to you because we had lost all our money. Then poor Charlotte, dangerously ill, owing to some unkindness of the old people, John Walter having met with some fatal accident at school. Visions of letters, with broad black edges and big black seals in any body's handwriting but yours, flit across my mental vision, and in fact, I don't know what to make of the cause of your silence. I never was so fairly aground as to my anticipations of the future. I don't know what is hanging over me. Poor Phipps is much in the same state, most anxious to hear how his brother bears the news of his loss, and what effect it will have on their business. In the midst of all this the sun is shining, the sea blue and studded with white sails, and the weather fine. This is also the first Corso day, that is, the first of the days on which people walk and drive up and down the principal street, and pelt each other with confetti or sugar plums. I believe, however, the great days are Sunday and Monday next, the last days of the carnival. Besides pelting their acquaint ances, it is the custom for the gentlemen to toss into the ladies' laps as they sit in their carriages, splendid boxes full of bonbons, which sometimes cost as much as ten pounds each. Mr. Reyer, who is a sort of dry wit, highly disapproves of this modern innovation, not only as he says on account of the expense, but also because in toss ing in the box, you are apt to let it alight on the lap of the wrong lady ; then he says, if there be four ladies in a carriage, and you throw one to each, if the boxes are all the same, they say you have no taste, if they are different then each lady thinks her own the worst, and that the other three are better off. I shall probably take a look at the play, although but in little humor for it. We are also asked to dine at the American Consul's to-morrow, a great bore, but perhaps as well, as it will be take us off ourselves a while. " I see the greatest interval between any of your previous letters was four days, while now between your last and A. D. & Co.'s last, there is an interval of six. To be sure, my uncle Alick might easily enough keep a letter in his pocket for two days. I don't know what to think, but trust in God and pray that I may have good news from you on Saturday. During the last twelve months my forebodings of evil have been so exceeded by the reality that I dread the arrival 230 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. of Saturday's post. However, I and you and our dear children are in God's hands, and to him I commit and commend us all, through Jesus Christ. " Your own fondly attached husband, " Wm. W. " P. S. — I have just heard that a great many people have not got their letters to-day ; this is some comfort. Joy ! joy ! joy ! Your letter of January 21-22 has just been handed in ; it was misdeliv- ered this morning at the Post Office. You are all well, thank God ! Unless I am told to come home by Ancona and Rome, I shall go straight by Venice, Genoa, and Marseilles. I feel like a new creature. " Ever your own " Wm. W." CHAPTER XIX. STILL AT TRIESTE. The following is the delayed letter, the receipt of which gave me so much joy, as mentioned above. " i Netherfield Road, South Everton, Liverpool, " Friday, January 21, 1842. " My Very Precious Dear Will : " I have your three delightful letters from Trieste, which gave me joy, all mournful as they are ! And so my dear one is all mine, and I have therefore a treasure, though without a penny in the world. Oh, my darling William, what thankfulness and joy I felt that you were not ' making the fine gold your confidence,' but trusting in the Lord, who does with us his children as he pleases, and he knows what is good for us. I don't mind the loss of money a bit, now that I see you are well and laying up treasures elsewhere, ' where no moth corrupteth, and where thieves do not break through or steal.' Havingjy i°y> joy indeed! my angel Will, you have got my letters of January 21 and 22. I screamed aloud and sobbed with delight. Oh, my angel ! keep well for my sake. How strange you should not have got my first letter of 18th [This letter of 18th was never received by me. — Wm. W.] after I heard the news from you in your first from Trieste. Do you think Phipps — I mean Shiras — could have intercepted it, to punish you, for what ? Oh, bless the Lord ! oh, my soul, for all his mercies to me, and oh, may he bless us both, my precious darling, and unite us again, for Christ's sake ! " Thine own devoted " H." CHAPTER XXIV. letters between husband and wife during his journey homeward. " Liverpool, Saturday, February 19, 1842. " Dear, Sweet, Blessed Will : " I have your dear letters of February 6 and 8 ; first you rejoice me. then you depress me ; then you rejoice me again, for as you rise I rise, and as you fall and sink, I fall. The letter of the 8th I got to-day, and it made me go up to Charlotte's at a sort of brisk trot, half dance, half jump, and singing all the way. "You had been laughing and enjoying yourself with Phipps, pelt ing the ladies, and you rascal, you, waltzing ! Ah, just think, Will, perhaps I was sitting at the time crying over your woes and sorrows (and like Miss Shaw, ' I dare say I was '), and could I but have known that at that very time, your arms were encircling another lady, and you were dancing quadrilles — but the waltzing ! Ah, me. ' She leaned upon his arm; once 'twas mine, and mine only! ' I think Mrs. Moore might have kept her daughters at home. I enclose a letter from Aunt Walter. I did not write to you on Thursday — my last went on Tuesday, 15 th — for I thought as you were coming home it was needless to send any more on to Trieste. I shall now close for to-night and finish to-morrow and Monday. " Sunday, February 20, 1842. " I have just had dinner, having been first to church (like Chris tiana with her children), and then up to poor Charlotte's, whom we found ill and dispirited. We have had a nice tender leg of mutton for dinner, and then an apple dumpling, which I much wish you had tasted. Our sermon was excellent (as well as the dumpling) ; it was the continuation of his discourse on the Ephesians, and the beginning of the chapter : ' Be ye followers of God as dear children, and walk in love as Christ also hath loved us, and has given up him self as an offering to God for a sweet smelling savor, but fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not once be named among 304 LETTERS BETWEEN HUSBAND AND WIFE. 305 you as becometh saints, neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient (or rather expedient and proper), but rather giving of thanks.' ' For this ye know, that no whore monger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.' ' Let no man deceive you with vain words, for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.' He dwelt much upon the tender love of parents to their children, attend ing in infancy to all their wants, and the love that children in return feel for parents, when they are old enough to see and understand their tender concern and anxiety for their welfare — and how such children are apt to be followers, or imitators of their parents, in whatever they admire as good and excellent in their character and behavior. He then pointed out the covetousness or love of money, which is idolatry, and in what professing Christians err, in loving money for the good things of this world which money brings, whether for themselves or their families, and then the ' filthiness, foolish talking, and jesting,' which even some professing Christians (particularly among the young) indulge in. He entered into a sort of discussion upon wit, which he said was used according to many meanings ; but wit, in the common acceptancy of the word, was good and lawful in itself. He was then very plain in the distinction between wit and foolish talk and filthy jesting, showing the great sin of it ; how it deadens the finer feelings of the mind, hardens the heart, and drives the spirit of purity and holiness far from the hearts of those who indulge in it, leaving them to their own nat ural corruption and guilt. ' Be not deceived with vain words, for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.' He then alluded to the 'vain words' of the worldly man, who says there is no harm in this or that, that such things are allowable to the young, and other vain words, deceiving the hearts of the simple; 'but,' said he, and his voice assumed a deep and solemn tone, ' God is not mocked, for what a man soweth, that shall he also reap'; for he that soweth to the flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption, but he that soweth to the spirit, shall of the spirit reap life everlasting.' To-night he has a sermon on the right and proper exercise of private judgment, and as it is a lovely 'evening, very mild and clear, I shall take the 306 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. two chicks and a servant, and go — for I want to see what right I have for the private judgment I am inclined to mete out to some of my brethren, who shall be nameless. " Dear little John Walter was telling me about his school com panions, after the sermon, and he said one of the boys is exactly like what I should have thought Uncle Cross as a boy, a clean, good-tempered, happy, laughing fellow, and another, he said, reminded him of Uncle Lawrence ; that is, said he : 'I think if he was a man he would be just such a man as Uncle Lawrence would be, "without religion.'" I said: 'Is there any boy that reminds you of papa ? ' He thought a little while, and then said : ' No ; I fear there is no boy there that will be so strictly virtuous and truthful as papa is.' It was sweet praise to hear from the lips of your children. I hope you will always act as an example to them, and in such a way that they will always respect you. I fear you will not get this letter till you get home. This is the reason I write so straggling and far between. I am now going to read to the children. Ever thine " H. A. W. " Robertson walked home with us this morning, and I delivered your message about the speech as reported in the Times. He agrees with me that Mr. Kelly is very devout and earnest in his sermons of late, and much shorter. " Monday, February 21, 1842. " All well, my blessed Will. Have had a long conversation with Uncle Alick. He says we will only have three hundred pounds a year, and that we must sell the house and furniture, keep but one servant, etc. Never mind, my blessed Will ; we are all well, and shall be as happy, with the blessing of God, on three hundred pounds as on twelve hundred pounds. " Thine own fond "H. A. W." " Hotel du Nord, Lyons, Monday, February 28, 1842. " My Darling Harriet : " On going to M. Gautier's office this morning, I received your welcome letters of the 7th and of the 19th and 21st inst., by which I rejoice to see that your eye was better and that you were going about again. My uncle Alick's selfishness and cold-heartedness LETTERS BETWEEN HUSBAND AND WIFE. 307 is really beyond anything I could have expected, even from him. However, he acts probably just as we should, but for the grace of God in our hearts. Murray T. and Mylne, for at least three years past, have been in debt to the concern, and living without anything being said to them about their spending. They got into debt by their own fault, whereas my losses have been occasioned by my uncle Alick trusting a man about whom he knew nothing, after my re peated warnings to the contrary ; and now, as soon as I have lost my money, he turns about, and says I must sell my house and furniture, and keep only one servant, and live on three hundred pounds a year. Of course, if it be necessary, however hard it is, I must do this, and be thankful I am no worse off, but before I do it, I will have some talk with my uncle John, and as to selling house and furniture at present, it is out of the ques tion, as they would not sell for half what they are worth, and of course, the possibility of paying my debt to my uncle would be diminished in an equal proportion, so that for his own selfish sake, it would be injudicious to force a sale of the things at present. And, as we are not going to run away with them, they will keep well enough till times mend. I think I have felt this last stroke of my uncle Alick's selfishness more than anything else. However, poor man, he is but an instrument, and it is useless to quarrel with the rod. Let us recollect in Whose hand it is, and that He doeth all things well. Let us trust that He will give us sound health of body and mind, preserve our dear, sweet children to us, and me to them, and keep us from fainting under His rebuke. It is well we have been brought up plainly, and I dare say, if we get food and raiment, and education for our children, we may just be as happy as we have been. Since my uncle Alick wishes to keep us so well down, he had better pay for his board during the time he has been staying at my house. However, sufficient unto the day, God knows, is the evil thereof, so let us dismiss this subject for the present, and let me tell you I have had a most kind letter from James offering me any pecuniary assistance I may need. He in tends to meet me in Paris. I have also a very kind letter from dear, sweet Mary, by which I am glad to see they are all well at Glasgow. " I had a most fatiguing journey here. I left Marseilles at five 308 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. o'clock on Saturday morning, and did not arrive here till ten o'clock last night, say forty-one hours, cramped up in a very narrow coup6 of the diligence. The weather was beautiful. We passed through Avignon, where we dined on Saturday. This is a fine old walled town, where the Popes lived for a number of years owing to some row at Rome, or rather, I believe, there was one set of Popes at Rome, and another at Avignon. At Avignon we came upon the Rhone, which is a fine wide river, which in its course flows through the Lake of Geneva. We kept pretty near it all the way to Lyons, having occasional views of the distant snow-covered Alps to the right, and passing on the left Mount Pilate, where Pontius Pilate is said to have killed himself. We passed through Vienna, a town beautifully situated on a bend of the Rhone, last evening just as the sun was setting. It is about twenty-five miles from this [*. e., Lyons]. " Lyons is finely situated, having both the rivers Rhone and Saone running through it. The hotel I am at is excessively dirty as to floors, etc., but the beds are clean enough. I am to dine with Mr. J. Gautier, the one who dined with us at Bootle, and who has since married. His father passed me on the way to Marseilles. I have been fortunate enough to get a place in the malle-poste, which leaves here for Paris at three o'clock to-morrow, and will, I believe, take me there in thirty-six hours, instead of about fifty per diligence, besides being much more comfortable and very little dearer ; so I suppose I shall reach Paris some time in the forenoon of Thursday, March 3, and I shall wait there until I see James, who proposes meeting me in Paris. Keep up your spirits, my darling wife, we are walking through the valley of humiliation at present, and, though the waters we have to drink are bitter to the taste, let us thank God that he has given us that good hope through Christ, which can make them sweet to us. I dare say we might get a small, cheap house up at Clarence Street, near Mr. Kelly's, and be just as happy there as at Nether field Road. If I could get a good offer for my house I should not mind selling it. If we went to a small house we should not need to keep up any appearance beyond our means. If forced to sell my house at present I will get James to buy it and live in it till he gets a good tenant, as it would need to be sold a bargain if sold just now, and he might as well have the benefit of the bargain. How ever, I will know more about all this when I have seen John. LETTERS BETWEEN HUSBAND AND WIFE. 309 Meanwhile God bless, protect, and comfort you and our dear chil dren, and may he give us the means of giving them a good educa tion and provide us with food convenient for us. Let us walk meekly and humbly before God, and endeavor to think and speak of our neighbors as well as possible, knowing the wickedness of our own evil hearts, and of the need of forgiveness which we have. " I am rejoiced to hear that John Walter and Charlotte are doing so well with their lessons. I shall write to you again from Paris. " Ever your own deeply-attached husband, " William Wood." The following letter is addressed to me, care of John Dennistoun, Esq., M. P., London : "Liverpool, Sunday, March 6, 1842. — Nine o'clock. " My Beloved William : "I have all your delightful letters since you left Trieste, and your last from Lyons. Now, you never told me where I was to write to you after Lyons, or whether I was to write to you at all. So I have never written, save the letter you got at Lyons. This morn ing it occurred to me that perhaps I ought to have written ' Poste Restante, Paris,' and that you would be disappointed. Blessed Will, I trust not, for I could have written you every day and all day long. I now write to say that we are all well, and that Uncle Alick says : ' If you choose you could be home well enough on Monday morning.' So, knowing you do choose, I expect you here about Monday evening or Tuesday morning, and if I do not hear from you to the contrary, I shall send Busby's nice coach and John Walter in it (if it be neither too late in the evening or too early in the morning) to the railway to meet you upon the day which you fix to be in Liverpool. If you don't fix a day I had better, I suppose, let you get a coach at the railway. Uncle A. will be here, which is an awful bore, but as he never gets off the sofa to see Mrs. Humphresy, Mellor, or any lady who calls, neither Kelly nor Blackburn, he won't get up to see you ; so I shall have a fire in our bedroom, meet you downstairs, and, after you have said ' How d'ye do ? ' to the governor, conduct you upstairs to our bed room. Oh, bless you, bless you, Will ! Ten thousand welcomes to your native land ! I hope to hear from you to-day from Paris. 3IO AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. Again Heaven bless you with health and all virtuous, Christian happiness, with thy wife and thy good little olive branches. Harrie has just brought her love in a piece of paper for me to send to dear papa. Love to Fanny [Mrs. John D.]. Did she get my note ? Put me in mind when you come home to show you John and Jane Hone's miniatures, which must go home by Captain De Peyster on the 13th, as Maria's word is pledged to that effect. " Thine fondly, " H. A. W." " Hotel Londres, Place Vend6me, "Paris, March 3, 1842. " My Darling Harriet : " My last to you was written from Lyons, Monday, February 28. After sending off my letter I walked about the town with Mr. J. Gautier, and went to a shop where they were weaving the most magnificent patterns in silk and gold and various colored silks I ever saw in my life. There were three men at work at three separate looms. The back of the pattern is turned toward the workman. One piece was for the Duke of Orleans, and the other, I believe, for church vestments. " A little before five Mr. Gautier came to the hotel for me and we went in an omnibus to his house. The people in Lyons live in flats ; the common stairs are dirty, but the houses themselves, inside, very comfortable. Mr. J. Gautier pays for his flat ^120 per annum, which appears dear as it is au troisieme ; it, however, commands a fine view of the Saone. At dinner were Mrs. Gautier, a lady friend, and Gautier's married sister, with her husband, and a little black- eyed daughter called Naomie, about my sweet Bessie's age. It put me in mind of you and me in the days of other years, before we had got into the furnace of affliction which we now are in. At first I could hardly speak or eat my dinner for thinking of our changed and melancholy prospects, but afterward I got better ; talked away at French pretty well. I was surprised how well I got on. After dinner a number of gentlemen came in to spend the evening ; some went into the billiard-room to play billiards and smoke ; others remained with the ladies to play cards. The rest of the ladies sat all industriously sewing at a black or dark gingham dress they were making pour les sauvages de Nouvelle Hollande — that is, to send out LETTERS BETWEEN HUSBAND AND WIFE. 311 to the Roman Catholic missionaries. About ten o'clock a brother of Mr. Gautier walked home with me to the hdtel. Next morning I awoke early, read my Bible and Jay in bed, but 'fainted much because of the way.' After fervent prayer, however, I felt that it was good for me to be afflicted, and I found relief in a flood of tears. After breakfast I went to Gautier's to see if there were any letters, but found none. I then sallied out by myself and ascended a high cliff on the opposite side of the Saone from Lyons, on the top of which is an observatory from which the town and the two rivers are seen at your feet like a map. In the distance you see the high Alps, and towering above all Mont Blanc. I had a fair view of it. There were an English lady and gentleman up when I was there, apparently newly married. Having paid my bill at the hdtel, and got a cold chicken put up in a basket, with a bottle of wine for my provision in the malle-poste, I started by that conveyance at 3 p. m. It is like an immense mail-coach ; carries four inside (though on the other routes only three), and none outside but the con- ducteur. It is so large and roomy that it is extremely comfortable ; goes with five horses throughout, and very fast. We pass through Chalons-sur-Saone, Auxerre, etc., etc. At the latter place we dined yesterday, and stopped half an hour. The only other place we stopped at, and that only for five minutes to get a cup of coffee, was Arnay-le-duc. We arrived here (Paris) this morning in exactly thirty-nine hours from Lyons, having traveled two entire nights and a day and a half ; my legs were swelled like bedposts, but not the least painful. It was so early when I arrived here that they were for not giving me a room, until I went to Mme. le Marechal to explain who I was. I have a room on the floor above where we were. The chambermaid is the same, and one of the waiters asked after you and the Kips, but he is not the one I recollect. When I drove into the Place Venddme in the gray of the morning, how different I felt from what I did when I left it last time with you, my darling, and my five happy, healthy children ; then I was well off and with good prospects ; now I am a beggar and my prospects blighted, I fear, for life. But I am constrained to say ' the Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away ; blessed be the name of the Lord.' " I had a sore time of it in the malle-poste the afternoon I left Lyons, and part of yesterday, brooding over my misfortunes. I 312 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. thought I should have gone distracted ; fortunately, I had my Bible in my pocket, and my ardent prayers for a contented mind and cheerful disposition were granted for a time. Dear, dear Harriet, I almost dread coming home. How different our prospects now and when I left you ! but it is, at least, one consolation that I have not to blame myself for this misfortune of Shiras ; to me it has come direct from the hand of God, and as it has so come, oh ! may he grant us patience and resignation under our trials, and my blessed, blessed children, too, that they should have to eat the bitter bread of dependence, and perhaps not even get that greatest of earthly blessings after good health — a good education. I have had serious thought of emigrating, but then I suppose my uncles would not le^ me until I have worked off my debt to them. I suppose even with six or seven years' hard work and good business I may not be able to get clear of my debt to them, and with a bad business God knows if ever I can pay it. It is not only, you see, that I have lost my fortune, but I have lost, I fear, much more, and thus must be deep in debt beside ; so that it is perhaps not so unnatural in Uncle Alick wanting to put us on the shortest allowance possible. The future seems dark and gloomy certainly, but still I feel on calm reflection that that God whom we serve is able to deliver us out of this Philistine of, a trial. What I dread most is your health and spirits sinking under the hard work and many trials you will need to go through ; but ' God tempers the wind to the shorn lamb,' and will, I trust, strengthen you in body and in mind and spare you to me. You must get some information from Mr. Kelly as to their expenses, the rent of their house, number of rooms, etc. I dare say we shall manage to get along. Of course, our present house can't be sold till we get a purchaser at a fair price, and until we do we can live in it, and by shutting up all the rooms but those actually in use, we might manage with two servants and occasional help from a charwoman. I could clean my own shoes and John Walter's, and also the dear little girls' — in fact, that is a thing I have rather a fancy for. I would keep the brushes and blacking-pot in the bathroom, and retire there to take my amusement in this way. I dare say, after all, were we once fairly come down to the necessary level, we should just be as happy as on a higher one, provided we had food, raiment, and edu cation, and I saw some chance of getting out of my old debt. I LETTERS BETWEEN HUSBAND AND WIFE. 313 have just been reading the 34th Psalm ; how comforting it is to know that the Lord and his promises are the same yesterday, to-day, and forever, that not one word of them shall fail. We are poor, weak, changeable, but he says 'I am the Lord, I change not, therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.' " I have been at Rougemont's house, but have got no letter from you ; it was in my head that I asked you to write to me at Paris, but I have forgotten. James has not yet arrived and the hotel, though a good quiet family one, is rather triste when one is alone. I wish I had gone to Meurice's. I have taken my place by the diligence which leaves here on Saturday at 3 p. M., and reaches Calais on Sunday at 5 p. m., but we do not get across to Dover till next day, so I don't know when I shall reach London. I wish, my darling, you would write me a few lines care of John D., to let me know how you are and the dear Kips. Keep up your spirits and put your trust and confidence in God, who will surely do us good. I may be kept a day or so in London, as I wish to see John, and to see also Mr. Edlmann. I could not have left here before to-morrow at soonest, as I need at least one night's sleep. " This place makes me dull, seeing all the places again I was so innocently happy seeing with you only six months ago. I now feel that to clasp you and my dear children to my heart of hearts would do me a deal of good. God bless you and them. " Your own " Wm. W. " P. S. — My reason for staying here till Saturday instead of start ing to-morrow, is to see a little more of James, if he comes, as I hope he will. God forever bless you, dear, dear Harriet, and spare you as a helpmeet for me. "Wm. W." "Liverpool, Monday, March '7, 1842. — 10 p. m. " My Beloved Will : " Charlotte Heyworth dined and spent the evening here. Uncle Alick went to Seaforth. " So you will not be here to-day ! but you have traveled hard, harder than you ought to have done, and suffered much, you darling fellow. Oh ! how much I have felt each pain and each ache, but I 314 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. trust that the shower-bath and quiet will restore you. I am dis tressed that I should have been the cause of so much sorrow to you by telling you of Uncle Alick's determination ; perhaps I had better have waited till I got you beside me, but I thought you had better know, that you might be prepared to act and also to speak to John on the subject. You take, my darling, far too gloomy a view of the subject of our come down, and as for your turning shoeblack ! there will be no necessity for that. All we shall wish you to do is to work for us at the office, be contented with a good plainly-cooked, wholesome dinner, served without much parade — a doting wife sitting close to you and sharing ' your morsel ' (as McGregor would say) with you, and God's richest blessing upon it, which he has promised to give to all who call upon him. Have you read the fifteenth of John to-day ? and have you forgotten what God, ' our Father,' is doing with us ? I am sure he has made it known to us and not concealed the thing — for he calls us 'friends and not servants, for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth.' And what is he now doing with us ? ' Every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it that it may bring forth more fruit.' ' I am the vine, ye are the branches, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine, no more can ye except ye abide in me.' ' Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit so shall ye be my disciples.' Now darling, God has not cut us down as cumberers of the ground, but he has commanded the husbandman to dig about us and enrich us ! Not that he may after cut us down, but that we may bear much fruit — for he has promised that we shall bear fruit, for we have the earnest of the Spirit that we are his, chosen members of the body of which he is the head. You have and will yet have a comfortable but small house — he had none — dear children that look up to you with happy faces and fond affection, and who instead of being clogs to you, if spared, will be, I trust, your greatest riches — helpers not hindrances. He had none, but was alone in the world. You have a helpmeet to share your sorrows, and sympathize and help you with her hands and her head. He had none. Oh ! darling Will, labor not for the meat that perisheth, but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all things needful shall be added unto you, for your Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. ' Blessed is he ' (as dear Charlotte said to me, with tears in LETTERS BETWEEN HUSBAND AND WIFE. 315 her eyes, when I read one of your letters to her) ' who hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God.' Yes, Will, my heart responds : 'Blessed is the man that trusteth in him.' As for my working, never fear for me ; if God send me work he will send me strength to do it, for he knows what I need as well as you do, and although you are my husband and love me tenderly, thanks be to Jesus the Saviour, God is my Father, and he who sent his Son to die for me, ' shall he not with him freely give us all things ?' " You think perhaps Robert Dennistoun is better off than John Walter because Uncle Alick is his father, and he is rich ! Oh ! Will, Will, where is your faith ? Now is your time to show your faith by your work, your cheerful submission, that your prayer may be an swered, ' that men may take knowledge of you that you belong to Christ.' Don't let it seem by your pale, distressed looks that you care more for the things of this life than for the glorious things of a life without end. Two servants will do our work finely. Mary Crowe will be nurse and housemaid, and the cook, cook and waiter, and when was I happier than all this winter when I had plenty to do ; that is, setting aside your absence. Health follows industry, and the . bread that we make is sweet, and a good conscience brings peace and confidence toward God. The Bible, which must be our guide, says not only to the poor, but the rich : ' Labor with your hands, working that which is good that you may have to give to him that needeth ; ' also, ' Work while it is day ; the night cometh when no man can work,' ' Redeeming the time,' etc. " When you come home, say : ' How d'ye do, Anne ? ' to Anne, and ' How d'ye do, Jane ? ' to Jane, for a little courtesy from master to servant goes a great way, and they have shown great interest and attachment, and behaved well. Jane is worth her weight in gold. " Uncle Alick told Mrs. Young he was going to wind up the busi ness, and go out of it, and he told me that he thought someone would have to go to New Orleans, and someone back again to Trieste. He was vexed that you waited at Paris, and also that you came by Dover instead of Southampton and Havre. I said you were ill. He is like a chained bull. I expect you now on Wednes day. May Heaven's choicest blessings rest on thy head, my loved one, and all who are dear to us, one of the greatest of which is 316 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. sanctified affection and contentment. The heart can make its own heaven or hell. All of us well. " I got your letter from Place Venddme, Paris, last evening. Love to Fannie and John. Everybody in church after sacrament gath ered round me to inquire most kindly after you, Mr. Kelly, Mr. Blackburn, Mr. King, Sam Blackburn, Robertson, and Mrs. King. " Thine own "H. A. W." CHAPTER XXVI. END OF THE JOURNEY HOME — CHARLOTTE HEYWORTH'S DEATH — MRS. WALTER WOOD'S DEATH — MINUTES EXTRACTED FROM BOOKS OF J. & A. DENNISTOUN — THE MEANEST RECOGNITION OF GREAT SERVICES. "Paris, Thursday, March 3, 1842. " My Darling, Sweet Wife : " After dispatching my letter to you to-day, I strolled along the boulevards, and was much surprised to see them extremely crowded with carriages, and people on foot, and vans and carts full of people in masks and queer dresses, just like the carnival. On in quiry I found it was called mi-carime. I walked along looking at the foolery, sometimes amused, then melancholy, then praying, then singing to myself : ' ' ' Oh ! who could bear life's stormy doom, Did not thy wing of love Come brightly wafting through the gloom, A peace branch from above ? ' and this text also came into my mind, but I cannot recollect where it is : ' My brethren count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations, for tribulation worketh patience, and patience experi ence and experience hope, and hope maketh not ashamed.' Look into the concordance, and see if there be such a text. I have also just noticed this text marked by you, Hebrews, xiii. 5 ; ' Let your conversation,' etc. Good for my meditation at the present. Also another comforting verse likewise marked by your dear hand, James v. 11 ; ' Behold, we count them,' etc. It is queer that all the texts that you have marked are so comforting and so suited to me, that I have sometimes thought that you had selected them on purpose for me. " After strolling along the boulevards till I was tired, I went into the Restaurant de Cardinal Richelieu, corner of the Boulevard and Rue de Richelieu, and there dined on soup, bouillon, and pdte de 318 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. fois gras, with half a bottle of M£doc, for which I paid five francs, which amount I would have paid for dinner alone here. After dinner I walked to Cafe' Lambleu, Palais Royal, and had a cup of coffee ; then home by the Tuileries and Rue de Rivoli, ascended to my bedroom, which is auquatrieme, desperately high up ; the window is one of those garret ones which, you may recollect, form conspicu ous objects in the houses of the Place Venddme. It was horridly cold and miserable this forenoon, so I got a fire this evening, and feel much more comfortable. I gave my things out to be washed to-day to your old friend the blanchisseuse, and made out my list in French famously. If I had not met Phipps at Trieste, and so had someone to speak English to, I should have been able to speak tolerably, or, at least, ^tolerably, French and Italian. I have intended to get a night-cap for myself every day since I left home, and have only got one to-day, having often had to use a handkerchief instead. I see Mmes. Laure and Pauline still occupy their old shops. I felt more reconciled to our loss of fortune to-night from an odd reflection, which was, that before I got you I often said if I could only have you for a wife, I did not mind if I broke stones on the road all my life ; this was sincerely my feeling, and would be again if I hadn't you. Now, even three hundred pounds a year and one servant are a good deal better than breaking even the softest of stones, besides, we have had eleven and a half years, you may say, of living in clover, and may have again, if God sees fit to give it us, as I sincerely hope he will — that is, if it be not against our spiritual welfare. Again, when we were married I thought three hundred pounds a year was the acme of felicity ; to be sure, Glasgow is cheaper than Liverpool, and we had no children, but don't let us forget the breaking stones. I have been pondering what makes me feel the loss of fortune so much, and, on examination, most of the reasons are traceable to pride of one sort or another, and a desire to keep up appearances. What would you think of our going into furnished lodgings, if we could get them reasonable and in a good situation ? By doing so, however, we would need to sell our furni ture. Now, I thought of keeping as much as would furnish a forty- pound-a-year-rent house comfortably — one or two bedrooms for all, a dining room and parlor, or schoolroom and nursery and kitchen. You can ponder this. I don't see how we can well do with less than END OF JOURNEY HOME. 319 two servants, if I am to do any work at the office. I hope you and the children have been well fed and are comfortable to-night at least, because I am. I am now going to read Galignani a little, and then to bed. Good-night. God bless you, dear one, and give us both that peace and joy in believing which the world can neither give nor take away, and oh, may he give us and our dear children an inherit ance among the saints. " Wm. W. " March 4. I have had a capital refreshing sleep, and feel much better this morning. I went out and breakfasted at a zaie in the neighborhood, corner of Rue de Rivoli, on chocolate and blanquette of veal. After coming home, went to Rougemont's * and explained all about our affairs at Trieste, Which I was glad I had an oppor tunity of doing, as it was evident they had been misrepresented to them, and they may have thought we had acted with rather sharp practice in the matter of the bills. They knew all about my threat ened detention by the police, etc. I got there a letter from James, saying he would be here to-day, and, on going to the hotel, I found he had arrived. He looks well, but thin. He thinks I am looking well. God bless you and my sweet children, and protect you and me and them, and unite us again in health and happiness. The morning was wet and gloomy, but the day is turning out fine, so, after James has had his breakfast, we shall take a walk together. Again, God bless you and my dear children. I hope my next to you will be from London. " Recollect the money settled on you and the policies of insurance settled on you (for about three hundred pounds of the four hundred) are your own, and not liable for my debts. I tell you this in case of my being drowned between Calais and Dover, or any accident hap pening to me, which God forbid ! " Ever your own attached husband, "Wm. W." " 32 Grosvenor Place, London, "Tuesday, March 8, 1842. " My Darling Harriet : " I have received here your welcome letters of Sunday and yesterday, and thank God you are all well. I have had a long * Rougemont de Lowenburg, our Paris banker. 320 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. talk with John, who has been most kind, and who says I must not mind Uncle Alick or say anything to him ; that we need not sell the house, etc.; that he is going down soon to Glasgow to meet Uncle A. and Cross and me to have a regular talk over all matters and things regarding the future management of the business, which must be conducted very differently from what it has hitherto been. John is going to take a much greater share in the man agement of it, and allow nothing to be done without his sanction, which is very satisfactory. I find also that the loss on the year's business will be less than I had anticipated, and so I am sure we have great reason to thank God for his mercies. John says I may need to go to New Orleans for a time, and, if so, I will take you and the three youngest, and leave J. Walter and Charlotte boarded either in Liverpool or in New York ; however, that can be thought of afterward. Of course, if I went, it would not be till next winter. Say nothing to Uncle Alick or to Maria or Charlotte about this. " I rejoice, my darling Harriet, to be able to say that before com ing here this morning God had given me great peace and joy in believing. I had made up my mind to submit patiently with meek ness to whatever he had in store for me. " I left Paris at 3.30 p. m. on Saturday in the coup6 of the dili gence alone. Arrived at Beauvais at eleven, where the landlady recollected me. Had some soup there, and two passengers in the coup6 to the next stage. Then they left, and I fell asleep till seven in the morning, when we arrived at Abbeville. We dined at Mon- treuil and arrived at Boulogne at 3.30. A beautiful afternoon, and really it looked quite gay. I arrived at Calais at 8 p. m., got chocolate, and so to bed ; slept well till 3.30 a. m. Sailed in steamer at 6 and arrived 8.45 at Dover. Sea like glass. Had a capital breakfast at the Ship Hotel, which I enjoyed much. Started at 10 a. m. on the outside of the coach for London, and arrived at Morley's Hotel at 8 p. m. ; got tea and went to bed and slept well. On Sunday and yesterday I had much inward communing with myself and prayer to God, and I know that my prayers have been heard and answered. ' What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me ? ' I have got to call on Mr. Edlmann in the city, and am going to dine with John and go to the House of Com mons in the evening, and I intend to leave here by 8.45 train to-mor- CHARLOTTE HEYWORTH'S DEATH. 32 1 row morning, and will reach Liverpool between six and seven at night. I could leave to-night and reach you to-morrow morning, but I prefer arriving in the evening, and I really have had quite enough of night traveling lately. Don't be angry at my not coming twelve hours sooner. I have reasons for staying till to-morrow morning. Don't send Busby's car. I will get one at the railway. God bless and protect you and my dear children, and unite us again in health and happiness. " Ever your own attached husband, "William Wood." I must have arrived at home (No. 1 Netherfield Road, South), Everton, on the evening of March 9, 1842. I found Harriet and all the children well, but, strange to say, I have little or no recollec tion of what passed between that date and April 1. Poor Charlotte Heyworth was in very bad health and spirits, her husband absent in India, and his father and mother, particularly the latter, very unkind to her because she never had a living child. My sympathy for her was very great, and Harriet and I were constantly looking after her at her own house, about half a mile from ours in what was then a country road called Brech Lane. The following letter from Harriet to her sisters gives an account of " the last sad scene of all," poor Charlotte's sufferings : " Per Great Western steamers from Bristol to New York. " Everton, April 1, 1842. " My Dearest Sisters : " I wrote you that our poor Charlotte was ill, with all her bad symptoms increasing. On Saturday last Mr. Blackburn prescribed leeches to the temples, but without any good result, and I spent all day Sunday with her singing hymns and having great, great peace and joy in believing. She seemed to think then her last time of trial had come. I will enter more fully into all these things when I feel fitter for it, but at present I may only say that her sufferings were much less than she had in many a former illness ; that her faith was triumphant — stronger in the free, full, and unmerited mercy of Christ Jesus ; her heart overflowed with love and tenderness to all. She bore her pain with the utmost gentleness and patience, and died without a struggle or groan at half-past eight this morning in the 322 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. presence of none but her two dearest friends,* — William and me, — per fectly conscious to the last, and fully aware of the great comfort of having those she loved so much constantly watching near her. I did to her all she would have done for me, I think and hope ; standing by and assisting to dress and arrange all that is considered necessary to be done after death for the poor, lifeless body. None came near to disturb her at her last, but Mr. and Mrs. Heyworth for one minute when life was nearly gone, to take leave. Eliza was with me nearly all the time toward the last, and was a great comfort, also my pre cious William in reading and praying with us. Her face all day yes terday asserted with smiles of joy to all the blessed truths and promises of Scripture. She said : ' If I go I shall be forever happy ; if I stay the future looks so black I dare not think of it.' But she longed for one look of dear Lawrence. She was conscious to the last, and happier in the prospect of death than I have seen her for months. Ellen and Jane were most patient, tender, cheer ful nurses, and I may truly say God was with us. I shall write fully and send you some of her hair by my next, but I am now worn out in body and in mind, and have scarcely strength left to hold my pen. Her looks are placid as an infant's, and she looks fairer and lovelier than I have seen her for many weeks past, when her countenance has been drawn with pain, so that I have not the slightest fear nor horror at approaching her dead body, but have sat alone on the bedside with her, with my arm around her, as in life. Her disease was paralysis of the right side, with dropsy also in the spine [?]. So you see the paralysis was gradually spreading, but left, thank God, the intellect clear. " Ever, my own precious Maria, your devoted " H. " Let all my beloved sisters read this scrawl. Eliza would have written and William would have written, but I thought, as I shared her every thought and knew her whole mind, you would rather I should write, however incoherently. William, besides, is nearly as prostrate as I am with our sleepless, watching night. Mr. Heyworth has just been in and begs to be remembered. " Thine, " H." I have looked in vain for any of Harriet's letters or my own respecting the remainder of 1842, and so I must now for some time trust entirely to my memory. MRS. WALTER WOOD'S DEATH. 