A Virginian in New England Thirty-Five Years Ago: Ii

NOTE. — The passages enclosed within brackets are from a copy of Mr. Minor’s journal, written out apparently for publication, The original notes seem fresher and more interesting, but they will be supplemented here and there, on occasion, with extracts from the more elaborate copy.

[“ NORTHAMPTON, Mass. — 1834.

“ AND you will positively excommunicate me, if I do not send you some First Impressions ’ of Yankee land ? Have at you, then : though, really, my time has been so filled with seeing and hearing, that hardly a scrap remains to write down a hundredth part of the curious or striking things that meet my eyes and ears.

“ Unusual opportunity has been afforded me, for using various lights and shades of Yankee character. In stage, steamboat, and railway-car, — in jersey wagon and on foot, on highways and by-ways, in farm-houses and city palaces, I have seen and chatted with all sorts of people, from the * * * of the * * * to the tavern porter and the country laborer. Five days I have spent in a pedestrian stroll, calling often at the country houses to get a draught of water, rest myself, and talk with the farmer or his wife. These gossipings, you may well suppose, commonly produced amusement, and frequently solid information ; or at least solid materials for reflection. And, considering that it is only a few weeks since my first entry into New England, methinks I have a pretty exact measure of Jonathan’s foot. — Yet, for all this preface, do not expect any very astounding revelations. From the thousand incidents that unitedly make my tour exceedingly interesting to myself, it is not certain that any one, or any dozen, can be selected, which will very much interest another person. Though sore at times from long walks, and sorer still, once or twice, from rude manners and uncivil answers to civil questions, I have experienced kindnesses and pleasure preponderating a thousand fold over all.

“ In the visible face of Massachusetts and Connecticut, the features which by their novelty or beauty most strike a Virginian eye, are the small farms, usually of from fifty to two hundred acres ; the fields, disproportionally small, there being sometimes fifteen or twenty on one farm ; the stone fences, often rendered necessary and numerous by scarcity of timber, and by the troublesome superabundance of stones which can be best got rid of by piling them in fences ; the universality of hay-crops, on hills as well as in low land; the almost entire absence of wheat — for the prevalent grain-crops are oats, rye, and indian corn; the clustering of habitations in villages, instead of dispersing them at intervals of a mile over the country ; the white-painted village churches, all with stately spires, visible for miles around, having gilt vanes, and clocks with hands so large and stroke so loud, that I have repeatedly seen and heard the hour half a mile off. The country is more hilly, or rolling, as our farmers would say, than the lower half of Virginia ; and the hills have a smaller base, and a more gracefully swelling, dome-like top, than our hills. These rotundities, with their attendant hollows, traversed by numberless stone fences, with here and there patches of woodland, and detached white farmhouses half embosomed in elms and fruittrees,— while perhaps two or three villages with steeples piercing the sky are at once within view, — exhibit countless landscapes of a beauty unknown to Eastern or to Western Virginia.

“ Here is not apparent a hundredth part of the abject squalid poverty that our State presents. I have not seen a log house in New England ; nor a dwelling-house without one or more glass windows. And nine tenths of the common farm-houses are painted. Indeed, paint for the outside of a house is here considered an indispensable piece of economy ; and is applied to many humble dwellings, of one story, and one, or two, or three rooms. Brick and stone buildings are not common, except in the cities. This village, the loveliest in all the North, and Worcester, (take care to call it Wooster) — having, respectively, 4,000 and 5 or 6,000 inhabitants — contain, both together, hardly more than a hundred and fifty brick and stone houses.

“ But the morale of New England — the character of her people — their tones of thought and feeling on some important subjects — their social and political institutions and usages — their modes of promoting comfort and convenience in their houses, and in all departments of life — have interested me far more than her physical lineaments.

“ Would that I had time and space to unfold the Road, Pauper, and School systems of Massachusetts and Connecticut,— the only Yankee States except Rhode Island that I have visited. But that would require too much detail. Their happy organization may be inferred from their effects.

