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Francis H. Smith Trip to Europe in 1858 Letterbook # 1
Transcribed, edited, and annotated by Col. Edwin L. Dooley, Jr.
Editor’s Preface: In a memoir written shortly before his death in 1890, General Francis H. Smith, VMI superintendent, included the following passages regarding a trip he took to Europe in 1858.
“The strain of official duty was severely felt by me during the incessant calls made on me at that time [1857-1858]. The Board of Visitors realized this, and were convinced that I needed respite, and acting under their advice, and by their authority, I accepted a furlough to visit Europe in 1858. It was made my duty by the Board of Visitors to visit the Military, Scientific, and Agricultural institutions of Europe with instructions to report thereon upon my return. I sailed from New York on the 9th of June, 1858, and returned on the last of December, 1858, being accompanied on my trip by three graduates of the Institute.
“Being fully accredited by our Board of Visitors, and by the Governor of Virginia, I found ready access to the chief institutions of a scientific and military character in Europe, and on my return submitted a Report to the Board on “scientific Education in Europe,” which was printed by the General Assembly of Virginia in 1859. This general report was followed by a special Report, which was designed to suggest such modifications in the academic Work of the Institute as might fit it the better to meet the demands of the State and country.”
During Smith’s six-month visit to Europe, he traveled through Ireland, Scotland, England, France, Holland, several German states, Austria, Italy, and Switzerland. Besides taking notes for the official report he would write on his return, he managed to write lengthy letters to his family nearly every day about his experiences. One of his aims was to use the letters as a journal or aide de memoire to assist him in writing his official report. They provide many interesting details of his trip, but they also give us a rare personal picture of Smith that one does not find in thousands of pages of official correspondence that have survived from his fifty-year tenure as VMI superintendent.
Sometime after Smith’s return to Lexington, he had his clerk, Robert Henry Campbell, copy the letters into three small letterbooks. This was fortunate for future researchers because Campbell’s handwriting was excellent while Smith’s handwriting was nearly illegible. Over the years, the letter books passed down through descendants of Smith, but sadly one of them, the third – having to do with his visit to Switzerland, Germany, Austria, and Italy – was lost. The two surviving books ended up in the possession of Col. Alexander Morrison (VMI 1939), a Smith descendant, and he kindly made them available to the editor to transcribe and annotate for the general reader.
In transcribing the letters, the editor has retained original spelling and punctuation wherever it appeared not to be a mere mistake by R. H. Campbell. Smith’s clerk had difficulty with the names of some of the locations mentioned, and the editor has corrected these misspellings.
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Many of the annotations include references or links to web pages on the Internet. One reason for this practice is to give the reader an immediate opportunity to conduct a virtual visit to the places seen and described by Smith and thereby reconstruct his journey across England and France. Web postings are sometimes undependable, are often updated, and sometimes becomes unavailable, however, so the reader is urged to engage in active Internet searches for the places and persons mentioned. Those seeking a deeper understanding of places or persons mentioned should consult standard reference works and other published studies.
Edwin L. Dooley, Jr. Lexington, 2010
One of the two existing letterbooks containing copies of Francis Smith’s correspondence from Europe to his family in 1858.
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Sample pages from letterbook, in the handwriting of Smith’s clerk, R. H. Campbell
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Copies of my letters from Europe, in 1858. Made by my clerk Mr. R H Campbell.1 1860
1 Robert Henry Campbell. According to VMI historian William Couper, Campbell’s family had the VMI laundry contract for many years. Robert was never a cadet at VMI. He served in the Civil War as a PVT in the Rockbridge Rifles. According to Morton and Reidenbaugh, Campbell was a 3rd CPL, then SGT, Co. H, Stonewall Brigade. See William Couper, One Hundred Years at VMI, 3 vols. (Richmond: Garret and Massie, 1939), 1: 209; Oren F. Morton, A History of Rockbridge County, Virginia (Staunton, Va: 1920; reprint, Baltimore Regional Publishing Co., 1973), 433; Lowell Reidenbaugh, 27th Virginia Infantry, “The Virginia Regimental Histories Series” (Lynchburg, Va: H. E. Howard, 1993), 134. Couper continues: “[Campbell] was sent home after the Battle of First Manassas suffering from a hemorrhage of the lungs. Twice he returned to duty and was discharged as unfit for field service, whereupon he took a position as clerk in the superintendent’s office at V.M.I. and served as such until the Institute reopened in October,
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Illustration of the Steamer Africa, on which Francis Smith sailed to Europe in 1858. The illustration is incorrect in showing two funnels as the ship had only one. From the editor’s collection.
Steamer Africa2 Irish Channel Saturday Morning June 17th /58
When I last wrote to you My Precious wife,3 we were just passing Sandy Hook4 and were taking leave of our New York Pilot.
1865, when he was appointed treasurer and quartermaster…. He was a protégé of General Smith from his youth….” See Couper, Hundred Years, 3: 209.
2 The Royal Mail Steamer Africa was a wooden hull, steam-driven paddle sidewheeler built in 1850 by the British and North American Royal Mail Steam Packet Company (known after 1878 as the Cunard Steamship Company, Limited). Description: “2226 gross tons, length 266 ft x beam 40 ft, clipper bows, one funnel, three masts rigged for sail, wooden hull, side paddle wheels, speed 12 knots. Accommodation for 130-1st and 30-2nd class passengers. Built by R. Steele & Co., Greenock, and launched … in July 1850. Maiden voyage 26th Oct. 1850.” It sailed between New York and Liverpool. See “The Ships List, Ship Descriptions - A,” date posted unknown, date accessed 2/10/2009, electronic address:
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Already we are beautifully sailing down the Irish Channel having just passed (10 a m) Loch Foyle5 which leads to Derry, the home of our good friend Mrs Paine.6 We made the coast of Ireland this morning at 2 and were abreast of Tory Island7 on the western coast, at 4 A M. Thanks to the goodness of our Heavenly Father, whose mercies have never failed us, our voyage has been a prosperous one. Our Captain8 says, it has been the roughest he ever made in the month of June. We took what is called the northern passage,9 passing along the coast of New Foundland and leaving Cape Race10 as our last point of the American shore, and then going through the northern passage, by the north coast of Ireland. This is usually ______[page 3] the safest and most expeditious route in summer. To us it has been a most boisterous one. We reached Cape Race Sunday morning at 8 and our first acquaintance with the northern regions was a view of 3 Icebergs, passing a very large one, within ¾ of a mile. It was a grand prospect.
3 Sarah Henderson Smith (b. 1812, d. 1884). Daughter of Dr. Thomas Henderson of Alexandria, Va., who died at the Superintendent’s Quarters, 1854, and Maria Henderson, d. 1857. Sarah married Francis Henney Smith 9 June 1835 at West Point, New York. She died 18 May 1884 at the Virginia Military Institute. See William Couper, “Jackson Memorial Cemetery Survey, Complete to 1960,” MS (unedited), Library, Washington and Lee University. See also loose papers from Smith family Bible in the collection of Alexander H. Morrison, of Rockbridge County, Va.
4 “Sandy Hook” is a barrier spit of land at the southern entrance to Lower New York Bay, south of New York City. See “Sandy Hook Unit,” date posted unknown, National Park Service, date accessed 2/10/09, electronic address:
5 Loch Foyle (Lough Foyle) is the estuary of the River Foyle, in Ulster, Northern Ireland, which leads to the port of Derry. See articles and photos at “Lough Foyle,” at “Wikipedia.”
6 Mrs. Eliza Paine, wife of Dr. John W. Paine (both age 61 in 1858). Although a physician, Paine was a bookseller in Lexington and conducted a private classical school. He and his wife were born in Ireland, according to the 1860 U.S. Census. See Henry Boley, Lexington in Old Virginia (Richmond: Garrett and Massie, 1936; reprint, Lexington: Liberty Hall Press, 1974), 158-9.
7 Tory (Toraigh) Island, County Donegal, is nine miles off the NW coast of Ireland. See article and photos at “Tory Island,” at “Wikipedia.”
8 The Captain of the steamer Africa in 1858 and 1859 was Neil Shannon. See “Merseyside Shipping 1850 to 1859, Ships and shipping advertising 1859,” date posted unknown, Old Mersey Times, date accessed 2/10/2009, electronic address:
9 For a picture of a map of the northern passage, see Allison Lockwood, Passionate Pilgrims: The American Traveler in Great Britain, 1800-1914 (New York: Cornwall Books, 1981), 37.
10 Cape Race is located at the SE tip of Avalon Peninsula on the island of Newfoundland. For article and photos, see “Cape Race,” at “Wikipedia.” In her book on American travelers in Great Britain in the nineteenth century, author Allison Lockwood explains that there were five major dangers in crossing the Atlantic: fog, icebergs, fire, storms, and mechanical failure. Of these, she says, fog was the most dangerous. “All these ingredients for tragedy were amply supplied by the northerly route taken – the shortest distance between the two continents – which involved heading up the Canadian coast, skirting the southeastern tip of Newfoundland, past the dreaded rocks of Cape Race, and then traversing the frequently fog-shrouded Grand Banks region….” See Lockwood, Passionate Pilgrims, 36, 171.
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The view of them gives no idea of their grandeur. This one was about 150 ft high 500 ft long and 300 ft deep, and containing say 8 times as much ice under water as we saw. It seemed to be covered with a fresh mantel of the purest snow.
These Icebergs are great dreads to navigators. If a Steamer were to run into one of them, at night, she would inevitably sink, as if she had run upon a rock.
I asked our Captain how he avoided them? He said, there was a peculiar state of the atmosphere which was at once noticed by a careful sailor.
The fogs constitute another of the dangers of the voyage. They are so dense off N Foundland, that often we could not see the light of the vessel. It was in such a fog, that the Arctic11 was run into and sunk. The prevention is to sound the whistle of the Steamer every 5 minutes and thus we ran for 1 ½ days with the screeching noise of our whistle. The Captain says, it may be heard 5 miles. The Captain of the Arctic was not blowing his, and hence the dreadful catastrophe.
The Artic sank in 1854 after colliding with a French ship. London Illustrated News, 21 Oct. 1854.
After passing Cape Race, on Sunday, the breeze freshened, until it blew a gale, by midnight; and for 3 days we had a severe northern gale which, at times, blew into a perfect hurricane. The Sea dashed over our upper decks and the vessel was most of the time a flood of sea brine. Fortunately, the wind was favorable, and we drove through the sea, at the rate of 13 and 14 miles an hour.
11 The SS Arctic was an American wooden-hull, side-wheeler paddle mail steamer. It collided with the French iron screw steamer Vesta in heavy fog off Cape Race on 27 September 1854. Nearly 400 people were lost. See “SS Arctic,” at “Wikipedia.” For 28 the October 1854 New York Times report of the shipwreck, see “The Wreck of the Arctic” at “The New York Times Article Archive: 1851-Present” webpage. For a brief account and a Currier illustration of the sinking of the Arctic, see Lockwood, Passionate Pilgrims, 168-169.
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From the commencement of the rough weather until yesterday morning, I was sick; not so much with continued nausea, as with inability to retain anything on my stomach. I was at once relieved, and by keeping my berth, had comparative comfort. I have often suffered more in the Stage to Staunton.12 This voyage has done much to confirm me in the security of these ocean Steamers, as fine sea vessels, under admirable discipline; but still more in the goodness and mercy ______[page 4] of Him, who stilleth the raging of the seas and the violence of the wind to the Mariner. How entirely helpless did we seem and really were, on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday; and yet, underneath us, were the ever lasting arms. Unable to read any regular chapter, on Board, I got D[r.] Minnegerode,13 who is my State room companion, to do so, and the chapter gave the cry of Peter “Save, Lord, or we perish,” and as the Savior was to the doubting Peter, by the eye of light, so by faith, I trust, we have all been able to apprehend Him as our Saviour and deliverer.
12 Staunton Stage. This was the stagecoach that connected Lexington, Va., to Staunton, Va., a distance of approximately 40 miles. The journey was a notoriously rough one.
13 Dr. Charles F. E. Minnegerode. Rev. Minngerode became the rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Richmond in 1856, where he remained for 33 years. General Robert E. Lee and Confederate States President Jefferson Davis worshipped in St. Paul’s during the Civil War. Minnegerode was born in Westphalia, 6 August 1814, and came to America in 1839, arriving in Philadelphia. Two years later he moved to Williamsburg, where he became a professor of humanities at the College of William and Mary. In 1844, he became a communicant of the Episcopal Church, and a year later became a candidate for the ministry. Before going to Richmond, he was the rector of Christ Church, Norfolk. See Vera Palmer, “Immigrant Boy to St. Paul’s Rector,” date posted unknown, date accessed 2/11/09, electronic address:
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Illustration from Vera Palmer, “Immigrant Boy to St. Paul’s Rector”
You can form no conception of the comfort in these Steamers. We have 5 meals a day, and every luxury of the New York Hotels. Indeed, more than we find in New York. Breakfast at ½ past 8, Lunch at 12, Dinner at 4, Tea at 6, and Supper at 9.
Two courses at Dinner, with every variety of poultry, game, fresh meat or soup, pastry, and fruits. We have a cow on board, and an ice house. It seemed to me, that nothing that I wanted, and fancied when I was sick, and called for, was wanting. ______[page 5]
On Wednesday, I was very sick, and was unable to retain any thing.
The Steward came to my room, and said in his Irish brogue, “Do try a bit of the breast of a boiled Turkey. It is very nice and fresh and will relieve you.” His manner was so Kind, that it touched me. I asked him to bring it to my berth. A South Carolinian was aboard, and, who had suffered greatly with sickness, & had been advised to try Lemonade, and he did so with success; and advised me to try it. I had one made, and with the breast of the Turkey and the Lemonade, I can scarcely conceive anything to have been more grateful to me.
My Stomach was at once settled. I ate Turkey and drank Ice Lemonade for supper, the same for breakfast the next day, and at dinner, I was well again, having taken four or five Lemonades that day. Yesterday, I was able to eat beef a la mode, and the usual accompaniments, with a relish, and when I went upon deck this morning, I saw the land of Erin before me. I felt so elastic that a new vigor was ______
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given to us. Rarely have I seen a more genteel set of passengers. Besides our own party, we have the representations of almost every nation, with many from various parts of our own Country. Mr and Mrs Rogers (she is the daughter of Mr James S. Brander [or Braider] of Petersburg) are making their 13th voyage, with a baby 1 ½ years old who has crossed the Atlantic 5 times. A Southern Clergyman with his father 88 years old, going back to visit the home of his father. A gay party of 10 from S Carolina. Many hearty Scotchmen and Irishmen. But not one rude word, or disorderly proceeding during the passage. On Sunday the crew were turned out and marched into the Saloon to Services. It was read by Dr M14 and he gave a short sermon. The Captain and officers not on duty, being in his right and left. Had there been no Clergyman of the Epis’l Church, the Captain would have read the Services. Here is England’s great pillar of strength with all her faults, and she has many. She does recognize, throughout ______the length and breadth of her dominion, the right of Him who is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
You can conceive nothing more grand than the prospect we have had of the northern part of Ireland this morning. The bold basaltic cliffs nearby. Londonderry, which open into the Giants Causeway, like the palisades, but much grander than on the north River, the remarkable feature of the Island of Rathlin15 (let the children get the Atlas from my office and trace these places), the distant view of the Island of Islay,16 and the coast of Scotland, the rugged bluffs variegated with undulating cultivated slopes with their green fields neatly divided into squares, really gave us a prospect which delighted our eyes after the long contemplation of nothing but the broad and deep sea. We often thought of _____ Mrs Paine17 and how familiar these scenes were to her and the doctor.
We expect to reach Liverpool by 9 to night thus making my trip in 10 days and 7 hours, a short passage. The Steamer leaves for New York this morning, but ______she will pass us without taking our letters. She will report us, however, as having arrived, and by the 4th July, you will know that the Africa has reached Liverpool on 19 June.
The Africa will return on Labor day next, and she will be the first steamer to take our mail. So that you will probably not receive this before the 10th or 12 July.18
14 Dr. Minnegerode.
15 Rathlin Island lies six miles off the northeast Irish coast and 16 miles from Scotland. According to Antrim.net, it is “shaped like a boot made with layers of basalt on limestone on the higher parts. It is surrounded by limestone and basalt sea cliffs reaching 470 ft in places. Three lighthouses stand as monument to its wild coast while over 40 recorded shipwrecks lie in the depths of underwater cliffs…” See “Rathlin Island,” date posted unknown, date accessed 2/11/09, electronic address:
16 Islay, a Scottish island, is the southernmost island of the Inner Hebrides. It can be seen from the Irish coast, 25 miles away. For information, maps, and photos, see “Wikipedia” and “The Armin Grewe Homeplace,” date posted unknown, date accessed 2/11/09, electronic address:
17 See previous reference to Mrs. Paine.
18 Couper writes: “Ocean travel was not as speedy then as it is now and as the ships were delayed on both crossings there was some anxiety in Lexington. Specifically, Colonel Smith left Lexington on June 3rd and embarked at New York on the Africa on the 9th. Exactly a month later General Richardson expressed his
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You may judge of our elevation northward, when I tell you, that twilight lasted last night until nearly 11 o’clock, and daylight dawned a little after 12. We had no actual night. The night so called, but mostly twilight, lasting only 3 hours.
To a sick person this was very comforting, for it took away the long and weary sleepless nights, which the invalid sometimes realizes.
Liverpool19 England Sunday June 20 1858
We reached the Mersey River20 by 5 o’clock last night, and we might readily have gotten to this City by bed time, but the tide being low, we had to delay two hours, so that we did not ______reach Liverpool till 2 this morning.
Thus, by the providence of God, we have made our voyage in 10 days and 5 hours.21 We were detained until 9 A M on board the steamer, having our baggage examined by the concern about the arrival of the ship at Liverpool, and then added, ‘this morning, however, I find her telegraphed at New York yesterday.’” See Couper, Hundred Years, 1: 339-340.
19 Liverpool, England. City on the eastern side of the Mersey River. According to “Wikipedia,” “by the early 19th century, 40% of the world’s trade passed through Liverpool’s docks…. By 1851, approximately 25% of the city’s population was Irish-born.” Lockwood states: “the mighty stone docks and basins of the port of Liverpool struck American travelers with awe, so different were they from the wooden, unsubstantial docks and wharves of American ports.” See Lockwood, Passionate Pilgrims, 39. For a near contemporary description of Liverpool, see “Liverpool in 1851,” in Benjamin Silliman, A Visit to Europe in 1851, 1st ed., 2 vols. (Putnam: New York, 1853), 1: 21-25. Silliman states: “THE DOCKS, as they were in 1805, were described in my former work. Then there were few of them; only six wet docks, and a few dry docks; now they extend at least six miles along the east bank of the Mersey, on which Liverpool is situated…. The docks are the glory of Liverpool; they are rendered necessary by the tides of 12 to 30 feet, and large ships cannot remain in safety in the channel of the river, unless it be far down in the offing…. COMMERCE OF LIVERPOOL. – This city is now said to be the resort of more sea-going vessels than any port in the world, and it is asserted that New-York is next; I cannot vouch for the correctness of this position.” See Silliman, A Visit to Europe in 1851, 1: 23-25.
Benjamin Silliman (1779-1864) was a professor of chemistry and natural history at Yale University from 1802-1853. Educated as a lawyer, Silliman studied chemistry with Professor James Woodhouse, in Philadelphia. He later lectured on the subject at Yale in 1804. In 1805, he visited England, Scotland, and Wales to meet prominent scientists and to learn of their work, and he attended scientific lectures. He returned to Yale to resume his duties as a professor, with special emphasis on mineralogy and geology. In 1818, he founded The American Journal of Science and Arts. His scientific investigations and writings made him the most influential scientist in the U.S. On his retirement, he traveled to Europe, after which he published A Visit to Europe in 1851 (2 vols., 1853). See “Benjamin Silliman” at “Wikipedia,” and in Dictionary of American Biography, 17: 160-163.
20 Mersey River. A river in northweast England that empties into Liverpool Bay, Merseyside, on the Irish Sea. See “Wikipedia” for “River Mersey,” Liverpool Bay,” Merseyside,” and other related Internet sites: “Mersey Basin Campaign,” and “River Mersey.”
21 The fastest steamer at this time was the Vanderbilt, which set a record in 1855 crossing from New York to Southhampton in nine days and 5 hours. See Bowen, A Century of Travel, 81.
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Custom officers, who, as it was Sunday, did not come off until 8 o’clock. We got to our Inn, the Waterloo, by 10, and without waiting for our baggage, Dr Minnegerode and myself took a Cab22 and rode to St Paul’s23 to hear Dr Mc Neill24 preach, one of the most evangelical of the Church of Engl’d Clergy. We had some misgivings in going so badly dressed as we were; but my feelings were to make my first act one of devout gratitude to God for His merciful care over me during my voyage and I cared not that I was not as gentily attired as I might otherwise have wished. I was rejoiced that I went. He preached such a sermon as did me good, so that I could scarcely keep my seat from the very Joy it afforded me, in the sound evangelical and high spiritual tone which pervaded it. His text was 28th John 17 v. He spoke of the common tendency of men ______to exhibit zeal in worldly matters in pleasure, business & as being the natural feeling of all men. Then, how this was also to be seen in men in religion; 1st in those things which corresponded with popular sentiment, and which was part of the results of the Bible influence, but which was not necessarily religion. Many men were zealous in works of benevolence and were loud in their zeal to promote them, especially when the mass of men agreed with them; but who were not found embraced in the 2d class composed of that small number who were zealous for God, and for His word. He spoke of the great danger of England being, that she was resting upon the 1st class of zeal and was compromising the last, in not more firmly indicating her zeal in opposing, as Anti Christ, the unscriptural teachings of the Church of Rome; as allowing her to sit by her side and exhibiting what Christianity might be with her millions of daily sacrifices when the Bible taught one great, One only Sacrifice ______that of the L[ord] Jesus Christ on Calvary.
22 Cab. Short for Cabriolet, a horse-drawn vehicle designed by English architect Joseph Hansom. It is also known as a hansom cab. For a public domain illustration see “HansomCab.gif,” date posted unknown, date accessed 2/14/09, electronic date: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:HansomCab.gif
23 St. Paul’s Church. This church was begun in 1763 on the model of St. Paul’s Cathedral, London, and was consecrated in 1769. Its chief feature was a dome, but the dome rendered the preacher’s voice inaudible. St. Paul’s was closed in 1900. For description (no illustration found) from 1834 Picture of Liverpool: Stranger’s Guide, see Caryl Williams, “St. Paul’s Church Liverpool,” date posted unknown, Old Liverpool, date accessed 2/14/09, electronic address:
24 John McNeill was a Scottish evangelical preacher whose sermons were read on both sides of the Atlantic. He preached at St. Paul’s Church, Liverpool, and later was pastor of Regent’s Square Presbyterian Church, London. He also preached in Chicago and at the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, New York City (See The New York Times for 3 May 1897). In his Life and Work of Dwight Lyman Moody, the Rev. J. Wilbur Chapman, D.D., writes, “[McNeill] is a Scotchman of the true type… with a converted soul, a granite mind, and a great big loving heart. Essentially, he is a man of the people and has no use for ecclesiastical formalism….” See Rev. J. Wilbur Chapman, D.D., “The Life of Dwight Lyman Moody,” date posted unknown, date accessed 2/24/09, electronic address:
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But I will not dwell on this most striking sermon, striking in its manner, no less than its matter.
After Church we met with Mrs Beverly Tucker whose husband25 is Consul here. She is the sister of Col Ellis26 of Richmond. We walked to their house and sat an hour, were kindly invited to dine, but declined.
We returned to our Inn, where we had a most delightful family table of 8 of real Virginians, upon as good a dinner as I ever ate and strawberries larger than a partridge’s egg.
I was interrupted here by the arrival of the time for afternoon church service, 6 ½ P M. Of course I went again to hear Dr. McNeill.
His text “preach deliverance to the captives” was, if any thing, better handled than the morning. He referred to the happiness of having as our Magna Charta, an open Bible, with this gracious proclamation in it; and of the necessity of not trusting to tradition on questions of such moment to the soul. That ______we are naturally inclined to inaccuracy in details, and referred to Dr Johnson27 earnestly impressing upon a Lady the necessity of training her children to the most thorough accuracy, at all times, and never allowing the most trifling departure from exactness to be excused.
This, if the child were to say that he saw such and such a thing from one window, when it was from another. She should instantly correct it. How could I possibly do this all the time Doctor – Madam said he, you must do it – the mass of lying in the world is made up of these little inaccuracies, without intentional designs, to say what was false; Dr Mc N[eill] referred to the fact that there was only one apostolic tradition, in the Bible, and that was not true, where the Apostles said that our Savior had said of John that he should not die.
I find a mail leaving here on Friday by a steamer so you will hear of our arrival in a short time now. Indeed we met the Arabia28 going in on Saturday and she will report us. This letter will
25 Nathaniel Beverley Tucker (1820-1890). Educated at the University of Virginia; appointed consul to Liverpool in 1857, where he served until 1861. During the Civil War, he was agent abroad for the Confederate States and was commissioned to obtain supplies in England, France, and Canada. Later he was accused by President Johnson of complicity in the assassination of President Lincoln. See Lyon Gardiner Tyler, Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography, 4 vols. (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Co., 1915; Heritage Books, Inc. CD-ROM. Heritage Books, Inc., 2000), 3: 145-146.
26 Most likely Powhatan Ellis (ca. 1794-1863). A well-known lawyer, he served on the Virginia Supreme Court until 1825. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1827, but resigned in 1832 to take a seat on the bench as U.S. judge for the district of Mississippi. President Jackson appointed him charge d’affairs in Mexico, 1836; President Van Buren appointed him minister to Mexico, 1839-1842. He resided in Richmond until his death on 18 March 1863. See Tyler, Virginia Biography, 2:268-269.
27 Samuel Johnson, English poet, essayist, moralist, novelist, literary critic, biographer, editor, and lexicographer. See Dictionary of National Biography.
28 The Arabia was built in 1852 in Glasgow, Scotland. According to Bowen, “She was a beautiful ship to look at, and as the last wooden Cunarder deserves particular mention in the history of the Atlantic. Had they abandoned their conservative policy and gone in for iron she might have succeeded in her purpose, but although she was designed and built with the greatest care her side-lever jet condensing paddle engines … were too powerful for her hull when working up to their full designed speed of 13 knots.” See Bowen, A Century of Travel, 67. For drawing and details of the Arabia, see “S/S Arabia (2), Cunard Line,” date
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VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives go by the City of Washington.29 I cannot tell you how happy I was on opening my trunk, on reaching my Inn to say “good morning to my dear little children.”30 There was Frank with his honest and truthful countenance. Sally with her arch and shrinking look; and dear little Jim, as if he did not know what they were doing with him.
I wish I had also my Fannie who is now her father’s oldest pet, and Henderson, who is to be his father and Mother’s comfort as a young man, and Virginia just budding into Girlhood; precious children, you all are to me, and thou most precious wife! How I do wish to have your smiles again. May God watch over and bless you and us all, and return us again in health and safety. All of our party are well. I have not referred particularly to them because they are as usual. Farewell once more. May be I may add another sheet be- ______
for the Steamer sails. I send a paper with our arrival in it.
Your devoted Husband Frances H Smith
posted unknown, Norway-Heritage: Hands Across the Sea, date accessed 2/14/09, electronic address:
29 The City of Washington was built in 1855 in Glasgow for the Inman Line of Liverpool. She had one funnel, three masts, iron construction, single screw, and a speed of 10 knots. See “The Ships List, Ship Descriptions – C,” date posted unknown, date accessed 2/14/09, electronic address:
30 Francis and Sarah Smith had six children at this time: Frances “Fannie” Henderson Smith, age 19, born at Hampden Sydney College on 9 July 1838; Thomas Henderson Smith, age 15, born at the Virginia Military Institute on 21 August 1842, enrolled at VMI in the Class of 1862; Virginia Calvert Key Smith, age 13, born at the Virginia Military Institute on 9 October 1844; Francis “Frank” Henney Smith, Jr., age 9, born at the Virginia Military Institute on 21 March 1849; Sarah “Sally” Ellen Smith, age 5, born at the Virginia Military Institute on 19 June 1852; and James “Jim” Henderson, age 1, born at the Virginia Military Institute on 5 November 1856. A seventh child, Anna Marsden Smith, born on 30 March 1836 at Fort McHenry, Baltimore Harbor, died 12 May 1846. Information from loose papers from Smith family Bible, courtesy of Alexander H. Morrison, of Rockbridge County, Va..
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George M. Dallas, Minister to the Court of St. James’s Illustrated London News, 8 March 1856
Liverpool England June 21 1858 My Dearest Wife,
Our party has concluded to rest here to-day, and probably to-morrow, as it is deemed best to make our tour through Ireland and Scotland before going to London. The Consul, Mr Tucker, has very kindly forwarded my credentials to Mr Dallas31 that I may receive here the necessary authority to facilitate me in my visits to places of notoriety in my northern route.
This arrangement not only gives us a day or two of rest, but saves us a trip to London and back, and enables us to make a tour, which we might be reluctant to do, after the sight seeing on the continent.
______
31 George Mifflin Dallas. Born in 1792, Dallas was educated at the College of New Jersey (Princeton) and was admitted to the Pennsylvania bar in 1813. His father, who died in 1817, served under President Jefferson as U.S. district attorney for the eastern district of Pennsylvania and under President Madison as Secretary of the Treasury and Acting Secretary of War. George Dallas left his law practice to serve as private secretary to Albert Gallatin, who went to Russia to negotiate peace between Great Britain and Russia. He returned to Pennsylvania and practiced law. He was appointed to a vacant seat in the U.S. Senate in 1831 but declined to run for reelection. He held the post of Pennsylvania Attorney General until 1835. President Martin Van Buren named him U.S. minister to Russia, where he served until 1839. In the hotly-contested presidential campaign of 1844, the Democratic Party selected Dallas for the post of Vice President, to serve under James K. Polk, in which office he served until 1849. In 1856, he was appointed by President Franklin Pierce as Minister to Great Britain, and this appointment was continued by President James Buchanan. He resigned in May 1861 and died on 31 December 1864. See “Vice Presidents of the United States, George Mifflin Dallas (1845-1849), Vice Presidents of the United States, 1789-1993, date posted unknown, date accessed 2/15/09, electronic address:
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It is said, no one wants to go to Ireland or Scotland, after seeing Paris. We propose, therefore, to take the trip, somewhat in this way. (Let the children always follow me in my Journey with the Atlas before them).
We pass from here, via Chester to Holyhead, seeing and passing the great Tubular Bridge, over the menai straits. At Holyhead, take steamer to Dublin, thence to Cork, and the Lake of Killarney: thence to Belfast, giants causeway and Londonderry, and thence take steamer to Glasgow in Scotland.
In Scotland, we propose visiting all the places of interest such as Edinboro, Abbotsford, the lakes, and thence proceed to London, which will be our central point for trips in the neighborhood.
Mr Paul32 will endeavor to join us either in London or Paris, and make the trip on the continent with us. I find him a most intelligent, agreeable gentleman, one whose deep [unclear] piety has impressed me much. As we were tossing about in ______the gale in the ocean, he quoted me a verse from an old hymn of Charles Wesley, which struck me so forcibly, that I asked him to copy it for me. He promised to do so, but today he went out, and bought me a beautiful copy of Wesley Hymns, which I shall value very much. The verse is as follows “When passing through the watery deep, I ask in faith his promised aid, The waves an awful distance keep. And shrink from my devoted head, Fearless their violence I dare, They cannot harm for God is there.”
The verse is taken from a hymn commencing “Peace doubting heart – My God’s I am.”
Upon Bro M’s33 advice, I did not outfit myself in New York, with clothes, and I am glad I did not. We all went out today and bought ourselves each a traveling suit of clothes. I got a dozen of the best shirts I ever saw, far better than any I ever got in New York, for about $22 a dozen. My suit of clothes cost me about ______the same. My old frock that I started with hardly held together, and is too shabby now even to travel any where in except across the ocean. We will postpone buying a dress suit until we get either to London or Paris, the former will give us the substantial article. Paris the highest style in fashion. Dr M34, John Cocke35 and Grandy36, have gone to day, to dine with Mr Tucker; but I declined as I ate too much yesterday; after my long fast, and I am abstaining to-day.
32 Not identified. Perhaps someone Smith met on the voyage.
33 Smith’s brother James Marsden Smith (1803-1889), of Norfolk, VA., known as “Marsden.”
34 Charles Minnegerode
35 John Bowdoin Cocke, VMI Class of 1856; from Jefferson, VA ; MAJ, Cav. VA Vols, 1859-60; LT Aide-de-Camp, CSA; died 1889. See The 1989 Register of Former Cadets : Virginia Military Institute, Sesquicentennial Edition, 60. John Cocke was the son of COL Philip St. George Cocke (1809-1861); USMA; artillery officer, US, 1832-1834; BG, CSA; Pres., Virginia State Agricultural Society, 1853-1856; Member of the VMI board of Visitors, 1846-52, 1858-61; President of the VMI Board of Visitors, 1850-52, 1858-61; Virginia businessman, planter, educator; committed suicide, Dec. 1861.
36 Albert Horace Grandy, VMI Class of 1865, from Norfolk, VA; LT Co. B, 8th NC Inf., CSA; merchant; journalist; died 5 Aug. 1903. See The 1989 Register of Former Cadets, 76.
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Liverpool is the great emporium of the trade of the world. More shipping is in this port than in any city in the world. The docks are built of massive stone, and extend six miles and the shipping presents a perfect forest of masts, with this exception, there is nothing of interest here. No fashion – and no beauty. Indeed, I have not seen even a passable looking lady in Liverpool [here in the letter Smith drew what appears to be a worm] is about the type of all I have seen. We have in our Waterloo Hotel a specimen of the old English Inn. We pay for what we get, and may order any meals when we please and as we please. It is like a family house, and has this accommodation that every thing we get is of the best quality. The mutton chops are beyond description, and the muffins so excellent, that I shall try and get the housekeeper to give me the receipt.
Yesterday we paid 1sh, each, to go to St Paul’s Church some 2 miles – that is about 24 cents each.
You are annoyed by boys continually wanting to have the chance to black your shoes – John Cocke – says, this morning a boy asked him to let him black his shoes – he would only charge him a penny, when declined, I’ll do it for ½ penny. John still shook his head – I’ll do it, said the boy, for a chew of old Va tobacco. The stores are all called shops and are in the main well supplied. There is a great reduction in the prices of articles found here as compared with New York and the quality so very superior. Of course the mar- ______kets are well supplied here, and great abundance of choice fish are to be had, salmon of the best quality.
The horses are also very fine and those used in the carts and drays the largest I ever saw.
Liverpool is in Cheshire County and there comes the celebrated Cheshire cheese. As an-other evidence of our Northern latitude, our church services yesterday open at 6 ½, we get back to the Hotel at 9 ½ and as we finished our Tea at 10 ½ it was the usual period of Dusk. The truth is there seems to be but little night, for day breaks so early, that two or three hours would embrace all the period of darkness.
To night I have some idea of going to Hope Chapel37 to hear Bishop Cashel38 the great protestant Episcopal Bishop of Ireland who has done so much for the Reformation of the Catholics of Ireland.
The meeting is one called to take into consideration measures for the education of the poor Irish children, and the Bishop and one of his archdeacons to make statements exhibiting ______the nature of their work, its difficulties, etc.
37 Hope Chapel, also known as Hope Hall. The building was erected in the early 1830s for meetings of the Christian Society. “In 1838 [it was] occupied by the Rev. Robert Aitken, an Anglican minister who adopted ‘revivalist’ methods…. [I]n 1841 [it was] acquired for the Established Church and called St. John the Evangelist’s … It was abandoned in 1853, but under the name of Hope Hall is still used for religious and other meetings..” See “Liverpool - Churches, British History Online,” date posted unknown, date accessed 2/15/09, electronic address:
38 Smith was mistaken here. There was a Protestant “Bishop of Cashel,” but no “bishop Cashel.” Later he corrects himself and speaks of “the Bishop Cashel.”
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June 22, I went to Hope Hall last evening. I did not get there in time to hear the Bishop Cashel. But I heard an Irish Arch Deacon and Mr Noland39 and Dr McNeill. They gave a sad picture of the condition of popular education among the Irish Protestants. Dr Mc Neill illustrated the absurdity of any attempt to compromise with Papacy by relating an anecdote that is worth sending to you.
He said some years ago, before a rail road passed between Dublin and Queenstown, passengers were terribly annoyed by cabmen who would press their claims for a job, founded upon the excellence of their cabs or cars as they are called, and the good quality of their horses. Dr Mc N said, he had a friend, once, who was led to accept a cabman by the accommendation given to his horse that he was a practical horse.
He had a most shocking ride to Dublin and when he got there, ______he said to the cabman “Now do tell me why you called your horse a – practical – horse; Arrah! Said the driver: and sure his good qualities are more in imagination than they are in “fact.” The application was good that Papacy holds out promises which are never realized.
It was most pleasing and grateful thing, as I entered St Paul’s on Sunday morning, from shipboard, that the morning lessons for the Psalms embraced the 103 Psalm.
You may be sure my heart responded to the praises which that beautiful Psalm presents.
Well, Dearest Sarah, it is time for me to close my letter, for the mail steamer that takes this sails tomorrow. The mail facilities are very great and letters are just as promptly received as they are in America. Let yours be directed to the care of Geo Peabody40 etc – Bankers, London.
39 Not identified.
40 George Peabody (1795-1869), an American born in Massachusetts, was a merchant banker, entrepreneur, and philanthropist in London. He moved to London in 1837 where he founded George Peabody Company in 1851, a financial house that dealt in securities issued by railroads. His partner there was the American J. S. Morgan. According to the Dictionary of National Biography, “Peabody was said to entertain every American who arrived at his office, supplying a letter of credit and introducing him around London.” His annual Fourth of July dinners he held for his compatriots and other notables were famous and often were reported in the London newspapers. Shortly before his death in 1869, a statue was erected to him near the Royal Exchange in London. For article, photos, and references, see “George Peabody” at “Wikipedia,” and in Dictionary of National Biography, 343: 229-231. See also Franklin Parker, George Peabody: A Biography (Nashville:Vanderbilt U. Press, 1995).
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George Peabody. Smith’s banker in London Public domain illustration from Wikipedia
Let the envelopes be strong, like that which encloses this, as they have to go through more wear and tear. A steamer leaves New York or Boston every Wednesday ______for England so if you letters are sent every Saturday they will reach me with great precision every 15 days.
Give my dearest love to the children. Remember me to Majr Preston41 and my colleagues among the faculty42, Mr Cattlett,43 and the Assistants [,] Dr Estill44 and Mrs E,45 Mr
41 Major John Thomas Lewis Preston (a) Professor of Latin and officer of the Institute whom Smith left in charge of VMI during his seven-month trip to Europe. (b) “Born, Virginia, 1811. Graduated at Washington College and later studied at Yale [not Yale but at UVa]. 1835, while practicing law at Lexington, Va., published three articles in the Gazette, signed ‘Civis,’ suggesting the conversion of the state arsenal at Lexington into a combined military and literary institution at which students of Virginia and other states could be suitably educated. Chiefly through his labors the V.M.I. was established in 1839, he being professor of languages. 1860, Major on staff of Col. Francis H. Smith, Superintendent of V.M.I., who was in command of the Virginia Militia at the trial and execution of John Brown at Charles Town. 1861, Major and Assistant Adjutant General on staff of Col. T. J. Jackson at Harper’s Ferry. Spring of 1862, commissioned Lieutenant Colonel and was aid to Col. Francis H. Smith, who was in command of the fort at Craney Island. Later returned to professorship at the VMI. May 1864, accompanied corps of cadets to Richmond after the battle of New Market. June, 1864, returned to Lexington with the corps of cadets and accompanied them in the march to Lynchburg to aid in the defense of that place against the advance of Gen. Hunter. At the close of the war resumed his duties with the VMI cadets at Richmond, returning with the corps to Lexington and assisting Col. Smith in rehabilitation of the Institute, which Gen. Hunter had destroyed. In active duty as a member of the faculty of VMI until 1882, when he became Emeritus Professor of Languages. Died at Lexington, 1889.” See footnote in Cornelia McDonald, A Diary with Reminiscences of the War and Refugee Life in the
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Gibbs46 – Cristy47, the Sergeant48. Bob and the servants [.] Mr & Mrs Moore,49 Mr Pendleton,50 etc., etc.. Say to Mr Pendleton that I would like him to send me a specific memorandum of the watches he wished me to get for him.
Shenandoah Valley, 1860-1865, annotated and Supplemented by Hunter McDonald (Nashville: Cullom & Ghertner, 1934), 27. The correct date of his death is 1890. (c) See also Couper, Hundred Year, and June F. Cunningham, “Colonel John Thomas Lewis Preston,” in A Crowd of Honorable Youths, Historical Essays on the first 150 Years of the Virginia Military Institute, ed. Thomas W. Davis (Lexington, VA: VMI Sesqicentennial Committee, 1988), 47-60. (d) Major Preston’s second wife was Margaret Junkin Preston, poet and eldest daughter of President George Junkin of Washington College. Her sister Eleanor “Ellie” Junkin married T. J. Jackson in 1853 and died in childbirth in 1854.
42 At this time, the VMI faculty included Francis H. Smith, professor of math and superintendent; John Thomas Lewis Preston, professor of languages; Thomas Hoomes Williamson, professor of engineering; William Gilham, professor of chemistry, instructor in tactics, and Commandant of Cadets; Raleigh Edward Colston, professor of French, military history, modern history, and political economy; Thomas Jonathan Jackson, professor of natural and experimental philosophy and instructor in artillery tactics; Stapleton Crutchfield, Jr, professor of math and instructor in tactics; Mark Bernard Hardin, professor of chemistry, assistant professor of Latin, assistant instructor in tactics, assistant Commandant of Cadets; Benjamin F. Stewart, assistant professor of French and assistant instructor of infantry tactics; Daniel Truehart, Jr., assistant professor of math.
