The American Fugitive in Europe

by William Wells Brown

Layout 2

 

THE AMERICAN FUGITIVE IN EUROPE.

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THE AMERICAN FUGITIVE IN EUROPE.

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SKETCHES

OF

PLACES AND PEOPLE ABROAD.

BY

WM. WELLS BROWN.

WITH

A MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR.

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"Go, little book, from this my solitude!
I cast thee on the waters—go thy ways!
And if, as I believe, thy vein be good,
The world will find thee after many days."

Southey.

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BOSTON:
PUBLISHED BY JOHN P. JEWETT AND COMPANY.
CLEVELAND, OHIO:
JEWETT, PROCTOR & WORTHINGTON
NEW YORK:
SHELDON, LAMPORT & BLAKEMAN.
1855.

 

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1854, by
JOHN P JEWETT & CO.,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the District of Massachusetts.

 

Stereotyped by
HOBART & ROBBINS,
New England Type and Stereotype Foundry,
BOSTON.

PREFACE

to the english edition.

While I feel conscious that most of the contents of these Letters will be interesting chiefly to American readers, yet I may indulge the hope that the fact of their being the first production of a Fugitive Slave as a history of travels may carry with them novelty enough to secure for them, to some extent, the attention of the reading public of Great Britain. Most of the letters were written for the private perusal of a few personal friends in America; some were contributed to Frederick Douglass' Paper, a journal published in the United States. In a printed circular sent some weeks since to some of my friends, asking subscriptions to this volume, I stated the reasons for its publication: these need not be repeated here. To those who so promptly and kindly responded to that appeal, I tender my most sincere thanks. It is with no little diffidence that I lay these letters before the public; for I am not blind to the fact that they must contain many errors; and to those who shall find fault with them on that account, it may not be too much for me to ask them kindly to remember that the author was a slave in one of the Southern States of America until he had attained the age of twenty years; and that the education he has acquired was by his own exertions, he never having had a day's schooling in his life.

W. WELLS BROWN.

22 Cecil Street, Strand, London.

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NOTE

to the american edition.

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During my sojourn abroad I found it advantageous to my purse to publish a book of travels, which I did under the title of "Three Years in Europe, or Places I have seen and People I have met." The work was reviewed by the ablest journals in Great Britain, and from their favorable criticisms I have been induced to offer it to the American public, with a dozen or more additional chapters.W. W. B. Boston, November, 1851.

CONTENTS.