“ The common roads are nearly all ridged up, turnpike fashion ; and are as good as our turnpikes. I do not mean such as a certain one leading from F* * * * * to * * * * * *, which the traveller knows to be a turnpike only by the tolls and the jolts ; but those in the great Valley, and near Richmond. For mending roads, two instruments are used here, which many road-overseers in Virginia have long been vainly urged to employ : the plow and the scraper. A two-horse plow is said by those who have tried it fairly to be equal to six men with hoes; and a scraper, to sixteen. The latter implement may be bought for five, or even three dollars. The making and repair of roads here is wholly a concern of the township, — or town as the provincial dialect hath it. If any one is damaged by a road’s being out of order, he can sue the township for it. Several instances have been told me of such damages recovered : $ 7,000 against the town of Lowell, by a man and girl who, driving a gig along the road, plunged over a precipice made by a deep cut of a new railroad, crippled themselves, killed their horse, and crushed the gig.

“ There is probably not a beggar by trade in New England — except solicitors for pious charities, and for subscriptions. The needy are sent to a poor-house, having a farm attached to it, on which they work for their parish, the township ; or are let to the lowest bidder for their maintenance ; as the people of the township choose. In different townships the number of paupers greatly varies. I have heard of five, ten, and thirty or more upon the lists : and as a county contains many ‘ towns,’ perhaps the number of such pensioners here equals ours. But (mark !) the expense here is next to nothing ; sometimes absolutely nothing ; nay, some ‘towns’ derive a revenue from the labors of their parish poor. Salem has thus gained several thousand dollars in a year. All the paupers who are able render a fair equivalent, and some render more, for the relief they receive. The problem so puzzling to England, Virginia, and other countries these Yankees have solved by a union of tact, shrewdness, and vigilance — the problem, how to make poorhouses not attractive enough to tempt and foster laziness, yet not repulsive enough to frighten away real misery from asking relief. The secret is the simple one, of furnishing plain, clean, and comfortable houses, lodgings, and diet; with labor as the inexorable condition of their enjoyment, if the pauper can labor. Two things mitigate the hardship of living at the township poorhouse : first, that it is in the poor’s own neighborhood, within reach of relations or friends, and not involving a rough transportation of ten or twenty miles, like our county poor-houses ; and secondly, that a COMMON-SCHOOL, open and free alike to rich and poor, is always near. The comfort of this, to such paupers as have children, need not be descanted on.

“ This is the general usage : but near this village there happens to be, at the poor-house, a school purely for its juvenile inmates. I walked out to it— a mile or two — one day. It (the poorhouse) is managed by a superintendent, who keeps the sufficiently able-bodied inmates at work. I went by invitation, into his house : entered also the schoolroom. The teacher is an elderly man, himself a pauper. There were two black scholars, sitting rather apart from the whites. In nearly all the approaches between white and black in New England, there is a manifest shrinking back in the former ; a noli me tangere air, which seems to snuff contamination in the slightest fellowship with Cuffee. These dark-skinned school children are evidently in bad odor in more senses than one.]

“1834.

“ June 16, Monday.

“ At 23' past 6 a. m., alone in a huge four - horse stage-coach, with wheels creaking as if grease had never touched them, I set out from my law-office at Louisa C. H. on a tour of pleasure to N. England. As the road was familiar and dull, the time was filled by a sort of MS. analysis of 3d Leigh’s Reports, a newspaper, and a handsomely written tho’ sublimated and question-begging letter written to the people of Culpepper, on the Removal of the Deposites, by Col. Storrow — whom the Rd. Whig styled once ' magniloquent orthoepistd.' Beguiled the time was not ; for the carriage’s motion kept me almost sick; and 5 hours brought me 20 miles to Orange Court house, in no dulcet mood. Here I stay from 1/2 past 11 a. m. till 2 p. midn’t ; when a stage passing on from Charlottesville will take me to Fredericksburg.