43 Richard Henry Catlett was quartermaster, VMI, 1850-58; treasurer, 1858-61; aide to Governor Letcher; 1862 on duty with GEN Echols; 1864 with MG Kemper in reserves in Richmond; lawyer after the war; member VMI Board of Visitors, 1865-1873. See Couper, Hundred Years, 2: 93.
44 Doctor Henry “Harry” M. Estill was VMI Post Surgeon, 1839-1856. See Couper, Hundred Years, 1: 32, 56; 3: 151. After leaving VMI, he owned a dry goods store in Lexington. See Lexington Gazette, 13 Jan. 1859. A graduate of the Jefferson Medical College, of Pennsylvania, Dr. Estill also practiced medicine in Lexington. See Lexington Gazette, 5 Jan. 1860.
45 Probably Mary J. Patrick Estill, wife of Dr. Estill.
46 John Tracy Gibbs was born in Kent, England, 29 June 1819, and died in Lexington 13 July 1887. See Couper “Cemetery Survey.” In 1858, he was steward at VMI, and later VMI commissary and quartermaster. He and his second wife (Nancy Jane Campbell Clyce Gibbs) were owners of the Exchange Hotel, on Main Street, Lexington (also known as “The Blue Hotel”). See Couper, Hundred Years, 2: 12.
47 Christopher “Christie” Birmingham, born in Ireland, was a laborer in Lexington. In 1861, he made cartridges and cartridges boxes at VMI. See Couper, Hundred Years, 2: 130.
48 John Hampsey, born in Ireland, was ordnance sergeant at VMI. See 1860 U.S. Census for Lexington.
49 There were many Moores in Lexington at this time, but Smith is probably referring to Mr. and Mrs. Samuel McDowell Moore. Moore was a prominent lawyer in Lexington. See 1860 U.S. Census for Lexington.
50 Rev. William Nelson Pendleton (1809-1883). Pendleton was the rector of Grace Episcopal Church, Lexington, from 1853 to 1881, the church that Francis Smith helped to found. He graduated from USMA at the time that Smith was a cadet there. 1 May 1861, he was elected CAPT of 15 Washington College students, 1st Rockbridge Artillery; 13 July 1861, he was named COL and J. E. Johnston’s Chief of Artillery; 16 March 1862, he was named BG CSA and Chief of Artillery, Army of Northern Virginia. For a biography of Pendleton, see Lee, Susan P. Memoirs of William Nelson Pendleton, D.D. (Philadelphia: Lippencott, 1893; reprint Harrisonburg, VA: Sprinkle Publisher, 1991).
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And now commending you all to the care of our Covenant – God51 I am my darling Sarah,
Your own devoted Husband Francis H. Smith Mrs Sarah H. Smith Lexington Va ______
Liverpool England June 22d 1858
Mr Dear Daughter,52
I am sure that your dear Mother will not complain that I address my 11th letter to you.
I dispatched to day to her my 9th & 10th by the mail of the steamer City of Washington, which sails tomorrow; and as the Africa leaves in her return trip on Saturday, I commence a letter to you to night, at dusk 10 PM, expecting to finish it before we leave tomorrow for Dublin; so that it may start with the mails of the Africa and thus give you three days later mail than the City of Washington takes, although in fact only one day will intervene in my writing.
However, I expect to write from Dublin and perhaps from Cork, so that these letters will probably reach you all the same time with this. We have all enjoyed a great treat to-day. We got an early luncheon at 2 o’clock, and having a hack for 6 of us, started to visit Knowsley Hall53 the seat of Earl Derby54 ______
51 Smith closes many of his letters with a reference to “our Covenant God,” which is one piece of evidence that he was an evangelical Christian, and more specifically an Evangelical Episcopalian. The term “Covenant God” had a specific meaning to Smith and to other evangelicals. It referred to the belief in a covenant made between God and man, through Christ, and known as “the covenant of redemption and grace.” One contemporary definition of this concept is found in George Winslow’s 1860 book Our Covenant God in which the author writes: “The covenant of redemption is an agreement made between God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, to save mankind from destruction; while the covenant of grace is the promise of this salvation to man – upon conditions – conditions, however, which shall not affect the freeness of the gift, or the sovereignty of the giver.” The covenant of redemption and grace, Winslow maintained, “has come in the place of the old covenant of works,” but “it does not dispense with, set aside, or change that [old] covenant…” Winslow goes on to explain that Adam, before the fall, was capable of obedience to God’s law – and also capable of good works -- but his failure to perform his obligation “rendered his obedience to the law impossible.” Adam would have perished had God not sent Christ, through whom, and only through whom, man is able to obey God’s law. “So in Christ we are righteous, and come under the life-giving promise of a covenant God,” Winslow writes. The argument was one of several used against those who believed in man’s ability to gain salvation through “good works.” See George Erving Winslow, Our Covenant God (London: Wertheim, Macintosh, and Hunt, 1860, Google digitized book), 87-89.
52 This letter was addressed to his eldest daughter, Fannie.
53 Knowsley Hall, located in Merseyside, England, is the ancestral home of the Stanley family, the Earls of Derby. For detailed description, history, and images, see “Knowsley Hall,” at “Wikipedia.”
54 See “Earl of Derby,” at “Wikipedia.”
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(pronounced Darby) the present premier of England.55 We understood that with a message from Mr Lynn the proprietor of our Hotel there would be no difficulty in our gaining admittance.
The seat of the Earl is 8 miles from Liverpool, and the road to it passes through little villages densely settled, and a most thoroughly cultivated country. We passed through the estate of the Earl of Sefton56 called Croxteth Hall,57 which adjoins Knowsley Hall. On reaching the porter’s lodge of the Earl of Derby, the maid who answered to our bell, asked for our card of admission. We told her we had none, but were strangers, who had come from America, and were anxious to see Knowsley Hall.
Knowsley Hall, Merseyside, England. Public domain illustration from Wikipedia.
In vain we plied her with reasons, the gate was found locked and locked it remained. You may be sure we all felt disappointed, when our horses heads were turned back. We asked the driver if he thought a little “change” would open the ______gate: he shook his head, and said, “well, we’ll try some other way.[”] So driving back a mile or so; he started upon another road, which led by the village of Knowsley, all belonging to the family estate of the Earl, and finally again we came to another porter’s lodge. Another female made her
55 Edward George Geoffrey Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby (1799-1869) is the most famous of the Earls of Derby. Known as a great parliamentary orator, he entered the House of Lords in 1844. A Tory, he served three times as Prime Minister. He was in his second ministry (20 February 1858 – 12 June 1859) when Smith was in England. During that ministry, the India Act was passed, transferring control of India from the East India Company to the British government, as was the Jews Relief Act that ended the prohibition of Jews serving in Parliament. Smith attended one of the sessions of Parliament during which the Jewish question was debated. See “Edward George Geoffrey Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby” at “Wikipedia”; also “Edward George Geoffrey Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby (1799-1869)” at The Victorian Web, date posted unknown, Marjie Bloy, Ph.D., date accessed 2/16/09, electronic address:
56 According to “Wikipedia,” “The title Earl of Sefton was created in the Peerage of Ireland in 1771 for the 8th Viscount Molyneux.” During the period 1100-1700, the Molyneux family were Lords of the manor at Sefton. The seat of the Earls of Sefton was Croxteth Hall. See “Earl of Sefton” at “Wikipedia.”
57 Croxteth Hall was the home of the Molyneux family, the Earls of Selfton, from the 16th century until 1972. The original house was built about 1575. See “Croxteth Hall” at “Wikipedia” and “The Historic Hall: Croxteth Hall and Country Park,” date posted unknown, Liverpool City Council, date accessed 2/16/09, electronic address:
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VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives appearance. “Well what do you want: said she”: The driver promptly replied, we are on our way to Knowsley Hall. “And why don’t you enter at the main gate?” “I missed the turning”. It was all a story, but it was a successful one. The gate opened. We got to the village which contained a church [,] school house and a few hamlets, all the property of the Earl and here the driver stopped to water his “Orses” while he was really contriving a way to pass the inner gate.
He mounted his box and away he drove. Reaching the inner gate, we found an elderly man as the porter. “Where are you going?” said he. “A party of gentlemen” said the driver as quick as thought” who are going to dine with the chief Steward – ______
Mr. Ball.” As big a “whopper” as ever man told. We roared as we passed the gate while the driver kept as imperturbable a countenance as ever you saw.
You may be sure our consciences were somewhat disconcerted at the downright falsehood that had been practiced, but really, we knew nothing as to what he intended to do, all he said was, he would get us in, and he did it -- The passage of the last gate brought us in to the Hall and we followed the road that led to the stables. Here the chief Ostler met us, dressed in livery, with his scarlet coat and shorts and buttoned leggings. We told him our object, and he very civilly commenced his business by showing us the stables.
Now Frannie I can give you no adequate idea of the magnificence of these stables. “This” said our guide, “is the stables Kitchen”. What? we asked? “The Kitchen for those who attend to the stables and the orses” ______
It was grand – an elegant range with its hot and cold water faucets, its bright copper and tin ware. The whole lighted with gas. Indeed if this be the Kitchen of the stables, what will be the Kitchen of the Hall. We then passed successfully through the various apartments of the stables. The stalls were floored in stone, in mosaic style. Each stall had its gas burner, water cock, and the door, windows and partitions painted in imitation of oak and much neater than any parlor, you ever saw. Each stall had a name over it, as the name of the horse – such as Dasher – Drop, [D…?], each name commending with D, the initial of Derby and there were stalls for 100 horses.
These are the stables for the Hall. There is another set of stables for the blooded58 or training horses a mile off – Then we came to a room the dispensary for the horses – then the carriages house large enough to hold 20 carriages and which actually had 10 or 15, the best being in London, where the Earl is attending Parliament.
This set of stables forms a quadrangle ______embracing an area as large, nearly, as our Barracks yard, and built in two story brick rooms – with an arch way and tower clock etc. etc. So much time was taken up in visiting the Stables, that we had to choose between visiting the Hall or the Park. We took the former – and soon found our way to the main door. Our guide the important Chief of the Stables, returned, and said the housekeeper wished us to send a card. I promptly sent mine. When we were ushered into the presence of the most consequential looking personage, about the size of Miss Hetty Mckeever.59 “Our Hall” says she, is not a show place. We are just putting things in order for My Lord Darby and it is not pleasant to us to be showing strangers about the Hall when it is in this condition.”
58 Purebred or thoroughbred horses used for racing or breeding.
59 Not identified.
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We saw it was necessary to let her importance take this method of showing itself. In the absence of My Lady Darby – she was the Lady Mistress – so we waited a moment when ______a female attendant was directed to show us the rooms.
Some of Scott’s60 novels may give you some idea of the princely Halls of old England. Kenilworth61 presents a pretty good idea of a Castle of the olden time, but no description I have ever read, had given me any conception of the real character of these immense Halls of the English nobility. Knowsley Hall is said not to be as stylish a building as many others in England. The Duke of Westmoreland62 has Eaton Hall63 in Chester,64 near to this place, which is said to be much grander in its style. (We tried to go there, but is was closed)
But Knowsley Hall had material for interest to all of us which none of us will soon forget.
The front range of buildings is about the front of the Barracks in size, and then there is one wing built at a more recent date, at right angles at the eastern corner, about as large as the front.
As we passed from room to room on the same floor of ______the immense “Hall” we were struck with the splendid paintings of the first masters of the art, Rubens,65 Vandyke,66 Rembrant,67 Salvador DeRose,68 etc. and the exact likenesses of the early Kings & Queens of England from Henry 769 down with all the portraits of the 14 Earls of Derby,
60 Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832), Scottish historical novelist. See Dictionary of National Biography.
61 Kenilworth, novel published by Sir. Walter Scott, 1821.
62 Smith was mistaken. Eton Hall was the country estate of the Duke of Westminster. The title of Marquess of Westminster was created in 1831 and bestowed on Robert Grosvenor by King William IV. The title of Duke of Westminster was created in 1874 by Queen Victoria and was bestowed on Hugh Lupus Grosvenor (1825-1899), who previously held the title of 3rd Marquess of Westminster. This is the person to whom Smith was referring to as the “Duke of Westmoreland” in his letter to Fannie. At this time, the Grosvenor family was the richest in the United Kingdom. See “Duke of Westminster” and “Hugh Grosvenor, 1st Duke of Westminster,” at “Wikipedia.
63 Eaton Hall is the country estate of the Dukes of Westminster (Grosvenor family) in Cheshire, England. The building that Smith attempted to visit, a Gothic Revival mansion built by William Porden, was demolished in the 1960s and was replaced with a modern building in the French chateau style. See “Eaton Hall, Cheshire,” at “Wikipedia.”
64 This is an error. Eton Hall is in Cheshire.
65 Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), Flemish Baroque painter
66 Anthony van Dyck (1599-1641), Flemish Baroque painter and court painter in England.
67 Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (1606-1669), Dutch painter.
68 Salvator Rosa (1615-1673), Italian painter.
69 Henry VII (1457-1509) Henry Tudor, first of the Tudor kings. Reigned from 1485 to his death in 1509. It is perhaps not surprising that the portrait of Tudor King Henry VII, was the first in the collection of royal portraits Smith found in the Earl of Derby’s Knowsley Hall. The 2nd Baron Stanley married Lady Margaret
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VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives the 1st living in 1448. The 7th earl of Derby70 was beheaded in 1630 to 50, and the chair71 in which he sat when he was beheaded is preserved in the Library – and we each sat in it. It was a great curiosity – and the present Earl of Derby is said to take great pride in it – sits much in it – and sometimes says he too may have his taken off in it.
Monday Morning June 23d
I was tired last night and went to bed at 12. This morning I continue. There are 1000 of the finest paintings in Earl’s D_ gallery.72
The Earl of Derby, Prime Minister London Illustrated News, 28 February 1852
Beaufort, the mother of King Henry VII. The title of Earl of Derby was conferred on Stanley by Henry VII in 1485 after the Battle of Bosworth Field. See Dictionary of National Biography.
70 James Stanley, 7th Earl of Derby (1607-1651), born at Knowsley Hall, was a royalist during the English Civil War. He was executed in 1651. See Dictionary of National Biography.
71 It is highly unlikely that James Stanley, 7th Earl of Derby, was beheaded sitting in a chair. Accounts state that he was executed at “the block.” See “The Death of James Stanley,” date posted unknown, date accessed 2/17/09, electronic address:
72 This should read: “Earl of Derby’s gallery.”
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His library is as magnificent as his gallery. We passed from room to room with shelves laden with ______books on every subject, and were carefully arranged. “This is my lady’s bed chamber” said our guide and this her private dressing room, and this her private “sitting room.”
Here is My Lord’s private dressing room, and you see how plain a gentleman he is – and here is the room in which he does all his business. His portrait hangs in the private dressing room of my Lady D.
Earl D has two sons and a daughter. The oldest son is 31 and is Lord Stanley, the other 19. The daughter = Lady Emma73 is 22 and our guide spoke of her in the most tender, touching manner. “Lady Emma is a mighty good Lady – she is so kind to the poor. She takes every thing to them herself. Every body loves her”. Then you see Dear Fanny, that even in these princely Halls, there is a royalty which stands above the glitter and show of earthly pageantry, and that is to be an heir of Glory – to be the child of God – and a joint heir with Christ and nothing did our guide so clearly discriminate on, that in passing ______over the claims of My Lord and My Lady D, and emphatically express her sense of the goodness of Lady Emma.
“My boast is not that I deduce my birth “From loins enthroned and rulers of the earth “But higher far my proud pretensions rise “The son of parents passed into the Skies.”
You will find this beautiful thought in Cowper’s lines on receiving his Mother’s portrait.74
I forgot to mention, that Lady Emma was Senior bridesmaid to the Princess Royal who was recently married to the Prince of Prussia.75
I am aware how meager my description is to you, and how very far it falls below any thing properly belonging to a true description of all I saw yesterday.
I really felt, as I was contemplating the things around me, that I had been already repaid for my tossing and sea sickness in the bosom of the great deep. I sent yesterday, by the mail, a paper containing an account ______of the meeting in Hope Hall to Henderson76 to which I alluded, and to which I referred in my letter to your Mother, and also one to Frank,77 with illustrations in it, a likeness of Mr Dallas, our Minister at London. I hope they were received in due time.
73 Lady Emma Charlotte Stanley (1835-1928)
74 William Cowper (1731-1800), “On the Receipt of my Mother’s Picture out of Norfolk.”
75 The Princess Victoria Adelaide Mary Louisa (1840-1901), Princess Royal, eldest child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. She married Prince Frederick, Crown Prince of Prussia. On the death of his father in 1888, Crown Prince Frederick became Emperor Frederick, III, and she became German Empress and Queen of Prussia. See “Victoria, Princess Royal,” at “Wikipedia,” and Internet site “Royal Genealogies -- Menu,” posted by Henry Churchyard, University of Texas at Arlington. Also see Dictionary of National Biography.
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Having luncheoned at 2, we took our dinner and supper together at 8 ½ and after a little walk, I commenced my letter to you. We expect to start to Dublin to day, if my papers which had been sent to Mr Dallas return this morning in time for me. I will try and write next to Henderson and then to Frank and Sally. But Mother must feel that all I write is to her and for her, for she is in my heart of hearts, and I love her too much to neglect her in my correspondence.
God bless you, my dear child, and all my dear family and take care of us all is the constant prayer of your own.
Most affectionate father Francis H. Smith
Miss Fanny H. Smith
______
Dublin Ireland June 24th 1858
My Dear Son,78
My letter to you opens by finding me in the land of Erin, and as a last remembrance of dear old Liverpool I enclose you a very good representation of it.
We were indeed very sorry to part from our good friend Mr Lynn of the Waterloo Hotel, for we were so much at home there, and had such good fare that we are sure that we shall not find as good any where we may travel.
We took the trains at Birkenhead79 on the Chester side of the Mersey at 1 ½ PM. By the way, I was wrong in one of my letters to your dear Mother, in saying that Liverpool was in Chestershire. It is Lancastershire. The river Mersey divides the two shires or counties.
We passed through Chester,80 one of the oldest towns in England, when we took a snack, and where John Cocke lost his ticket, and had to ______
pay almost three times as much in consequence. Then through on the banks of the river Dee to Conway, at which place there is a venerable ruin of the ancient Conway Castle.81
76 Thomas Henderson Smith, known as “Henderson.” He was Francis Smith’s son and a VMI cadet.
77 Francis Henney Smith, Jr., known as “Frank.” Francis Smith’s second son.
78 Addressed to Thomas Henderson Smith.
79 Birkenhead is a town on the west bank of the River Mersey in Merseyside. It was – and remains – a shipbuilding center and port. Ships departed from there for Dublin, Ireland. For article, maps, photos, and other sources, see “Birkenhead,” at “Wikipedia.”
80 The city of Chester is in Cheshire, England, and is situated on the River Dee, near Wales. For article, maps, photos, and other resources, see “Chester,” at “Wikipedia.”
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Conwy Castle, Conwy, Wales Public domain illustration from Wikipedia.
Before reaching Conway, we passed another Castle, which presented a most grand aspect; with its “Look out” on the crest of the Hill, and portcullis and battlements. The scenery through out being grand and picturesque.
Passing Conway, we got to Bangor,82 1 ½ miles from which is the great Britannia and tubular Bridges83 over the Menai straits, separating the Isle of Anglesea from Holyhead.
81 Conwy Castle, which dates to 1283-1289, is located on the north coast of Wales. For article and photos, see “Conwy Castle,” at “Wikipedia.” For a guided tour of the castle by Jeff Thomas, go to
At Conwy, two historic bridges span the Conwy river: Thomas Telford’s 1826 wrought iron road suspension bridge and Robert Stephenson’s wrought iron tubular railway bridge. These famous bridges were “must-see” engineering structures for nineteenth century tourists. Smith no doubt saw them, but curiously does not comment on them in his letter. For articles and photographs, see “Conwy Suspension Bridge” and “Conwy Railway Bridge,” at “Wikipedia.”
82 The city of Bangor is located on the coast of north Wales, near the Menai Strait, a body of water that separates the island of Anglesea from the mainland of Wales. For articles, maps, and photos, see “Bangor, Gwynedd,” and “Menai Strait,” at “Wikipedia.”
83 Near Bangor, the Menai Strait was spanned by the Britannia tubular railway bridge of wrought-iron rectangular box-sections, begun in 1846 and completed in 1850. The original bridge burned in 1970 and was completely rebuilt and reopened in 1972. For articles, maps, and photos, see “Bangor, Gwynedd,” “Menai Strait,” and “Britannia Bridge,” at “Wikipedia.”
Benjamin Silliman visited the Britannia tubular bridge in 1851, one year after its completion, and wrote: “THE TUBULAR BRIDGE. – This structure, one mile S.E. of the other [a suspension bridge built by Thomas Telford], is still more wonderful. To construct a vast tube of iron, strong enough to admit of railroad trains passing safely through it – to build it in separate pieces down on the common level, to float them to the site, and raise the pieces to an elevation of 100 feet – place them upon firm pillars of masonry as supports, and then to unite them into one continued tube as part of a grand railroad connection, between London and Holyhead and Ireland, is an achievement which must for ever place the name of Robert Stevenson above all praise.” See Silliman, A Visit to Europe in 1851, 1: 44-45.
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Conwy suspension bridge (left) and Stephenson’s tubular railway bridge (right). Credit: Photo by Mick Knapton, from Wikipedia. Permission granted to copy and distribute.
Major Williamson84 will tell you all about the great work of art – and Mr Jenks85 will tell you too that he worked on it. Twenty miles more, and we were at 6 P.M. at Holyhead,86 and here we took a steamer for Kingston, Island, distance 6 ¼ miles. We crossed the St. George Channel in about 4 ½ hours and reached Kingston at 11 P.M.
There we took cars87 and in 30 minutes were at Morrison’s Hotel,88 Dublin. The passage over the channel is usually very rough ______and persons are said to suffer more than crossing the Atlantic with sea sickness. But it was very Smooth = and we had a pleasant passage, and had the honor of having the Bishop of Cashel on
84 It is not known if Williamson, who taught engineering at VMI, had visited the bridge or had read about it.
85 Francis Jenks (age 48 in 1858) was a stonecutter in Lexington. He and his wife Ann were born in England. It’s not known when they emigrated to the U.S. or when they settled in Lexington.
86 The city of Holyhead is located in the county of Anglesey, Wales. It was, and remains, a port from which ferries cross the Irish Sea to Dublin and other locations. For article and photos, see “Holyhead,” at “Wikipedia.”
87 Railway train.
88 There is a modern luxury hotel in Dublin called “Morrison’s Hotel,” which may be the successor to the one in which Smith and his party stayed.
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VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives board with us. Having only just reached Dublin, I can say nothing to you of it – and must reserve for a letter to Jinny89 some account of what I see here.
I am afraid I have left behind the Photograph, which Mr Macfarlan,90 the student of Washington College,91 asked me to bring, for, in looking for it this morning, I could not find it – I will give another look.
You must let him know my [unclear] if I do not say any more of it. I found Mr Jenks and Dr Ludwigs92 all safe.93 I have bought me a portmanteau which enables me to keep together such things as I need daily without overturning the arrangements of my Trunk, and I shall now travel with more comfort.
I am also rigged out in a new ______suit of traveling clothes. Having found these articles of good quality and of reasonable prices in Liverpool I bought a dozen elegant shirts – the best I ever saw for @22.50.
The emblematic bird of Liverpool is the Liver – pronounced Li-ver and pool is added because of an immense pool originally here, but which has been filled up and is now covered by a warehouse. In the shield of the city coat of arms is found the bird, with the quotation from Virgil, “Deus nobis haec otia fecit.”
Would you believe it, my son, I have seen but one drunken person, since I left America, and that was in riding in from Knowsley Hall yesterday.
The attendants at the Waterloo were mostly white females, who were, as well as the males, most civil. At these hotels, you pay for every thing, separately – bed, breakfast, lunch, dinner, supper “boots” (that is blacking) servants etc. Just as you require them – and only for what you get. Many beg= ______gars annoy you in the streets. Women, boys and girls, with very doleful tales, but they are as a general thing, “imposters” who would take what you give them at once to the Ale shop.
I spoke of the Temperance which I had noticed.
I do not mean that there is no drinking. Indeed what most strikes a stranger on landing in Liverpool, and I believe it is general in England, is the number of Ale, Beer and Porter vaults as
89 Smith’s daughter Virginia.
90 Not identified, but we learn later that Macfarlan had a brother studying at Trinity College, Dublin.
91 Washington College, now Washington and Lee University, is located in Lexington, VA, adjacent to the Virginia Military Institute.
92 Edward Albert Ludwig (1813-1865). Dr. Ludwig, born in Switzerland, was the first faculty member at Washington College to hold the Ph.D. degree. He fought on the Union side in the Civil War and was killed at Hatcher’s Run, February 1865. See Ollinger Crenshaw, General Lee’s College: The Rise and Growth of Washington and Lee University (NY: Random House, 1969), 132.
93 Here Smith was speaking of photos given to him by Francis Jenks and Professor Ludwig before he left Lexington for Europe. We might assume that Jenks and Ludwig asked Smith to visit their relatives during his visit to England and Switzerland and to show them the photos.
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VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives they are termed – or shops. Every body seems to drink Ale, Men, Women and children. I observed in passing through a small town yesterday, nearly every house was an Ale house. The Ale is a weak drink however, and it takes much to intoxicate.
The people drink it in the place of tea or coffee for which it acts as a substitute, and to many of the poor it is a substitution for meat. ______
Every thing we had at the Waterloo Hotel was good. Bread, Coffee, Tea, Milk, Cream, Butter, water, Beef, Mutton, and the Muffins how shall I sufficiently praise them. I tried to get a receipt of them to send to your dear Mother, but we were told at the Waterloo, that the Muffin business was a distinct trade, and no Hotel made them, but sent to the Muffin shop for them. The stores are all called shops in England. Say to your dear mother, she must preserve my letters as they will enable me to fill up my Journal when I get home. For I aim to give you all the fullest account of what I see and the first sketches thus drawn, will be more accurate than those drawn at a later time. Give my love to Col Garnett94 and tell him I send him a number of the London Times to interest him.
And now my dear Son, God bless. Be true to yourself in your new life.95 Love God and Keep His commandments and you ______will win the love and respect of all that are worthy to be loved and respected, and with my love for all my dear family, Mother, sisters and brothers – not forgetting the Servants – I am your own Affectionate father Francis H Smith
Master Thomas H. Smith.
______Dublin Ireland June 24th 1858 My Dear Daughter96
I dispatched a letter to your brother this morning, and having been engaged all day in seeing the sights in Dublin, I have thought I would take a little time tonight, before going to bed, in giving you an account of them; expecting that my letter to you, may go to America by the ______same Steamer, with one to your Sister Fanny from Liverpool, and the one sent this morning to Henderson.
After breakfast this morning we first went to see the University of Dublin.97 This
94 Col. William Garnett was VMI Professor Thomas H. Williamson’s 71-year old father-in-law, the father of Williamson’s first wife, Louisa Garnett (she died January 1859). Col. Garnett was living with his daughter and Col. Williamson in Lexington.
95 Thomas Henderson Smith had just entered VMI as a cadet, Class of 1862.
96 Addressed to his daughter Virginia “Jinny” Calvert Key.
97 The University of Dublin (also known as Trinity College, Dublin) was founded in 1592 by charter from Queen Elizabeth and is Ireland’s oldest university. By the 19th century, the university had a reorganized law school, a growing medical school, and an engineering school (1842), one of the first in the British Isles. See “University of Dublin” and “Trinity College, Dublin,” at “Wikipedia.
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Trinity College, Dublin (The University of Dublin). llustration from Wikipedia with permission © Pilise Gabor. is an old and greatly celebrated institution of learning, the walls of which enclose an area of some 40 acres. The building is of stone, of plain exterior, but of substantial quality – and separated into the various establishments, such as museum – chapel, mess room, dormitories, library, etc. The library is the most interesting part of the establishment. It being some 300 feet long with 20 alcoves on each side for books.
This library is distinguished for the variety of ancient specimens of writing. Copies of the New Testament in the earliest forms and early copies of the old Testament.
The museum also contained many very curious things, especially a harp which, from its antiquity, Queen Victoria said when she visited it, “This then is the harp of Ireland.”
______
There was an examination going on at the University, but it was private. We saw the students, all of whom wore a black gown and a 4 cornered black cap.
From the University, we went to the Bank of Ireland. This building is curious, as being that in which the ancient Parliament of Ireland sat, when Ireland had its independent parliament, and which was done away, when the Union with Great Britain was consummated some 56 years ago.98
98 For photos and history of the Bank of Ireland/Former Houses of Parliament, see “Former Houses of Parliament/Bank of Ireland, College Green, Dublin,” date posted unknown, Archiseek, date accessed 2/17/09, electronic address:
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The old house of Lords is in precisely the same condition now that it was when last used, the same chairs and tables remaining. The throne has been removed and a statue of George III put where it stood.
From this we went to see the brother of young Macfarland of the College. He had gone to England, so that I did not see him. I left the Photograph for him. We then drove to the Castle of Dublin.99 This is ______the seat of the Viceroy of Ireland now called the Lord Lieutenant.100 It bears the evidences of ancient castellated structure, and although not a very imposing building, is well worth seeing.
The Chapel royal101 is a magnificent building – and containing the Coat of Arms of each of the Lords Lieutenants. The present is Lord Eglington. He spends his winter months here, and his summer months at his residence in Phoenix Park,102 just out of town.
Having gone through this, we went to St Patrick’s Church.103 This is an old Episcopal church of which the celebrated wit Swift104 was dean. Here he and Stella105 were buried and we saw their monuments.
99 Dublin Castle was the seat of British rule in Ireland. The original castle dates from 1204. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland came into existence on 1 January 1800. For article, map, and photos see “Dublin Castle,” at “Wikipedia,” and “Dublin Castle History,” date posted unknown, Dublin Castle, date accessed 2/17/09, electronic address:
100 The Lord Lieutenant of Ireland was the English’s King’s representative and head of the Irish executive. He was also known as the Viceroy. The Lord Lieutenant of Ireland at the time of Smith’s visit was Archibald William Montgomerie, 13th Earl of Eglington and 1st Earl of Winton (1812-1861), a staunch Tory. For article and photos, see “Lord Lieutenant of Ireland,” at “Wikipedia.”
101 For information and photos of the Royal Chapel, Dublin Castle, see “File:Chapelroyal.jpg,” at “Wikipedia” and “Chapel Royal, Dublin, Castle,” date posted unknown, Archiseek, date accessed 2/17/09, electronic address:
102 Phoenix Park was the location of Viceregal Lodge where the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland lived for most of the year.
103 St. Patrick’s Cathedral, in the early English gothic style that Smith saw it, was built in 1254. During the Reformation, it was confiscated by King Henry VIII. Thereafter, it gradually declined until a complete restoration began in 1860. Closed for five years, the restored cathedral was reopened in 1865. When Smith visited the cathedral, some restoration work undertaken between 1843 and 1860 had been accomplished, but the building was in disrepair and often had to be closed for safety reasons. For photos, history, and a virtual tour of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, click on the “History and Heritage” tab at “The National Cathedral and Collegiate Church of St. Patrick, Dublin (Ireland),” date posted unknown, Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, date accessed 2/19/09, electronic address:
104 Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) was born in Dublin, attended Trinity College, Dublin, in 1682, and was ordained in the Church of Ireland in 1699. He was appointed Dean of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in 1713 and held that position until his death in 1745. For an account of his life, service and accomplishments as Dean, and of his writings, click on the “History and Heritage” tab, “History” tab,” and “18th Century ~ Jonathan Swift” tab at “The National Cathedral and Collegiate Church of St. Patrick, Dublin (Ireland),” date posted
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This is a very old and most imposing building, and there is much to interest any one in it. The Duke Schomberg, who was killed at the battle of Boyne,106 was buried here.
From the Church, we went to the top of Lord Nelson’s Monument107 – which gave us a view of the whole city – ______
This wearied us so much that we took time to eat our dinner.
After dinner, we went to the Royal Irish academy,108 where we spent an hour most agreeably in looking at historic remains of stone, wood earthenware and metal, which traces the early history of the people of Ireland. Among these are some recent discoveries of magnificent head ornaments of Gold, not entirely pure, but worth ₤3 an o unce.
These ornaments were most ornate, some of them being worth in the intrinsic values of the metal ₤500 to ₤600, but which as antique remains are really worth more.
We then went to Phoenix Park, the summer residence of the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. This park contains several hundred acres – and has a wall seven miles round it.
It is a most lovely place, interspersed with groves of Hawthorne trees. Here we saw several hundred deer moving about, as gentle as ______
lambs. We had the use of the cab for all these rides, and what do you think we paid! 75 cents each. We wound up the day by a visit to St Andrews’ Church109 (Roman Catholic). The priest
unknown, Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, date accessed 2/19/09, electronic address:
105 Esther Johnson (1681-1728), friend of Jonathan Swift, known as “Stella.” See “On the Death of Esther Johnson [Stella], Jonathan Swift,” from “English Essays: Sidney to Macaulay. The Harvard Classics. 1901- 14,” date posted unknown, Bartleby.com Great Books Online, date accessed 2/19/09, electronic address:
106 The Battle of the Boyne was fought in 1690 between Catholic King James II and Protestant King William, who had deposed James in 1688. Frederick Schomberg, 1st Duke of Schomberg, was one of King James II’s commanders.
107 Nelson’s Pillar was a large column topped by a statue of Horatio, Lord Nelson, erected in 1805 to honor Nelson’s victory at the Battle of Trafalgar (21 October 1805). Nelson was mortally wounded in the naval battle. The column rose 121 feet, and there was a viewing platform at the top, reached by a spiral staircase in the column. The Pillar was destroyed by a bomb in 1966. See “Nelson’s Pillar,” at “Wikipedia.”
108 The Royal Irish Academy (RIA) was established in 1785. It contains a library that houses the largest collection of Old Irish manuscripts in the world and is a research center for Irish history, language, archaeology, and science. When Smith visited, the RIA had recently moved to “Academy House” at 19 Dawson St., Dublin. For articles and photos on RIA, see “Royal Irish Academy,” at “Wikipedia,” and “Library & Catalogue,” date posted unknown, Royal Irish Academy, date accessed 2/19/09, electronic address http://www.ria.ie/library+catalogue/collections.html
109 St. Andrew’s Church of Ireland. For photos of St. Andrew’s Church – now a tourist office – see “Dublin Tourism, Andrew Street, Dublin,” date posted unknown, Archiseek, date accessed 2/19/09,
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VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives was preaching most vehemently in English, which seemed to be an evangelical sermon. Every time he used the name of our Saviour, the people bowed their heads, and some times they would have to do it two or three times in one sentence. After the sermon came the elevation of the Host and other idolatrous practices of the Romish Church,110 which shocked me as remains of Pagan religion in which this enlightened age might well be dispensed with. The Church is Cruciform, and is very handsome.
This reminds me that I had omitted to mention that Dr M – and myself called at the office of the Secretary for the Church education society for Ireland. This is the society in behalf of which the meeting in Liverpool at Hope Hall of which I wrote to your dear mother ______took place. The national Board of Education controls the education of Ireland so far as the public grants of money may go.
This Board deny the use of the Bible to all the schools in Ireland and will not even allow History to be taught.
The object is to keep from the youth of the Country all light as to the true character of papal religion. The corrupt tendency of the system of the National Board led to the formation of the Church Education Society, the operations of which are by private contributions. They are doing a great work and having the support of all of the Episcopal clergy of Ireland out of 2000, all but about 90.
They are carrying on a mighty reformation in Ireland, and they feel confident of success for the reason, that they are built upon the eternal principles of truth as contained in the word of God.111 electronic address:
110 Romish Church – An opprobius reference to the Roman Catholic Church. Smith was quite open about his dislike of the Catholic Church and its practices, and especially of the role of Catholic priests and the Pope. Anti-Catholicism in the United States reached a peak in the nineteenth century, due, in part, to Protestant fears of Catholic immigrants. One result was the rise in the 1850s of a “nativist” movement and a national political movement known as the Know-Nothing Party. This party supported former President Millard Fillmore as its presidential candidate in 1856. Fillmore, popular in the American south, visited Lexington in 1851.
111 At the time of Smith’s visit, Ireland was and had been for over fifty years embroiled in a debate over the organization and provision of elementary and secondary education in the country, and especially of the education of the poor. The roots of this debate reached well into the 18th century, and beyond, and were inextricably connected to conflict between the Roman Catholic and protestant communities. In the late 18th century and well into the 19th century, Protestant denominations, through education societies and missions, often aided by the Irish administration, battled “Romanism” and worked actively to convince Irish Catholics to convert. At the same time, Irish administration officials, seeking to control disturbances and lawlessness in the country, seeking to defuse the rivalry between Catholics and Protestants, and seeking to unite the country, began arguing for a religiously neutral national system of education for the poorer classes that was divested of all sectarian distinctions. Sensitive to the religious beliefs of both communities and wanting to avoid creating “godless schools,” the architects of the national system of education devised a two-tier system that offered but separated dogmatic religious teaching from literary, moral, and scientific instruction. Seeing this proposed solution as beneficial to itself, the Catholic Church supported the separation of religious from secular instruction. Influential Anglican bishops agreed to many features of the proposed system. Of the many issues to be resolved, the key objection was to Catholic and protestant children reading the Bible during common or combined hours of instruction, and therefore the decision was made to have the scriptures read only during hours of separate religious instruction. There was also the
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______
It is a matter of surprise that the late Presbyterian Synod of Dublin, have thrown the weight of their influence, in favor of the National Board – and are thus sanctioning the exclusion of the Scriptures, and of History, from the schools. The course of the Presbyterians has caused much surprise here, and the only explanation which I have heard given of it (by Church of England persons) is, that they are willing to do this, to break down the established church. If this be the object, it will come to nought, for God will bless those who labor to promote His glory by diffusing the light of His own word. I was much struck with the beautiful pulpit in the Chapel Royal in the Dublin Castle, being built upon an open Bible in marble.
The idea being, that what was proclaimed from the pulpit – must rest upon the Bible and the Bible alone for its authority.
This is the true Protestant ______principle, upon which all Protestant Christendom stands. So much for Dublin.
We leave here to-morrow to visit the South of Ireland and the Lakes of Killarney.
We go by rail way and expect to be able to reach Belfast to spend the Sabbath there.
I believe to day is the day for the meeting of the Board of visitors.112 I have more than once thought of them, and of all connected with the Institution, but there is one dear spot which is more often in my thoughts, and that spot is centered in the single wor`d Home. How I would like to peep in upon you just now – and Mother, and all of you, talking about Papa, and wondering where he is, and whether he has reached Liverpool safely. Thank god, we are all under the care of one who never slumbers nor sleeps, but whose ______mercy never fails.
issue of which version of the Bible to use: Protestants used the authorized version of the New Testament and Catholics used the Douay version. As a result of these discussions, the Irish national system of education was created in 1831 under the direction of commissioners of a National Board of Education. This did not end the debate, however, as disagreements continued over the management of the system, the granting of government funds, the content of text books, and the extent of neutral religious content to include in literary instruction. There was also a determination to avoid controversy by excluding any material that might stimulate Irish nationalism, such as the history of Ireland, the history of the Reformation, information about the Union of England, Ireland, and Scotland, or Catholic emancipation. After about twenty years of relative agreement on the details of the national system, a new generation of Catholic prelates opposed to mixed education adopted a hardening attitude in the 1850s. This Catholic reaction came at a time when the established Anglican Church in Ireland was in decline. The Church Education Society that Smith admired, founded in 1839, was an Anglican society that provided its own private school system. It reached its peak of influence about the time of Smith’s visit, but then began a rapid decline for lack of adequate funding. By 1860, many of the Church Education Society schools were beginning to connect themselves to the Irish national education system. See Donald H. Akenson, The Irish Education Experiment: The National System of Education in the Nineteenth Century (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1970), passim.
112 The Board of Visitors was the governing board, appointed by the governor of Virginia, to oversee the Virginia Military Institute. It normally met two or three times a year. The late June/early July board meeting was held in Lexington at the end of the academic year.
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You must learn my dear child to love your Father in Heaven for all His tender care over us, and He loves those that love Him, and those that seek Him early shall find Him.
I send some views about Dublin which, with those I sent to Henderson, and those I shall send, from time to time, you must paste in the large scrapbook, for I shall need them to explain many things to you – which are too tedious to write about.
Commending you all to the care of our Covenant God, I bid you, and dear Mother, and Sisters and brothers good night – Give my love to all who think of me, and be assured of the love of your dear father
Francis H. Smith Miss Virginia C. K. Smith
______
[Lore?113] View Hotel Lakes of Killarney114 County Kerry, Ireland June 25th 1858
My Dear Son115
I have no doubt you have begun to say “well papa has written to every body, and no letter has yet come to me”. I had no idea of forgetting my dear boy – nor neglecting him either – and now comes a letter to him from the celebrated Lakes of Killarney.
Our party for this trip, consisted of Dr Minnegerode, John Cocke, Mr. Grandy and myself. We left Dublin at 9 o’clock, by rail way, and reached the town of Killarney at 4 P.M. passing though Monasterevin, Tullamore, Knocklong, Kilmallock and Mallow.116 The country, for the most part, was uninteresting. Now and then, a Castle was seen in the distance, and the ruins of an abbey. We passed immense bogs of peat, which men and women were dig- ______ging for fuel. Near Kilmallock is a Castle,117 being the same, in which the poet Spenser once lived, and when he wrote his great poem of the Faerie Queen.
113 Probably “Lake View” Hotel.
114 The Lakes of Killarney (Lower Lake or Lough Leane, Middle Lake or Muckross Lake, and Upper Lake) are located in County Kerry in southwestern Ireland. The town of Killarney is near Lake Leane. For information, map, and photos, see “The Lakes of Killarney,” date posted unknown, County Kerry, Ireland, date accessed 2/19/09, electronic address http://www.kerryholiday.co.uk/lakes.html
115 Addressed to Francis H. Smith, Jr., known as “Frank.”
116 Smith and his companions traveled approximately 186 miles from Dublin to Killarney, crossing the entire island of Ireland, east to west. The trip took them about seven hours by rail, stopping, it is assumed, at the towns mentioned.