323 I presume that it was thought after my Trieste journey, etc., that I was entitled to a vacation in the summer of 1842, and so Har riet and I and the children went to Elie, Fifeshire, some time in June. How we went I can't distinctly recollect, but I think we went by stage coach or railway, probably the latter, to Edinburgh, and thence across the Frith of Forth to Pettycur and so by coach to Elie ; but strange to say, I have not the slightest recollection of our route. We must have stayed a week or two at Elie, and I have a very vivid recollection of a walk Harriet and I took to and from Lady Anstruther's bathing house. Harriet was looking beautiful and graceful, and I recollect the wind blew in our faces as we returned and gave her a lovely color as she tripped along : " E'en the slight harebell raised its head Elastic from her airy tread." Aunt Ann was still alive then, and a famous housekeeper and attended to all our creature comforts, and Aunt Helen was devot edly attached to Harriet, then and always. During this summer we heard of the death of Mrs. P. L. Mills, [ne'e Caroline Kane], a lively and lovable black-eyed beauty, Har riet's third sister ; both sisters were much attached to each other. After visiting my aunts at Elie, we went to Helensburgh, Dum bartonshire, about three miles from my Aunt Walter's. We stayed at the Baths' Inn, kept by the widow of the first steamboat nav igator upon the Clyde. Aunt Walter had wished us to come to Lagarie, her beautiful villa, at the mouth of the Gareloch, but Uncle Alick and his wife and family preceded us, and found their quarters so pleasant that they remained longer than they had in tended, and so we continued at the Baths' Inn for a while. My impression is, that after they left, we went to Lagarie, and found my aunt confined to bed. One morning she sent for me to her room, and said she heard that I had lost a great deal of money at Trieste, and that she wanted to alter her will in my favor, and wished Mr. Middleton and some of her other trustees to be sent for. I told her not to bother herself about the matter then, but to wait until she was up and well. I left her apparently convalescing and went up to attend to some business at the Glasgow office, and when I returned in the evening Harriet met me at the door, and told me that my aunt 324 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. was dead. We remained for the funeral, and John and I decided to have my Uncle Walter's body taken from the cathedral at Glasgow and brought down to Lagarie, and buried side by side with his wife. Mr. Wm. Barken, who had married a niece of my grandfather, and was a Glasgow baillie (alderman) attended to the disinterment and forwarding of my uncle's body, and I recollect John and I climbed up a cliff commanding a view of the road from Glasgow to Helens burgh, and watched the approaching hearse with my uncle's remains ; it was a lovely summer day, the loch like glass. This is all I recollect about the funeral. How long we remained at Lagarie or the Baths' Inn I don't recollect ; it might have been till the end of September, because I fancy that on or before September 23, there was a meeting of the partners of J. & A. Dennistoun, at which the fol lowing document in reference to my intromission with the Trieste affairs was resolved upon, and a copy in Wm. Cross' handwriting sent to me. The idea of my partners was, that it was my duty as a partner to do all I could for the benefit of the concern, and that therefore, while my promptitude and good management were acknowledged, yet I was only doing my duty as a partner, but that certain information which I had obtained from L. Heyworth could only have been obtained by me, that that information enabled me to get possession of certain specific assets which no other partner could have done, but besides, that they admit that but for the sus picions I excited, their loss by Shiras would probably have been forty-two thousand pounds greater. The letter or document is as follows : " Wm. Wood's account with J. & A. D. : At his debit on June 30, 1842, .... ,£7,423 is. 6d. Assets as under : House in Liverpool, ..... ^2,100 At credit in A. D. & Co.'s Books, . . 1,200 Share of Sugar Estate and Accumulations, . . 1,000 Share in Clyde Co., .... 1,200 Share of undivided money at credit of J. W. Execu tors and old Company, .... 300 Share of Villafield, .... 300 Policy in Sun Assurance Co., . . 1,000 Policy in Scottish Amicable, . 1,000 £8,100 os. od. MINUTES FROM BOOKS OF J. & A. DENNISTOUN. 325 " In reference to the debit at W. Wood's account of ,£7423, we have to remark that this arises entirely from his share in the loss occasioned by A. Shiras at Trieste, against trusting whom W. Wood repeatedly protested, particularly in letters written by A. D. & Co. (Wm. W. being acting manager of said firm) to J. & A. D., dated December 30, 1840 ; January 2, 9, 12, 13, and 27, 1841 ; February 5, 8, 9, 10, and 13, and 16 ; March 3, 5, 6, 7 ; April 20 and 29 ; May 8; June 5 and 9 ; November 23 and 25 ; and December 3, 1841 ; and also a letter January 21, 1841, to W. Cross, extracts from all of which are annexed. It is highly probable that but for the suspicion excited by these letters Shiras' indebtedness to us would have been increased by .£42,000 beyond its present amount. Besides what Wm. Wood saved at Trieste, of cotton, our own property, say £15,300, he also got from Shiras the following assets : Coffee, • . . . . . . £5,400 Manufactures, ...... 1,400 Cash, ...... 50 Bill on Foulds, ...... 250 Ninety Bales Cotton, .... 750 Two Bills from Rutherford, .... 475 £8,325 And as above ..... 15,300 £23,625 in all. " The cotton would probably have been saved by any partner who had started for Trieste, and traveled as expeditiously, but the latter items, amounting in all to £8325, could only have been obtained by Wm. Wood from his knowledge of Shiras' transactions and property communicated to him by L. Heyworth, and these assets were retained owing to the precaution which he took in getting leases and taking possession of the keys of warehouses where the goods were, and having the property transferred to him with all the legal formalities. These precautions he took from his distrust of Shiras' honesty, and it is hereby acknowledged that but for these exertions and pre cautions said property, amounting to £8325, would not have been saved, and therefore as the recovery of this portion of the debt is owing to Mr. Wood's individual exertion, the partners of this con cern in settling with him or his heirs (should he not live to liquidate 326 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. the balance against him) will bear in mind the circumstances now detailed, and will deal with him or his heirs in a spirit in con formity with the services which he has rendered. [Signed] "J. & A. Dennistoun." " The above extracted from private minute book of the company, September 23, 1842, by Wm. Cross." The idea of my partners was that it was my duty as a partner to do all that I did, and that for performing that duty as effectually as I did I was entitled to their thanks, but that these thanks were especially due to me for saving the £8325, because none of the partners could have got the necessary information from the source from which I obtained it, but myself. The fact is, I really saved the house, by refusing to reissue the bills heretofore referred to First ....... £19,000 o o Second, Assets as per statement, . . . 23,625 o o £42,625 o o And none of the other partners did it, or attempted to do it ; but as Uncle Alick and Cross trusted Alexander Shiras till they got my letter of December 30, 1841, while my Uncle John and I had . long distrusted him, I think the above minute of September 23, 1842, was not in my opinion as comprehensive as it ought to have been. There are two things worthy of note as respects the foregoing minute. My share in the Clyde Company is valued at £1200. About 1845, I got £150 dividend from the Clyde Company. I had up to 1842 paid up £1500 for said share. After 1845 I0r many years I got £1000 a year from the Clyde Company, and finally in 1857, after the discovery of gold in Australia, we sold out the sheep farm called the Clyde Company and my share of the proceeds came to £"16,500 sterling. The second thing is that while the minute speaks of my not living to liquidate the debt, here am I, June 30, 1890, alive and well, while my partners Alexander Dennistoun, John Dennistoun, William Cross, Murray Thomson, Wm. C. Mylne, and William Crawford are all dead years ago. CHAPTER XXVI. LAST HAPPY DAYS IN LIVERPOOL. At the meeting of the partners in Glasgow about September 23, 1842, I think Uncle Alick first spoke about my going out to New Orleans to look after the partners there, William C. Mylne (a son of Professor Mylne of the University of Glasgow) and Murray Thomson, a brother-in-law of Uncle Alick, and to investigate the state of the business there generally. I said I would go if my expenses were paid, including those of my wife and children, as I wished to take my wife via New York to see her sisters and relatives. To this Uncle Alick replied, that he would go himself without either wife or children, and take Mr. William Crawford, then senior clerk in the Glasgow office, with him as his private secretary. Accordingly in November, 1842, if my memory serve me, he and Crawford sailed for New York in a steamer starting from South ampton, but calling at Plymouth for the mails. About a week or so after he had sailed from Southampton Uncle Alick very unex pectedly came to my house at Everton, saying : " I was dreadfully seasick, so when I got to Plymouth ' I turned tail, ' and here I am. I have sent Mr.Crawford on to New Orleans to look into the accounts," etc., etc. Well, when Crawford came to New Orleans, being then only a clerk, the two partners treated him cavalierly, and would not allow him to have any say in the business, and in due time he came " boot less home, and weatherbeaten back." So, in 1843, it was deter mined that in 1844, I should take my wife and family to New York and establish a house there, and that after doing so I should go to New Orleans and make a thorough investigation of affairs there. But before this programme was carried out many things happened, which I now proceed to narrate, as correctly as my memory and various documents in my possession will enable me to do. Paudia T. Ralli, a Greek merchant, with houses in Trieste, Lon don, and elsewhere, began»a suit against us (Alexander Dennistoun & Co. of Liverpool) in the English courts to recover from us nineteen 328 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. thousand pounds, the amount of the second seconds of the bills of exchange on us, which Shiras had sold to him, after destroying the original seconds of the bills for nineteen thousand pounds which had f been endorsed to Foulds & Foulds Oppenheim. Foulds & Foulds Oppenheim refused to negotiate them, whereupon Shiras wrote to us to withdraw the firsts which we had accepted from Glyn & Co., to whom he also wrote desiring them to return said firsts to us (A. D. & Co.), and we received said firsts from Glyn & Co. by the same post by which we received Shiras' order to withdraw them, so that we took no action in the matter. The seconds, there fore, held by Paudia T. Ralli, were not the genuine seconds of the bills we had accepted and withdrawn, and this important informa tion I got from Rutherford, Shiras' clerk, when in Trieste. Our Liverpool lawyers, Radcliffe & Duncan, said it would be of the greatest consequence for us to secure the services of the leading barrister of the day, Sir William Follet, and they immediately wrote to their London agents to give him the retaining fee of five guineas. Judge of our astonishment when the London agents wrote back to state that Sir William Follet had already been retained for Dennistoun & Co. On further inquiry we found that the law yers Olivierson, Denby & Lavie, whom John Dennistoun and I had consulted in London, December 23, 1841, on my way to Trieste, were Paudia T. Ralli's lawyers, and they got confused, and fancied they were acting for Dennistoun 6° Co., instead of against them, in the Trieste case, and retained Sir William for Dennistoun &° Co., and by the etiquette of the bar, he could not go back upon his retainer, so we had his important services on our side. No case like this had ever been tried in Westminster Hall before, and we won it, and Paudia T. Ralli lost his nineteen thousand pounds, unless he got something from Shiras, which I doubt. I have no recollection of" how I spent the latter part of 1842, and no letters passed between Harriet and me, as we were both at home in our Everton house, about moving from and selling. which we heard no more. The times were bad and business dull, and I was deeply interested in bringing about a repeal of the odious Corn Laws. I was one of the vice-presidents of the Liverpool Anti- Monopoly Association. We held frequent meetings in the Music Hall at Liverpool, at which I often spoke, but have no newspaper LAST HAPPY DAYS IN LIVERPOOL. 329 reports of them for 1842. At that time the Chartists were in deadly opposition to us Corn Law Repealers, and often tried to break up our meetings ; their contention was that Parliament ought first to grant them the five points of the charter, viz : universal suf frage, vote by ballot, triennial Parliaments, paid representatives, and something else, which I forget. We Repealers insisted first on replenishing the commissariat, and then waging war for the other matters afterward. After a while the Chartists joined with us. I find in a scrap book of mine a slip from a Liverpool news paper of January 27, 1843, giving a report of one of those meetings. At it there was read a letter from my brother James giving a sub scription of fifty pounds toward the good cause ; and then there is a full report of a speech I made on the occasion, which I now insert. LIVERPOOL ANTI-MONOPOLY ASSOCIATION — ANNUAL MEETING. " Never do we remember seeing the Music Hall so crowded as it was on Wednesday evening last, on the occasion of the first annual meeting of the Liverpool Anti-Monopoly Association. Every corner of the spacious room was crammed, and during the whole of the proceedings the greatest unanimity and enthusiasm prevailed. Shortly after seven o'clock, the chair was taken by Thomas Thornely, Esq., M. P., who was received with loud cheering. Among those on the platform we observed the following gentlemen : " Colonel Williams. Messrs. William Rathbone, William Wood, James Mellor, Richard Sheil, Charles Holland, Robert Mather, R. V. Yates, S. T. Hobson, John D. Thornely, William Thornhill, Daniel Mather, R. W. Ronald, G. G. Unsworth, Charles Robertson, Lawrence Heyworth, C. E. Rawlins, Thomas Blackburn, John H. Greene, Francis Boult, Jr., Isaac B. Cooke, R. L. Holt, Samuel Thornely, John Yates, C. E. Rawlins, Jr., Thomas Blackburn, Jr., Samuel Stitt, John Taylor Crook, Isaac Worthington. " A statement of the finances of the association was then made by J. T. Crook, Esq., one of the treasurers. From this it appeared the total receipts were £911 14s. id., the total expenditure £996 3s. 5d., leaving a balance of £84 9s. 4d. due to the treasurer. Mr. Crook then announced that the Liverpool subscription, in aid of the Great League Fund, amounted to £2000 ; and he had that day 330 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. had the pleasure to transmit £1000 to Manchester. (Cheers.) He announced a subscription of £5 from Mr. George Heyworth, in the room, and stated that he had received a letter from Mr. J. D. Wood, which he would read to the meeting. The following is a copy of the letter : " ' 15 Oldhall Street, Liverpool, January 23, 1843. " ' Sir : I beg to enclose a Bank of England post bill for £50, being my subscription to the National Anti-Corn- Law League Fund. " 'Although not directly interested either in manufactures or trade, I cannot look with indifference on the struggle which is now going on betwixt the great body of the industrious classes of the community, and that section of the aristocracy whose wish and endeavor it is to perpetuate those laws which artificially enhance the price of the first necessaries of life. " ' If the corn laws be maintained I am convinced that the working classes of this country will, ere long, be reduced to a state of uniform pauperism ; and I, therefore, regard the exertions now making for their total repeal as of estimable value and importance. " ' I consider, moreover, that those who are now agitating the public mind on this great question are engaged in a work of charity and benevolence ; and I trust that there are many who, with as little pecuniary interest in the question as I have, are as fully alive to the justice of the cause in which the league is embarked, and as willing to assist in forwarding it. " ' I have the honor to remain, " ' Sir, your most obedient servant, '"James D. Wood.' " Wm. Wood, Esq., said he had great pleasure in moving that the report now read be adopted, printed, and circulated under the di rection of the Council. The last time he addressed them in that room, a year and a half ago, he had advocated the repeal of the sliding scale, and the substitution of a fixed duty of eight shillings. He stated then, that he was not advocating a total repeal of the corn laws, but was willing to take what he could get ; they had got nothing ; and he was now advocating a total repeal of the corn laws. (Loud cheers.) On looking back, the friends of free trade had much rea- LAST HAPPY DAYS IN LIVERPOOL. 33 1 son, he thought, to congratulate themselves on the progress they had made. They had heard the leader of one great party, Sir Robert Peel, advocating the policy of buying in the cheapest market and selling in the dearest. Sir R. Peel did not entertain, at least he did not express, that opinion before the election of 1841. (Hear.) If he had expressed it before that election Sir Robert Peel would not have been Prime Minister of England. (Hear, hear, hear.) Next they had Mr. Fox Maule, heir to an estate of forty thousand pounds a year, stating that he had become a convert to the total and immediate repeal of the corn laws. (Cheers.) Mr. Fox Maule was one of the richest landowners in Scotland, and that was his unbiased opinion. (Hear, hear.) They (the association) advocated total and immediate repeal, because they believed it would benefit all classes of the community ; that it would benefit the laboring classes, and the manufacturing and commercial classes ; that it would benefit the farmers, and they also thought that it would benefit the landlords. True, Lord Mountcashel asked how this could be if rents were not kept up, but supposing the corn laws were not repealed, what would become of the landlords? The commercial and manufacturing classes of this country would be ruined, and the landlords would be ruined along with them. (Hear, hear.) This was no vague predic tion. It was in evidence before the Committee of the House of Commons, that in many districts of Germany, near the old imperial cities, which two or three hundred years ago were great and flour ishing, rents were now only one-tenth of what they were then, and that this fall had taken place entirely in consequence of the decline of manufactures and trade. (Hear, hear.) In the city of Augsburgh, one of the chief of these imperial cities, at one time rents ranged the highest, and it contained some of the finest palaces in Europe ; but these were not palaces now, but hospitals, and inns, and post-houses. (Hear, hear.) In one of them lived, at one time, one of the) greatest barons of the empire, who numbered in his family thirty-seven counts and countesses. In this palace he entertained the emperor, Charles V., and after dinner he took and threw into" a fire of cinna mon wood before the emperor, a bond which had been given to him for the payment of a very large loan to the emperor. This was a very great and noble family, not that of a mere continental baron ; but this family was now almost extinct, and their fine palace had 332 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. become the inn of the Three Moors, at Augsburgh. Now, what could prevent the great aristocratic families of England from being reduced in the same way as those of Augsburgh, if their trade and commerce declined ? (Hear, hear.) They were told that the ad mission of foreign corn would reduce the workmen's wages, and that English workmen ought not to be treated in the same way as work men on the Continent. Now, he had seen a great deal of the workmen on the Continent, and he had generally found them well paid, well fed, and well clothed ; and they had got a great number of holidays, and they seemed to enjoy themselves, and he did believe there was no great class of workmen, taking into account what they did, so ill paid as those of England. (Hear, hear.) He had observed to a friend in France : ' The wages you pay are very moderate.' ' Yes,' said he, ' but they are a parcel of useless beggars ; one English workman would do the work of twelve of them.' (Hear, hear.) Last winter he was obliged to take a long journey through Belgium, Rhenish Prussia, Bavaria, the Lombardo-Venetian territories, and Geneva, and while there he paid great attention to the condition of the working classes. He was accompanied by a gentleman who was totally opposed to him in politics ; he asked him : ' Are not these men better fed, better clothed, and better off, in every respect, than the great mass of English workmen ? ' and he was obliged to admit that they were. (Hear, hear.) In this journey of about two thou sand miles, he (Mr. Wood) had seen far less misery than he had seen in one day's journey from Dover to London, through the fine agri cultural county of Kent. (Loud cries of ' Hear.') It had been asked why the Anti-Monopoly Association directed their chief ex ertions against the corn laws ; why they did not attack the monopoly in sugar. They attacked the corn laws, principally because they were the great monster of iniquity, — the very corner stone of the arch, — and they knew that, if they once got rid of the landlord's gigantic monopoly, all others would follow, for then they would have the landlords as ardent advocates of free trade as they themselves were. (Cheers.) All monopolies were embarked in the same boat with the corn laws, and would that the day were come for their de struction, for then, and not till then, would England regain and deserve the old and endearing title of ' Merry England.' (Loud cheers.) Then LAST HAPPY DAYS IN LIVERPOOL. 333 Legislative fraud shall fail, — Returning justice lift aloft her scale ; {Not the sliding scale, you may be sure.) — (Laughter.) Peace o'er the world her olive wand extend, And white-robed innocence from heaven descend ; Swift fly the days, and rise the expected morn When Parliament shall end the tax on corn.' " Mr. Wood resumed his seat amid loud and continued cheering." Regarding the aforesaid speech, the London Morning Chronicle of January 28, 1842, the representative of the Liberals, and the rival of the Times, printed the following remarks : " Mr. Wood, the gentleman who moved the adoption of the report of the principles and proceedings of the association, compared together the laborers in England and those of the Continent : " ' They were,' he said, ' told that the admission of foreign corn would reduce the workmen's wages, and that English workmen ought not to be treated in the same way as workmen on the Continent. Now, he had seen a great deal of the workmen on the Continent, and he had generally found them well paid, well fed, and well clothed ; they had got a great number of holidays, and they seemed to enjoy themselves, and he did believe that there was no great class of work men, taking into account what they did, so ill paid as those of England (hear, hear). He had observed to a friend in France, " The wages you pay are very moderate." " Yes," said he, " but they are a parcel of useless beggars — one English workman would do the work of twelve of them " (hear, hear). Last winter he was obliged to take a long journey through Belgium, Rhenish Prussia, Bavaria, the Lombardo-Venetian territories, and Geneva, and while there he paid great attention to the condition of the working classes. He was accompanied by a gentleman who was totally opposed to him in politics; he asked him: "Are not these men better fed, better clothed, and better off, in every respect, than the great mass of English workmen ? " and he was obliged to admit that they were (hear). In this journey of about two thousand miles, he (Mr. Wood) had seen far less misery than he had seen in one day's journey from Dover to London, through the fine agricultural county of Kent.' 334 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. " Mr. Wood has here exposed a very common mistake with respect to labor. It is with men as with horses — if you wish to make them work well you must feed them well. Labor, though nominally higher in England than on the Continent, is really cheaper. But with respect to our agricultural laborers, the difference between their wages, in most of the counties, and the wages of continental laborers is very trifling. England is in reality the country of cheap labor. " Wm. Wood, Esq., said he had great pleasure in moving that the report now read be adopted, printed, and circulated, under the direc tion of the council. The friends of free trade had much reason, he thought, to congratulate themselves on the progress they had made. They had heard the leader of one great party, Sir Robert Peel, advocating the policy of buying in the cheapest market, and selling in the dearest. Sir Robert Peel did not entertain — at least, he did not express — that opinion before the election of 1841 (hear, hear). If he had expressed it before that election, Sir Robert Peel would not have been Prime Minister of England (hear, hear). Next they had Mr. Fox Maule, heir to an estate of forty thousand pounds a year, stating that he had become a convert to the total and immediate repeal of the corn laws (cheers). Mr. Fox Maule was one of the richest landowners in Scotland, and that was his unbiased opinion." In the beginning of 1843 Sir Robert Peel, then Prime Minister, through some extraordinary misconception, attempted to construe certain expressions of Richard Cobden, in a speech he had made, into an incitement to his (Peel's) assassination. Times were very bad, and political feeling was running very high, but this was hardly an excuse for a veteran politician like Peel to attribute such a crime to his political opponent. Peel's attempt to blacken Cobden's char acter caused great indignation throughout the country among the Corn Law Repealers and Liberals generally, especially as at the time Cobden was bowed down with grief at the loss of one who was very near and dear to him. A meeting of Free Traders was called in Liverpool for February 27, 1843, to express their sympathy for Mr. Cobden and their resentment against Sir Robert Peel. I made the second speech at the meeting, seconding the motion for the resolution of sympathy, LAST HAPPY DAYS IN LIVERPOOL. 335 and the following is the report in a Liverpool paper of February 28, 1843. " Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen : I rise with much pleasure to second the motion for a vote of thanks to Richard Cobden, Esq., for his uniformly bold and efficient advocacy of free trade principles, more especially during the present session of Parliament. Gentle men, Mr. Cobden, by his energy of character and singleness and honesty of purpose, has won golden opinions from every true lover of his country ; and I consider that the two chief cities of my native country, Edinburgh and Glasgow, have done themselves honor in conferring upon Mr. Cobden the freedom of their cities. (Cheers.) After what might almost be called a triumphal progress through Scotland, the League was deprived of Mr. Cobden's able counsel and assistance and the use of his presence at our great free trade banquet by a heavy domestic calamity which befell him. But, upon the occasion of Lord Howick's motion for an inquiry into the causes of the present distress, I, in common with every friend of free trade, rejoiced to see Mr. Cobden overcoming his private griefs and natu ral sorrows and again standing forth as the unrelenting enemy of monopoly, and, in words of truth and soberness, pointing out the source of all the present evils which overwhelm our country, and the simple but effectual remedy. His speech upon that occasion was so germane to the matter, so terse, so pointed, and so undeniably true were his statements, that the Prime Minister could not have neutral ized their effect upon the House by any fair and legitimate means, and he saw that a piece of clap-trap of some sort was necessary to effect his purpose. (Hear, hear.) Gentlemen, I cannot help think ing that the Prime Minister must have been amusing himself, amid the distress of his fellow-countrymen, by reading a recent clever Tory novel called ' Ten Thousand a Year,' the hero of which is represented to be a Radical M. P., who is stated to have destroyed the effect of the best Tory speech ever delivered in the House of Commons by simply crowing like a cock at the end of it. Now, I suppose Sir Robert Peel must have bethought him of this notable scheme ; and had he followed it out literally, by crowing like a cock, or even braying like an ass, and could he thus have damaged the effect of Cobden's admirable speech, we should have laughed at the 336 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. incident and pardoned its effect for the novelty of the thing in a Prime Minister of so very dignified a character. (Loud laughter and applause.) But, gentlemen, we cannot look but with the utmost abhorrence upon the course which Sir Robert Peel actually did pursue. We cannot allow that the object of defeating the effect of an adversary's speech can sanction the imputation of motives to that adversary of so heinous a nature that language fails to express my detestation of the crime which Sir Robert Peel pretended that Mr. Cobden wished to instigate his followers to commit. (Loud cheers.) Gentlemen, the House of Commons put no such construction upon Mr. Cobden's words until Sir Robert trumped up his charge against him. The Speaker — who never fails to remind members of the niceties of parliamentary language, and checks even such a venial fault as that of one member calling another by .his name instead of the place which he represents — he never called Mr. Cobden to order, as he most undoubtedly would have done had he thought that the fixing of individual responsibility upon the Prime Minister savored of assassination. (Hear, hear.) Gentlemen, the Prime Minister's conduct was most unjustifiable. He well knows that it is a truly constitutional doctrine that he is individually and personally liable for the effects of his ministerial measures. If the Ministry be not liable, who is ? (Hear, hear.) We know that the Queen can do no wrong, and, I am sure, would not if she could — (tremendous cheer ing) — therefore, we have only the Ministers upon whom we can and do fix the responsibility of the good government of the country. If they do not like this responsibility, let them resign their places to better men. (Cheers.). Gentlemen, that Ministers are and have been held personally responsible to their country heretofore there can be no doubt ; and that, while every member of the Ministry is individually and personally responsible, some of the members are pre-eminently so, is proved by what that father of English liberty, John Pym, said when he impeached the chief minister of his day for high treason. He said : ' We must inquire from what fountain these waters of bitterness flow, and though doubtless many evil counselors will be found to have contributed their endeavors, yet there is one who claims the infamous pre-eminence, and who, by his courage, enterprise, and capacity, is entitled to the first place among the betrayers of his country, he was the Earl of Strafford.' William LAST HAPPY DAYS IN LIVERPOOL. 337 Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury, a worthy colleague of the minister to whom I have just alluded, was impeached soon after, and both were beheaded, and if that were not holding them individually and personally liable for their maladministration, I do not know what would have been doing so. Again, soon after the accession of George I., Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford, Queen Anne's Prime Minister, was impeached and sent to the Tower, and Henry St. John Lord Bolingbroke and the Duke of Ormonde, members of the same Ministry, were attainted and obliged to fly the country ; and here let me remark that civilization had even then made a great advance from the time of Charles I. ; political offenders, instead of being put to death, were only imprisoned or banished — a far better mode of punishment, for I have the honor to agree with that great man, Jeremy Bentham, that the worst use you can put a man to is to hang him. (Laughter and cheers.) Gentlemen, the last instance I have to bring to your notice occurred in 1742, when the Tories drove Sir Robert Walpole from the Ministry, and a motion for inquiry into his conduct, with a view to having him impeached, was made by Lord Limerick, but the inquiry was quashed by the influ ence of Walpole's friends. But, gentlemen, I presume Sir Robert Peel cannot deny the constitutionality of his personal liability for the effects of his administration ; therefore his only objection to Mr. Cobden's holding him liable was the foul construction which he himself put upon the meaning of that liability. (Loud cries of hear, hear.) And, gentlemen, it seems when he made that atrocious imputation he well knew the character of his supporters, for the shrieks and yells which are reported to have arisen savored more of cannibals than of an assembly of- Christian legislators. No affirma tions of innocence, no explanations would be listened to. Gentle men, it was an old plan, when unwelcome truths were proclaimed and could not be refuted, to shout : ' Away with such a fellow from the earth, for it is not fit that he should live ! ' An equally ancient mode in such cases was for the hearers ' to stop their ears, and with one accord to rush upon the speaker and stone him to death ' ; and, judging from the tone and temper of the majority of the honorable House, when hounded on by Sir Robert Peel, a little more encour agement from their master would have converted Cobden, if not into Stephen the first martyr, at least into the first martyr of St. Stephen's. 338 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. (Cheers.) Gentlemen, the majority of the House of Commons, the grand inquest of the nation, has refused even to inquire into the causes of our distress. Instead of doing so, they call us — " ' Unbelievers, cut-throat dogs, And spit upon our humble gabardines ; ' but all the while they expect us, whether in petitions or through the persons of our representatives, to approach them with ' bated breath and whispering humbleness.' I am glad, however, that the petition, which has been this evening read to the meeting, assumes a higher tone and speaks out in plainer words than it has been usual to do on such occasions. (Much applause.) Gentlemen, we free traders repudiate all the calumnies which have been heaped upon us ; we are a combination of peaceable men, seeking our ends by the most legitimate means of diffusing information. A main object and end of our union is to diffuse peace and good will among men by the promotion of free trade and constant intercourse with every nation under heaven. (Cheers.) We have no feeling in common with war and bloodshed ; both are alike foreign to our pursuits. War may be the game of kings, but it is a curse to any people. We would — ' ' ' That useless lances into scythes might bend, And the broad falchion in a ploughshare end.' Gentlemen, with regard to indiscreet and injudicious speeches said to have been made by members of the League, I can only say that the League is not infallible, and does not pretend that each of its members is everything that is ' virtuousest, discreetest, best.' Gen tlemen, we do not argue, because Lord Ellenborough issues procla mations savoring of the Hindoo, that therefore the rest of his party cannot be Christians. (Hear, hear.) Because one of the Apostles was a Judas, no one would assume that the other eleven were traitors to their Master, and neither shall we permit the millions of leaguers to be branded as incendiaries because one of their number may, upon one occasion, have spoken most indiscreetly and most unadvisedly. (Very great applause.)" On Friday, May 5, 1843, I went with William Rathbone, ex-Mayor of Liverpool, and Mr. Rawdon to the Shipwrights' Hall, LAST HAPPY DAYS IN LIVERPOOL. 339 so as to carry the war into Carthage, and at considerable risk, as the shipwrights, as a body, were opposed to free trade, and most of them were " pot-wallopers " — that is, they had a vote for the two members for Liverpool in virtue of being born in the town, and were known as the " Old Corrupts," who, while holding generally with the Tories, would sell their votes to the highest bidder. About the time I went to Liverpool, in 1832, or a little before it, there was a Parliamentary election noted for its corruption. In those days the polls were kept open sometimes for six weeks, or as long as a " tally " of voters came to vote within the hour. On this occasion as much as one hundred pounds had been paid for a vote, but some of the freemen, or " Old Corrupts," were not satisfied with this, and demanded one hundred guineas ; but they stood out so long that the requisite number of voters, or "tally," did not come up within the hour, and so the polls closed, and these outstanding " Old Cor rupts" got nothing. I may as well mention here that the parliamentary elections in Liverpool caused a far greater hubbub and excitement than I ever saw at a Presidential election in New York. Each of the candi dates had his colors, and his supporters wore his colors at their button-holes. I have a dim sort of recollection that on elections we Radicals and free traders wore pink ribbons. The following report of my speech made on Friday, May 5, at the Shipwrights' Hall is given by the Liverpool Times of Tuesday, May 9, 1843, the Liverpool Times in those days being only published twice a week, on Tuesdays and Fridays : " Another free trade meeting was held on Friday night in the Ship wrights' Room, Bond Street, the principal object of which was an exposition of the present state of the shipping interest and of the causes which have led to its depression. The room, though not full, was well attended, and among the audience were a consider able number of persons strongly opposed to free trade. Mr. Hugh Boyd, an operative shipwright, presided, and in his opening remarks expressed his conviction that if they had had free trade during the past winter it would have been much better for all the shipwrights, and particularly for those who are out of employment. " McKillop continued by observing that there were many in that 340 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. room better able to stand up for conservatism than he was. (Hisses, cheers, and uproar, and cries of ' We are all Conservatives ! ') The speaker, who was amazingly ignorant of the subject concerning which he evinced such an inclination to dispute, went on at consid erable length and called forth a gentleman who effectually anni hilated his sophistries and false facts. This was Mr. William Wood, who spoke to the following effect : ' I did not intend to address this meeting this evening, and now only rise to reply to Mr. McKillop's fallacies. He says, if I understand him correctly, that the repeal of the corn laws and freedom of trade would do the working classes no good on account of the American tariff, and because the American would not take our goods in pay ment for their corn, but would demand specie. Now, in the first place, I quite agree with my friend Mr. Rathbone in what he has said regarding the certainty of the Americans repealing their present obnoxious tariff, if we can repeal our corn laws. Mr. McKillop, however, says he does not want mere individual assertions as to what the Americans would or would not do under other circum stances, but he wishes to know how (things being as they are) a repeal of the corn and other monopolies would benefit his, the working class. Now, sir, it is a well-known fact that the present tariff was passed with great difficulty, and only carried through the Senate by a majority of one or two, and from that fact we may infer that with due encouragement given to the Americans, by liberal measures on our part, its repeal would not be a very difficult matter ; but, sir, although I should like to have the tariff repealed, if that cannot be done, I am prepared to say, nevertheless, let us repeal our corn laws and buy our food where we can find it cheap est, and upon this very principle Sir Robert Peel has declared his intention ultimately to act. Let us suppose, then, our corn laws repealed, and that the American tariff remains as at present. By the former tariff the duties on most articles were reduced to a max imum of 20 per cent. ; by the present tariff the duties range as high as 50 and 60 per cent, and higher. We know that the Americans have a great taste for British manufactures of all sorts, for in some years they have imported from this country to the extent of £12,- 000,000 sterling and upward. Now, " where there's a will there's a way," and we know that even in this country, with our comparatively LAST HAPPY DAYS IN LIVERPOOL. 34I limited coast, and with all our army of custom-house officers and coast blockade, we cannot keep out smugglers, and while our duties hardly range above 30 per cent., those in America range as high as 50 and 60 per cent., and Sir Robert Peel has declared in his place in the House of Commons that almost any article can be smuggled into this country from the Continent at an expense of 10 to 12 per cent. Therefore I say, looking at the immense and extended boundary of the United States and the paucity of revenue officers and cruisers, there can be little difficulty in smuggling British goods from Canada and the West Indies into the United States ; so that if the tariff be not repealed we shall only send our goods intended for the United States to Canada and the West Indies, and sell them there to the Americans, who will find methods of their own to introduce them into the United States market, and if we take United States corn we are certain to pay for it by labor and in goods, either directly or indirectly. Sir, Mr. McKillop asks : " But what if the Americans, instead of taking goods, ask for specie in payment of their corn : how will the laborer be benefited in that case ?" In reply to that I have to say that if they want the money more than they want the goods of course they will take the money in preference ; but so seldom is this the case that of eleven years in which I have been in the American trade I only recollect two in which I have had to send out specie to the United States. " ' All the cotton and tobacco imported into this country from the United States have been paid for in goods, and, in fact, these arti cles have not been equal to pay for the goods, for they have very often had to send us specie in addition, in order to liquidate the balance due by them on their intercourse with us. But, sir, sup posing the Americans, out of some strange and unwonted perversity, refused to take any of our goods, and insisted upon being paid in specie for all the cotton, corn, and tobacco which we might take, I ask Mr. M'Killop whether it will require more labor to obtain three hundred thousand pounds in specie, or three hundred thousand pounds in goods. I apprehend that the amount of labor required in each case would be the same, and, therefore, so far as the laborers in this country are con cerned, it can make little difference whether the Americans take goods or gold, for both articles can only be obtained by labor; and if the Amer icans won't take our goods, but only our gold, we must get our gold to 342 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. pay them from those who will take our goods. But we know that if we take their corn, they will take our goods. I see, sir, that there are many shipwrights here to-night, and I wish to show them the effect which protection to colonial interests has had on their trade. So many bad and indifferent ships have been built in New Brunswick that in the cotton ports of the United States they have imparted their bad character to all British-built ships ; and a merchant in America, who has to ship cotton, never, if he can avoid it, ships by a British vessel, unless he can get freight cheaper by it than an American one. Gentlemen, you can judge of the effect of monoply and the exclusion of foreign timber for yourselves. You have all seen the magnificent New York packets. I have visited many coun tries and I have seen no such ships anywhere ; they carry out all the dry goods going to New York — a British ship has no chance with them. Now, I beg you will ask yourselves, Are wages lower in New York than here ? I think not. Are the Yankees more skillful car penters than the shipwrights of Liverpool ? I should be ashamed to admit that they were. Then what is the reason that they build better ships ? Because they have an abundant supply of the best timber, at cheap rates, as you might have but for the differential duties on foreign timber. The New York packets are only instances of the general course of the trade from this to the United States. Look at vessels loading for Philadelphia, Boston, Charleston, and New Or leans, and you will see that if there be any British vessels at all loading for these ports, they get none, or very few dry goods — the American ship taking them all. Now, sir, the foreign country with which we do the next greatest amount of trade after the United States, is Brazil ; let us look at the course of trade with that country, which has few or no ships of its own. We therefore send out all our goods, or nearly so, by British vessels ; the goods are landed in Brazil, and the merchant may send back the vessel, loaded with cotton, coffee, and sugar, to Liverpool ; but by far the larger portion of his returns he must, owing to our differential duties on foreign coffee and sugar, send to a continental port, and, finding in Brazil, Austrian, Russian, and Hanseatic vessels, he very probably ships by them in preference to a British ship, so that the British shipowner is, by the operation of the differential duties, deprived of the freight which he would have earned had our laws permitted him to bring home coffee and LAST HAPPY DAYS IN LIVERPOOL. 