“ Orange C. H. being one of my monthly haunts as lawyer, my travels hardly seem yet begun. Sit I down then, and parley awhile, about the whither, the why, and the how, of the said travels. The whither, is ultimately Boston. What intermediate points, will be seen time enough when recorded in the ensuing pages —

But the plan is, to tarry a day or two in Washington — a day in Baltimore — two in Philadelphia — one or two at Bristol (Pa.) Trenton, and Princeton, conjointly—2 or 3 in N. Y. — some hours at West Point — ditto at Catskill — do. Albany — and thence across the S. W. angle of Massachusetts into Conn. and R. Island, which deserve such perusal as ten days will suffice for — then to Boston. The why, is well nigh too various to set down in detail: and perhaps I flatter myself in believing that some high motives are among its ingredients. The sum and substance may be stated to be — to see and hear all that I can. There is a due mixture of vague, with a good deal of determinate curiosity ; and an eagerness for this recreation excused to self-love by 7 or 8 years of unbroken, tho’ not unmitigated or undulcifiecl toil. — The how — in stages, railway cars, steamboats, or chance-carriages, and on foot. The last method more practised than by most travellers.— Enough of preface.

“ Supped with my ex-brother, M. A. P. —lately turned from lawyer to merchant. Asleep at 11, p. m.

“ Tuesday, June 17.

“ Wakened at 1/4 past 1, to enter the stage. Set out after 2, — on the seat with the driver. But rain drove me in, after going 2 miles. Then soon began the qualmishness again ; lasting the whole 35 miles to Fredericksburg, and spoiling appetite for breakfast even after a drive of 26 miles. Seven fellow-passengers — none interesting. Such as could, spent the first 2 or 3 hours in sleep. Not I — the tossing, pitching, rocking, heaving up, and sinking down, suffered but an unrefreshing doze, the mockery of slumber : a disturbed, dreamy state, broken every 2 or 3 minutes. At the breakfasting house, Chancellor’s, Dr. Blackford of Page joined us — a welcome addition. — Reached Fredg. at 10 a. m. Friends there (W. M. Blackford nnd his house) as ever. Ex. gra., knowing of my trip, they had written and procured me 23 letters of introduction to people north of the Potomac, .And chiefly thro’ their means, others await me on the way. Nothing could surpass their solicitude for the pleasure and, profit of my tour.

“ Wed. June 18.

“Arranged for a probable travelling companion — my cousin Lancelot M., student at the Episcl. Theol. seminary, near Alexandria. He will join me, if at all, in Phila. or N. Y. He is a practised pedestrian — having walked twice or more to Ohio, and thro’ N. Y., Pa., and Vermont, into Canada. This alters my route from N. Y. It will be thence, to New Haven, Hartford, and Boston, first, taking Albany, etc., on the return.

“ At 1/2 past 10, a. m., set off, 3 stagecoaches filled, — to the steamboat landing at Potomac creek. Mine, fortunately the coach containing Mr. B—, (Presbyterian minister) from Charlottesville, and 3 ladies thence : among them Miss — of Massachusetts — who, having taught a school some years in Albemarle, now goes finally home. A winsome lassie, in person, manners, and mind.

“ Our voyage of 60 miles up the Potomac, in the St. Boat Sidney, would deserve pages, if it were less trite. Pity, that it should be vulgarized by so many thousand eyes a year. The noble expanse of water — 6 miles, at least — ruffled into respectable billows of 18 inches high, — the banks and hills, rounded by distance, — their trees softened into tufts of shrubbery, and thin grass into velvet, — the broad estuaries of creeks — the bellied sails of vessels meeting us, scudding joyously before what was to us a head wind and an opposing tide, insurmountable save by ‘ thine arm, unconquered steam ’ — the venerable roof and cupola of Mount Vernon, almost hidden in foliage — the frowning battlements and gaping portholes of Fort Washington, commanding the river, there narrowed to one mile — the busy wharf at Alexandria, beset with masts — our meeting with a gallant steamboat downward bound, with many a smiling face on deck, kindled by the bravery of our two barques — the bridge at Washington, stretching its mile of length seemingly on the water’s very surface —and a score of incidents beside — might serve a Will Marvel like me with copious matter for remark, did mood or time allow.