117 Kilcolman Castle was the Irish residence of the English poet Sir Edmund Spenser from 1589 to 1598. He composed most of his epic poem The Faerie Queen here. For photographs of the castle, see “Kilcolman Castle (North Cork),” date posted unknown, Washington and Lee University, date accessed 2/23/09, electronic address:
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The town of Kellarney Killarney is a miserable specimen of an Irish town, and it was a painful spectacle to ride through the city streets and look at the horrid condition of its miserable inhabitants.
The women and Children, without shoes and stockings, and so poor, that I understand that they have no other means of subsistence than meal and milk, and sometimes potatoes. They never get any meat, and not often goat milk.
Of late years, the tourists have been attracted to the Lakes of Killarney, and thus some additional means of livelihood have been supplied to these wretched people, by acting as guides, or getting curiosities or some little specimens of handywork made from the Arbuta wood 118 of this region and from bog wood.
Today as we were riding in at a rapid trot, three females ran after ______our car, without shoes or stockings, but Keeping up with us, and crying out “do master – do your honor – buy something from me”. I bought a few specimens of Killarney work, as much from sympathy, as curiosities to take home.
As our time was limited, we lost no time in securing a car,119 and started out upon a view of the sights around the lakes; and in this way, we spent 5 hours – having traveled around the lakes some 15 miles.
I have heard Major Preston120 speak of the impression made upon him, by his first view of the Lakes of Switzerland, and I am sure, I was almost persuaded by my own sensations, that I was in the midst of the Alps of Ireland.
Here the scene is heightened, by the most interesting ruins of Muckross Abbey,121 and Ross Castle:122 the former being 830 years old, and was dilapidated by Cromwell. I send enclosed views of the ______parts I visited today and must be preserved as interesting reminiscences of my trip.
The most of the parts of the Lakes visited by Tourists pass through the estates of Mr Herbert,123 the owner of Muckross Demesne.124 He is a very liberal, and public spirited
118 Wood from the Artubus Tree, also known as the Irish Strawberry Tree. For description and photos, see “Irish Strawberry Tree,” at “Wikipedia.”
119 A carriage
120 Preston visited Europe some time between 1851 and 1854.
121 Muckross Abbey is three miles from Killarney. The monastery building that Smith saw was begun in 1440. For information and photos, see “Muckross Abbey, Killarney,” at “Wikipedia.”
122 Ross Castle, located on Lough Leane, is the last castle in Ireland taken by Oliver Cromwell’s forces, in 1652. For article and photos, see “Ross Castle,” at “Wikipedia.”
123 Col Henry Arthur Herbert (1815-1866). Irish politician, member of Parliament, Chief Secretary for Ireland from 1857-1858. For article and family portraits, see “Muckross,” date posted unknown, Muckross Research Library, date accessed 2/23/09, electronic address http://www.muckross-
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VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives gentleman, a member of Parliament, who has facilitated the means of viewing the Lakes by the most beautiful roads I ever rode over.
There is a very handsome Castle just in view on our right as we stand in the portico of our Hotel, and look at the lower lake before us. There are 3 lakes, the lower, the middle and the upper, and to my mind, the most striking view was that mingling of the waters by the union of the three lakes at the foot of what is called the long range. Here an ancient bridge passes the long range, called the Weir Bridge,125 which was built by Cromwell.126
Earl Kenmare127 is the propri- ______etor of the town of Killarney, and he, together with Mr. Herbert, own all the ground and lakes included in this interesting District. The income of the Earl is ₤60,000 and of Mr H ₤16,000. The tenants pay as high as ₤5 an acre a year and a large sum it is, for those who hardly see ₤5 in a year.
Belfast Sunday June 27 1858128
As our arrangements contemplated our meeting our other traveling companions here last night, we had to be busy at Killarney that we might get the full value of our labor. We rose then at 4 yesterday got a cup of coffee, and in company with our guide, and a boat rowed by 4 Irishmen, we visited Ross and Innisfallen Island. We saw the ruins of an old Abbey, that bears a very ancient date. ______
These islands are kept by their proprietors, in most beautiful order, the roads being elegantly graded and graveled and every facility afforded to tourists to visit the places of interest.
We passed across the lake and saw Sullivan’s waterfall129 and Lady Kenmare’s Cottage130 – and this brought us to the time for the cars to leave for Dublin, and we reluctantly left the beautiful prospects of Killarney Lakes. house.ie/library_files/former_owners.htm. See also “Henry Arthur Herbert,” at “Wikipedia.” Also see Dictionary of National Biography.
124 Muckross House was built in the Tudor style in 1843. Queen Victoria visited here in 1861. For article and photos, see “Muckross House,” at “Wikipedia.”
125 For photo of Old Weir Bridge, see “Old Weir Bridge,” date posted unknown, Killarney Photo Guide, date accessed 5/5/09, electronic address:
126 Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658). Commander of the Parliamentary armies during the English Civil War. Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland. See Dictionary of National Biography.
127 The Earls of Kenmare. When Smith visited, Thomas Browne (1789-1871), the third earl of Kenmare, held this title. See “Thomas Browne, 3rd Earl of Kenmare,” at “Wikipedia,” and in Dictionary of National Biography.
128 Belfast, now in Northern Ireland, is located 103 miles north of Dublin. Dublin is 186 miles east of Killarney. Smith’s train trip from Killarney to Belfast, via Dublin, would have covered approximately 402 miles. He estimated the distance as 300 miles.
129 O’Sullivan’s Cascade
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This locality is celebrated in Moore’s ballad131. He has a piece commencing
“Sweet Innisfallen etc” and although his song on the “meeting of the waters” is appropriate to the meeting of these lakes, it was written as description of another locality.
Our boatmen were true specimens of Irish characters, and we were more than once forced to a boisterous laugh, at their sportive cuts of humor at each other.
John Cocke gave the head man a segar which he seemed to enjoy very much. I remarked this to him ______
“Sure, your honor, I never expect to smoke another, unless a gentleman like yourself gives it to me.” We handed one to each of the others, one of whom had never smoked one before. “And save John which end do you put in your mouth?” “The big end of course” “Here light” and with that he put his old stump towards his mouth, while he made him believe he was to put the whole segar in his ------.
They possess the usual characteristics of the Irish, a great deal of blarny, and great readiness to be profuse in their blessings and prayers for your long life and health: if you are liberal – but quite the opposite if you refuse as I did yesterday to pay double fee for his service.
We reached Dublin at 4 and immediately rode to the Belfast Station, and got to Belfast at 9, which was one hour before dark, and found our company waiting for us at the Imperial Hotel: a ______very nice Inn of the English style.
Tell your dear Mother, we found at the stopping places along the road to Kellarney, as nice Ginger nuts as I ever ate, and as we had to travel without stopping for dinner we made a good substitute with them and with sandwiches.
Our impressions of Dublin are not favorable. It is a dull, heavy town, and our Hotel miserable, and we were glad to exchange it for the more comfortable one we now have. The ride from Dublin is through a more interesting country, and historic as connected with the contest between William III and James II. At Drodegha132 we passed the Boyne River, near which the Battle of the Boyne was fought, by William, and in which the Duke --- Schomberg was killed. Portadown133 is the place at which Mr Paul134 was born and where he now is visiting his Mother.
130 Glena Cottage. Cottage built by Lady Kenmare. Queen Victoria visited there in 1861. Destroyed by fire in 1922. For photo, see “Glena Cottage, Killarney,” date posted unknown, Ask about Ireland, date accessed 2/23/09, electronic address:
131 Thomas Moore (1779-1852). Irish poet and song writer. His works included “The Meeting of the Waters,” published as Moore’s Irish Melodies in 1846 and 1852. See “Thomas Moore,” at “Wikipedia,” and in Dictionary of National Biography.
132 Drogheda is a port town on the east coast of Ireland. It is divided by the River Boyne. The town was taken by Cromwell in 1649 during the English Civil War, and it was the location of the Battle of the Boyne in 1690 between Catholic King James II and Protestant King William.
133 Portadown, in County Armagh, was a major railway junction where three railroad lines diverged for Belfast, Dublin, Armagh, and Derry.
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He met us at the cars, as we passed, and really it was a happy greeting. We passed, as we approached Belfast, the various ______
Linen factories and saw large quantities of Linen in the grass undergoing the bleaching [sic] process.
Belfast Irish linen is the great article of manufacture here.135
We returned to our rest last night quite weary with our ride over 300 miles and most thankful for the goodness of God in preserving us from day to day, and in giving us this peaceful place to spend our Sabbath. We enjoyed our nice bed and were prepared after a hearty breakfast to praise God in the congregation of His Saints.
We went to Dr Drew’s church Episcopal, in the morning.136 He gave us a plain practical discourse. His congregation was very large, but plain. The great system of education is moving the people of Ireland, especially in the Episcopal Church, and something good for the cause of truth must result from it.
As we had two hours before ______dinner, Dr M and myself strolled down to the wharf, and going on board one of the Steamers that were to take us to Glasgow we found religious services going on in the cabin, we went down and heard a very good discourse from a Missionary of the Kirk of Scotland.
The vessel belongs to Glasgow and a missionary is employed by the company who goes on alternate trips to Liverpool and Belfast and holds services for the crew. We strolled a little farther and saw a crowd collected around a street preacher. We heard him make a good prayer but our dinner now had arrived, and we had to leave, and I am now interrupted at ½ past 6 to go to church to hear Mr McIlvaine.137 We found a plainer and smaller congregation than we found this morning, but the trumpet gave no uncertain sound and the Spirit of the Gospel in all its fullness and preciousness sounded here, as in all the pulpits – that I have visited since I have been in this Christian Country. ______
134 Not identified.
135 See “History of Linen in Belfast,” date posted unknown, Copeland Linens, Ltd., date accessed 2/24/09, electronic address:
136 Reverend Thomas Drew, of Christ Church (Church of Ireland), in Belfast. On Sunday 12 July 1857, Dr. Drew conducted a service for about 2000 Protestant Orangemen which was strongly anti-Catholic. During the service, a crowd of Catholics gathered outside the church, but it was dispersed by the police. In the following days, however, there were serious clashes between the Protestants and Catholics in Belfast, and Dr. Drew was held partially responsible. See Janice Holmes, “The role of Open-Air Preaching in the Belfast Riots of 1857,” date posted November 2002, Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, date accessed 2/24/09, electronic address:
137 Reverend William McIlwaine was the rector of St. George’s Church, Belfast. According to Janice Holmes, “McIlwaine was a well-known ‘controversialist’ preacher and anti-Catholic lecturer. His Lenten lectures, in which he attacked various aspects of Catholic theology and practice, had been a regular event for many years.” See Janice Holmes, “The role of Open-Air Preaching,” cited above.
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The Irish Clergy constitute a part of the established Church of England, and are more thoroughly evangelical in their spirit than even the English Church.
Puseyism, as it has existed at Oxford, or as it now exists in some parts of England, has no foothold here.138 But you would imagine that you were hearing the gospel preached in its purity, from the lips of Bishop Meade139 himself, when it sounds from the pulpit of the Irish Episcopal Clergy. As we approach the north of Ireland, the Presbyterian Church predominates, so far as the Protestant part of the church is concerned. Here, in Belfast, it also has the preponderance. There is something however in the present condition of the Presbyterians of Ireland, which places them in a quasi opposition to the destructive operations of the evangelical portion of the Episcopal Church in Ireland, ______and thus the energies of the Protestant church all divided, in their efforts, against a common enemy in the Church of Rome.
One would suppose, that the corruptions of that church were so apparent here, and the destitution so great, that all minor differences among those, who agree in the essentials, would be dissipated. But this is not so, and at present, the Presbyterians here would seem to be willing, that the erroneous views of the Church of Rome should continue in the ascendancy, rather than have them overturned by the Church of England. I hope I do no injury to the Irish Presbyterian Church, by what I say, but the Church of Scotland has recently sent over one of their leading Men to enquire into the State of education here as far as the operations of the national schools were concerned: and although coming here, with strong pre-possessions in their favor from a natural sympathy with ______the Presbyterian Church of Ireland he made a Report after mature consideration, which decidedly coincided with the views of the Episcopalians of Ireland, in opposing grants to those public schools, upon the principle which the Irish Presbyterian Church has accepted and supports, of excluding the Bible and History from the schools.
This will not be very interesting to you, my dear boy, but it will ______be to your dear Mother, and constitutes an important part of my Journal, and therefore I write it to you.
This is Sunday night and I know you all are thinking of me. I am a great many miles departed from you, but what a comfort it is for us to know, that we are all under the guardian care
138 Puseyism. Smith was referring to the High Church Anglican churchman Edward Bouverie Pusey (1800- 1882) who, with John Henry Newman, was a leader of the Oxford Movement. Also known as the Tractarian Movement, it was in part a reaction to the individualism of the late 18th century revolutionary period. The movement attempted to return the Church of England to its pre-Reformation teachings and to establish a union between the Anglican Church and the Church of Rome. See “Edward Bouverie Pusey,” at “Wikipedia.” Also search for “John Henry Newman,” “The Oxford Movement,” and “The Tractarian Movement” at Internet sites. See also Dictionary of National Biography.
139 The Rev. William Meade (1789-1862). American Protestant Episcopal bishop, named third Bishop of Virginia in 1841. Considered a low churchman, he opposed Tractarianism. See “A brief History of the Diocese of Virginia,” date posted unknown, The Episcopal Diocese of Virginia, date accessed 2/24/09, electronic address
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VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives of our Heavenly Father. To His Keeping I commit you all, and pray that His blessings may rest upon and abide with us all forever Your own dear father Francis H Smith Francis H. Smith Jr.
Glasgow Scotland June 29th 1858
My dear little Daughter,140
Dear papa could not forget his little daughter, and little Jim, while his letters have gone to the other Children, and therefore his first letter from Scotland ______must be for her and her little brother, and she must get dear Mother to read it to her, and then carefully lay it aside to help me make my Journal complete when I return.
When I dispatched my letter to Frank from Belfast, our party was just starting in a visit to the great natural curiosity of Ireland, the Giant’s Causeway.141
We left in the cars142 at 6 AM on the 28th, yesterday, and passing through Antrim, Ballymena, Biloghy, Coleraine, reached the terminus of the Rail Road Portrush at the mouth of the Lough Foyle at 9 AM.143 The Foyle river is that on which Derry144 is situated, the birth place
140 Addressed as a fatherly gesture to his five year old daughter Sarah “Sally” Smith and to his one year old son James “Jim” Henderson Smith.
141 The Giant’s Causeway, located on the northeast coast of Ireland, is a mass of approximately 40,000 basalt columns forming stepping stones from land into the sea. The columns are hexagonal, four, five, seven, or eight-sided. For photos, see “Giant’s Causeway,” at “Wikipedia.” For brief article and photos, see “The Giant’s Causeway,” date posted unknown, Northern Ireland Tourist Bureau, date accessed 2/25/09, electronic address
142 Railway train.
143 Smith and his party were headed north, passing through (1) Antrim, in County Antrim; (2) Ballymena, in County Antrim; (3) Biloghy (?); and Coleraine. Portrush is located on a peninsula on the northwest coast of Ireland. Scotland can be seen from this location. The River Foyle (Lough Foyle) separates County Donegal from County Londonderry and County Tyrone and flows into the Atlantic. Search “Wikipedia” and other Internet sites for these locations.
144 Derry (also known as Londonderry) is a walled city on the west bank of the River Foyle. In the 19th century, Derry was an important embarkation point for Irish emigrants sailing for America. See “History of Derry,” date posted unknown, Northern Ireland Tourist Bureau, date accessed 2/25/09, electronic address:
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VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives of our friend Dr Paine.145 We were very anxious to go to Derry in their account, but our time was too limited. At Portrush we hired two cars and rode 7 miles through Bush Mills to the causeway, and there a guide took us to ______all the places of interest.
In passing to the Causeway we came to several objects of striking note. The white rock mountains of white limestone, with 27 natural caverns, worn by the actions of the waves into the most fantastic shapes. The Dunleven Castle, built on a towering rock, and which was an object of assault to the Spanish Armada. But the Causeway is the great object for the observation of the Tourist, and I must confess that my wonder far transcended any thing I had expected. The Causeway is divided into three parts each transcending the other in grandeur, until you reach the Great Causeway.
Giant’s Causeway, Ireland Public domain illustration from Wikipedia.
The rocks forming the causeway are evidently of Iqueous formation,146 for there are places where the molten lava is distinctly visible; and at other places, the [unclear – debris?] seems to have been thrown in the process of chrystalization. The chrystals are of every form from a triangle to a nine sided figure, although there is but one of the triangular ______and only one of the 9 sides. I saw one place where three forms of polygons met in the same place, one Chrystal being of 5 one of 6 and one of 7 sides, and they are formed with so much regularity, that you would almost say they had been set by a measure.
145 Dr. John W. Paine, physician and bookseller in Lexington, where he conducted a private classical school.
146 Aqueous rock formation, made by water.
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The polygons are about 18 or 20 inches in thickness – and the Chrystals are set in vertical columns, or nearly so, of various elevations from 2 feet to 46 feet. In these columns, the chrystals separated by distinct marks of uniform sizes; some oval, some concave, fractures, the depth of the fracture being about 2 feet.
It was grand to walk over these pavements, set as they were in natural mosaic work, and to view the tremendous cliffs above and around us. After carefully examining these works of nature, we ascended the steps, to the top of the causeway, and the views beneath and around were grand beyond ______description. On this lofty eminence, we were overtaken by a tremendous wind, accompanied by a driving rain, but we reached the causeway Hotel without getting wet. There was one sight that touched me deeply, and that was, we saw a number of women, without shoes or stockings, gathering, around the rocks of the causeway, the sea weed, called Kelp, which they sell at Portrush, for the manufacture of Iodine. This laborious life gives them a scanty support, but some are forced from necessity to eat the Kelp itself as their chief way of subsistence.
It was heartrending to see the wretched creatures, with their packs of wet and slimy sea weed on their backs, toiling bare footed through the rocks until they could lay their load out of the reach of the sea surf.
We reached the Hotel at Bush Mills at 1 and [dried?], and again took the rail road at 3 and were in Belfast by 6 P.M. Here we took the Steamer Elk147 at 8 PM for Glasgow and crossing the Sea which ______separated Ireland from Scotland and England. We reached Glasgow at 8 this morning.
I really feel glad, that I am out of the reach of the beggarly creatures whom we found every where in Ireland, and whose wretched conditions appealed so much to sympathies – which in most cases, would be wrongly applied, if relief were extended. A penny now and then would pass from hand to hand, as a child would appeal upon the ground of hunger, or a most desolate woman would solicit aid for herself and her orphan children. Even at the Causeway, you would be beset miles from it by stout men who would come, with their worthless specimens, to sell to you, and which would be really incumbrances in your way, and you could only be relieved, from their solicitations, by the gift of a penny or so.148
147 Probably the steamer Elk of the Maclver & Co. line. Built in 1853, it was among the last of the paddle steamers built to make the run to Glasgow. Search articles on Internet for “The History of Steam Navigation John Kennedy.”
148 The Great Famine in Ireland occurred from 1845 to 1852, killing approximately one million people. Another million of the population emigrated. Smith no doubt saw the residual effects of this calamity. He tended to place much blame for the condition of the Irish people on the Church of Rome, its teachings, and its practices.
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Sketches of Irish Life Illustrated London News, 14 January 1857
We had a delightful passage across the channel, fortunately meeting with the good missionary whom we heard preach Sunday on board ______the Elk. He belongs to the United Presbyterian Church [unclear] instead of the Kirk of Scotland,149 as I wrote to Frank, and we found him a most interesting young man, and gave us much information that we could hardly have met elsewhere.
Today, as soon as we had dressed and had our breakfast, (all of us at the George Hotel) we hired a carriage and took the rounds of the city.
We were at once struck with the active business like aspect of Glasgow, as compared with the dullness of Dublin and Belfast. Glasgow150 is an important City, being the 3d largest in the Kingdom, having now a population of over 400,000.
149 The United Presbyterian Church of Scotland, formed in 1847, was less stringent in its beliefs and teachings than the more conservative Church of Scotland (Kirk of Scotland), from which it had separated. See “United Church of Scotland,” at “Wikipedia.”
150 Glasgow, situated on the River Clyde in mid-western Scotland, was known as “the Second City of the British Empire” in Smith’s time. It was an important port of trade with the Americas and a major center of engineering and shipbuilding. The Church of Scotland had many congregations in the city, but it also contained large numbers of Irish Catholics who had emigrated from Ireland during the Great Famine. See “Glasgow,” at “Wikipedia.”
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Much money was made here many years ago by merchants, engaged in the Tobacco trade, but this was much broken in upon by the war of our revolution. This trade was soon succeeded by Cotton Manufacturies, and it is estimated that ₤4,000,000 worth of cotton goods are manufactured each year. The iron business is also a most important part of the present business of Glasgow.151 ______
The City is situated on the river Clyde. The river is very narrow and was very shallow, but has been deepened to 20 feet. The old part of the city looks very – very old, but in the west end, a beautiful park has been recently laid out, called Kelvin park,152 and around this, the Merchant princes of G have guilt spacious and most tasty houses.
The chief objects of interest here to a stranger are the Glasgow Cathedral153 – the University of G154 and the old [unclear] church the scene of the faithful labors of the great and good Dr Chalmers.155
151 Smith was correct about the fall of the tobacco trade and the rise of the weaving industry in Glasgow. The American Civil War cut off supplies of cotton to Scotland, however, and weaving was then replaced with heavy industry. See “Weaving and the Textile Industry,” from “The Imperial Gazeteer of Scotland, Fullerton & Co., c.1865,” date posted unknown, Origins.net, date accessed 2/25/09, electronic address:
152 Kelvingrove Park was created in 1852 by Sir Joseph Paxton, architect of the Crystal Palace of the Great Exhibition of 1851, in Hyde Park, London. See “Kelvingrove Park,” at “Wikipedia.”
153 Glasgow Cathedral, also known as the High Kirk of Glasgow, was originally a Catholic Cathedral. At the time of Smith’s visit, it was the home of a Church of Scotland congregation. The Cathedral is believed to be the burial spot of St. Mungo, Glasgow’s founder and patron saint. The minister in 1857 was Duncan Macfarlan, in his last year in that post. For photos, see “Glasgow Cathedral,” date posted unknown, FreeFoto.com, date accessed 2/25/09, electronic address:
154 The University of Glasgow was founded in 1451. It began in the chapterhouse of Glasgow Cathedral, and later was moved to another location in the city. The university buildings were celebrated as some of the finest Renaissance buildings in Scotland. These buildings, which Smith visited, were demolished in 1871 and the university was rebuilt in its present location. See “Glasgow University,” at “Wikipedia.”
155 Thomas Chalmers (1780-1847). Mathematician, evangelical preacher, and head of the Free Church of Scotland. In 1815, he became minister of Tron Church, Glasgow. See “Thomas Chalmers,” at “Wikipedia,” and in Dictionary of National Biography.
Background on church history of Scotland in the nineteenth century: At the start of the nineteenth century, the established Church of Scotland (the Kirk) was dominant, but there were a number of Presbyterian seceding groups, Congregationalists, Episcopalians, Catholics, Methodists, Baptists, and Quakers. The established church was divided between Moderates, who were religiously conservative and whose theology was mainly orthodox Calvinist, and Evangelicals, characterized by their religious fervor and emphasis on conversion and spiritual transformation of the individual. Thomas Chalmers was converted to Evangelicalism in 1811, and he became a model for Evangelical preachers from the 1810s to the 1830s and a leader of the Church of Scotland. Under his leadership, Sunday schools, missionary societies, and Bible societies flourished.
According to T. C. Smout, “[Chalmers] stressed the correctness of the laws of political economy, the futility of trade unionism and democracy, the divine origins of a hierarchy where rich and poor had their obligations and their place, and the prime responsibility of the individual for his own material well-being and spiritual health. At times he came close to saying that all the sufferings of the clotted slums were due to the moral failings of their inhabitants, a belief that remained ingrained in the Scottish middle-class mind
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We spent some time at the Cathedral. It was built by the Papists, some 900 years ago, and is a most magnificent work of art.
Trinity Church New York passes into insignificance by the side of it. Here was the scene of the struggles of John Knox156 in the great work of the Reformation, and when Protestantism was established, the altars and images were destroyed ______and the Cathedral translated into a Protestant house of worship for which it is now used by the established Kirk of Scotland.
Immediately in view of it is the Necropolis157 or burial place of the city in which a stately pillar is erected in honor of the great reformer John Knox, a colossal statue of Knox caps the column.
The University is a very old and dingy looking building – but is a most distinguished institution of learning, and numbers among its elèves many of the most distinguished names of Scotland.
It happened to be vacation, so we did not see any of the exercises.
The Free Church party, whose zeal in defense of their principles (namely of insisting upon a share of Government patronage, but denying to the Crown, the right of presentation) has won the admiration of Christendom, are here erecting a fine College158 to be conducted by their own tenets. Immediately opposite to it is the church159 of the most popular preacher of the Kirk, Mr. Caird until the twentieth century.” See T. C. Smout, A Century of the Scottish People, 1830-1950 (New Haven: Yale U. press, 1986), 186-188. Frances Smith embraced these ideas and expressed many of them in his letters.
The late 1830s led to the Disruption of 1843. This was a conflict over who would appoint ministers, the congregation or the patron (landlords) and the state. In 1843, Chalmers and the majority of ministers of the Church of Scotland seceded and formed a new church, the Free Church of Scotland, which built its own churches and schools, and financed its own ministers.
For a summary of the church history of Scotland in the nineteenth century, see Smout, Century of the Scottish People, 181-195.
156 John Knox (1510-1572). A leader of the Protestant Reformation in Scotland and founder of Presbyterianism. See “John Knox,” at “Wikipedia,” and in Dictionary of National Biography.
157 The Glasgow Necropolis and statue of John Knox. Knox is not buried there but in Edinburgh, where he did most of his work in Scotland. For information on the necropolis and the statue, see “The John Knox Statue,” date posted unknown, The Friends of Glasgow Necropolis, date accessed 2/27/09, electronic address:
158 Trinity College, Glasgow, was built in 1857 as the Glasgow Free Church College by the Free Church of Scotland to train its ministers. It was created in 1856 in the wake of the schism in the Church of Scotland. See “Trinity College, Glasgow, Corporate Biography,” date posted unknown, GASHE, Gateway to Archives of Scottish Higher Education, date accessed 2/27/09, electronic address:
159 Park Parish Church. This church was built in 1858, the year of Smith’s visit. The main part of the church was demolished in 1968. Only the tower and spire remain today.
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______the author of the Sermon, “Religion in common Life” preached before the Queen when she visited Scotland.160
When we reached the old [unclear] Church I could not resist my desire to get down and go in, and although it presents nothing worthy of notice to the curious tourist, it was the scene of the early labors of one whose character I have always so much respected and I walked through it, and up the pulpit steps, and thought to myself here the eloquent lips of Chalmers have uttered with boldness the mighty truth as it is in Jesus.
After a ride through the main thoroughfares of the Trongate and Argyle Streets, we returned to our Hotel. I send you enclosed, for the Scrap book some views of the places which I have visited. You will be interested in looking at them, as I have been describing them, and although I have some that will be more valuable to Keep, these cannot be transmitted so well by ______mail, nor be as fresh to you as to have them as you read.
We sent this afternoon our trunks in advance of us to Edinburgh.
We propose in the next three days to take a trip161 to the Island of Iona162 and Staffa, to visit Fingal’s Cave163 and the ruin of Icolumbkill,164 then to pass along by Loch Lomond,165
160 John Caird (1820-1898). Preacher and Principal of Glasgow University. After working as an engineer, he entered the ministry in 1845. He became a popular preacher and a leader of the broad church movement in the revival of the Church of Scotland. According to an article in the Gifford Lectures, “In October 1855 Caird preached before Queen Victoria. Drawing on Romans 12:11, he emphasized the necessity of allowing the spiritual side of the life of faith to permeate all the practices of one’s ordinary life in the world. The Queen was deeply moved and soon after commanded the sermon be published. Entitled ‘Religion in Common Life,’ the sermon received a great deal of popular attention in England as well as Scotland and went on to be republished in several editions. On 7 December 1857 the Queen appointed Caird one of Her Majesty’s chaplains for Scotland. His reputation as a preacher continued to grow, and he left his rural parish to return to urban ministry at Park Church, Glasgow, where he preached his first sermon on the last Sunday of 1857.” See “Author, John Caird,” date posted unknown, Gifford Lectures, date accessed 2/27/09, electronic address:
161 According to Murray’s 1875 guide to Scotland, the travel time on a steamer for a visit to the islands of Iona and Staffa in the mid-nineteenth century was twelve hours, including one hour on Iona and one hour on Staffa. See Handbook for Travellers in Scotland (London: John Murray, 1875; book digitized by Internet Archive), 229-230, electronic address:
162 Iona (also known as Icolumbkill or Icolmkill) is a small island in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland famous for its association with Saint Columba, an Irish monk, who settled there in 563. He founded a monastery there (Iona Abbey or Icolumbkill) and spread Christianity to Scotland and northern England. The monastery, an early seat of learning, was destroyed by Vikings in the late 8th century. For article and map, see “Iona,” at “Wikipedia.” For a virtual tour of the Island of Iona see “Iona,” date posted unknown, Iona Community Council, date accessed 3/2/09, electronic address:
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Inverness166 and Stirling Castle167 to Edinborough, reaching the last named place on Saturday the 3d July.
As we are getting anxious to hear from our dear friends in America, I have written to Peabody etc. to forward our letters to Edinborough so that on the 4th July, we shall hope not only to remember our Country but our home of homes – by reading tidings from those we love so dearly. Say to Mr Catlett, I send him a Glasgow paper to day, which may interest him and the Colonel.
The good missionary on the Steamer gave me some insight into the present condition of the P Church of Ireland of which I wrote in my last. He says in consequence of the loyalty ______of the Presbyterians in the north of Ireland, King William gave them a “regium donum” (a royal gift) of ₤12,00 a year. This sum has been increased from time to time until it is now ₤12,000, and the Irish Clergy are so poor, they cannot do without it, and this fact helps to Keep them in a sort of dependence which interferes with their honest opinions.
I would add with reference to Ireland that what struck me most of all was the happy, smiling, and ruddy faces of the little children.
Amid all the squalid misery around them, the goodness of God seemed to provide for them, by enabling them to enjoy life, such as it was to them, without realizing how little they had – Could my dear little Children realize by contrast how many blessings they enjoy – which are denied to these Irish children they would never be unthankful again. The crumbs that fall from their parents table would be gladly ______received by these, and Bob168 is daily enjoying comforts of which thousands of the men and women of Ireland know nothing.
163 Staffa is a small island in the Inner Hebrides. The Vikings named the island Staffa, which in Old Norse meant “stave” or “pillar,” because of the columnar basalt cliff formations found there. It is the location of the sea cavern known as Fingal’s Cave. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert visited this spot in 1847. For article and photos, see “Staffa,” at “Wikipedia.” Murray states: “The island is penetrated by several caverns, but the most famous of these, and usually the only one visited, is FINGAL’S CAVE. When the weather permits, visitors are landed from the steamers in boats, and walking over the pavement formed by the tops of broken pillars, can penetrate the cave and climb the slippery platforms by means of stairs, ladders, and ropes, which have been erected. Still better, when the sea is calm the tourist can proceed to the end of the cave in a row-boat, peer down into the deep clear water below, alive with medusae, and polyps, and watch the shimmer of the sunshine reflected from the waves upon the high roof. In storms there is risk of boats being dashed by the surf against the sharp edges of the rocks.” See Murray, Handbook, 239.
164 The ruins of the monastery on the Island of Iona.
165 Loch Lomond is the largest lake in Great Britain. It is located in the area between the Lowlands and the Highlands of Scotland. For photos, see “Loch Lomond, at “Wikipedia.”
166 Inverness Castle is located on the River Ness in the city of Inverness in northern Scotland. It was built in 1836 on the site of an earlier structure. See “Inverness Castle,” at “Wikipedia.”
167 Stirling Castle, located in Stirling, is one of the most important and most historical castles in Scotland. Mary, Queen of Scots, was crowned here in 1543. See “Stirling Castle,” at “Wikipedia.” See also Eric Stair-Kerr, Stirling Castle: Its Place in Scottish History (Stirling: Eneas Mackay, 1928, 2nd ed.), passim.
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He would think it very hard to work 14 hours bare footed and with only a dry meal, without meat, and a dirt – or stone floor to a miserable mud hut covered with thatches and warmed with peat – straw beds, and one blanket. Such things are to be seen South, North, East, and west in Ireland.
Glasgow exhibits, as all large cities do, much of vice, mixed up with the good. Here the extremes of society meet and wickedness stalks with a bold front. The police is necessarily very strong, and is managed with admirable skill. Indeed it is a species of military surveillance.
The Tron church is in the midst of the worst population of Glasgow, along Trongate Street – and humanity shirks at the open exhibition of wickedness presented there.
Our Hotel is on Glasgow’s square. In the center of the square is a column ______erected in honor of Sir W Scott a statue of the great poet and novelist capping the column.169
In the same square are statues to James Watt,170 who first applied steam, as a motive power, and another, to Sir John Moore,171 who was born in Glasgow, -- Equestrian statues are to be seen in various parts of the City, to William III, Duke of Wellington, and Queen Victoria, and a column in the public green to Lord Nelson.
Our first letter from Liverpool will probably reach you on the 4 or 6 of July, as the Steamer sailed on the Wednesday after we arrived. No doubt you will hear however by the Arabia which passed us as we entered the Mersey that we had arrived safely.
We have all been blessed with good health, and none of us suffer from homesickness. To be sure we long to see those we loved, and dreams by day and by night flit across ______us, in anticipation of a re-union with those at home. May God bless you all, and once more restore us to each other in health and safety is the daily prayer of your dear father
Francis H. Smith
168 Bob was one of Smith’s slaves. In the years before the Civil War, American tourists to England, and especially those from the South, often received embarrassing questions about slavery. The reply that most Americans had to these questions was that slaves in America, on the whole, lived under better conditions and were better cared for than the working classes in England, and especially the poor of Ireland. This is the only indirect reference that Smith makes to slavery in his letters, and it is assumed that he either did not encounter such questions or chose not to mention them to his family. See Lockwood. Passionate Pilgrims, 208-226.
169 The large stone statue of Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832), erected in 1837, stands in the center of George Square, Glasgow, named for King George III. The statue stands on top of a fluted Doric column. It was the first monument to Sir. Walter Scott. See “Community Walk: Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832), date posted unknown, Community Walk – Active Arts Trails, date accessed 3/3/09, electronic address:
170 James Watt (1736-1819). Scottish inventor and mechanical engineer whose improvements to the early steam engine gave it widespread use. See Dictionary of National Biography.
171 Sir John Moore (1761-1809). Glasgow-born lieutenant-general renown for his heroic death in the Peninsula War during the Napoleonic Wars. See Dictionary of National Biography.
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Miss Sally Smith Master Jas Henderson Smith Lexington Va
Edinburgh Scotland172 Sunday July 4th 1858
My dear Wife,
You may be sure our Journey towards Edinburgh was cheered with the pleasing anticipation of meeting letters from home.
Our trunks had been forwarded from Glasgow, and our first inquiry in reaching our Hotel was for letters. How much then did I prize your dear epistle, no one can estimate until he is separated, as I am, in a foreign land from a beloved wife and home.
I most greedily devoured every line and although the date was to the 11 June still it was many days later than I had heard from you, and I thanked God, that with all the discomforts of Chicken pox to the children and – sore throat to your self, so much mercy and so much comfort abounds and as I read this morning our appropriate Psalm the 34th I was again struck with the singular appropriateness of our selected portion of Scripture.
I had another evidence of your Kind consideration in your allusion to poor Willie [Govan?] At the time of your writing, he had passed away. I knew your reason for not communicating the sad intelligence but D. M had a letter from his wife by the same mail, and she gave him the tidings.
It was a great shock to me and disturbed my rest last night but may the mercy of God who doeth all things well, sanctify this heavy ______affliction to his poor widowed Mother. You will not have thought hard of me my dearest Sarah, that my last letters have been directed to our dear children, I felt that they would be gratified by this remembrance, and I hope before this reached you, they will have received my several letters, addressed to Fanny, Tom, Virginia, Frank and a joint one, (no. 15) I think to Sallie and the dear little babe.
Journalizing, as nearly as I may, by letter the incidents of my tour, I have felt that this was the best mode of keeping my notes, which I may fill up at my leisure when I return. The sketches that I enclose are better than any description I could give, and save much, at all events, in a letter by way of description when I more profitably use the time and space otherwise.
172 According to Murray, “Edinburgh… contains a population of 208,353, and has been, since the days of James IV., the capital of Scotland. No one will deny to Edinburgh the praise of extreme natural beauty of situation. In this she is surpassed, perhaps, by only two other cities in Europe. The grandeur of the black rocky pedestal on which the Castle stands, the majestic bulk and picturesque outline of Arthur’s Seat and Salisbury Crags, and other hills which overlook it on the S., and the lovely blue of the Firth of Forth, backed by the hills of Fife, are features of romantic beauty hardly to be surpassed. Its appellation of ‘the Modern Athens’ is not merely a general comparison.” See Murray, Handbook, 44-45.
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My last letter was written from Glasgow, just as we were on the eve of a trip to the Highlands and Lakes of Scotland.
We left Glasgow on ______
Wednesday morning, by railroad, for the foot of Loch Lomond,173 to a village called Kallork [Balloch],174 passing through Dumbarton, and in full view of its Castle. At Kallork [Balloch], we took a small Steamer, and had a most pleasant sail, up the Loch to Tarbet,175 which we reached in about two hours. This is one of the most picturesque of all the Lochs of Scotland, and is the theme of many of Sir Walter Scott’s most tender passages in his poems. Ben Lomond176 is one of the loftiest of the mountains which hover over this lovely lake, and as we wound around the curves of the banks, each new view presented new occasions for admiration.
In Rob Roy,177 Sir Walter Scott gives a striking description of this lake, for here were laid the scenes of this novel, and localities are now pointed out to the traveler, corresponding to Rob Roy’s cave and the prison, at which he let down his ______prisoners by a rope and kept them suspended, while he made advantageous terms with them. The views which I enclose give but an imperfect idea of the combined loveliness and grandeur of this scenery.
At Tarbet we took a post chaise, and passed over to Loch Long, passing by Arrochar178, one and a half miles from Tarbet and reached Inverary by 3 P.M,179 then posting to Taynuilt,180
173 Loch Lomond is the largest lake in Great Britain. It is located in the area between the Lowlands and the Highlands of Scotland. For photos, see “Loch Lomond,” at “Wikipedia.”
174 “Kallork” is clearly written twice in the letterbook, but Smith most likely meant “Balloch.” Balloch is located at the south end of Loch Lomond, on the River Leven, which flows from Loch Lomond to the River Clyde at Dumbarton. In 1850, the railroad reached Balloch, and during the 19th century steamers operated from there on the loch. See “Balloch,” date posted unknown, Feature Page on Undiscovered Scotland, date accessed 3/4/09, electronic address:
175 Tarbet is located on the west shore of Loch Lomond. See “Tarbet,” date posted unknown, Feature Page on Undiscovered Scotland, date accessed 3/4/09, electronic address:
176 Ben Lomond (“Beacon Peak”), elevation 3,196 ft., lies east of Loch Lomond. For photos, see “Ben Lomond,” date posted unknown, Feature Page on Undiscovered Scotland, date accessed 3/4/09, electronic address:
177 Rob Roy (1817), novel by Sir Walter Scott.
178 Arrochar is a short distance (Smith says a mile and a half) south west of Tarbet, on the west bank of the northern end of Loch Long.
179 To reach Inveraray, Smith probably crossed Loch Fynne, but he doesn’t mention it.
180 Taynuilt, a small town on the road from Dalmally, to Oban, along the Pass of Brander, at the base of Ben Cruachan.
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VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives crossing Loch Awe by a ferryboat, we reached Oban181 at 11 P.M. a late hour with you, but only a short time after dusk here.
This ride, by post, gave us a most full view of the varieties of the Mountain and lake scenery, and now and then the prospect was heightened in interest to us, as the castellated turrets of an old Castle would break up before us.
I never saw a more lovely view than that presented when Inverary first broke upon us, ______with the striking prospect of Inverary Castle, the seat of the Duke of Argyle.182
These lakes are very deep and they abound in Salmon of the finest quality. You may imagine our wonder & delight; on getting on board of the Boat at Loch Lomond, to meet Mr Lucian Davis183 of Charlottesville. We parted, however at Tarbet, expecting to meet here again last evening, which we did. We slept soundly enough at Oban, and by an early hour were aroused for our trip to the isles of Staffa and Iona by Steamer.
Leaving Oban ab[out] 7. we sailed down the Bay of Oban,184 and into the Sound of Mull and passing around the northern part of the Isle of Mull, we reached Staffa at 12.
Here we were landed in a small boat, and our first visit was to the great national wonder, Fingal’s Cave.185
181 The town of Oban is on the western coast of Scotland, on the Bay of Oban. This bay opens to the Firth of Lorn. Across the Firth, to the west, is the Isle of Mull.
182 Inveraray Castle was constructed between 1746 and 1789 for John Campbell, 5th Duke of Argyll. For photos and article see “Inveraray Castle,” at “Wikipedia.”
183 Not identified.
184 Smith’s party steamed out of the Bay of Oban into the Firth of Lorn. They then steamed directly across the Firth of Lorn, entered the Sound of Mull, steamed in a northwesterly direction up the Sound of Mull, rounded the northern part of the Isle of Mull, and then steamed south to the Isle of Staffa. From there they sailed south to the Isle of Iona (one mile off the coast of the Isle of Mull), and then around the Ross of Mull and back to Oban. The entire trip covered approximately 105 miles.
