watering places.—taste for the picturesque.—encomiendas.
the english migrate as regularly as rooks. home-sickness is a disease which has no existence in a certain state of civilization or of luxury, and instead of it these islanders are subject to periodical fits, of what i shall beg leave to call oikophobia, a disorder with which physicians are perfectly well acquainted though it may not yet have been catalogued in the nomenclature of nosology.
in old times, that is to say, two generations ago, mineral springs were the only places of resort. now the nereids have as many votaries as the naiads, and the tribes of wealth and fashion swarm down 347to the sea coast as punctually as the land crabs in the west indies march the same way. these people, who have unquestionably the best houses of any people in europe, and more conveniences about them to render home comfortable, crowd themselves into the narrow apartments and dark streets of a little country town, just at that time of the year when instinct seems to make us, like the lark, desirous of as much sky-room as possible. the price they pay for these lodgings is exorbitant; the more expensive the place, the more numerous are the visitors; for the pride of wealth is as ostentatious in this country as ever the pride of birth has been elsewhere. in their haunts, however, these visitors are capricious; they frequent a coast some seasons in succession, like herrings, and then desert it for some other, with as little apparent motive as the fish have for varying their track. it is fashion which influences them, not the beauty of the place, not the desirableness of the 348accommodations, not the convenience of the shore for their ostensible purpose, bathing. wherever one of the queen-bees of fashion alights, a whole swarm follows her. they go into the country for the sake of seeing company, not for retirement; and in all this there is more reason than you perhaps have yet imagined.
the fact is, that in these heretical countries parents have but one way of disposing of their daughters, and in that way it becomes less and less easy to dispose of them every year, because the modes of living become continually more expensive, the number of adventurers in every profession yearly increases, and of course every adventurer’s chance of success is proportionately diminished. they who have daughters take them to these public places to look for husbands; and there is no indelicacy in this, because others who have no such motive for frequenting them go likewise, in consequence of the fashion,—or 349of habits which they have acquired in their younger days. this is so general, that health has almost ceased to be the pretext. physicians, indeed, still send those who have more complaints than they can cure, or so few that they can discover none, to some of the fashionable spas, which are supposed to be medicinal because they are nauseous; they still send the paralytic to find relief at bath or to look for it, and the consumptive to die at the hot-wells: yet even to these places more persons go in quest of pleasure than of relief, and the parades and pump-rooms there exhibit something more like the dance of death than has ever perhaps been represented elsewhere in real life.
there is another way of passing the summer which is equally, if not more, fashionable. within the last thirty years a taste for the picturesque has sprung up,—and a course of summer travelling is now looked upon to be as essential as ever a course of spring physic was in old 350times. while one of the flocks of fashion migrates to the sea-coast, another flies off to the mountains of wales, to the lakes in the northern provinces, or to scotland; some to mineralogize, some to botanize, some to take views of the country,—all to study the picturesque, a new science for which a new language has been formed, and for which the english have discovered a new sense in themselves, which assuredly was not possessed by their fathers. this is one of the customs to which it suits a stranger to conform. my business is to see the country,—and, to confess the truth, i have myself caught something of this passion for the picturesque, from conversation, from books, and still more from the beautiful landscapes in water colours, in which the english excel all other nations.
to the lakes then i am preparing to set out. d. will be my companion. we go by way of oxford, birmingham, and liverpool, and return by york and cambridge, 351designing to travel by stage over the less interesting provinces, and, when we reach the land of lakes, to go on foot, in true picturesque costume, with a knapsack slung over the shoulder.—i am smiling at the elevation of yours, and the astonishment in your arched brows. even so:—it is the custom in england. young englishmen have discovered that they can walk as well as the well-girt greeks in the days of old, and they have taught me the use of my legs.
i have packed up a box of encomiendas to go during my absence by the sally, the captain of which has promised to deposit it safely with our friend baltazar. one case of razors is for my father; they are of the very best fabric; my friend benito has never wielded such instruments since first he took man by the nose. i have added a case of lancets for benito himself at his own request, and in addition the newest instrument for drawing teeth, remembering the last grinder which he dislocated 352for me, and obeying the precept of returning good for evil. the cost stands over to my own charity score, and i shall account for it with my confessor. padre antonio will admit it as alms, it being manifestly designed to save my neighbours from the pains of purgatory upon earth. the lamp is infinitely superior to any thing you have ever seen in our own country,—but england is the land of ingenuity. i have written such particular instructions that there can be no difficulty in using it. the smaller parcel is dona isabel’s commission. if she ask how i like the english ladies, say to her, in the words of the romance,
que no quiero amores
en inglaterra,
pues otros mejores
tengo yo en mi tierra.[21]
21. that i want no loves in england, because i have other better ones in my own country.—tr.
the case of sweetmeats is mrs j—’s present to my mother. there is also a hamper 353of cheese, the choicest which could be procured. one, with the other case of razors, you will send to padre antonio, and tell him that in this land of heresy i shall be as mindful of my faith as of my friends.