343 sugar, to be sold at the same duty as that which is payable on colo nial coffee and sugar. But suppose, sir, that the English merchant in Brazil, hearing that the duty on grain is down to is. to 2s. per quarter, ventures to send his own British ship to Trieste, or some other continental port, with sugar and coffee ; the vessel sails, de livers her cargo at Trieste, and had the duty been only is. to 2s. (or nothing, as it ought to be), he would have taken home a cargo of wheat, grown on the Bannat at Hungary, and of the finest quality in the world ; but, by this time, the beautiful sliding scale has jumped up to 20s. duty, and so the English vessel has to return from Trieste (or elsewhere, in the Mediterranean, or from any other continental port where she could get nothing but wheat) in ballast, and that, I fancy, is not particularly beneficial to the ship ping interest. These, sir, are facts, and, in my country, we say : " ' " Facts are chiels that downa ding, And daurna be disputed." ' " CHAPTER XXVII. CLOSE OF MY LIVERPOOL LIFE — OUR LAST CHRISTMAS IN EVERTON. My next speech was on a very different subject from free trade, and is very fully reported in a Liverpool newspaper of May 23, 1843, and was delivered on Thursday evening, May 18, in Great George Street Chapel, the church presided over by Dr. Raffles, a very eminent Congregational divine, and brother of Sir Stamford Raffles, the founder of the British colony of Singapore, and its first governor. The subject was " The Government Education Scheme," which was introduced, as it were incidentally, into what was called a " Factory Bill," proposed by Sir James Graham, then Home Secretary. The educational clauses of this bill would have handed over the educa tion of the people of England to the clergy of the Established Church of England. The Non-conformists or Dissenters of England were naturally opposed to the bill, and as most of the Anti-Corn-Law men were Dissenters, we employed our forces to collect the educational statistics of what may be called the factory distress of England, including Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, etc., etc., and those of the agricultural districts of England, the latter being mainly under the clergy of the Church of England, and the former under the Dissenters. The result of this investigation was that we found in the factory districts one in every twelve of the population under some sort of educational instruction, while in the agri cultural districts, only one in twenty-four of the population was under any kind of educational instruction, showing that if there were any truth in our statistics, the clergy of the Church of England had sadly neglected their educational duties heretofore, and, there fore, had no claim to be intrusted with more extensive duties of the same sort. I had been asked to speak at this great meeting of Dissenters, but when the day came I was confined to the house by a very bad attack of influenza, eyes and nose running like sluices, and feeling as weak CLOSE OF MY LIVERPOOL LIFE. 345 as a scalded cat. My wife sent for Dr. Blackburn to see and pre scribe for me. He was one of the leading Dissenters and Radical politicians in Liverpool. When he came I said : " You see, doctor, it is quite impossible for me to speak at the meeting to-night." "Oh," he replied, "you must speak; we count upon you." To which I replied that I would do my best, but the best would be very poor. At 7 p. m. I had a coach ordered for me to take me to the meeting, and said farewell to my wife and children in a very lugubrious strain. When I got to the platform I found about two thousand people assembled, among them many ladies. I had to propose the third resolution, and my speech is well and fully re ported, as follows : MEETING OF EVANGELICAL PROTESTANT DISSENTERS OF LIVERPOOL, MAY 18, 1843. " A public meeting of the Evangelical Protestant Dissenters of this town was held on Thursday evening, May 18, in Great George Street Chapel, for the purpose of expressing their undiminished hos tility to the educational clauses of Sir J. Graham's Factory Bill, in their altered form. This spacious building was crowded in every part by a highly respectable audience. There was a considerable number of ladies present. The platform was appropriated to the ministers of religion and other gentlemen who were to take a part in the business of the meeting. The proceedings commenced shortly after half-past six o'clock. " William Wood, Esq., proposed the third resolution. He said : 'Sir, I have read the resolution put into my hands,in conformity with the custom in such cases, but I do not intend to notice it further, or to dilate upon the miserable details of this iniquitous measure. My objection, sir, is to the bill itself, the whole bill, and everything about the bill. Sir, I have much pleasure in coming forward this evening, to take a part, however humble, in the battle which we are waging with that giant monster, " oppression for conscience' sake " that monster engendered of priestcraft and tyranny, whose approach, indicated by Sir James Graham's bill, already casts a deep and gloomy shadow over our beloved country. Sir, the other evening, in the House of Commons, in the debate upon Mr. Villiers' motion for 346 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. the repeal of the Corn Laws, the Right Hon. Wm. Gladstone de clared that high prices of food produced poverty, and that poverty produced crime. This is nothing new ; but I quote Mr. Gladstone, because his authority must be received by our adversaries not only as that of a statesman, but as that of a High Churchman of the first water. Now, sir, the report on the state of morals in the manu facturing districts was made at the end of five years of unprece- dentedly high prices of food ; therefore, at the end of five years of unprecedented poverty, and at the end of five years of unprece dented crime. The report in question consequently does not give a fair and just idea of the general state of morals in those districts to which it refers, although that report, and the state of the morals indicated by it, have been especially urged as motives, by the pro moters of this unjust bill, for pushing it forward vigorously. Sir, as a pendant to my Lord Ashley's picture of the state of morals in the manufacturing districts, allow me to read to the meeting an account of the state of morals in pastoral and agricultural Scotland, in the Arcadian times of the seventeenth century, when " voice, nor hideous hum " of spinning mill or power loom factory was heard throughout the length and breadth of the land. Smollett, the historian, charac terizes Fletcher of Saltoun as a man of inflexible integrity. No Scottish man is disposed to underrate the character of his country, still less a Scottish patriot ; yet hear what Fletcher says in 1689 : " There are at this day in Scotland, two hundred thousand people begging from door to door. These are not only no ways advanta geous, but a very grievous burden, to so poor a country ; and though the number of them be perhaps double to what it was formerly, by reason of the present great distress, yet in all times there have been about one hundred thousand of these vagabonds who have lived without any regard or submission either to the laws of the land or to those of God and nature ; fathers incestuously accompanying their own daughters — the son with the mother, and the brother with the sister. No magistrate could ever discover or be informed which way any of these wretches died, or that ever they were baptized. Many murders have been discovered among them ; and they are not only a most unspeakable oppression to poor tenants (who, if they give not bread or some sort of provision to perhaps forty such villains in one day, are sure to be insulted by them), but they rob many poor CLOSE OF MY LIVERPOOL LIFE. 347 people who live in houses distant from any neighborhood. In years of plenty many thousands of them meet together in the mountains, where they feast and riot for many days ; and at country weddings, markets, burials, and other like public occasions, they are to be seen, both men and women, perpetually drunk, cursing, blaspheming, and fighting together." Now, sir, I quote this horrible account of the then state of morals in Scotland, not merely to show that crime is not confined to factory districts, or solely generated by machinery, but because this bears upon the subject before us in another most remarkable manner. About 1616, parish schools were established in Scotland, and at the middle of the seventeenth century Scotland is represented as being in a highly moral and religious state ; but in 1662, after the restoration of that sovereign on whom that " best instructress of the people," the Church of England, chose to bestow, for the first time, the title of " Most Religious King," but whom I, in my simplicity, would have called " that most profligate scoundrel " — I mean Charles II. — I say, sir, after his restoration, the whole system of parish schools in Scotland was upset, and no school master was allowed to teach without a " license from the ordinary of the diocese." Well, sir, after thirty years' superintendence by that petted and pampered Church, which still remains connected with the state in this country, Fletcher of Saltoun drew that horrible picture of the state of morals in Scotland which I have just read to you. In 1690 the parish school system was re-established in Scotland, and has gone on from that day to this ; and from a lengthened resi dence in two country parishes in Scotland, I can say that the inter ference of the clergy with the schools is very much less than it must be with those schools which Sir James Graham's bill proposes to establish. But, sir, I hold in my hand a letter from a gentleman who has been for at least thirty years parish schoolmaster in Scot land, one whom I am proud to call a friend, and whom I have known for five-and-twenty years. " ' "A pair of friends, though I was young. And Matthew seventy-two — " ' An enthusiast in his profession, and a man of undoubted piety, one of whom it might well be said in the words of Goldsmith : " ' " Still the wonder grew, That one small head could carry all he knew." ' 348 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. This gentleman writes to me thus : " Although the parish schools of Scotland have certainly been of much importance in the way of helping on the Scotch, yet you may rest satisfied that the present system is capable of much improvement, both for the comfort of teachers and also of the rising generation." He adds, and I beg you will mark this : " The clergy have, as far as my experience goes, too much power over the schoolmasters, and they have not always made the best use of it." Sir, in the perusal of Sir James Graham's amended bill almost the first thing that strikes you is the appoint ment of the clerical trustee, and in order that we may form a cor rect estimate of that Church from which the clerical trustees are to be chosen, let me read its character as depicted in the pages of the Churchman' s Monthly Review and Chronicle for April, 1843, in an article on " Newman's Sermons and the Character of the Move ment " : " Probably a majority of the members of the Church of Eng land are of High Church principles, contending for the privileges of apostolic succession, most exclusive in their views with respect to all other Christian communities, and practically at least, if not theoretically, claiming to themselves to be xareSoxr/v, the Church, and that beyond their pale there can be no salvation." It is from the clergy of such a Church as that the clerical trustees are to be appointed. Now, sir, even had my own bishop, Bishop Kelly — (laughter) — or any of the reverend bishops near him, all of whom have a better right to that title than " Charles James of London," if they choose to take it, — I say, sir, even had they been eligible for clerical trustees, I should have objected to having clerical trustees at all. I would not deprive any man of his rights as a citizen because he was a clergyman — (cheers) — and, on the other hand, I would confer no additional civil rights upon him because he was a clergy man. (Much cheering.) But, sir, the clerical trustees are to be elected only from the clergy of the dominant Church — from those who, for the sake of uniformity, are obliged to swallow the Thirty-nine Articles, and which Thirty-nine Articles, according to the Rev. Cecil Wray, mean this, but, according to the Rev. Hugh McNeile, means that, while, according to the Rev. Rector Brooks, they mean neither this nor that, but something between both. (Laughter and applause.) Sir, let us imagine one of those factory schools in existence (and I trust they never will exist but in imagination), and that it has a CLOSE OF MY LIVERPOOL LIFE. 349 Puseyite head master ; and I hold, if he be a conscientious and honest man, he must be a proselytizer. To be sure, the bill says that it shall not be lawful to give any religious instruction, except reading and teaching the Holy Scriptures, to any child whose parent has conscientious objections to his receiving religious instruction ; but there is, so far as I can see, in this bill, no penalty attached to the violation of this rule, and, therefore, the rule is quite nugatory. (Hear, hear.) Now let us suppose young John Smith, the son of an operative cotton spinner, of independent principles, attends this fac tory school. After some weeks, his father examines him as to the course of his studies, and finds to his horror, that young John has imbibed some stray notions regarding what, in his father's opinion, is the damnable doctrine of baptismal regeneration. He will not put up with this interference with his child's principles, but goes and com plains to the head master. Nothing, of course, is said to young John Smith that day, but next time he is caught flagrante delicto, eating Everton toffee or lollypops, won't he catch it then, think ye, for his father's opinions on baptismal regeneration ? (Hear, hear.) Sir, such things must constantly occur in state schools where religious instruc tion is given, and therefore I am shut up to the conclusion, that if the state be to meddle with education at all, it must be only to provide secular instruction. (Cheers.) Sir James Graham, in his wonderful desire and care for the religious instruction of Dissenters' children, provides in his amended bill, clause sixty-seven, that they shall receive religious instruction for three hours in one day, from their own licensed minister, or from some person appointed by him, at some convenient place, other than the schoolhouse. Why, sir, I believe that this proviso has been stuck in for the very purpose of disgusting Dissenters' children with the religion of their fathers, for what better plan could be taken to disgust children with religion than to cram them for three mortal hours with it, as you would cram turkeys ? Sir, I was delighted to hear the Rev. Dr. Crichton say that, in his. opinion, schools were not fit places for imparting religious instruction. In this opinion I cordially concur. I think in the present day there is a most pestilent interference, on the part of schoolmasters and schoolmistresses, with the religious instruction of children, whose parents are perfectly willing and capable to instruct them themselves. (Much applause.) Only five or six years ago, 350 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. Sydney Smith, writing to Archdeacon Singleton, said that at the time of the Reform Bill, the feeling against the Church and church men was so strong that he bought a blue coat, and tried to look as like a layman as possible. The bishops in those days were frightened to their heart's core for their temporalities, and, by way of showing their wish for reform, began cutting down the property and patronage of the deans and chapters, — because, as we say in Scotland, " ' "The fastest thief cries loudest fie." ' (Laughter.) Well, sir, after all, the Church of England was allowed to retain its bloated wealth, because, in those days, like Agag, it walked delicately ; but now, sir, when it wishes to get the minds of the rising generation more completely into its own power, it spares to take solely of its own flock and of its own enormous wealth, to effect its ends, but by this bill would try to rob the flocks of the poor way faring Dissenters. (Hear, hear.) Sir, I had thought, in the days of Whig rule, that the teeth and claws of the Church of England had been drawn and pared ; but in this I have been mistaken ; and henceforth let the cry of the Non-conformists be " No peace with Amalek until he be destroyed ! " (Cheers.) Sir, when Latimer and Ridley were at the stake together at Oxford, and when the principles of Sir James Graham's bill were in practical operation, the former said, "Be of good cheer, brother Ridley, for we have this day kindled a torch in England, which, under God, will never be extinguished." So, sir, I say, " Be of good cheer, brother Non-con formists, for this bill has kindled a torch in England, which, I trust, under God, will never be extinguished, until the state be delivered from the accursed trammels of an established church." (Great cheering.) Sir, it used to be said that the sons of Non-conformists left the churches of their fathers, because of the plainness of their places of worship ; but, sir, in these days I am sure they have no such excuse for forsaking the faith of their fathers, however fond they may be of having " their butter in a lordly dish," at least so long as we are allowed to retain such magnificent edifices as this, within whose lofty walls we are this evening assembled. But, sir, if they should compel us to bring our "tale of bricks" to erect schoolhouses for the propagation of religious opinions to which we CLOSE OF MY LIVERPOOL LIFE. 351 conscientiously object, they may go further, and deprive us even of those edifices which we have already erected, in which to worship the God of our fathers after the manner which the Church of England, in its insolence, calls heresy. (Hear hear.) But, sir, whether in gorgeous temple or in mud-built meetinghouse, or, should it come to that, as a persecuted remnant upon the hill-side, let us hold fast to the glorious principles of Non-conformity. (Loud cheers.) Let them be impressed upon our own minds ; let them be instilled into the minds of our children, as the only true principles of civil and religious liberty. (Applause.) And, sir, if days of strife and trial are in store for us, I have no fear of the result. " ' " Thrice is he armed who hath his quarrel just, And he but naked, though locked up in steel, Whose conscience by injustice is corrupted." ' " The speaker concluded amid very animated cheering." The excitement of making my speech, and the applause its senti ment obtained, completely cured my influenza, and I returned home in grand spirits, found my wife lying on the sofa in the library, and the children in the room, and began to tell her all about the meet ing, when she burst into a fit of merry laughter, and said : " Why, J. Walter, Totty, and I have just come back from the meeting. As soon as you started for it, I sent and ordered a carriage, took J. Walter and Totty with me, drove to the chapel, got good seats, heard your speech, and then got away home before you." After this, I have no reports of my speeches until the following November, nor have I any particular recollection of what I was doing during the summer ; but we had sad news from New York, Harriet's sister Caroline, Mrs. Mills, having died, leaving a young family of two sons and four daughters but scantily provided for. It had been one of Harriet's great pleasures, looking forward to meeting this lovely, merry sister, if we made our intended visit to the United States in 1844. While she lost her sister Caroline, she gained her dear little daughter Helen on August 30, 1843, at 4.55 p. m., who was baptized by our minister, the Rev. John Kelly. Just about two weeks before little Helen's birth, Harriet wrote to me the following letter of instructions as to the bringing up of our children 352 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. in case she should die. It was written immediately after she received the news of her sister, Caroline Mills' death, which, no doubt, gave her a realizing sense of the uncertainty of life. " Everton, August 13, 1843. " In the view of death, my precious husband, and after prayer to God for the guidance of his Holy Spirit to direct me, I write in faith that what I have to say will prove a comfort and a strengthener to you, should he in his infinite wisdom see fit to call me hence. I have few wishes respecting the temporal concerns of either you or my children. I feel too sensibly now that this life is but a short pilgrimage, and death the entrance into life eternal ! Therefore, I desire that my children be instructed only for a life of usefulness here ; not for display, or the vain pleasures of this world. Keep this ever in view with regard to their education. God has given them fine minds and healthy bodies, and these are talents which must not be laid up in a napkin, but used for his glory. You know my views respecting all innocent pleasures and amusements : dancing itself, small social parties, and even occasionally a large one, may be used, if not abused ; but oh ! conjure my darlings to tell you if the use of these things leads them away from God, and if so, warn them to flee them as they would the fiery darts of the Wicked One. Watch nar rowly in their conversation respecting these things : if they betray van ity of mind, and undue excitement, and exhilaration of spirits ; and if so, withdraw them at once from the temptation, and substitute such as are wholesome and profitable, that they may not feel the loss of worldly pleasures. Beware how you lead them or permit them to go into scenes of dissipation, saying that it matters not where they go — as they will 'carry about with them the evil heart of unbelief wherever they go ' ; that they may be as worldly minded in a church or in the country as in a theater or a large town. All this is true, but the temptations in both places are not the same. In the one we are in the way of good ; in the other in the way of evil. This none can deny, and though good as a recreation to the mind may be got at the theater, yet evil is sure to be found there also. Sin may be found and indulged in, in a church, yet good is sure to be found there also. In the one case we have a certain good in the way of God's appointment ; in the other we venture into the forbidden CLOSE OF MY LIVERPOOL LIFE. 353 pleasures of the world, where impurity assails the ears, and vice is looked into, and seen, not in its most loathsome shape, but in its most inviting. I would, therefore, have my children taken by you, or by some other judicious friend, to the theaters and to balls, if they have the wish strongly to go, but let them not go, I conjure you, without first taking them by the hand, and kneeling in prayer to God, that he will keep them from the evil, also pointing out to them the dark side of the picture, the revolting and polluting, before they enter into its fascinations, warning them of the slippery ground they are about to tread, that they may withdraw at once from all such scenes, if they find it produces evil within their minds. A true test of this will be the frame of mind in which they are for prayer after and before such indulgence. If they pray with their lips only, with wandering hearts and thoughts, the danger is great, and the amusement sin. ' The prayer of unbelief is sin,' and that must be the prayer of unbelief that is offered without the heart, and as if God were not a holy and righteous God upon his throne of mercy, wait ing to hear the prayer of faith. Be cautious also in your desire of making dear John Walter a barrister, that you do not urge him to do that which may be contrary to the dictates of his conscience. Consider this well, my beloved one, and ' the Lord give thee under standing in all these things.' I desire that you may live wherever you think you will be happiest, and I think that will not be in the house where I have died. Look, then, for one where you will have a complete change, and if possible, look out for a steady, middle- aged and accomplished governess, who will instruct all the girls, so as to keep them under your own roof ; a Christian governess, of course, I mean, that is, one not an infidel, a Catholic, or a Unitarian or one who will instill worldly-mindedness into them; but this must all be determined after prayer. Do nothing according to my will, but ' according to the will of God,' and if you ask him to help you to pray — that you know not what to pray for as you ought — he will instruct you, and guide you, as he has engaged and promised, and you may rest assured that you will make intercession for our beloved children 'according to the will of God.' I will add no more about temporal things, as you know my wishes in all, and you must be guided according to circumstances. Let Charlotte and Bessie continue at school for the half year, to give you full time to feel 354 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. settled, and to look out for a governess. I think a governess, if a good one, would be most valuable to you, for children without a mother are left so much to the guidance of servants, who are not judicious, and almost always teach children what must be untaught. Should Mary Crowe assume too much power over them I should remove her, as I think it not a good thing to have a nursemaid very distasteful to the elder children. It leads them to show bad temper, to tattle, and be malicious and revengeful for slight wrongs, and spiteful. While a mother is there to be the head of her own house, the thing may be kept in check, but not afterward. Send for dear Mary Ferguson at once, who will look after mourning, etc., for the children, and comfort and cheer you. Insist upon her children com ing with her, for her sake as well as yours. If Cross will come to take charge of the business, or James, or Uncle Alick, I would ad vise you to go with the children for the month of October to Elie, in a house close by your aunt's, or else you take a jaunt yourself with James, or some companion, leaving dear Mary and her children here (if she will stay) with ours. Take J. Walter with you wherever you go, in the first instance. And now, darling William, let me im plore you not to sorrow for me as one without hope. I believe, all vile as I am, that I shall be saved and accepted in the Beloved, that though ' my sins are scarlet, they shall be made white as snow,' and through God's unspeakable gift to me — the faith which I now feel in his only begotten Son — an abundant entrance will be given me into his holy presence, ' where there is fullness of joy, and pleasure for ever more.' Soon, darling, very soon, you and all those whom God has given to us, shall follow through belief in the same precious blood and resurrection of him who ever liveth to make intercession for us, and be not careful for the things of this life for our children. Remember that the devil is deceitful and wily in this matter, and in tempting you to think that you are acting up to your duty only, in being anxious for a portion in this life to leave your children. He is tempting you to forget that God has insured and promised this, as it is needful for them, and that their portion and inheritance, which will never perish or fade away, is one laid up for them when this world has passed away, and they enter into life eternal. For the promise is not unto you only, and unto me, but unto our seed also, and he never withholds spiritual blessings, or any good thing from CLOSE OF MY LIVERPOOL LIFE. 355 them that ask him, and he willeth not that any should perish, but that all should come unto him, and ' whatsoever we ask according to his will, we know that we have the petitions we desired of him.' 'If a son ask a fish will he give him a serpent ?' and ' if ye being evil give good things unto your children, how much more will your Heavenly Father give his Holy Spirit to them that ask him.' " Let my poor old body be placed in Lowhill cemetery, and if Lawrence H. ask what he can do for you, or if I left any will, say to him that if it is convenient to him, I wish him to remember his promise to Charlotte, and place her beside me. If you think this inexpedient or foolish, then let me be as near her as you can pro cure a place. " Thine own " Harriet Amelia Wood." Thank God the evil day of her departure did not come till April 17, 1846, and she was buried in her own native country — all too soon. After little Helen's birth my wife made a good recovery, and we lived comfortably in our house at Everton, I taking a deep interest in the political affairs of the day, and both of us looking forward with pleasure to visiting the United States in 1844, which it was pretty well determined by my partners we should do, and on my own terms. The Liverpool Journal of November 1 1 gives a pretty full but not a very accurate report of a speech I made at a great free trade meeting held November 10, 1843, in the Liverpool Amphi theater. I moved the first resolution, and the Journal report I append to this, having made several obvious corrections. The London Morning Chronicle of Monday, November 13, 1843, a^so gives a report of this meeting, which report, so far as it concerns the names of the leading persons present, and a slight sketch of my own speech is also made part of this autobiography. ( Liverpool Journal, November n, 1843.) " W. Wood, Esq. (of the firm of Dennistoun and Wood), then came forward to propose the first resolution, and was received with loud cheers. The resolution was as follows : ' That we hereby present our earnest acknowledgments to Wm. Ewart, Esq., M. P., for his 356 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. consistent advocacy of free trade, both in and out of Parliament.' Mr. Wood then said he had great pleasure in moving the adoption of the resolution which he had just read. In common with every free trader, he felt grateful to Mr. Ewart for the valuable services he had rendered to the cause of free trade ; and not only had he ably aided the cause of free trade, but in every legislative movement tending to ameliorate the human species — to strike off the fetters from the human mind, and to promote the cause of art, literature, and science, Mr. Ewart had ever taken a prominent part. He was the only parliament man for whom he had ever given a successful vote. He wished that all his votes for him had been successful, but he could console himself with the reflection that when ' the prophet had no honor in his own country ' — when the arts of priestcraft had prevailed against him, a borough of his (Mr. Wood's) native country appreciated his talents, and availed itself of his labors in the House of Commons ; and although he no longer represented Liverpool, he was ever ready to promote its interests in that honorable assembly. There was another gentleman there who no longer represented his constituents, but the good men of Kendal had honored themselves and benefited the country by returning Mr. Warburton as their representative in spite of priestly arts and lordly intrigue. No more useful member than Mr. Warburton had ever crossed the threshold of St. Stephen's. The friends of free trade had also achieved a great victory in the return of Mr. Pattison for London, and monopoly had received a severe blow in the defeat of Mr. Baring. The high character of that gentleman made that victory the greater, because, as a private individual, he was most estimable. He (Mr. Wood) congratulated the meeting on the advance of free trade principles generally — Sir Robert Plausible himself had partially adopted those principles ; for he knew that unless he made a move in the way of free trade he would have to move out of the ministry. (Great cheering). Sir Robert was one of those men who was everything by turns and nothing long. (Hear, hear.) He commenced his ministry in 1 841 as a monopolist, but, after being in office a short time, he came out and astonished his friends by saying that he was not a decided monopolist ; but he (Mr. Wood) wished that his next move would be in the direction of free trade. (Loud cheering.) The coming session was likely to be big with importance to the cause of CLOSE OF MY LIVERPOOL LIFE. 357 free trade. From all that they saw around them, the vessel of free trade was about entering upon calm waters and sailing over a pacific ocean. When success did come upon them they must not forget the obligation which they were under to the electors of London, who nobly maintained their principles and turned the flank upon their enemies. The conduct of those men would go down to posterity with the names of Cobden and Bright. Their names would be recorded in the pages of their country as the name of Washington was connected with America, or that of Wilberforce and Clarkson with the extinction of the slave trade ; or that of Daniel O'Connell — (vehement cheering) — with the great and glorious measure of Catholic emancipation. They had, however, so often discussed the principles of free trade that but little of a novel character could be said upon the subject now ; but, like the veteran soldier in the cause of his country, they would fight their battles over again. They would never sheathe their swords till they had vanquished the supporters of monopoly. He hoped the meeting would bear with him while he exposed a few fallacies. Their opponents said that they alone were the friends of native industry ; but he (Mr. Wood) contended that the friends of free trade alone were the genuine friends of native industry. They contended that the laborer was entitled to the greatest amount his labor could pro duce ; and, what was more, they did not care whether that food was grown here or abroad : — (hear, hear) — but the monopolists did restrict them to that grown in this country. Mr. Wood then alluded to the absurdity of landlords cultivating grounds that would never yield a return, while, if the native industry of the people were exported in the shape of manufactures, abundance of food might be procured from Poland and Germany. The friends of free trade wished to see every article of food encumbered as little as possible with burdens, for if that were cheap and abundant, no man would leave his native land and go to a foreign one if he could live at home. " ' Better fifty years in Europe Than a cycle of Cathay.' He would now call their attention to the duty on sugar. In 1811, when the population of the country was 8,000,000 less than at present, the consumption of sugar amounted to 4,047,000 cwt. ; in 1840 it 358 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. amounted to 4,035,000 cwt., — a difference of 12,000 cwt. The quantity of tea consumed in 1811 was 20,700,000 lbs.; coffee, 6,390,000 lbs., making a total of 27,090,000 lbs. ; in 1840, the con sumption of tea was 32,250,000 lbs. ; coffee, 28,664,000 lbs. — total, 60,914,000 lbs., — a difference in the two periods of 33,824,000 lbs. The population had in the meantime increased 8,000,000, so that there were 33,000,000 cups of tea and coffee drank annually in this country without a bit of sugar to sweeten them. (Hear, hear.) Mr. Wood then alluded to the inconsistency of the Morning Post condemning slop dealers in cutting down the price of the work done for them by poor women, while that paper supported the corn and other monopolies, which was the landlord's slop system on a large scale to uphold his rents and restrict the food of the poor man. He next censured the hypocrisy of those who clamored against the removal of natives of Africa to the West Indies for the purpose of labor, — which he conceived was a praiseworthy undertaking, inasmuch as it civilized the Africans, — while at the same time they were so indifferent to the welfare of their own countrymen at home. There was a class of politicians in the House of Commons who were for ever preaching about the adulteration of groceries, but were not those men aware that if they took away the differential duties from foreign articles the temptation to adulterate them would cease ? and so high was the duty on tobacco, that he was assured that half the quantity consumed was smuggled. After commenting with some severity upon the supporters of monopoly in the House of Commons, Mr. Wood concluded by characterizing them as " 'A worthless pack to honor lost, Who knew them best despised them most.' (Cheers)." (London Morning Chronicle, Monday, November 13, 1843.) " GREAT FREE TRADE MEETING AT THE AMPHITHEATER, LIVERPOOL. " Friday Evening. — One of the greatest free trade demonstrations ever held in this town took place this evening at the Amphitheater. The Anti-Monopoly Association originally announced the meeting for Wednesday, to afford its townsmen an opportunity of hearing their late respected and excellent member, Wm. Ewart, Esq., M. P. CLOSE OF MY LIVERPOOL LIFE. 359 for Dumfries. The day of meeting was subsequently altered to Friday, in order to secure the attendance of Mr. Warburton, the newly elected member for Kendal, as the election for that inde pendent borough took place on Wednesday. " The extensive building in all parts — pit, boxes, and galleries — was densely crowded with a highly respectable auditory. Around the boxes were placed a number of free trade devices and mottoes, a few of which we subjoin, and on the stage a transparency was exhibited, with the inscriptions : ' Free Trade is the basis of England's prosperity ; ' ' The good old town and the trade thereof : may that trade be no longer sacrificed to monopoly ; ' ' If one man receives protection, another pays it;' 'Free traders — no party;' ' The corn law keeps up the price of food, but not of wages ; ' 'The tax on bread is a poll-tax ; ' 'Your device is to create an arti ficial scarcity ; ' ' Earl Fitzwilliam ; ' ' A protected trade is a useless trade ; ' ' The corn law is a rent law ; ' ' Monopoly has received its deathblow.' " On the platform were most of the influential gentlemen connected with the Liberal and free trade party. We observed : William Ewart, Esq., M. P. ; Henry Warburton, Esq., M. P. ; Wm. Brown, Esq. ; Wm. Rathbone, Esq. ; J. C. Ewart, Esq. ; James Brancker, Esq. ; Richard Shiel, Esq. ; Henry Booth, Esq. ; Thomas Bolton, Esq. ; James Mulleneux, Esq. ; James Mellor, Esq. ; Lawrence Heyworth, Esq. ; W. P. Freme, Esq. ; Thomas Viccar, Esq. ; C. E. Rawlins, jun., Esq. ; J. D. Thornely, Esq. ; Dr. Blackburn ; Wm. Wood, Esq. ; James Cooper, Esq., surgeon ; John Finch, jun., Esq. ; Thomas Urquhart, Esq. ; William Thornhill, Esq. ; Thomas Smith, Esq., of Edgehill ; James Stott, Esq. ; J. T. Crook, Esq. ; Samuel Thornley, Esq. ; Mather, Esq. ; Alderman Eyre Evans ; J. B. Cooke, Esq. ; Thomas Morecroft, Esq. ; James Perrin, Esq. ; J. Penlington, Esq. ; Samuel Stitt, jun., Esq. ; John Molyneux, Esq. ; Thomas Rodick, Esq. ; County Magistrate S. T. Hobson, Esq. ; F. Boult, Esq. ; D. M'Clelland, Esq. " Mr. William Wood said he believed the coming session was big with important concessions to the cause of free trade ; and, from all which he saw going on around him, he could not doubt but the vessel of the state, after being buffeted about on the tempestuous waters of monopoly, was about to enter a pacific ocean of unrestricted 360 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. prosperity (loud cheers). He trusted, however, when success dawned upon them, they would never forget the obligations they were under to the electors of London (cheers). Those men would go down in history along with the names of those great and good men, Richard Cobden (applause) and John Bright (continued ap plause), whose names were as inextricably linked with the triumph of free trade as that of Washington with the independence of America (cheers) — of Wilberforce and Clarkson with the abolition of the slave trade (applause) — or that of Daniel O'Connell (three times three and continued cheers) — or that of Daniel O'Connell with Catholic emancipation (cheers). The speaker then entered at considerable length into the principles of free trade, rebutting with ability the arguments of those who opposed those principles, and occasionally illustrating his observations with interesting anecdotes, which seemed to have a good effect on the minds of his auditory, and concluded with moving the following resolution : ' That this meeting presents its most earnest acknowledgments to William Ewart, Esq., M. P., for his consistent advocacy of free trade on all occasions, both in and out of Parliament ' (loud cheers)." " LIVERPOOL ANTI-MONOPOLY ASSOCIATION. " The usual monthly meeting of the members of this Association and of the friends of free trade was held on Friday evening, at the Royal Ampitheater. The house was densely crowded in every part. In order to defray the expenses, a charge of one shilling was made for admission to the stage and boxes. Among the crowd of gentle men present on the stage were Thomas Thornely, Esq., M. P., Wm. Ewart, Esq., M. P., Henry Warburton, Esq., M. P., T. Blackburn, Esq., Jos. Ewart, Esq., S. Thornely, Esq., J. D. Thornely, Esq., Eyre Evans, Esq., James Brancker, Esq., Wm. Brown, Esq., Richard Shiel, Esq., Henry Booth, Esq., James Mulleneux, Esq., Wm. Rath bone, Esq., Thomas Bolton, Esq., W. Thornhill, Esq., Robert Mather, Esq., S. T. Hobson. Esq., John Finch, Jr., Esq., J. B. Cooke, Esq., S. Butler, Esq., Wm. Wood, Esq., S. Stitt, Esq., Thomas Blackburn, Jr., Esq., Thomas Baines, Esq., D. M'Vicar, Esq., C. E. Rawlins, Esq., John Smith, Esq., Rev. Mr. Bevan, Rev. Dr. Cox, D. D., LL. D., of Hackney, James Lewne, Esq., James Mellor, Esq., Lawrence Heyworth, Esq., T. Bickerby, Esq., R. C. CLOSE OF MY LIVERPOOL LIFE. 361 Rawlins, Esq., T. Lockerby, Esq., J. B. Newhall, Esq., from the Western States of America, James Stitt, Esq., D. M'Clelland, Esq., Thomas Crossfield, Esq., Henry Darby, Esq., Wm. Morrison, Esq., F. Boult, Jr., Esq., Thomas Rodick, Esq., W. P. Freme, Esq., Thomas Urquhart, Esq., T. Jevons, Esq., James Cooper Esq., surgeon, Thomas Morecroft, Esq., J. T. Cook, Esq., James Perrin, Esq., J. Penlington, Esq., S. T. Hobson, Esq., T. Smith, Esq., John Molyneux, Esq., etc., etc. Thomas Thornely, Esq., M. P., occupied the chair. " William Wood, Esq., moved the first resolution — ' That this meeting presents its earnest acknowledgments to William Ewart, Esq., M. P., for his consistent advocacy of the principles of free trade, on all occasions, both in and out of Parliament.' Mr. Wood supported the motion in a long and powerful speech, some of the points in which were so extremely well put that they called forth a large measure of applause. He remarked that the only successful vote he had ever given at a parliamentary election, was for Mr. Ewart, and rejoiced that when ' the arts of priestcraft ' had pre vailed against that gentleman, his talents and character were appre ciated by a borough of his (Mr. Wood's) native country. Adverting to the election of the city of London, and to the triumphant realiza tion of our expectations in its results, he said that the high character and popular manners of Mr. Baring only rendered his defeat the more striking. Although Mr. Baring was an out and out monopolist, he (the speaker) had heard it reported that Sir R. Peel rather chuckled over the defeat of Mr. B. ; for he could point to that and say, ' Look at this ; you must either march with me in the direction of free trade, or I must march out of the ministry.' Sir Robert was one of those men who was ' everything by turns and nothing long,' and he (Mr. W.) apprehended that the next swing of this political pendulum would be in the direction of free trade. From all that was going on around he thought that the vessel of the state, after having been tossed for years on the troubled waters of monopoly, was about to enter the pacific ocean of free trade and that they might henceforth expect daily accessions from the ranks of their opponents. (Cheers.) " I seem to have been hard at work also in November, 1843, "in writing to the leading newspaper in Liverpool, the Liverpool Mercury ) 362 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. upon what I call the " Sugar Fraud." The Mercury was Liberal, the Courier was Tory and Protectionist. I give herewith my letters of November 22 and 29, 1843. " THE SUGAR FRAUD. "15 Oldhall Street, November 22, 1843. " To the Editors of the Liverpool Mercury : " Gentlemen : I avail myself of your columns to reply to some remarks made in the Liverpool Courier of this day, upon a speech delivered by me at the last monthly meeting of the Anti-Monopoly Association, in the Amphitheater. " I then stated, giving distinctly, as my authority, that able advo cate of free trade, the Economist (No. 9, for October 28), that the quantity of sugar available for consumption, in the United Kingdom, In 1811, was 4,047,221 cwt.; In 1840, was 4.03S.845 cwt-; while the population had increased 8,000,000 (according to the Economist 8,159,739). During that period the consumption of tea and coffee, according to the same authority, had increased from an aggregate of 27,092,931 pounds in 181 1, to 69,916,734 pounds in 1840. From this I drew the inference, that allowing each person of the 8,000,000 of additional population the orthodox quantity, two cups of tea or coffee to breakfast, and the same quantity in the evening, that there were 32,000,000 cups of tea and coffee drunk every day, in the United Kingdom, without a particle of genuine sugar to sweeten them. " Now, as the Courier may object to the Economist as an author ity, let us throw it overboard altogether, and take ' Porter's Progress of the Nation,' which must" be allowed, both by monopolists and free traders, to be a work of unquestionable authority ; and, from the data furnished from that work, I trust I shall prove, to the Courier's satisfaction, that if, according to Porter, the remarks I made at the Amphitheater were not literally correct, they were, at all events, substantially so. " A reference to ' Porter's Progress of the Nation ' will show that the sugar retained for consumption in Great Britain, in 181 1, after deducting the refined sugar exported, was 3,292,321 cwt. CLOSE OF MY LIVERPOOL LIFE. 363 The quantity of sugar retained in Ireland for consumption, on the average of three years ended 5th of January, 1810, and which I take, as I cannot lay my hand on the quantity consumed in Ireland in 181 1, but the quantity in 181 1 would probably not be less ........ 420,093 cwt. Sugar retained for consumption in the United Kingdom, in 1811, 3,712,414 cwt. The quantity of sugar retained for consumption in the United King dom, according to Mr. Porter, in 1840, was . . . 