185 Fingal’s Cave is a sea cavern. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert visited this spot in 1847. For article and photos, see “Staffa,” at “Wikipedia.” Murray states: “The island is penetrated by several caverns, but the most famous of these, and usually the only one visited, is FINGAL’S CAVE. When the weather permits, visitors are landed from the steamers in boats, and walking over the pavement formed by the tops of broken pillars, can penetrate the cave and climb the slippery platforms by means of stairs, ladders, and ropes, which have been erected. Still better, when the sea is calm the tourist can proceed to the end of the cave in a row-boat, peer down into the deep clear water below, alive with medusae, and polyps, and watch the shimmer of the sunshine reflected from the waves upon the high roof. In storms there is risk of boats being dashed by the surf against the sharp edges of the rocks.” See Murray, Handbook, 239.
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Fingal’s Cave, Ireland. Public domain illustration from Wikipedia ______
I had read descriptions of it before, and had often seen pictures of it, but nothing can exceed the grandeur of it. It is 227 deep, 42 feet wide at its entrance and from 44 to 50 feet high. The sides are composed of the same form of basaltic columns which we found at the Giant’s Causeway, arched by a dome that formed of the whole a massive Cathedral; we all felt as we contemplated the Scene, with the surging billows of the ocean dashing against the base, that we could sing with true devotion the Te Deum.
We walked into the Cave some 150 feet on the basaltic pavement, supported by ropes carefully fastened to the sides of the cave.
After a complete view of the great work of nature, we climbed to the top of the island by ladders, and had distant views of two or three other caves, each of which ______such as the “boat”, and “Clam Shell” caves, would be a wonder in itself, but for the surpassing grandeur of that of Fingal.
There can be no doubt that this Island forms a part of the Chain which connects by links of Islands the coast of Scotland with the Giant’s Causeway, in Ireland, and if you will take up the atlas you will see the string of islands passing over the Ruthven’s Island, which lies immediately opposite to the Giant’s Causeway.
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We spent an hour at Staffa186 and seven more miles of Steaming brought us to Iona.187 This Isle is interesting to the Christian as being the first spot on which Christianity was introduced into Scotland some time in the 6th Century, by St. Columba. Here there are remains of a church and Cathedral.188 The Chapel of the Nunnery189 is the first place of interest we come to. ______
The style of the building is Norman, and it therefore must have been built beyond the 12th century.
There is here an effigy of the first Prioress Anna, bearing date 1543.190 St [Alan’s] Chapel is also Norman. Here is found the writing of the Abbot MacKinnon,191 which bears this in cipher “Haec in curx Laughlin Mac Fingon et ejus filii Johannis Abbotis de Hey, facta anno domini 1849”. Hey or Hic are names for Iona, which is also called Icolmkill. In the center of the burial ground of this Chapel are the sculptured tombs marking the most ancient of Scottish Christian burial places, and supposed to contain the remains of the old Kings of Ireland, Scotland and Norway. We next came to the Cathedral of St Mary’s Church, which is traced to the earliest part of the 13th Century. This is a very striking work of art, now fast crumbling into ruins, but which the liberality of the proprietor, the Duke of Argyle is ______endeavoring to preserve by timely repairs. A spot is pointed out by the guide at which St. Columba was buried, but the fact is rather a myth.
Iona is about three (3) miles in length, and one (1) breadth, and contains about four (400) hundred inhabitants. Staffa is a smaller island, being only one (1) mile in circumference, and has no human being upon it. Some cattle are put to graze upon its apex. The people here speaking the Gaelic tongue, and the little children scarcely understand you when addressing them in
186 Staffa is a small island in the Inner Hebrides. The Vikings named the island Staffa, which in Old Norse meant “stave” or “pillar,” because of the columnar basalt cliff formations found there. It is the location of the sea cavern known as Fingal’s Cave.
187 Iona (also known as Icolumbkill or Icolmkill) is a small island in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland famous for its association with Saint Columba, an Irish monk, who settled there in 563. He founded a monastery there (Iona Abbey or Icolumbkill) and spread Christianity to Scotland and northern England. The monastery, an early seat of learning, was destroyed by Vikings in the late 8th century. For article and map, see “Iona,” at “Wikipedia.” For a virtual tour of the Island of Iona see “Iona,” date posted unknown, Iona Community Council, date accessed 3/2/09, electronic address:
188 For a panoramic tour of the abbey, go to
189 For a panoramic tour of the nunnery, go to
190 For a drawing of the stone carving of Prioress Anna of Iona and other stone carvings, see “Ancient Stone Carvings of Iona,” date posted, 2004, David James, date accessed 3/7/09, electronic address
191 Abbot John MacKinnon (1467-1498) was the Benedictine Abbot of Iona Abbey. The Benedictine community was founded there in 1203. See “Abbot of Iona (Benedictine),” at “Wikipedia.”
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English, although they speak in a broken tongue. There are Presbyterian churches in Iona, one of the established and the other of the free church.
We considered our day well spent, reaching Oban at 7 P.M. although we had as rough a time as when we crossed the Atlantic. Frank was very sick, I was not. We did not tarry at Oban, but posted at once to Taynuilt,192 on our return ______to the Lake,193 as we desired to return by the northern route, so as to visit Loch Katrine,194 the scene of Scott’s Lady of the Lake. We reached Taynuilt at 11. had a delightful cup of tea, and a nice rest and by 9 we were on our way for the head of Loch [Lenox?], passing by Dalmally195 and striking L. Lomond at Inveruglas. Here we took Steamer and crossed over to Inversnaid, where we dined and then walked 5 miles to Loch Katrine. Here we took another steamer passing down the Loch through the lovely retreat of Ellen Douglas’s Isle, through the Trossachs, to the Trossach Inn,196 where we rested for the night. With the Lady of the lake in our hands, we were pointed to the spot where James Fitz James lost his horse, when Ellen’s Shallop touched the shore, the Douglas Cottage etc. and truly a more lovely spot could scarcely be found.
On Saturday morning we took the coach for Stirling, by way of Callander,197 meeting ______the railroad at the latter place, we tarried four hours at Stirling that we might visit the big Cathedral, the palace of Mary Queen of Scots,198 the Scene of the murder of the Earl of Douglas199 and the place so long the place of contest between the Scotch and English, and between the highlanders and lowlanders.
192 Taynuilt, a small town on the road from Oban to Dalmally, along the Pass of Brander, at the base of Ben Cruachan. It was the site of the Bonawe Iron Works (1753-1876). For article and photos, see “Taynuilt,” date posted unknown, Undiscovered Scotland, date accessed 3/10/09, electronic address
193 Probably Lake Lomond.
194 The northern end of Loch Kathrine is approximately five miles from the northern end of Loch Lomond.
195 For article and photos, see “Dalmally,” date posted unknown, Undiscovered Scotland, date accessed 3/10/09, electronic address:
196 The Trossachs is an area west of Loch Katrine that is filled with wooded glens and lochs. Sir Walter Scott brought attention to the area in his 1810 poem Lady of the Lake and his 1817 novel Rob Roy. The Trossachs Hotel was well known. Murray in his guidebook writes: “Trossachs Hotel (very good), facing Loch Archray. It is a large chateau-like building, with pinnacled turrets, about 1 ½ m. from Loch Katrine and the steamboat pier. It was erected by Lord Willoughby d’Eresby…. It is a pleasant walk through the wood from the hotel to the lake.” See Murray, Handbook, 179. For article and photos, see “Trossachs” webpages, at “Wikipedia.
197 Callander is approximately ten miles west of The Trassachs, on the northern road to Stirling.
198 Mary Queen of Scots was crowned at Stirling Castle in 1543.
199 James Douglas, 9th Earl of Douglas (1425-1491). Douglas led a rebellion against Scottish King James II in 1452, but was defeated. He led a second rebellion and was defeated in 1455, but escaped. He was captured in 1485 at the battle of Lochmaben Fair and was kept in a kind of house arrest until his death in 1491. See “James Douglas, 9th Earl of Douglas,” at “Wikipedia,” and in Dictionary of National Biography.
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There is a garrison of some five (500) hundred soldiers here, some whom were dressed in full highland costume. The old chapel Royal is still standing and is used for a depot of arms, we saw in it the old communion table of John Knox,200 the Reformer and the old pulpit from which he used to preach, and in this room is the bedstead used by Queen Mary.201 We saw also some interesting articles taken by the English Army at Sebastopol and in India.
After visiting the Castle we went to the old Greyfriar’s202 ______
Church, built by King James [unclear] in 1498.
Here James VI of Scotland afterwards James 1st of the United Kingdoms was crowned, 29th July 1597, and John Knox preached the Coronation Sermon.203 The utilitarian spirit of the Scotch has divided the immense church into separate churches, with an aisle between the two, and here worshiped two congregations of the established Kirk.
We dined at 4, and at 5 we were on our way to Edinburgh, passing through places of great Historical interest, such as Bannockburn, the scene of the great battle between Robb Bruce and the English,204 and Linlithgow, where is the palace in which Queen Mary was born, and King James V died,205 and we reached Edinburgh at 8 P.M. where we found our baggage awaiting us – our rooms ready to receive us, and your two letters, one ______written to New York, but forwarded by brother Marsden, after 5 days of most delightful touring through the most interesting part of Scotland, the Grampian Hills, and its lovely lakes and thankful to the Father of all our mercies for the protecting care which he has extended us.
200 John Knox (1510-1572). Scottish clergyman, reformer of the Scottish church and leader of the Protestant Reformation in Scotland. He is considered the founder of Presbyterianism. For article and portraits, see “John Knox,” at “Wikipedia,” and in Dictionary of National Biography.
201 The Chapel Royal, at Stirling Castle, in which the infant Mary Queen of Scots was crowned on 9 September 1543. For article and photos, see
202 The church that Smith called the old Greyfriar’s Church, was the parish church of Stirling, near Stirling Castle. Here Mary Queen of Scots worshipped and John Knox preached. In 1656, the church was divided in two by a wall to separate rival ministers. For a history of Stirling, see “Stirling, castle, church and Pyramid,” from Stirling Castle, the Official Souvenir Guide, Historic Scotland, date posted 8/08, Ancient Egypt Website, date accessed 3/10/09, electronic address:
203 When Mary Queen of Scots abdicated and was imprisoned, Knox preached James VI’s coronation sermon at the church in Stirling. In the following years, he often attacked Mary in his sermons. See “John Knox,” at “Wikipedia,” and in Dictionary of National Biography.
204 Battle of Bannockburn. Battle in which Robert the Bruce defeated English forces under King Edward II, on 24 June 1314. See “Bannockburn,” date posted unknown, Undiscovered Scotland, date accessed 3/10/09, electronic address: 205 Linlithgow Palace. The birthplace of Mary Queen of Scots in 1542, the year her father, James V of Scotland, was defeated by the English at the Battle of Solway Moss. He died six days after the birth of his daughter, and Mary was taken to Stirling Castle where she was crowned. See “Linlithgow Palace,” date posted unknown, Undiscovered Scotland, date accessed 3/10/09, electronic address: Francis H. Smith in Europe, 1858. Letterbook #1 Page 57 VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives My impression of Ireland on leaving it was that it was the land of beggars. That of Scotland so far as I have gone is, that it is the land of robbers; Scott in his introduction to the Lady of the Lake, hints at this, when he refers to a popular idea, that whereas the highlander formerly went down to the lowlands to foray upon the Saxon, the Saxon now comes to the mountains to be forayed upon. The post boys and inn keepers, the waiters and everybody will cheat you, if they can, ______ so that despite the pride with which you boast your Scotch descent, my verdict must remain the same. The boys had a hearty laugh upon Dr M. and myself: we both were in want of a little hot whiskey punch in Glasgow and ordered one to be sent to our rooms. The next day, the bill which had the item entered as 1 shilling was carried out 10 shillings and we actually paid 10 shillings, thus paying $2.50 instead of 25 Cents. The boys said it was a pretty thing that the Doctor and myself should have dispatched 10 shillings worth of whiskey punch at bedtime! The people are a fine looking class of men, stout and healthy. The women are much handsomer than those we saw in Liverpool or Ireland, but not quite up to our American ladies either. The poorer classes live in ______miserable hovels, the women as a general thing doing the drudgery of the field. In Ireland to see a poor woman with shoes and stockings was an exception. Here while we saw many without these, this was an exception. To day I have been twice to Church, both times before dinner, as in Scotland the first service begins at 11 ¼ and the second at 1 ¼. As I wished to know something of the Scotch Church, I went to the 1st service to hear Dr Candlish206 of the Free Church, and the Dr Lee207 of the Established Kirk. I was very much interested with Dr C. His manner is peculiar, from a nervous irritability of muscles, which seems to proceed from constitutional infirmity; He preached a truly gospel sermon, although ______very decidedly Calvinistic. Dr. C and Dr. L. both wore gowns and [bands?]. I thought Dr C. much the abler divine, and I was sorry, after I had heard Dr L’s that I did not go to Dr C’s Church to hear the conclusion of his morning sermon. 206 Not identified 207 Dr. Robert Lee (1804-1868). Church of Scotland clergyman, appointed minister of the Old Greyfriars, Edinburgh, professor of Biblical criticism in Edinburgh University, and dean of the Royal Chapel. He opposed disestablishment of the Church of Scotland and was against the growing influence of Catholic tradition in the Church of England and the Church of Scotland. When Francis Smith visited Edinburgh, the Old Grayfriars had been destroyed by fire and had been replaced by a new church in 1857. See “Church of Scotland,” from “Classical Encyclopedia, based on the 11th edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica,” date posted unknown, Love to Know, date accessed 3/10/09, electronic address: Francis H. Smith in Europe, 1858. Letterbook #1 Page 58 VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives Dr L preached on the 1st petition of the Lords prayer, and spoke with great decision of the fact that this was designed to be used as a form of prayer: and his concluding prayer being a selection of Collects, not from our prayer book, but a very appropriate selection. In the free church, they stand in prayer, and have a precentor to raise the tunes. In the other church they bend over the front bench in prayer, and have a Choir. But in both they preach the Gospel of the saving grace of our Lord Jesus Christ! And my heart responded Amen to the exercises in which they ______were engaged. I have much before me in anticipation of my examination of Edinburgh and its vicinity. Our Hotel “The Alma” is on Princes Street, immediately in front of the Castle of Edinburgh208 and with Scott’s monument209 on our left. It is the great thoroughfare for the elite of the City. After examining the City, we contemplate a visit to Melrose Abbey, Abbotsford & Hawthorn etc. and then slowly moving our way to London. Monday July 5th. I do not forget that this is the anniversary of our National Independence and our Institute. May God bless our Country and the dear young men who go out from the Institute this day. I shall probably write to you again, before I leave Edinburgh. With my affectionate remembrances to all the children and remem- ______brances to our friends. I remain my dear Wife Your ever affectionate Husband Francis H. Smith Mrs Sarah Smith No 17 Edinburgh Scotland July 6th 1858 My Dearest Wife, Although it is probable my letter of the 4th will reach you by the same mail that this does, I write now, that I may give you an account of my visit to this Capitol of North Britain before I turn my face southward. In addition to this I am rather joyously flush of postage stamps, for unwilling to remain under the reproach of drinking 10 Shilllings worth of whiskey in Glasgow, as the boys were charging Dr. M. and myself to have done, in ______ 208 Edinburgh Castle, whose origins date to 600 A.D., sits atop Castle Rock and dominates the city of Edinburgh. For photos, map, and article, see “Edinburgh Castle,” at “Wikipedia.” See also “History of Edinburgh Castle,” date posted unknown, Edinburgh Castle, date accessed 3/11/09, electronic address 209 The monument to Sir Walter Scott is a large Victorian gothic tower, just over 200 feet tall, on Princes Street. It was completed in 1844. For photos and article, see “Scott Monument,” at “Wikipedia.” Francis H. Smith in Europe, 1858. Letterbook #1 Page 59 VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives one night, I wrote to the proprietor of the Hotel and he has very promptly corrected his account by remitting me nine 1 / postage stamps. I accordingly divided with Dr M. and my next letters will bear upon its face not only the fact of my being 5 / better off, but the more important evidence of my being a more sober person than these youngsters would try to make us appear to be. This honesty on the part of the Glasgow Hotel Keeper may be a feather in the cap of the Scotchman and thus far redeem their character from the imputation resting upon it in my last; but to offset this, I have to add this, John Cocke was nigh being cheated out of two (2) pounds by the Union Bank of Scotland, the Clerk handing him ninety (98) eight for one (100) hundred and Mr ______ Davis was charged one guinea $5. for having a tooth extracted. But enough of this. As soon as I had dispatched my letter yesterday morning, four of us took a hack for the day, to take our view of the city and its curiosities. We rode through Canongate210 the great thoroughfare of the City, in which the Tolbooth211 is, and we paused and looked at the house in which John Knox lived.212 The cellar is now used as an ale shop, and I was surprised that the good Church of Scotland does not redeem such a place from such desecration. Passing along we drove on to Holyrood palace213, the residence of former sovereigns of Scotland; and the residence of Queen Victoria, as she passes on her annual visit to her seat in the north of Scotland. 210 Canongate is a fashionable street in Edinburgh. It is named for the Augustinian canons who were located here in their own parish in the 12th century. The area was a separate burgh until absorbed by Edinburgh in 1856. See “Canongate Kirk,” at “Wikipedia,” and Scott-Moncrieff, Edinburgh, passim. 211 Before the present Tolbooth was constructed, sometime in the first half of the nineteenth century, the site was the location of the Old Tolbooth, a prison demolished in 1817. The Tolbooth that Smith saw contained a council chamber and a jail. There was also a church of this name, Tolbooth Kirk or Tolbooth St. John’s, on Canongate Street. See Scott-Moncreiff, Edinburgh, passim. See also “Canongate Tolbooth, Edinburgh,” date posted unknown, Archiseek, date accessed 3/17/09, electronic address: 212 John Knox House. A 15th century house where John Knox (1505-1572), leader of the Scottish Reformation, lived in 1572. He died in this house in that year. See “John Knox House,” date posted unknown, About Britain, date accessed 3/17/09, electronic address: 213 The Palace of Holyroodhouse (Holyrood Palace) is located on the site of the Abbey at Holyrood, a monastery founded in the 12th century. When Smith visited the area, the only visible remains of the medieval abbey was its ruined Abbey Kirk (church), located adjacent to the palace. Holyrood Palace was founded in 1598 by James IV. As Smith points out, the palace was the official residence of the Kings and Queens of Scotland and the residences in Scotland of the British monarchs. For a photo tour of Holyrood Palace, see “Pictures of Holyrood Palace and park,” date posted unknown, Stuck on Scotland Holidays, date accessed 3/17/09, electronic address: Francis H. Smith in Europe, 1858. Letterbook #1 Page 60 VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives Holyrood Palace Public domain illustration from Wikipedia This palace is specially interesting from is associations with much of the story of poor Mary Queen of the Scots.214 Here Rizzio was killed – here Mary plighted her faith to Darnley. We saw 214 In Murray’s 1875 guidebook, an earlier copy of which Smith may have possessed, we find the following: “The Palace of Holyrood was begun by King James IV., and completed by his successor James V.; Sir James Hamilton of Trinity, who had been employed on the Palaces of Linlithgow, Falkland, and Stirling, being the architect. This palace was burned by the English under the Earl of Hertford, 1544, and again by the soldiers of Cromwell, 1650, the only part which escaped being the wings and towers at the N.W. angle, which were occupied by Queen Mary from the time of her return from France, 1561 [after the death of her husband, the Dauphin], and which possess a great but, painful historic interest in consequence. “Queen Mary’s Apartments. – A door on the N. side of the inner court, left as you enter, under the colonnade, leads up to them by a winding staircase. The rooms on the first floor were those of Darnley. They communicated by a private stair, in the thickness of the wall, with those of Queen Mary on the second floor. These consist of an audience-chamber, a bedroom with an old tattered bed, said to be that of the queen, and of two small cabinets within the angle towers. “In the narrow cabinet or boudoir, entered from the bedroom, Mary and a small party were at supper, March 9, 1566, when Darnley and Ruthven, followed by other conspirators, entered for the purpose of seizing Rizzio, an accomplished Italian secretary and skilful musician, who had gained the queen’s confidence and roused the jealousy of the Presbyterian lords and ministers of the kirk. Suspecting their purpose, Rizzio threw himself behind the queen, and caught hold of her dress, but was stabbed by George Douglas, leaning over the queen’s shoulder, while the ruffian Ker of Fawdonside held a pistol at her breast, she being at the time seven months gone with child! Rizzio, having been dragged out into the outer room, was dispatched by fifty-six wounds, and his body thrown down the stairs, with Darnley’s dagger left sticking in it. Some dark stains are still shown on the floor as the marks of his blood. Francis H. Smith in Europe, 1858. Letterbook #1 Page 61 VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives the room in which Rizzio was killed, the fine old stairway by which the Conspirators entered, and the floor is still exhibited as indicating the stains left by the blood which ran from the 56 wounds which he received. Here is the room in which Charles 1st slept, with his bed and bedstead and chair just as he left them & there is Queen Mary’s bedroom, with her bed and bedstead and many of most interesting memorials of the unfortunate Queen. Adjoining the palace is the Abbey215 in which Mary was married and the tomb in which repose the remains of the earlier Kings of Scotland, and where also Darnley was laid. It is rich in the most gaudious tracery, but bears the marks of ruin, from fire, and the outbreak ______of the reformation. It was founded at the commencement of twelfth (12) Century. It was erected by Edward II in 1322, burned by Richard II in 1385, renovated by Abbot Crawford in the 15th Century; again mutilated by the English in their invasion in 1547; and desecrated even to the tombs of the Kings at the outbreak of 1688. I felt as I passed from room to room in this great historical remembrance of the past, that I had visited nothing, that had awakened so deeply my feelings as Holyrood: and the destiny of Queen Mary helped to heighten the feeling with which the spot was viewed. Leaving Holyrood, we drove around the Queen’s drive, a lovely drive around the hill called Arthur’s seat, which had been constructed out of the private purse of Queen Victoria, and this gave us a fine view of Edinburgh and the surrounding ______country, and then we passed through the town again, and went to the Castle of Edinburgh.216 “The present palace was in great part rebuilt in the reign of Charles II., after a design by Sir William Bruce, and was a copy of the Chateau de Chantilly, the residence of the family of Condé. The royal apartments are on the E. side. They have been inhabited by James VII, when duke of York, by Prince Chas. Edw. In 1745 and by the Duke of Cumberland; by Louis XVIII; by Chas. X, of France, both before his elevation to, and after his displacement from the throne. Her present Majesty [Queen Victoria] has occasionally spent a night or two here on her way to Balmoral. It is, however, pretty well deserted by royalty, as expressed by Hamilton of Bangour, who called it ‘a virtuous palace where no monarch dwells.’” See Murray, Handbook, 54-55. 215 Scott-Moncrieff provides the following information about the abbey church: “… it served as parish kirk for the Canongate until in 1688 James VII converted it into a Chapel Royal with an altar once again, and with stalls for his revived Knights of the Thistle. This last glory of the church was destroyed by the mob on the news of the Prince of Orange arriving in London. The witless fanatical hands broke into the Royal vault and smashed the coffins. From them until the early nineteenth century the Abbey church of Holyrood was left a filthy ruin, a monstrous object of neglect. An eighteenth century effort to put on a roof was so cumbrously done that it collapsed, with further damage.” See Scott-Moncreiff, Edinburgh, 14. 216 For extensive article and photographs and drawings of Edinburgh Castle, see “Edinburgh Castle,” at “Wikipedia. In Murray’s 1875 guidebook, we find the following: “The Castle, or Edwin’s burgh, so called from an early king of Northumbria [d. 633], whose dominion extended thus far, was only the occasional residence in time of danger of Scottish royalty before 1100, when Edinburgh became the acknowledged capital of Scotland. Here Malcolm Canmore left Queen Margaret when he and his sons invaded England, and here it was that she received the news of his death, on which she herself fell sick and died soon after. In 1291 it was taken by Edward I., and held by the English 17 years. In 1312 it was retaken by some of Bruce’s followers, who climbed up the western face previously deemed inaccessible. It was dismantled by Bruce, given back to the English by Edward Baliol, and re-fortified in 1337 by Edward III. In 1314 it was recovered by stratagem by Sir William Douglas. In 1572 Kirkcaldy of Grange held the fortress with the greatest difficulty for 33 days, in favour of Mary Francis H. Smith in Europe, 1858. Letterbook #1 Page 62 VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives Edinburgh Castle, Scotland Public domain illustration from Wikipedia Queen of Scots, against Sir William Drury and an English force. The garrison then insisted on a capitulation, in spite of Kirkcaldy, who would have persisted to the last gasp, knowing that death awaited him from his enemies, which was accordingly inflicted immediately they got him into their power. In 1650, after the battle of Dunbar, Cromwell took the place after 12 days siege. He made a feint of blowing up the rock, having brought with him Derbyshire miners for that purpose. The mere threat of these extemporized sappers and miners effected his object. He wrote to the Speaker Lenthall, ‘I need not speak of the strength of the place, which if it had not come in as it did, would have cost very much blood to have attained, if at all to be attained.’ In 1745 it refused to open its gates to the Prince Chas. Edwd. Stuart, who was unable either to reduce or blockade it. “On the parade-ground in front of the Castle, from which a good view of the city is obtained, is a statue of the Duke of York; also a monumental Cross to the officers and men of the 78th Highlanders who fell in the Indian Mutiny. Very little of the original fortifications is still to be seen, though there are some fragments of them on the N. of the rock within Princes-street Gardens, called Wallace’s Tower, a corruption of Wellhouse Tower, there being an old well on this side. “The entrance now is through the outer and inner stockades, across a drawbridge, and through a long vaulted archway called the Portcullis Gate, over which is the old state prison, where the Marquis of Argyle was confined before his execution; whence his son, the Earl of Argyle, escaped in the disguise of a page, and to which he was brought back after his unsuccessful invasion of the W. coast. “Right – Argyle Battery. Beyond this are the Armoury and officers’ quarters. Winding round the summit, the road leads through an inner gate to the top, upon which stands Mons Meg, a gigantic piece of artillery of long iron bars hooped together, said to have been made at Mons, in Hainault, in 1486; another tradition asserts that it was forged at Castle Douglas, in Galloway, by 3 brothers, blacksmiths, of the name of M’Lellan, and presented by them to James II. At the siege of Threave Castle in 1455 ‘Let Mons Meg and her marrows speak two words or three, ‘For the love of bonnets of bonny Dundee.’ “It was employed at the siege of Norham Castle in 1497, and burst in 1682, when firing a salute in honor of the Duke of York. In 1754 it was removed to the Tower of London, but was restored to Edinburgh in 1829, at the request of Sir Walter Scott.” See Murray, Handbook, 45-46. Francis H. Smith in Europe, 1858. Letterbook #1 Page 63 VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives This is an old Castle, (still garrisoned by troops) which sits upon a high rock immediately overlooking the city. There are some interesting specimens of ancient artillery here, especially a gun called “Mons Meg”, which is a gigantic piece constructed at Mons Brittany in 1486. It is composed of large iron bars, hooped together and is twenty (20) inches diameter at the bore. At Edinburgh Castle, Queen Mary gave birth to James VI, who afterwards became James 1st of the United Kingdoms. The royal Regalia of Scotland is also on deposit here, consisting of a Crown, Sceptre, Sword of State and a ring worn by Charles I.217 This Castle is of very early construction and has passed ______through many conflicts, in various wars which were carried on from the eleventh (11) to the fifteenth (15) Century. Completing our view, we were glad to go to dinner, that we might be prepared for a ride to Roslin Castle and Chapel.218 These are eight (8) miles from Edinburgh, and the road to it passes through the scenes of Scott’s beautiful tale of the “Heart of Mid Lothian”. The Chapel is one of the most perfect ruins I have visited, the tracery and ornaments being as beautiful as can be conceived. The roof is solid stone, arched. The Castle is an immense pile, the walls two (2) feet thick, and the dungeon built of solid rock. The apprentices pillar, in the Chapel, is so called, because the plan of the pillars required such nice work, that the Master builder insisted ______ upon going to Rome for instruction before he would undertake them, while he was gone, his apprentice undertook the work, and finished one pillar, so perfectly, that the Master would attempt no other and this is the only pillar with the decorated wreath.219 We were well paid for our ride: and were glad to lay our wearied limbs upon our beds when we got home. Today we visited the old Parliament House in which the high Courts of Justice now sit.220 The Courts were in session and we were all forced to smile when we saw some one (100) hundred Lawyers, old and young alike, with their powdered wigs and black gowns on. We thought how odd Mr Catlett221 and Mr Williams222 would look. The Lord Justices wore scarlet gowns and wigs. My impressions 217 The crown jewels of Scotland were first used at the coronation of Mary, queen of Scots, in 1543, when she was nine months old. For photos and additional information see “Scottish Royal Regalia, the Crown Jewels of Scotland, date posted unknown, Scotland Calling, date accessed 3/17/09, electronic address: 218 Roslin (Rosslyn) Castle, partially in ruins, and Rosslyn Chapel are located near the village of Roslin, in Midlothian, Scotland. The castle dates from the 14th century. The chapel was founded in the 15th century by the Sinclair family of Roslin Castle. For history, descriptions, plans, and photos, see “Roslin Castle” and “Rosslyn Chapel,” at “Wikipedia.” 219 Another version of the story says that the master was so angry with the apprentice for having completed the pillar that he struck the boy with a mallet and killed him. (See previous reference.) 220 Parliament House was the seat of the Scottish Parliament until 1707. For photos see “Old Scottish Parliament, Edinburgh, Photo” date posted unknown, Edinburgh Architecture, date accessed 4/20/09, electronic address: 221 See previous reference to Richard Henry Catlett. 222 Williams: Not identified. Francis H. Smith in Europe, 1858. Letterbook #1 Page 64 VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives ______of Edinburgh are very favorable. I spent an hour today in a bookstore in conversation with its very intelligent proprietor – and was very much interested in the account that he gave me of the state of Education in Scotland. Just at this time, there is much rivalry, and no little animosity between the two branches of the Presbyterian Church; especially in connection with the subject of appointing professors to the University of Edinburgh. It is proposed to take the appointment out of the hands of the Town Council, and thus relieve the University of the Appointment which may be the result of mere partisan zeal. Much intelligence prevails here, and everything bears the shape of refinement. The City is divided into the Old and new Town223 – and the beauty of the new is in Striking contrast with the high and ill shaped eight (8) ten, (10) and (11) ______eleven story houses of the old. There are many beautiful public edifices here. Heriot’s Hospital,224 Donaldson’s Hospital,225 Charitable establishments for Children, St Gile’s Church,226 in which Knox preached,227 and now divided into three Churches; the Museum and Churches all show well, and at the extremity of every street nearly is a large statue to some worthy. The most noted statue is Scotts’, the tracery being upon the model of Roslin Castle. Calton Hill has monuments – one to Burns, and David Hume’s is not far from the same spot.228 Napier, the mathematician,229 has his monument in St Giles. 223 New Town, Edinburgh, was built as a planned community, between 1765 and 1850, to relieve overcrowding in Old Town caused by the influx of Irish workers and Scots from the countryside. Designed primarily as a residential suburb, New Town drew wealthy families who built fashionably large homes, many in the neoclassical style. For history, maps, and views of Old and New Town, see Scott-Moncrieff, Edinburgh, 81-96; “New Town, Edinburgh,” at “Wikipedia”; “New Town, Edinburgh” and “Old Town, Edinburgh,” date posted unknown, Edinburgh Guide, date accessed 4/20/09, electronic addresses: 224 Heriot’s Hospital was established in 1628 through a bequest by George Heriot, royal goldsmith. Not, in fact a hospital, but a charitable school for poor children and orphans, it has operated continuously to the present. It is located in Old Town, Edinburgh. See “George Heriot’s School,” at “Wikipedia.” 225 Donaldson’s Hospital, a school for poor children, was founded in 1851 by Sir James Donaldson. See “Donaldson’s College,” at “Wikipedia.” 226 St. Gile’s Church, originally a Norman church, is the city church of Old Town, Edinburgh. It is also known as the High Kirk of Edinburgh. For history and photos, see “St. Gile’s Cathedral, Edinburgh,” at “Wikipedia.” 227 John Knox is buried at St. Gile’s Church. See “Reformation Scotland – St. Giles Cathedral,” date posted unknown, The Capital Scot, date accessed 4/20/09, electronic address: 228 Calton Hill is located in the center of Edinburgh. See “Carlton Hill, date posted unknown, Edinburgh Guide, date accessed 4/20/09, electronic address: Francis H. Smith in Europe, 1858. Letterbook #1 Page 65 VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives I send to you enclosed, such views as may interest you, and enable you to form a more full conception of the places I have seen. We leave tomorrow for Abbotsford, Melrose Abbey and then on toward London ______where we anxiously wait letters. Continue to direct to Geo Peabody etc. God bless you my darling wife and the dear Children and be your stay and comfort is the constant prayer of your own husband. Francis H Smith Mrs S H Smith No 18 Chatsworth Derbyshire July 8th 1858 My precious wife When I put my last letter in the Post Office at Edinburgh, our party was on the eve of a visit to Abbotsford. We took the morning train from Edinburgh for Melrose, designing first to visit the old Abbey,230 to which such interest has been given by Sir W. Scott in his lay of the Last Minstrel.231 states: “The top of the hill is occupied, it is true, by Nelson’s Monument, a building which has been likened to a butterchurn or a telescope.” See Murray, Handbook, 59. 229 John Napier (1550-1617) Scottish mathematician, inventor of logarithms. See Dictionary of National Biography. 230 Melrose Abbey. It appears that Smith had with him a copy of Murray’s Handbook for Travellers in Scotland. The following is from the 1875 edition: “Melrose … is a small town of 1141 inhab., having nothing attractive in its streets or buildings, but it is surrounded by neat villas, charmingly situated at the foot of the Eildon Hills, and overlooks the Tweed. … Melrose is celebrated for ‘the most beautiful not only of the Scottish Second Pointed churches, but of all the northern fanes of whatever age. The splendour of middle-age romance which Scott has thrown around the place has almost obliterated its older and holier renown…. “[Five] minutes’ walk from the station through the town, descending the hill. Brings you to the entrance of the ABBEY, at its W. end. The W. front is entirely gone. “The building which we now see standing in such venerable ruin is the third abbey – the first having been founded at Old Melrose …, on the decay of which King David I. built a second in 1136, and filled it with Cistercian monks…. Melrose lay on the highway of English invasion, and in consequence the Abbey was destroyed over and over again, notably in 1322, by the troops of Edward II. “King Robert the Bruce at once set to work to repair the damage…. It was again destroyed at the fruitless invasion of Scotland by Richard II. 1385, when the English entered Scotland on the eastern side and the Scots entered England on the west, each army afraid of the other, and intent only on plunder and destruction. In the existing ch. there is scarcely anything older than the 15th cent., say about 1400…. In 1545 it was plundered by the English under Evers and Latoun, and soon afterwards it received more serious damage from the earl of Hertford. Its next enemies were the Reformers, and since then it has been plundered considerably for the sake of the materials. At the dissolution of the religious houses Mary Francis H. Smith in Europe, 1858. Letterbook #1 Page 66 VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives ______ This Abbey was built by David 1st232 and the tracery on the various parts of it is preserved with singular beauty. It is cruciform, like most of these old remains, and the windows in the Choir and transept, were as perfect as on the day they were first built. We lingered for some time around this interesting ruin, contemplating its various views, and examining the points with which historical reminiscences were associated. Here Alexander II233 and his wife Matilda of Scotland were buried and here also rests the heart of Robert Bruce.234 He gave directions to his faithful friend Douglas to carry it to Palestine, but after getting as far as Spain, he was forced to return bestowed the abbey and its property upon Bothwell. At his proscription it reverted to the Crown, and, after passing through many different hands, is now the property of the Duke of Buccleuch…. “The ch., about 250 ft. long, consists in plan of a presbytery at the E. end, the width of the central aisle, of a choir with aisles of 6 bays, extending 3 bays beyond the tower W. as far as the low stone rood- screen of late date, which divided it from the nave. The nave extended over 5 bays. The transepts had E. aisles. From the tower to the W. end along the S. side of the nave extended a row of 8 side chapels separated by buttress walls, and between these chapels and the central aisle ran a peculiar narrow S. aisle…. Every part of the ch. will repay careful study…. “The nave is completely spoilt by some heavy piers and circular arches which were put up in 1618, when the abbey was fitted up as a Presbyterian ch., and which obscure the elegant Pointed arches of the original structure…. “The principal beauty of the chancel is the E. window of 5 lights, with its exquisite tracery. This approaches the Perp. Style more closely than anything in the abbey, and is almost the only example of the style in Scotland. This window, and the E. end adjoining, date probably from the reign of James IV., who married Margaret, daughter of Henry VII. Sir Walter Scott’s description of this window is very poetical and accurate, except in the doubtful use of the world ‘oriel.’ ‘The moon on the east oriel shone Through slender shafts of shapely stone By foliaged tracery combined; Thou wouldst have thought some fairy’s hand ‘Twix poplars straight the osler wand, In many a freakish knot had twined; Then framed a spell, when the work was done, And changed the willow wreaths to stone.’ Lay of Last Minstrel. “Directly in front of it lies (it is said) the heart of Robert Bruce, which Douglas attempted in vain to carry to the Holy Land. A slab of dark marble, spotted with mountain limestone corals, is pointed out as covering the grave of Alexander II….” See Murray, Handbook, Section I, 14-16. 231 Lay of the Last Minstrel. Written by Walter Scott between 1802 and 1804, the Lay was published in 1805. It is a story of the 16th century border feud. For a synopsis of the story, see the “Lay of the Last Minstrel,” date posted unknown, Edinburgh University Library, date accessed 4/21/09, electronic address: 232 David I of Scotland (1085-1153) . Prince of the Cumbrians (1113-1124) and King of the Scots (1124- 1153). See “David I of Scotland,” at “Wikipedia.” See also Dictionary of National Biography. 233 Alexander II of Scotland, King of the Scots (1214-1249). See “Alexander II of Scotland,” at “Wikipedia.” See also Dictionary of National Biography. 234 Robert I of Scotland. Robert I, King of the Scots (1274-1329). He is famous for leading Scotland in the Wars of Scottish Independence against England. He was the 4th great grandson of King David I. See “Robert I of Scotland,” at “Wikipedia.” See also Dictionary of National Biography. Francis H. Smith in Europe, 1858. Letterbook #1 Page 67 VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives and it was placed in the Abbey which owed so much to the pious munificence of King Robert. We were furnished with a most amusing guide for the Abbey. ______ He was an old scotchman of the broadest brogue. The northern Scots speak the gaelic almost entirely, and they make but little effort to learn English. South of Edinburgh less gaelic is noticed and the full brogue of the genuine scotchman is perceptible. Our guide discanted most eloquently on the beauties of the Abbey, and on the historical associations connected with its tombs and mutilated remains. At last I suggested that while the Abbey was very beautiful, I did not think the tracery was comparable with that of Roslin Chapel. “There is muckle doot upon that, un mon says un wy, and un mon says anoother but moony dais will pass for sick a sight is seen.” Seeing that the old man’s pride was touched, I thought for the amusement of the party, I would draw him out a little more. “But why were you Scotchmen so distructive as to mutilate the beautiful statues ______ that were in those niches. “Hoot mon, that was done by John Knox.” I expressed my great sorrow at the madness of the religious bigotry of those reformers, who so much mistook their duty to God, as to destroy those great works of art, and that if now the tourists would travel thousands of miles to view the ruined walls, how much more interest would attach to the buildings and its statues had they been allowed to remain. “Well mon, your judgment is not like others, -- we mon need anoother John Knox noo, for the Catholics are getting moore and moore noo, adais.” I am trying to give you some idea of his pronunciation by my spelling, but it would be impossible to describe his inimitable voice and manner. “Do you see that Creter?” What! we all exclaimed. “Creeter, Creeter – don’t you noo ______what a creeter is – that’s a peeg, a squeeling.” We made the Abbey ring with our laughter, for the vehemence of the old gentleman and the discovery of a pig, as one of the figures in the carving of the ornaments of the roof, with the bag pipes under him, completely overcame us, and when we left the Abbey we most cheerfully paid him a shilling a piece for the service and amusement he had given to us, wishing him long life and the honorable position he now held. The Abbey is a part of the domain of the Duke of Buccleuch, the friend and patron of Sir Walter Scott. Getting into our Fly,235 we had three miles to ride before we reached Abbotsford,236 and every step of the road was invested with an interest which the true genius of the great poet and 235 A “fly” was a light, covered, single-horse-drawn carriage. 236 Abbotsford, home of Sir Walter Scott, at Melrose, Scotland. He purchased the land on the Scottish Borders on the bank of the River Tweed in 1811. The house was completed in 1824. It was opened to the public in 1833, shortly after Scott’s death in 1832. See “Abbotsford,” date posted unknown, Abbotsford, date accessed 4/21/09, electronic address: According to Murray’s 1875 Handbook: “The house and grounds are thoroughly well kept, and the liberality of the owner in giving the public access to them deserves all praise. The many-turreted house is ill placed, close under the road, on a slope descending to the Tweed. It was originally a farmhouse, and owes its existence entirely to the poet, who prided himself on having planted almost every tree in the grounds. It is interesting not only for its founder’s sake, but as an historic museum of (chiefly) national relics. Visitors enter by a small side door, and, having inscribed their names, are conducted to the Library Francis H. Smith in Europe, 1858. Letterbook #1 Page 68 VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives novelist could not fail to impart to it. We had been traveling through that part of Scotland, to which his pen had ______ imparted so much freshness of interest, and now, as pilgrims, we were visiting the last home of this great man. Although the day was a rainy one, we found not less than fifty (50) persons waiting their turns for admittance; the Comfort of the family and the order of the house forbidding the admittance of more than ten at a time. While we were kept waiting, we carefully examined the little office in which we were sitting. A table was shown to us in which was locked up the manuscript of his “Waverly Novels”. The first room we entered was his study. This was seen by us in the same condition in which he left it. His Arm-Chair and table – and those articles which he kept most constantly by him. In a little closet opening into it we saw the last clothes he wore; they were neatly kept in a case, ______with a glass top. A white hat, a pair of quartered shoes, a pair of salmon cloth gaiters – a pair of check tweed pants, a plain tweed vest and coat with horn buttons. As we gazed upon these relics, it seemed as if a sad reality were given to the scene before us. We passed to the Library; this is a most spacious, well arranged and well filled room, and besides a large collection of the choicest books, many interesting relics were preserved here. A case encloses some of the most precious of these, such as a portfolio used by Napoleon and given to Sir Walter by the Duke of Wellington – a vinegrette formerly belonging to Mary, Queen of Scots, and other gifts from various personages. The Library also contains a set of ebony chairs given to him by George IV. Passing to the next room we came to the Armory, in which is kept all the old specimens of armor ______ of about 20,000 volumes. This was preserved as the best Memorial by the friends who wished after his death to do the poet honour, and has become an heirloom in the family. Sir Walter by his will charged it with a legacy of ₤5000 to his younger children, which was defrayed by the subscription, thus preventing a sale. With this room is connected the Study in which the poet wrote, and which is little changed since his time. Opening from this is a small octagonal dressing-room, in which are still preserved the stick with which he walked, the chair in which he wrote, and the identical clothes worn by him. The dining and drawing room (in which he died) contain many interesting relics, most of them presents from those who admired his genius and patriotism. The noble bust by Chantrey is the finest and most exact likeness of Scott. “Among the portraits are those of Oliver Cromwell, Claverhouse, Duke of Monmouth, Dryden, Prior, and Gay by Lely, Hogarth by himself, Sir Walter’s son, and his great-grandfather, called ‘Beardie:’ – ‘My great grandsire came of old With amber beard and flaxen hair, And reverend apostolic air.’ – Marmion. “He was a partisan of the Stuarts, and refused to shave till their restoration. The most interesting picture of the collection is one of Queen Mary’s head, taken an hour after her execution. See also Napoleon’s pen and writing-case, Queen Mary’s seal. Rob Roy’s purse and gun, Prince Charles’s snuff- box, Burns’s toddy-tumbler, miniature of Sir Walter as a boy – his knife and form and snuff-box; the swords of Montrose (given him by Charles I.) and of Prince Charles Steuart, Hofer’s rifle, &c. “The Armoury contains weapons of every age in the history of Scotland. Here, too, are the keys of the old Tolbooth, a good portrait of Prince Charlie, the pistols of Napoleon and of Claverhouse, and James IV’s armour, swords used by a German executioner, thumbikins, and scold’s bridle, claymores of the ’45. The paneling of the entrance-hall was brought from the old palace of Dunfermline. Round the cornice are the armorial bearings of the families who kept the Scotch Borders. The doorway is embellished with fossil stags’-horns, and on the outside the visitor should observe the door of the old Tolbooth of Edinburgh built up into the side of the house.” See Murray, Handook, Section I, 17-18. Francis H. Smith in Europe, 1858. Letterbook #1 Page 69 VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives which, from time to time, came into his possession. Pistols used by Napoleon, swords used by Wm Wallace and Douglas and Bruce and Henry VIII. There was great interest felt by all of us, in seeing a beautiful painting by her favorite friend, a French Artist, of the head of Queen Mary in a charger taken just after she was beheaded. It was most strikingly natural, and we reverted, with sadness, to the memories of this unfortunate Queen, while each of us gave utterance to our displeasure, at the cruel treatment she had received from her kinswoman Elizabeth. The front hall is filled with old Armor, and here we saw the Keys of the old Tolbooth of Edinburgh, the scene of his heart of Mid Lothian. We were unconscious how long we were lingering around these interesting remains, until our watches ______admonished us that we had been three (3) hours there. We were not admitted into the room in which Sir Walter died, it being used by the family. We saw the room. He had himself brought down from his chamber to the dining room, that he might look upon his favorite stream, the Tweed, which runs by the side of his beautiful lawn and only a few hundred yards from his house. The proprietor of Abbotsford is Mr [Hope?] Scott, who married a daughter of Mr Lockhart, the son-in-law of Sir Walter and who keeps the premises in beautiful order. Indeed I have not visited a sweeter home, since I have been in this Country. Sir Walter was not buried at Abbotsford, but at Dryburgh Abbey,237 a ruin about three (3) miles off and the resting place of his family. I expressed my wonder to our guide who had lived forty-two (42) years at Abbotsford, that Sir Walter had not selected his beautiful lawn as his resting place. She very promptly ______replied that this was not according to the taste of Sir Walter. He preferred the ancient tombs at Dryburgh, which had been preserved for centuries and where all his ancestors were buried. We left this deeply interesting spot with regret, but not before we had plucked a twig from a pine tree as a remembrance of the home of the great and good man. We returned to the village of Melrose, where we had just time to eat a hearty dinner at the George Hotel,238 and at six (6) we were in the cars again for Newcastle upon Tyne. Our ride that evening passed along the banks of the Tweed, passing through Kelso,239 the home of a living divine of some eminence Horatio Bonar,240 to Berwick241 which lies at the mouth of the Tweed, and passing along the eastern coast of England, through a country of much agricultural improvements we reached ______ 237 Dryburg Abbey. This was one of the Border Abbeys founded around 1138 by King David I. For photos of the abbey and Walter Scott’s tomb, see “Dryburg Abbey,” date posted unknown, Paradoxplace, date accessed 4/21/09, electronic address: 238 A hotel recommended by Murray’s Handbook for Travellers in Scotland. 239 Kelso, Scotland, is a small town in the Scottish Borders region, located on the banks of the Tweed river. It suffered much during the Border Wars of the 13th to 16th centuries. See “Kelso, Scotland,” date posted unknown, The Town of Kelso Website, date accessed 4/21/09, electronic address: 240 Horatius Bonar (1808-1889), a Scottish minister, took an active part in the formation of the Free Church of Scotland. He is best known as a hymn writer, often cited as “the principal hymn-writer of Scotland.” He also wrote religious poetry. For biography, see “Horatius Bonar,” date posted unknown, Stem Publishing, date accessed 4/21/09, electronic address: 241 Berwick-upon-Tweed Francis H. Smith in Europe, 1858. Letterbook #1 Page 70 VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives Newcastle242 about ½ past ten (10) o’clock P.M. Here we stopped at the Turk’s Head Hotel,243 and had a most comfortable bed and a refreshing nights rest, but without having any opportunity of seeing the City. Indeed Newcastle is Chiefly distinguished for its immense Coal trade and there was not much of interest to detain us here. We were pressing on to York,244 where we wished to spend an hour or two in its great Cathedral. Leaving New Castle at nine (9) we reached York at Eleven (11) this morning, and without stopping longer than was necessary to order our dinner at the Slaten Hotel we went at once to the Minster. The chime of bells just announced ¼ to 12, as we were ferried from the Slaten House over the Ouse which flows through the City, and soon we were in full view of this majestic Cathedral.245 242 Newcastle is a port city in NE England, situated on the River Tyne. The city, as Smith points out, was locate in a major coal mining area. When Smith visited, it had become important for shipbuilding and heavy engineering. Earlier in its history, it had been the center for the wool trade. For history, description, and photos, see “Newcastle upon Tyne,” at “Wikipedia.” 243 The Turks Head Hotel, located close to the Tyne River, was built in 1850. Today it is primarily a pub. For photo, see “Turks Head Hotel,” date posted unknown, pub-explorer.com, date accessed 4/22/09, electronic address: < http://www.pub-explorer.com/tandw/pub/turksheadtynemouth.htm >. 244 York, England. From The City of York Street Plan and Guide (ca 2005): “The history of York, capital of the north and second city of the realm, is the history of England… It began as a fortress, built in AD 71 by the Roman 9th Legion for a campaign against the Brigantes tribe. It grew into an important city, Eboracum by name. Here, Constantine the Great, who later founded Constantinople, was made Roman Emperor in AD 306. It was the Vikings who gave York its name, derived from Jorvik or Yorwik, their brief but flourishing kingdom. Norman rule was to last longer and it was the Normans who made the city a vital centre of government, commerce and religion for the north. Their work prepared it well for its important role in the reigns of the Plantaganet Kings and, in 1485 when this era ended and the Tudor age began, York was already at its zenith. The magnificent Minster had finally been completed, after work lasting 250 years…. It was not until the 18th century, when it became a fashionable resort and centre, that there was any marked change in the city’s outward character. Georgian elegance added to its architectural attractions. In the following century, the coming of the railway marked the start of a new era of growth and prosperity.” 245 York Minster. From The Pitkin City Guides: York (ca. 2005): “York Minster, the largest medieval Gothic church in northern Europe, dominates the city and is the chief church in the northern province of the Church of England. It is the fifth cathedral to be built on the site since Edwin, the Anglian king of Northumbria, was baptized here in 627. The current Minster is largely unchanged since it was completed in 1472, although it has suffered three fires in the last two centuries.” For a virtual tour of the cathedral, see “York Minster,” date posted unknown, the Dean and Chapter of York, date accessed 4/24/09, electronic address: Francis H. Smith in Europe, 1858. Letterbook #1 Page 71 VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives York Minster, York, England Public domain illustration from Wikipedia It would be useless for me to attempt a description of what is pronounced the finest building of the kind in ______ Europe. Let it suffice for the present that I tell you that it is five hundred (524) and twenty four feet long by upwards of two (200) hundred feet wide. The large inner pillars which terminate the nave are sixty (63) three feet in circumference. The main window in the Choir is seventy (75) five feet high by thirty (32) two wide. The greater part of the minster has been destroyed twice by fire, once accidentally, and the second time by a lunatic, who took severe displeasure at the organ, and who hid himself behind one of the tombs in the Cathedral during evening service, until the congregation was dismissed and then set fire to the building. The whole however has been rebuilt at an expense of ₤140,000 and upon the identical place of the old minster. The arching of the roof – the aisles – the great windows with their ancient stained glass, presented to us so many ob- ______jects of admiration, that for the time, we forgot the beauties of the mouldering ruins of the Abbeys we had visited and were wrapped in admiration at the living splendor before us. Service is held every day at ten (10) and four (4) and we deeply regretted that we could not wait until the afternoon service, that we might hear the notes of the immense organ in the Anthems appointed for the day, but our arrangements were made to reach this place to-day and we could not linger. We had proposed stopping at Alnwick Castle,246 the seat of the Duke of Northumberland, on our way to York, but we found out that we could not be admitted, as the Duke was carrying on 246 Alnwick Castle. The earliest parts of this castle date from 1096. It was built to defend England’s northern borders. It is located 35 miles north of Newcastle. For history and photos, see “Alnwick Castle,” at “Wikipedia.” Francis H. Smith in Europe, 1858. Letterbook #1 Page 72 VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives extensive repairs. He has had three (300) hundred men at work there for three years, costing him at the rate of ₤20,000 a year, and he was not near finished the ______ work yet. This will give you a faint idea of the splendor and wealth of these princely establishments. If you will take the map and trace me in my tour, you will see the windings of my journey. Leaving York in the cars ab[out] four (4), we passed through Normarton and Sheffield and there we took carriage and posted fifteen (15) miles to Chatsworth. Sheffield247 is the seat of immense manufactories in steel. The Rodgers248 make their Knives here, and we passed their fine residence just outside of the town. It is a dirty looking place, but has a population of 160,000. Here the poet James Montgomery249 died and was buried. Although our ride this afternoon was in the rain, it was through a lovely country, and for the most part of the way, with the estate of the Duke ______of Rutland on one side and the Duke of Devonshire on the other. These Dukes Keep some 40,000 acres, each, in moors for hunting purposes, thus keeping, in an unimproved state, land valued at ₤100 per acre, and valued for each at ₤4000,000. Chatsworth belongs to the Duke of Devonshire, and is considered the most princely establishment in the Kingdom. This we contemplated visiting on the morrow, and with my good night to my darling wife and precious children, I commit us all to the care of our covenant Keeping God. July 9. York is a very ancient city, and bears unmistakable evidences of it, in a wall which surrounds it and which was built by the Romans as early as the 1st Century. Here Constantine the Great was born, and his father Constantius died.250 The Tweed is the boundary 247 Sheffield, situated on the River Sheaf, is located in southern Yorkshire. An ancient city, Sheffield became a center for the production of knives. With the development of crucible steel, Sheffield became an industrial town. Six years after Smith’s visit, a nearby dam broke and the town experienced the Great Sheffield Flood that killed 270 people and destroyed parts of the city. See “Sheffield,” at “Wikipedia.” 248 The Joseph Rogers [Cutlers] Company has produced knives in Sheffield since 1682. 249 James Montgomery (1771-1854). Born the son of a pastor of the Moravian Brethren, Montgomery was an editor of a newspaper, a poet, and a hymn writer, of which he wrote over 400 and for this he is best remembered. He was suspected by the government of being a radical. He supported the abolition of the slave trade and the improvement of conditions for the working poor, and he promoted education through Sunday schools. Smith would have admired Montgomery’s advocacy of foreign missions and the Bible Society, activities that Smith, himself, advocated. No doubt Smith often sang Montgomery’s “O Bless the Lord My Soul, His grace to thee proclaim” (ca 1819) at his church in Lexington. See “James Montgomery,” date posted unknown, cyberhymnal.org, date accessed 4/22/09, electronic address: 250 From The Pitkin City Guides: York (ca 2005): “When Emperor Constantius Chlorus died in York in 306, the troops proclaimed his son Constantine Emperor, but Constantine had to return to Rome to fight for the title. Six years later, Constantine, now Emperor, was baptized and by the end of the 4th century Christianity was the official religion of the Roman Empire.” Francis H. Smith in Europe, 1858. Letterbook #1 Page 73 VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives between Scotland and England, so that to say north of the Tweed is a phrase of the same significance as north of ______ Potomac. We needed not know that we were crossing the Tweed to know that we were in England. The beautiful green fields, with little clumps of trees, and absence of hovels and of women barefooted, told me I was passing into a more happy condition of things than I had found in the rural districts of Ireland and Scotland. In the neighborhood of Abbotsford and indeed all along the Tweed we passed through a lovely country, but it is one of the characteristics of England, that the fields are interspersed with beautiful foliage of the trees and shrubs, while nothing but the verdure of the grass relieves the eye in Scotland or Ireland as far as I saw. Although we passed through Yorkshire yesterday, we heard no Cockneyism. Indeed the Ostler of Knowsly was more orrible in this respect than any one we heard in ______ the shire. Travelling though the Kingdom is done in four ways, by rail, boat, coach and post. The arrangements for the security of passengers could not be more perfect. The cars are locked after you enter, the tracks are double, and passengers are only allowed to go out on one side of the car. The rate of traveling by rail for 1st class is 3d per mile and 2d for the 2d Class. The boys take the 1st class, I generally take 2d Class, not only on account of expense, but it affords facilities for meeting with the gentry of the Country. The coaches are large affairs, carrying passengers on the top as well as inside, but the roads are so good, that no risk exists. Posting is a most pleasant way of traveling, the stages are generally 12 miles, and you have no difficulty in finding fresh horses and a carriage at the end of one post to ______ dispatch you on. The rate is usually 1s.9d per mile for a two horse carriage, which includes the post boy, but you pay tolls. This makes the most expensive mode, equal to 4 1/2d per man for four in the carriage. The steam vessels are very secure and run with great regularity, and are to be had at all convenient points for water communications. I am anxious to get this letter off by the Asia251 on Saturday and therefore close it. You must let me now whether my letters are received regularly. With greatest love to my dear Children and affectionate remembrance to my friends. I am ever your own devoted husband. F H Smith Mrs. S H Smith Lexington Va 251 The Asia was a wood-paddler steamer, built by Robert Steele for Cunard Line, of oak and double- planked, with engines by Napier. It was launched in 1850 and was in service until 1868. Cunard Line was in fierce competition with the Collins Line. See “Cunard Line,” at “Wikipedia.” Francis H. Smith in Europe, 1858. Letterbook #1 Page 74 VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives Chatsworth Hall, Derbyshire, England Photo by Paul Collins, released into public domain, from Wikipedia No 19 Chatsworth Derbyshire252 July 9th 1858 2 PM. My Darling Wife I closed letter No. 18 this morning and put it in the post here, in order that it might go in the Asia from Liverpool tomorrow. I have just returned from a visit to the princely establishment of the Duke of Devonshire, and while the impressions are fresh in my mind, I will endeavor to give you some idea of what I saw. That you may conceive in a measure, the magnificence of the establishment I would say that the wall which surrounds the park is twenty (20) miles. We are stopping at an Inn at Edensor, near the village of this name, the village being built as a ______model one by the Duke.253 The mansion was open to us at 11, and as we had gone a little before the hour we took a stroll through the stables. They are built pretty much on the same plan as at 252 Chatsworth is one of the great country houses of England. Located in Derbyshire, it has been the seat of the Dukes of Devonshire (the Cavendish family) since it was begun in 1686. It is especially well known for its park, constructed by Capability Brown in 1761, and its gardens, laid out by Sir Joseph Paxton in the 1840s. Seven months before Smith’s visit, Chatsworth was one of eight stately homes of William George Spencer Cavendish, 6th Duke of Devonshire. The duke died in January 1858 and the dukedom passed to his cousin William Cavendish, 2nd Earl of Burlington. Chatsworth was modernized and expanded by the 6th Duke. For a lengthy history, a description of the house, room, stables, and gardens, and for numerous photos, see “Chatsworth House,” at “Wikipedia.” Francis H. Smith in Europe, 1858. Letterbook #1 Page 75 VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives Knowsley but of stone and are very massive and substantial. The gateway is particularly striking. The arrangements are of course very complete, but the effect was not as pleasing to me as the similar establishments of the Earl of Derby and not at all as neat. At 11 we were admitted into the mansion grounds, passing through an arched gateway, the gates of bronze. The building is of massive sandstone. We entered at the main hall, passing into a painted one and this led into the Chapel. I was very much struck with this splendid room. The side walls were wainscoted in ______ plank of Cedar of Lebanon and the floor of white marble. We then passed to the state room. Here was a state bedroom which had not been used as such for one (100) years, then the drawing room and dining room forming a suit of splendid rooms, with floors of oak set in mosaic. In one of these was the coronation chair used by Wm IV and Queen Adelaide, also a rosary used by Henry VIII. We then passed into the picture gallery, which contained some of the finest specimens of the best artists and we were all struck by a painting of the celebrated racehorse Flying Childers,254 with a certificate attached to the frame from the original owner, Mr Childers, stating that this horse was sold to the Duke of Dev. by Mr Childers in 1719, the horse being then five years old and “no more”, and having ______been raised by Mr C. Flying Childers Public domain illustration from Wikipedia 253 Edensor. The original village of Edensor was demolished by the 4th Duke of Devonshire, to improve the view from Chatsworth. The 6th Duke of Devonshire created a new village of Edensor in 1839. Sir Joseph Paxton is buried in the church at Edensor. 254 Flying Childers was a famous 18th century thoroughbred racehorse foaled in 1714. The horse is considered the first great racehorse in the history of thoroughbreds. It died in 1741. See “Flying Childers,” at “Wikipedia.” Francis H. Smith in Europe, 1858. Letterbook #1 Page 76 VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives Passing through this gallery, we came to the Sculptors room, which contained a large collection of the most splendid works of art of the great masters Conova,255 Thorwalsden256 etc. and then into the green room with the variety of exotics and this led us unto the yard passing to the Conservatory. Our walk to the latter was through the most beautiful and varied arrangements for heightening the picturesque effect of this splendid garden.257 I note immense rocks placed in appropriate localities and artificially arranged to correspond with nature, then an artificial cascade with a succession of falls, passing through a length of two (200) hundreds yards and with a width of thirty (30) feet and not far from ______this a waterfall over an immense rock, at least forty (40) feet high. The rock presents all the appearance of nature and yet it is artificial, having been removed from the quarry by being taken to pieces slab by slab, and then reset. Then we passed through a grotto, with shelving rocks and a gateway closed by a rock weighing six (6) tons, and which moved upon a pivot so delicately, that with one finger you could close it. This brought us to the great Conservatory258 planned by the Dukes Head Gardener, Joseph Paxton. This Conservatory is three (300) hundred feet long, one (120) hundred and twenty wide, and sixty (66) six feet high, entirely of glass set in wooden frame work. In this we saw the various kinds of Tropical pines, Cedars of Lebanon, Bamboo Cane, Banana trees with fruit on them, Cocoa Nut, Chinese Sago palm; Shaddak. ______ This Conservatory was planned by Mr Paxton the head gardener. His success in this work led to his appointment to arrange the Chrystal [sic] Palace in London, at the great exhibition, and for this he was Knighted by the Queen, so that he is now Sir Joseph Paxton, and also a member of Parliament. We saw also the weeping tree259 – a tree having all the appearance of a variety of pine, as a visitor would affirm were he to examine – a stop cock being turned, every branch of the tree would emit a jet of water and all the ground around it a jet in the same way. It is of Copper. We saw here three trees, an Oak, Sycamore and a Spanish Chestnut which were severally planted by the Queen, the Duchess of Kent and Prince Albert in 1832. The income of the Duke of Dev. ______is ₤300,000 a year. He has in his park fourteen (1400) deer, which we saw running about in every direction and some five (500) hundred head of Cattle are grazed here by the tenants which pay the Duke ₤2 each from May to Oct. The interest of our visit was very much increased by the 255 Antonio Canova (1757-1822), Venetian sculptor and stonemason. He is considered one of the founders of the neoclassical style. See “Antonio Canova,” date posted unknown, Suite101.com, date accessed 4/25/09, electronic address: 256 Bertel Thorwalsden, Danish sculptor. 257 For photos of the park and gardens, see “Chatsworth Park,” date posted unknown, Digicam69, date accessed 4/25/09, electronic address: 258 The Great Conservatory at Chatsworth, which was the model for the Crystal Palace of the London Great Exhibition, was built from 1836 to 1841. It was demolished in 1920. See section on “Chatsworth’s garden” in “Chatsworth House,” at “Wikipedia,” for a photograph of the Conservatory. 259 For a photo of the “weeping tree” (The Squirting Willow Tree Fountain), see photos of the Chatsworth garden linked to “Chatsworth Park,” cited above. Francis H. Smith in Europe, 1858. Letterbook #1 Page 77 VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives historic associations of Chatsworth, Queen Mary’s tower is here and here she is said to have been confined thirteen (13) months.260 Oxford July 11. Before I had time to finish my sheet, the postboy announced, that our coaches were ready, and we at once started to meet the railroad at Rowsley 3 miles distant. As time allowed, we concluded we would take Haddon Hall261 in our way, thus making the ride six (6) instead of three (3) miles. This is an old Castle262 belonging to the Duke of Rutland and possesses ______interest because it is in a tolerably good state of preservation, but chiefly because it brings before you with the vividness of life, the actual state of things in the olden time. In the Kitchen for example the Cooks tables and dresser were standing just as they were used, and in a corner set the biscuit block.263 The tables were made of plank six (6) inches thick, and the block was the stout end of an immense tree. Adjoining the Kitchen was the room in which the meats were salted, the troughs for the brine and the benches for cutting up, still standing as memorials of the past. In the dining room, we found the table still placed as it was when used, and a rough table it was, at which our ancestors enjoyed their good cheer, for it was heavy timber like that in the Kitchen. ______ The room had a galley around it, in which the ladies were in the habit of standing and into which they entered from above and where they might peep at the scenes passing on below. Near the door was a hand cuff of iron, in which the hand of the guest was fastened if he failed to drink the bumper and cold water was thrown upon his sleeve. The Chambers were in tapestry of the finest specimens of those times, but of course giving sad evidence of the devastating effects of time. The bed used by Queen Elizabeth when she visited Haddon Hall is standing as it was last used, and an antique affair it is. The cover was of white Satin and the curtain of maroon velvet, but dreadfully moth-eaten. Some Antique 260 Mary, Queen of Scots, during the reign of Elizabeth I. 261 Haddon Hall is located on the River Wye in Derbyshire. The original hall, a medieval manor house built in the 11th century and expanded in the 16th century, was restored in the 1920s. It is one of the country houses of the Duke of Rutland. Smith visited the house at the time of the 6th Duke of Rutland, Charles Cecil John Manners (1815-1888). The 5th Duke of Rutland, John Henry Manners died the year before Smith’s visit. See “Haddon Hall” and “Duke of Rutland,” at “Wikipedia.” See also “Haddon Hall,” date posted unknown, Derbyshire UK, date accessed 4/28/09, electronic address: 262 Haddon Hall was never a castle. It was a medieval manor house around which a wall was once built with permission from the king. 263 According to Derbyshire UK Guide to Derbyshire & the Peak District, “The kitchen complex is one of the most fascinating parts of Haddon hall. There are wooden blocks, work surfaces, through which holes have been worn by constant chopping and pounding, a no frills hunk of oak that served as a chopping block, a well equipped bakery and butchery. See Francis H. Smith in Europe, 1858. Letterbook #1 Page 78 VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives portraits were hung around the room. No one resides at Haddon Hall, but a family of Servants occupies ______a portion of the Hall and exhibits it to visitors. Coming to it as we did on leaving Chatsworth, it appeared to us in great contrast to it, and enabled us to contemplate with more vividness the changes which time had wrought upon manners, customs and habits of the same people. We reached the depot264 by five (5) passing through a most lovely valley, presenting to us, all the time, the loveliness of English scenery, in the rich velvet green of its meadows and fields, interspersed with the fresh foliage of its parks and clusters of trees.265 Rowsley266 is in Derbysire and we had time to get a few varieties of the Derbyshire spar,267 which is wrought in to every variety of ornamental and useful articles. The road we traveled passed through Derby268 and Rugby, and we aimed to reach Coventry to night. The road passed through a very rocky country, but one very ______ rich in mineral wealth. We were in sight of the residence of Florence Nightengale,269 who lives about eight (8) miles from Rowsley and we all felt like taking off our hats in compliment to this noble heroine. A plain man who entered our car here, spoke very kindly of her, and said she was highly respected for her benevolence before she went to the Crimea. We reached Coventry at ten (10).270 I was anxious to stop at Rugby,271 not that I would be able to visit the school of the late Dr Arnold, for it was vacation, yet I wanted to post myself in anticipation of another visit. 264 Apparently a stage depot, for Smith next traveled along a road that passed through Derby and Rugby to Conventry. 265 The road from Haddon Hall leads through a valley directly to Rowsley, a short distance away. 266 Rowsley, Derbyshire, England, is located at the confluence of the River Wye and the River Derwent. 267 Spar is a variety of the mineral gypsum. 268 Derby, in Derbyshire, is located on the River Derwent. An ancient city dating back to a Roman camp, the town became a center of the Industrial Revolution in England with the construction there of water powered mills. When Smith passed through, Derby was an engineering and manufacturing center. See “Derby,” at “Wikipedia.” 269 Florence Nightingale (1820-1910) was a nurse and advocate of improved medical care in the hospitals of England. She became famous for her work during the Crimean War. She lived at Embley Park, the stately home of her wealthy parents. For a biography and a photo of Embley Park, see “Florence Nightingale,” at “Wikipedia,” and in Dictionary of National Biography. 270 Coventry is located in the West Midlands of England, 95 miles northwest of London. Much of the town Smith saw was destroyed during the blitz in WWII. See “Historic Coventry,” date posted 5/2002, Historic Coventry, date accessed 4/28/09, electronic address: 271 Rugby School is one of the oldest and best known public schools in England, founded in 1567. It is surprising that Smith did not spend any time at Rugby because he greatly admired its most famous headmaster, Dr. Thomas Arnold (headmaster from 1826 to 1842), and Smith often compared VMI with the school. Thomas Arnold is best known for the reforms he made at Rugby School and on his emphasis on sports. Smith also admired Arnold’s strong emphasis on producing “Christian gentlemen.” Rugby School and Dr. Arnold were portrayed in the immensely popular 19th century book by Thomas Hughes, Tom Brown’s School Days. For more on the school and Dr. Arnold, see “Rugby School” and “Thomas Arnold” at “Wikipedia,” and in Dictionary of National Biography. Francis H. Smith in Europe, 1858. Letterbook #1 Page 79 VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives Thomas Arnold, Headmaster of Rugby School. He was much admired by Francis Smith. Public domain illustration from Wikipedia We had a good time at the George Head Hotel,272 Coventry, and we were all ready at eight (8) next morning to visit those places of interest which brought us here, Vis: Kenilworth Castle, Warwick Castle and Stratford on Avon. Frank Smith273 and the boys274 were anxious to get on to London, so they parted with us at Rugby, we ______expecting to join them on tomorrow. We took a comfortable post chaise, and, in one hour, we arrived at Kenilworth275 (5) five miles from Coventry. We found the Castle, a total ruin, a stable 272 Smith was probably referring to the “King’s Head Hotel” in Coventry. It was destroyed in the blitz during WWII. For a photo of the hotel, see “Coventry-Now & Then,” date posted unknown, Historic Covington, date accessed 4/28/09, electronic address: 273 Francis Williamson Smith (died 1865). Superintendent Smith’s nephew. Young Smith graduated from VMI in 1856. He was an acting assistant professor of mathematics at VMI, 1855-1856. He was also a graduate of the University of Virginia and attended L’Ecole Impériale des Ponts et Chaussées, Paris, France. See The 1989 Register of Former Cadets, 48, 60. 274 The VMI alumni in the traveling party apparently included Francis Williamson Smith (VMI 1856), John Bowdoin Cocke (VMI 1856), Robert Barraud Taylor (VMI 1857), Robert Barbour Terrill (1858), and – possibly -- Albert Horace Grady (VMI 1865). 275 From “Introduction” to Kenilworth Castle, English Heritage Guidebooks (2006), p. 3: Francis H. Smith in Europe, 1858. Letterbook #1 Page 80 VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives yard and hay ricks occupying the space of the yard between the princely stables of the Earl of Leicester; but such a ruin, to one who had but recently read the striking description of Sir W. Scott, I have not yet seen. It would surely embrace within its limits a dozen of the Scotch Castles as Sir Walter suggests. Rooms are pointed out as the dressing and sitting rooms of Elizabeth and the one occupied by Amy Robsart. Kenilworth Castle Photo by the editor We could also see, the road by which the Queen with her brilliant Cortege approached the Castle. The immense lake which surrounded the Castle and added such beauty to the scenery around, has long since been drained and is now used as a meadow, and we saw the hay- ______ “Kenilworth Castle … was a royal castle for most of its history…. Its wall enclose a series of outstanding works of medieval and early Renaissance architecture. “The first castle was established in the 1120s by the royal chamberlain, Geoffrey de Clinton. He built most of the Norman keep and also founded Kenilworth Priory close by. In the early 13th century King John added an outer circuit of stone walls and a dam to hold back a great lake…. It withstood a full-scale siege in 1266. “Subsequently the castle was developed as a palace. John of Gaunt, son of King Edward III, constructed the great hall, with associated apartments and services. In the 15th century, the castle was a favoured residence of the Lancastrian kings, who were drawn here by the excellent hunting. King Henry V built a retreat called ‘the Pleasance in the Marsh’ at the far end of the lake. In 1563, Elizabeth I granted the castle to her favourite, Robert Dudley, earl of Leicester. He converted Kenilworth into a great prodigy house for her entertainment, which culminated in 19 days of festivities in 1575. “The castle’s fortifications were dismantled in 1650 after the Civil War…. In 1821, the ivy-clad ruins became famous as the setting for Sir Walter Scott’s novel, Kenilworth, which romanticized the story of Robert Dudley, Queen Elizabeth and Amy Robsart.” Francis H. Smith in Europe, 1858. Letterbook #1 Page 81 VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives makers busy at their harvest on the very spot once covered by this lovely sheet of water. Kenilworth was given by Cromwell to his followers, and they demolished it and left it a ruin. It is now owned by Lord Clarendon. A short ride brought us to Warwick.276 This is a country town of some 20,000 inhabitants and in its midst is the Celebrated Castle of Warwick, owned and occupied by Earl Warwick. Warwick Castle Public domain illustration from Wikipedia This is an old Castle, which withstood the Armies of Cromwell and is as complete as it was when first built. It is not very large, but it is very perfect. You enter by a port cullis gate, and the same portcullis now guards its entrance. The moat has been removed and the drawbridge, but great antiqueness characterizes its exterior. The interior is as elegant as anything I have seen in England, perhaps nothing inferior to Chatsworth, although not on so grand as scale ______ At the entrance we saw the Armor of Guy, Earl of Warwick, who founded the Castle near one (1000) thousand years ago.277 His armor weighs one (100) hundred pounds and he was eight (8) 276 Warwick Castle is located on the banks of the River Avon in Warwick, Warwickshire. It was built by William the Conqueror in 1068 and used as a fortification until the 17th century. As Smith points out, the castle survived the English Civil War. Fourteen years after Smith’s visit, the castle was extensively damaged by fire. It was restored in 1872-75. For history, layout, and photos, see “Warwick Castle,” at “Wikipedia.” See also “Warwick Castle,” date posted unknown, Heart of England, date accessed 4/28/09, electronic address: 277 Smith did not seem to be aware that Guy of Warwick was, in fact, a legendary English hero derived from French medieval stories. Guy’s adventures date from the 13th to the 17th century and involve a number of well-known stock characters from early ballads, dragons, and amazing feats of arms. One of the heirs of the earls of Warwick was given the name “Guy” in 1298, and a tower added to Warwick Castle was named “Guy’s Tower.” See “Guy of Warwick,” at “Wikipedia.” Francis H. Smith in Europe, 1858. Letterbook #1 Page 82 VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives feet eleven (11) inches high. His porridge pot is also exhibited, and weighs eight (807) hundred and seven pounds of the best bell metal, and was made eight (800) hundred years ago. Our guide, an old woman, says it is now used as a punch bowl and she saw it emptied three times, when the present Earl of Warwick came of age. It takes eighteen (18) gallons of rum, one (100) pounds of sugar, eighteen (18) gallons of water to make it full of punch, besides lemons etc. In the Castle we saw Queen Anne’s bed,278 which was used by Victoria when she visited Warwick and was presented to Earl Warwick by George ______ III.279 The armor and coat of mail and doublet of the Duke of Montrose were also shewn [sic] to us. Here also is a fiddle presented to Elizabeth by Leicester on her visit to Kenilworth. In the Conservatory, we saw the celebrated Warwick vase, dug up recently near Rome.280 The grounds are most strikingly beautiful and interspersed with majestic old trees – the effect of which was more striking to me than that at Chatsworth – Although there was evidently more artistic skill displayed at the latter. We saw the Earl of Warwick, but not to speak to him.281 Leaving Warwick at twelve (12) we had eight (8) miles to ride to bring us to Stratford on Avon.282 Our horses were so good, and the roads were in such fine order, that by one (1) oclock we were at the Red Horse Hotel at Stratford.283 Having ordered our dinner we at once set out for the house at which ______ 278 In June 2008, Sotheby’s auctioned a state bed, removed from Warwick Castle, that had once belonged to Anne, Queen of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1702-1714). The notice of the sale included the following: “the bed and furniture of this room are of crimson velvet, embroidered with green and yellow silk. They belonged to Queen Anne: and were given, by the present King, to the late Earl of Warwick.” 279 King George III (reign 1760-1820). See “Wikipedia” and Dictionary of National Biography. 280 The Warwick Vase is a 10-foot tall Roman marble vase discovered in Rome in 1771. It was found in fragments, was restored, and passed to the 2nd Earl of Warwick who put it on display at Warwick Castle. See “Warwick Vase,” at “Wikipedia.” 281 George Guy Greville, 4th Earl of Warwick (1818-1893). See Dictionary of National Biography. 282 Stratford-on-Avon, the birthplace of William Shakespeare, is located in Warwickshire. In the Middle Ages and in Shakespeare’s time, the town was the market center of a wool producing area. It remained a center for sheep and wool through most of the 19th century, and was so when Smith visited. For description, history, and photos, see “Stratford-on-Avon,” at “Wikipedia.” 283 For a number of postcard views of the Red Horse Hotel (in the 1920s) and other scenes of Stratford- upon-Avon, see “Red Horse Hotel Stratford-upon-Avon,” date posted unknown, Postcards of the Past, date accessed 5/3/09, electronic address: Francis H. Smith in Europe, 1858. Letterbook #1 Page 83 VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives the great Shakespere was born.284 We found the old fashioned house in charge of the Shakesperian Society, and who are desirous to preserve it in its original simplicity. For many years the lower room was used as a butchers stall and none could look around and contemplate scenes which the simple room and its surroundings presented without the wonder which we all expressed and felt. I bought some views of the house and room from the young woman, who shewed the house to us; and we went then to Trinity Church, on Avon, in which S. was buried; and I send the views of this also; -- We did feel as if we were standing on holy ground, and as the Sexton removed the Carpet which covers the plain slab immediately in front of the Chancel, and underneath which, rest the remains of William ______ Shakespeare, I almost held my breath as I read these lines, penned by his own mind “Good frend for Jesus’ sake forbear “To dig the dust enclosed heare “Blese be ye man yt spares these stones “And curst be he yt moves my bones.285 A mural monument is placed on the wall near by, and which bears the following inscription by Ben Jonson. Let Thomas translate the latin for you. INDICIO PYLIUM, GENIO SOCRATEM, ARTE MARONEM, TERRA REGIT, POPULUS MAERET, OLYMPUS HABET [A Pylus in judgment, a Socrates in genius, a Maro in art, The Earth buries him, the people mourn him, Olympus possesses him.] Stay passenger why goest thou by so fast? Read if thou canst, whom envious death hast plast Within this Monument Shakspear: with whome 284 From 1879 Harper’s Magazine (cited above): “It [the Shakespeare House] is a little two-story cottage of timber and plaster, on the north side of Henley Street, in the western part of the town. It must have been in its pristine days, at least twice as fine as most of the dwellings in its neighborhood. The one-story house, with attic windows, was the almost invariable fashion of building in all English country towns till the seventeenth century. This cottage, besides its two stories, had dormer-windows above its roof, a pent- house over its door, and altogether was built and appointed in a manner both luxurious and substantial. Its age is unknown; but the history of Stratford reaches back to a period three hundred years antecedent to William the Conqueror, and fancy, therefore, is allowed the amplest room to magnify its antiquity. It was bought, or at all events occupied, by Shakspeare’s [sic] father in 1555, and in it he resided till his death in 1601, when it descended by inheritance to the poet. Such is the substance of the somewhat confused documentary evidence and of the emphatic tradition which consecrate this cottage as the house in which Shakspeare was born. The point, as is well known, has never been absolutely settled. John Shakspeare, the father, in 1564, was the owner not only of the house in Henley Street, but of another in Greenhill Street, and of still another at Ingon, about a mile and a half from Stratford, on the road to Warwick. William Shakspeare might have been born at either of these dwellings, and it is not impossible that several generations of the poet’s worshippers have been dilating with emotion in the wrong place. Tradition, however, has sanctified the Henley Street cottage; and this accordingly, as Shakspeare’s cradle, will doubtless be piously guarded to a late posterity.” 285 For a photo of Shakespeare’s grave, see “The Curse on Shakespeare’s Grave,” date posted unknown, About.com:United Kingdom Travel, date accessed 5/3/09, electronic address: Francis H. Smith in Europe, 1858. Letterbook #1 Page 84 VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives Quick nature dide: whose name doth deck ys tombe, Far more, then cost: sieh all, yt he Hath writt, Leaves living art, but page, to serve his witt Obiit An. Dc 1616 Alates 53 Dec 23 Apr286 The Clerk shewed us the parish register and there I saw the place where Shakespeare name was recorded in his baptism as follows. 1564 Apil 24. Gulielmus, filius ______ Johannes Shakspear. Monument to William Shakespeare Public domain illustration from Wikipedia You may well imagine that we had plenty to occupy our minds after all we had seen this day, in our ride back to Warwick at which point we were to take the cars for Oxford. We reached Warwick one hour and a half before the Cars left, and this time enabled us to visit old St Mary’s Church287 in which were buried Earl Leicester and his third wife.288 They lie 286 Smith, or his clerk, made several errors in transcribing these inscriptions. They are corrected here. See “Shakespeare’s funerary monument,” at “Wikipedia.” 287 The Collegiate Church of St. Mary, Warwick. This church is the Church of England parish church of Warwick. It dates to 1123 when it was created by Roger de Beaumont, 2nd Earl of Warwick. The church was rebuilt in the 14th century by Thomas de Beauchamps, Earl of Warwick, and his descendants built Beauchamp Chapel, in which Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, is buried. See “The Collegiate Church of St Mary, Warwick,” at “Wikipedia.” 288 Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester (1532-1588) was the favorite of Queen Elizabeth I. He held many high offices during her reign and sought to marry Elizabeth, but court opposition prevented this. He was Francis H. Smith in Europe, 1858. Letterbook #1 Page 85 VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives in the Chapel built by Earl Beauchamps. At half past six we were on our way to Oxford. On the road we passed through Banbury, and we all looked out to see whether we could see the “old woman” riding on her “Cock Horse” to “Banbury Cross.” We did not see the old lady, but we bought some Banbury Cakes, which if not made by the veritable dame, were certainly made by one of her numerous posterity.289 ______ It appears that in Banbury there is a small house in which the descendants of one old lady, by the name of Bettie White;290 have made and sold cakes for more than three (300) hundred years, until within the eight (8) years past. The cross in the Crossroad is gone, but the Citizens are about putting up a new one at the cost of ₤1000.291 So you must be sure and let Sallie and the Baby understand, that after this visit to Banbury, I shall be certainly able to add a few variations to the Song of the “Rowdies.”292 involved in a number of scandals, including suspicion that he had his first wife murdered. His second (possibly third) wife was Lettice Knollys, widow of Walter Devereux, Earl of Essex. The tomb of Robert and Lettice Dudley is located in Beauchamp Chapel. See “Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester,” at “Wikipedia,” and in Dictionary of National Biography. 289 Banbury is a town in Oxfordshire, 64 miles northwest of London. The site dates to the Iron Age and was developed later in the Anglo Saxon and Danish periods. In the Middle Ages it was a market center. It is located at the junction of Salt Way Road and Banbury Lane. Like many similar towns, Banbury had a cross at its center, but this – and others – was destroyed by Puritans in 1600-1602. A new Banbury Cross was erected in 1859, shortly after Smith’s visit. The nursery rhyme “Ride a cock horse to Banbury Cross” refers to the cross destroyed by Puritans: Ride a cock-horse to Banbury Cross, To see a fine lady upon a white horse; Rings on her fingers and bells on her toes, And she shall have music wherever she goes. According to an article in “Wikipedia,” “The earliest surviving version of the modern rhyme in Gammer Gurton’s Garland or The Nursery Parnassus, printed in London in 1784, differs significantly from modern versions in that the subject is not a fine lady but ‘an old woman.’ The version printed in Tommy Thumb’s Song Book in America in 1788… has the ‘fine lady,’ but the next extant version, in the Tom Tit’s Song Book (printed in London around 1790) had: A ring on her finger A bonnet of straw, The strangest old woman That ever you saw.” It appears that Smith may have been familiar with this early version of the rhyme as he refers to the “old woman.” See “Banbury” and “Ride a cock horse to Banbury Cross,” at “Wikipedia.” 290 Smith is referring to “Bett’s Cake Shop” at 85 High Street, Banbury, that was run by descendants of Betty White. See “Baking for Britain: Banbury Cakes from Oxfordshire,” date posted October 2005, Baking for Britain, date accessed 4/29/09, electronic address: 291 The new Banbury Cross was erected in 1859. See “Ride a cock horse to Banbury Cross,” at “Wikipedia.” 292 “The Song of the ‘Rowdies’” may be a reference to so-called “rowdy” songs by slaves in America. They are related to minstrel songs. Francis H. Smith in Europe, 1858. Letterbook #1 Page 86 VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives We had a pleasant ride in the cars through a most lovely country, to Oxford and reached our Hotel, The Angel,293 at half past eight. We had been tossing about all week so much, that we all felt glad that Saturday night was followed by a Sabbath of rest, for bodies as well as souls needed the ______quiet of the Holy day, and we went to our beds with grateful hearts to the Father of our mercies for his protecting care over us during another week of our travels. We rose on a lovely morning today, and breakfasting at ten, we went to St Mary’s Church294 nearly opposite to our hotel, and at which The Judges Sermon295 was to be preached this season being the beginning of the Assize Term of the Judges.296 Here was quite a ceremony at the Church, on receiving the two judges in their Scarlet robes, and powdered wigs, introduced by the ushers and surrounded by the liveried servants etc. Considering that this was Oxford, the Sermon was simpler than I had anticipated. The whole of the Psalter was Chanted by the boys in the Choir, in a very appropriate manner. The Service was read in a common way and ______ a sermon appropriate to the occasion was preached from the Text – “Beware of Covetousness”. The Sermon was opened by a reference to the fact that about 300 years before, the Martyr Latimer297 who was burned not far from that church, had preached before that Court from the same text, and after reading it four times – “Beware of Covetousness” etc., etc., etc. he added – Brethren were I to spend the whole time, four hours or more and say only these words, “Beware of Covetousness” I should probably do all that might be necessary to do.” 293 The Angel Hotel, formerly the Angel Inn, began as the Tabard Inn, an establishment in existence in Oxford about 1391. Its name was changed to the Angel in 1510. The Angel, located on High Street, was the main coaching inn of Oxford in the 18th and 19th centuries, until it declined with the coming of the railway. In 1865, the Angel was closed and converted into shops, and in 1876 the main section was demolished. Only a small portion of the building exists today. Smith probably arrived at the hotel on “The Regulator,” a coach that ran from Oxford to Warwick and back, through Banbury and Southam. For an engraving and history of the Angel Inn and Hotel, see “The Angel Hotel,” date posted 11/08, Oxford History Home Page, date accessed 4/29/09, electronic address: 294 University Church of St. Mary the Virgin (St. Mary’s), located on High Street, Oxford, across the street from the site of the Angel Inn and Hotel. It is the largest and the oldest church in the city, dating to before 1086. The church was the first building of Oxford University, whose date of founding is unknown but has existed since 1096. See “University Church of St Mary the Virgin,” at “Wikipedia.” 295 Sermons on the Book of Judges. 296 Assize Term of Judges were periodic criminal courts which heard the most serious cases. From “Assize Court,” at “Wikipedia”: “The word assize refers to the sittings or sessions… of the judges, known as ‘justices of assize,’ who were judges of the King’s Bench Division of the High Court of Justice who traveled across the seven circuits of England and Wales on commissions… setting up court and summoning juries at the various Assize Towns.” These courts were abolished in 1971. 297 Hugh Latimer (1485-1555). Originally ordained as a Catholic, Latimer drew close to Lutheranism during the Reformation and became known as a reformist. Under Queen Mary I, he was tried for his beliefs and, with Nicolas Ridley – known thereafter as the Oxford Martyrs –was burned at the stake in Oxford. See “Hugh Latimer,” at “Wikipedia,” and in Dictionary of National Biography. Francis H. Smith in Europe, 1858. Letterbook #1 Page 87 VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives After so interesting a beginning, I had expected a fine sermon, but although free from the peculiar theology of the Oxford School, it was a plain sermon, and in no respects striking for the Chief Church of this great seat of learning. After Church we walked up to Magdalen Church,298 and there saw the ______spot at which Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer were burned, now made a common place of resort, to those who venerate the memories of valiant soldiers of the Cross.299 The burning of Latimer and Ridley from John Foxe’s Book of the Martyrs (1563) Public domain illustration from Wikipedia An appropriate memorial was erected here in 1841 and I send a copy of the superscription as I copied it from the Monument To the Glory of God 298 St. Mary Magdalen’s Church, Oxford.” The Church of England Church located on Magdalen Street, Oxford. It is near the memorial to the Oxford Martyrs. See “St Mary Magdalen’s Church, Oxford,” at “Wikikpedia.” 299 Here is what Benjamin Silliman wrote about the memorial in 1851: “MONUMENT TO RIDLEY, LATIMER, AND CRANMER. – The grand monument erected in 1841, called the Martyrs’ Memorial, to the memory of Ridley, Latimer, and Cranmer, is one of the most interesting objects in Oxford. It is 73 feet high, and stands in St. Giles’ street, near the place where these venerable witnesses to the truth were burned for the crime of heresy. [He then quotes the inscription.] They were burned in 1555. The Oxford dereliction of the principles of the Reformation, in little accordance with this monument, is still going on; and Dr. Pusey is himself, as I was credibly informed, engaged in hearing confessions, and is even more zealous than ever in propagating his own peculiar views.” See Silliman, A Visit to Europe in 1851, 1: 95. Smith would have been entirely sympathetic with Silliman’s criticism of the resurgence of Catholicism in England at the time and with his negative views of Pusey and the Oxford Movement. For additional photos, see “Martyrs’ Memorial Oxford,” date posted unknown, Sacred Destinations, date accessed 5/3/09, electronic address: Francis H. Smith in Europe, 1858. Letterbook #1 Page 88 VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives And in grateful commemoration of his servants Thomas Cranmer Nicholas Ridley Hugh Latimer Prelates of the Church of England, who near this spot yielded their bodies to be burned Bearing witness To the sacred truths which they had Affirmed and maintained Admidst the errors of the Church of Rome ______ And rejoicing that To them it was given Not only to believe in Christ But also to suffer for his sake This monument was erected By public Subscription In the year of our Lord God 1841 Monday July 12 I was interrupted last evening by the arrival of the hour for evening service, six o’clock. We went to St Peters-le-Bailey.300 I do not know from what its name is derived, but doubtless it was a patron of the early church. It was a plain edifice and congregation, on High Street, and as soon as I entered, I was impressed with it being indeed the House of God. The walls were covered with the most appropriate evangelical sentences from the Bible. The beatitudes were placed, one by one, on the carved windows. Immediately behind the pulpit and on a level with the preachers head was the text “We preach not ourselves but x [Christ] Jesus the Lord etc.” In front of my seat (the Rectors pew) was the text, “Thou ______will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee”, corresponding as it did with what you had written in my bible. I took great comfort from the precious truths of God’s word. The services were appropriately read, and the singing, from a large choir, was cordially united in by a large congregation. I only objected to the “[Clerking?]” from a clerk, with a horrid voice, who sat in the Choir and who gave out the hymns. The Minister who preached was the Rector, Rev Mr Linton,301 and a thoroughly evangelical discourse, and one that harmonized more with your 300 St Peter-le-Bailey Church. The medieval church stood inside the Oxford City wall, close to Oxford Castle, and thus the name “Bailey.” The original church collapsed in 1726. Its replacement, which Smith visited, was demolished in 1874 to allow a widening of the street. See “West Gate and its church: Oxford City Wall,” date posted unknown, Stephanie Jenkins, electronic address: 301 Henry Linton was rector of St. Peter-le-Bailey. He published a collection of his sermons in 1865, Jesus and the Resurrection: Being an Exposition, in Twelve Sermons, of I Corinthians XV (digitized by Google). Francis H. Smith in Europe, 1858. Letterbook #1 Page 89 VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives views, I have not heard for many a day. I thought that Bishop Meade302 would have delighted to hear this gospel sermon in the midst of Oxford. The Corporation Church is also evangelical. Indeed I have seen nothing that indicates a predominance of the peculiar views303 of some of the Oxford divines in the City. ______ The Colleges are suspended now and this may be in some measure the reason. I have not seen Mr. Norgrove’s304 Mother yet, I did not like to hire a cab yesterday, but as we go to Blenheim today, the seat of the Duke of Marlboro, only nine (9) miles in the Country, I will call at her home either going out or returning. We expect the mail this evening when I shall hope to have a bundle of letters from you. London July 13.305 You may be sure my dearest Sarah, my heart leaped for joy, when John Cocke handed me, last evening, your two letters of the 15th and 22d June, one from Thomas of the 24th and your post-script to it of the 25th, with Frank’s little remembrance enclosed, although the dates were but a fortnight after I had sailed from America, and did not afford me the comfort to know that you had received the news of our safe arrival. Still it was great comfort for us, to hear that you were all well ______except the dear little baby, who has been sick. Despite Fanny’s horror of so long an epistle, I can say to you, that I read every world of both letters over twice, before I went to bed, and this after a fatiguing days journey, I had also a letter from Col Cocke306 of much affection dated 22d June. The boys were delighted to see us, as much so as if we had been separated six (6) months. We had made arrangements to stay at the Castle and Falcon Hotel, No 5 Aldergate 302 The Reverend William Meade (1789-1862). See previous reference to this Virginia churchman who, like Smith, opposed Tractarianism and the Oxford Movement. 303 Smith’s opinion of views that reflected Tractarianism and the high church Oxford Movement. 304 Henry Norgrove (1815-1881) was a merchant in Lexington. He and his wife were close friends of the Smiths. A plaque in R. E. Lee Episcopal Church, in Lexington, provides the following information: “Henry Norgrove of Oxford, England, and Matilda B. Norgrove, his wife, first Episcopalians to come to Rockbridge County.” He and Smith were among the founders of R. E. Lee Church (then known as Grace Episcopal Church). Matilda Norgrove (1842-1904) was also born in Oxford. 305 It appears that Smith arrived in London Monday evening, 12 July. That afternoon, a portion of the city was rocked by an explosion in a fireworks factory that killed or injured a large number of people. According to an article in The Times of London, published the next day, “The present being the most busy part of London and suburban seasons both factories were more than usually occupied in preparing those dangerous projectiles.” The incident was reported on for days in The Times as the seriousness and extent of the explosion became better known. The 13 July issue also carried an article from the New York Times reporting on the controversial issue of the day, “The Right of Search and the Slave Trade.” According to the article, “Our controversy with England on the right of search is at an end. According to our Washington advices the British Government concedes, in its fullest extent the doctrine asserted by the United States, and abandons every pretension to the right of visiting, searching, detaining, or arresting American vessels for any purposes whatever. England acknowledges the entire and perfect immunity of American ships upon the high seas, and will instruct her officers to act accordingly.” See The Times, Tuesday, July 13, 1858 (No. 23,044), p.12. 306 COL Philip St. George Cocke, president of the VMI Board of Visitors at the time of Smith’s visit to Europe. See earlier reference to COL Cocke, under John Cocke. Francis H. Smith in Europe, 1858. Letterbook #1 Page 90 VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives Street, which house Mr Paul recommended to us – but on the boys reaching here, Mr Peabody307 who has been very kind to them, advised them to take a lodging house higher up in the city, and recommended to them No 13 Half Moon and Piccadilly. Half moon is a by street that enters Piccadilly opposite St James’ Square and ______ Buckingham Palace as it looked on the accession of Queen Victoria in 1837 Public domain illustration from Wikipedia we are only thirteen (13) doors from the corner of Piccadilly,308 one of the thoroughfare of London – immediately opposite Buckingham Palace309 and in full view of the Houses of Parliament.310 The boys secured a full suit of rooms, with parlors etc. and we pay only Seven guineas a week, averaging about twenty one (21) shillings each per week or $5 each. I found my bed last night a most delightful one, but I was so excited by the events of the day and reading your letter, that I did not sleep well, as my mind was far away among those so precious to me. You do not know the preciousness of a long letter from home, to one in a foreign land, Surrounded by scenes that are entirely foreign to you. You are all the time in a state of bewilderment, and when a letter comes, you are at once transported to home and home scenes, and it dissipates the ______ 307 George Peabody was Smith’s banker in London. See earlier references. 308 Piccadilly is a major street in London. It was named for the piccadills (stiff collars with scalloped edges and lace) produced by a tailor named Robert Baker. With the great fortune he made producing piccadills, Baker purchased land in this section of London and built a large house known as Piccadilly Hall. In the 19th century, the street was still the location of a number of great mansions of wealthy families, as Smith points out in his letters, but most of these structures had been demolished by the beginning of the 20th century. See “Piccadilly,” at “Wikipedia.” 309 Buckingham Palace is the official London residence of the British monarch. It began as a townhouse for the Duke of Buckingham in 1703 and was acquired by George III in 1761. It became the official residence on the accession of Queen Victoria in 1837. She and her husband Prince Albert expanded it, adding the large East Front facing the Mall. Queen Victoria left the palace for Windsor on the death of Prince Albert in 1861. See “Buckingham Palace,” at “Wikipedia.” See also photo of Buckingham Palace at 310 See photo of Westminster Palace (Houses of Parliament) at Francis H. Smith in Europe, 1858. Letterbook #1 Page 91 VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives whirl before existing, and your heart and affections polarize to that one dear spot. So it is with me, and so it is, I doubt not [,] with any one who has so happy a home as God has blessed me with. It is no wonder then, that I dreamed of Home, and its dear ones, and fancied I was again among you all and I was willing to lie, in a half wake state, to enjoy the visions which flitted across my mind. Our trip from Oxford to Blenheim was a pleasant one. The day was warm, the first warm day I have felt since I left America, for here we have been dressed in our winter clothing, with overcoats and at times glad to get by fire. The road from Oxford to Woodstock passed through a poor country, and the most uninteresting that I had noticed in England. Blenheim is but nine ______ Blenheim Palace Public domain illustration from Wikipedia miles from Oxford, but traveling on level ground and with swift horse, we had no difficulty in reaching it in an hour. Blenheim is part of the celebrated Woodstock Park and was donated to the Duke of Marlborough by Queen Anne as a reward for his campaign against the French and Bavarian and especially for the victory gained at Blenheim.311 The Queen not only gave this fine estate to him, but had it fitted up, in a scale of magnificence, inferior to few establishments in the Kingdom. In addition to all that was thus done as a reward, to the Duke, the successive Dukes who have inherited it have added from time to time, much to its splendor, but from what I learned the chief work was done by the first and great Duke’s widow, Sarah, the Duchess of Marlborough,312 who survived her husband many years. She built a monumental pillar in a commanding position, commem- ______ 311 Blenheim Palace was a gift to John Churchill, First Duke of Marlborough, in celebration of his victory over the French at the Battle of Blenheim, 13 August 1704, in the Wars of Spanish Succession. It is located on the Manor of Woodstock, also a gift to the Duke. For photos of the palace and a history, see “Historic Blenheim Palace,” date posted unknown, Blenheim Palace, date accessed 5/40/09, electronic address: 312 Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough (1660-1744), was a close friend of Queen Anne. She married John Churchill in 1677. See Dictionary of National Biography. Francis H. Smith in Europe, 1858. Letterbook #1 Page 92 VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives orative of his great victory, which is capped by a statue of the Duke; and still more, to preserve a record of the event, she planted one (150) hundred and fifty years ago, young Elm trees in the order of the Battle of Blenheim. These trees are now massive forest trees, and add much to the picturesque view of the whole. Before going into the mansion, we rode through the Park, which is of immense magnitude, enclosed as it is, by a wall twelve (12) miles long. This park contains two (2000) thousand deer, and some three (3000) thousand cattle of various kinds and we passed several flocks of pheasants. In the park is the house of the ranger of the forest, the post of Ranger being held, at the time, the gift was made to the Duke of Marlboro, by Wilmot, the witty and I may add the wicked Earl of Rochester. He lived in the ______house and I believe died here. You may remember his history, for after a most wicked and unbelieving life, he died in all the peace and comfort of a true Christian, and Bishop Burnet 313, who attended him in his last hours, gave an account of his conversion, which is published by our tract societies as a Tract. As we passed through the Park, we were shewn the bower and well of Fair Rosamond314, this being the place on which was founded Sir Walter Scotts novel of Woodstock.315 We were admitted to the Mansion at eleven (11). The house is built in the most massive manner of Sandstone, and is truly a monument to a military hero. The halls are adorned with paintings of the best artists, Rubens, Vandyke and Carls [unclear: probably Kneller]. The most splendid room is the library, which is said to be the finest room in England. It is one (186) hundred and eighty six feet ______ long, and contains a handsome marble statue of Queen Anne the benefactress of the Duke. The walls of the state room are beautifully ornamented by rich tapestry, commemorating the battle scenes of the Duke. I did not think the establishment at all to compare with Chatsworth – altho’ the library was certainly superior to any room I have seen. The Chapel contains the remains of the Duke and Duchess, and a monument to him. It was decked in mourning in past for the late Duke who died a year ago. Woodstock is a little town just at the gate of Blenheim and is chiefly noted for having been the residence of the Poet Chaucer. After hearing Mr Everett’s316 fine eulogy on Washington, I felt 313 Gilbert Burnet (1643-1715), a Scottish theologian and Bishop of Salisbury. In addition, Burnet was a historian, known for his History of the Reformation of the Church of England and for his History of My Own Times. As a Whig, he went to the United Provinces in 1687 and became an advisor to the Prince of Orange, the future King William I of England. See “Gilbert burnet,” at “Wikipedia.” 314 Fair Rosamond Clifford (d. 1176?), daughter of Walter de Clifford. Legend has it that she was the mistress of King Henry II and that he built a “wonderful”house for her at Woodstock, built like a maze to protect her. However, the jealous Queen Elianor traversed the maze and murdered Rosamond. See “Fair Rosamond,” at “Wikipedia.” 315 Woodstock, or The Cavalier. A tale of the year 1651, a novel by Sir Walter Scott, published in 1826. The story tells of the escape of Charles II from England after the battle of Worcester. 316 Edward Everett (1794-1865). A Whig politician from Massachusetts. He served in the US House of Representatives, in the US Senate, as President of Harvard University, as United States Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Britain, as Governor of Massachusetts, and as US Secretary of State. He was an unsuccessful candidate for Vice President in 1860 on the Constitutional Union Ticket. Everett was known for his eloquent eulogies of famous men. See “Edward Everett,” at “Wikipedia.” Francis H. Smith in Europe, 1858. Letterbook #1 Page 93 VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives ______anxious to visit Blenheim, for the most brilliant passage in his address was the contrast between this Mausoleum of the Duke of Marlboro and the simple resting place of our own Washington. I did not think much of the gardens of the establishment, altho’ we paid an extra Shilling each, to see them.317 I thought there was an effort to exhibit rock gardens and Esquimaux Cottages and the like, but the whole seemed a burlesque after what we had seen at Chatsworth. There was a cultivation of fine specimens of Forrest [sic] Trees, and this was the best thing we saw, and I took a leaf from an American oak and placed it in my note book. One of the most striking things I saw here was an artificial lake surrounding the Mansion, which added very much to the picturesque view. The Duke of Wellington Illustrated London News, 18 September 1852 I have so low an opinion of the Duke of Marlboro as ______ On 22 February 1858, the equestrian statue of George Washington, by Crawford, was dedicated in Richmond, near the Capitol building. Edward Everett, “a guest of the state,” delivered an oration on that occasion. Smith apparently attended the dedication. See Edward Everett, Orations and Speeches on Various Occasions (Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1959, Google digitized book), 615. 317 American tourists often complained of the fees charged to visit various parts of Blenheim. See Lockwood, Passionate Pilgrims, 84. Francis H. Smith in Europe, 1858. Letterbook #1 Page 94 VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives as a man, that I have no doubt my estimate of him served in some measure to depreciate my estimate of Blenheim, but I could not but reflect that such a reward was aptly selected by Queen Anne as most appropriate to the mercenary character of its owner. 318 318 Benjamin Silliman, who visited Blenheim in 1851, provides a more detailed description of the palace and many of its features that Smith saw in 1858: “The palace of the Duke of Marlborough at Woodstock, presented to him by the nation, in honor of his services, drew us from Oxford for a morning’s excursion…. It was a cold wintry morning, with rain, but we were repaid for a jaunt in uncomfortable weather by a survey of this magnificent palace, which occupied two hours. We entered by the splendid portal erected to the memory of her husband by the surviving duchess of Marlborough. The palace is situated on a plain in the midst of an extensive domain, eleven miles in circuit, laid out in the finest style of an English park. There are 2500 acres covered with the richest verdure, including a beautiful lake, from which large pike are obtained. The palace is an immense structure, and has been greatly improved by the present duke, who, it is said, has recently expended 80,000 pounds upon the establishment. It is in vain to attempt a detailed description. The north front measures 384 feet from one wing to the other. We were courteously conducted through the palace by a man of good appearance, and of civil but formal manners. He was dressed in black – you would take him for a gentleman, and feel that it would be improper to offer him money, but he took it from our party…. “We were taken through one splendid room after another, until it would seem as if there would be no end of them. They were generally lofty, apparently 20 to 25 feet high, and ornamented with rich ceilings, gilding, and fresco paintings. The principal apartments are the hall, the bow-window room, the state bedroom, the billiard room, the breakfast room, the grand cabinet, the small drawing-room, the great drawing-room, the dining-room, the saloon, the green drawing-room, the state drawing-room, the crimson drawing-room, the library, the chapel, and the titian room. This palace had no appearance of being the comfortable home of the family, who, it is said, kept it up out of regard to the glory of their great ancestor; but that they are too poor to live in it in a style of appropriate magnificence. “The gardens or pleasure grounds, and the private grounds were not visible. “The pictures in this palace are numerous, and many of them are admirable. Vandyke, Sir Godfrey Kneller, Rubens, Holbein, Paul Veronese, Leonardi da Vinci, Reynolds, Poussin, Carlo Dolci, Corregio, Rembrandt, Teniers, Titian, and other eminent artists, by mental creations, contributed the living glowing images of their own minds, or transferred living features to the canvas. Many very beautiful and lovely women and princely men look down upon the observer from these animated and eloquent walls; for the palace is, in fact, an immense gallery of pictures, divided among many rooms. The victories of the Duke of Marlborough are displayed in Antwerp tapestry upon the walls of several of the apartments. The tapestry pictures are of great size…. [T]he great Marlborough himself, and his proud, aspiring duchess, lie under the marle pavement of the chapel in the palace…. “One room is 183 feet in length, and contains the ducal library, consisting of 17,000 volumes. They are protected by a wire netting in front. At the upper end of the library is a fine marble statue of Queen Anne. This palace, like most of the ancient public structures in England constructed of oolite, is externally much corroded by time. “These immense establishments are, of course, very expensive in repairs, in embellishments, in service, and in many other ways; but they bring no income, nor, in general, does the vast domain which surrounds the palace. If kept in high order, as they generally are, they require a great number of laborers, especially in the horticultural department; and for all this there is little or no return, unless it may be something towards household for the supplies of food. “Noblemen are not always to be found in their palaces in London. A distinguished foreign minister occupies the establishment of a nobleman at a rent of two thousand pounds, while the nobleman and his family live in retirement. “There is at Blenheim a column or obelisk to the memory of the Duke of Marlborough, which is 134 feet high, crowned with a statue in Roman dress. “The gallery of Titian is secluded in a separate building, and for reasons obvious to those who have seen it, is exhibited in a more reserved manner to artists and amateurs.” See Silliman, A Visit to Europe in 1851, 1: 82-85. Silliman’s veiled reference to the gallery of Titian is explained by an earlier visitor to Blenheim, William Coombs Dana, A Transatlantic Tour (1845), in which he wrote of the “indecent” pictures “of the Francis H. Smith in Europe, 1858. Letterbook #1 Page 95 VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives We returned to Oxford in time to get our dinners, and leaving in the five (5) o’clock train, we were in London seventy (70) miles at half past (7 ½) seven. Mr. Norgrove319 has given me the direction of his mother at James Lea, Iron Founder, Frederick Street, without any number. There is no directory for Oxford and I found it impossible to get any guide to the house. Say to him I will give another hunt when I return to Oxford, but he had better give the number of the ______street. You are entirely right in either way of directing to Peabody. The house is so well know[n] that there is no danger of error – Messrs Geo Peabody etc, Bankers, London, will answer very well. Send me occasionally a newspaper, Gazette,320 Whig,321 and Churchman, and let them be prepaid. By the way always prepay your letters. I find that letters that are prepaid, will always be sent by the regular mail Steamers, but if a steamer, not in the regular line, they will lie over, until the mail Steamer sails, altho’ if prepaid, they will go by the first steamer, and I shall prepay mine in future. What I said to you from New York was to write at a convenient table and not to stoop over your lap as you do. I am going out this morning to see Mr. ______ Peabody and to attend the Golden Lecture322 at the Bank of England. Give my fondest love to my dear children and my warmest and most affectionate regards to Major Preston and all the faculty – Mr Catlett and the young officers, not forgetting all who remember me, Mr and Mrs. Moon,323 Dr and Mrs Estill etc., etc. and accept for yourself the love and affection of your own husband Francis H Smith Mrs Sarah H Smith Lexington Va No 20 London England most gross and indecent character” displayed in the gallery. Dana is cited in Lockwood, Passionate Pilgrims, 85. Smith did not mention the gallery of Titian and probably avoided it. 319 Norgrove, a British-born resident of Lexington, has been mentioned in earlier letters. 320 The Lexington Gazette. 321 Richmond Whig and Public Advertiser. 322 The Golden Lecture was established by William Jones, a Liveryman of the Company of Haberdashers, who died in 1615. The lectures addressed current important issues. 323 Not identified. Francis H. Smith in Europe, 1858. Letterbook #1 Page 96 VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives July 16 1858324 My Dearest Wife I find it is difficult to know where to begin in my attempt to describe to you ______what London is, and I am almost as much puzzled as I was when I first set out to discover for myself what it was. I may give you some idea of the work before me, when I say to you, that London now contains about three (3) millions of population, requiring each year for their necessary supplies 250,000 beeves, 2,000,000 sheep, 30,000 calves, 40,000 pigs. One market alone supplies 5,000,000 head of game, 3,000,000 Salmon, 45,000,000 gallons porter and ale, 2,000,000 gallons Spirits and 70,000 pipes of wine are annually made away with. To supply it with milk, 15,000 cows are kept. To light it at night 375,000 gas lights illuminate its streets, consuming every night 13,000,000 of cubic feet of gas, and 3,000,000 of tons of coal are required to warm its people one year, 25,000 tailors, as many shoemakers, 40,000 milliners, and 170,000 servants are required by the demands of this great city. You will not be ______surprised then, that I was bewildered on Tuesday morning last, to know, where to begin, and how to begin, in my task of learning something about London.325 Every task requires a beginning, but opportunely for us, we had to deliver our letters first to Mr. Peabody, and this led us into the quarter of the city near the bank, and it being Tuesday morning, I suggested to some of our party, that we should go to hear the Golden Lecture at Margarets Lothbury.326 We were soon there in a cab, and I will now give you the result of my First day’s sight seeing London. Our driver was either an ignorant fellow, or he was anxious to make our journey appear longer than it was, (for in London you pay by, distance, unless you arrange before hand to pay by time) as he certainly drove over double the distance that ______we had come from the Hotel on Aldergate St. to our lodgings at the Half Moon. 324 The Times of London during these mid-July days carried continuing reports from special correspondents of massacres of French and English citizens at Jeddah and of British army actions to put down a number of rebellions taking place in India. A number of these reports implied mismanagement of the operations by British commanders. In Parliament, the two houses were at work on the Government of India Bill that eventually placed India under the authority of the Crown rather than under the “trust” of the East India Company. The Times also reported on the progress and difficulties in laying the Atlantic telegraph cable. See The Times, Thursday, July 15, 1858 (No. 23,046), pp. 9-10. 325 Smith probably had a copy of the latest edition of Murray’s Modern London, 1858, which included much of the statistical information he cited. An original 1856 edition of Murray’s in the editor’s collection is used in this study. See Peter Cunningham, Murray’s Modern London, London in 1856 (London: John Murray, 1856), hereafter cited as Murray’s Modern London. 326 The Church of St. Margaret Lothbury. The original medieval church was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666 and was rebuilt 1686-1700, designed by Sir Shristopher Wren. See “St. Margaret, Lothbury, City of London,” date posted unknown, Around British Churches, date accessed 5/5/09, electronic address: Francis H. Smith in Europe, 1858. Letterbook #1 Page 97 VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives Street scene (Cannon Street West) in London (St. Paul’s Cathedral in the background) Illustrated London News, 6 May 1854 We did not care so much about this as we did about the loss of time, for it was already past eleven (11) o’clock, and the lecture commenced at eleven. We were finally landed at St. Margarets’. We found the Church closed and workmen repairing it, but we were soon informed, that the lecture was going on at St. Mary’s Woolnoth.327 We rapidly walked through the narrow streets, in this great centre of business, and found ourselves seated in the gallery, just as they were singing the hymn before the lecture. The Golden lecture is the appointment, under will, of some good man, who left some ₤400 a year to be paid to a lecturer, who once a week, every Tuesday, should deliver a lecture near the Bank of England for the business men. Mellville328 filled the lectureship for some time, but in consequence of bad health ______ brought on by the great affliction he has suffered, from the butchery of his daughter and her family, at the massacre of Cawnpore,329 he has resigned it, as well as his charge at Camberwell.330 His successor is D Moon,331 who lectured on this occasion. There was nothing 327 St. Mary Woolnoth is a Church of England church in London. The building Smith visited, which still exists although reduced in size, was the third church structure on the site, built in 1711-1716. For photos and history see “St Mary Woolnoth,” at “Wikipedia.” 328 Not identified. 329 The Siege of Cawnpore (Kanpur) took place during the Indian rebellion of 1857. It ended with the massacre of the British – men, women, and children – who had surrendered to the Sepoy rebels. For a history of the Cawnpore Massacre and related events, see “Siege of Cawnpore,” at “Wikipedia.” 330 Camberwell, a district in London. Francis H. Smith in Europe, 1858. Letterbook #1 Page 98 VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives striking in him or his lecture. It was a sermon from the text “Strive to enter in at the straight gate etc.” It was a capital sermon, thoroughly evangelical, and we were all well satisfied we had the privilege of hearing it. After the services were over, we examined the church, my own mind being impressed with the idea, that this venerable church, now most tastefully refitted, was associated in some way with John Newton.332 My belief proved to be correct. Newton moved to this parish from Olney, and was rector of it when he died. He is buried in this church, and as I read ______ the inscription which he had penned and which I copied as follows; John Newton Clerk, once an infidel and libertine. A servant of slaves in Africa was by the rich mercy of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ preserved, restored and pardoned, and appointed to preach the faith he had long labored to destroy. He ministered Near 16 years as curate and vicar of Olney in Burks and 28 years as Rector of these united parishes. On Feb 1 1750 he married Mary daughter of the late George Catlett, of Chattan, Kent Whom he resigned to the Lord who gave her On Dec. 15 1790 The above epitaph was written by the deceased, who directed it to be inscribed on a plain ______marble tablet. He died on the 21st Dec 1807, aged 82 years and his mortal remains are deposited in a vault beneath the church. We passed from this interesting Church to the Great Minster of the 331 Not identified. 332 John Newton (1725-1807). As a slave ship captain, Newton had a conversion experience, or “great deliverance,” in 1748. He became a friend of George Whitfield, deacon of the Church of England, evangelical preacher, and leader of the Calvinistic Methodist Church, and he met John Wesley, founder of Methodism. Newton became a minister and curate of the church at Olney, where he preached and wrote hymns. His hymn “Amazing Grace” (first published in 1779 under the title “Faith’s Review and Expectation”) was little known in England but very popular in America.. He left Olney in 1780 and became rector of St. Mary Woolnoth, London, where he served until his death. See “Amazing Grace: The Story of John Newton, by Al Rogers,” date posted 5/09, Graham Pockett, date accessed 5/6/09, electronic address: Francis H. Smith in Europe, 1858. Letterbook #1 Page 99 VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives West, Westminster Abbey.333 It was nearly 3 o’clock, the hour for evening service, the 3d service of the day, when we reached it. Westminster Abbey, London London Illustrated News, 1858 We had to wait until after this was over before we could examine the various chapels.334 We were not idle in the meantime, for entering the Abbey at the Poets corner, 335 we were enabled to examine the Monuments erected to Chaucer,336 Spenser,337 Shakespeare338 and [unclear] Ben Jonson.339 Some of these monuments are “honorary”, the person being buried elsewhere, as is 333 The Collegiate Church of St. Peter at Westminster (Westminster Abbey), located near the Houses of Parliament, has been the site of most of the coronations of English and British monarchs since 1066. Numerous Internet sites exist, some offering a virtual tour of Westminster. See “Westminster Abbey,” at “Wikipedia.” 334 According to Murray’s, “The Abbey is open to public inspection between the hours of 11 and 3 generally; and also in the summer months between 4 and 6 in the afternoon…. The public are not admitted to view the monuments on Good Friday, Christmas Day, or Fast Days, or during the hours of Divine Service, viz., Sundays, at 10 A.M., at 3 P.M., and Evening Service in the Nave at 7 P.M., and daily at 7.45 A.M., 10 A.M., and 3 P.M.” See Murray’s Modern London (1856), 95. 335 According to Murray’s Modern London, a copy of which Smith undoubtedly had with him, “The usual plan observed in viewing the Abbey is to examine Poets’ Corner, and wait till a sufficient party is formed for a guide to accompany you through the chapels. If you find a party formed, you will save time by joining it at once. You can examine the open parts of the building afterwards at your own convenience….” See Murray’s Modern London (1856), 95. 336 Geoffrey Chaucer (1340?-1400) 337 Edmund Spenser (1552?-1599) 338 William Shakespeare (1564-1616) 339 Benjamin Jonson (1572-1637) Francis H. Smith in Europe, 1858. Letterbook #1 Page 100 VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives the case with that of Shakespeare. Before we had gotten through with the Poet’s corner, the services commenced. It was the first time ______ I had ever [never?] heard the service intoned340 which is the practice in most of the Cathedral Services. Of course it was excessively disagreeable to me, and after each prayer, the choristers, some 10 or 12 boys clad in white surplices responded Amen. The effect of the Amen, sounding along the arching of the Abbey, was very fine. The whole of the Psalter was chanted, and the two leading voices which chiefly were heard, were as fine as any operatic music I had heard. The service closed at 4, and then our guide opened to us the various chapels, after the usual fee.341 There are nine separate Chapels342 in the Abbey dedicated to different persons and called by different names, as the Chapel of St. Benedict or the Chapel of the Deans of the College, several of whom are buried here. The most brilliant Chapel is that of Henry VIII and his Queen.343 In the south aisle of the Chapel the Mother of Lord Darnley344 was buried ______ and here also the unfortunate Queen Mary of the Scots lies.345 James 1st346 brought his mother from Peterborough Cathedral to this place, and buried her here. The effigy of the Queen is very beautiful and is believed to be the best likeness of 340 A church service which is recited in a singing voice, a practice that is associated with High Church Anglicanism and probably for this reason was “disagreeable” to Smith. 341 According to Murray’s, the charge for admission was “6d. each person.” See Murray’s Modern London (1856), 95. 342 The nine chapels: Chapel of St. Benedict, Chapel of St. Edmund, Chapel of St. Nicholas, Chapel of the Virgin Mary (Henry VII’s Chapel), St. Paul’s Chapel, Chapel of St. Edward, the Confessor (Chapel of the Kings), Chapel of St. Erasmus, Chapel of St. John the Baptist, Chapel of Abbot Islip. See Murray’s Modern London (1856), 96-101. For a description of the contents of these chapels, see “Westminster Abbey, Chapels and royal tombs,” date posted unknown, British History Online, date accessed 5/5/09, electronic address: 343 Henry VIII (1491-1547), King of England from 1509 to his death, was buried at St. George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle, next to his wife Jane Seymour. Smith was probably referring to the “Chapel of the Virgin Mary” in Westminster, also called “Henry VII’s Chapel. 344 Lady Margaret Douglas (1515-1578), Countess of Lennox, wife of the 4th Earl of Lennox and mother of Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, 1st Duke of Albany (1545-1567). Darnley was the husband of Mary I, Queen of Scots, and father of King James VI of Scotland (King James I of England). Lady Margaret was imprisoned several times in the Tower of London because of her role in Catholic intrigue. See “Margaret Douglas” and “Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley,” at “Wikipedia,” and in Dictionary of National Biography. 345 Mary I, Queen of Scots (1542-1587), wife of Lord Darnley and mother of James VI of Scotland (James I of England). She was executed for treason by Queen Elizabeth. See “Mary I of Scotland,” at “Wikipedia,” and in Dictionary of National Biography. 346 James 1st (1566-1625). King of Scots, 1567-1625; King of England, 1603-1625. See Dictionary of National Biography. Francis H. Smith in Europe, 1858. Letterbook #1 Page 101 VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives her.347 In the north aisle, in the same grave, lie Queen Elizabeth348 and her sister Queen Mary,349 and the chapel contains many of the worthies who figured in the history of England from the time of Elizabeth down to the time of Charles II.350 The most interesting is that of St. Edward the Confessor.351 The centre of the Chapel, is taken up with the shrine of Edward erected in the reign of Henry III,352 and richly inlaid with mosaic work. The Altar tomb of Edward 1st353 bears this inscription “Edwardus primus Scotorum Malleus – hic est;” when the tomb was opened by the antiquarian tourists in ______ 1774 the body of the King was found almost entire with a Crown of tin gilt upon his head, a Sceptre of copper gilt in his right hand, and a scepter and dove of the same in his left, and in this state he is still lying.354 Here is also the altar tomb of Henry V, the hero of Agincourt.355 The head of the King was of solid silver, but it was stolen at the Reformation. In the Chapel are two coronation chairs used at the coronation of all the sovereigns. One containing the famous Stone of Scone, 356 on which the Scottish Kings were crowned, and which Edward 1st carried away with him as an evidence of his absolute conquest of Scotland. After leaving the Chapels, you pass into the aisle and choir of the Abbey, and each bears the tombs and monuments of departed greatness. ______ 347 Confirming that Smith was reading from Murray’s Modern London, is the following: “Tomb, with effigy (by Cornelius Cure) of Mary, Queen of Scots, erected by James I, who brought his mother’s body from Peterborough Cathedral, and buried it here. The face is very beautiful, and is now generally admitted to be the most genuine likeness of the Queen.” See Murray’s Modern London (1856), 98. 348 Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603), reigned 1558-1603. Daughter of Henry VIII, she was the last monarch of the Tudor dynasty. See Dictionary of National Biography. 349 Mary I (1516-1558), reigned 1553-1558. She was Elizabeth’s half sister, daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon. She was known as “Bloody Mary” for her persecution of Protestant leaders. See Dictionary of National Biography. 350 Charles II (1630-1685), reigned 1660-1685. See Dictionary of National Biography. 351 Edward the Confessor (1003-1066), reigned 1042-1066. See Dictionary of National Biography. 352 Henry III (1207-1272), reigned 1216-1272. He made Westminster the seat of his government and expanded the Abbey as a shrine to Edward the Confessor. See Dictionary of National Biography. 353 Edward I (1239-1307), reigned 1272-1307. See Dictionary of National Biography. 354 Smith’s account of the opening of the tomb of Edward I is drawn directly from Murray’s Modern London (1856), 100. 355 Henry V (1386-1422), reigned 1413-1422. He was the victor over the French at the Battle of Agincourt, 1415. See Dictionary of National Biography. 356 The Stone of Scone was used for centuries in the coronation of Scottish monarchs. It was captured in 1296 by Edward I and taken to Westminster Abbey, where it remained until 1996 when it was returned to Scotland. Francis H. Smith in Europe, 1858. Letterbook #1 Page 102 VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives Here I saw the tombs of the rival Statesmen Pitt357 and Fox,358 and was reminded of those lines of Sir Walter Scotts. “The mighty chiefs sleep side by side, “Drop upon Fox’ grave the tear “Twill trickle to his rival’s bier.” Here the Earl of Chatham359 and Canning360 and Castlereagh361 lie. The monument to the Earl of Chatham cost ₤6,000. I was much struck with the statue of Sir R. Peel,362 and also that of Wilberforce.363 Here also Sir Isaac Newton364 finds a place, and Barrow,365 and Dr Johnson, and Sheridan366 and Campbell367 and Garrick,368 and here also is a monument to Major Andre,369 erected by George III. The figure of Washington, in bas relief, has been renewed with a head on three different occasions, “the wanton mischief of some school boy, says Charles 357 William Pitt, the Younger (1759-1806), was Prime Minister from 1783-1801 and from 1804-1806. See Dictionary of National Biography. 358 Charles James Fox (1749-1806). British statesman and leader of the Whig Party during the period of the American Revolution (he sympathized with the American colonists) and the French Revolution. See Dictionary of National Biography. 