“From the wharf at Washington, an omnibus, capable of 24, carried 15 of us into the city — me to Gadsby’s Hotel — the rest elsewhere. — It was nearly 6 p. m. yet flags on the Capitol showed both Houses to be still sitting. So strolled thither. Met the Senators coming out. But in the H. of R. was a debate, in which a Mr. Beaty of Ky. and Bailie Peyton of Tennessee spoke : Beaty a speech poorly written, badly spoken, and worse listened to; — Peyton, plain good sense, in a homely, but forcible style, which gained him 10 times the hearers. — Saw my late representative, Patton. At the hotel, found Mr. Calhoun in the bar-room. Shook hands with him, in virtue of an acquaintance formed here last winter. He seemed not to recollect me quite ; but carried it smoothly, as if he did. Asked about public sentiment in my part of Virginia; and only gave a slight, sardonic laugh, when told that the late course of Administration had produced few or no changes against Jackson. Last winter, I had brought him (he then said) the first news of any portion of Virginia’s approving the removal of the Deposites. He and his clique had then appeared civilly skeptical of my report. It was but a few weeks after, that it was confirmed by unquestionable demonstrations from nearly all parts of the Commonwealth. The sneer now seems less of incredulity than of scorn for the man-worshipping subserviency of our people. He tells me the Senate will to-morrow take up the subject of indemnity to our citizens for French spoliations—those committed before 1800 — not the subject of Mr. Rives’ -right able and successful, tho’ well nigh frustrate negotiation.

“ Thursday, June 19.

“ Dressed early, for a walk : and in the bar-room met Mr. Calhoun again, who had just called in from his morning’s walk. Introduced me to a major — (I could not catch the name) with whom he was conversing; and I left them. W ent to Fuller’s Hotel, in hopes of breakfasting with my lady fellow-passengers of yesterday — and of seeing Mr. Gurley, champion and secretary of the Colonization Society, who lived there at my last visit. But he had removed thence. Saw Mr. Bowman. The ladies were not there, though the guestbook said they were. Called at the Colon. Office, neither Mr. Gurley nor Mr. Fendall there. After breakfast, saw Miss — and her companion, Miss — in the stage, bound for Baltimore. Hardly time for ' good morning,’ before off it went.

“To Senate chamber at 11. Admission to the Lobby, on the Senate floor, through Mr, Clay’s means. At 12, Mr. Van Buren as Vice-President, took the chair — calling to order by raps with an ivory something upon his table. Mr. Hatch, the spruce chaplain, said a prayer shorter than some graces before meat ; and business began. A Report from the Secretary of the Senate, reckoning up the number of memorialists about the Bank and the Deposite question, gave rise to some happy cutting and thrusting between Messrs. Clay and Forsyth. Mr. Webster, Mr. Leigh, Mr. Chambers, and Mr. Poindexter were all up for a few moments. Mr. Forsyth has for some time had to stand foremost here, almost alone, as defender of the Administration ; and has done so with singular success, considering the overwhelming reputations and abilities arrayed against him. With a smile perpetually on his lips, they launch forth sarcasms of unmatched keenness, and ofttimes arguments of hardly matched power. Poindexter’s colleague, Black, — very youthful in look: and, if I rightly ‘ read the mind’s construction in the face, no more senatorial in wisdom than in years : one of the many bubbles borne onward, aloft, by the billowy tide of Party-excitement. Sprague of Maine, a right intellectual looking, spare man, who too much affects the tragical, in his oratory. His gesture is palpably, and awkwardly, copied from the introduction and plates to Scott’s Lessons, or Enfield s Speaker. For the life of him, he cannot hold his hand or bend his arm naturally or gracefully. Tyler — Old Virginia forever ! He has no great measure, or force, of intellect: but for a bland, persuasive manner, — I speak of tone, head-and-hand gesture, turn of period, and winningness of words and thought — Gov. T. has not his superior in the Senate. Clayton of Delaware — how fallacious a guide physiognomy is ! If nature has written nihil on any front here, it is upon his, when he is not roused by any mental spur. Yet he is a secondrate, at least, in a body where to be 4th rate is no mean praise — and at the head of the Delaware Bar.

“ Mr. Calhoun was up for five or ten minutes, upon his own motion to postpone the French-spoliation Bill until the next session. His grounds were, its vast importance, — the questions, not only of individual claims against our government, but of international right, which it involved — the immense sum (probably $ 5,000,000) of which it contemplated the expenditure — the diversified and momentous bearings of those questions and that expenditure, upon the yet smouldering fires of the scarcely adjusted Tariff controversy — and the extreme temerity, not to say madness, of taking up a subject of such varied and awful import just at the close of a session, when the detailed examination and discussion it would require were absolutely impossible. —I never heard him in public before — never had a precise idea of his peculiar sort of power. He is one of the purest of originals. Nothing can be more unique than his style, of diction and delivery. Heedless of words, lie yet pours out the most apt and forcible in a torrent.