3,764,710 cwt. Therefore only 52,296 cwt. of sugar more were retained for consuption in 1840 than in 1811. In 1811 the population of the United Kingdom, according to Mr. Porter, was ....... 18,547,729 In 1841 itwas ..... 26,711,694 To find the popuiation in 1840, deduct one-tenth of increase between 1831 and 1841 . . . 268,169 Population of 1840 ...... 26,443,495 Increase of population in the twenty-nine years, from 1811 to 1840, 7,895,775 " But the increase of sugar consumed in these twenty-nine years, as shown above, is only 52,296 cwt., which, at the consumption of 1811 (22 pounds per head), would only supply 266,234 persons ; deducting that amount from the increase of population since 181 1, we have 7,629,541 persons who, in 1840, never tasted genuine sugar, and, consequently, in that year I may say there were 30,518,164 cups of tea and coffee drunk every day in the United Kingdom, without a lump of genuine sugar in them, instead of 32,000,000, as I stated upon the basis of the Economist's statistics. This trifling discrep ancy will not benefit the monopolists much. The Courier asserts that the gross revenue, in 1811, from sugar was only ......... £422,080 And the net revenue only ...... 372,000 Mr. Porter says, the net revenue in 181 1 was .... 3,183,505 The Courier says the revenue derived from sugar last year), by which we presume the writer means, as we have seen no return for 1842, 1 841), was ........ 720,000 Mr. Porter says the revenue for that year was . . 5,114,390 " So that in reference to the sapient scribe of the Courier, I think I am justified in applying to himself his own observation : ' Thus it is that the public are imposed upon by men who either willfully propa- 364 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. gate error for factious or interested purposes, or presumptuously undertake to teach others what they do not understand themselves.' " In reply to what the Courier writes regarding the encourage ment which the admission of slave-grown sugar, at colonial duties, would give to slavery, I can only say that I conscientiously hold the opinion that the true way to put an end to slavery and the slave trade is to do away with the differential duties on foreign sugar, and thus throw the West Indians on their own energy and resources ; encouraging at the same time, by every legitimate means, the emigration of negroes from Africa to our West India islands, thus benefiting the emigrants by transferring them from the barbarism of Africa to the civilization of our West India islands, overthrowing the present monopoly of labor in these islands, and reducing its cost to the planter ; while at the same time the more free emigrants, from Africa, there are, the fewer slave emigrants will there remain to be taken by the Cubans and Brazilians. " However, for the present, leaving the admission of slave- grown sugar out of the question, will the Courier and its friends admit the free labor sugar of Manilla, China, and Java, at the same duty as colonial sugar ? And if not, why not ? " I am, sir, your obedient servant, " William Wood." "the sugar fraud. " 15 Old Hall Street, November 29, 1843. " To the Editors of the Liverpool Mercury : " Gentlemen : On the 22d inst. I addressed a letter to you (which you did me the favor to insert in your last publication) regarding an article in the Liverpool Courier of that day, upon the statistics of the consumption of sugar in the United Kingdom in 181 1 and 1840. The Courier of Wednesday renews its attack upon my statistics, and being unable to disprove Mr. Porter's statement (that the quantity of sugar retained for consumption in the United Kingdom in i8nwas 3,712,414 cwts., while in 1840 the quantity so retained was only 3,764,710, although the population had increased, as shown in my last, from 18,547,720 persons in 1811, to 26,447,495 m l84o), takes the net revenue of 1811 derived from sugar, £3,183,505, and the net revenue derived in 1841, £5,144,390, and attempts to CLOSE OF MY LIVERPOOL LIFE. 365 prove from the difference of the net amount of duties that the con sumption of sugar has nearly doubled since 181 1 ! " I referred to the revenue of 1841, in order to meet the Courier's assertion that the revenue from sugar, in 1841, was only £720,000, whereas I showed, from ' Porter's Rise and Progress of the Nation,' that it was £5,144,390. The Courier now says that its statistics of this day week had only reference to the revenue derived from sugar at the port of Liverpool, although what that could have to do with the question at issue between us (the consumption of sugar in the United Kingdom), I am at a loss to imagine. It was evident that the Courier, in its eagerness to invalidate the statements of a free trader, had itself made a great blunder, but how that blunder had arisen I certainly could not explain, until the Courier of this morn ing came forward with its own explanation, such as it is. " The real question between the Courier and myself is the con sumption of sugar in the United Kingdom in 1811 and 1840. The consumption of the former year I have proved, from Porter, to have been 3,712,414 cwt., and of the latter only 3,764,710 cwt., although the population had increased by 7,895,775 persons during the twenty- nine years. " Why should the Courier go to the net revenue derived from sugar in each year, to draw an inference from that, as to the con sumption, when the actual consumption itself is distinctly stated in hundredweights by Mr. Porter, and admits of no contradiction ? The Courier, if it knows anything at all about the revenue derived from sugar, must be perfectly aware that we can draw no infer ence as to the actual consumption of any one year from the net revenue of that year, because we neither know the expense of col lection nor the amount which has been paid in bounties on the exportation of refined sugar for every year, nor the amount of duty which has been remitted in some years, in consequence of the sugar being used in distilleries, and the spirit being then charged with duty instead of the sugar ; therefore the net revenue has nothing whatever to do with the question at issue. " I am unable to ascertain how much of the gross revenue was expended in bounties on refined sugar exported in 181 1, but McCul- loch in his ' Commercial Dictionary ' states that in the year ending January 5, 1831, no less a sum than £1,286,753 was paid in boun- 366 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. ties on British refined sugar exported, therefore the probability is that the difference between the gross revenue, — which the consumption of 1811, 3,712,414 cwt., at 27s. (not 30s. as erroneously stated in the Courier of to-day) gives as £5,01 1,758, — and the net revenue of that year is £3,183,505. Difference, £1,828,253, may be accounted for by the bounties on refined sugar exported, the expense of collection, and the non-charge, or remission of duty on 544,192 cwt. of sugar used in distilleries in 181 1, the duty on which alone, at 27s. per hundredweight, would amount to £734,659. As I am not arguing the question on temperance, but on economical principles, it makes no difference to me whether the 544,192 cwt. of sugar were consumed in tea or in toddy, they were consumed in one way or another within the United Kingdom. " In reply to my question ' Will the Courier and its friends admit the free labor sugar of Manilla, China, and Java at the same duty as colonial sugar ? ' the Courier of to-day replies ' that it would be impossible in consideration of existing treaties, as well as of fair play, to treat the produce of the above named foreign places differently from that of other foreign places. And, moreover, the quantities raised in these places are quite inconsid erable.' The only commercial treaty which we have, I believe, with any state producing slave-grown sugar, is with Brazil, and it expires in a year. At its expiry will the Courier admit the free labor sugar of Manilla, Java, and China at colonial duties ? With regard to the quantities raised in these places being 'quite inconsiderable,' I suspect that 'the wish is father to the thought,' and that if the fact were so, there would be less reluc tance than there is on the part of the sugar monopolists to admit free-labor sugar at colonial duties. "According to the 'Supplement to the Spectator of April 15, 1843, on Cheap Sugar,' an article written, I have reason to believe, by one most friendly to the West India interest, it is stated that the production of sugar, for exportation, by the following free- labor countries is as undernoted : Manilla ...... 25,000 tons Java ... . . 60,000 tons Siam, Penang, and Singapore, nearly . . 10,000 tons 95,000 tons, or 1,900,000 cwt., CLOSE OF MY LIVERPOOL LIFE. 367 or upward of one-half of the whole quantity of sugar consumed in the United Kingdom in 1840, and exclusive entirely of what China produces, and of the large additional quantities which Manilla and Java could produce, had they the English market as a vent for their production. "Yours, etc., "William Wood." We had the usual Christmas festivities, and Harriet fixed up a room on the third story for their celebration, making a beautiful show for the children with odd and old materials. I recollect a house constructed out of an old box, with two chimneys made of the square boxes which had contained bear's grease for my hair, and of which, in those days, I used a quantity for my hair and whiskers. Then she had a platform covered with carpet, on which stood a table upon which all the minor gifts were displayed, the larger ones being arranged round the room. On Christmas morning, as had been the case ever since our eldest hope, John Walter, could toddle about, Harriet had a great Christmas demonstration, the gifts to the children and servants being all arranged in the most artistic manner ; then, after breakfast, I rang the large dinner bell " loud and well," and children and servants flocked to the door of the room where the gifts were laid out, and, when all were assembled, Harriet unlocked the door and the children flocked in with shouts and laughter, the servants following more sedately. This Christmas show of 1843 was the most elaborate we had had, Harriet having exerted herself more than usual to make it attractive. Alas ! it was the last she and I were ever to have in our happy home at Everton. With the opening of 1844 I continued actively engaged in political matters, and about the beginning of March, 1844, Daniel O'Connell was tried for sedition by an Orange Tory jury in Dublin and con victed. He appealed to the House of Lords to set aside the convic tion as illegal, and the Irish inhabitants of Liverpool applied to the Liberal Committee in Liverpool, of which I was a member, to give O'Connell a public meeting in Liverpool on his arrival from Dublin on his way to London. We agreed to do this on the distinct under standing that the repeal of the union was not to be made a subject of discussion at the meeting. Political feeling and excitement ran 368 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. very high at the time, and it was said that eighty Tory magistrates had signed a petition to the mayor of Liverpool to forbid the meet ing, which of course made us Liberals all the more determined to hold it, and it was held in the Liverpool Amphitheater on Thursday evening, March 28, 1844, and I was elected to present the address of the Liverpool Liberals to the Irish Catholic emancipator. There were some three thousand people present, including many ladies in full dress in the boxes. I was very enthusiastic at the time on the subject of Catholic emancipation from the thrall of an alien church, imposed on seven-eighths of the population of Ireland, and also on the subject of the indebtedness of Scotland and England to Daniel O'Connell and his Irish following for assisting us in carrying the First Reform Bill of 1832. During the fifty years from 1840 to 1890 I have made no end of public speeches on all sorts of subjects and to all sorts of audiences, both in Liverpool and New York, but I never made so good a speech or one which was received with such wild enthusiasm as that which I delivered on March 28, 1844, in favor of O'Connell. When I had finished I presented him with the Liberal address, and, standing on the stage and thanking me, he pressed my hand between both of his and spoke to me in the most effusive manner. He was a personal friend of my uncle and partner, John Dennistoun, then M. P. for Glasgow. I annex hereto the report of the meeting and of my speech given by the Liverpool Journal of March 30, 1844. The reporter, at the end of his report, when O'Connell shook me by the hand, called me Charles Robertson (a Liberal friend of mine, and who spoke after me), but I have cut out his name, as / was the " real Simon Pure." On re-reading this speech and some of the foregoing, I no longer wonder that the Times of that day should have suggested in a lead ing article that I should be arrested for sedition and sent to Botany Bay, as Sydney, N. S. W., was then called. I did not see this myself in the Times, as I did not get it then, but I ¦ was told that it had printed what I have stated above. " O'CONNELL IN LIVERPOOL. " On Thursday night last [March 28, 1844] the vast area of the Liverpool Amphitheater, and all the avenues approaching it, were CLOSE OF MY LIVERPOOL LIFE. 369 crowded to suffocation by the friends of justice to Ireland and the admirers of the great leader of the Irish nation. The appearance of Mr. O'Connell on the platform, in company with Mr. W. Rathbone, the chairman, was the signal for a demonstration of enthusiasm entirely unequaled in our experience of public meetings, and prob ably never surpassed during the whole of the long and eventful career of the illustrious recipient of those honors. The entire audi tory seemed animated with but one heart and one soul in giving utterance to the fervor of their admiration of a man who, in his individual person, is at once the embodiment of the struggling liberties of his own country and the imperiled privileges of this. To those who witnessed the scene, all description would be worse than superfluous — to those who did not, no description, however vivid or highly colored, could convey an adequate idea of its actuality. " The boxes were filled with ladies, the great majority of whom were elegantly attired, and most actively participated in the bestowal of acclamations on the illustrious guest of the evening. " Among the gentlemen on the platform we noticed Messrs. R. V. Yates, Thomas Blackburn, Thomas Bolton, Christopher Rawdon, Richard Sheil, C. J. Corbally, J. T. Crooke, Charles Robertson, Charles Holland, Eyre Evans, Rev. Joseph Maher, James Mulleneux, James Brancker, Richard Bright, Dr. P. Murphy, T. B. Segar, Re corder of Wigan, the Rev. Dr. Appleton, T. B. M'Manus, J. H. Greene, R. W. Ronald, S. Bulley, J. Finch, Jr., Rev. J. Baker, Thomas Bury, James Waugh M'Bride, Francis Boult, Jr., Richard Reynolds Rathbone, Rev. J. H. Thom, Hugh Bullen, John Yates, Jr., Edward Bretherton, Richard Rathbone, William Wood, Thomas Blackburn, Jr., Le Poer French, W. B. Hodgson, Edward Chaloner, Christopher Dugdale, Corrie, barrister, C. E. Rawlins, Jr., Rev. W. Parker, Rev. R. Grayston, Rev. T. Frith, R. E. Harvey, M. M'Divett, Cavannagh, A. M. M'Divett, R. Day, Lennan, J. Langan, W. Brown, A. Forrest, J. Edwards, George Holt, Rev. J. Robbards, J. Bradley, etc., etc., etc. " Mr. Wood said : ' I have much pleasure in moving the adoption of the resolution which I have just read, and I feel peculiar satisfac tion in taking part in the proceedings of this splendid meeting, — (hear, hear) — for my earliest political feelings and associations are connected with the struggle for Catholic emancipation, and with the success of 370 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. its invincible champion, at the great Clare election. (Bursts of ap plause.) Since that period I have ever watched, with the most heartfelt interest, his position in freedom's glorious battle ; — (great applause) — and wherever has been the thickest of the fight for Irish, and not less for English, liberty, there has been seen the manly form and heard the eloquent voice of Daniel O'Connell. (Tremendous cheering.) As we are yet to have the pleasure of listening to that apostle of Irish freedom, I shall not dilate upon the many wrongs of Ireland ; — (hear, hear) — upon her state church, — established for behoof of the small minority of about one-eighth of the inhabitants of the isle, — that petted and pampered church, which, like a pyramid, — upon the small end, — can only be forced to stand by the support of fixed bayonets. (Loud and repeated bursts of applause.) Nor shall I enlarge upon her want of a just proportion of representatives in the imperial legislature, nor upon that other grievous wrong to the poor of Ireland — the habitual absenteeism of her nobility and gentry ; but perhaps I may be permitted to relate an anecdote of what fell under my own observation during a visit which I paid to the sister island about sixteen years ago, as it illus trates in a striking manner the sort of feeling which then existed (and I fear still continues to exist) on the part of the Irish Protest ant Tories to their Roman Catholic brethren. I was asked to dine with a gentleman in the vicinity of Dublin. After dinner the then vexed question of Catholic emancipation was introduced, and the conduct of Mr. O'Connell and his co-religionists was very freely discussed. Among the guests was a respectable-looking old gentle man, a physician, I was told, whom one would have supposed, from his appearance, to have outlived the excessive violence of party feeling which characterizes the Irish nation ; but when he came to express his opinion of his Catholic fellow-subjects, I was shocked to hear him say, with the utmost bitterness of expression : " Far from granting the Catholics emancipation, I would throw cow itch in their eyes, and I would not allow them their own nails to scratch them selves with." (Hear, hear, cheers, and laughter.) Now, sir, apart from politics, the Protestant jury which convicted Mr. O'Connell may have been, individually, everything that was respectable, but when we see the organ of the Orange Tories, the Dublin Evening Mail, characterize them as "good men and true," — (hear, hear) — CLOSE OF MY LIVERPOOL LIFE. 37 1 have we not every reason to surmise that their political feeling was such as that which dictated the speech — the very Christian speech — of the old gentleman to whom I have alluded ? (Cheers and laughter.) Did not every sentence of Chief- Justice Pennefather's charge convey the idea that he also would " have thrown cow itch in the eyes of the traversers, and not have allowed them their own nails to scratch themselves with " ? (Laughter and cheers.) With such a jury and with such a judge, well might the greatest of our English lawyers, Sir Thomas Wilde, emphatically declare that Mr. O'Connell had not had a fair trial. (Enthusiastic cheering.) But, sir, in spite of that trial, I trust that Mr. O'Connell will never desist to agitate the king dom from the center to circumference until he obtain that justice to Ireland for which he has so nobly struggled from his earliest youth. (Great cheering.) And, sir, as in the material world, the darkest and the coldest hour is that which precedes the dawn, so may the present hour of sorrow to Ireland for the unjust conviction of those she loves the best, be but the herald of the rising sun of justice and freedom to that unhappy oppressed country. Let us hope — and let us do our best by turning out the Tory Ministry as speedily as we can to realize that hope — that the time approaches when we may say, with the greatest of living poets, himself a patriot son of the Green Island : " ' " Erin, oh ! Erin, thy winter is past, And the hope that lived through it shall blossom at last." ' " (Mr. Wood retired amid continued cheering.) On the con clusion of Mr. Wood's speech, amid the most deafening plaudits, he was shaken fervently by the hand by Mr. O'Connell." This speech at the O'Connell meeting was the penultimate appearance of mine as regards political matters in Liverpool. My last political effort was my endeavor to get Mr. William Brown of Brown, Shipley & Co. elected M. P. for South Lancashire, in the spring of 1844. There was then, and probably is now, a recipro cal feeling of dislike between the Liverpool and Manchester men. The former thought the latter vulgar and purse-proud, the latter thought the former speculative and airish ; but in the spring of 1844 the Liberals of both cities were very anxious to return a Liberal 372 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. M. P. for South Lancashire, and, as Liverpool was less Liberal in its politics than Manchester, the latter waived all right to nominate the Liberal contestant, and left the nomination entirely to the Liverpool men. The members of the Liberal Committee met, and one of them proposed to nominate a wealthy land and copper mine owner of the name of Vivian, if I remember rightly. He had married a daughter of the Liberal Earl of Sefton, whose eldest son was Lord Molyneux, a Radical. I said no ; let us nominate one of our own profession, a great merchant, William Brown, of Brown, Shipley & Co., as I believe that men with a large mercantile experience will make better legislators than the landed gentry or lawyers. The matter was debated for some time, it being remarked by the opponents of William Brown that he could not speak in public, and mispronounced many words, as, for instance, "situation for "situa tion." I said this could easily be corrected, and, although Mr. Brown was no orator, he would make an excellent committeeman, and finally I carried my point, and he was invited to stand, and con sented. We told him about his mispronunciations, and he good- naturedly agreed to correct them. He called at my office several times regarding the matter of this election, in order to get me to " stump " South Lancashire with him self, another Liverpool gentleman, either William Rathbone or a Mr. Rawdon, I forget which, and the great Free Trade leader, Rich ard Cobden. We went off in a carriage and four to Southport, and there Cobden addressed the voters from the balcony of the inn, and I followed him. My speech was mainly directed to the doing away of the differential duty on foreign and colonial wools, although I myself was interested in a large sheep farm in Australia. From Southport we drove to Bolton, and as we entered the town the people took out the horses and pulled in the carriage themselves. There we had some further speechifying, and, I think, returned to Liverpool in the evening. Just before the election came off a Roman Catholic land-owner in this division of Lancashire sold his estate to a Tory, if I remember rightly, a Mr. Entwistle, and with the estate went three hundred votes from the Liberal to the Tory candidate ; so that Mr. Brown lost that election. I recollect that he, his son, arid some Liberals drove out to Newton, about half way between Liverpool and Manchester, to hear the official an- CLOSE OF MY LIVERPOOL LIFE. 373 nouncement of the result of the election. I rode out on the rumble with young Brown. This was some time in June, 1844. After this, leaving Harriet in Liverpool to prepare for our voyage to New York, I went down to Glasgow and Elie and said good-by to my relations. She did not wish to go through that ordeal. On July 4 I was asked and went to a great dinner at Mr. William Brown's house, near Liverpool, and he gave me letters to his New York house, Brown Brothers & Co., and to his brother James Brown, the then senior partner of that house. These letters were of little or no use to me. The next election for South Lancashire Mr. William Brown was elected to the House of Commons, and made a good, intelligent M. P., and Her Majesty made him a baronet. CHAPTER XXVIII ARRIVAL IN NEW YORK AND SUMMER STAY IN A MALARIOUS HOTEL AT GLEN COVE, L. I. I had taken berths for my wife and family in the Britannia steamer for Boston, the first and smallest of the Cunard line, which was to sail about July 6, but early that month a superb sailing packet, the Queen of the West, arrived on her first voyage from New York. Her staterooms were so large, and every way so superior to those of the Britannia, that I got the Cunard people to let me off my engagement with them, and I secured staterooms in the Queen of the West, Captain Philip Woodhouse, to sail for New York, July 6, 1844. Regarding our embarkation, etc., my wife wrote the follow ing in an old notebook, which I copy here, as well as my own account of it, which follows hers in the notebook : "On Saturday, July 6, 1844, we left the Waterloo Dock, Liver pool, in the Queen of the West, for New York, having on board (in cluding ourselves) about five-and-twenty cabin passengers and two hundred in the steerage. Many were the friends and kind looks and words which attended our parting, the last who lingered with us being our esteemed friend, Dr. Thomas Blackburn, who accom panied us in the ship to that part of the stream where we were to lie at anchor for the night, opposite Egremont, and returned in a small boat to Liverpool with Captain Woodhouse, who had some business to see to before leaving. The cry of ' A man overboard ! ' before the ship left the quay gave rise to much uneasiness and excitement, and while the rush of footsteps and the shouting voices of thousands from the streets were heard, another cry arose of a sec ond man gone. This was one who, at his own risk of life, jumped in to save his fellow. Both were fortunately rescued, the former conveyed into the ship, but the latter was so badly hurt that he was taken to the hospital. The first man belonged to the steerage, and afterward was found to be so ill that he too was sent on shore with ARRIVAL IN NEW YORK. 375 the boat which conveyed Dr. Blackburn and our captain. Two men were found secreted in the hold of the ship who had not paid their passage money ; the one (seemingly a drunken, worthless fel low) was sent on shore, but the other, being a decent sort of man and an American, anxious to reach his own country, but without money, was allowed to remain, the passengers kindly agreeing to raise the sum necessary among themselves to defray his passage. After parting with our friend, Dr. B., we retired to the cabin, unpacked and made all comfortable and to bed, the ship pitching a little and unpleasantly, though riding at anchor, and the children all sickish and miserable. The morning was clear and cold, but we had made but little progress through the night, the wind being northwest. We were able to remain on deck all day, but, feeling unsettled and miserable, we could neither read nor talk. In the evening Charlotte was very seasick, and reclined her head upon my breast, while I sang her ' some of the songs of Zion,' which soon put her fast asleep, and when she awoke the marks of the fringe cord and buttons of my dress had left a most ludicrous impression upon her cheeks and nose and forehead as if she had been tattooed. We took a little supper of preserved ginger (a capital thing for a seasick stomach) and some biscuits and tea. The night was calm and pleas ant — wind dead ahead, but we saw the coast of Wales beautifully, then the Isle of Man, the Westmoreland hills, and the Skerries. Our sleep refreshed us for the morning's breakfast, and when on deck we had leisure to feel and reflect, to look about us, criticise our fellow passengers, and to read. "We have observed an immense number of beautiful jelly fishes, reflecting beautiful colors in the water like the colors of the rainbow ; some of them have a distinct pink or crimson interlacing pattern on the back, like the braiding on embroidered sachets or pin-cushions. We have been amused also by watching the gambols of a small whale, which evidently kept pace with the ship for something to eat. Mr. Wood is at present walking the deck with Mr. Brodhead, to whom we were introduced last night, a very gentlemanly and well-educated man. Our children are running about well and happy. Willie is already a great favorite. Charlotte is reading ; John Walter using the spy-glass, watching some sails in the distance. We have a long- tailed Virginian on board, or, rather, a Virginian with a long-tailed 376 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. coat — a most disgusting animal, but a ' Free Trader.' There is also a gentleman from Baltimore, a decent old fellow with no pretensions, but willing to be pleasant and polite ; two Frenchmen, one a bird- fancier, who has daily to throw one of his pets overboard — the poor things soon become sickly and die. The other is now amusing him self with translating the story of ' Dis-is-de-house-dat-Jack-built ' ; he has his dictionary on his knee, and is spelling out the words with all the gravity imaginable. He has this morning received a lesson in English from John Walter, and in return has given him one in French. There is a yellow-faced tawney of an American, a mission ary to Constantinople, who has a long pipe like a Turk, and has fairly smoked and chewed Robert Dennistoun out of his stateroom. [This personage subsequently became Bishop Southgate.] One of our passengers has his sister on board, a lady with a beautiful black mantilla and a gold watch. She had a berth in the ladies' cabin, but, upon estimating the expense, he found he would not have enough of ' the tin ' for himself and the lady also, therefore with drew her to the steerage while he retains his own stateroom, walks the best part of the deck, and eats with the lady and gentlemen passengers, his sister never making her appearance. We have also one or two fat-faced boys as passengers, one or two surly or silent gentlemen, and one or two essentially vulgar and talkative." Here ends Harriet's notes on our departure and the beginning of our voyage. I seem to have added my version after she had fin ished, and as it is not very long and differs a little from hers, I give it as follows : "Saturday, July 6, 1844. Left our own house at Everton at 12.30 p. m. in a coach and car [cab], having previously sent our luggage to the Queen of the West. On the quay we met Uncle Alick and Cross, and, after getting Harriet and the children and servants on board across the Cincinnati, I went on board myself. In due time we hauled out into the stream, carrying Dr. Blackburn along with us. We came to anchor off Egremont, whence Dr. B. got ashore in a small boat. We had dinner at six, and to bed about nine. My reflections on retiring to rest were somewhat melan- cholious, and reflecting on the ten living souls under my charge, I felt, like Moses in the wilderness, ' that the charge of this people was ARRIVAL IN NEW YORK. 377 too heavy for me.' However, I prayed to God and took courage, feeling that he who had delivered me from the lions and bears of former journeys would also deliver me from the present Philistine of an undertaking. The names of my ten tribes are these : " Harriet, wife and mother ; John Walter, eldest son ; Charlotte Matilda, eldest daughter ; Elizabeth Dennistoun, second daughter ; Harriet Maria, third daughter ; William, commonly called ' Willie,' second son ; Helen, fourth daughter ; Maria Brown, nurse ; Selina Powell, otherwise ' Powell,' nurse ; Robert Dennistoun, otherwise '' Bob,' otherwise ' Major General.' " On Sunday morning, July 7, 1 awoke squeamish, but dressed and went on deck, without being sick, but on coming down before breakfast became practically so. We had light winds from the north-northwest all day, and made the Isle of Man in the evening. At night it fell calm, and we only made fifteen miles during the night. Monday, July 8, a fine day, with a very light wind from the northwest. At this present writing we are off Holyhead, barely holding our own against a strong flood tide." After a passage of thirty-seven days we landed at New York on Monday, August 12, Frederick De Peyster, Harriet's brother-in- law, husband of her sister Maria, having kindly come down to Quarantine to meet and welcome us. We found all friends well, and, thank God, we were also quite well. Willie was the life of the ship, running about the deck in the roughest weather, and cry ing out when the vessel gave an extra lurch : " Don't knock me down, Queen of the West ! " Our principal crony among the pas sengers was J. R. Brodhead, who had been acting in Europe as his torical agent for the State of New York, and had been previously secretary of the United States Legation at The Hague for two years. After him came R. S. Kennedy, an Irish barrister, a pleasant, gen tlemanly fellow, a friend of Will Cross' eldest brother. There are a hundred and fifty different incidents, thoughts, and feelings I could set down as pertaining to the voyage and landing, but I have no time, and will only mention that we got inside Sandy Hook on Sunday night and anchored in the Lower Bay, and in the morning small boats came off from New Jersey with baskets of ripe peaches, which we all enjoyed hugely after our long voyage. 378 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. After fourteen years' absence, and coming to New York with highly raised expectations, and with my youthful enthusiasm, I fancy, considerably abated by the chilling effect of fourteen addi tional winters, I was charmed with the city, and in no way disap pointed with the streets. The houses, the fountains, and the people, all were a credit to republican institutions, and I thank God that such things can be without the aid of kings or nobles. Mr. and Mrs. De Peyster were kindness and hospitality personi fied. They came from their country quarters at Dosoris, opened their house for us at 88 University Place, in the very midst of the hot weather, and kept us there till August 20, when we secured board and lodging at Weekes' Hotel, Glen Cove, near Dosoris, where the De Peyster and Mills and Winthrop families were passing the summer. Weekes' Hotel was in the middle of the village and a very hot residence ; so some of the children got ill, and none of us were very well while we remained there. Harriet gives an account of our state and condition to my sister Mary, which I copy out : " Glen Cove, L. I., August 28, 1844. " My Dearest Mary : " Here we are, seated in the parlor of a quiet country inn, our selves and Murray Thomson the only inmates. He is on the sofa reading a letter just received. William is seated at a table reading the last Liverpool newspaper, looking very grave, dressed in James' tartan shooting jacket ; Charlotte playing a piece on the piano ; John Walter just entering with white trousers, all covered with mud and dirt, and the young ones all below at their tea. The ' katy dids ' are chirping loudly and the frogs croaking. It is a splendid moonlight night, and the windows and doors are open. Margaret Hone and Mr. Foster (to whom Emily is about to be married) have just left for Rockaway, a fine sea-bathing place about twenty miles off, from whence they came yesterday at noon to spend a day with us here, and Emily and Maria have just returned to my sister Mrs. Winthrop's, about three miles off. Well, dearest Mary, you will want to know how we feel. Why, amidst all this lovely wild scenery we feel hike pelicans in the wilderness or owls in the desert. My dear William is sadly out of spirits, longing for rest and quiet and home, and that depresses me. I, too, long to be beside my ever dear ARRIVAL IN NEW YORK. 379 ones in Scotland. We have met with kindness beyord anything we could have expected, and my friends here are as happy as the day is long to get us among them, and hoping we will never return to Eng land. The country is far more picturesque and grand than we had imagined, the fruit, flowers, and delicacies more plentiful and more excellent than we had fancied ; and yet, like David, we ' long to flee away and be at rest.' Our dear children since we landed have all (but Helen and John Walter) been ill. Charlotte has had a sort of quinsy sore throat and fever, and Bessie is now ill with jaundice : her eyes and skin are a deep orange yellow, frightful to look upon, and she has had some days of acute suffering. William is neither ill nor well. I am the strongest next to J. Walter, but out of spirits, and cannot enjoy the good things and kind friends around me. Truly, our prayer has been answered, that when we pass through the city of Vanity Fair we may be kept sober- minded, for we are as sober and grave as if we were a century old. I have seen all my dear sister Caroline's children ; a most painful though pleasing meeting. William and Murray T. say they never saw so fine a family, taken altogether. They are beautiful, graceful, dignified, and intelligent, yet all different, one of them the image of my precious Caroline. They are still in deep mourning, and wept bitterly when they related their mother's tender love for me, her plans for making me happy when I did come, though she said she was sure it would be too much happiness for her to enjoy on earth, the meeting with her favorite sister, and her husband and all her children. ' One of my nieces, Mrs. Lawrence's child (her only child), is the image of our dear Charlotte Heyworth. All these things pain, though they please, me. " Dear William is to go to Canada very soon, to be absent about three weeks. He will probably take John Walter with him. Robert Dennistoun is still absent on his little tour with Mr. Kennedy. I have not yet seen my sister Cornelia [Mrs. Smyth] who lives in Albany ; she wrote begging me to come up to pay her a visit immediately, but I cannot leave the children, and William thinks it too much expense and trouble to take them with us. " Charlotte intends writing to your Libby, and I to dear Aunt Helen, so I must conclude, for somehow I have no time for any thing in this place : it is all frittered away in doing nothing. You 380 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. know how it is, with people coming in, walks and drives to take, three meals to eat, and a sick child to nurse. Give much love from us to Mr. Ferguson, and kisses to my dear nieces, and may God richly bless you all with every good thing is my most fervent wish and prayer. " Ever affectionately your own " H. A. W. " Mr. Robert Ferguson, " Blantyre Lodge, Blantyre, Scotland." In an old notebook, many pages of which are torn out, I find the following : "On Tuesday, August 20, 1844, came with my family to Weekes' House, Glen Cove. The following day, August 21, Weekes, the landlord, told me that he keeps a general store. His custo mers settle with him once a year on May 1. His sales are from ten thousand to twenty thousand dollars per annum ; he has been in business fifteen years and has not lost over five or six thousand dollars in bad debts. He is a tariff man, but is willing to do away with protection duties if England would set the example. Most of the tariff men I meet are for reciprocity. "August 22. — Came to New York, per stage, through Hempstead Harbor, Flushing, to Williamsburg, and by ferry to New York. Met Murray Thomson, in eight days from New Orleans. Dined at Philip Hone's ; met John R. Kennedy, a Member of Congress. Moses H. Grinnell was also there, and in Philip Hone's diary he names them and the others present, including myself, and calls it ' a nice little party,' adding ' They came at 3 p. m. and we broke up soon after 6.' Mr. Grinnell stated that he had bought 30 ears of corn for i2j£ cents. Mr. Hone mentioned that he had bought one bushel of melons, containing 18 or 20 delicious ones, for 37j^ cents, and that they were selling by the single melon for 3 cents. Matthew L. Davis is the ' Genevese Traveler' of the newspapers. In 1839 Mr. De Peyster told me that he passed through the prairies of Illi nois driving through and over wheat which could not be cut owing to the scarcity and expense of labor. I slept at Fred. De Peyster's house on the night of August 22. On the 23d I took Murray Thomson up to Glen Cove by the steamer ; 24th, occupied looking ARRIVAL IN NEW YORK. 38 1 over the New Orleans accounts with Murray T. In the evening drove over to Manhasset to see the Millses. Sunday, 25th, went to the Methodist church ; 26th, New Orleans accounts again. August 27, ditto. Margaret Hone was here on August 26 and 27. On August 30 went in to New York per stage and railway, the Metho dist minister driving the former ; he is an Englishman. Saw Murray Thomson off to Boston en route to Liverpool. Told Dawson my views about a New York house. Took tea with Mrs. Philip Hone and called on Mrs. Nicholson [Helen Kane]. Slept at Mr. F. De Peyster's. On August 31 returned to Glen Cove and found all well, thank God. September 1 had a long talk with dearest Harriet, and at the Methodist church heard an excellent sermon from the old Englishman who drove me in the stage on August 30. The subject was Jonah i. 6. In the afternoon to the Episcopal church and heard a very poor discourse. " Nearly ever since I landed I have been sinfully depressed in spirits, full of doubts and fears spiritually and temporally, looking forward to utter destitution and feeling incapable of doing efficiently what I have undertaken to do. I feel the work too heavy for me, and I fear that I have gone into it relying too much on my own strength, which is indeed perfect weakness. Lord have mercy on me, a sinner. When in New York I was introduced to D. S. Kennedy by Wm. H. Neilson. Dawson contrasted him with David Maitland [but now, Aug. 12, 1890, I forget in what way]. On September 2, 1844, I intended to go to New York from Glen Cove to get the Great Western's letters and to meet John Yuille, but considering the expense, and feeling that I would be the better of rest, I stayed at home. I bless God that Harriet keeps up so well, and has by his grace been such a helpmeet for me. My fears are for my wife and children. Alas, alas ! like the Israelites I practically say, ' Can God furnish a table in the wilderness ? ' " Mr. Weekes, our landlord, tells us that good land on Long Island without houses is worth fifty dollars or seventy-five dollars per acre, and with farm steadings one hundred dollars per acre, and difficult to be got, excepting upon the death of a head of a family. But this statement cannot apply to the whole of Long Island, but only to Glen Cove and its vicinity." CHAPTER XXIX. MY TRIP TO CANADA IN THE YEAR 1844. On September 6, 1844, 1 left Glen Cove to make a visit to Canada and look into the affairs of our correspondents, the houses of Isaac Buchanan at Hamilton and Montreal. On leaving Glen Cove Harriet slipped into my hand the following short note written in pencil : "Glen Cove, Friday, September 6, 1844. " Dearest Will : " I shall try to keep up my spirits and brace my health for your sake. Do the same for me, I conjure you, my own, own love, and may the God of all comfort, strengthen, and bless you, and keep you from anticipating evil which may never arrive. " Ever fondly thine own " H." On the same day I wrote to her after I had reached New York : "New York, September 6, 1844. " My Blessed Wife : " Your little note has proved a cordial to me. I shall treasure it as a diamond link of the chain which binds my heart and soul to you. I had a pleasant sail down, and often by the way felt com forted and supported by the Holy Spirit, being assured that He who hitherto had so bountifully cared for me and mine would be with us even unto the end ; and although at times the road may be rough and the sky overcast, yet are we steadily going on to Our Father's mansion. God bless you, my beloved one ; take care of your most precious health for my sake and for the sake of those dear children who are beside you. I hope that I shall hear, if I be spared to return, that they have all been good and obedient, diligent at their lessons, and in every way a comfort to you. I trust to John Walter taking good care of you in your walks to and from Winthrops. On arriving here [New York] I drove up to 88 University Place ; found Bridget out, but she returned in five minutes ; she had been shop- 382 MY TRIP TO CANADA IN THE YEAR 1 844. 383 ping. I looked all over for the little Bible and John Walter's geometry, but could find neither. I got the shawl ticket and went and got the shawl itself, for which I paid $1.25. I shall lock it up in my portmanteau. In the pocket of the portmanteau are the keys of Charlotte's portmanteau and the old black one. Johnnie Hone looks much healthier to-day ; he and I dine together at three o'clock and then go to University Place, and he's coming down in the cab with me to see me off at seven. I shall leave this open until I have been to the Knickerbocker to see my berth. I have my berth in stateroom 19 on deck of the Knickerbocker. I send along with this by Mr. Winthrop a copy of Playfair Euclid for John Walter, and I wish him to begin where he left off and learn a pro position perfectly every day. I have seen W. H. Neilson ; I think he and his wife may come up to you next week, and she may stay a day, he coming back for her. " God forever bless and protect you and our dear children. " Thine own attached "Wm. W." " Syracuse, N. Y., Canal Packet, " Saturday evening, 7 o'clock, September 7, 1844. " My Dearest Harriet : " It just occurs to me that I may send off a few words to say that I have reached here in safety. We got to Albany at four this morn ing. I went from thence to Troy in a steamer by way of seeing the river ; but the fog was so dense I saw nothing, and we took two hours to go six miles. The drive along the railway from Troy to this was beautiful, particularly about Little Falls. How I wished you were with me to enjoy the scenery. I have just heard that the post office is close by the boat, and have only time to say I am surrounded by people in the cabin, and have just had tea at Syracuse House in a room ninety by seventy feet. I am better of my jaunt. God forever bless you and my dear children. Kindest love to Maria and Em. " Ever thine own " Wm. W." 384 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. " No. 24, Welland House, Oswego, N. Y. " Sunday, September 8, 1844. " My Own Best Beloved : " Here I am, seated in a tolerably comfortable room, writing upon my bed for want of a table ; although there is no table there is a fine marble-topped bureau, with a handsome glass on the top and drawer below ; a cupboard stands opposite the glass with some one's luggage on the top of it, and there is a washstand in one cor ner with two towels about the size and thickness of small pocket handkerchiefs. So much for my particular locale. Downstairs there is a long, narrow, uncarpeted dining room ; across from it a bar, where several natives are sitting reading newspapers and smoking. Opening out of it is a sort of parlor, where men also read and smoke ; and further up the lobby is a large, plainly furnished drawing room for ladies. The accommodation is very good indeed for the size of the town, and I dare say the drawing room would look cheerful if filled by you and my darling children. " After I gave Charles Winthrop my three-cornered note to deliver to you on Friday, I went to Mr. De Peyster's office and there found a note for you from Margaret Hone. This I took down to the Glen Cove steamer and gave to the pilot to deliver to Mr. Winthrop when he came on board. I then walked along the wharves until I came to the Queen of the West. I saw both the captain and the fat mate, and got the first volume of Featherstonehaugh which Robert Dennistoun had left on board. Captain Woodhouse enquired after you all ; his vessel is filling up fast, and all our staterooms are already engaged. He sails on the 21st. I then went to John Hone's, and we dined together on oysters and beefsteak, with a sherry cobbler at ' Downing's.' By the way, Captain Woodhouse said if he had known we had remained so long in town, he would have called upon us. After dinner Johnnie and I went uptown together in an omnibus, and we called on the Millses, who seem to regret seeing so little of you and the children. We then went to Mr. De Peyster's, where I put away your India shawl in my port manteau. Johnnie felt tired, so I would not allow him to go to the steamer with me. When I went down to the Knickerbocker, Joe Strong was waiting to see me off. He gave me a letter to Mr. C. Smythe, Jr., of Oswego, a son of your sister Cornelia's husband ; MY TRIP TO CANADA IN THE YEAR 1844. 