359 William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham (1708-1778), “the Great Commoner.” British Whig statesman, Secretary of State during the Seven Years War (French and Indian War in America), Prime Minister of Great Britain (1766-1768). Father of William Pitt, the Younger. See Dictionary of National Biography. 360 George Canning (1770-1827), British statesman, Foreign Secretary, Prime Minister (1827), fought a duel with Lord Castlereagh. See Dictionary of National Biography. 361 Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh (1769-1822). Represented the United Kingdom at the Congress of Vienna, Secretary of State for War and the Colonies. Fought a duel with Canning. See Dictionary of National Biography. 362 Robert Peel (1788-1850). Conservative Prime Minister (1834-1835, 1841-1846). As Home Secretary, he created a modern police force (known by many as “bobbies”). See Dictionary of National Biography. 363 William Wilberforce (1759-1833). Led a movement to abolish the slave trade. Evangelical Christian, involved in founding the Church Mission Society. See Dictionary of National Biography. 364 Sir Isaac Newton (1643-1727). Physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, theologian, alchemist. See Dictionary of National Biography. 365 Isaac Barrow (1630-1677). Mathematician, one of the developers of calculus. See Dictionary of National Biography. 366 Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751-1816). Irish playwright and stateman. See Dictionary of National Biography. 367 Thomas Campbell (1777-1844). Poet and one of the founders of the University of London. See Dictionary of National Biography. 368 David Garrick (1717-1779). Actor and playwright. Friend of Dr. Johnson. See Dictionary of National Biography. 369 Major John André (1750-1780). British army officer who assisted Benedict Arnold and was hanged as a spy during the American Revolution. See Dictionary of National Biography. Francis H. Smith in Europe, 1858. Letterbook #1 Page 103 VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives ______ Lamb,370 fired, perhaps with new notions of transatlantic freedom.” Marble statue of the late Sir Robert Peel, in Westminster Abbey Illustrated London News, 1 October 1853 After examining these various tombs we took a view of the Abbey itself. I think injustice is done to this building, as a work of architectural art. So much is attributed to the associations of departed greatness, which gives to the Abbey so much fame, that persons are apt, I think, to overlook the splendor of the edifice itself. It is not so long as York Minster, but it is truly a great work of art, and the Chapel of Henry VII, with its arched room of stone will compare with any thing to be found any where in the Kingdom. We were well tired out after getting through with the Minster, and at 5 P.M. went to the Wellington Hotel, St James street to get our dinner, which cost us 3s.6d. ______each, equal to about 87 ½ cents. As some of the best Opera singers were to sing at the Queen’s Theatre371 at night, I went there at 7 ½ and heard some capital music. This was followed by a ballet, which was disagreeable to 370 Charles Lamb (1775-1834). Essayist, friend of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. See Dictionary of National Biography. 371 The Queen’s Theatre was a theater in London in the Borough of Camden. It opened in 1772 and was demolished in 1969 after a fire. It was known by various names over the years, including The New rooms, The King’s Concert Rooms, The rooms for Concerts of Ancient Music, The Queen’s Theatre (1831-33, Francis H. Smith in Europe, 1858. Letterbook #1 Page 104 VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives me, as appealing to the taste which shews the diseased condition of public morals, and which makes such exhibitions necessary, and this finished my first day in London. 372 Example of a ballet, which Smith found “disagreeable.” Illustrated London News, 24 July 1858 1835-37, and 1839-65), and others. From 1905 to 1969, it was known as The Scala Theatre. See “Scala Theatre,” at “Wikipedia.” 372 The objection to ballet, such as Smith voiced, was to the exhibition of women’s legs on the public stage. In Minnesota, for example, an “anti-tights bill” was introduced in the state legislature as late as 1891 “to protect public morals.” In 1867, Mark Twain wrote “I warn you that when they put beautiful clipper-built girls on stage in this new fashion, with only just barely clothes enough on to be tantalizing, it is a shrewd invention of the devil…. Then the endless ballets and splendid tableaux, with seventy beauties arranged in dazzling half-costumes, and displaying all possible compromises between nakedness and decency….” One never knows, however, if Twain was being ironic. Cited in Milton Meltzer, Mark Twain Himself (U. of Missouri Press, 2002, reprint), 83-84. Francis H. Smith in Europe, 1858. Letterbook #1 Page 105 VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives Greco-Roman Saloon at the British Museum Illustrated London News, 7 April 1855 Second Day in London The morning of our second day was spent in the British Museum.373 A full examination of all that is to be seen here, would be a study for any one. We could only pass from room to room, and see what had been collected as illustrative of science, art and history. Here are deposited the celebrated Elgin Marbles374 – and the ruins ______collected with so much labor by Layard,375 and other travellers from Nineveh and Egypt, the Rosetta376 stone, being one of the most noted memorials of the latter. Here also I saw the human 373 According to Murray’s, “The British Museum originated in an offer to Parliament, found in the will of Sir Hans Sloane (d.1753), of the whole of his collection…. The offer was at once accepted, and an Act passed in 1753, ‘for the purchase of the Museum or Collection of Sir Hans Sloane, Bart., and of the Harleian Collection of MSS, and procuring one general repository for the better reception and more convenient use of the said Collection, and of the Cottonian Library, and additions thereto.’ In pursuance of this Act the sum of 300,000£ was raised by a Lottery; 20,000£ paid for the Sloane Museum, 10,000£ for the Harleian Collection of MSS., and 10,250£ to the Earl of Halifax for Montague House in Bloomsbury – a mansion at that time perfectly well adapted for all the objects of the Museum. The collections increasing, new rooms were added to receive the Egyptian Antiquities obtained in 1801. A new British Museum (the present) was commenced in 1823 … but the building is not yet finished.” See Murray’s Modern London (1856), 152. 374 The Elgin Marbles, from the Parthenon in Athens, were obtained by Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin, who was the British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire from 1799 to 1803. The marbles were taken to England from 1801 to 1812. The British government purchased them from Elgin in 1816 and put them on display in the British Museum. See “Elgin Marbles, “Wikipedia.” For this and other items in the British Museum, see “Explore Highlights,” date posted unknown, The British Museum, date accessed 5/9/09, electronic address: 375 Sir Austen Henry Layard (1817-1894). British politician, traveler, archaeologist, author, and art historian. He is best known for his excavation between 1845 and 1851 of Nimrud, near ancient Nineveh, in ancient Assyria. Two colossal statues from the site were taken to the British Museum in 1847. He was rejected from a government post by Queen Victoria because of his criticism of the British commanders in Francis H. Smith in Europe, 1858. Letterbook #1 Page 106 VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives remains found in the Island of Gaudaloupe,377 in the Lias limestone,378 and also those found fifteen (15) yards below the bones of the Rhinoceros in Gypsum quary. But I was particularly interested in the library room,379 in which were exhibited the first efforts at printing and binding, and engraving, with steel and copper, and many of the most interesting autographs. The first that struck my attention was an autographic note of the Duke of Wellington380 on the field of Waterloo, estimating his Cavalry. It is as follows ______1000 __ 12.9 Vanderlein 1000 12.9 W Ponsonby 1000 12.9 Grants 1000 12.9 Household 1000 8000 12.9 3091 ______ the Crimea. See “Austen Henry Layard” and “Nimrud,” at “Wikipedia.” See also “Explore Highlights,” cited above and Dictionary of National Biography, 32: 915-919. 376 According to Murray’s (available to Smith): “The Rosetta Stone, containing three inscriptions of the same import, namely, one in hieroglyphics, another in a written character called demotic or enchoreal, and a third in the Greek language. This celebrated stone furnished the late Dr. Young with the first clue towards of deciphering of the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. It was found (1799) by M. Bouchard, a French officer of engineers, in digging the foundation of a house near the Rosetta mouth of the Nile, among the remains of an ancient temple dedicated by Pharaoh Necho to the god Necho, and came into the hands of the English by the sixteenth article of the capitulation of Alexandria, which required that all objects of art collected by the French Institute in Egypt should be delivered up to the English. The stone itself is a piece of black basalt, much mutilated, about 3 feet long, by 2 feet 5 inches broad, and from 10 to 12 inches thick….” See Murray’s Modern London (1856), 154. 377 According to Murray’a: “At the W. end of … room (VI.) is the fossil human skeleton brought from Guadaloupe, embedded in a limestone which is in process of formation at the present day.” See Murray’s Modern London (1856), 165-166. A number of fossilized human skeletons were discovered in 1805 near Moule, Guadeloupe. One was taken to the British Museum, and another was taken to Paris. The skeletons were among the first fossilized human bones found. They were examined by scientists and the findings were used in the debates between creationists and evolutionists and in theories on the age of the earth. Smith was a creationist, but he accepted the view that the earth was older than conservative Christians believed. The year after Smith’s visit, Charles Darwin published his On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection. 378 Refers to layers of limestone. 379 According to Murray’s: “The Library of Printed Books is said to consist of 560,000 volumes…. Compared with the great public libraries on the Continent, it ranks with those of Vienna, Berlin, and Dresden, but is inferior in number of separate works to those in Munich and Paris. Here is the library of the Kings of England, presented to the nation by George II., containing exquisite examples of books bound in embroidered velvet for Queen Elizabeth, James I., Charles I., &c. George III’s Library, consisting of upwards of 80,000 volumes, and kept in a separate room, the finest room in the building, was given to the nation by George IV., in 1823, and is said to have cost 130,000£ It is one of the most noble libraries known, remarkable not only for the judicious selection of the works, and the discriminating choice of the edition, but for the bibliographical peculiarities and rarity of the copies…” See Murray’s Modern London (1856), 161. 380 Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (1769-1852), commander of British forces at the Battle of Waterloo, 18 June 1815. See Dictionary of National Biography. Francis H. Smith in Europe, 1858. Letterbook #1 Page 107 VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives Hanoverans 1516 Han City Gd 750 Brunswick Highld 750 10,100 Cavalry June 181815 Here is seen the original Magna Charta of King John,381 the contract with Milton382 for Paradise Lost – the original draft of Kenilworth,383 in Sir W Scotts handwriting. Here I saw the handwriting of Pope,384 Sterne385 and Dr Johnson. The MS. of Burns386 was characterized by his letters to Mr. Moore.387 “I have not the most distant pretence to what the [unclear] crusted guardians of escutcheon call a gentleman. When at Edinburgh last winter, I got acquainted at the Herald office, and looking through the granary of honors, there found almost every name in the Kingdom, but for me -- my ancent, but ignoble blood, Has crept through scoundrels ever since the flood.” Here also is a diary note book of John Locke388 in Paris 1699. ______ The writing of Edward VI, test of scripture as proof of justification by faith. Meditations and prayer by Queen Elizabeth, Dec 20 1546. Book of prayers, used by Lady Jane Grey on the scaffold with marginal notes by herself – autograph of James 1st, Annie Bolyn, Katharine of Aragon, Henry VIII, Queen Mary of Scots, Darnley, Oliver Cromwell, Charles 1st, James II, George I, II, III, Charles V, Francis 1st, Philip II; Shakespeare, Catherine De Med, Henry IV of France, Gustavus Adolphus, Louis XIV, Peter Great, Frederick the Great, Charles XII, Napoleon Bonaparte and our own Washington, Voltaire, Descartis [sic], Corneille, Racini [sic], Vandyke, Rubens, Galileo, M. Angelo, Tasso, Byron, Nelson, Franklin, Chatham, Pitt, Fox, Woolsey, Knox, Cramner, Bacon, Sir 381 King John (1166-1216), reigned 1199-1216. Best known for having sealed Magna Carta in 1215, which limited royal power in England. See Dictionary of National Biography. 382 John Milton (1608-1674). English Puritan poet and author, known for his epic poem Paradise Lost (1667). He served in Cromwell’s government during the English Civil War. See Dictionary of National Biography. 383 Kenilworth: A Romance, published by Walter Scott in 1821. A novel centered on the alleged murder of Amy Rosbart, wife of Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester. 384 Alexander Pope (1688-1744). Eighteenth century English poet, translator of Greek classics, editor of Shakespeare, and author of the philosophical poem The Essay on Man (1732-1734). See Dictionary of National Biography. 385 Lawrence Sterne (1713-1768). English novelist and Anglican clergyman, author of Tristram Shandy, many sermons, and memoirs. See Dictionary of National Biography. 386 Robert Burns (1759-1796). Scottish poet and lyricist, a pioneer of the Romantic movement. He is recognized as the national poet of Scotland. See Dictionary of National Biography. 387 Dr. John Moore, correspondent of Robert Burns. Burns wrote Moore an autobiographical letter that has served as the basis for all later biographies of the Scottish poet. 388 John Locke (1632-1704). English empiricist philosopher, Enlightenment thinker, author of Two Treatises of Government, A Letter Concerning Toleration, and Essay Concerning Human Understanding. See Dictionary of National Biography. Francis H. Smith in Europe, 1858. Letterbook #1 Page 108 VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives I. Newton; Of course each of these autographs gave us food for contemplation, for it was a collection, as you see, ______such as are rarely seen at one time. We then passed into the reading room of the Museum.389 This is a new room in which Authors and others sit and write, while they examine the books; and can only be entered by a ticket. It is 140 feet high and is circular, containing 80,000 volumes. The whole library numbers over half a million. Sight seeing is one of the most fatiguing things. The interest awakened keeps the mind always on a stretch, and you are led to walk about or stand and examine much longer than you are conscious, so that when we had gotten through with the Museum, we felt disinclined for any thing else that day, and after dining at the Wellington and strolling up and down Picadilly for an hour, I was ______prepared to return to my quarters at the Half Moon. 3d Day in London Having taken a cab by the hour, we set out to day to visit the Bank of England390 and the Mews of the Queen; tickets of admittance having been obtained from our Ambassador. The Bank is well worth a visit, and our guide politely took us to every place of interest in it. To guard against fraud, the Bank makes and engraves its own paper, and in the printing room we saw the Engine working off ₤5 notes at the rate of 3000 from each press per hour. 389 According to Murray’s, a “new and spacious Reading-Room” was nearing completion in 1856. By 1860 the room had been completed. It was a circular room “surmounted by an elegant dome, 140 feet in diameter (only two feet less than the Pantheon, and one foot more than St. Peter’s, Rome), and 106 feet high. It is constructed chiefly of iron, by which much space is saved, with brick arches between the main ribs, supported by 20 iron piers. It can receive with ease and comfort, at one time, 300 readers, each being provided with a separate desk…. The whole is thoroughly warmed and ventilated, and the floors are laid with Kamptulikon, to prevent noise and reverberation. There are 35 reading tables, and two are set apart for the exclusive use of ladies.” See Murray’s Modern London (1856 and 1860), 162. 390 According to Murray’s: “BANK OF ENGLAND, THREADNEEDLE-STREET, CITY…. ‘The principal Bank of Deposit and Circulation; not in this country only but in Europe,’ – was founded in 1694, and grew out of a loan of 1,200,000£ for the public service. Its principal projector was Mr. William Paterson, a Scotch gentlemen (encouraged by Charles Montague, afterwards Chancellor of the Exchequer and Earl of Halifax); who, according to his own account, commenced his exertions for the establishment of a National Bank in 1691. By the laws and regulations which he left, no Scotchman is eligible to fill the post of a Director. “From 1694 to 1734, the business of the Bank was carried on in Grocer’s Hall, in the Poultry, when it was removed to an establishment of its own… designed by Mr. George Sampson. East and west wings were added by Sir Robert Taylor, between 1766 and 1786, Sir John Soane subsequently receiving the appointment of architect to the Bank, part of the old building was either altered or taken down, and the Bank, much as we now see it, covering an irregular area of four acres, was completed by him. There is little to admire in it. Yet it has the merit of being well adapted for the purposes and business of the Bank. .. the area in the centre, planted with trees and shrubs, and ornamented with a fountain, was formerly the churchyard of St. Christopher, Threadneedle-street….” See Murray’s Modern London (1856), 61-62. Francis H. Smith in Europe, 1858. Letterbook #1 Page 109 VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives Bank-note printing room at the Bank of England that Smith visited. Illustrated London News, 30 December 1854 The most noted thing about the press was, an index hand attached to it, shewing how many notes were struck off in the day working of the machine; so that the Bank requires the number to be compared with the tale [tally?] of the index. Nine hundred hands are employed in the various parts ______ of this great establishment. No note is even re-issued by the Bank, but when a note comes in, it is at once cancelled, and marked, and sent to the registry office to be recorded and then is deposited in a vault and kept ten years and then burnt; ₤1,000,000 are thus cancelled every day. I saw a note for ₤1,000,000 of the year 1812. One note was shewn to us that was out 111 years before it was returned – dated 1736. The first note ever issued by the Bank was shewn to us dated 1695, and was for ₤555. The most striking arrangement exists by which light coin is declared – working by machinery and casting off the light by great accuracy. We were taken into the Exchequer, where the funds are kept, to be issued and containing at the time ₤40,000,000. The officer kindly ______placed in my hands two bundles, saying, you have now in your hands 1000₤1000 notes, making ₤1,000,000, all the money is kept in separate Iron Safes, and locked by two keys. One Safe containing 70,000 Sovereigns. The Queen’s Mews is the Queen’s Stables.391 We saw some 30 or 40 of the horses used by the Queen, Prince Albert, and the Princes and Princesses. Some of them were very fine horses, The most noted thing here however was the State Coach used on state occasions – built 90 years ago and costing ₤7,000. It is drawn by eight (8) cream colored horses, and is the most gaudy thing of the kind I ever saw, and the harness made of red morocco, and ornamented with heavy gilt ornaments, which were very brilliant. The Queen being in the Isle of Wight, we did not 391 The Royal Mews at Buckingham Palace is a stable for working horses and carriages for the transportation of the monarchs. At the Mews are carriages (and now automobiles) used for coronations, State visits, royal weddings, the State opening of Parliament, and the Gold State Coach, an eight horse- drawn carriage made for George III in 1762. See “Gold State Coach,” at “Wikipedia.” Francis H. Smith in Europe, 1858. Letterbook #1 Page 110 VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives stop to pay our respects to her or leave our cards; but had all needful attention shewn to us by her ______footmen, who were as polite as you please, but always for a shilling’ fee. This finished our morning’s labor, and gave most of us a good appetite for dinner. Dr. M.392 was busy in the afternoon making his arrangements to leave for the Continent, and he did leave in the train last night for Paris. We were sorry to part with him. For he is a good companion, and is an old traveler, and we have all derived great advantage from his hints. We expect to meet at Baden-Baden. I had quite a treat before me for the evening in going to hear Dickens393 read some of his tales. Charles Dickens giving a public reading. Illustrated London News, 31 July 1858 392 Dr. Minegerode 393 Charles Dickens (1812-1870). English novelist of the Victorian period and social reformer. See Dictionary of National Biography. Francis H. Smith in Europe, 1858. Letterbook #1 Page 111 VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives The Poor Traveller – Boots at the Jolly Tree Inn, and Mrs Gamp were the Chapters read this evening.394 It was a rich treat. His voice is not good – but he reads well – but acts better; his reading ______being in the tones of the Characters represented, and this he did to perfection. He seems to be about fifty (50) years of age, is not unlike Mr Hubard the artist;395 and is not a pleasing looking man. No one can fully relish these pieces of Dickens who has not seen English life, and our little experience added very much to our enjoyment. The factotum at the English Inn, is The Boots – or Boot-jack. “Say waiter, what time do the cars go to Chester tomorrow.” “Don’t know, Sir, but I’ll step and ask the boots and he’ll be here in a minute”. “Say waiter, I want my clothes washed, can I get them by 12 tomorrow.” “I’ll see the boots Sir” – and so it is – the boots will take your letters to mail, get you what ever you want, and do whatever you want and no one can get along without the boots. Of course he is to be paid for his services, but this is generally put into ______the bill. Friday July 16. 4 P.M. There are a great many advantages in a tourist having compaynons de voyage while there are many disadvantages if the Company be as large as our own. There is more or less difficulty in centering upon common objects of interest to all. With us, we have not had much inconvenience, from the fact that we could divide our party, and thus have two divisions; each seeking places of interest. There is a great deal of difference too in the inclinations of our party. Some of them are too lazy to make any efforts to see any thing that should interest those who had come so far as we have, others are fond of pleasure, and relinquish much that is edifying for the sake of a game of billiards. Upon the whole however, Dr. M. and myself have made them ______work pretty well. Since writing this morning, a party of us formed a plan to take those objects of interest in our scheme for today, and we have just returned from a visit to White Hall, Westminster Hall, Parliament and The Tower. White Hall396 was the ancient Palace of the Kings from Henry VIII to William III, but of which nothing now remains but the 394 Charles Dickens, The Poor Traveller: Boots at the Holly-Tree Inn and Mrs. Gamp (London:Bradby, 1858). Sairey Gamp was a fat old midwife who was habitually inebriated in Dicken’s stories. 395 William James Hubard (1807-1862). English portrait painter who came to the US in 1824 and lived in Boston and New York. Subsequently he established a portrait studio in Richmond. He painted portraits of General Corbin Braxton, president of the VMI Board of Visitors, 1846-1850, member of Virginia House of Delegates, 1816-1817, Virginia Senate, 1836-1838, died 1852; General William Harvey Richardson (1795- 1876) Adjutant General of Virginia and member of the VMI Board of Visitors; and Colonel Smith. Hubard was commissioned to make a bronze cast of Houdon’s statue of Washington. One of Hubard’s castings stands on the Parapet, in front of Washington Arch, at VMI. 396 According to Murray’s: “WHITEHALL. The Palace of the kings of England from Henry VIII. to William III., of which nothing remains but Inigo Jones’s Banqueting-house, James II.’s statue, and the memory of what was once the Privy Garden, in a row of houses, so styled, looking upon the Thames. It was originally called York House; was delivered and demised to Henry VIII., on the disgrace of Cardinal Wolsey, Archbishop of York, and then first called Whitehall. Henry VIII.’s Whitehall was a building in the Francis H. Smith in Europe, 1858. Letterbook #1 Page 112 VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives Banqueting Hall, now used as a Chapel. From this room Charles I passed to the street, in front, to the block, as he was beheaded at Whitehall Gate. The ceiling of this room is painted by Rubens. Queen Victoria passing Whitehall on the way to Parliament Illustrated London News, 4 February 1854 Tudor or Hampton Court style of architecture, with a succession of galleries and courts, a large Hall, a Chapel, Tennis-court, Cockpit, Orchard, and Banqueting house. James I. intended to have rebuilt the whole Palace, and Inigo Jones designed a new Whitehall for that King… But nothing was built beyond the present Banqueting-house, deservedly looked upon as a mode of Palladian architecture, and one of the finest buildings in the whole of London. Charles I. contemplated a similar reconstruction, but poverty at first prevented him, and the Civil War soon after was a more effectual prohibition. “King Charles I. was executed on a scaffold erected in front of the Banqueting-house, towards the Park… “The ceiling of the Banqueting-house is lined with pictures on canvas…” See Murray’s Modern London (1856), 5-7. Francis H. Smith in Europe, 1858. Letterbook #1 Page 113 VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives The New Houses of Parliament Illustrated London News, 4 February 1854 From this we went to Westminster Hall397—This was the old hall of the Palace of the Kings at Westminster and has been incorporated by Sir Charles Barry398 into the new Houses of Parliament.399 It was originally built by Wm Rufus,400 and was repaired and improved by 397 Smith quoted extensively from Murray’s for his descriptions of Westminster Hall (Houses of Parliament). The following text is from Murray’s: “WESTMINSTER HALL. The old Hall of the Palace of our kings at Westminster, well and wisely incorporated by Sir Charles Barry into his new Houses of Parliament. It was originally built in the reign of William Rufus ([Alexander] Pope calls it ‘Rufus roaring Hall’); and during the recent refacing of the outer walls, a Norman arcade of the time of Rufus was uncovered, but has, I believe, been since destroyed. The present Hall was built, or rather repaired, 1397-99 (in the last three years of Richard II.), when the walls were raised two feet; the windows altered; and a stately porch and new roof constructed according to the design of Master Henry Zenely. The stone moulding or string-course that runs round the Hall preserves the white hart couchant, the favourite device of Richard II. The roof, with its hammer beams (carved with angels), to diminish the lateral pressure that falls upon the walls, is of chestnut, and very fine; the finest of its kind in this country. Fuller speaks of its ‘cobwebless beams,’ alluding to the vulgar belief that it was built of a particular kind of wood (Irish oak) in which spiders cannot live. It is more curious, because true, that our early Parliaments were held in this Hall, and that the first meeting of Parliament in the new edifice was for deposing the very King by whom it had been built. The Law Courts of England, four in number, of which Sir Edward Coke observed that no man can tell which of them is Francis H. Smith in Europe, 1858. Letterbook #1 Page 114 VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives ______ Richard II.401 The interest of this Hall consists in the fact that the old Parliaments were held here, and the first meeting of Parliament in the new edifice was for deposing the very King by whom it had been built. most ancient, were permanently established in Westminster Hall in the year 1224 (the 9th of King Henry III.); and here, in certain courts abutting from the Hall, they are still held, though, there is now (1854) a talk of removing them to Lincoln’s-Inn-fields. These courts are called the Court of Chancery, in which the Lord Chancellor sits…; the Court of Queen’s Bench, in which the Lord Chief Justice of the King’s Bench sits…; the Court of Common Pleas, presided over by a Chief Justice…; and the Court of Exchequer. The courts were originally within the Hall itself, and the name Westmnister Hall is not unfrequently used for the law itself…. “When Peter the Great was taken into Westminster Hall, he inquired who those busy people were in wigs and black gowns. He was answered they are lawyers. ‘Lawyers!’ said he, with a face of astonishment: ‘why I have but two in my whole dominions, and I believe I shall hang one of them the moment I get home.’ “Let the spectator picture to himself the appearance which this venerable Hall has presented on many occasions. Here were hung the banners taken from Charles I. at the battle of Naseby; from Charles II. At the battle of Worcester; at Preston and Dunbar; and, somewhat later, those taken at the battle of Blenheim. Here, at the upper end of the Hall, Oliver Cromwell was inaugurated as Lord Protector, sitting in a robe of purple velvet lined with ermine, on a rich cloth of state, with the gold scepter in one hand, the Bible richly gilt and bossed in the other, and his sword at his side; here, four years later, at the top of the Hall fronting Palace-yard, his head was set on a pole, with the skull of Ireton on one side of it and the skull of Bradshaw on the other….” The remainder of Smith’s descriptions follow the Murray account, with the exception of the mention of “the Seven Bishops,” which Smith added. See Murray’s Modern London (1856), 136-138. 398 Sir Charles Barry (1795-1860). English architect known for rebuilding (1840-1852) portions of the Palace of Westminster (Houses of Parliament) after the fire and destruction of the old Houses of Parliament in 1834. He was knighted in 1852. See Dictionary of National Biography and Adolf K. Placzek, Macmillan Encyclopedia of Architects (New York: Free Press, 1982), 1: 144-147. 399 According to Murray: “THE HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT, or THE NEW PALACE AT WESTMINSTER, on the left bank of the Thames, between the river and Westminster Abbey. This is one of the most magnificent buildings every erected continuously in Europe – probably the largest Gothic edifice in the world. It occupies the site of the old Royal Palace at Westminster, burnt down Oct. 16th, 1834, and covers an area of nearly 8 acres. It has 100 staircases, 1100 apartments, and more than 2 miles of corridors! The architect is Sir Charles Barry, and the first stone was laid April 27th, 1840.” See Murray’s Modern London (1856), 36. 400 William Rufus (William II) (1056-1100). Third son of William I, “the Conqueror.” Reigned from 1087 to 1100. He was disliked by his subjects, at odds with the church, and waged war on the Scots and Welsh. He was killed by an arrow (by accident?) during a hunting party in New Forrest in 1100. See Dictionary of National Biography. 401 Richard II (1367-1400), reigned 1377-1399. During his reign, the Peasant’s Revolt took place, led by Wat Tyler. Geoffrey Chaucer served Richard as a diplomat. According to Wikipedia, “Among Richard’s grandest projects in the field of architecture was Westminster Hall, which was extensively rebuilt during his reign, perhaps spurred on by the completion in 1351 of John of Gaunt’s magnificent hall at Kenilworth Castle. Fifteen life-size statues of kings were placed in the niches on the walls, and the hammer-beam roof by the royal carpenter Hugh Herland… allowed the original three Romanesque aisles to be replaced with a single huge open space.” See “Richard II,” at “Wikipedia,” and in Dictionary of National Biography. Francis H. Smith in Europe, 1858. Letterbook #1 Page 115 VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives The law courts of England, four (4) in number, have sat in this Hall since 1224, in various rooms provided for them; these courts are, Court of Chancery, Queen’s Bench, Common Pleas, and Exchequer. It is said that when Peter the Great402 was taken into Westminster Hall he inquired who those busy people were in wigs and gowns. He was told they were lawyers. He replied with much astonishment – “Why I have but two in my whole dominions, and I believe I shall hang one the moment I get home” – Aside, however from all the interest which ______exists, Westminster Hall is connected with the [unclear] judges who have sat and the advocates who have pleaded in it, here Cromwell was inaugurated as Lord Protector, sitting in a robe of purple, lined with velvet ermine, on a rich cloth of state, with the gold scepter in one hand, and a bible with gilt in the other, and his sword at his side and here four (4) years after, his head was set on a pole with the sculls [sic] of Ireton403 and Bradshaw404 on either side. Here Sir W Wallace405 was tried and condemned, Here Earl Stafford406 was tried and condemned – Here Charles 1st407 was tried and condemned, the upper part of the Hall being hung with scarlet, the King setting covered, while the Naseby408 banners which had been taken from him were hanging over his head. Here also the Seven bishops409 were tried and acquitted in the reign of James II.410 Dr Sacheverel,411 Lord Kilmarnock and 402 Peter the Great (1672-1725), reigned 1682-1725. Tsar of Russia who followed a policy of Westernization of the Russian Empire. Tsar Peter visited London in 1698 as part of his “Great Embassy” begun in 1696. the visit, from the point of view of the English, was intended to strengthen trade between Russia (Muscovy) and England that had been broken off by Tsar Aleksei Mikhailovich in response to the execution of King Charles I in 1649. See Arthur MacGregor, “The Tsar in England: Peter the Great’s visit to London in 1698,” date posted 9/9/04, Arthur MacGregor, date accessed 5/17/09, electronic address: 403 Henry Ireton (1611-1651). English general in the Parliamentary army during the English Civil War. He died of fever in 1651. In 1660, his body was exhumed and he was executed posthumously, along with the corpses of Bradshaw and Cromwell. See Dictionary of National Biography. 404 John Bradshaw (1602-1659). English judge, president of the High Court of Justice at the trial of King Charles I, who was beheaded by the Parliamentarians. In 1661, Bradshaw’s body was exhumed and executed posthumously along with the corpses of Ireton and Cromwell. See Dictionary of National Biography. 405 William Wallace (1270-1305), leader of the Scottish resistance to England. His army routed the English at Stirling Bridge in 1297. He was captured in 1305 and taken to Westminster where he was tried and executed by hanging and quartering. See Dictionary of National Biography. 406 Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham (1455-1483). He is one of the suspects in the disappearance of “the Princes in the Tower.” When Buckingham deserted King Richard III in favor of Henry Tudor, he was captured, convicted, and beheaded. See Dictionary of National Biography. 407 Charles I (1600-1649), reigned 1625-1649. Defeated by the Parliamentarians in the English Civil War, he was captured trying to flee. He was tried and executed for high treason outside White Hall. See Dictionary of National Biography. 408 The Battle of Naseby, battle during the English Civil War, 14 June 1645. The army of King Charles I was defeated by the Parliamentarian New Model Army (“Ironsides,” “Roundheads”) under Oliver Cromwell, one of the commanders.. 409 The Seven Bishops were bishops of the Church of England who were brought to trial, and acquittted, for opposing the Declaration of Indulgence (1688) of King James II. The declaration granted religious freedom to all, including Catholics, and suspended conformity to the Church of England. The bishops Francis H. Smith in Europe, 1858. Letterbook #1 Page 116 VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives ______ Lovat were tried and condemned. Lord Byron was tried for killing Chaworth here.412 Here was also the scene of Warren Hastings trial, when Burke and Sheridan eloquently plead, and where the beauty and wit of England were assembled.413 You may be sure I realized something of the grandeur of such a scene with all its surroundings, when with my guide book414 in my hand, traced, event by event, which has passed here. But I cannot stop to say more now, for the time has arrived for the mail to close, as I am anxious to get this off by the steamer tomorrow. Your devoted Husband F H Smith To Mrs Sarah Smith Lexington Va. No 21 London England Friday night July 16, 1858 My Dearest Sarah I was compelled to close my letter (20) this morning before I had completed all I had to say of my fourth day in London; that my letter might be in time for the Steamer of tomorrow from Liverpool. I commence at once the order of my narrative that my sight-seeing may not be in advance of my record, as I am dependant upon this great regularity, not only that you may be kept advised of my movements, but because I shall be dependant upon my letters to make up my journal when I return. feared a revival of Catholicism in England and loss of central influence of the Anglican Church. These events would have been familiar to Smith, who was concerned over the revival and spread of Catholicism in his own day. See “Seven Bishops,” at “Wikipedia.” 410 James II (1633-1701), reigned 1685-1688. A believer in absolute monarchy and suspected of favoring a Catholic England, he was defeated by the forces of William of Orange and was deposed by Parliament in “the Glorious Revolution.” He was succeeded by William I and Mary as monarchs of England. See, for both, Dictionary of National Biography. 411 Henry Sacheverell (1674-1724). English churchman and Tory politician. He was brought to trial in 1710 for some of his inflammatory sermons, was suspended for three years, and his sermons were burnt. But he became a martyr in the eyes of many. See Dictionary of National Biography. 412 William, 5th Lord Byron (1722-1798), was the great grandfather of the poet Lord Byron. He killed his neighbor William Chaworth in a duel in 1765, was imprisoned in the Tower, and was tried at Westminster Hall. He was found guilty of manslaughter and set free. This Lord Byron is known as the “wicked” or the “mad” Lord Byron. 413 Warren Hastings(1732-1818). First Governor-General of Bengal, India. He was accused of corruption by Edmund Burke, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, and Charles James Fox and impeached in the House of Commons in 1787 but acquitted in the House of Lords in 1795. See “Warren Hastings,” at “Wikipedia,” and in Dictionary of National Biography. 414 Murray’s Modern London. Smith probably had the 1858 edition of Murray’s in hand. Francis H. Smith in Europe, 1858. Letterbook #1 Page 117 VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives I was describing to you my visit to the Parliament Houses, and had given you some account ______of Westminster Hall. This Hall has been, as I remarked, most appropriately connected with the new Parliament Houses, and you enter the Halls of the two houses by a Hall called St Stephens Porch. This Porch is most beautifully ornamented by the Marble Statues of twelve of England’s greatest statesmen, and I record their names in the order in which they are found placed upon their pedestals. Clarendon (opposite to) Hampden Falkland “ Selden Somers “ Walpole Mansfield “ Chatham Fox “ Pitt Burke “ Gratton The Parliament Houses are not yet completed, and it is presumed that other names will be added to these. The monuments are beautifully white and are as lifelike as inanimate ______marble can be made to represent the vigor and fire of real life. As we could not get admission this morning to the Halls of the Lords and Commons, we made our arrangements to get a Seat in the Hall of the Commons for the debate tonight, and then posted off for the Tower of London.415 415 According to Murray’s: “TOWER OF LONDON, the most celebrated fortress in Great Britain, stands immediately without the City walls, on the left or Middlesex bank of the Thames, and ‘below bridge….’ “Antiquaries fail to confirm tradition in the remote antiquity assigned to the Tower. No part of the existing structure is of a date anterior to the Keep, or the great white and square tower in the centre, called the White Tower, and this, it is well known, was built by William the Conqueror (circ. 1078), the King appointing Gundulph, Bishop of Rochester, to be principal surveyor and overseer of that work. The chapel in this Tower, long used as a Record Room, is one of the most complete remaining specimens of a Norman church, on a small scale. “The Tower was formerly accessible by four gates only: the Lions’ Gate, on the W. side, where the lions and King’s beasts were kept, and still the principal entrance; by the Water Gate, for receipt of boats and small vessels; by the Iron Gate, a great and strong gate, but not usually opened; and by Traitors’ Gate, a small postern with a drawbridge, fronting the Thames, seldom let down but for the receipt of some great persons, prisoners…. It was also defended by a broad, deep ditch of water, long an eyesore and unwholesome, more like a sewer than the wet ditch of a fortification; till it was drained and made a garden, as we now see it, in 1843. The towers within the fortress are called the Lion Tower; the middle Tower; the Bell Tower, said to have been the prison of Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, and afterwards of Queen Elizabeth; the Bloody Tower, so called, it is said, from the sons of Edward IV. supposed to have been murdered there, and described by the Duke of Wellington as the best if not the only good place of security, at the disposition of the officers of the Tower, in which state prisoners can be placed; the Beauchamp, or Wakefield Tower, on the W. side carefully restored in 1853 by Mr. Salvin, the place of imprisonment of Anna Boleyn, and scratched over with inscriptions cut by prisoners confined within its walls. It derives its name from Thomas de Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, imprisoned in it in 1397; -- the Develin tower; the Boyer Tower, on the N. side, where the Duke of Clarence, it is traditionally believed, was drowned in a butt of Malmsey; the Brick Tower, on the N.E. side, the prison, it is said, of Lady Jane Grey; the Martin Tower, near the site of the Jewel House; and the Salt Tower, on the E. side, containing the curious sphere, with the signs of the zodiac, Francis H. Smith in Europe, 1858. Letterbook #1 Page 118 VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives The Tower of London Photo by Viki Male, with permission, from Wikipedia The history of this celebrated Tower invested it with so much of tragic interest, that whatever else we should fail to see, we must see the Tower of London. To reach it we crossed the Great London bridge, it being more convenient to drive over Westminster Bridge from the House of Parliament, and then cross again at the London Bridge, than to drive all the time on this side of the Thames. We had only to pay 6d apiece admission, and found guides, old veterans of the military service, who very kindly pointed out to us every thing of interest. We first went ______ &c., engraved on the walls, May 30th, 1561, by Hugh Draper, of Bristol, committed to the Tower in 1560, on suspicion of sorcery and practice against Sir William St. Lowe and his lady. It is much to be regretted that the several Towers, more especially the fine old Norman chapel in the White Tower, are not accessible to the pubic. The keeper of the Tower was the Lieutenant of the Tower, whose lodgings were in the S.W. part of the building, to the left of the Bloody Tower. Opposie to the church, at the S.W. corner of the Tower Green, are’The Lieutenant’s Lodgings,’ a structure of the time of Henry VIII., now the residence of the Governor. In a room of this house, called the Council Chamber, the commissioners met to examine Guy Fawkes and his accomplices; an event commemorated by a curious monument, constructed of party- colored marbles, and with inscriptions in Latin and Hebrew. In another part of this building is an inscription carved on an old mantelpiece relating to the Countess of Lenox, grandmother of James the First, ‘commitede prysner to thys Logynge for the Marige of her Sonne, my Lord Henry Darnle and the Queene of Scotlande.’ The present representative of the ‘Lieutenant’ is called Constable of the Tower, an office held by the late Duke of Wellington. “Visitors are conducted over the Tower armouries by the warders of the Tower, generally old soldiers who wear the dress of the yeomen of the guard of the reign of Henry VIII. The entrance is by the E. gate, and tickets must be bought at the Ticket-office, on your right as you enter. The Armoury tickets and the Jewel-house tickets are the same price, 6d. each. The warders conduct parties of twelve in number every half-hour from half-past 10 to 4 inclusive.” See Murray’s Modern London (1856), 81-84. See also “Tower of London,” at “Wikipedia.” Francis H. Smith in Europe, 1858. Letterbook #1 Page 119 VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives into the Armour Room, a place well worthy of examination, as it contains the actual armour worn by the Kings and nobility of England, from the earliest period, until armour was disued, most of the King’s being represented in figures and on horseback to correspond with the real form of the person represented. The White Tower is the oldest portion of the Tower, being Commenced by Caesar and finished by Wm the Conqueror. In this tower Sir W Raleigh416 was confined 12 years. I went into his chamber a little cuddy 12 x 8 feet without light or ventilation, except what passed through the crevices of one small door. I noticed on the panel of the old door to this room, and on the joists, the inscriptions of some of those who had been confined, and copied the two following; “He that ______endureth to the end shall be saved”. IVI, IV R. Rudstun, Dar Kent, Anno 1553 “Be faithful unto death, and I will give the a crown of life.” T. PANE. 1554. T. CUPEPER. Of AILSFORD, KENT. Here we also saw the beheading block which was last used in the Tower, and I laid my neck upon the block that I might see in what position the poor prisoner was placed, when this horrible end was given to him. The axes used in these executions were shewn to us, and I especially examined the one which severed the heads of Queen Annie Bolyn 417 and Lady Jane Grey.418 Here were also the instruments of torture, brought from Spain and of which we read so much in the History of the Inquisition – the thumb screws – the iron collars – and the bars and rings for the feet and body. In this room there is a lifelike effigy of Queen Elizabeth on horseback as she ______appeared going to St Pauls; to return thanks to God for the great victory over the Spanish Armada,419 and I better conceived from the character exhibited in this effigy, how sternly she administered the power of Government during her long and most brilliant reign.420 The walls of 416 Sir Walter Raleigh (1552-1618). Courtier, writer, poet, soldier, explorer of the new World. He voyaged to the New World to develop the Colony and Dominion of Virginia, but his colony at Roanoke Island failed. His unauthorized marriage to Elizabeth Throckmorton angered Queen Elizabegth resulted in his arrest. He later explored Venezuela. He was imprisoned again in 1603 for involvement in a plot against James I and remained in the tower until 1616. After a second adventure in Venezuela, he was again arrested and beheaded in 1618. See “Walter Raleigh,” at “Wikipedia,” and in Dictionary of National Biography. 417 Anne Boleyn (1501/1507-1536). Queen of England, second wife of Henry VIII. Mother of Elizabeth I. Beheaded on the charge of high treason (adultery and incest). See “Anne Boleyn,” at “Wikipedia,’ and in Dictionary of National Biography. 418 Lady Jane Grey (1536/1537-1554), “Jane, Queen of England and Ireland.” Known as “the Nine Days’ Queen.” She was beheaded in struggle over the succession to the throne. See Dictionary of National Biography. 