Her Remains Are
Deposited Near Those Of One Of Her Own Sex, Who Was Also Distinguished
For Her Literary Talents, Miss Jewsbury.
The death of Miss Roberts excited universal sorrow amongst all
classes, European and native, at Bombay, as well as at the other
presidencies, especially Calcutta, where the most cordial and
flattering tributes to her memory appeared in the public journals.
She
had nearly completed her inquiries, and accomplished all the objects
for which she had revisited the treacherous clime of India, and one of
her latest letters to the writer of this Memoir expressed a cheerful
anticipation of her speedy return to England! "I positively leave
India next October, and am now looking joyfully to my return."
The person and manners of Miss Roberts were extremely prepossessing.
In early life, she was handsome; and although latterly her figure
had attained some degree of fulness, it had lost none of its ease and
grace, whilst her pleasing features, marked by no lines of painful
thought, were open and expressive, beaming with animation and good
humour. She had not the slightest tinge of pedantry in her manner and
deportment, which were natural and affable, so that a stranger never
felt otherwise than at ease in her society. It was not her ambition
to make a display of mental superiority, which inspires the other sex
with any feelings but those of admiration - which is, indeed, tacitly
resented as a species of tyranny, and frequently assigned as the
ground of a certain prejudice against literary ladies. "It may safely
he said," observes a friend of her's at Calcutta, "that, although
devoted to literature as Miss Roberts was, yet in her conversation and
demeanour she evinced less of what is known as 'blue' than any
of her contemporaries, excepting Miss Landon." Another Calcutta
acquaintance says: "Though her mind was deeply interested in subjects
connected with literature, her attention was by no means absorbed by
them, and she mixed cordially and freely in society without the least
disposition to despise persons of less intellectual elevation. She
had a true relish of all the little pleasures that promiscuous society
affords, and did not underrate those talents which are better fitted
for the drawing-room than the study." Her warmth of heart and kindness
of disposition, which co-operated with her good sense in thus removing
all disagreeable points from her external character, made her the
sincerest of friends, and ever ready to engage in any work of charity
or benevolence.
It would be affectation to attempt in this slight Memoir to elaborate
a picture of the intellectual character of Miss Roberts, cut off,
as she has been, before that character had been fully developed. The
works, upon which her reputation as a writer principally rests, are
not, perhaps, of a quality which calls for any commanding powers
of mind. Her business was with the surfaces of things; her skill
consisted in a species of photography, presenting perfect fac-similes
of objects, animate and inanimate, in their natural forms and hues.
Deep investigations, profound reflections, and laboured and learned
disquisitions, would have defeated the very object of her lively
sketches, which was to make them, not only faithful and exact, but
popular. Of her success in this design, the following testimony from a
competent authority, the Calcutta Literary Gazette, is distinct
and decisive; and with this extract we may fitly close our melancholy
office: "Nothing can be more minute and faithful than her pictures of
external life and manners. She does not, indeed, go much beneath the
surface, nor does she take profound or general views of human nature;
but we can mention no traveller, who has thrown upon the printed page
such true and vivid representations of all that strikes the eye of
a stranger. Her book, entitled Scenes and Characteristics of
Hindostan, is the best of its kind. Other travellers have excelled
her in depth and sagacity of remark, in extent of information, and in
mere force or elegance of style; but there is a vivacity, a delicacy,
and a truth in her light sketches of all that lay immediately before
her, that have never been surpassed in any book of travels that is
at this moment present to our memory. She had a peculiar readiness in
receiving, and a singular power of retaining, first impressions of the
most minute and evanescent nature. She walked through a street or a
bazaar, and every thing that passed over the mirror of her mind left
a clear and lasting trace. She was thus enabled, even years after a
visit to a place of interest, to describe every thing with the same
freshness and fidelity as if she had taken notes upon the spot.
They who have gone over the same ground are delighted to find in
the perusal of her pages their own vague and half-faded impressions
revived and defined by her magic glass, while the novelty and
vividness of her foreign pictures make her home-readers feel that they
are nearly as much entitled to be called travellers as the fair author
herself."
[Footnote A: The first appeared in the Journal for December, 1832.]
[Footnote B: For December, 1840.]
CHAPTER I.
* * * * *
LONDON TO PARIS.
* * * * *
Departure from London - A French Steam-vessel - Unfavourable
Weather - Arrival at Havre - Difficulties at the
Custom-house - Description of Havre - Embarkation on the Steamer for
Rouen - Appearance of the Country - Inclemency of the Weather - Arrival
at Rouen - Description of Rouen - Departure by the Boat for
Paris - Scenes and Traditions on the Banks of the Seine - Journey by the
Railroad to Paris - The Douaniers - Observations on the Journey up the
Seine.
A strong predilection in favour of river scenery induced me, at the
commencement of an overland journey to Bombay, through France and
Egypt, to take a passage from London in a steamer bound to Havre.
Accordingly, on the 1st of September, 1839, accompanied by some
friends, one of whom was to perform the whole journey with me, I
embarked on board the Phenix, a French vessel, which left the Tower
Stairs at about ten o'clock in the morning.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 5 of 79
Words from 4126 to 5143
of 80716