Not one superfluous — his sentences are pared of every redundancy. So rapid seem his conceptions, that his tongue (though of extraordinary volubility) cannot mould them into language fast enough — they crowd and choak the vent, like water poured from a narrownecked bottle. Hence perhaps a vicious habit, of clipping his words. The torrent is not a smooth, continuous one. Ever and anon there was a dead pause ; evidently not for lack of matter, but at once to breathe himself amid the intensity of his mental exercitation, and to give his hearers time to ponder what he had uttered. Very little gesture— his hands generally stretched at arms’ length down his sides, only now and then raised and put forward, to strengthen the emphasis upon some burning thought, or some flooring argument. I have somewhere seen — it is in Combe’s Phrenology — a masterly delineation of a powerful debater’s mind, whose ' words fall, like minuteguns, upon the ear’ ; his faculties acting, at first, ‘slowly, but deeply, like the first heave of a mountain-wave.’ But Mr. Calhoun’s first onset is the storm itself: at once deep, strong, impetuous, overwhelming. Instead of minute guns, a running broadside would best typify the rapidity of his utterance : gun succeeding gun, as fast as thought, till one side is discharged ; and then after a moment’s pause, the other side brought to bear with equally fatal effect. Each word —at least each sentence — is a twenty-four pounder, and each paragraph a broadside. He looked mostly, not at the presiding officer, whom Order requires him to address,—but at Mr. Webster, whose arguments he was answering. His lofty port, his mind-quelling eye, his self-assured look of conscious truth and conscious power, and his resistless argumentation, held him forth incontestably the master-spirit of the assembly. — Van! little Van! — he is not to be named in the same day— I am ashamed of bringing him into the same page — with Calhoun. Yet there is no denying that he bids fair to reach the highest place first. Animals that crawl as well as those which fly, attain, the loftiest elevations : and it may well happen, if the eagle’s wing be crippled, or if unworthy obstacles retard him, that he may be outstript by the caterpillar.

“ isaac hill is diminutive in person, as in morals; and limps in his gait, from some accident, or natural deformity. He has always been writing, when I have seen him in the Senate ; commonly, letters —in a large, engrossing hand — so large, that I have read several words of one, from the gallery over his head. To-day, he was correcting the proof of a newspaper. Wonder if it was the N. H. Patriot, or a speech of his own, or one of his editorials in the Globe ? — Isaac has a strongly marked physiognomy,— a large and not ill formed forehead, black eyes, and an expression of countenance intelligent enough, but ominous of nothing good.

“ The colossal bronze statue, meant for Mr. Jefferson, brought by Lt. Levy from Paris, and given to Congress, stands in the great Rotunda of the Capitol. Not a good likeness, by any means. Too broad-shouldered, and too stout every way. The color, nearly black, conveys unpleasing associations. Some Southerner the other day swore, that it ought to be tossed out of the Capitol ; fort said he, “ by G . . it makes old Tom a negro!”

Some pictures were exhibiting in the Rotunda: said to be master-pieces, of eminent artists. I could not understand the plots, or discern the merits, of most.— Col. Crockett and some ladies were looking at them, and at the statue. The Col. played the tame bear very quietly, for the ladies ; and seemed to be a pet. I was disappointed at finding him so tame. He should always appear in character — i. e. with hunting shirt and tomahawk moccasins and leggings of deerskin with the hair on. As it is, he looks like any Christian : you would never suppose him to be the man what can wade the Mississippi, tote a steamboat, whip his weight in wildcats, grin the bark off an oak-knot, — swim further, dive deeper, and come out drier, than any other man in the Western Deestrict.