385 this I do not know yet whether I shall deliver. I got stateroom No. 20 on the Knickerbocker, a remarkably clean and neat little room with two berths in it, and ' a table and a chair and a candlestick,' besides basin, ewer, towel, and s.oap. Nothing could be nicer or cleaner. About eight we had tea, very nicely served — peaches cut up, cakes, tea, coffee, milk, beefsteak, sturgeon steak, etc., etc. I thought the sturgeon very good ; it tastes between salmon and beef. About half past nine I undressed and went to bed, but whether owing to the tea, the motion, or the desire to be up in time, I slept little. I rose at 4 a. m. and got comfortably dressed and read my Bible, and prayed that God would watch over us both and our dear children and unite us again in health and happiness, and not afflict us beyond what we are able to bear. Oh, how dear you and each and all of them are to me ! May the God of all grace give us and them an inheritance among the saints, and, while here, neither poverty nor riches. Pray for me, my beloved one, that I may ever be enabled to look to Jesus Christ for support and comfort in the hour of trial, and that the Holy Spirit may guide us to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. " My dear John Walter, and Lottie, and Bessie, and little squint ing Harrie, and dear fat Willie, and little grinning Helen, how I love you all and your blessed mother ! I do hope all of you elder ones will be good and obedient during my absence, and do all you can to comfort and cheer her, and that J. Walter will accompany her in all her walks as a protector. " Well, to proceed with my journey. We got to Albany in a dense fog, or ' flog,' as Bessie used to call it. I got into a small steamboat and proceeded six miles to Troy, thick fog all the way, so that we had to sound as we went along, and we did not reach Troy till seven. I got my ticket at the railway for Syracuse, and then bolted across the street to ' Watrous Hotel,' where I bolted an excellent breakfast, being afraid of missing the train ; but I found I might have taken ten minutes or a quarter of an hour longer and then have been in good time. The railway cars are entirely on a different construction from those in England, and, I think, better adapted to this country, or, at least, for summer in this country. Each car holds forty-eight people, twenty-four on each side, seated two on each side of a passage which runs the whole length of the 386 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. car. All can sit with their faces to the engine, if they choose, but the backs of the seats are so contrived as to turn over, so that you can sit with your back to the engine if you prefer it. The seats are very comfortable indeed, and as the rate of going is only about fourteen miles an hour, you can see the country very well. From Troy the railway runs up the valley of the Mohawk, and you have, from time to time, beautiful views of the river. The view at Little Falls is magnificent. The Mohawk appears to have found its way through a chain of rocky hills, and in the gorge so formed runs the river in the middle ; the canal on the right bank and the railway on the. left bank showing nature and art in curious and interesting combination. I took two lunches and no dinner ; instead of dinner at Utica, I bought the ' Life of Beau Brummell,' which served to while away the time. The comestibles at stopping-places on the road are in great abundance and excellent. The road and the refreshment houses are not so carefully finished as in England, but things are just as comfortable and cheaper, though not much. " We got to Syracuse about 6 p. m. This is 146 miles from Albany, and the cost was five dollars, which is rather cheaper than England, but not much. When you and I took our marriage jaunt fourteen years ago it took us three days to reach Syracuse from Albany. We passed Caughnawaga, but I did not notice it, but I am sure I saw a house where we changed horses, and where, you may recollect, we met with the only impertinence on our journey. How often I thought of you singing : " ' And should we whose hearts are o'erflowing thus, Ourselves be doomed to roam, May some kind orison rise for us,' etc., etc. " Arrived at Syracuse, I took my bag to the canal boat, then went to the Syracuse House and took tea in a magnificent room seventy by ninety feet, one of the waiters told me. I then went again to the boat, and bethought me if the post office were near I might have time to write you a line just to say I was well. This I did, and addressed it to the care of Mr. Weekes, and hope you will get it on Tuesday. Well, off we set in the canal boat, about the size of the Bootle one. An hour after we started the steward began hanging up things, precisely like hanging book-shelves, with sheets and counter- MY TRIP TO CANADA IN THE YEAR 1 844. 387 panes, not of the cleanest. Our names were called out, and we made our choice in rotation. I was on the middle shelf, there being three. About ten o'clock I took off my boots, took off my coat, rolled it up and put it under my head, put on my nightcap and my light green greatcoat, and lay down, or rather put myself on the shelf. I slept more than in the Knickerbocker, though not very comfortably. At 5 a. m. we reached Oswego. The passengers washed themselves on deck out of a common tin basin, one towel, and they had one brush and comb hung up beside a looking-glass, which all used in com mon, with great apparent contentment. Radical as I am, I could not stand this, so I simply rinsed my mouth with some cold water, and waited for ' a more convenient season ' to get a thorough washing. The Oswego House and the Welland House are the two opposition hotels here, and had each an omnibus and baggage-wagon waiting our arrival. I went to the Welland along with an old English gen tleman, who was damning the Yankees generally and the canal-boat accommodations particularly ; but really, considering how small the boat was, things were not so badly managed. Arrived here, I got two towels and a foot-bath and washed from top to toe, and felt greatly refreshed, and with a good appetite for breakfast at seven, after which I took a walk about the environs, and went also to look at the accommodations in the Lady of the Lake steamer, by which I intend to proceed to-morrow at 1 1 a. m. to Toronto. Lake Ontario looks precisely as blue and boundless as the ocean. I expect to reach Toronto at 6 a. m. on Tuesday. It is now half past 10 a. m. I am just going to the Presbyterian Church. The church was a very handsome and large one inside ; the sermon so-so, on the text : " It is more blessed to give than to receive." The sermon was in aid of the funds of the Bible Society. The weather was hot and I felt very sleepy. The singing was all done by the choir. After church I took a walk to a large public square, where an anti- slavery lecture had been delivered. ' The seats were still there but the speakers were gone.' Then home to dinner at 1 p. m. It is now 2 p. m., and I am going to put this in the post office, which is to-day closed at 3 p. m. I fancy you will get this letter also on Tuesday night, but I am not certain. I wish I were going with it. It will be several days before you get another letter from me, as I shall not reach Toronto till Tuesday, and it is nearly two hundred miles fur- 388 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. ther away than this. Do not cease to pray earnestly for me, my beloved one, and ask our three eldest children also to pray that my faith in God's promises may be strengthened, and that he will not afflict us beyond what we are able to bear. I hope John Walter and Charlotte and Bessie will attend carefully to their lessons while they have an opportunity. I cannot tell how long I may be able to afford to educate them, so that they should not only learn for their own sakes, but also that they may aid and assist you in teaching the younger children. Take care of your precious health, my beloved one. God grant I may find you stout and well on my return. All afflictions seem bearable compared with your illness or your being taken from me. God for ever bless you, my best beloved, and may he also bless me and our darling children. Kind lOve to Maria and and Em. This letter has a wafer with a W, as I cannot conveni ently get a light. Don't forget to send off a letter to me by the Glen Cove post of Friday, addressed to Buchanan, Harris &.Co., Montreal. The letter must be prepaid. Mr. Weekes will tell you how much. Tell me particularly and truly how you are, and all the darlings. I am wonderfully well and cheerful, considering my absence from you. Traveling is certainly good for the spirits. " Ever thine own attached " Wm. W." "Glen Cove, L. L, September 12, 1844. " (Hotter than ever and all my clothes clinging to me.) " My Own Darling Will : " As water in the desert so was the unexpected sight of your dear letters — two on one day [Tuesday]. The one received just after dinner from Syracuse, and the other from Oswego. I cannot tell you the joy I feel to hear you are better, and that, after all, your old enemy, the traveling, appears like a smiling friend. I have read your long letter from Oswego for the fourth time and with fresh delight. I am greatly better myself this week, though very dull without you beside me ; or even in New York would be better than so far away. Every day since you left, and the day you left, have I walked over to the Winthrops at' 9 a. m., bathed, and rode home at 12. Then had an hour's sewing and reading with the children before dinner, after which all assembled, doggedly and persever- MY TRIP TO CANADA IN THE YEAR 1 844. 389 ingly, to their lessons until five o'clock, when the carriage regularly came (and generally with dear Anna in it) to take me and some of the children out for a nice drive. On Sunday evening they made me with Walter and Charlotte go over there to tea. They urged us all to come to dinner, as you were not at home, but I refused. We left home at five, and reached there precisely at six, walking slowly. After tea we all sang hymns, and drove home at nine, sitting on the Straw at the bottom of the old wagon, which Maria thought was safest, Mr. Foster sitting up beside Thomas. The night was by no means dark, and we got home nicely. In the morning we all went to the Methodist chapel (Anna Winthrop too) and heard a pretty fair sermon from a very young man on the text : ' Pray without ceasing ' ; but by no means so good a sermon as the one from Jonah by the old stage-driver : ' What meanest thou, oh, sleeper ? Arise, call upon thy God if so be,' etc., etc. ; but both dear Anna and I thought it good to be there. They sang to a touching tune : ' ' ' Prayer was appointed to convey The blessings God designs to give ; Long as they live should Christians pray, For only while they pray they live.' Two of the lines were : And again " ' If cares distract or wrongs oppress The remedy's before thee, pray.' " ' Pray if thou can or canst not speak, But pray with faith in Jesus' name. ' " He said that Christians were only promised such things as were good for them, but not that which would prove hurtful, and that they sometimes ' asked and received not, because they asked amiss.' I thought much of you and prayed earnestly for you. After dinner, just as you were finishing your letter to me, about 2 p. m., I assem bled all our dear children in my room and read and explained two chapters to them, and had verse about from memory ; then sang a hymn and prayed with them ; but as you want to know the truth, and the whole truth, I had also two crying spells, which gave me a sick headache. One was while listening to the children singing a 390 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. hymn over the way at the Sunday school. It seemed so solemn and soothing to hear ' The Lord's song sung in a strange land'; and then again while praying for you. I have written all my letters for the steamer, and given them in time to Mr. Weekes, enclosed to B. F. Dawson. I finished the letter to Mary and Anna, wrote a note to Eleanor inside C.'s letter to little Eleanor, and a long letter to Aunt Helen ; Elizabeth wrote as good a letter as I ever read to Grace Ferguson, describing the approach to New York and Glen Cove, only the writing was very bad, but readable. Put me in mind to tell you about it when you [G. W.] come home. J. Walter wrote to Alick a much better written letter, and better expressed, than the former one. Willie scribbled a few dots and strokes, which he thought were for you, and that you were in the Queen of the West. He called out to Harrie : ' Harrie, shall I send you my love ? ' and long after, when he was in bed, he called out to me : ' Won't you put one of my kisses in it for papa ? ' But now comes the gloomy bit of my letter, but I will tell you everything truly, and then you will trust me another time. Dear Willie was taken ill on Monday. On Wednesday he was better, but weak and languid and very pale, but no heat about him, refusing food and drinking much water ; he walked with Powell in the evening about the doors while we went to the landing. The air there was so bracing, and when I got home here, so hot and close, that Maria strongly advised me to go before long to the Landing Hotel, as they all look drooping. I have paid Mr. Weekes twenty-five dollars for the board. No charge was made for your day's board, and I said nothing. I also paid him seventy- nine cents for postages. I have seen nothing yet of the Neilsons. Bessie is getting quite strong again, and Helen is also very well. John Walter is hearty as ever, and Charlotte and Harriet both well ; still all are looking pale and feeling languid. The weather is excess ively hot. To-day Willie is very much better and quite lively, with an appetite. We have had a few drops of rain, which has made the air much cooler. I have seen the house of Mrs. Clements, the widow, who lives next door to Anna Winthrop. It is in a lovely situation. They charge the same as here, with good wagons running daily to and from the landing, and wagons to church. I think that must be the place for us. It is just on the Sound, and there is a good bathing-house. She is full at present, and her boarders are all respect- MY TRIP TO CANADA IN THE YEAR 1 844. 39 1 able people. One lady (a friend of Maria's) has been there, with her husband and children, since June. It seems, too, that nothing amiss was ever known of the landlady, only she has flirted with lovers, and there has been a suspicion with some that she went too far. I shall leave this open to add how we all are to-morrow, as Mr. Weekes says it need not go till Saturday morning. " Friday, September 13, 1844. Willie is much better to-day. Charlotte is out with Mr. and Mrs. Weekes to take a drive ; J. Walter is leaping about, and the children are out walking ; so that I am lonely enough, and could write forever, but have no room. Maria and Emily are not coming for me this afternoon, as the carriage is repairing and the pony wagon is to go for Mr. De Peyster, who has not been up all this week. Oh ! dear Will, how I wish I could go to you myself instead of this letter ! I never, never felt your absence so much. It would kill me to have you go to New Orleans without me, but if you keep well and in good spirits I can bear parting with you from there; but it is dreadful when I think you are not well and not happy. Pray earnestly, darling, for yourself and for me, that God will give us contented minds and cheerful dispositions. I had a lovely bath to-day, the best I have had yet, and am feeling perfectly well in health, but very, very somber this afternoon. Good- by. There is no help for it; my paper is out. May God richly bless you, my own love. I will write again to-morrow if Mr. De P. goes in on Monday, or Charles Winthrop, or anyone to take it. Can write also on Sunday. " Yours forever, " H." " Toronto, Tuesday Morning, 7 o'clock, "September 10, 1844. " My Beloved Harriet : " I arrived here about half-past five this morning. We left Oswego yesterday morning at eleven, and sailing within half a mile of the shore of Lake Ontario, we reached the Genessee River about 4.30 p. m. Up this river we proceeded four or five miles, stopping at a landing-place about three miles below Rochester. The landing- place was at the foot of a steep cliff probably two or three hundred feet high, up the side of which there was a flight of steep wooden steps for the passengers, and two curious lines of railway, up one of 392 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. which a truck on which baggage was placed ascended while goods for the steamer descended 'by the other. On the top of the cliff was a tavern, small and shabby, and a custom house. Here omnibuses were in waiting to convey passengers to Rochester. I did not go up to the ' City ' as they call it, having, you may recollect, seen it with you fourteen years ago. It was the place where we were asked to join a ball going on in the hotel. We waited at this landing-place about three hours. The banks of the Genessee are very pretty, and the river turns and winds between them very picturesquely, but the stream is sluggish. The day was cloudy and damp, with occasional showers, and altogether there was a triste appearance about every thing. At 8 p. m. we left the Genessee and proceeded on our voyage to this place. I had a very nice little stateroom on deck, to myself, and slept very comfortably for a steamboat sleep. There is no swell on the lake as on the ocean, except when the wind blows. It was quite calm during all our passage. I had a good deal of conversation with the old gentleman I mentioned in my last. I find that he is a Mr. Moulton, a member of the English bar, but resident in Toronto, where he has some official appointment, and is besides a member of the Provincial legislature. He has lived in Toronto with occasional absences in England for twenty-five years. He very much prefers Canada to the United States. So far as one can form an opinion of a new country after half an hour's sojourn in it, and when all the inhabitants are in their beds, I should say that / prefer the United States. This is a dull, stupid-looking place, regularly laid out, and probably may be a great place in time, as the harbor seems to be a fine one, but commend me to some place near the sea, and not upon these great fresh stupid-looking lakes. I shaved, dressed, and read the 118th Psalm on board the steamer, and I am now waiting in a very decent bedroom looking out on the lake until eight o'clock, which is the breakfast hour. " I had ' some time of refreshing from the Lord ' yesterday morn ing at Oswego, and was much comforted and built up in the faith by some of the chapters I read, as the 3d Proverbs, 8th Deuter onomy, and 51st and 71st Psalms, and 6th Ephesians, from 10th verse. It is a comfort to see that even David had his times of sink ing and despondency, and want of faith. It is indeed an unspeakable mercy that God does not look at us guilty, unbelieving, and hard- MY TRIP TO CANADA IN THE YEAR 1 844. 393 hearted sinners, as we are in ourselves, but as we are in the face of Jesus Christ. I am sure that it is true that our adversary, the Devil, is constantly going about desiring to have us, that he may sift us as wheat. God grant that our faith fail not, and we do know that greater is He that is with us than they that are against us, and that the Spirit itself is making intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. My darling blessed Harriet, pray for me and for yourself that we may be rooted and grounded in the faith, and that we and our dear children may seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and that we may be enabled to withstand all the fiery darts of the wicked, and that if tried with severe poverty, our faith fail not. Pray that he will strengthen the hands that hang down and the feeble knees, and above all things, that the light of his reconciled countenance may shine upon us, and that we may have, for the Redeemer's sake, that peace and joy in believing which this world can neither give nor take away. "I have just had a capital breakfast, and hear that a boat starts for Hamilton directly. If I can get by it I shall save a day. " Ever thine own "Wm. W." "Toronto, U. C, Wednesday, September 11, 1844. " My Best Beloved : " How blessed I have been in having a wife who instead of telling me, as Job's did, to ' curse God and die,' has ever helped in the hour of trial to build me up in the faith, and has comforted me with the same comfort, wherewith she herself is comforted of God. God grant that we may be spared to be helpmates to each other, that we may have sound health of body and mind, and may be enabled to bring up our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, and that they and we may be heirs of eternal life through his unspeakable mercy. "I had just time yesterday to close my letter hastily and get it into the post office before the boat started for Hamilton, which is about forty miles from Toronto and at the very head of Lake Ontario, which head of the lake is called Burlington Bay, and a very singular bay it is. You might get out the large map of the United States from my portmanteau, and show it to the children, 394 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. taking care to re-fold the map properly, that is with the parts covered with paper on the outside. It took us about four and a half hours to reach Hamilton. We sailed along the coast all the way, which is rather uninteresting, but Hamilton itself is very prettily situated, and there is a very handsome house to the north of it on the top of the cliff overhanging the lake. It is called ' Dunchurn Castle,' and belongs to Sir Allen McNab, who was knighted for the share he took in suppressing the Canadian rebellion. The landing- place is about a mile from Hamilton; and this we drove over in an excellent omnibus drawn by four capital gray horses. I remained about an hour in Hamilton, and saw what I wanted. Our corre spondents have an immense store there originally intended for a hotel. It is three stories high and has six windows in front and besides has capacious cellars, etc., and was filled from cellar to roof with dry goods and groceries, the former having one side of the building, and the latter the other. It is by far the largest in the place, and must require great head and constant and vigilant super intendence to manage it properly. Unless one had business to attend to, Hamilton must be a precious dull place to stay at. We left about 2 p. m. and arrived here again at seven. The evening was clear and pleasant, although it had threatened to rain all day. The captain of the steamer Admiral, in which I was, is a Scotsman from Greenock and has been here some three years. He seemed delighted to get hold of a ' brither Scot,' and took me all over the boat, showed me the engine, ladies' cabin, mates, firemen, stewards, etc. "You will perhaps think the beginning of this letter rather incoherent, but I had just risen from reading the first chapter of Job when I began it. " I have just had breakfast, and a very good one : excellent black tea, fresh rolls and butter, and fresh fish out of the lake ; these were called herrings, but, except in the smallness of the bones, bear no resemblance to their namesakes. Yesterday we had a very fine fish called whitefish, also caught in the lake. This hotel is pretty dirty, but not on the whole uncomfortable. Mr. Wilcocks, the Canadian who came out with us, is boarding here, but I have not seen him yet. I see by the strangers' book that Robert Dennistoun was here on August 28, on his way from Niagara to Montreal ; he was not with Kennedy, but with Thomas and Charles McCall, brothers of MY TRIP TO CANADA IN THE YEAR 1 844. 395 Mrs. Archie Smith. I wish you would write me and send the letter down by Mr. De P. or Mr. Winthrop on Monday or Tuesday next (16th or 17th), putting it under cover, to your sister Cornelia, and telling her to keep it till I call for it. If both De P. and W. have gone, or are not going, send the dispatch through Mr. Weekes' post office on Tuesday night. Indeed, this will be the best way, at any rate, if there be a post leaving Glen Cove on Tuesday or Wednesday next, or even Thursday or Friday, for Albany. Be sure, however you send your letter, to postpay it, so that Mrs. Smyth has nothing to pay. I leave here to-day at noon for Kingston and Montreal, but when I shall reach the latter place I cannot as certain — probably not before Saturday, so it will be probably a week before you hear from me again. "I have just been calling on our correspondents here. The head of the house, or rather resident partner, is a Captain George Douglas, who was in our army, and married a sister of Mr. Buchanan ; he, I find, is a Glasgow man, and was under the same master [Robert Donie] at the grammar school that I was. This is a dull, gloomy day, but, so far, does not rain. I am going to take a walk with Captain Douglas about the town. Shall put this in the post office and then embark for Kingston en route to Montreal. I hope I may have a letter from you at Montreal with good news of all my dear ones. God forever bless you my own, own love. Kiss all my dear children for me, and may God watch over them and us, and renew our strength that we may ' run and not be weary, that we may walk and not faint.' " Ever thine own "Wm. W." "Glen Cove, L. I., September 14, 1844. " Dearest Will : " This night fourteen years ago my name was Kane, and my heart was all in a flutter with agitation and excitement. How provoking ! how cruel ! that we should be separated on the first anniversary of our marriage day in this country. Ah ! Will, the fault is all your own ; there is no concealing the fact from myself, that when I made up my mind all joyously to come to this country it was with this thought : Well, never mind, come weal, come woe, we'll go together, and, please God, stay together and never be separated ! It was this 396 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. thought that consoled me amid all my household cares, and this thought which made me joyously rush headlong into this journey. Now I find that all my sorrows have amounted to this : I have been deceived! and deceived by you ! You said that traveling would be as cheap as staying still, and as traveling with me and the children had always been a pleasure to you, we should go with you all over the world. Do you not remember this ? Even contemplating the possibility of taking us on one of these Arkansas land journeys on our way to New York [from New Orleans] so as not to be separated. Oh, Will, Will ! " ' Few are the hearts that have proved the truth Of their early affections' vow.' Or in other words, as the poet hath beautifully expressed it : " ' Will ! Will ! you're no true nigger, So I'll go to the Battery and jump in the river.' " Mr. Foster, Mr. De Peyster, and Charles Winthrop came up last evening, and to-day Maria and Mr. De P. and I went over a beautiful and romantic road, cut through the woods for us expressly by Charles and Mr. De P., but you will know more of this when you come home. Did I tell you our little daughter Helen walked alone the day after you left, that is last Saturday, September 7 ? This she has done repeatedly since, but as her ankles and feet are so small, I do not encourage it. " There has been a large public meeting held here over the way in favor of Clay and Frelinghuysen. The speaker, a young lawyer from New York, laid into them for two hours and a half. We could hear many of the points from my room windows. There was not much excitement or enthusiasm, but it was thought a good meeting. They have put up a splendid new liberty pole and cap, and have two enormous flags hoisted, very pretty and quite new, of stripes and stars, with Clay and the other fellow below. " Do you know I am as blind as a bat ? and can scarcely see a scratch of what I am writing, so I will put up for the night. May God hear our prayers to-night, and bless us and our children for Christ's sake. " H. MY TRIP TO CANADA IN THE YEAR 1 844. 397 " September 15 ! Our marriage day, and who can tell the gratitude I feel when I think what a dear husband God has given me ! One who has helped to lead me and keep me in the right way for fourteen years. I have caused you much grief, and the ill I have often done you with my tantrums, absurd jealousy, and that unruly member, my tongue, is, I fear, far greater than the good ; but I bless God that he has made me sometimes a helpmate to you, and while you were bearing tbe curse pronounced upon man of earning your bread by the sweat of your brow (or rather the sweat of your brain), I have sometimes been the instrument in his hands of cheering and supporting you. " ' True, 'tis a rough and thorny road, And mortal spirits tire and faint, But they forget the mighty God, Who feeds the strength of every saint.' "I received your precious letter of Wednesday, September 11, from Toronto last evening, but the one which you say you wrote the day before, just as the boat was starting from Hamilton, I did not receive, and Mr. Weekes thinks I may not get it till Tuesday next. [She got it the following day, September 16, 1844. — Wm. W.] I see you were under a cloud, dearest Will (such as our fathers passed through), when you wrote your last, and that you deeply felt the need of my prayers, that you ' might run and not be weary, walk, and not faint.' I was sure you were, from your reading the first chapter of Job. I have read it, and the second, just now. Did you not observe that though the Chaldeans and Sabeans destroyed his cattle and property, yet he vented not his spite upon them, saying ' I will be revenged on the damned scoundrels,' or the like, but saw nothing in all his afflictions but the hand of God ? He thought these evils and this poverty would last the rest of his life ; for he says : ' Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither.' He did not keep up his spirits because he thought, I'll make it up again some day or other, but he resigned himself to the wisdom and goodness of God. He sinned not, nor charged God foolishly. Still you see we may feel our griefs deeply, and yet not sin, for it is added : ' His grief was very great.' For seven days and seven nights his friends saw that there would be no use in speaking 398 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. to him. At last he ' darkened counsel by words without knowledge,' and, as we are told, ' cursed his day.' God did not cast him off, but talked with and reasoned with him, and Job heard, and blessed, dear Will, is the man that heareth always and that will say from the heart : 'Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth.' And God speaks to us, when he allures us this way in the wilderness, and parts us from each other, and, dear Will, how often does he speak peace to us, and draw out our hearts in love to himself, and make us to feel that it is good for us to be afflicted? Do you remember the text : ' I will hear what God, the Lord, will speak, for he will speak peace unto his peo ple and to his saints,' but ' Let them not turn again to folly' ? Now we turn again to folly, when we commit our way unto the Lord one moment, and the next think it is not the right way and the best way, which we are going. It is like a man sitting by a skillful driver over a bad, rough road. He gives the reins to him because he knows that the coachman has often been that way, and will take him the best road, and yet when danger arises (though he knows he can not drive) he clutches the reins and tries to guide the horses himself. Jay has these remarks in his exercise on the text : ' Lean not to thine own understanding,' which I read yesterday. ' We are told that Alphonsus, the royal astronomer, having apprehended some seeming irregularities among the heavenly bodies, was daring enough to say : " Had I been by when the Creator made the world, I would have given him some good advice."' We justly shudder at his blasphemy, and yet who has not fallen into a similar error ? Who has not found fault with God in his manner of governing? Who has not been ready to direct the spirit of the Lord, or being his counselor to teach him ? To preserve us from this tendency, let us remember how limited our understanding is, how many objects are entirely beyond its reach. Let us also reflect how different appearances often are from the realities of things. What should we be at this > hour if things had always been according to our wishes ? Who knoweth what is good for a man in this vain life, which he spendeth as a shadow ? What we are so. anxious to escape has often conduced to our best welfare, and often what we so eagerly desired would have proved our injury or our ruin. ' Oh, Lord ! I know that the way of man is not in himself, it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.' ' Behold, happy is the man whom God MY TRIP TO CANADA IN THE YEAR 1 844. 399 correcteth, therefore, despise not the chastening of the Almighty. For he maketh sore and bindeth up, he woundeth and his hands make whole. He shall deliver thee in six troubles, yea in seven there shall no evil befall thee.' " Read the 37th Psalm (your mother's favorite) to the end, and may God open your eyes that you may see the well and drink. I will go now and pray that when you read this, the Comforter may come to you as he has promised, and that he may ' descend like rain upon the mown grass as showers that water the earth.' Oh, my best beloved, labor not for the bread that perisheth ; we shall always have enough of that and to spare. / do not fear it. He who cannot lie has promised it to me and my children and to him whom he made by a sacred bond this day fourteen years ago, my own flesh. He has said he will never leave us nor forsake us. If it be not good for us to have riches in this life, our bread shall be given to us, and our water shall be sure, and 'a little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked.' We are his own, bought with a price, and will he not give us food and raiment ? He is the vine, we are the branches, and we must be purged that we may bring forth fruit. Read the 46th Psalm and 1st Peter, 5th chapter, from the 6th to the 10th verse, and 8th chapter Romans, from the 24th verse to the end, noting particu larly the 28th, 32d, 37th, and 39th verses. "Thine own " H." " Cascades about forty miles from Montreal. On board the Chief tain steamer, lying at a. wharf in a thick fog, 6.45 a. m. " Friday, September 13, 1844. " My Beloved Wife : " I wrote to you last from Toronto on the nth inst., about 1 p. m. On that day I started for Kingston at the opposite end of Lake Ontario, on board the steamer Princess Royal. We kept near the coast on the north side, — that, is, on the British side, — and it struck me as being prettier than the southern or United States side ; how ever, neither of them have much to boast of. The distance from Toronto to Kingston is 180 miles. We had dinner and tea on board, and the charge for the whole was five dollars. The fare, though good enough, is very poor compared with that on the 400 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. Hudson boats. About 6 a. m. yesterday we arrived at Kingston, which is prettily situated on the St. Lawrence, and has some hand some stone buildings in it, particularly the market house just erected. We left Kingston by the steamer Canada at 7 A. m., and had a beautiful sail through the Lake of the Thousand Islands ; it was exactly like sailing among the islands of Loch Lomond, only there were no mountains in the background. In the course of the day we touched at Tamaqua (or some such name), at Brockville and Prescott on the British side, and at Ogdensburg on the American side, also at some minor places, including Cornwall, on the British side. The St. Lawrence expands and contracts, and is sometimes a mile or two wide, and then becomes as narrow as the Clyde below Glasgow ; but where it is narrow it boils and thunders along at a tremendous rate. We passed down several of the rapids, and one very long one called ' Long Sault,' [pronounced ' Long Soo.'] The velocity of the stream was sometimes, the captain told me, eleven miles an hour at particular places, and very often seemed to be about seven, with large, tumbling green waves like the sea. Hell Gate, on Long Island Sound, is a joke to these rapids. We had a beautiful evening coming down, and I really regretted you and the children were not with me, but yesterday's sail was the only one that I would have gone the length of my foot to take, and even it I think far, far inferior to the Rhine, or even the Seine, in point of interest. At 8 p. m. we arrived at a place called ' Coteau du Lac ' ; here we got into large stage-coaches and drove sixteen miles over a plank road, which is a very smooth, agreeable sort of road, and the motion is exactly like passing over a wooden bridge. We arrived here (Cascades) at 10 p. m., and got into a second-rate, dirty-looking steamer, where there were no staterooms ; so I got into an upper berth, No. n, with my clothes on, and slept pretty well, all things considered, and dreamt I was at home with you. I got up at five, and found we were still at Coteau du Lac, owing to the fog, and here we must remain until the fog clears, if it should be a week. Had there been no fog I should have been at Montreal at seven this morning, and had intended to go to Quebec this afternoon, return to Mon treal on Saturday night, spend Sunday and Monday there, and then proceed homeward ; but, with this detention, I don't know what my future motions may be. The fog is really very provoking ; how- MY TRIP TO CANADA IN THE YEAR 1 844. 401 ever, it teaches patience. I am writing this letter on my knee in the public cabin, the table being spread for breakfast. I was wonderfully cheerful all yesterday, feeling as if God would not for sake us, and that though our present chastening was not joyous, yet nevertheless afterward it would work out in us the peaceable fruits of righteousness. I also felt that, if God so willed, he might make my visit to this country of use. Then, again, the agonizing thought that you and our dear children may be thrown destitute on the world without education or food, and beset with the sore tempta tions of poverty, would strike the iron into my soul. But for such gloomy thoughts I have no doubt I should have enjoyed my trip far more than I have done ; I know it is wrong to indulge in them, and I pray to be delivered from them as from the snare of the devil. Your blessed note has proved a great comfort to me, and I have also occasionally much comfort and consolation from the promises of the Bible. It is indeed a comfort to know that not one hair of our head shall perish without the knowledge of God. We can truly say ' hitherto hath the Lord helped us.' David, a man of God's own heart, seems to have had fits of despondency and depres sion, which made him cry out : ' Return, O Lord, how long ? and let it repent thee concerning thy servant ! ' ' Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us, and the years wherein we have seen evil.' " " Montreal, September 13 — 1 p. m. " I arrived here about noon, and have just had a hot bath and lunch. I intend to start for Quebec to-night at six, and return from thence at the same time to-morrow. I intend to spend Sunday and Monday here, and may wait over Tuesday should I receive no letter from you on Monday. As I was driving along in the stage to the hotel, whom should I see but Robert Dennistoun ! He had been at the Falls, Quebec, etc., etc., and seems quite pleased with his trip. He leaves here to-morrow with the better of the McCalls (the other having returned home) for Albany, and then to New York by the Connecticut River. He is looking well, but not so stout, I think, as when he landed. This is an old-fashioned-looking town, with nar row streets. I am just going out to make a business call. I hope and trust I shall be home by Tuesday week, and sooner if I possibly can. God forever bless you, my own love, and our dear children. 402 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. Oh, may he watch over us all, and unite us again in health and happiness ! I shall not write again before Sunday ; this is Friday. " Ever thine own " Wm. W." " Rasco's Hotel, Montreal, September 15, 1844. " My Beloved Harriet : " This day fourteen years ago, we were made one flesh. How many spiritual blessings and temporal mercies we have experienced, and how many trials and sorrows we have passed through together since then ! Oh ! how dear you are to me, how twined around my very heart-strings. God bless and spare you to me, my own blessed Harriet, and may we be enabled together to bring up the dear chil dren whom God has given to us, in his nurture and admonition. I recollect this day fourteen years ago, before dressing to go to 73 Greenwich Street, praying earnestly to God, that he would especially bless our union, and he has blessed us hitherto. Oh ! may he con tinue his unspeakable mercies toward us, and not try or afflict us, beyond what we are able to bear, and may we ever find him a very present help in every time of trouble. " I went down to Quebec on Friday night, and arrived there about nine on Saturday morning. The day was hazy, with slight rain. However, a New York gentleman, of the name of Sampson, and I took a caliche, and were driven eight or nine miles to the Falls of Montmorenci. The road was interesting, lying nearly the whole way along the high bank of the St. Lawrence, and the country had more the appearance of an old settled country than anything I have seen on this side of the Atlantic. There is a nearly continuous village all the way from Quebec to Montmorenci, and seen from Quebec the long street of houses looks like the ' lang toon o' Kirk caldy ' on a large scale. All the houses on the long line of road stand corner-wise to the road. What the reason of this is I cannot divine. I was much pleased with the Falls. On our return we walked to the Plains of Abraham, where Wolfe fell. There is a small shabby column where he fell, surrounded by a shabbier railing. On the column is inscribed, " Here Wolfe died victorious," but the inscription is almost illegible from being so battered with stones. And MY TRIP TO CANADA IN THE YEAR 1 844. 403 this is fame ! We walked through the citadel, and had a beautiful view from the fortifications. "I regretted much you were not with me to see Quebec and Montreal, and, indeed the whole of the St. Lawrence River. Quebec puts me a good deal in mind of the Cote at Havre. I left Quebec at five last night, and had a good stateroom in the steamer, and arrived here at eight this morning. After a good breakfast I walked to the cathedral (Roman Catholic and very handsome), where were about five hundred or a thousand people assembled to hear high mass performed by the bishop and no end of priests in gorgeous vestments. Sad mummery ! After looking on for two minutes I walked to our Independent church, where I heard a cap ital sermon from the Rev. Mark Wilks. We sang hymns from our own Congregational hymn books, and I had really ' a time of refresh ing from the Lord.' I will go again to the evening service at seven. Mr. Sampson — who looks thirty-two, but is only twenty-two, — went with me to church, and goes again in the evening ; he is now seeing how they conduct Sabbath schools here. He is a Virginian by birth, but his father is a Scotsman. He has auburn hair, red whiskers, and black eyebrows, and seems to have taken a fancy for me, as he re turned sooner than he intended in order to keep me company. He is in the iron trade and lives in Brooklyn. " I have just returned from taking a beautiful drive with Isaac Buchanan round ' the mountain,' as it is called, that is, ' Mont Real.' The views we had were really lovely. Beautiful plains with small mountains rising abruptly from them, and then the long line of the St. Lawrence like a silver belt, girdling the landscape. This is really a fine town and I am told that the improvements in it within four years are immense. The houses are built chiefly of gray lime stone, like granite, and many of them and all the churches are covered (i. e. roofed) with tin, which looks very dazzling when the sun strikes on them. Covering the roofs with tin is the practice all through Can ada, and the tin does not rust. I saw the Governor-General's car riage and four at the door of one of the churches to-day, and Mr. Wilks prayed for him as well as the Queen, and the ' Imperial Par liament.' By the way, Mr. Wilks intimated that he was going to deliver a series of familiar lectures on the ' Pilgrim's Progress,' and that there would be prayer- meeting in the vestry to-morrow 404 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. evening (Monday). It put me so in mind of home and Mr. Kelly. " I find that your letter cannot reach here before Tuesday morn ing, and as I have finished my business here, after much deliberation I have ' concluded,' as the Yankees say, to start to-morrow morning, and have your letter sent on to New York after me, for I think you would rather have me a day sooner home, than that I should wait for your letter. I hope also to get a letter at Albany. I don't know how long it will take me to reach New York, but I fancy I ought to reach Glen Cove by Saturday night, or possibly even Friday night. You may be sure that I will make no tarrying that I can avoid. " You will not hear from me again, as I hope to reach you as soon as another letter would. This is a lovely day. As far as business is concerned, I have been quite satisfied with my trip to Canada. I wish I saw our New Orleans business as well managed as that of our friends here. However, nil desperandum ; with God's blessing the thing may be done. " God Almighty bless and preserve you and me and our dear children ; unite us again in health and happiness. Give my kind love to Maria and Em. " If you be spared for another fourteen years I hope we may all be better, both spiritually and morally, than we are at present. Mr. Wilks' sermon was on Revelations, 3d and 12th, last clause: 'I will write upon him my new name.' To-night he is to preach on that part of the Parable of the Sower, where ' the seed fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked it.' God grant that may not be my case. Blessings on thee my own, own love. " Ever your attached husband, " Wm. W." CHAPTER XXX. VOYAGE TO NEW ORLEANS ; CLOSING THE YEAR 1 844. Harriet moved with our children from Mr. Weekes' boarding- house at Glen Cove to Mrs. Clements' boarding-house at Fresh Pond, near Long Island Sound, on September 17 [Tuesday]. Mrs. Clements was rather a jolly, good-looking young widow. The house was a comfortable cottage, and we had delightful bathing in the beautifully clear water of the Sound, and I ought to have been happy and comfortable, as my darling wife was near her sisters, Mrs. De Peyster and Mrs. Winthrop, and they were both exceedingly fond of her. Our children enjoyed the fine air and bathing, and the society of the Winthrop children ; but I had finished my business trip to Canada, and had to look forward to visiting the New Orleans house in winter, and to decide what route to take, and whether to take Harriet and the children with me or leave them in New York, and also to decide finally about opening a house in New York; and whether or not, if I did, Benjamin F. Dawson should be associated with Tom Sellar in its management. Dawson had acted as our agent in New York after the dissolution of the firm of Dennistoun, Buchanan & Co., of which he was a partner.