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PAGE
Memoir of the Author	9
CHAPTER I.
Departure from Boston—The Passengers—Halifax—The Passage—First Sight of Land—Liverpool	35
CHAPTER II.
Trip to Ireland—Dublin—Her Majesty's Visit—Illumination of the City—The Birthplace of Thomas Moore—A Reception	42
CHAPTER III.
Departure from Ireland—London—Trip to Paris—Paris—The Peace Congress: First Day—Church of the Madeleine—Column Vendome—The French	51
CHAPTER IV.
Versailles—The Palace—Second Session of the Congress—Mr. Cobden—Henry Vincent—M. Girardin—Abbe Duguerry—Victor Hugo: his Speech	64
CHAPTER V.
M. de Tocqueville's Grand Soiree—Madame de Tocqueville—Visit of the Peace Delegates to Versailles—The Breakfast—Speech-making—The Trianons—Waterworks—St. Cloud—The Fête	73
CHAPTER VI.
The Tuileries—Place de la Concorde—The Egyptian Obelisk—Palais Royal—Residence of Robespierre—A Visit to the Room in which Charlotte Corday killed Marat—Church de Notre Dame—Palais de Justice—Hotel des Invalides—National Assembly—The Elysee,	80
CHAPTER VII.
The Chateau at Versailles—Private Apartments of Marie Antoinette—The Secret Door—Paintings of Raphael and David—Arc de Triomphe—Beranger the Poet	91
CHAPTER VIII.
Departure from Paris—Boulogne—Folkstone—London—George Thompson, Esq., M.P.—Hartwell House—Dr. Lee—Cottage of the Peasant—Windsor Castle—Residence of William Penn—England's First Welcome—Heath Lodge—The Bank of England	98
CHAPTER IX.
The British Museum—A Portrait—Night Reading—A Dark Day—A Fugitive Slave on the Streets of London—A Friend in the Time of Need	113
CHAPTER X.
The Whittington Club—Louis Blanc—Street Amusements—Tower of London—Westminster Abbey—National Gallery—Dante—Sir Joshua Reynolds	123
CHAPTER XI.
York Minster—The Great Organ—Newcastle-on-Tyne—The Laboring Classes—The American Slave—Sheffield—James Montgomery	136
CHAPTER XII.
Kirkstall Abbey—Mary the Maid of the Inn—Newstead Abbey: Residence of Lord Byron—Parish Church of Hucknall—Burial-place of Lord Byron	145
CHAPTER XIII.
Bristol: "Cook's Folly"—Chepstow Castle and Abbey—Tintern Abbey—Redcliffe Church—Edinburgh—The Royal institute—Scott's Monument—John Knox's Pulpit—Meetings in City Hall, Glasgow	154
CHAPTER XIV.
Stirling—Dundee—Dr. Dick—George Gilfillan, the Essayist—Dr. Dick at home	167
CHAPTER XV.
Melrose Abbey—Abbotsford—Dryburgh Abbey—The Grave of Sir Walter Scott—Hawick—Gretna Green—Visit to the Lakes	173
CHAPTER XVI.
Miss Martineau—"The Knoll"—"Rydal Mount"—"The Dove's Nest"—Grave of William Wordsworth, Esq.—The English Peasant	182
CHAPTER XVII.
A Day in the Crystal Palace—Thomas Carlyle	193
CHAPTER XVIII.
The London Peace Congress—Meeting of Fugitive Slaves—Temperance Demonstration—The Great Exhibition: Last Visit	202
CHAPTER XIX.
Oxford—Martyrs' Monument—Cost of the Burning of the Martyrs—The Colleges—Dr. Pusey—Energy the Secret of Success	208
CHAPTER XX.
Fugitive Slaves in England—Great Meeting in Hall of Commerce, London	215
CHAPTER XXI.
Visit to Stratford upon Avon—Shakspeare's Birth-place—His Grave—George Dawson, Esq.	223
CHAPTER XXII.
Visit to Ludlow—The Wet Sheets—Landlady in a Fix—Ludlow Castle—Milton's Comus—Butler's Hudibras—Visit to Hereford—Birth-places of Garrick, Mrs. Siddons, Nell Gwynne	230
CHAPTER XXIII.
A Fashionable Dinner Party—Cowley, the Poet—Residence of Alexander Pope—His Merits as a Poet	240
CHAPTER XXIV.
Birth-place of Robert Burns—His Monument—Tain O'Shanter and Souter Johnny—The Shell Palace—Newark Castle—Highland Mary	247
CHAPTER XXV.
The Thames Tunnel—Colosseum—Swiss Cottage—Its Mysteries and its Beauties	254
CHAPTER XXVI.
Visit to a Burial-ground—Epitaph on the Grave of a Wife—A Warning to the Fair Sex	259
CHAPTER XXVII.
Scotland—Aberdeen—Passage by Water—Edinburgh—George Combe	262
CHAPTER XXVIII.
Joseph Jenkins, the African Genius—His Street-sweeping—Bill-distributing—Psalm-singing—Othello—And Iris Preaching	268
CHAPTER XXIX.
Monument to Thomas Hood—Eliza Cook—Murdo Young—Milnes, the Poet	276
CHAPTER XXX.
A Night in the House of Commons—A Bird's-eye View of its Members—Hastie, Layard, Hume, the Father of the House, Edward Miall, W. J. Fox, Macaulay, Richard Cobden, Gladstone the Orator, Disraeli the Jew, Lord Dudley Stuart, Lord John Russell—A Debate in the House—People in the Gallery—Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton	282
CHAPTER XXXI.
Anniversary of West India Emancipation—Francis W. Kellogg—British Hatred of Oppression—A Singular Recognition—Lady Noel Byron and Ellen Craft	296
CHAPTER XXXII.
Thoughts on leaving for America—Acquaintances made in Great Britain—John Bishop Estlin—Departure in the Steamer "City of Manchester"—Peculiarities of Passengers—Irish, Germans, and Gypsies—Reception at Philadelphia—Anti-Christian Prejudices there—Design in Returning—Reflections	303