“ In the H. of R. a debate of no consequence was going forward, in which C. Fenton Mercer, and Mr. Marshall of Kentucky, spoke. The latter is a young man — fluent and bold, as what Kentuckian is not ? The former — oh, what a falling off, since I heard him in the Va. Convention, 1829 ! It is impossible now not to be struck with the slight attention paid him. His silver voice and pretty oratory, once so admired, could not command a quorum of listeners, tho’ the House was full. His voice, formerly all music, verges upon a cracked treble. But his weight of character has chiefly gone, from his being reputed a visionary. — The yeas and nays chancing to be called, the clerk, Franklin, ran them over with such incredible speed, that I could not catch more than one in three — though reasonably familiar with them. How the owners could recognize each his own, when thus rattled off, is hard to say.

“Adjourned before the House. On the way home, saw several beggars — would not give them ‘ a single sous.’ Called on Mr. Moncure Robinson (Engineer) at Brown’s Hotel. We walked out : and on returning, whom should we meet at the Hotel door but Mr. W. Pope of Powhatan — Uncle Billy! he ' of infinite jest ’ — whose gibes, whose gambols, whose ‘ songs, whose flashes of merriment ’ so ‘ wont to set the table in a roar,’I have so often roared at with the rest! —But this evening he seems lifeless.

“Have removed to Mrs. McDaniel’s boarding house, where Messrs. Patton and Gordon stay, and where the latter had arranged for my lodging, before I came. Miss G., and the Miss McD.’s — the latter, Catholics. Gov. Tyler, Moore of Rockbridge, and Col. Davenport of Pittsylvania, are also of the mess. Had a two hours’ confab with Patton. Verily, he seems to me the most rational and independent man in Washington. — He thinks that Mr. Clay’s friends give plain tokens of a design to cease maintaining the constitutionality of Internal Improvements. And now I bethink me, something like it was manifested by Mr. Marshall, in his speech to-day. Whether principle or policy be the motive, the change will be a good one for state-rights.

“ To bed at 12.

“ Friday, June 20.

“ Up at 5. — On my walk along Pennsa. Avenue, met Mr. Calhoun. Gen. G. was with me. While we were talking, Campbell P. White came up — the Irish representative from the city of N. Y. He is a merchant — said to be an adept in the mysteries of commerce, exchange, Banking, &c. Next to Cambreleng, he is the foremost administration-member from the city. Stoutly built, with a broad, English face, but Irish mouth and accent.

“At 1/2 past 8, off for Baltimore. Mr. Calvert’s estate, 4 or 5 miles from Washington : mansion house, and porter’s lodges at outer gate — All symptomatic of great wealth. Descendant of Calvert, Ld. Baltimore. Remarkable, that so much hereditary wealth should have descended to the 3d or 4th generation. Primogeniture abolished in Md. 1786.

“Bladensburg — miserable, decayed village, on the Eastern Branch. The Battle ground is much flatter than I had supposed. The driver— I sit outside always, when it is practicable — shewed me where our militia valiantly awaited the enemy, till they came within little more than a quarter of a mile; and then — the Bladensburg races began, The Bridge, defended by Barney and his marines, does not look like an advantageous post. There seem several far more defensible, within a mile, than either that, or the militia station. — Country onward from Bladensburg to Baltimore, old Virginia over again. Gullies, red hillsides, bare of soil — broom-sedge — persimmon, sassafras, and stunted oak — rickety, ineffectual worm-fences — blue-birds, bee-martins, and red-headed woodpeckers—gave me a vivid reminiscence of my poor, good old commonwealth.

“ Several sections of the Balt. and Washn. RlRoad lay in sight as we drove along ; its route now and then crossing ours. Several hundred Irish and Dutch laborers on it, at various points ; mostly Irish. The Dutch perfectly steady and well disposed. All the turbulence is among the Irish. The scene of their great affray 3 days ago, in which 6 or 7 were killed, is close to the road. The ashes and fragments of the burned and torn down shanties are yet fresh. The rioters are not yet all taken. The militia are out to catch them, and repress apprehended riots. We passed 20 or 30 (militia) in uniform, drilling in a shady wood: and about as many more, refreshing themselves at a tavern by the wayside — their guns not stacked, but leaning at random (quite militia fashion) against the sides of house and porch.