* The information I got about Dawson was not entirely satisfactory, and, strange to say, that which I got from one who appeared to be his next friend, Wm. H. Neilson, was the least so. However, there was nothing decidedly objection able, and as his wife, who was a Miss Osborne, was an old friend of the Kane family, I decided to take him ; as, if I had not done so, he would have been cut adrift with his wife and young children, in delicate health and in considerable poverty ; and I knew that * The Dennistoun of said firm was George Dennistoun, my old friend, second son of Dennistoun of Dennistoun, and who after the death of his elder brother, James Dennistoun, author of the " Lives of the Dukes of Urbino," became Dennis toun of Dennistoun, and George's son succeeded his father as Laird ; he was a lieutenant in the R. N., and was out here some twenty years ago [say about 1868 or 1870]. He married a Miss Gore Booth. 405 v 406 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. Tom Sellar could hold him in check ; but it was difficult to decide on these various important matters. Pending their decision the following was my state of mind, as represented in a memoran dum-book kept at Mrs. Clements, with date of October 19, 1844 : "Although I have passed through much mental anxiety in the course of my life, I do not think I have ever gone through such mental discipline as I have done since I arrived in New York. My spirits have been miserably depressed, doubting within, fears without, both as to my spiritual and temporal state. I have prayed much and fervently to God, and have had occasional gleams of spiritual sun shine amid the darkness, but generally have felt as if a veil were between God and myself, through which my prayers could not pene trate. The sins of my youth and my transgressions have risen up in fearful vividness before me, and my want of trust in my Heavenly Father as to temporal matters has given me much distress. Thank God that he is the same and changes not, therefore we sons of Jacob are not consumed. I am haunted with the idea of coming to poverty, of returning, if we ever do return, to Liverpool in the steer age, and exposing my dear wife and children to all its moral and physical filth and abominations ; of not being able to educate my children, but sinking with them into the lowest menial situations. I feel apathetic and incompetent to perform the duties I have under taken, and totally unfit to put things to rights at New Orleans or any where else. I am strongly opposed to opening a house in New York, as I feel that we have already more to do, if it be done well, than we have hands for. I think my mind has been pretty nearly giving way once or twice, and the dread of this also dispirits me. God grant I may be blessed with a sound mind in a sound body as long as I live, and that I may have energy and decision to act in all the difficulties which I see before me, and above all things that I may have peace with God, without which all earthly and temporal blessings are but vanity." On October 21, 1844, at Fresh Pond, Long Island, I wrote: "I am thirty-six years old to-day. I may say with Jacob, ' Few and evil have the days of the years of my life been.' ' Oh, Lord, so teach me to number my days that I may apply my heart unto wisdom.' We are waiting the arrival from New York of John Yuille with the VOYAGE TO NEW ORLEANS. 407 letters by the steamer from Liverpool of 4th inst., which letters will probably decide whether we open a house in New York or not, and also whether we go to New Orleans by sea or land. I fancy that it will be decided that we are to open a house and, consequently, that if we are spared to go to New Orleans, we go by sea." I was in to New York and out again to Glen Cove several times during the next four days, and was introduced to Mr. Christopher Wolf by Mr. De Peyster, who had a large amount of land in Arkan sas, and from whom I obtained a good deal of information as to agents there for paying taxes and selling land, and regarding prices present and prospective. On Friday, October 25, 1844, we left Mrs. Clement's house at Fresh Pond for New York by a hired stage-coach, passing through Astoria on our way. It was a lovely day, and we arrived about 2 p. m. at Mr. De Peyster's, 88 University Place. We had secured rooms at the then new New York Hotel in Broadway, but there was great delay in getting the house organ ized, and we did not get possession of our rooms, Nos. 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, and 94, on third story, until December 1. Meanwhile we were most hospitably entertained by Mr. and Mrs. F. De Peyster, and it must have been a great inconvenience to them, for Emily Hone, Mrs. De P.'s daughter, was married November 14, 1844, to Fred Foster from 88 University Place, an immense wedding for those days, and a very fashionable one. I recollect counting twenty-four carriages at one time in front of the door in University Place. A lovely bride Emily was, and very clever and spirituelle. My wife was very fond of her. Before the marriage, on Monday, November n, 1844, Harriet and 1 went up to Albany per Knicker bocker steamer, and visited Harriet's niece, Mrs. Forsyth, at 65 South Ferry Street. Our visit was really to Mrs. Cornelia Smyth, her mother and Harriet's eldest sister, formerly wife of the Rev. Paschal Strong, D. D., of the Collegiate Dutch Church of New York. We returned to New York on Wednesday, November 13, per steamer Troy, and at Hyde Park the Hosacks came on board and accompanied us to New York. We remained as guests at Mr. and Mrs. F. De Peyster's until Sat urday, November 30, 1844, when we moved to the New York Hotel to the rooms above noted. On December 21, 1844, we left 408 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. the New York Hotel for New Orleans, by the packet ship Sultana, Captain Dennis, and the following account of our voyage was written by Harriet in her journal, and copied from it for the amusement of my sister, Mrs. Ferguson, who gave it back to me when I visited her in September, 1846, at Blantyre Lodge, and I think Harriet also sent a copy of it to her own sister, Maria De Peyster, knowing that she and all our New York friends would be interested in the inci dents of our voyage. " We left for New Orleans about noon on December 21, 1844, by the same steamer which brought us up from the Queen of the West on August 12, 1844. We had a very cold sail down to the Hook, where our ship, the Sultana, was lying at anchor. When 'we got on board everything looked dismal, small, and cramped, with a close, confined, shippy smell. " We unpacked and stowed away in our staterooms as many of the necessary things as we comfortably could, and returned to the cabin, where we found our fellow-passengers all hovering round a small stove, and looking selfish and unhappy. These passengers consisted of two men, and two boys of the interesting age of twenty or thereabouts — the two men, first-rate Yankees of the shopkeeper order ; the latter a couple of as unmitigated young brutes as ever swung on a gallows — hawking, snorting, spitting in every direction, with no attempt at concealment or decency ; filthy dirty in their persons, and occupying and lounging upon the best chairs and seats ; pressing their filthy sales as well as their bodies directly into one's face. Here we sat, unable to read from the darkness, shivering and squeamish (one of the women practically sick), till dinner time, a thick fog like a small rain making the deck too wet to go out. Few of us ate any dinner, for, though not at sea, we swung about so much and the smell was so close, that it took away all appetite. Here we swung a weary, weary see-saw all that day and night, all day Sunday and Sunday night, all day Monday till 4 p. m., when the wind sprang up, the fog cleared away, and we soon took leave of our pilot and got fairly to sea ; but, alas ! alas ! before one half hour, the breeze strengthened to a gale, and, sick as dogs, we stag gered to our berths. The storm increased, and what a night of sickness, fear, and anxiety we passed ! Our furniture flew about as if it had wings — chairs, boxes, tables banged about like so many VOYAGE TO NEW ORLEANS. 409 shavings. Heavy sea after sea struck our ship, till she fairly reeled again, and it required every exertion of back, and shoulders, and foot, besides grasping with both hands, to keep in our beds. " My children gave me great anxiety, but I could not rise to go to them, and could only groan in spirit after every fresh shock, and cry to the stewardess to bring me word what had become of them. They held on, poor things, manfully, John Walter being the only one who was pitched out of his berth. The moon shone brightly, and the sea seemed to rise in large masses of spray-like clouds. To increase the horrors of the scene, groans were heard from the deck, and the captain's voice above the storm commanding ' those men to be taken down below and attended to.' Four of our sailors were disabled, two badly hurt, and it was at first supposed that their legs were broken. Our ice-house was carried away, and a flight of stairs leading to the upper deck [quarter-deck], and the main hatch way loosened and was carried completely across the deck. All the next day the sea ran so high that none of us dared to get up from our berths ; we were dreadfully sick, and though not at all seasick in coming from Liverpool, this time I was the sickest of the whole party. " Wednesday, December 25, 1844. A more quiet day, but the wind dead ahead, and all sick — even poor baby and Willie are very sick this time ; poor baby crossing her little hands over her head and crying out ' Too-a-doo '; her first spoken word, being, in plain English, ' stewardess.' This being the 25th, Christmas Day, we got up and endeavored to make a show of fun for the poor children. I unpacked all their dolls, games, bags, purses, etc., which their aunts and cousins had given me for them, and made a pretty good display, which, being quite unexpected, made them extremely happy. "Monday, December 30, and Tuesday, December 31, have been lovely days ; we have a fair wind and are lying our course, and splen did weather. We have seen shoals of beautiful little flying-fish skimming the water like small gray birds. After our first two days out it became so warm that all our winter clothing was laid aside, and here we are on the last day of the year sitting on the deck with the same light clothing which we wore at Fresh Pond, Long Island, in the month of August. Our appetites and spirits are better, our table better supplied, and our table-cloths cleaner, and were it not 4IO AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. for the soreness in my back and stomach, which both suffered in proportion during my attack of pain, I should feel quite contented and happy ; but many, many are our mercies, and surely none can say with greater truth than I that the Lord is gracious and merciful ; slow to anger, and long-suffering, and that he has dealt well with me in this affliction, and, while chastising, has comforted me and blessed me with peace and joy in believing. "January i, 1845. A splendid day, warm as an English summer, with a brilliant clear blue sky, fair wind, and going swiftly through the water at the rate of eight and one-half knots. Last night we made the land, the island of Abaco, a British island,5about fifty miles from the coast of Florida. William sat up to see the lighthouse, thus seeing the old year out and the new one in, walking the deck in the moonlight. " To-day we are off the Bahamas, and about fifty miles from Nassau in New Providence, where dear Eleanor (Mrs. A. D.) was born and Mrs. Young lived so long. We have just passed Big. Isaac, a large island of rocks, and many other smaller rocks, showing the naviga tion hereabouts to be most difficult and intricate. At night we came in sight of a lighthouse, and this morning we have a long line of coast in view off Florida. We are lying quite close to avoid the Gulf Stream, which is against us. We are now in the Gulf of Florida, and on the other side of us, eighty miles off, is Cuba. The wind is very fair and not too much of it. Wil liam is in far better spirits this time than he was in our last voyage. He is able to read and talk and be amused with any little occurrence about him. " We have caught a fine barracouta to-day, a sort of large mackerel, and a beautiful dolphin, both fine eating. The dolphin, when dying, presented all the beautiful colors for which it is so famed — green, pink, blue, yellow, and a bright silver in quick succession. "Friday, January 3, 1845. Our fine wind and fine weather con tinue. Last night we were on deck watching for the lighthouse. The weather is so hot that last night, sitting at an open door, I had to take off my collar and untie my cap. We have just passed the Tortugas, a group of small islands, and see that there has been a large vessel just wrecked there, the wreckers still about it. " Yesterday we saw three large turtles swimming on their backs VOYAGE TO NEW ORLEANS. 411 like dead men, and a beautiful little yellow bird, like a canary, flew across our deck and lighted on the ropes to rest. " We are now out of sight of land and fairly in the Gulf of Mexico, and ^William] recited Andrew Marvel's poem, 'Where the Remote BermudaslRide,' ending with the lines : " ' O let us, then, his praise exalt Till it arrive at heaven's vault, Which thence perhaps rebounding may Echo beyond the Mexique bay.' " Two fish have been caught to-day ; a large mackerel and a fish about the size of a black-fish, called a bonita. The flesh is quite red in the inside, like beef, so that I could not taste it, but Charlotte thought it good. There have been three or four sail in sight to-day. One, a French sloop of war, passed directly under our bows. We hoisted our colors and they theirs in return, showing also the yellow flag, to intimate their having sickness on board. " I have so much pain in my back to-day, and so many twinges of my old enemy,, that I must go below and lie down. We hope to see land to-night and go up the river to-morrow morning. " The waters of the sea and the fresh cold waters of the Mississippi do not mingle at all, but form a clear line of separation as distinct as if it had been ruled, the one side being deep blue, the other light green. We expect to get a steamer to tow us up to-morrow at day light. The distance up the river to New Orleans is about 115 miles, and will take us at least eighteen hours to go up. "Tuesday, January 7, 1845. Yesterday was a day to be blotted out of the calendar. No writing. Not even my Bible read. Instead of dropping anchor at ten, as we had supposed when we went to bed that we should, the breeze sprung up against us, and the captain found that his only plan was to put back to sea, as the sea ran so high and the wind increased so rapidly ; and there were we, after sailing so calmly, with all our bright dreams of a speedy landing, awakened out of our sleep with the roaring of the wind and knocking about in our berths. We lay awake all the rest of that night, sick as dogs, and all day Monday the storm and our sickness continued. Toward evening we made the lighthouse again, and saw a steamer trying to get toward us, but she could not manage it, and we were three 412 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. times driven back again to sea after seeing the green Mississippi water. However, thank God ! here we are again, and with our pilot on board, and a steamer, to our great delight, has hailed and engaged to take us about one o'clock. It is now twelve, noon. The steamer has first gone to tow a vessel out to sea, and we are now lying at anchor just outside the bar, waiting for her return. There are many large vessels in sight, and several large pelicans have been flying over our heads. On one side is our lighthouse, next a large three- masted wreck, and then a long low line of mud banks. The day is quite cold again, so that we have on both our cloaks and shawls. " The Mississippi is very wide at its mouth, and has three outlets to the sea. Our steamer has returned and towed us inside the bar, and left us again till six o'clock this evening, that she may tow out other ships to sea and get one to take up in tow besides us. " There is little to be seen here but a long line of brushwood and drifted logs, with here and there a small cottage or hut. Charlotte has sketched the best view of it, which is the lighthouse and what is called the pilots' village. Her sketch is very like the reality. We have had a most superb sunset, and now it is time for us to go to bed. Our steamer has returned, panting and groaning like a great sea elephant, with a small schooner in tow. The steamer's paddle- box is just at our window, which is pleasant for one's repose. "Wednesday, January 8, 1845. As soon as we swallowed our breakfast we all ran on deck, and were most unexpectedly delighted with a view of the river. Here it is broad and winding — fields of sugar cane, trees laden with oranges, magnolia trees, many fine es tates on either side, with their villages of negro huts attached to each house or plantation. The river is not so muddy as I had anticipated. A large flock of turkey buzzards is flying over our heads. The day very cold, like our English winter. One of our poor sailors has just hobbled out, with two sticks to lean on ; two others are nearly well, and one still unable to turn himself in bed.. We are now about ten miles from New Orleans, and have just passed the Belle Chasse estate, Uncle Alick's purchase. It has just been sold, after having been held twenty-eight years. The city begins to take a crescent form, from which it has gained its name of the ' Crescent City.' The dome of St. Charles Hotel is in sight, and all the shipping ; our vessel nears, and now she stops. William VOYAGE TO NEW ORLEANS. 413 has just called me to come up and see Mylne, who is on the quay, waving his hat. Murray Thomson is not there. "St. Louis Hotel, January 9, 1845. We landed yesterday, immediately clambering over a man-of-war which lay between us and the wharf, and Mylne giving me his arm, and Willie his hand, headed the procession, the rest following two by two. Murray T. had not expected us so soon ; he joined us at dinner with Mylne, both looking well and happy. Mylne had engaged good rooms for us at the St. Louis, all on the same floor but J. Walter's room, which is a story higher. We dine at half-past three ; break fast at half-past seven, and tea at seven. The city is quite French in character." Here ends Harriet's journal. The Belle Chasse plantation referred to above was sold to Judah P. Benjamin, long afterward Secretary of State to the Rebel Gov ernment. He was a very clever Jamaica Jew, and after the fall of the Confederacy escaped via Key West to London, and obtained admittance to the Chancery Bar, and became a great legal luminary. He died in London some years ago [October 22, 1890]. CHAPTER XXXI. MY FIRST JOURNEY TO NATCHEZ. After spending four or five days with my wife and family at New Orleans, being introduced to our office clerks, and taking a general survey of our business, I then went up the Mississippi to Natchez, where we had some important business relations, and I sailed for that place on the Concordia steamer on January 13, 1845, and on my departure Harriet gave me the following comforting, sensible, and admirable letter : "St. Louis Hotel, January 1, 1845. " Now, my beloved William, as you love me, value your precious health, and wish to do your duty to your partners, do not give way to lowness of spirits and despondency, should your visit be attended with difficulties, nor expect everything to be done at once. Rome was not built in a day, and you came out here expecting difficulties ; therefore, meet them like a man and a Christian. ' Be not dis mayed as though some strange thing happened unto you.' Read the 27th Psalm, which I read this morning when thinking of you, and earnestly desiring that God would put words into my mouth to strengthen the hands of ' My David in the world.' Note particularly the 5th and 6th verses, and again the 9th verse, ' Thou hast been my help,' and cannot you say the same when trouble was upon you ? Not when you have been dreading trouble, looking forward to its coming, but when trouble came upon you, did not then God reveal himself to you as the hearer of prayer, the God of all comfort, hiding you in the secret of his pavilion ? And trouble must come upon us, for we need it. It is the medicine of the soul — mean, corrupt, and full of a loathsome disease which is sin, and the love of it. And our good Saviour and Physician is our God and our Father, and he will purge us from all iniquity, and ' purify us unto himself, a peculiar people zealous of good works.' " What would we think of the physician, who saw his patient full MY FIRST JOURNEY TO NATCHEZ. 415 of boils and putrefying sores, desiring to be healed and yet dread ing the lance and knife — the only way, perhaps, to make him whole ? What would we think if, through a false compassion, he let him alone till the disease spread beyond a cure and beyond a remedy ? We pray to be delivered from the evil heart of unbelief ; in other words, we call in our physician ; but when the knife is used we cry out in dismay, ' Why is it thus ? ' When the medicine is offered we refuse it, because it is not palatable. Now rest assured that we as believers in Christ are the heirs of the promises, and one is that all things shall work together for our good. These promises do not apply to the children of unbelief and of the world, and they have often the same afflictions. Maria asks why is Cornelia so sorely tried, and she so little? There is an answer to these in Jay, which we read the other day, January 12, beginning : ' He affords young Christians peculiar encouragements from a regard to their weakness and want of experience ; for a time he hides and restrains many of their enemies, and this secures them from encounters with which more aged Christians are familiar.' Now as we advance through this life, and in our Christian life, our difficulties seem to increase, and our faith and hope are sorely tried, but God has promised not to lay upon us more than we are able to bear, and to not give us any afflic tion which is not for our good ; and when we have a bit of rough road in his all-wise providence to pass, he will help us over, and comfort us, talking with us by the way, and saying : ' It is I, be not afraid.' 'I am thy God ; when thou walkest through the waters I will be with thee, and through the floods they shall not overflow thee.' Read Jay January 12, again. I have marked some passages there, and read January 24 : ' Thy blessing is upon thy people.' " You see, darling, I have taken some pains for you to write this and to look out some precious promises. Now, will you not take pains for me ? Will you not make an effort and strive to keep up your spirits, looking forward to a blessed end and a happy deliver ance from them all, as soon as they have effected our Father's will in us and done his work ? Look not forward and anticipate evil, or you bear the burden alone ; when it comes you will cast your burden upon him who will sustain and help you. And the evil may never come, and the needless sorrow you give yourself, and me, will be your punishment for thus distrusting your Heavenly Father and disobey- 416 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. ing his fatherly commandment, so kindly urged upon his children : ' Take no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself ; sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.' ' Fear not, little flock, it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.' ' He that spared not his own son, how shall he not with him freely give us all things.' ' Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field which to-day is and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, oh, ye of little faith? Therefore, take no thought of saying, ' What shall we eat (when we go home to Liverpool), or what shall we drink, or wherewithal shall we be clothed, for your Heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things,' but seek ye first — you know what, dear Will, and will you not obey your kind friend, who sticketh closer to you (for all your sins) than any brother ? " Did you not punish yourself and me needlessly by anticipa ting so much trouble in our journey to New Orleans ? One trouble, the roughness of the sea, would have been the same had you been alone ; the trouble you dreaded of changing vehicles and looking after packages and accommodations has not come yet — then your soul was sick within you by reason of the children's loss of time. All our traveling yet has been done during the ordinary vacation, no time has been lost. You said no schools could be had, and were even irritated and angry, when I suggested the possibility that a school for girls could be found. That was easier found than the one for boys. You said the expense here would be enormous ; it is great, but not so much greater than in New York, had we gone to the Astor, Carleton, or gone, as many others would have done, without great caution in making inquiries and arrangements. " When we first entered New York we were told washing was seven shillings per dozen, and that was the sum we were first charged. Murray T. told us here no one would do it under one dollar, that it was unnecessary to inquire further ; you see it will be done for six shillings. I just mention these things to show you that evils have not been so great as you imagined. You have your family now, with every comfort around them, and your traveling, though disagreeable, is not more than Mylne has also to encounter, with no friends to love him and pray for him, and yearn after him as you have, no fond wife to welcome him back with tears MY FIRST JOURNEY TO NATCHEZ. 417 of joy, no dear children to listen fondly to the first sound of his footsteps. And greater than all, you have your God to whom you can pour out your heart, and look up with confidence, crying, Abba, Father.' A conscience (so far as business is concerned) that is in integrity of purpose, and diligence in practice, void of offense toward God and man ; but ' beware of covetousness, which is idol atry.' I need not say more, but ' may the Lord give you under standing in all these things,' and 'open your eyes to behold the Well.' " H. W." The foregoing letter is enclosed in an envelope, addressed, " William Wood, Esq., Private," and inside the envelope is written : " A pleasant tune from David's harp, when the evil spirit is upon my beloved Saul ; not to be played upon or read, till words of com fort are wanted." " Steamboat Concordia, Stateroom No. 9, Mississippi River, near Colonel Morgan's Landing, January 15, 1845. " My Beloved Harriet : " I have just been reading, with great comfort and satisfaction, your ' Notes from David's harp.' Bless thee, bless thee, my precious one, and thank God for giving me such a helpmeet for me. You said I was not to read these notes until I was needing comfort, but although not depressed or despairing, but by God's grace in some degree, however slightly, in the frame of mind of the Apostle Paul, ' bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus,' yet I could not resist the pleasure of reading your dear handwriting. And ' a thousand times I blessed thee,' as I read. You dear, precious wife, to take so much trouble and pains for my edification, and you know so well when the shoe pinches, and God's spirit has, I am sure, directed you in the present instance peculiarly to bring " ' Manna to the hungry soul, and to the weary rest.' God has shown me 'the Well,' and I find even ' palm trees ' about it, and have comforts and conveniences physically, which I never expected on the Mississippi. After I lost sight of John Walter, Mylne and I walked up and down on the upper deck, looking at the city as we passed the wharfs and shipping. I kept my eyes on the roof 41 8 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. of the St. Louis Hotel as long as it was in sight, thinking, ' By that roof I know she sits,' with all those who are nearest and dearest to me. " This steamer is a comfortable and well-managed, but not very quick, boat, and a steamer, the Princess, which left at the same time soon passed us. The steampipes on board hardly make any noise, but the vessel shakes a great deal. About six we went down into the cabin to a capital tea and supper, beautiful white, fresh, and light bread. I took iced water, bread and butter. Mylne introduced me to a Mr. Hall, whose father lives in Liverpool, and to a Colonel Morgan, a lame man, with crutches, who spoke to the former in quite an offensive manner about slavery and the inter ference of England, as you read in books of travels ; but he said to me he did not know I was an Englishman (I said I was a Scotsman, but that it was the same thing) or he would not have spoken as he did, and was civil enough afterward. " I have got the Belle Chasse accounts with me, and Mylne and I sat up till eleven o'clock trying to make head or tail of them, not very successfully. We tried odds or evens for who should have the upper berth. Mylne got it, and I the lower, which was nearly double as broad — in fact, as broad as our bed at the St. Louis, but not quite as long. For a steamer, I really slept very comfortably. Awoke, as usual, 'a great while before day'; tried the handles of my watch and found it was half-past four ; lay still till daybreak, about half- past six, and then rose and finished all my little ablutions before Mylne got up. We had a first-rate breakfast about eight ; beautiful bread, fine fish, and good tea, and clean white tablecloth. There are several ladies on board. Our stateroom is next door to the ladies' cabin. There are about forty passengers of the first class. Then, after they have finished, come ten or twelve second-class pas sengers and the mate, etc., and then there is a third table for the colored people. After breakfast I went on deck and had a long conversation with Captain Thomason. He has been all through Arkansas, and says it is a beautiful country, and that one can go through the whole of it in steamers and stages, and that if we go in the new steamer, Arkansas No. 4, Captain Pennywit, we will be well cared for and very comfortable, and he says it would be nonsense taking horses from New Orleans or dressing in any other MY FIRST JOURNEY TO NATCHEZ. 419 mode than we are accustomed to ; that the society at Fort Smith would shame that of New Orleans, and that we will find the people very kind and hospitable to strangers. Making a good many grains of allowance, as you have always said, Arkansas may not be so bad, after all. Since, I have been reading 28th Psalms and 1st Romans, January 12, 13, and 24, Jay, and your precious letter, which brought the tears to my eyes. ' Surely goodness and mercy have followed me all the days of my life, and, through the merits of the Redeemer, I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.' " Don't forget to send off your letters to Mary in time, and write also to Maria and Eleanor, if you feel inclined, and you could tell the latter that Mary will show her your journal. God bless you and my darling children. I see you and all of them, individually and collectively, in my mind's eye. I hope to finish this at Natchez. I am using Mylne's paper and writing-desk, having omitted to take my own. There is a piano in the ladies' cabin, and I hear them playing and singing. " Natchez, January 16, 1845 — Thursday. We arrived here safe and sound last night at midnight, and had to walk about half a mile up to the ankles in mud. Fortunately there was a- little moon light. We are staying at the City Hotel, a large, dingy, dirty build ing. We have got good-sized, dingy, dirty bedrooms, but clean sheets, and slept comfortably till about six, and rose about half-past, and, after dressing and praying fervently for you and our dear little flock of children, I read the 29th Psalm and 2d Romans, and also again the 27th Psalm, and again your precious letter. I had much comfort and joy in believing, although my worldly prospects are gloomy enough. However, so far our prayers have been literally fulfilled — ' neither poverty nor riches.' I feel, my beloved one, that God has peculiarly blessed me in giving me you. Oh ! do try and preserve your health and keep up your spirits. Just act on the excellent advice you have given me. " I have not the least idea how long we may be detained here, nor how long we may take to transact our business further up the river. " This letter is to go by a steamboat, and there seems to be no regular post ; so I am afraid you will not hear from me again pos sibly till I bring my own news, and that may be two or three weeks after this, or it may be less. I cannot form any notion how long we 420 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. may be away, as our movements depend upon those of others. God bless you, my dearest one. Put your trust in our Heavenly Father, and keep up your spirits, and kiss my dear J. Walter, Charlotte, Bessie, Harrie, little Willie, and Helen. Oh ! may the richest bless ings of God descend upon you and my darling children. Now to business, and pray for me that I may be strengthened and confirmed in the faith, and may be enabled to transact my business properly. I am in good health and wonderfully good spirits. I love you, if possi ble, more than ever, and my darling children also. I shall not leave this before Tuesday, 2 1 st. Letters leaving New Orleans on Sunday morning per Paul Jones will reach me at Natchez. " Ever thine own attached husband, "William Wood." "New Orleans, Thursday, January 16, 1845. " My Beloved William : " You did not tell me where to write, and I was afraid of writing too soon ; neither did you tell me how often I might write or when I should hear from you. Murray T. says Sunday night : ' I am weary, weary to hear from you ; the days seem lengthening as I go.' I opened the sluices after you left and gave some vent to my pent-up heart. You were to blame, because you caused the beginning of the outlet at dinner time, talking of your ' never coming back,' and my returning ' in the Sultana to New York,' thence ' direct to Liver pool.' When once opened, the floodgates were not so easily closed. I cried myself a headache for the next morning, but took some excellent, well-made chocolate for tea, and wrote some of my letter to Mary ; then Murray came in, and about nine Charlotte and I went to bed. I was wakeful, but had no bad dreams. Wednesday I employed myself busily with teaching and sewing ; then walked out with the three little ones and Powell [the nurse]. I could not fix my attention to Heber at all, nor any other book except my Bible. At dinner time I was very nearly giving way again when I thought of our conversation there the day before and your empty seat, but resolved that I would conquer. I put on my bonnet imme diately after, and went out to walk with Charlotte and John Walter. We went down Customhouse Street, passed Old Levee Street, and went on the Levee, near where you embarked in the steamboat. MY FIRST JOURNEY TO NATCHEZ. 42 1 There was a nice fresh breeze, and we quite enjoyed it. To-day was the children's holiday, and I -distributed my prizes for good conduct, after which we went out to walk, the three youngest with the nurses and the two eldest with me. We shopped, and I bought my parasol for one pound, that is five dollars. It is a sort of blue and crimson shaded, something like that queer silk bonnet Maria brought me from Paris, which never wore out. Do you remember ? It got soaked in a thunder shower, and dear Charlotte ripped it up and ironed it, and put it together again, when / thought it was ruined, and we all thought it looked all the better for its washing. I hope you will like this parasol. I saw all in Royal Street, and all in Chartres Street, before I settled upon this. We bought irons, a tin pan for starch, and gloves for the children, also exercise books. Charlotte had to go from twelve to one to her music, and she and Bessie were to have gone back again this afternoon from four to six, so that it is by no means a whole holiday ; but a heavy rain came on about two o'clock, and it has poured ever since, so I did not send them. I was delighted to get your few blotted lines, and to hear from John Walter that you went off in such good spirits. Willie has just come in, looking fat and sweet, and says : ' Will you tell papa he must come back, say, will you ? — do!' I told him I would, and he walked over to John Walter and began pushing him off his seat which he said was yours, at the foot of the table, as I was writing for you to come back, so that he must get off immediately. He and Harrie have been very good at their lessons, but Harrie invariably ' kicks the pail of milk over ' with some naughtiness and gets a bad mark. Little ' Miss El-len ' is well and sweet. I wish Maria could see her now, so full of sweetness and playfulness, walking all round the room with a rag round her neck for a shawl, nodding her head and shaking hands with everyone, for ' Howdye de, Miss Wood ? ' John Walter continues to like his school, and thinks young King, one of his classmates, a good fellow. He is behaving very well, except occasionally teasing Harrie. Bess likes her school very much, and has confessed that one cause of her grief at first was because there was a dog there, but now she has conquered her timidity and brought herself to stroke it. Charlotte likes school very well, but she does not like the system of teaching music at all, nor her music lesson hour, which is from twelve to one, so that she has no 422 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. recreation. Our old waiter continues civil and obliging. Our nice housemaid has been discharged, as Mme. Hawley told me, for get ting drunk ; but our servants say that she is the bad one, and no good servant will stay with her, she abuses them so. I am in great haste to have this finished before Murray comes, as he sent word he was coming here to-night. He did not come yesterday. I suppose he went to Helen Nicholson's party. She has been taking lessons with some gentlemen, together with four couple, to dance the polka. I suppose when she told me she thought her taking lessons with Mr. Nicholson would be so supremely ridiculous, she was sounding me to know what I thought of it, in case I should come to her party and catch her in the act. I feel quite well to-day. I shall write to Maria to-morrow, and perhaps I may answer Mrs. Humphreys' long letters. Charlotte, Bessie, John Walter, and coquette Harrie send their love to dear, dear papa, and you may present my regards to Mr. Mylne. Murray tells me that you are to be home in a week, that Mylne said so, but I shall not expect you till I hear from your self that you are coming. God bless you, my own darling Will ; I hope you are remembering me and keeping up your spirits for my sake. "P. S. — Friday, January 17, 1845. Murray did not come; I suppose on account of the rain. I feel still better in health and spirits to-day, my darling, and all are well. It is pouring of rain, and after much deliberation I sent the girls to school in a cab with Mary to walk back. I sent for the man of the house here and made a bargain for six shillings ; he said it was always more in wet weather. I have sent off a letter to Maria to-day. God bless you, my own love, how I long to hear from you and to see you. Did you read attentively the 30th Psalm, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th verses ? "Thine own, "H." "Natchez, Saturday, January 18, 1845. " My Dearest Wife : " I have just this moment arrived in Natchez from a visit to Mr. Payne, a debtor of ours, with whom we spent two nights. The weather has been horrid, and our drive out on Thursday night through an awful storm of thunder, lightning, rain, and deep mud, was beyond anything I ever saw ; however, thank God, we got safely MY FIRST JOURNEY TO NATCHEZ. 423 through it. To-day we drove here by way of Peachland, a planta tion indebted to us, and there we dined. The steamer is just going off to New Orleans, and I have only time to say that I am safe and well. I had hoped to receive a letter from you, but none has come ; perhaps I may get it on Monday. We go to Vicksburg on Tuesday evening, " I have derived great comfort from your blessed notes on David's harp. Business matters I find, so far, as bad or worse than I expected. I have had much peace and joy in believing. God for ever bless you and my darling children. In haste, " Ever thine own " Wm. W." As giving some idea of the cost of living at the St. Louis Hotel in those days, I copy the following from an old notebook : New Orleans, January 10, 1845. Three grown persons at $i 6 per week $48.00 Four children and two servants, at $8 per week, . . 48.00 " No charge for baby" [Helen], . ... 0.00 $96.00 It is not mentioned what this sum is for ; probably an attempt on my part to beat down from $136, . . 20.00 $116.00 January and February, $130 (per week), ... — March and April, $120. When Mr. Wood is away a week or upward, $5 per week of board is to be deducted. Signed, Wm. W. Per N. Dyalais. From the same notebook I copy the following particulars which I wanted to obtain regarding each planter and his plantation : " Age ? Married or unmarried ? Family or not ? Standing in society ? Business habits ? Energy and capacity ? Mode and style of living and at what expense ? Situation of each plantation, whether on a navigable river or not ? State of roads ? General description ? Extent of property ? Acres under cultivation ? Average amount of produce in cotton or sugar ? Number of slaves ? Annual ex pense on each plantation ? Map of county or state where each plantation is situated." 424 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. " St. Louis Hotel, New Orleans, January 18, 1845. " My Beloved William : " Your not wholly unexpected, yet most deliciously welcome letter reached me to-day ; its contents have given me great cause for thankfulness. Surely, darling, your difficulties will diminish, if they do not vanish, as you approach them. You need fear no evil, I am assured, if you put your trust in God and do your duty toward man- We continue to go on well here, the children all happy and good, sound in body and sound in mind, and my health, I am pretty sure. will begin to improve when once this week is over. There was a wild shout of delight from the voices of all the children when your letter was brought in. I was in my bedroom and little Willie was the happy one who first got hold of the prize and brought it to me. I then locked my door and greedily and tearfully devoured my bit alone, then gave thanks to God and opened my door to read its news to the dear children. " John Walter came home at three, and begs me to tell you, with his love, that there was a prize given for natural philosophy. He did not know that there was to have been a prize given, but had just studied his examination as an ordinary lesson. He and ' another fellow ' (to use his own expression) answered just alike, the doctor could puzzle neither of them. It was then put to the vote which should have the prize. The votes were even, and they then drew for, and ' the other fellow ' got it. I was sorry at this, but glad to hear he had deserved the prize, so gave him instead a sixpence, being the large sum of three pence sterling. " It has been raining cats and dogs since I wrote you last. I did not send the girls to school to-day, as Charlotte nearly ruined her bonnet in going to the music school, and I was obliged to pay twelve shillings for them in a cab, six shillings there and the same back again to the hotel. There were only one or two girls at school and Madame Boyer seemed surprised that I sent ours ; the few girls who were there walked, I suppose cabs being too expensive. It has not been a simple rain, an English wet day, but a regular splasher, pouring all the time. Canal Street is a complete canal, and the crossings abominable. Before the rain it was very close and sultry, but now it is quite cold and we have the windows closed and a fire. Murray called here yesterday ; he had taken a bad cold and is very MY FIRST JOURNEY TO NATCHEZ. 