419 Victory of the English over the Spanish in 1588, primarily due to a violent storm in the English Channel that dispersed and destroyed the invading Spanish Armada. 420 Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603), reigned 1558-1603. See Dictionary of National Biography. Francis H. Smith in Europe, 1858. Letterbook #1 Page 120 VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives the White tower are seventeen (17) feet thick. From this room we passed into Beauchamps Tower, in which the room for the State prisoners are placed. This room bears unmistakeable marks in the representations upon its walls, of those who have, from time to time, passed from it to the scaffold. Here we read the name of Walter Paslew dated 1569, and 1570, with this sentiment. “My hope is in Christ.” Near the name is that of Robert Dudley,421 the third son of the Duke of Northumberland who was tried and condemned for high treason on the accession of Mary in 1553, for ______having endeavored to place the crown on the head of his daughter-in law, Lady Jane Grey. He was beheaded on Tower Hill. His brother Henry, the favorite afterwards of Queen Elizabeth, who made him Earl of Leicester, was confined here at the same time, but he was liberated upon the execution of Robert. Over the fireplace is the following interesting inscription The more suffering for Christ in this world, the more glory with Christ in the next. Thou hast crowned him with honor and glory O Lord. In memory everlasting He will be [just]. Arundell June 22d 1584” The unfortunate nobleman who has left this touching memorial of his trials, was Philip Howard, 422 Son of the Duke of Norfolk, (who was beheaded in 1573 for aspiring to marry Mary Queen of Scots.)423 Philip was a Romanist, and after a long confinement for adherence to his faith, and for saying mass for the success of the Spanish Armada, ______he finally died in the Tower in 1595. There is also a record here of J.A.N.E., which some have supposed to have been placed here by Lady Jane Grey, but she was confined in a different part of the Tower, and it is now reasonably believed to have been inscribed here by her Husband Lord Guilford Dudley who was confined at the same time by Mary, and who was executed with his wife 12th February 1554. There are no less than 70 inscriptions in different parts of this interesting room, of many of which very little is known. Some were obscure persons who were confined from supposed complicity in treasonable transactions, or on account of religious faith. Of course no one goes to the Tower without seeing the Regalia.424 From their great pecuniary value, they are kept here, and of course are safely guarded to secure them against robbery or mutilation. 421 Smith is mistaken here. It was John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, who attempted to put Lady Jane Grey (his daughter-in-law, married to his son Guilford) on the throne in 1553. Queen Mary I had the Duke imprisoned in the Tower, along with his sons Robert, John, Guilford, Ambrose, and Henry. The Duke and his son Guilford were executed. Son Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, not Henry, was the favorite of Queen Elizabeth I. See “Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester,” at “Wikipedia.” 422 Philip Howard, 20th Earl of Arundel (1557-1595). Eldest son of the 4th Duke of Norfolk, a Catholic during the reign of Elizabeth I. He was arrested for treason in 1585 and was imprisoned in the Tower, where he died. See “Philip Howard, 20th Earl of Arundel,” at “Wikipedia,” and in Dictionary of National Biography. 423 Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk (1536-1572). He was executed for plotting with King Philip II of Spain to put Mary Queen of Scots on the throne and restore Catholicism in England. See Dictionary of National Biography. 424 According to Murray’s: “The Jewel-house within the Tower was kept by a particular officer called ‘the Master of the Jewel-house,’ formerly esteemed the first Knight Bachelor of England. The treasures Francis H. Smith in Europe, 1858. Letterbook #1 Page 121 VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives ______ They are very handsome and brilliant and are invested with interest, inasmuch as some parts of them are historically connected with former Kings and Queens. The crown worn by Annie Bolyn is shewn. Our guide through the Tower was an old soldier who had served with the Duke of Wellington on the Continent, and who was wounded at Waterloo. He wore upon his breast the insignia of his services, while his dress and position betokened for him that he had been cared for as one of her Majesty’s most honorable servants. “Whose is that statue before us”, I asked. The Hero of the world”, promptly and proudly replied the old veteran. “That’s the Iron Duke at the Battle of Waterloo. Do you see his Hessian boots”. I assented to this compliment and then asked him if he could tell me where Oliver Cromwell was buried. “Oh! Cromwell, Ah! I forget – He was a sort of a Radical, Ah! ______I reckon he was buried in some ditch”. Passing along the yard of the Tower, as we were conversing – “see” said he, “do you observe that these stones have a different color from the other in the yard, and that a circle of darker color marks this spot?” Well – here Queen Annie Bolyn and Lady Jane Grey were beheaded. It was done privately and other state prisoners were taken to Tower Hill”. “And here”, he went on “is the Traitors gate” – There was an iron gate opening upon steps leading to the Thames in which a boat used in Queen Mary’s time, and through which prisoners were received into the Tower from the River. “Through this gate Princess Elizabeth entered this tower when she was sent by Queen Mary, and she sat upon that stone waiting for Essex, who was confined at the same time. The Tower has long since ceased to be ______a palace for the residences of the Sovereigns of England, the progress of human, as well as royal liberty, in England now makes it unnecessary for a fortified palace like this, to be used for their protection. There is a chapel here, which the Queen visits at Stated periods to receive the Communion, and the Communion service of gold used on such occasions is kept with the Regalia in the Tower. The day was a rainy one, and we did not see London Bridge in its full animation as the great thoroughfare of this Metropolis – but we saw enough to satisfy us that there were a “heap of people in these parts”. constituting the Regalia are arranged in a glazed iron cage in the center of a well-lighted room, with an ample passage for visitors to walk round.” Murray’s Modern London (1856), 88. Francis H. Smith in Europe, 1858. Letterbook #1 Page 122 VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives Strangers’ Gallery, House of Commons (visitors to the House of Commons) Illustrated London News, 5 December 1857 As we had made our arrangements to attend the House of Commons at 6 P.M. we hurried home for our dinner – and after resting awhile went down to the House, finding our admission tickets secured for us by our friend of the Police, to whom we gave a gratuity of 2s. 6d each. You perhaps know the peculiarities of manners in the meetings of an ______ English Parliament. If a speaker meets with favor, he is continually cheered with the cry “Hear!”, “Hear!”. – and if they do not want to hear him, the soon cry him down. The members sit with their hats on, and their mode of speaking is by no means so declamatory, or so much for Buncombe425 as our speakers. We were much favored in being there during an interesting debate on the Jews disability bill,426 and heard Lord Palmerston,427 Lord John Russell,428 Mr. D Israeli,429 now 425 Bunkum: false statements, nonsense. 426 In July 1858, the House of Commons and the House of Lords debated a bill to permit Jews to sit in Parliament. Similar bills, modeled on the 1829 bill emancipating Roman Catholics in England, were introduced in 1830, 1833, 1834, and 1841 but were defeated by the Tory Party. In 1845, a bill was passed allowing Jews to hold municipal offices and the office of sheriff, but they continued to be excluded from Parliament. Pro-Jewish parties elected Baron Lionel de Rothschild to Parliament in 1847 to force the issue, but he was rejected then and in 1850. In 1851, David Salomons, a Jew who had been elected to Parliament, took his seat, and refused to withdraw, and was fined and rejected. A bill in 1853 was rejected by the Lords. In 1856 and 1857, bills were introduced to modify the oath required of a member of Parliament that effectively excluded Jews, but they, too failed. In 1858, the Oath Bill reached the House of Lords and the clause relating to Jews was eliminated, but the House of Commons rejected this action. The issue was resolved finally on July 26, 1858 (ten days after Smith attended Parliament and listened to these debates), when Baron Rothschild was permitted to use a modified oath and then took his seat as the first Jewish member of Parliament. See “Emancipation of the Jews in England,” at “Wikipedia.” Francis H. Smith in Europe, 1858. Letterbook #1 Page 123 VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Mr. Spencer Walpole;430 besides some very sensible speeches from other members of less note. I was particularly pleased with the speech of a Mr Adams.431 The manner of all was more conversational, as I remarked above. 427 Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston (1784-1865) He began as a Tory but broke with that party and served in the Whig cabinets of 1830-34, 1835-41, and 1846-51 as foreign secretary. He was prime minister from 1855-1858 and 1859-65. Palmerston was a critic of the government’s management of the Crimean War (1853-1856) and favored the South in the American Civil War. See “Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston,” at “Wikipedia,” and in Dictionary of National Biography. 428 John Russell, 1st Earl Russell (1792-1878). A Whig and Liberal politician, he entered the House of Commons in 1813, supported Catholic Emancipation in 1829, and the Reform Bills. He was prime minister in 1846-52 and 1865-66. See “John Russell, 1st Earl Russell,” at “Wikipedia,” and in Dictionary of National Biography. 429 Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield (1804-1881), a Conservative politician, was born a Jew but baptized into the Church of England, served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1852, 1858-59, and 1866- 1868, and as prime minister in 1868 and in 1874-80. His policies brought India under the control of the Crown and he was responsible for purchasing control of the Suez Canal. See “Benjamin Disraeli,” at “Wikipedia,” and in Dictionary of National Biography. 430 Spencer Horatio Walpole (1806-1898). Tory politician who served as Home Secretary 1852, 1858- 1859, and 1866-1867. See “Spencer Horatio Walpole,” at “Wikipedia,” and in Dictionary of National Biography. 431 Not identified, however in a news article in the 24 July 1858 issue of the London Illustrated News, the following appears: “Mr. ADAMS, in opposing the bill, denied that it could be looked upon in the character of a compromise.” One of the arguments used against the Jewish Emancipation Bill was that the two houses of Parliament were not working in tandem on the bill; the other was that England was a “Christian nation” and should be governed only by Christians. Francis H. Smith in Europe, 1858. Letterbook #1 Page 124 VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives Bill for Jewish emancipation in England Illustrated News of London, 24 July 1858 The Hall is a very handsome one but with little accommodations for strangers. The Speaker, Mr Denison432 in his wig and black gown and the Clerks at the table have ______wigs and gowns also. The other Members wore their ordinary clothes and look very unlike a deliberative assembly. The Ministry and its friends occupy the right side of the Hall – the opposition on the left side – while independents, who sometimes vote one way and sometimes another, sit on what are called the Cross benches. 432 John Evelyn Denison, 1st Viscount Ossington (1800-1873). British statesman who served as Speaker of the House of Commons from 1857 to 1872. See “Evelyn Denison, 1st Viscount Ossington,” at “Wikipedia,” and in Dictionary of National Biography. Francis H. Smith in Europe, 1858. Letterbook #1 Page 125 VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives The House of Commons Illustrated London News, 7 February 1852 Francis H. Smith in Europe, 1858. Letterbook #1 Page 126 VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives July 17th 6 P.M. You may imagine my precious wife with what delight I received your letter of the 27th and its several post-scripts with Henderson’s of the 1st July and your P.S. to it. As I came down to breakfast this morning I read in the paper the notice of the Telegraph dispatch of the arrival of the Persia in Liverpool this morning. I at once said, we shall have letters to day for the Persia is in with dates of the 7th. Our trip to the Chrystal Palace which was planned for today, was therefore commenced with ______the comfortable expectation of having news from our dear home and our dear ones, when we returned, and we were not disappointed. I am only pained to hear that you have so much anxiety about my ocean trip, because no news had reached you of our arrival. The Liverpool dates of the 19th June, must certainly have given tidings of us, for we passed the Arabia as we entered the Mersey. Indeed Frank has letters from his father of the 3d of July, and they state that the Arabia passed the Africa on the 19th. I presume in a day or two after, this was received by you, my letters from Liverpool were also in your hands. And now you are receiving, my dearest wife, every week, and sometimes twice a week, long letters, yes, almost longer than your poor eyes can bear to read with my illegible hand- ______writing. I have so much to say to you, that I husband every inch of paper that I may fill it all with my thoughts just as they come up, for when I am writing to you, I feel as if I were by your side talking to you, and my whole soul goes out in what I say, And the dear little baby has been sick too. May God bless him, and restore him and make him a blessing and a comfort to us both – Oh! You do not know what a comfort his picture and that of dear little Frank and also little Sally’s are to me. And if I only had your own dear face to contemplate when I rise n the morning and when I lie down at night; I would more fully realize than I do that your spirit is with me in all my wanderings. Now let me say to you, that anxiety about the ocean Steamers and the European travel should be as little felt by you, as a trip from Staunton to Lexington. Indeed broken arms are as apt to occur by ______the Stage, as on the route I have taken, and therefore having constantly committed each other to the care of a Covenant God; we must exercise that trust in His goodness and support, which our happy experience so fully demands of us, and that the perfect peace which He gives will be realized by us. Poor [Nan?], I hardly know what to say of her. Do give her my love, and assure her of my deepest affection and sympathy with her. And Major Preston’s anxieties are happily relieved, I am so glad to hear it. Do give him my love and warmest congratulations and tell him to convey them to his wife. And so Master Tom is a plebe!433 well, I hope he has fully considered what is involved in all the responsibility connected with this important step in his life. My dear son, your father has had a life of great labor and anxiety, with but slender means to sustain his ______family, and it has only been, by a resolute determination, at all times, and under all circumstances, to aim to do right, that he has, with the blessings of God, been enabled to accomplish what he has. Let a father’s prayer then in a far distant land be lifted up for you, my dear boy, that you may be guided by His spirit – that you may be kept from the evil to which you will be exposed, and that you may be a comfort to those whose happiness is so much wrapped 433 Francis Smith’s son Thomas Henderson Smith. Tom entered the VMI class of 1862 in July 1858. At that time in VMI’s history, New Cadets were known as “Plebes,” as were West Point Cadets. The term “Rat” for New Cadets did not come into use at VMI until after the Civil War. Francis H. Smith in Europe, 1858. Letterbook #1 Page 127 VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives up in your own success as a student and a young man of unbending principle. There will be many who will seek to lead you astray, and who will excuse themselves, in their own evil course, by the reflection that they are no worse than the son of the Supt, if they succeed – Have the courage at all times to resist wrong doing. Don’t make yourself an intermeddler in ______what others are doing – Judge for yourself, as to what your own duty is, and keep out of any judgment of the conduct of others. “Resist the devil and he will flee from thee”, are the words of inspiration. You will be brought into contact with him in some of his devices, act upon the principles here laid down, and you will be happy yourself, and you will give happiness to those who love you. And now my precious Sarah, I will add a few words to you by way of closing up my letter with the journal of this day. Fifth day in London. At 11 oclock we have taken a fly and are on our way to London Bridge to take the cars to Lydenham with the Chrystal Palace as the object of our days visit. I gave you before some idea of what London Bridge appeared yesterday, altho’ a rainy day. To day with ______ the bright July sun above us, we saw the mass of animated life in its fullest perfection. During the time of our crossing this great thoroughfare, the various kinds of vehicles were four rows deep across the bridge, from one end of it to the other, and this is the constant stream that may be seen to be moving to and fro all the time. Without the order that is established, with regulation, of course, endless confusion and interruption would prevail, but wagons and carts keep next the curbstones, carriages the middle, each vehicle keeping to the left so that the two centre passways are for carriages, the two outer for wagons, while there are side walks on both sides for foot passengers. There is no toll and indeed it would be useless to have it, for time would fail to collect it, in such an immense throng. A moments glance up and down the Thames gives you a fine view of the River – the ______ shipping – and of the moving and floating life in the steamboats and row and sail boats that are constantly passing up and down. Francis H. Smith in Europe, 1858. Letterbook #1 Page 128 VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives The Crystal Palace, relocated to Sydenham in 1854 Illustrated London News, 10 June 1854 The Chrystal Palace you are aware was erected for the Great Exhibition of 1851;434 As this was a temporary matter, a scheme was formed to purchase the Chrystal building, which was 434 The Great Exhibition of 1851 at the Crystal Palace showcased England’s industrial, military, and economic accomplishments in the emerging Industrial Revolution. The Crystal Palace was designed by Sir Joseph Paxton and was constructed in Hyde Park, in London. It was an enormous iron frame building with over a million feet of glass. After the Great Exhibition closed, the Crystal Palace was moved to Sydenham Hill, South London, where it reopened in 1854. Smith visited the Crystal Palace at Sydenham Hill. See “The Great Exhibition at the Crystal Palace,” date posted unknown, Victorian Station, date accessed 5/12/09, electronic address: Benjamin Silliman, who visited England and the Crystal Palace in 1851, wrote the following: “THE CRYSTAL PALACE. March 29. [1851] – Into this wonderful and imposing structure we have to- day merely made our entrance. As we drove along the eastern side of Hyde Park, on a bright and beautiful morning, the splendid vision caught our eyes, as the sunlight was thrown wide around by this immense mirror. It was merely a glace that we took on this occasion, reserving more deliberate observation for future opportunities. “It was not accessible, as yet, to visitors, but by particular favor, through an introduction to one of the managers, we were admitted into the interior. It has become so familiar, in all its aspects, to the whole world, that at this date, after its complete development, any detailed description would be out of place. “The general impression made upon us, by our walks through this stupendous conservatory of the arts, was that of great splendor and magnificence. It appeared a fairy palace like the creations of fable; a building equally unique and original in its structure; original, also, in its bearing upon the concord and amicable rivalry of nations; in this respect, of most auspicious tendency, and, therefore, highly honorable to the amiable and benevolent character of the Prince [Albert], under whose auspices it has arisen. Already the consignments of the world are coming in, and to a great extent have actually arrived. African Tunis sends its contributions, and even more remote countries are beginning to occupy the large space allotted to Francis H. Smith in Europe, 1858. Letterbook #1 Page 129 VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives erected in Hyde Park, and give permanence to it, not only as exhibiting an important new feature in Architectural designs, but to make it the centre for presenting models of art, in its various elements, for the civilized world. The Palace was therefore bought by a company, land was secured eight (8) miles from London near Sydenham, and here a new palace, upon a somewhat enlarged and more permanent arrangement was put up; and thus the great designs of these liberal minded men have ______ been partially carried out. I had read much about the great Exhibition in 1851 in London, and had heard Major Preston give full accounts of what he saw, but nothing that I have seen, has gone so far beyond my conception as this great work of art, taken in connection with the new development now about to be given to it, as a great practical school for the study of applied science in Engineering, Architecture, the Mechanical Arts, and in the various departments of painting, Sculpture, Natural History, Agriculture, Botany etc., etc, while music lends its charms to the enquirer into these wonders as he passes from Hall to Hall, and court to court, each step creating new wonders, and urging him yet farther and farther. We had desired to go out to the Chrystal Palace yesterday [Friday, 16 July], as a grand musical entertainment was to take place, but the rain deterred us, and besides ______we were too late in securing our tickets.435 There were one thousand (1000) musical performers – eight (800) hundred vocalists, including Louise Pyne,436 and two (200) instrumental, and these in connection with an immense them. The palace is so high as to cover several of the large trees of Hyde Park, where it is erected; and we saw, not without a shudder, a man dangling in the air at the end of a rope near the roof, at the height of eight feet. He had been drawn up simply by holding on the end of the rope by his hands, and was whirled around and around, until he reached a plank almost in the angle of the roof, where at last he was safely landed….” See Silliman, A Visit to Europe in 1851, 1: 99-100. According to Murray’s, “The Crystal Palace, or Great Exhibition Building stood on the S. side of the [Hyde] Park, opposite Prince’s Gate, and the large elm trees covered in by the transepts are still alive though far from flourishing. During the twenty-four weeks the Exhibition was open, it was visited by upwards of 6,000,000 persons, or about 250,000 weekly….” See Murray’s Modern London (1856), 27. The Crystal Palace was re-erected and enlarged at Sydenham, about six miles from the center of London, on the London and Brighton Railway.” 435 There was a grand concert at the Crystal Palace on Friday, July 16th, which Smith missed. The Times of that day carried the following notice: “CRYSTAL PALACE, THIS DAY, July 16 – CONCERT, to begin at 3 o’clock. Programme: -- Part I. Overture, Masaniello, Auber; march and chorus, Crown ye the Altars, the Ruins of Athens, Beethoven; motet, Sanctus, Bortniansky; scena, Ocean, thou mighty monster, Oberon, C. M. von Weber – Miss Stabbach, triple concerto for three pianofortes, J.S. Bach (with additional orchestral accompaniments by Moscheles) – Miss Arabella Goddard, Mr. Benedict, and Mr. Lindsay Sloper; air and chorus, Come if you dare, Purcell – Mr. Sims Reeves; trio, Cradle Song, for female voices (unaccompanied), Benedict—Miss Louisa Pyne, Madame Weiss, and Miss Dolby; song, the Village Blacksmith….Part II. Concertante for four violins, with orchestral accompaniments…. The band, including 40 first violins, 40 second violins, 26 altos, 28 violoncellos, and 28 double bases … will number upwards of 200 performers, and be composed of the elite of the profession. The choirs, including the Vocal Association, will number 800 vocalists, being a total of 1,000 performers. Admission by season tickets one guinea, or by day ticket 5s, which may be had at the Crystal Palace….” See The Times, Friday, July 16, 1858 (No. 23,047), p. 1. 436 Louise (Louisa) Fanny Bodda-Pyne (1832-1904). A popular English soprano. She made her debut at age ten at the Queen’s Concert Room, London. She performed in Paris in 1847 and in New York in 1854. Francis H. Smith in Europe, 1858. Letterbook #1 Page 130 VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives organ which has 66 stops, from separate rows of keys, and 4568 sounding pipes. We heard the organ today, and the instrumental music[,] and you may judge of the extended arrangements when I say, that the orchestra is made to accommodate 2500 persons. But you are curious to know what must be the dimensions of a Palace that can make so ample a provision for one only of its departments, I give them as follows Length 1608 feet Greatest width 384 feet General “ 312 feet Area 603,073 feet Height of nave from ground floor 110 feet ______ Height of central transept fr floor 174 feet Area of Galleries 261,568 “ Weight of iron used 9 641 Tons Superficial quantity of glass 25 Acres If the panes were laid side by side they would extend 48 miles If end to end 242 “ Such are the proportions of this immense palace, and that you may the better conceive them, you must refer the measures to some objects that are familiar to you. The front of our Barracks is 241 feet, and yet this lacks more than 100 feet of being as wide as the palace, while you must lay off its length 7 times before you get the length of the Palace, and this takes three times the height of the Barracks, and not then be as high as the Chrystal Palace. Sir Joseph Paxton, architect of the Crystal Palace Illustrated News of London, 3 May 1851 With tenor William Harrison, she created and managed the Pyne-Harrison Opera Company. The company toured the United States for six months in 1855-1856. See “Louisa Bodda-Pyne,” at “Wikipedia,” and in Dictionary of National Biography, 45: 644. Francis H. Smith in Europe, 1858. Letterbook #1 Page 131 VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives Perhaps as great an achievement as any in the arrangement of Sir Joseph Paxton, (the Chatsworth Gardener of whom I ______wrote), for heating this building and preserving a temperature suited to the tropical trees and plants which are kept here. This he has done by hot water upon a principle very similar to that of the Steam apparatus at the Institute. But the difficulty was not in using Hot water as a Heater, but to ascertain how far hot water might be propelled by heat from boilers, and whether in so expansive a building this principle could be successfully applied. The water flowing from and returning to the boilers travels a mile and three quarters. The heating pipes used, if reduced to an average circumference, of 12 inches, and placed end to end would reach fifty (50) miles. To secure then the purposes desired by the heating arrangements, Sir J Paxton has placed in the cellars of the Palace ______ 22 Boilers – in sets of 2 in eleven different boiler houses – the boilers being capable of holding 11,000 gallons of water – and from these boilers the heated water is propelled through the main pipes into the various divisions of the Building, and then transmitted by smaller pipes as veins to the main arteries, and then by return pipes brought back again to the boilers, to be again distributed as hot water. Monday night July 19th 1858 I resume to night, my dearest Sarah, the continuation of my description of the Chrystal Palace. As far as I have gone I have only given you the exterior. And now where shall I begin the inner mysteries? The design of the Palace under its new arrangements is as I have stated before, is to present here a great practical and illustrative school of the ______ arts and sciences, and while I passed, from court to court, of the Architectural School, I wished an hundred times that Major Williamson could see it. These courts are series of Halls, passages, and rooms constructed so as to present the exact model of the various schools or periods of Architecture. In this way we saw the various Grecian, Egyptian, Arabesque etc. Schools. The most perfect court is that of the Alhambra constructed upon the exact model of the original, reduced though to 2/3 of the original. The walls and floors are in mosaic and the most splendid work of art in this line I ever saw. To give you an idea of the perfection to which this part of the Palace has been carried, I will mention that agents well qualified to undertake their [several?] commissions were sent by ______ Companies, under the authority and patronage of the Government of England, to the various foreign governments, by which facilities were afforded, to make exact copies of what is here reproduced. It has been in this way that the Alhambra is presented. Not only has this been done in Architecture, but the various races are reproduced in life like figures, giving the most accurate idea of the savage and half civilized nations of the world. We took a luncheon at the palace and returned to the City at 5, after purchasing some remembrances of it, each determining that we could most profitably spend a day or two there. I omitted to mention the department of Civil Engineering in which beautiful models are presented of the principal works of the Department in the work, among which is the Tubular Bridge at Menai Sts. We also find ______models of various ships and Steamers – boats – yachts etc., and when I mention these I have not touched upon the floral and agricultural departments – nor the Hall of Paintings – Indeed the Francis H. Smith in Europe, 1858. Letterbook #1 Page 132 VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives Chrystal Palace seems to be the world in miniature, and is the grandest conception, and if carried out, the grandest thing of the world of the kind. 6th Day in London By the kindness of our hostess, Mr Terrill and myself had tickets to attend the Chapel Royal of St. James Palace437 at 12. I was anxious to go to the Surrey Gardens438 to hear Mr Spurgeon439 not that I am an admirer of him, or that I am impressed with the efficacy of his work here, but he is certainly a notorious man in his way, and I think I ought to avail myself of the opportunity to hear him. But we neglected to get our tickets until it ______was too late, and as we had formed no regular plan for the day we went to the Chapel Royal. I was not pleased with what I saw and heard. The service was but indifferently read, and the singing was only tolerable, and the sermon was a prosy discourse on the importance of husbanding time, founded upon the command of our Lord, “Gather up the fragments, that nothing be lost.” The afternoon service in London takes place at 2 or 3, so that we had only an interval of an hour, when we went to St James Church,440 at which the Bishop of London441 preached in behalf of the church building Society. I was delighted with [the] service. I felt as if I were in the House of God – The Service was well read – the singing natural – because congregational, and the Sermon one of the best that I have heard in England. “What shall a man ______ 437 There are two Chapels Royal in St. James’s Palace: The queen’s Chapel and the Chapel Royal. St. James’s Palace was commissioned by Henry VIII and was the principal residence in London of the monarchs. See “St. James’s Palace,” at “Wikipedia.” 438 Royal surrey Gardens, London, was the site of the Surrey Zoological Garden and the Surrey Music Hall, a large building of three floors and covered galleries. Religious services were held at the Music Hall on weekends by the Baptist preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon, at times attended by 10,000 people. See “Royal Surrey Gardens,” at “Wikipedia.” 439 Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892). A British Reformed Baptist preacher and religious writer known, in his time, as “Prince of Preachers.” He was named pastor of the New Park Street Chapel, London, at the age of only nineteen. Soon his plain speaking, dramatic manner, and humor drew audiences so large on weekends – up to 10,000 gathered to hear him – that he began preaching at the Music Hall at Surrey Gardens. Many in London considered him a “nine-day wonder” who engaged in vulgarity, sensationalism, and irreverence. Smith apparently shared this opinion of Spurgeon (“a notorious man in his way”) despite the fact that Smith admired evangelical preaching. See Dictionary of National Biography, 52: 6-10. 440 St. James’s Church, Picadilly, is an Anglican church in London. It was designed and built by Sir Christopher Wren. 441 The bishop of London in 1858 was Archibald Campbell Tait (1811-1882). Tait was a Scot, a member of the Scottish Episcopal Church. He succeeded Thomas Arnold as Headmaster of Rugby School in 1842 and served there until 1849. On leaving Rugby, he became dean of Carlisle. He was consecrated Bishop of London in 1856 and reached large numbers of Londoners, especially common laborers and immigrants. He was critical of the Oxford Movement as well as many of the liberal tendencies in the Anglican Church, especially the practice of some preachers to hire large public halls for Sunday services. In 1869, he became archbishop of Canterbury, where he remained until his death. See “Archibald Campbell Tait,” at “Wikipedia,” and Dictionary of National Biography, 53: 651-657. Francis H. Smith in Europe, 1858. Letterbook #1 Page 133 VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives give in exchange for his soul,” was his text, and it was one of the closest and most thoroughly evangelical discourses, and I felt that the Church of England had been greatly favored in having such a man for its metropolitan Bishop. In referring to the great work of providing church accommodations for the 2,700,000 souls in London, he said that some men were disposed to shrink from it from the apprehension that the evil could not be cured. Such is the suggestions of the evil one. My worthy predecessor did not act thus. He began a work in this behalf, and in his administration, he added 200 Church edifices, and 400 clergy, besides scripture readers, to the provision for the growing demands of London. Archibald Campbell Tait, Anglican Bishop of London Illustrated London News, 12 June 1858 At 6 ½ I went to the Scotch Presbyterian Free Church442 to hear Dr Hamilton,443 the author of Life in earnest, and heard a 442 Scottish National Church, Regent Square, London. 443 Rev. James Hamilton (1814-1867), author of Life in Earnest. Six Lectures on Christian Activity and Ardor. An Evangelical Presbyterian minister, he was appointed minister of the National Scotch Church, Regent Square, London, on 25 July 1841. At the Great Disruption, he sided with the Free Church, against the established church. He was a prolific writer, especially on Evangelical topics. See “M’Cheyne’s friends,” date posted 5/30/03, David Haslam, date accessed 5/19/09, electronic address: Francis H. Smith in Europe, 1858. Letterbook #1 Page 134 VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives ______ most earnest sermon from him on the power of our High Priest to save to the uttermost etc. After service he invited such as were willing to remain and unite in social prayer. I remained and was pleased at the service. While these were going on, a stranger arose, and said, he could not permit himself to remain silent, when so many references had been made to the work of Grace in his own Country. He was an American Presbyterian Minister and he wished to convey to his brethren, there, the Sympathy felt in America for their brethren here. After the service was over, Dr Hamilton approached me and extended his hand, and asked me if he had not seen me before, and if I were not an officer of the Ship Niagara. I told him I was not, but I was an American and took that occasion to convey to him the gratification I had experienced ______ in having the privilege of hearing him and uniting in the services of the evening. I never was more pleased with a gentleman upon so short an interview.444 7th Day in London To day we set apart for a visit to Hampton Court.445 This Palace is noted for its intimate associations with the History of the times since Henry VIII. It was commenced as a Palace for himself, by Cardinal Woolsey,446 but the King becoming jealous of its surpassing his own, the Cardinal gave it to Henry, who, in exchange, gave him the Palace at Richmond. Hampton Court became then the favorite residence of the court, and is intimately connected with many interesting events in the reigns of the Successors to Henry, down to Wm 3d. In the great Hall of this court, the plays of Shakespeare ______were first performed for the gratification of the Court. Here Charles 1st was taken into custody just before his trial and tragical death. Here the brilliant Court of Charles II447 figured during the 444 Dr. Hamilton received the degree of DD from the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) in 1848. See Dictionary of National Biography, 24: 859. 445 Hampton Court, a royal palace in London, in the Tudor style. Built for Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, in Henry VIII’s reign, it served later as a residence for monarchs into the 18th century. Queen Victoria opened the palace to the public in 1838. The Tudor Gothic style of the main building, and especially of its gates, is reminiscent of the architecture of VMI. See “Hampton Court,” at “Wikipedia.” 446 Thomas Wolsey (Woolsey) (1471-1530). English statesman and cardinal in the Roman Catholic Church. He was a leading figure and power in the reign of Henry VIII, rising to the offices of Lord Chancellor and Archbishop of York. He built Hampton Court Palace in 1514, but when he fell from favor, the palace passed to Henry VIII. See “Thomas Wolsey” and “Hampton Court Palace,” at Wikipedia,” and in Dictionary of National Biography. 447 Charles II (1630-1685), reigned 1660-1685. During his reign, anti-Puritan laws were passed by Parliament, and the established Church of England was strengthened. He promised his cousin King Louis XIV that he would convert to Roman Catholicism, a development that gave rise to the Whig Party in Francis H. Smith in Europe, 1858. Letterbook #1 Page 135 VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives licentious period of this gay King. Here Edward VI was born and his mother Queen Jane Seymore died.448 Here Catharine Howard449 and Catherine Parr450 were married to Henry VIII. Bloody Mary spent her honeymoon when she was married to Philip of Spain here. While the most brilliant scenes in the reign of Elizabeth and James 1st451 were acted in the Halls of this immense Palace. And not the least important fact, it was here that the celebrated conference between the Presbyterians and the Established Church was held in the reign of James 1st, and shortly after the plan was formed here for the translation ______of the versions of the Bible which we now use.452 We saw many fine paintings in the state rooms of the Palace, and among others the celebrated Cartoons of Raphael.453 It is no longer used as the Palace of the Sovereigns, but is appropriated for the use of Queen Dowagers, or superannuated and retired pensioners. We took a very indifferent luncheon at the Mitre Inn,454 and got back in time to attend the House of Lords at 5. Here we had the pleasure of hearing speeches from the Premier, Earl Derby,455 the Lord England. He was known as “the Merrie Monarch” for his life style. See “Charles II of England,” at “Wikipedia,” and in Dictionary of National Biography. 448 Edward VI (1537-1553), reigned from 1547 to 1553. He was the son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour 1508-1537, third wife of Henry VIII, died at the birth of her son Edward). During his reign, England was governed by a Regency Council (led by his uncle Edward Seymour, and, later, John Dudley, 1st Earl of Warwick). During his reign, Protestantism was established in England, including the adoption of the first Book of Common Prayer. On his death in 1553, Lady Jane Grey succeeded him, but for only nine days, at which time the Privy Council proclaimed Mary as Queen. She attempted to reintroduce Catholicism in the realm. See “Edward VI of England,” at “Wikipedia,” and in Dictionary of National Biography. 449 Queen Catherine Howard (1521-1542), fifth wife of Henry VIII. Beheaded in 1542 on grounds of treason (adultery). See “Catherine Howard,” at “Wikipedia,” and in Dictionary of National Biography. 450 Queen Catherine Parr (1512-1548). Sixth, and last, wife of Henry VIII. She outlived Henry, but she died in childbirth in 1548 after marrying Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley. See “Catherine Parr,”at “Wikipedia,” and in Dictionary of National Biography. 451 James VI of Scotland and James I of England (1566-1625). He became king of Scotland at age 13 months on the death of his mother Mary Queen of Scots. He succeeded to the throne of England in 1603 on the death of Elizabeth I, who was childless, and ruled for 22 years. It was during his reign that Jamestown was founded in the Virginia Colony in 1607, known then as “Jim’s his town” or “Jimson.” See “James I of England,” at “Wikipedia,” and in Dictionary of National Biography. 452 The Authorized King James Version of the Bible was completed in 1611. It was conceived at the Hampton Court Conference, called by King James in 1604 after Puritans in the Anglican Church objected to some portions of the first “authorized version, the Great Bible, produced during the reign of Henry VIII. See “Authorized King James Version,” at “Wikipedia.” 453 Hampton Court, at the time of Smith’s visit, housed the Raphael Cartoons in a special gallery. They are large paintings for tapestries, painted by Raphael in 1515-16, showing scenes from the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles. See “Raphael Cartoons,” at “Wikipedia.” 454 The Mitre Inn still exists in London, at 1 Ely Court. 455 Edward George Geoffrey Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby, Prime Minister 1852, 1858-59, and 1866- 68. He was the leader of the Conservative Party (formerly the Tory Party). See “Edward Smith-Stanley 14th Earl of Derby,” at “Wikipedia,” and in Dictionary of National Biography. Francis H. Smith in Europe, 1858. Letterbook #1 Page 136 VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives Chancellor,456 Earl of Malmsbury,457 Duke of Montrose,458 Duke of Marlboro,459 Lord Stanley,460 Lord Stanhope,461 and we all came to the conclusion that young America462 could beat the whole set and not make much effort in doing so. They have all a ______remarkable hesitancy in speaking, as if they counted words and thoughts also. At night we visited Madame Toussard’s celebrated wax gallery.463 You know what a wax gallery is, and we did not expect much, but were disappointed. The life like figures far exceeded anything we could have conceived of. Some of them actually seeming to breathe, by the artificial arrangement which had been given to them. Here also we saw the field Carriage, and many of the family and military equipments of Napoleon the Great, and when we came home we all felt that we had been amply repaid for our shilling; and this brings my journal up to 12 oclock to night, the time of my writing. Part of Letter No 21. ______ Memorandum for England [This page is in Smith’s handwriting. It contains a list of names and notes, almost entirely illegible because of Smith poor handwrting] 456 Robert Rolfe, 1st Baron Cranworth (1790-1868) served as Lord Chancellor from 1852-1858 and from 1865-1866. See Dictionary of National Biography. 457 James Harris, 3rd Earl of Malmsbury (1807-1889) was Foreign Secretary under Lord Derby in 1853 and 1858-1859. He was a Tory (Conservative) in the House of Lords. See Dictionary of National Biography. 458 James Graham, 4th Duke of Montrose (1799-1874). He held minor appointments in the Derby governments and was Chancellor of the University of Glasgow from 1837-1874. See Dictionary of National Biography. 459 John Spencer-Churchill, 7th Duke of Marlborough (1882-1883). He was a member of the House of Commons from 1844-1845 and 1847-1857. He entered the House of Lords in 1857. See Dictionary of National Biography. 460 Edward Stanley (1826-1893). Known as Lord Stanley from 1844 to 1869, thereafter as 15th Earl of Derby. A conservative, he served as Foreign Secretary from 1866-1868. He was the son of the Prime Minister, Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby. The Stanleys were one of the richest families in England. 461 Philip Henry Stanhope, 5th Earl Stanhope (1805-1875). He entered Parliament in 1830. He is mainly remembered as a historian as “Lord Mahon.” See Dictionary of National Biography. 462 Smith may have been referring here to the Young America movement, a political organization formed in 1845 that advocated free trade, social reform, and expansion to the south. Its strongest advocate was Democrat Stephen A. Douglas, who supported the Kansas-Nebraska Act that allowed new territories to decide whether or not to allow slavery. He ran for President in 1860 and lost to Abraham Lincoln. 463 Marie Tussaud (1761-1850) learned the art of wax modeling in France from her father. Around 1835, she opened a museum in Baker Street, London, which featured a Chamber of Horrors. Her entire gallery originally contained 400 figures. See “Marie Tussaud,” at “Wikipedia.” The July 17 issue of The Times, carried the following notice: “MADAME TUSSAUD’S EXHIBITION, at the Bazaar, Baker-Street. – A full-length Portrait Model of the PRESIDENT of the UNITED STATES of AMERICA is now added, being a continuation of celebrated characters of the present times which have raised this exhibition to the honour of being visited by strangers from all parts of the world. Admission, 1s; extra rooms, 6d.” See The Times, Saturday, July 17,1858 (No. 23,048), p. 1. Francis H. Smith in Europe, 1858. Letterbook #1 Page 137 VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives ______ Military Schools France Royal Polytechnical School, Paris Name Exp of School No of students Ecole Polytechnique (Paris) F.554 911 193 Special Militaire (St Cyr) 682,187 491 College Militaire (La Fleche) 376,810 373 Ecole d’application d’Etat Major 145,349 50 Ecole de Cavalerie (Saumur) 196,170 457 Ecole d’appl. de l’Art & du Genie 187,352 130 Prussia Cadet House Berlin Prus.Dol 12,944 420 “ “ Potsdam 40,090 200 “ “ Culm 34,174 160 “ “ Wahlslatt 38,950 200 “ “ Brnsberg 40,788 200 General War or Staff School 21,565 120 United Art & Eng “ 16,935 240 Prussia dolar = 3 sh. Eng. Money ______ Austria Vienna Staff school Flor. 43,000 30 Off Academies Students Wiener Neustadt fur Inf & Cav 256,00 400 [Znainer] Eng/r 157,000 200 Olmutz Artillery 122,000 200 Trieste Marine 73,000 100 4 Cadet Houses at Flor. 87,000 348,000 800 School Companies 6 Inf. At 33,000 F. 198,000 720 1 Cav 39,000 60 2 [Front…?] 70,000 240 Scientific School Companies 5 Artillery 175,000 600 1 Engineers 36,000 120 1 Pioneer 36,000 120 1 [Flotilla?] 22,000 60 1 Marine 40,000 150 1 Non Com Off School 17,000 60 12 upper houses of Education 594,000 2400 12 Under “ “ 308,400 1200 ₤281,440 = 2,534,400 7,430 Florin = 2 shillings Eng Money ______ Francis H. Smith in Europe, 1858. Letterbook #1 Page 138 VMI Archives www.vmi.edu/archives European Military Schools 1858 Great Britain (1) Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, for Artillery & Eng/r (2) Royal Engineers Establishment at Chatham (3) Infantry & Cavalry School at Sandhurst (4) East India Military College at Addiscombe Annual Annual No. of students Exp to Gov: Exp to Students (1) Woolwich 200 ₤36,500 ₤20 to ₤80 (2) Chatham ₤ 6,000 (3) Sandhurst 180 ₤ ₤40 to ₤125 (4) Addiscombe 150 ₤ 5,771* ₤125 * borne by East Ind. Company The East India Co. supprts 50 cadets at Chatham for Exp & pay ₤6,927 annually Expenses of Military Education in different countries France ₤48,607 Prussia 26,149 Austria 127,200 England 6,650 U. States including army off ₤ 50,000 est/d [End of first Smith letterbook] Francis H. Smith in Europe, 1858. Letterbook #1 Page 139