“ Crossed the two branches of the Patuxent — both, trifling streams. 10 or 15 miles from Balt., passed the site of iron mines, once copious and deeply wrought—their ore still discoloring the ground far around. The Frederick railroad — and a long train of cars moving on it —the first I ever saw.

“ Thunder-cloud impending, 5 or 6 miles from Balt., but some kindly current of air divided it, just as it seemed ready to burst upon our heads ; so that scarcely a drop touched us.

“ The first view of Baltimore very imposing, though bewildering and unsatisfactory. Three shot towers of immense height, the Washington Monument as high, church steeples God knows how many, and the gas-works smoking like a mountain-sized tar-kiln, — are the objects my eye singled out. Could make nothing of the general plan of the city. Streets, surprisingly narrow. Some, traversed hundreds of yards by the Fredk railway, and its ramifications.

Stopt at Barnum’s Hotel. First face on entering was Henry Quarles, just out of the Philada. steamboat, after a stay of some weeks in N. Y. Very glad to see him. At dinner a gentleman (English, I think) bound to Washington, chancing to learn that I was just thence, asked me to take a drink of wine (which I declined) and then was very inquiring. Told him whatever he asked about things at Washington — Mr. Stevenson’s nomination as Minister to England — his probable rejection by the Senate — his probable death thereupon — and so forth. No letter here for me yet. Miss — promised me one to Cambridge.

in an area just before the Hotel, is the Battle - monument, in memory of the slain on the — of Sept. 1814. White marble.

“ Went with H. Q. to the Washington monument — ascended it, by a corkscrew staircase within. 187 feet high. W.’s statue on the top is 16 1/2 feet high, and weighs 16 1/2 tons. Keeper gave us a lamp to ascend by, which went out about half way up — leaving us in perfect darkness — such as I never saw before. Hands, even a white handkerchief, invisible within 4 inches of our eyes. At the stairs’ head, is a platform where visitors stop. It is edged around by a parapet, 3 or 3 1/2 feet high, so as to be safe — affording a level space 5 or 6 feet within the parapet, for standing, and walking round the trunk of the monument which rises 8 or 10 feet higher from the platform’s centre, to serve as pedestal to the statue. Looking down over the parapet tries the nerves. We had been up only a few minutes, writing our names on the pedestal, and gazing over the immense panorama below and around, when 2 gentlemen and 2 ladies ascended also. One of the ladies, on emerging from the stairway upon the platform, was so struck with unaffected terror at the dizzying prospect, that she shrunk back, almost fainting : and could not be induced again to go out of the stairs’ door, which was 5 or 6 feet from the parapet. She lost a magnificent prospect by her weakness — the whole city, the Patapsco down to the Bay, Fort McHenry, many a jutting promontory, headland, and swelling hill, the country for many miles round, with countless beautiful farms and dwellings.

“Then to the Catholic Cathedral, large, but not strikingly well planned, or elegant. A sorry plank inclosure and sorrier plank steps, greatly hurt the imposing air of the building, and give token of unprosperous times for the Church. Over each door is a solemn text inscribed, legible from the street. The interior is splendid—gorgeous. Some fine pictures — especially (say connoisseurs) one, representing the taking down of Christ’s body from the cross. Two others — visions of saints Nicholas and Augustine — were not bad imbodyings of the phantasies which may be supposed to possess the brain of a saint, ancient or modern. Our cicerone was an old Irish woman, brogtted and glibtongued. She showed and explained the pictures — the descent from the cross most minutely : and took occasion thence to harangue the company (several ladies and gentlemen, besides us two) upon gospel truth — especially catholic. I hardly ever heard such fluency.— She would not tolerate the slightest semblance of disrespect to the holy place where we were. She stepped up to a gentleman of the party, and said something I could not hear : but his hat instantly came off. I was stupid enough not to take the hint. She presently drew near to me, and in a soft, low voice said, ‘Will you take off your hat, if you please, sir ? ’ Of course, it was off, directly. One of the company seemed an Episcopalian or Presbyterian minister : and one of the ladies at least was a Presbyterian. The blended marvel, pity, and contempt with which they listened and looked at the old woman as she preached, was very amusing.

“ Idle till bedtime, except a chapter or two of Miss E.’s Helen.”