425 hoarse. He says it was the most magnificent ball Mrs. Nicholson [ne'e Helen Kane] has ever given yet, the supper superb, and she looking remarkably well ; she danced the polka. He says all the ladies looked lovely. We have just been dancing ' Here we go round the gooseberry bush,' little Helen acting her part : ' This is the way to wash our face So early in the morning,' as well as any of them. " Our clothes have all come home from the wash and are correct. Dear Willie just now came sidling up to me and said : ' Are you writing to papa, say, mamma? ' I said, ' Yes, dear, I am ; go away.' ' Tell him,' says he, ' to please come back, will ye ? ' This he said in a most pitiful and beseeching way, and I promised him I would. I did not write to Eliza, because my letter to Mary was a very long one, and after writing to her and to you I thought I had better write next to Maria ; but I was prevented to-day and in that case I could not have written till next week. I wrote a very long and entertaining one to Maria, I had so much to tell her ; after which I was too tired, and it was too late, to write to Eleanor. I am afraid we shall not get to church to-morrow, and I shall feel it a very long, solitary day ; but I shall think of, and pray for, my dear one, that he may be strengthened for his work, and be filled with all the fullness of God. I am sorry that you are at your old tricks of feeling the watch handles half the night through. ' Rest, troubled spirit, rest.' I wake often in the night, turn my pillow, and think of you pleasantly, sometimes pray, and fall to sleep again, then at six exactly, as both handles point straight up and down, I awake for the last time, lie half an hour and get up. Our chocolate waits, and as chocolate cold is not good, I conclude, with a thousand blessings upon your sweet head, my own precious Will. " Yours, " H." " Natchez City Hotel, Sunday, January 19, 1845. " My Darling Harriet : " I wrote you a few hurried lines yesterday just to say that I had returned safely, and got them on board the "steamer Princess, just as she was starting. Mr. Mylne gave my letter in charge of Dr. Mercer, 426 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. a passenger whom he knew. The first letter I wrote to you was dated 16th inst. After dispatching it and dining at the hotel (having previously been in consultation with our lawyer for some two hours, and having had an interview with the cashier of the Planters' Bank, which owes us money and can't pay it, and with Mr. Davis, who does the same and won't pay it until it suits himself, we started in a wagon like Mr. Clements' for a twenty-one mile ride to Mr. Payne's. We set off at three o'clock ; the day was gloomy, but not wet, when we started, but we had not got three miles from Natchez until the thunder began to roll and the lightning to flash, and we had a perfect deluge of rain. The roads consist of nothing but a sort of muddy clay, no stones or gravel; of course the rain lay in great pud dles and the horses were up to their fetlocks in mud. The driver was a boy who had never been that road before, so that we had to trust to Mr. Mylne's recollection. Four or five miles from Natchez we had to ford a creek, which was roaring and raging like a violent torrent, and up to the horses' bellies, although probably an hour before it had been nearly. dry. Fortunately a carriage belonging to the neighborhood went in before us, or I don't think our driver would have attempted it. After this the road continued to get worse and worse, and the rain came pouring in through a hole in the roof. About halfway it began to get dark, but we fortunately got a candle at a house by the roadside. This we cut in two pieces and put one in each lamp, and found they did us some service. Further on the road we got into a wood, and there it was so dark in spite of the candles and a little moonlight, that we were quite happy when a vivid flash of lightning came and lighted up everything around us. " The worst hills in Long Island were a joke to those we passed over, while the ruts in the path were so deep, and so often near the middle of the road, that unless Providence had watched over us we should certainly have been upset, and left out in the rain all night, as there were no houses within miles of us ; and if there had been, we probably could not have found our way to them, the fields and roads were so cut up with ravines and gullies. At last, after five hours weary journeying (and yet not so wearisome after all, for there was a good deal of excitement in it), we came to Mr. Payne's avenue gate, which to our sorrow we found locked, and Mr. Mylne and I, leaving the carriage, had to wade through mud and water, away MY FIRST JOURNEY TO NATCHEZ. 427 round by the back of the house, and scramble over the fences with the feeling that at any moment we might have a dog's teeth in the calf of our legs. However, we got at last safely to the front door, and had it opened to us by Mr. Payne. Mrs. P. had gone to bed, and he was sitting in the parlor with a Mr. Elder, who is tutor to his family and some other planters' children in the neighborhood. On our journey, besides the horrid weather, we felt all the disagreeables of going to a man's house unasked, to dun him for money. However, he gave us quite a hospitable welcome, and a cup of nice tea with fresh butter and bread and cold chicken, prefaced by a glass of good old Madeira, which, with a fine roaring wood fire, made us quite cheerful. I felt quite thankful for having got safe there. The poor lad who drove us, and was a first-rate driver, was wet to the skin ; he was from Kentucky, and had just come to this section of the country. Mylne and I were put in a large double-bedded room, where we slept very comfortably, and note that all the beds are four- posted, and looked like English ones. Next morning, a negress came into the room before we were up, and lighted a wood-fire, and brushed Mylne's clothes (I brushed my own). I rose first and per formed my ordinary ablutions, then after being dressed sat down and read the Bible, and your blessed note, and felt comforted and built up in the faith. " We then had a most substantial breakfast : tea, coffee, ham, sau sages, chicken, hot rolls, hominy, corn cakes, and excellent fresh butter, and were waited on by two negresses and a negro boy. Mrs. Payne is a respectable, pleasant-like woman, and they have four fine children at home, and a girl of Charlotte's age at school. "After breakfast, we had some three hours' examination of Mr. Payne's business matters, which bothered him a good deal. He offered us, at eleven o'clock, spirits and water, which I am told is the custom. Of course we took none, but he did, and then about two o'clock, just before dinner, he took another. It rained all day and was very cold, and we were thus prevented from riding about, and seeing his various plantations. Mr. Payne took a good deal of wine at dinner ; I only one glass. After dinner we again went to the parlor, where Mylne and the tutor smoked cigars, and then had a most substantial tea, with hot cakes about six o'clock, and nice clean napkins at all the meals. We retired to bed about nine, but unfor- 428 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. tunately a pane of the window had been broken, and it was mon- trous cold all night. The negress came again this morning to put on the fire, and stamped in and out of the room, although I was washing my neck and shoulders, as if I had not been there. After Mylne went down I again read your dear note. God has indeed enabled you to speak peace and comfort to me. " After breakfast, we set out in Mr. Payne's, carriage for Natchez, by another road from that by which we came, in order that we might visit Peachland plantation. The day was cold and chilly, but Mr. Payne gave us a blanket to wrap round our legs, which we felt very comfortable. About half-past one we reached Peachland, and dined with Mr. McCaleb, the overseer. He has seven children, and his wife is dying of consumption, poor fellow. Here, as I told you yesterday, I saw heaps of negro children in the nursery, where they are all congregated under the charge of an old negress, while the parents were at work in the fields. One of them had blue eyes, and was nearly white and quite ill. It was a very melancholy sight, although the little blackies looked healthy enough in general. " After dinner it began to rain again, but not heavily, and we drove into Natchez, about eight and a half miles, in an hour and a half over a pretty good road. After depositing our baggage at the inn, we drove to Ferriday & Co.'s office, where I half expected to find a letter from my blessed one. I there wrote the few lines I sent you yesterday, and Mylne and I walked nearly ankle-deep in mud to get them on board the steamer. We then returned to the hotel and found we had each got an immense bedroom. Mine has four four-post beds in it, and Mylne's three ; being very cold, we ordered our fires, and had tea up in Mylne's room, and felt pretty snug and comfortable. After tea we sat talking about bringing up children, which afforded me the pleasure of dilating upon mine. I then spoke of James, or, rather, Mylne did. He then asked about Eliza, and I told him all about her ; and, after as pleasant an even ing as I can have away from you, I went into my own room and went to bed. I awoke as usual at daybreak, and lay until I got up, most of the time praying that every spiritual blessing, and such temporal ones as are good for you and my dear children, might descend upon you and them. My own blessed Harriet, I cannot tell how inexpressibly dear you are to me, and how I cherish the MY FIRST JOURNEY TO NATCHEZ. 429 recollection of all your sweet, kind ways. I grudge every hour I am away from you, and wonder when I was at sea how I could ever be separated from you for a minute. And all my dear children are dearer to me than ever. May God bless them one and all ! ' We cannot get away from here before Tuesday night at soonest, as we have some further consultation with our lawyer on Tuesday morning, and Payne is to be in town that day on business with us. When we leave this we go to Good Hope Plantation, or Palmyra or Vicksburg first, according to the time the steamer may reach them, and we find it practicable to land, or, when landed, to get to the plantations we want to see. Unless the weather get better, we may go no further than Vicksburg and Jackson this trip ; but, at the soonest, I see no chance of being home before ten days, we have met with so much unexpected delay here. I hope my darling wife is keeping up her spirits, and doing all in her power to get the better of her complaints ? Do, for my sake and the children's sake, do all in your power to get into good health. Pray for your restoration to it, and pray for me, my dearest one, and I hope the children pray for us both, dear J. Walter, and Charlotte, and Bessie, at any rate. " Mylne and I went to the Presbyterian church to-day, and heard a pretty fair discourse from an oldish man, a Mr. Chester from Phila delphia, from the text ' Add to your faith virtue,' etc. After church we took a walk through the least muddy parts of this dull and unin teresting town. Dined at two o'clock, and, after dinner, hearing that a steamer was going down [the Concordia, by which we came up], I came up to my four-bedded room, where I am now sitting with a good fire of coal like Liverpool coal, which, by the way, comes from Pennsylvania. I am afraid this letter will be too late for the steamer. If not, I do not know when you may hear from me again, possibly not until I return myself. May God Almighty bless and watch over you and my beloved children. Pray, dearest, that I may have comfort and peace in believing, and may the God of all comfort and consolation dwell with you and me and our children. " Ever you own attached " Wm. W. " The Concordia was off before I could get this on board, but the landlord promises to get it sent by some boat passing this evening. Again, God bless you and all my dear ones. I am afraid you will 430 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. hardly be able to read this really stupid, ill-written letter. I have a horrid pen, and had to write in a hurry. I would like to go on writing to you all the time. " Thine own 'Wm. W." " New Orleans, January 20, 1845. " My Own Dearest Husband : " Your welcome and, this time, unexpected letter gave me great delight, and a little sorrow. Joy that you are well and have that ' peace which passeth understanding,' and sorrow that you had been expecting a letter from me and had not received it ; sorrow that you have had such bad roads and horrid weather, and sorrow that you find your worst business expectations realized ; but, darling, what a comfort to know that He who can turn the darkness into light can so add to our stock of health and to our vigor of mind, giving us cheerfulness of disposition under our trials, and such a trust and confidence in him, that our days of limited means may be our best and happiest. While, on the other hand, if we pine after that wealth which he sees right to withhold, he may give us the desire of our eyes and, with loss of health, forcibly teach us that we had blessings which we knew not of, and that wealth cannot be enjoyed in a sick chamber ; carriages, horses, and even legs, are of no use when one cannot breathe the fresh air of heaven for days and weeks together ; the most tempting meats and dainties cannot be enjoyed if one has no appetite ; neither could you sport your fine clothing had you wardrobes filled without end with the best and costliest. You will say : ' Ah, but I don't desire these things — that is wealth ; what I want is competence and to be kept from poverty' — but who is the best judge of what is competence? Rely upon it, my own Will, your Father and mine will give you competence, the more so as you are a weak brother, and cannot walk much by faith, but, without a finger of faith to hold by, down you go. Now, dear Cornelia, whom you so often quote, did not stagger, but was strong in faith, and God gave her good health and with it a taste and relish for good, plain things, so that she required not dainties ; and, moreover, I know all her trials were needed, and have been blessings to her, and she knows it, too. Now, we are all in good health, and have been for some time, MY FIRST JOURNEY TO NATCHEZ. 43 1 for, though I have my complaint, which (as Mrs. Thomson would say) is an ' unfortunate one,' yet I am able to eat and sleep and every day to breathe, on my feet, God's fresh air, to see my friends, and to attend daily to all my duties. Don't let us be, then, unthankful, and let us not ' forget all His benefits.' Yesterday was a dry but cold day ; we went to church and heard from Mr. Scott a most admirable sermon on the text ' By their fruits ye shall know them.' He gave us a very clear statement of his views upon doctrinal points, which were simple and such as we hold, proclaiming very distinctly Jesus Christ and him crucified as the author of our faith and whole ground of our confidence, while on the other hand he was very practical, showing that our faith must work by love, and that love constrains us more and more to do the will of our heavenly Father. The hymns we sang were excellent in their selection, the tunes such as we could sing, and both prayers short and to the pur pose. In the afternoon I went again with J. W. and Charlotte, though I was not quite clear about there being services, as he said there would be a Bible class for adult blacks at four. The door was shut, and we saw the black people in the vestry below. We then went to another church, which turned out to be a Roman Catholic, then to another, which was shut up, and to a third, which was Methodist, so I returned home. In the evening John Walter and Murray went to hear the sermon for young men on the causes of dishonesty. He returned greatly delighted, and gave a very intelligent account of it in the most excellent language, and as he was full of his subject, with great action, his manner was so graceful and he spoke so dis tinctly, that I have more hopes of his being a good orator than I ever had yet. He is very diligent in his studies, and is at the head of the French class in which there are twelve boys. I spent a quiet, happy, and profitable day yesterday ; so, I believe, did all the chil dren. I had some pleasant conversation with the elder ones, and reached the hearts and understandings of the little ones. " Mr. Edward Ogden called again, but I had previously sent word that I did not see company on Sunday. You must return his call when you come back here, as he has been twice. Poor Murray has only been here twice, the night you left and on Friday morning, when he had a bad cold. I am sorry to say that he is to-day confined to bed. I sent J. Walter to see him this evening, when he was 432 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. better. Mr. De Peyster has just called and sat with us half an hour ; he seems a gentlemanly and rather pleasant young man of twenty-seven or twenty-eight, I should think. He had not been well or would have called sooner. Helena Nicholson was here to-day wanting me to spend the day with her to-morrow, but I have declined. She stayed about an hour and was quite pleasant. Hill* also called to-day, and called on Sunday, being very modest and shy, poor fellow, and anxious to be of service. He is going to call to-morrow for this letter, if there be a chance of sending it off. Captain Dennis, of the Sultana, also called to-day, and made a great deal of Willie. He did not know you were out of town. Mme. Boyer wants Charlotte to practice more, and told her to ask you to hire a piano for her by the month, at home. Mary told me Mme. Hawley had one in her parlor which was never used. I asked her if there were a practicing piano in the house that ' my daughter could use' ; she said. ' Yes, she might use those in the public parlor, or if she wanted to be more private she could use hers, as she never was in her parlor in the evening.' So I will try it to-morrow. " There was a beautiful verse in Jay, which I read to-day, and one which I should like you and me to be always able to use. " ' Lord, I would, I do submit, Gladly yield my all to thee, What thy wisdom sees most fit, Must be surely best for me. " 'Only when the way is rough And the coward flesh would start, Let thy presence and thy love Cheer and animate my heart.' " Tuesday, January 21, 1845. One week to-day since youleft us ; it seems one month at least. It is a splendid day, like our fine autumn weather, and I have had a long walk with Helen, Mary Brown, Harrie, and Willie, out through Canal Street, past the Maison de Sante quite into the country. Harrie has made great progress in her lessons since she began this time, and is very attentive, and so is Willie. Murray T. is better, but not out yet. It is merely a very * Wm. P. Hill, son of an English rector, whom I had with me at Liverpool, New York, and New Orleans ; the father a friend of Frank Haywood. MY FIRST JOURNEY TO NATCHEZ. 433 bad cold. Ever thine own, my loved Will. A prosperous journey to Vicksburg. God be with you. " Thine own devoted " H." "City Hotel, Natchez, January 20, 1845. " My Darling Harriet : " Your most welcome letter of 18th inst. reached me this after noon, but one previously written, to which it refers, has not yet come to hand. I suppose you have put it into the post office, and the post is very irregular. I feel thankful to God that you are all well in spite of the sudden and disagreeable change in the weather. " After giving my letter of yesterday to the landlord to send off, I walked down to the bluff, that is, the high bank which overhangs the river, and is at the end of the main street. There I saw a most beautiful sunset, and while watching it a young man came up and addressed me by name, told me he recollected me in Liver pool, and had been in Jim Lea's office there. I found out that he was a Mr. Richarky, a cousin of the Duncans'. He told me that he has lived here two years, and that the society is very pleasant, which I am sure nobody would imagine from the look of the place. After tea, I went to my own room, and read the history of David in the Bible, and about eight o'clock, feeling sleepy, I went to bed, where I slept pretty comfortably till what I thought was daybreak, but on feeling the handle of the watch found that it was only two o'clock, and that the light was moonlight, which I was glad to find was the case. I then went to sleep again till six, and lay from then till near seven, thinking of, and praying for you, and my dear ones, then rose and read the Bible, Jay, and your heart-searching and comforting notes, then to breakfast on ham, scrambled eggs, and buckwheat cakes, and a glass of water, for the tea is boiled, and the coffee equally detestable. " We were all day at our lawyer's office consulting about what we are to do in relation to Payne and his plantation and negroes. After spending all the day we came to nothing definite, but I am afraid we shall have to sell him up, which is very disagreeable ; he is to be in town to-morrow, and unless he can pay us some money, which I don't think he can, we must sell his property, or at least take steps to enable us to do so, as soon as the law allows, which will be six or 434 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. seven months hence. We were so long at the lawyer's that when we got to the inn there was nothing but cold scraps to eat. After a very frugal repast, we took a walk, the weather being beautiful. In the course of the walk my old cloth boots burst all along the side, so I had to go and buy a pair of strong, double-soled leather boots, which cost me eight dollars. [Proved to be the best I ever had. — Wm. W., 1890.] I then went with Mylne to Ferriday's, and waited till the letters came from the Paul Jones. "Tell my dear little Willie that 1 please to come back every minute, but that I have business to attend to, and cannot tell yet when I shall be able to return. Bless his dear little heart for wanting me. Does Little Coquette ever give any sign of caring whether I am absent or present ? " After tea, or rather after some bad cold water and bread, we went out and made a business call on Mr. Davis, who is concerned with us in the Arkansas lands, and opened a negotiation with him, which may possibly lead to his giving us some of his lands in New Orleans in part payment of his shares in the Arkansas lands. Since our return from Davis' Mylne has been concocting a letter offering Peachland plantation to a man for sale, and I have been writing down some of my business notes. It is now ten minutes past ten, time to go to bed. Tell my dear John Walter I am delighted to hear of his success in the natural philosophy examination. Kiss my dear Charlotte and Bessie for me, and Coquette and Willie and little Nell, poor little poppet. I think I see her going 'round the goose berry bush.' I am afraid, from your rising so early, your spirits are not quite so good as you represent them to be. Mine were pretty flat all day to-day, but are quite good since I got your letter. They are only flat, however, from being bothered about actual present business. Considering the disagreeable business and heavy losses staring one in the face, they are wonderfully good, and I feel most grateful to God for the support and comfort he has vouchsafed to me. Good-night, my dearest one. " January 21, 1845. Your first letter has not yet arrived. I have been all day in consultation with lawyers about Payne's affairs. He was to have come to town early, but did not until late in the day, so all the morning Mylne and I were at the lawyer's waiting for him, and then after dinner were there with him, and then had an inter- MY FIRST JOURNEY TO NATCHEZ. 435 view with him in Mylne's bedroom. I never was in such a dilemma in my life to know what to do ; whether to sell his property as soon as we can, which is harsh, but, I fear, necessary. If we could trust to his representations it might be advisable to wait, but he has failed in his promises so often that I am afraid to trust him. It is to me that all such disagreeable matters come for decision. First Shiras, now Payne. I have prayed for direction fervently and often, and if I followed the bent of my inclination I would let him alone ; but then there is the duty to my uncles ; but more than that, there is my duty to God. If we sell, negroes will be separated and sold possibly to distant parts. In fact 'all is loathsome, melan choly, mean,' and our assets are just proving as bad as I anticipated. So far, at least, such is the case, but that I should not mind if I could see my duty clearly toward God and toward man. It is now near twelve o'clock and I am going to bed. I hope the Spirit of God will direct me what to do before morning, when it will be necessary to come to some decision. Mylne and I missed our tea by being with the lawyer, and so we had some cold meat and bread and a pint of Scotch ale each in his room. Since then I have been read ing the last part of ' Coningsby ' by way of diverting my thoughts from the channel they had run in all day. There are some very good things and deep thoughts in the book, mixed up with a good deal of folly. '"If I be His, why am I thus ? ' and yet, could I once see my way clearly how to act, it seems to me mere worldly losses would be as nothing compared with the misery of being in a position which compels me to act, or may compel me to act, against the prin ciples of the New Testament. I am not doing to others as I would be done by in selling off Payne's property ; at the same time, if I don't, I am not doing as I would be done by with regard to my uncles. However, without an hour or two's talking, I could not put all the points of the case before you. Mylne, I see, will do as I say. I wish you were here. God bless you. Good-night. May God direct me. Amen." The following beautiful letter is addressed to me, " Concordia Steamboat, Mississippi River," and was given me by Harriet when leaving New Orleans on my second trip to Natchez, New Carthage, 436 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. Good Hope Plantation, Vicksburg and Palmyra Plantation, in com pany with William C. Mylne. The Concordia, Captain Thomason, was then a very fine boat and a regular packet from New Orleans to Natchez and Vicksburg : " St. Louis Hotel, January 28, 1845. " My Beloved Will " Must not tire at ' an oft repeated tale,' or view me " ' As some poor nigh-related guest, That may not rudely be dismissed,' but to go with me into some silent corner alone, and ' commune with us by the way of all those things which have come to pass,' and much do I think and believe, dearest Will, that we ' are fools and slow of heart to believe,' when we are thus constantly doubting, whether these paths in which we are now led are all mercy and truth. We think some of them could have been better ordered, and more wisely, for our temporal and spiritual good. Now, we do not, in fact, say so in so many words, but our actions say so ; our grumbling, and our murmuring. Now we know ' It is He who hath made us, and not we ourselves ; we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture.' Our grumbling, our murmuring, can do no good. We are ' clay in the hands of the potter ' ; all we are now passing through was to be from the beginning. Our future course is all traced — planned out — and we may murmur at our Guide, but he will lead, and we must follow. He knows the best way, and the only zuay to take us to our ' mansion ' in heaven. - Here we are but strangers and pilgrims ; we have asked Him to take us there even though it should be 'through much affliction.' I have heard you ask Him this many and many a time. Now He has heard your prayer, and seeing that the miry way is the only way, by which to keep you in the straight and direct road, He is leading us, and com forting us as we go, and bidding us ' Fear not.' We halt and desire to stand still, or turn about and go this more inviting path. We say to Him : " If I am Thine, why am I thus ? ' Or in other words : ' If this be the best way for me, and I am Thy child, going to the heavenly land of rest, why do You take me through the mud ? ' Just as I foolishly said : ' I hope it may rain, that you cannot go MY FIRST JOURNEY TO NATCHEZ. 437 to-day.' You, who knew the roads better than I, and knew all that was before you to do, and that delay was hazardous, said : ' Oh ! don't say that, for you would only take me from you again, and the roads will be bad, if not impossible, making it all the worse for me to go when I do go.' I acquiesced at once, and no longer wished to keep you, because I had full faith in your word, and knew your reasons. We cannot see His reasons for leading us thus about, but we can have faith in His word, and believe that He who has said : ' I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee,' will not only take us the best way, but go with us. And remember that He who so often condescends to ' com mune with us by the way ' is Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to day, and forever, and though we change (and how often we do change), yet he changes not. Having loved us from the first, he loves us to the end, so that, says the Apostle in the same chapter (13th Hebrews), ' We may boldly say, the Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man can do unto me.' Read the whole of this chapter. " Let us beware of falling into willful sin — then we are left to our selves. ' Ephraim is joined to his idols ; let him alone,' and that ' let ting him alone,' might seem a pleasant enough course to ourselves, if we think that here is all we have to hope for, but awful is the curse when man is left to himself by God, — to do evil if he can — if there be a hereafter ; but again, let willful sin belong to those who know not God. Let us beware of being betrayed into sin by being off our guard. We have a sure safeguard against this according to God's promise, 'Watch and pray.' If we sin we cannot with confidence ' commit our way unto the Lord.' We doubt and fear that all the way he is leading us, is to punish us, and flesh trembles to encounter the trials and difficulties alone. Let us then ' Watch and pray,' that we may be guiltless of all actual sin ; that we can lean on the bosom of our Friend, knowing that we have not pierced him afresh by our guilty neglect of his commandments. Then all our sorrows will have sweetness in them, and whatever bodily or mental troubles we may have, we shall have the Comforter with us, who in all our griefs will make his abode with us, and give us as he has done in times past, such sweet peace and joy in believing, that we may be able to cry out : ' Surely, the bitterness of this grief is past, and God is with me of a truth.' Since I read that chapter of 438 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. Hebrews for the first time with my understanding (that was after the explanation in the little prayer meeting on Christmas morning), how much mercy and goodness have I experienced ? Another year has closed, and you and all. my children are spared to me, with health and reason unimpaired. Twice have we been led in safety over the Atlantic, and twice have you been from me in land journeys, mercifully dealt with while absent, and safely restored to us. God has turned the hearts of those with whom you have to deal, and greater than all, has enabled you to rule your own spirit, so that you have not given way to anger, or spoken ' unadvisedly with your lips, ' but ' your moderation has been known to all men.' Now, do not say : ' Oh ! no, I have nothing to commend myself for.' For you have, but to God be the praise. Do not shut your eyes to these blessings ; they are answers to prayer. You asked him to turn the hearts of those with whom you had to deal. You asked him to let your moderation be ' known unto all men.' You asked him to keep you from ' speaking unadvisedly with.your lips,' but now, from a false humility, or from fear of self-righteousness, you will not acknowledge this, and 'return to give God thanks.' 'Were there not ten cleansed, but where are the nine ? ' No, darling, thank God for every victory over self and sin, and think of the remorse you would have had, and additional vexation just now, if through your ' false tongue ' you had quarreled with Mylne or Murray, and perhaps been sent for to come home, because you could not rule your own spirit. God bless you with all his richest blessings. " Thine own "H." CHAPTER XXXII. SECOND TRIP TO NATCHEZ AND VISIT TO PELTON'S PLANTATION. " Steamer Concordia, Mississippi River, "January 29, 1845. " My Beloved Wife : " Johnnie would tell you how I had nearly missed the steamer last evening, and how I certainly would have missed her had she not waited on purpose for me. The captain told us in the office in the morning that he did not think she would go till six, but it seems he was advertised to sail at five, and was all ready to start at half -past five, and waited at least a quarter of an hour for me, which was very civil. As soon as we started all the negroes on board, to the number of twenty, I suppose, stood in a line on the bow. Two of them held newspapers in their hands as if they were reading news, and the whole twenty kept bawling away at some absurd negro song for half an hour, all apparently as merry as grigs, although they must have been working from daybreak putting out a cargo of upward of two thousand bales of cotton, and taking in the cargo for Natchez and Vicksburg. I am afraid you will hardly be able to read my writing, the boat shakes so much. I have the same state room as I had last time (No. 9). Mylne has the upper, and I the lower berth, and I am now sitting in my stateroom, using my berth as a desk. I read your excellent letter of yesterday last evening, and was much edified by it. The rest of the evening I read Drink- water's ' Siege of Gibraltar,' and about ten I went to bed, and was asleep before Mylne came. We had an excellent supper, or tea, last evening ; things much cleaner and more wholesome-looking than in the St. Louis Hotel. By the way, Murray T. offered to take J. Wal ter and Charlotte to the French opera. I thought last evening that they might perhaps go, so that they might hear French spoken and hear the music, if not very expensive. I don't think it would do either of them harm now, although it might do so at a later 440 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. period of life. If you felt well enough to go yourself, perhaps you might go with them and Murray, and it might amuse you during my absence. However, if you have any doubt about the propriety of the children going, or about your own going, don't let them or you go. I am not quite clear on the subject myself. I had a pretty good sleep last night, considering the shaking of the boat, and awoke this morning at twenty minutes to six, and rose at about half- past. I lay thinking of you and my dear children, and praying that God would bless you and them. I had myself all comfortably washed before Mylne awoke, and then had a walk on deck for half an hour before breakfast. The morning was dry, but very cold, and I found my white pea-jacket not a bit too warm. " After breakfast I looked over all your letters and carefully read the 'notes,' the letter you wrote to me last at Natchez, and the letter of yesterday. May God bless and reward you for all the trouble you take on my account, and grant His blessing upon your exhorta tions, that they may not fall on hard and stony ground, but may take root and bring forth fruits meet for repentance. And oh ! may He bless and strengthen and spare you to me, my beloved one. Do take care of your precious health. Don't over-exert yourself, and keep up your spirits. I am feeling wonderfully well. I think the traveling, though monotonous, agrees with me, and I have great reason to be thankful, and I am thankful that in the meantime, at least, you are pretty comfortably situated and the children at pretty good schools, and that you have a resting-place for Sundays, where you can hear the gospel preached and good hymns sung to pleasant music. If God has tried us severely in the loss of fortune and home for the present, he has certainly blessed us with innumerable and undeserved mercies, and I feel that while you and my dear children are spared to me, and all of us blessed with sound minds in sound bodies, and have comfort and peace in believing, we may well say in reference to fortune : ' The Lord gave and the Lord hath taketh away ; blessed be the name of the Lord.' At the same time I must not be apathetic, but active and diligent in my vocation, and I hope it may yet please God to let us again sit in peace and com fort under our own vine and fig tree. You will probably receive to-day, or to-morrow, letters from England. I hope they may bring you good news to cheer you up in my absence. I intend to send MY SECOND TRIP TO NATCHEZ. 441 this letter ashore at Natchez, to be sent down to you by the first Doat. I hope it may reach you safely, but that is not quite certain. Mr. Turner, one of the planters we intend visiting, and who is on board, is a pleasant sort of man. I took him for forty, but found he was born in 1812, and, although a large, fat man, with grayish hair, is only thirty-two, being four years younger than I am, and two years younger than you. He was educated at Yale College, and is a widower, with one daughter. It is odd that at thirty-six I should feel so boyish as I do. I really fear Lord Kames' observation is true, and that my dear mother having made a man of me at twelve, I shall be a boy all my life 'afterward. This is a fine, clear, cold day, cold enough to wear a greatcoat, although the sun shines brilliantly. " Since writing the above we have had an excellent dinner, oyster soup, splendid red-fish, cooked in a variety of ways ; turkeys, roast beef, salad, ducks, etc., etc. Then cocoanut tarts, custards and jelly, with very good vin ordinaire a discretion, and beautiful ice, then apples and oranges, etc. Since dinner I have been standing on deck, talking to Turner and Mylne, while they smoked cigars. Turner tells me that a negro dealer, however rich, is always looked down upon, and is never associated with by the planters, and he says horse jockeys are honest men compared with the negro dealers. It is a curious piece of inconsistency that those who buy the negro should look down upon the sellers. Yet there is an inconsistency somewhat akin to this in those who vilify slave owners, yet buy and wear the cotton, without a vent for which, slaves would soon be valueless. " We are now just above the mouth of the Red River and approach ing Fort Adams. I saw upward of twenty wild geese, beautiful birds, swimming close together near the steamer. A negro gave a shout and they all rose on the wing, and floated away through the air, so close together, that one might have shot the whole of them with one gun. Mr. Turner says they are very sagacious, and will allow negroes to come closer to them than white men, as they know they don't carry guns. I don't expect to have another opportunity of writing to you till I bring my own letter. God Almighty bless you and our dear children. " Ever your attached husband, " Wm. W." 442 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. " New Orleans, Wednesday Night, January 29, 1845. " My Dearest Will : " I have thought much of you to-day, but have not felt so sad as I did yesterday. I shed no tears as I promised I would not, but I felt very hysterical and unhappy. After tea I wrote a long letter to Maria, telling her all about your journey, which letter I sent off to-day. I had a bad and wakeful night. Little Harrie got up in her sleep, walked into the next room and all round the table in her nightgown, then sat down in a chair far off in the corner, and scratched her leg. This rather frightened me, particularly as you know she had not been well. I dreamt of her no less than four times, and between each nightmare lay awake thinking of her and you. I woke feeling very well, took my alum-water, and walked out without any disagreeable effects. However, my walk was too long (to the swamp in Canal Street). Still I was no worse of the walk so far, but after dinner, as the children were anxious to go to the opera, I took Charlotte and Elizabeth with J. Walter to look for a hair dresser in Chartres Street (a lady hairdresser), to get C.'s hair cut and put in some sort of order, but walked twice up and down the whole street before I could find it. I am therefore horribly tired with a backache, but still no appearance of my old complaint, which I much wonder at, and am greatly pleased. " The reason that I did not wait till to-morrow to get the hair dresser, was because I am to go at twelve to see Mrs. Slidell, and I feared I would not have time to go there first. Don't be uneasy about my going in the omnibus, I know all about it now, and will get no harm. Charlotte wanted to write a line, and as I am very tired I will let her do so, and finish this by saying how we do to morrow. God bless thee. " H." " Thursday, January 30, 1845. " Murray called this morning to say that there was no regular packet going to-day, and that I had better wait to send the letter to morrow. I was glad of this as it gave me an opportunity of writing after my visit to Mrs. Slidell. Harrie, Bess, and Charlotte set out with me at twelve o'clock for the Jefferson omnibus, and were [put down at the corner of Camp and Robin Streets, close to MY SECOND TRIP TO NATCHEZ. 443 Mrs. Slidell's house, where we were kindly received and spent two hours and a half pleasantly enough — very pleasantly Bess and Harrie thought, but C. and I got rather weary. Miss Slidell sang and played for us very nicely, and I played for a time with Mrs. S.'s baby, three months old and very cross. Mrs. S. had on her mous- seline-de-laine wrapper, which is evidently one of her best ' bibs and tuckers.' She and Mr. S. go to Mr. Scott's church, and like him exceedingly, though she was brought up an Episcopalian. Miss Slidell attends the Episcopalian church in Canal Street. They have a pew in Mr. Scott's church, and go regularly there every Sunday. They gave us excellent home-made cake and wine, and a superb bunch of choice hot-house flowers, which are now on the table before me, perfuming the whole room deliciously and making me sigh whenever I look at the rich crimson, white, and pink roses, con trasted with the dark-leaved myrtle and hyacinths, that you are not here to see and smell them. The children are all well except E. and C, who have coughs. Willie said to me to-day, 'Oh ! mamma, will it not be joyful, joyful, when we meet papa on that happy shore in Heaven, where the rowing boats are and the l'angels in 'em.' What was the meaning in his head or where from I know not, but he comes several times in the day, and sits close to me and begins talking of you. " On Tuesday next is a sort of carnival here, when all the people go about in masks, and there is to be a grand masked ball in the evening. There is a holiday in all the schools, two days' holiday in the Roman Catholic schools, and only a half holiday (Tuesday) in J. Walter's school. Murray could not get a box to-night at the opera house, which is just as well, as if they go at all, we may per haps go with them at some other time. Murray said he would take a box for Tuesday, but I put a negative on this till you return. John Walter has gone to a room near the St. Charles Hotel to hear a lecture by Dr. McCauley, on the ' Diffusion of Knowledge ' ; he went at half-past six. " I will add a line to say how we are to-morrow. " Did you note the three last verses in the chapter of Romans which we read to-day, the 15th chapter, where St. Paul beseeches the brethren to pray for him, that he may ' be delivered from them that did not believe in Judea, and that his service might 444 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. be accepted of the saints, and that he might return to them and with them be refreshed ? ' You see that even he besought others to pray for him, and to pray that God would turn the hearts of those with whom he had to deal, and that his journey might be of use, and also that he himself might again be refreshed with joy and peace in believing. His service, to be sure, was propagating the Gospel, but he felt his dependence on God, and the prayers of others to bless the means he was about to use. Do not faint or be discouraged, my own Will, you are not the only Christian afflicted of God and yet beloved. Paul, ' the chosen vessel,' David, ' the man after God's own heart,' Abraham, 'the friend of God,' were all afflicted, tossed to and fro, yet greatly beloved. "John Walter has just returned and has been much pleased ; the lecture was in the ' People's Lyceum.' Good-night, and oh ! bless thee, bless thee, dear one. "Thine, "H. "Friday Morning, January 31, 1845. All well to-day, but I have been rather too long with the children's lessons, and am late of getting out to walk. God bless you, and keep up your spirits for my sake. No letters yet by the steamer from Liverpool, the mail is detained from some cause. " Ever thine own "H." " Steamer Concordia, Mississippi River, "Thursday, January 30, 1845. " My Beloved Harriet : " We are now approaching New Carthage, the place where we have to land in order to get to Good Hope Plantation, which is distant from it about eight miles, but whether -we are to go these eight miles on the outside of horses or the inside of a boat, remains to be seen. The letter which I wrote to you yesterday was put ashore at Natchez and was inclosed in an envelope addressed to A. & J. D. & Co. These few lines I intend to give to Captain Thomason of this boat, to be delivered on his return to New Orleans, and I expect you will get them on Tuesday next. I merely write to say that I am keeping quite well and that we have fine clear, cool, bracing weather, and that I am as cheerful as I Ought to be away from you and my dear children. The river scenery con- MY SECOND TRIP TO NATCHEZ. 445 tinues of the same monotonous character, occasionally enlivened by a bluff or headland one hundred to two hundred feet high. We passed a rather prettily situated town this morning called Grand Gulf, just below the confluence of the Big Black and the Mississippi. By the way, talking of that, the big black old negro I mentioned yes terday is, I find, a freeman and a planter, making some sixty bales of cotton annually. He has a good high nose, and if he had not been black, he would have looked very like my grandfather. "Yesterday afternoon, a little before sunset, we saw some immense flocks of white pelicans flying in a long string. They occasionally got behind the leafless trees, and then presented the appearance of a long white thread drawn through the woods. We are just passing a plantation called 'Point Pleasant,' belonging to a brother of the Mr. Turner who is. our fellow-passenger, and has called me on deck to look at it. " I have taken it into my head that you are going to suffer a good deal from that inflammation in your eye. Be sure and bathe it with a little brandy and water and vinegar. I went to bed last night at nine, and slept very comfortably ; got up at half-past five, thinking it was half-past six, and then went to bed again for an hour. After breakfast read your last sweet letter, and the Bible, and am now sitting by myself in the large cabin, writing this dull, stupid, muddy letter, which is as 'drumly ' as the water of the Mississippi, and by the way, it has a curious effect, has said water, when used to infuse tea. When you pour in the milk, the concoction becomes of a nasty greenish yellow color, just like the ink I am writing with. However, it may change its hue before this reaches you. Give my best love to John Walter, Charlotte, Bessie, ' Little Coquette,' fat Willie, and 'Miss Helen.' Oh ! may God bless you all, and unite us once more in health and peace. I can't tell you how thankful I feel that we were directed to bring John Walter, Charlotte, and Bessie with us, instead of leaving them at New York. It would have been so dull for you without them, when I am so much away as I am likely to be. You recollect in what a strait we felt about this matter in New York, and how deciding according to Christian principle has, I believe, not only been best for the children, but also best for us. Again God bless you. Pray for me that I may continue to have a contented mind and cheerful disposition, and be able to cast all my care on 446 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. Him who careth for me, and God grant that you, my beloved, may be able to do the same. You will have a fine day to-day for going to Mrs. Slidell's. " Ever your own attached husband, "Wm. W." " Steamer James Madison, Friday, January 31, 1845. " My Beloved Wife : " I begin my letter without any expression of endearment. ' Cause vy ? ' I'm afraid of some inquisitive countryman of yours looking over my shoulder, so, if I should forget to add it before closing my letter, don't say : ' Ah, Will, you don't love me as you once did ! ' After giving my letter of yesterday to the captain of the Concordia, the steamer shortly came to New Carthage. What a caricature of the city of ' Infelix Dido ' "! (ask Charlotte or John Walter for an expla nation). There were in all about six small wooden houses, dropped, as it were by accident, in the forest, near the river. One of them was a store, another, dignified by the name of ' Madison Exchange,' contained one or two passable bedrooms, with bare wooden walls. The first man we saw, we were told by Mr. Turner, had been an overseer of his, and shot one of his negroes last summer and killed him, for which he turned him off. This man and his partner are now the shipping agents for the plantation to which we are bound, and with them at the ' Madison Exchange ' we deposited our carpet bags, having first put into our pockets a shirt each, a tooth-brush, etc., and I took my Bible and your letter. No wagons were to be had, and no horses, and we had made up our minds to walk the seven miles to Good Hope, when Mr. Love, the partner of the negro- shooter, induced a neighbor to let us have two very solemn-looking and discreet ponies. Mylne mounted the most spirited, and I fol lowed on the other one. The road lay through the forest, and for the first two miles was awful — nearly up to the pony's knees in wet, sticky clay, and if we turned out of the road and rode in the forest the branches of the trees were constantly like to knock our hats off, and did knock off William Mylne's. Well, after about two miles riding we came to a ferry across a bayou, which we crossed in a scow, rowed by a negro. Mylne dismounted, but I rode my steed into the scow, sat on him there, and rode out on the other side, not MY SECOND TRIP TO NATCHEZ. 447 from any special courage, but for fear if I got down I might not so easily get up again. Mylne rode first, looking, with his spectacles on and his trousers tucked up to his knees, like the ' knight of the sor rowful countenance,' while I followed, laughing at the figure he cut, like Sancho on Dapple. After the ferry the road became better, and both of us even essayed to canter. However, shortly my stir rup-leather broke, then my bridle broke, and after mending these with a string Mylne had, on essaying to mount, my saddle wheeled round under the horse's belly. However, Mylne held the one stirrup till I got up into the saddle, and then off we both set at a good round canter, and reached Mr. Dawson's in about two hours from starting. His house is of one story, built something like Mr. Clem ents', but with larger rooms, and very comfortable. We were received by his brother-in-law, Mr. Harvey, who lives with Mr. Daw son, and whose wife is Dawson's sister. Harvey is like Edmund Grundy, and is an Englishman from near London. They had dined, but got us a very comfortable dinner ; beautiful butter, but only corn bread, which, however, being hungry, I ate with relish. After dinner Mr. Dawson came in from the fields ; a fair, handsome, gen tlemanly-looking fellow, very like my uncle James Dennistoun. He proposed that we should take a ride round the plantation, and accordingly three horses were brought round. One of these, a large black one, I mounted and rode for an hour all round the place, see ing the clearing of land, from the cutting of the wood to the piling- up of the logs and burning them. We then went in to tea, made by Mrs. Harvey (Mrs. Dawson being ill) ; excellent tea and coffee, beautiful cream and butter, and fine hot venison steaks, cut from a buck which Mr. Harvey had shot that morning, and which we had seen hanging up in the yard. At tea we had hot rolls of wheat, nice preserves, etc. We then sat by the parlor fire talking of business, and at nine I proposed to go to roost. Mr. Dawson said there were two rooms, one with, and the other without a fire. I said I was indifferent, and so did Mylne, but I fancied I was booked for the fireless apartment. However, when I was taken to it I found a nice blazing wood fire, beautiful clean four-posted bed, nice carpet, three towels, lots of water, and a fine large tub with cold water for my feet. If I didn't feel comfortable and happy and thankful ! and only wished you were there to share the comforts with me. The 448 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. night was clear, cold, and frosty, and I tucked myself under the blankets with great satisfaction. I had a fine sleep, and at half-past six a negro came in, kindled a fire, and brushed my clothes, which was really a labor, as my trousers were plastered with mud. I gave him half a dollar. After dressing, reading my Bible and your letter, I went to breakfast, when we had again venison steaks, sausages, hot rolls, tea, and splendid coffee and cream. Then talked about business, and spoke about the daughter's schooling, but in a way, I hope, to give no offense ; and I did not absolutely say we would not pay, for reasons I will tell you viva voce. Mylne got a gun and fired three times at one unfortunate duck, which only shook its wings and laughed at him ; that is, if ducks do laugh. At half-past one we had a capital dinner. Venison steaks again, boiled beef, cold ham, com mon and sweet potatoes, greens, poached eggs, salad, celery, and then a famous plum pudding (two helpings ; I couldn't help it. Ask John Walter if he could), and peaches, preserved simply in their own juice in air-tight bottles, and sweetened when you use them. This is the only way that peaches really are prime ; and to the peaches we had delicious cream (only one helping). After dinner I mounted my black charger, and Mylne mounted a brown one. We had a negro on horseback behind us. Mylne's horse cantered all the way, and mine went at a fast trot, keeping up with Mylne's, although I only twice broke into a canter. The roads were much better to-day, until we came within two miles of the landing. However, we did the whole distance in an hour ; and most providentially, just as we reached the landing a large steamer came in sight. We waved our handkerchiefs and she came and took us on board. She proved to be the James Madison, bound to Cincinnati, and we are now on board of her going to Vicksburg. But for meeting her we might have been detained all night at New Carthage, which is the very image of ' Eden.' Last summer, all about Mr. Dawson's house for hundreds of miles was overflowed for three months, and from their door they could see nothing but water and trees. The former was only kept out of the house by raising an embankment all round it. This boat shakes awfully, and I am afraid you won't be able to read this shaky scrawl. I am well and in good spirits, and the plantation, which is one of the most inaccessible and difficult to get at, has really been quite a pleasant excursion to visit. I am sure I have reason to MY SECOND TRIP TO NATCHEZ. 449 thank God for all his mercies, and do thank him. May he bless and watch over you and my dear children, and unite us again in health and happiness. I write this now hoping to find a boat to send it by from Vicksburg. Mylne writes to Murray. " Ever thine own " Wm. W." " New Orleans, Saturday, February 1, 1845. " My Beloved Husband : " I have just got your long, delightful letter, and thank you a thousand times for your self-denial in writing to me on board that shaky boat, instead of enjoying yourself in reading, or basking in the fresh air on deck. God bless you for all your kindness to me ; deeply do I feel our many mercies, the greatest of all I have such comfort in communing with God when apart from each other, and the joy of knowing that we love each other even more devotedly than in former years, and are constantly bearing each other's sor rows and rejoicing in each other's joys, and count it our greatest privilege to pour out our hearts in petitions each for the other at the Throne of Grace. Take good care of yourself, my dearest hus band, for all our sakes. We are all well. I am just prepared for a walk, but a note from Murray telling me that there was an oppor tunity for writing to-day before 1 1 a. m., I have scribbled these few lines, thinking it would be satisfactory for you to know I had re ceived your letter of January 29. " Thine ever, "H." " Prentiss House Hotel, Vicksburg, " Sunday, February 2, 1845. " My Beloved Wife : " I wrote you last on board the James Madison on Friday ; we arrived here that evening about eight o'clock. This is a great, big, dirty, new, unfinished hotel. Yesterday we were at our lawyer's nearly all day, and engaged about business. We also met a Mr. Cochrane, who is agent for the Browns to look after their interests in this neighbor hood, and whom we have engaged to look after ours. We allow him a small salary per annum and a portion of his traveling expenses. He is a large-boned Scotsman of fifty-seven, very active and ener- 450 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. getic, and I trust I have been directed by Providence in forming the connection with him. " To-day I went to the Presbyterian church in the morning, and had a very passable sermon from a young man, on the text ' And yet there is room ' ; his sermon went to show that although men were predestinated to be believers or not, yet they had perfect free will to remain in their sins, or to turn from them and flee to Christ. The church was small, but well-filled with a respect able shopkeeper class of people. The ladies dressed rather flashily in the Bowery style. Among them was the tallest woman I ever saw ; I thought at first she was standing on a stool, and waited to see her come out that I might be quite sure of her height. She seemed to be about eighteen or twenty years old, and certainly six feet high ; she looked a head and shoulders taller than anybody there. When I came out I took a walk into the country by myself, as Mylne did not go to church with me. This place is rather prettily situated, and the country about is rolling, rising into abrupt, low, green hills, or, rather, hillocks, of one to two hundred feet high, from the top of one of which I had an extensive view of the forest on the opposite side of the river. Several of the houses have creep ing roses all over the verandas, all in leaf and with roses in bloom. I noticed some daffodils in flower, and one tree coming into leaf. Both yesterday and to-day have been very warm. I noticed a stone quarry here, which is a curiosity in ' these diggin's,' and also a bed of common sea shells and gravel. As I was walking along, a pig grunted so exactly like the growl that dear little Willie used to give when he was nursing that it made me laugh, and brought the dear little fellow as vividly as possible before my face. Before I got up this morning I read my two chapters and your two letters (perhaps, also, too, dear letters). God bless you, darling, for your kind thought- fulness about me. I have received no letters yet from you since I left, but may in the course of to-morrow. In the afternoon I went to church again, but found there was no service. The door was open, and three ladies had gone into the pulpit. Supposing service would begin in time, I waited outside the door, and at last the ladies came out, and one, who seemed to be the mother or aunt of the other two, asked me whose monument that was in the church yard. I said I did not know, as there was no inscription, and I was MY SECOND TRIP TO NATCHEZ. 45 1 a stranger. She said they were strangers also, and had just landed for a little from a steamboat, in which I afterwards saw them em bark. They were genteel-looking, and evidently from the North, as I saw them asking leave to pull some green leaves from a shrub in a garden. After going to another church, which proved to be a Roman Catholic one, and then to another, which was a Methodist one filled with colored people, I went home and read my Bible, lying down on top of the bed and then, after a while, I must have fallen asleep, for when I got up I found it near tea-time. Our lawyer from Natchez has just arrived here, and has to see some papers we have, to-night, as he goes off before breakfast to-morrow. I hope we shall get away from this to-morrow night or Tuesday morning, and then we have to wait a day at Palmyra, and probably another one at Natchez, but I hope we shall reach home on Saturday or Sunday next. We are not going to Jackson this time, so I have sent Powell's letter there by post. I have on the whole to-day had much peace and comfort in believing, and, although prospects don't mend, yet I think I am getting more resigned, and more willing to submit to what may be the will of our heavenly Father. May his richest spiritual blessings, and such temporal ones as are good for us, descend on you and me and our dear children. " Ever your attached husband, " Wm. W. " Monday, February 3, 1845. Your most welcome letter of Wed nesday, Thursday, and Friday has just arrived. Thank God, you are all well. This is a horribly wet day, and we shall not be able to leave this place before to-morrow for Palmyra, and I fear will require to be there one day, and another at Natchez. I close this in the hope of getting a boat going to New Orleans soon. We have been engaged about business matters all day. God forever bless you, my beloved one. Thank my dear Charlotte for her letter ; best love to her and all my dear children. " Ever thine own " Wm. W. " Tuesday, February 4. On board the steamboat Radnor. There was no opportunity of sending off this letter yesterday, so I send it down by this boat to-day, in which we are going down to Palmyra Plantation (Mr. Henry Turner's), about twenty-six miles below Vicksburg. We have been very busy all morning, and having 452 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. now finished our business at Vicksburg for the present, we have just got on board this steamer. It is about i p. m., and we hope to reach Turner's by four o'clock. This is a beautiful, clear, dry, cool day, quite a contrast to yesterday. Surely my prayers have been heard for good weather. I find myself of some use at last in some of our business matters. God bless you and my dear children. " Ever thine own, " Wm. W." " St. Louis Hotel, New Orleans, " Monday, February 3, 1845. " My Darling Husband : " I have your delightful letter of Thursday, written with the ' drumly ' ink, but not at all ' drumly ' in itself, as you supposed. I am delighted to see that you are behaving wisely in not attempting to ' kick against the pricks.' I wrote to-day merely to say that all the letters have been received by the English steamers ; they came on Saturday. There is one from Cross upon business, which, after reading myself, I submitted to Murray ; he says the news is all old news ; but he tells me that the Cambria's letters (the new steamer) have arrived, she having been delayed by storms, etc., and that there was a pretty brisk cotton market upon the other side. Cross's news was that the market was better ; he says still you are in error in underrating the finances of the concern, and encloses a copy of Lord Brougham's Slave Bill. There is one also from Anna to you ; none from Mary, none from Blackburn, and none from Laurie. There is one from Yuille to you, willing to go to China. One from Sellar willing to move from Hudson Square, and taking your letter in good part. What related to business I gave to Murray to read ; he says the news is all old, nothing interesting. There is a very nice long letter from Maria to me, upon receipt of my journal, etc., and a very amusing and characteristic one from Mr. De Peyster to you. We went yesterday morning to Mr. Scott's, found our pew very comfortable and your name upon card, etc., and books in it, but Mr. Scott did not preach, and only a tolerable sermon from the gentle man who preached for us Sunday week. We stayed at home in the evening. I went to bed early, having a pretty disagreeable influenza, which came on Saturday morning after writing to you. I was afraid I was going to be ill from feeling so weak, but it has developed MY SECOND TRIP TO NATCHEZ. 453 itself now in cold. Charlotte is far from well, her cough is inces sant, and she looks pale and feels sick. Bessie has also a cough. The weather has been so very changeable ; it was very cold for the last few days and it is broiling hot to-day. My head aches less, and the cold is going off to-day, with a cold more in the head, sneezing, blowing, etc. The children, I. wrote you, have two days' holiday, which is well for Charlotte, for she could not study to day, but I am going out with her just now to get some books which Mme. Arpin says they cannot go on without, and to get some prints or muslins for their spring clothing. I am very busy in sew ing and teaching, and feel as if I had not time enough to do half I have planned to do. I wrote to Miss Perfest Saturday night, and shall write to Aunt Helen and Mrs. Humphreys next for the sailing packets, and then to the doctor. I think his letter must have mis carried. We had a pleasant day of singing hymns and talking yesterday, and I had so much comfort and faith, though hindered, with clear insight into my many sins, and sins in particular, that I am sure you and our dear ' Crescent ' friends at the Lord's Supper must have been praying for us. There was no sacrament, or at least no mention of any, at Mr. Scott's. I think our mate must have sailed, he was not there. I am in great haste to send this to the office, as Murray only just now came to tell me that there was an opportunity at five o'clock to-day, and I cannot get it sent in time after dinner. God bless and protect you, my darling. Three times daily do I remember you in prayer, besides many an aspiration of the heart and lifting up of the voice for you when I am at my sewing, or walking by the way. " Anna does not mention Mary in her letter ; but she and Cross were well, though Cross was rather overworked and not strong. Char lotte sends you very best love ; they are all most interested in any news concerning you. " Ever yours, dearest Will, " H." " New Orleans, Tuesday, February 4, 1845. " My Beloved Husband : " Received your dear kind letter of Thursday. " The Cambria's letters have come, and my back fairly smarts with the rapidity and eagerness with which I have skimmed their 454 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. bulky contents — skimmed, I say, because I was out walking when I met Hill with the letters, who told me there was an opportunity for writing to you to-day for five o'clock, and I was obliged to hurry home to read them first to give you some idea of their contents. First, there is one from dear Mary to you, who is much better ; none from Dr. Laurie ; but E. is better. One from Eleanor to me about Robert's arrival, and thanks to us. Now for business. Well, these strange fellows on the other side say you are not to go to Arkansas ; that they only want you to ascertain But I will copy A. D.'s note, for I dare not send it lest it should be lost. "Glasgow, December 30, 1844. " Dear Cross : ' ' There is no use in William going to Arkansas lands ; the great object is to satisfy himself that we here have been honestly dealt by, and that the securities have been all regularly taken ; that done and found right he may come home when he likes. It occurred to me on Mr. Crawford's giving up his charge that if he would continue in the house till May, Mr. Sellar might replace him for three months ; this would give William three months with Dawson, on his return from New Orleans ; Mr. Sellar in the meantime making himself acquainted with such Scotch articles as you are likely to get on commission, and while here to drum (it looks like drum) ; then follows, etc., etc., but this we can talk over when you come here. " Yours truly, " A. D. " This is enclosed in along letter from Cross, in which he says Craw ford has resigned, as he' is beginning a Goods Commission business on his own account. He will remain with us for a few months, says Cross, before he leaves ; but I will write exactly what he says : " This has led me to think that you had much better return here next autumn and let me go back to Glasgow. As to Arkansas, as I wrote both John and A. D., that the idea of your wading over that territory was absurd, and they are of the same opinion. They both take the same view, that unless you see something in the business requiring your remaining two seasons, one will do. You will have plenty to do in New Orleans without Arkansas. One would suppose from your recent letters, that you thought the visiting the Arkansas lands was the main object of your visit to America. You could do no earthly good there even if you saw all the lands. " Now, Will, you told me you thought the same thing. " However, when you get to New Orleans you will see that you can em ploy your time better. I go to Glasgow 17th to arrange with Crawford and Mc- MY SECOND TRIP TO NATCHEZ. 455 Culloch, etc. Rathbone goes with me. We have shipped on trial to his China friends say four thousand pounds' worth of goods, proceeds to be remitted if it promise well to D. & Co. of New York. I enclose you correspondence with the seniors touching banking and brokerage business which I am doing here. The gains are small but sure. Bills of Findley, Wilson & Co. , with bills of lading attached, are good enough. With McCunn's paper have nothing to do. He still is afloat, but, I think, ' a gone coon.' On Poutz, Jones, McBride & Co., Todd, Jackson & Co., it would not be comfortable to have bills unless with bills of lading attached, and even then to no great extent. Fielden Brothers are quite safe. Henry Norris & Co. of New York should be dealt with cautiously. A. D. writes that he is quite satisfied with the sale of the plantation. These steamers are high pressure. I was at it last night till eleven o'clock. " Anna is at the bottom of your going home, for she had meant to write you seriously before her illness about coining back for his sake, but that now all the seniors wanted you to return as well as Cross and she. . I have copied these names of parties in exactly Cross's letters, as I could neither read nor spell them myself. In a note at the end he adds : ' You will see I have sent you a good lot of orders for cotton ; some fifteen thousand or twenty thousand bales. Do the best you can for them and more will follow. — W. C.' In the midst of writing this in comes Murray with your dear letter of Friday, January 30 ; but I have only half read it, as I am afraid of this not being sent off in time. There is a letter from James Lea. All I note there of importance is : "I have been asked by Mr. Cross about Mr. Norris ; I think he is not as rich as the late R. Leyland, but very honest and has a good many rich correspondents about Bury, all good men and true. " Then comes a letter from Wm. Rathbone about this China ship ment. Then a letter from Joe Greaves, saying he has procured orders for your house, say nine thousand or fourteen thousand bales ; look after it for us, etc. Cotton market, he says, flat ; date of letter, January 4. Date of Cross' letter, January 4 also. There is a large interesting packet from Cross and the seniors, containing their correspondence as to brokerage business, etc. Some very sensible letters from Cross, the burthen of part being, that he would rather do business for safety with Haywood than with the Black- burns, in which I quite agree. There is a queer letter from some Henry. Lea of 14 North Street, Liverpool, saying he has found many of your old letters to his father among his private papers, written in 456 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. 1810-n from Boston, and ' he would like, if perfectly agreeable, to introduce himself to his father's friend.' " God bless you, my own love. Do hasten and come home, and don't go to Arkansas, and da leave here before the very hot season makes us all ill, and do let us go the pleasantest way back to New York and take all the enjoyment we can before going home, for we have not had much in that way as yet. No fun begun yet for the Carnival, and it is three o'clock and after. "H. W." " Steamer Sultana, Mississippi River, " February 7, 1845. " My Beloved Harriet : " My last was written to you and sent by the steamer Radnor on 4th inst. After I closed that letter we had such a heavy gale of wind, with such a high sea, that the steamer did not dare to land at Palmyra upper landing, and when she came to the lower it was equally impossible to land there. The captain was for landing us on the opposite side of the river, and leaving us to find our way across as we best could after the wind abated, but as there are no boats, but little flat-bottomed skiffs, and the river is half a mile wide, I protested against this plan, especially as, if we did land, it was quite uncertain if we could get lodgings anywhere for the night. At last the captain suggested that we should land at a Mr. Davis', about three miles lower down than Palmyra, and get on from there as we could. We were, accordingly, landed, and not without a good deal of difficulty, in the yawl at ' Hurricane,' which is the name of Mr. Davis' plantation. The house stands a quarter of a mile back from the river. Behold, therefore, Mylne and me, with our bags hooked to our umbrellas and hung over our shoulders, landed on the flat bank of the Mississippi, about four o'clock on a very windy day (February 4), and marching up to a house to ask hospitality and for three horses, or ahorse and wagon, to convey us and our 'plunder ' to Mr. Turner's. The house was surrounded by a shrubbery, and after knocking for a minute or two a tall, black-eyed lady in black, who proved to be the mistress of the mansion, opened the door. We stated the predicament we were in, and said we would walk to Tur. ner's if she would send a servant to show us the road. She said by no means ; she would send horses and a servant with us. I sug- MY SECOND TRIP TO NATCHEZ. 457 gested a wagon, but there was none. Mr. Davis, she said, had just gone out, but would be back shortly. She ushered us into his study, where was a good fire, and she apologized for not showing us into the parlor, as one of the family was sick, and they were all nursing her and in confusion. However, after sitting talking for some time, we were at last shown into the parlor, which was by this time ' in its ' bib and tucker,' with a fire lighted. I talked of gardening, ' Shakspere, and the musical glasses,' and Mrs. D. proposed that we should go out and see her garden, in which she took a great interest. So out we walked, talking away as if we had been old acquaintances. On returning to the house we found Mr. Davis, a little, oldish man, twenty years at least older than madame. He was very civil, and asked us to stay all night, etc. He had seen Mylne before. At last two saddle-horses were brought to the door, and one without a saddle, ridden by a negro, behind whom our carpet-bags were tied. I got up into my saddle with some diffi culty, being awfully stiff from the effects of my previous ride, and from the stiffness and soreness I could scarcely hold on. By this time it was a fine starlight night, and, preceded by our negro guide, we entered the forest and rode along a foot-path, dodging under this branch and round that tree, until, having cleared the forest, we got into Mr. Turner's cotton-field and passed all his negroes returning home from work, seemingly quite as happy as English farm servants or cotton-mill spinners. But for the pain and stiffness in my legs I should really have quite enjoyed the ride. "At last we got to Palmyra House, and were received by Mr. Turner, who is a widower of about thirty-three. There was a fine, rousing wood fire in a large, comfortable parlor, and two famous easy rock ing-chairs, which were given to Mylne and me. And didn't we enjoy them ! We then had supper ; capital preserves, beautiful cream, and bad coffee. At nine we retired to bed. Each had a fine, large room, beautiful white sheets, large four-posted beds, and rousing wood fires, with capital stout, coarse, clean towels. I only wished you had been with me. After the dirt and discomfort of Vicksburg the contrast was charming. On the 5th I rose at seven, my fire being previously lighted by ' William,' a respectable negro servant ; washed and dressed comfortably, read my Bible and your last letter, and then went in to breakfast. Capital sausages, like 458 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. Maria's ; venison, hot rolls, bread, corn bread, hominy, flannel cakes, which are just pancakes without sugar ; coffee and capital cream. After breakfast, four horses were brought to the door ; mine was a sorrel, and had a sheepskin over the saddle. Each of us had a double-barreled gun loaded, and off we rode to the woods to try and shoot wild geese, ducks, cranes, deer, etc. After a while we dismounted and stationed ourselves at different points. Mr. Mylne shot a deer, I only shot a wild pigeon, but Turner and I might have shot a deer, only it sprung up so close to us that we did not get our wits about us in sufficient time to fire. Well, we spent the day till two o'clock riding about from place to place and shooting, and then we went in to a capital dinner, to which we did ample justice. We had plenty of fine cream to drink out of tumblers, with the sweet course and beautiful butter. After dinner Turner got on horseback and Mylne and I drove ourselves and the guns in a wagon to a spot where we saw wild geese, and then alighted and tried to shoot them, but they were not such geese as to allow us to do so. They feed in immense flocks of one hundred to two hundred, and are beautiful and very large birds. We stayed out till tea time, at which meal we had venison, capital preserves, and excellent cream to drink, if we preferred it to coffee, which I did. I got awfully sleepy and went to bed again at nine. On the 6th (yesterday) Mylne went out by himself after the geese, and killed one before breakfast ; an immense animal. We measured it from the tip of one wing to the other, and found it to be five feet across. We had Mr. Goose roasted for din ner, and very good he was. After breakfast we all got on horse back again, the overseer, Mr. Crowe, riding on a mule, and away to the woods to try and shoot a buck. Here we stationed ourselves behind trees, and the dogs were laid on to chase the deer past where we stood. I leaned against a great old tree meditating ' of all these things which have come to pass,' and prayed for you and myself and our dear children. The day was beautiful and the forest really pretty., However, we never saw any deer, although the dogs chased several, and Mr. Crowe said he saw one within 120 yards of where Mylne and I were standing, and wondered we did not shoot, but neither of us saw it. We rode about till dinner time, and then, after making a hearty meal and sitting till about five, Mylne and I got into the wagon with our bags, and Mr. Crowe drove us to the overseer's MY SECOND TRIP TO NATCHEZ. 459 house, which is at the steamboat landing, and three miles from Mr. Turner's. Here we waited till nine, and had supper, and a very fair one. The house consists of only two rooms, and fronts the river ; has no glass in the windows, only wooden shutters whitewashed. Behind the house is a sort of street called ' The Quarter,' where the negroes live. As the place where the steamer touches is about an eighth of a mile from the overseer's, I thought it safer to be there than in his house. So we went there at nine and lay down in a hut or shanty made of logs, closed on three sides and open on the fourth, and roofed over on the open side toward the river. We had a large fire of wood, and in the shanty Mylne, the overseer, and I lay down close together on the floor, with our carpet-bags for pil lows, a negro watching outside for the boat, and a double-barreled gun loaded and ready to fire for a signal as soon as we heard the boat coming. The shanty was just broad enough to contain the three lying close together. We all slept some, Mylne pretty sound. At last, about one o'clock in the morning, the negro sang out that the boat was coming. I sprang up and fired off the gun for a signal, and presently the steamer's bell rang, and in about five minutes she came to the shore, and we jumped on board, and have got a stateroom to ourselves. And if the steamer had not to stop to take in cotton we might have been in New Orleans by Saturday night, and done business in Natchez besides ; but here we have been at Grand Gulf for four to five hours, and will be as long at Rodney, which will make us so late at Natchez that I am afraid we shall need to leave this boat and remain all Saturday there, and so will not reach New Orleans until Monday. This boat will get to New Orleans some time on Sunday. The delay is doubly provoking because I hear the Arkansas No. 4 passed down the river yesterday, and, I fear, will be sailing again for Little Rock on Tuesday, 1st. If we go by her I will have hardly time to see you and get my business done ; and if we can't go by her we shall miss the best boat. However, ' I must learn in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content,' and if I don't bring you this myself you must con clude that we have stayed a day at Natchez, and will be down by the Concordia on Monday. Ask Murray or Hill to ascertain about the sailing of the Arkansas No. 4, and they might as well engage the best stateroom for Mylne and me, in case we arrive in time to go 460 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. by her. God forever bless and watch over you, my darling wife. May he ever be with us and with our beloved children. " Ever thine own attached " Wm. W." When at Vicksburg, on February 2, I was introduced to General Quitman, who was seven years chancellor of Mississippi, and had been acting governor of that State. A very intelligent, pleasant man, originally from Dutchess county, New York ; brother-in-law of Henry Turner, whom we visited at Palmyra, and partner with him in that plantation ; about forty-one years of age. In the course of the Mex ican War, which subsequently ensued, and in which he served, he was made governor of the City of Mexico when it was taken by the United States army, under General Winfield Scott. He had a sugar plantation called " Live Oak," 3600 acres in extent, and making 300 hogsheads, on the Bayou Grand Caillou, opposite Pelton's. Mr. John Pelton was a very intelligent young sugar planter from Ithaca, in New York, who had been bred a lawyer, but went South to Louisiana ; but first for a year or two practiced law at Natchez, Miss., and in 1835 bought the plantation of Dalae on the Bayou Grand Caillou (or Great Flint), about twenty-one miles from the Gulf of Mexico as the crow flies. He had some $2300 dollars when he was twenty-one, and he lived at Dalae by himself six or seven years. He then married, and he has some 80 slaves, and makes about 470 hogsheads of sugar and molasses in proportion. He was one of our constituents, and I decided to go with him to Dalae and see his plantation, instead of setting off to Arkansas at that time, having some hopes that at a later period of the season Mr. Pelton might join me in the trip to Arkansas : The following letter is written from on board the steamer by which he and I started from New Orleans up the river for Donald- sonville : " Steamer Diamond, Mississippi River, February 13, 1845. " My Beloved Wife : "After leaving you I went to the office and wrote a business letter to the Trio [A. D., J. D., and W. Cross], and then set off for VISIT TO PELTON'S PLANTATION. 46 1 this steamer, which I reached about noon, and had the satisfaction of waiting till two o'clock before we started. Dinner was served while we were still lying at the wharf. This boat's ultimate destina tion is Cincinnati, and Mr. Pelton's uncle and aunt and their son, a boy of twelve, are returning to New York by her. They have been paying Mr. Pelton a visit, and say they do not like the South nearly so well as the Northern States. They tell me I shall have abundance of mosquitoes at Pelton's. He and I will probably reach Donald sonville about ten or eleven to-night, and there we land and get on board a small steamer which starts early in the morning for Thibo- deauville, at which place Mr. Pelton's wagon or buggy meets us, and in it we drive to Acadie first, and then to Mr. P.'s residence at Dalae. " This infernal steamer shakes so much that I don't believe you will be able to read what I am writing, supposing that I find any opportunity of sending this scrawl to you. If there be any chance it will be from Donaldsonville, as after that I leave the Mississippi and get off the regular line of communication. The day is remark ably fine, and the heat is not nearly so oppressive on the water as on shore. I wish you and the dear children were with me. The trees are a good deal greener since last Sunday, which improves the land scape, and I dare say, if we be all spared to go home by the Missis sippi, we will quite enjoy the sail. In my letter to-day to the Trio I said that, as far as I could judge at present, it would be desirable for me to remain here another season, unless they thought I would be more usefully employed in Liverpool. I trust by the time this reaches you, my darling, Bessie will have recovered from her illness. Really this boat beats all for shaking. I must stop. " God bless you, and may he comfort and support us both, and may we and all our children be partakers of the spirit of adop tion, and be able to feel that he is in very deed our Father in heaven. How much trouble and anxiety we would spare ourselves if we could only trust implicitly to him for the future, working dili gently at our secular calling, but leaving the result in his hands. I wonder if we shall ever again sit contentedly and at rest under our 'own vine and fig tree.' I don't mean such rest as we had at Long Island, but such rest as one has when he feels that he has worked hard and to the purpose, and may, without accusation of idle- 462 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. ness, rest from his labors. If not in this world, then to God, we may, through the merits of the Redeemer, look forward to that rest which re.maingth for the people of God ; all sinful as we are, I believe we are both children of God, and I can truly say of myself : ' Am not I a brand plucked out of the burning ? ' God bless and spare you to me, my dear, dear wife, and watch over you and my be loved children, and unite us again to each other. Keep up your spirits arid take care of your precious health. " Traveling always does me good ; even going over this monoton ous Mississippi for the fifth time has a good effect on my spirits. J shall now go and take a read at the letter you wrote me when I left the last time. " Ever your attached husband, "Wm. W." We landed from the steamer at Donaldsonville and put up at a rough sort of tavern, where we were relegated to a garret to sleep, in which were stowed away all sort of odds and ends. I think next morning we went South some distance, in a steamer on a bayou, but what was. its name I don't recollect. When we landed I fancy we got into Mr. Pelton's wagon and drove to Dalae. I recollect that on the way there, on what I think was called the Bayou Black, we came to an orange tree with fruit on it, and for the first time I plucked an or.ange from a tree growing in the open air. Mr. Pelton's house was very comfortable, and with plenty of the latest published books, reviews, magazines, etc. One of Pelton's slaves came to ask him for the loan of two. dollars which he, the slave, had lost in a bet, which was about the day of the week. Mr. Pelton owed him the money for extra work and gave it him, animadverting at the same time on the folly of betting away his hard-earned money. " Oh ! " quoth the slave, " I like to pay my debts like a man of honor." I saw another slave come and ask Mr. Pelton for a dollar to pay for a hat which another negro on the plantation had sold him. The latter had got the hat from Mr. Pelton's uncle as a gift, but it did not fit him. I saw the seller come to Mr. Pelton afterward and get the dollar. I mention these things to show that there was a kindly sort of relation between Mr. Pelton and his slaves. Not far from Mr. Pelton's house was a small lake called Lake Quitman, after the general. On Sunday, February 16 (the better VISIT TO PELTON'S PLANTATION. 463 day, the better the' deed, but there was " no church going bell "), Mr. Pelton and I went on the lake, in a boat rowed by one of his slaves where I saw my first alligator, and in all counted about a dozen of them, great clumsy-looking brutes, lying on the banks of the lake, and when we came near, they lazily first put one foot in the water, and then another, and then dropped bodily into it and swam off. There was an Indian paddling in his canoe, with a rifle in the canoe. He was called Josef Gregoire, and Mr. Pelton asked him to shoot one of the alligators for us, which he did, hitting him in the back of the head. We got a rope round the brute's neck, and towed it some distance, intending to take it to Dalae, but it was too heavy, and so we cast it off and left it in the lake. At Pelton's I saw the operation of grinding, the sugar cane, and ex pressing the juice. The ground sugar cane, called " begasse," was afterward burned, but I believe in later days has been used as manure, and plowed into the sugar fields. I also saw the planting of the sugar cane. It is cut in lengths about a yard long, in the fall, and piled up in stacks till spring, great care being taken to cover it well up, so that if frost should come, as it sometimes does even as far south, the "rattoons," I think they call these yard-long pieces, shall not be frozen ; for if they did, they would not germinate. When spring comes, long.furrows are plowed in the cane fields, and in the bottom the rattoons are laid lengthwise, and then covered with earth. From each joint of the cane rises a sprout, which eventu ally grows to be a tall sugar cane. Mr. Pelton's place is within twenty miles of the Gulf of Mexico as the crow flies, and these twenty miles are all a " shaking prairie," or swamp, covered with thick vegetation. One of the days I was at Dalae he set fire to this shaking prairie, and a magnificent blaze it made, with flames and dense smoke, and the fire probably did not stop till it reached the Gulf, and snakes and alligators by hundreds must have perished in the flames. On February 18 Mr. Pelton drove me in his wagon on my way home to New Orleans to Thibodeaux, about thirty-six miles. We stopped to dine at Judge Cage's sugar plantation. We spent two hours there looking at his race horses, etc. We reached Thibodeaux about half-past six, after calling also on a Mr. Watson and a Dr. Beatty. We went on board the steamer Victress and secured state- 464 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM WOOD. rooms. Then Mr. Pelton got another horse put to his wagon, and we drove along Bayou La Fourche to Bishop Polk's, where we spent about an hour very pleasantly, and then returned to the Victress. Leonidas Polk is Bishop of Louisiana and Texas, and cousin of the President-elect. [In after years he joined the Rebel Army, and became General Polk.] He has a sugar plantation for which he paid one hundred thousand dollars cash ; has about three hundred negro slaves. His wife was an heiress, and is a pleasant, talkative, ladylike woman, not unlike Mrs. Isaac Hone [daughter of Chancellor Kent]. The bishop makes eight hundred hogsheads of sugar — queer for a bishop ! His house stands about fifty yards back from the Bayou La Fourche, and is rather a nice one. Mr. Pelton left for his home at Dalae on February 19, and offered, before he went, to accompany me to Arkansas. While at Dalae on February 17, there came there a Methodist minister of the name of Jenkins, who had spent four or five years in Arkansas. He says the uplands produce one wheat, and a great abundance of wine- producing grapes. This agrees with what I have elsewhere heard, that in time Arkansas will be the vineyard of the United States. end of vol. 1. YALE UNIVERSITY a39002 0039i|6U3