There Is Great Attachment To England Among Those Who Are Protected By Her
Laws, And Live Under The Shadow Of Her Standard Of Freedom.
In many
instances, no remembrances of wrongs received, of injuries sustained, of
hopeless poverty and ill-requited toil, can sever that holiest, most
sacred of ties, which binds, until his latest breath, the heart of the
exile to his native land.
The great annoyance of which people complain in this pleasant land is the
difficulty of obtaining domestic servants, and the extraordinary specimens
of humanity who go out in this capacity. It is difficult to obtain any,
and those that are procured are solely Irish Roman Catholics, who think it
a great hardship to wear shoes, and speak of their master as the "boss."
At one house where I visited, the servant or "help," after condescending
to bring in the dinner, took a book from the chiffonier, and sat down on
the sofa to read it. On being remonstrated with for her conduct, she
replied that she "would not remain an hour in a house where those she
helped had an objection to a young lady's improving her mind!" At an hotel
at Toronto, one chambermaid, pointing to another, said, "That young lady
will show you your room." I left Mr. Forrest's even for three days with
great regret, and after a nine miles drive on a very wet morning, and a
water transit of two hours, found myself at Toronto, where as usual on the
wharf I was greeted by the clamorous demand for "wharfage." I found the
Walrences and other agreeable acquaintances at Russell's hotel, but was
surprised with what I thought rather a want of discrimination on the part
of all; I was showing a valuable collection of autographs, beginning with
Cromwell, and containing, in addition to those of several deceased and
living royal personages, valuable letters of Scott, Byron, Wellington,
Russell, Palmerston, Wilberforce, Dickens, &c. The shades of kings,
statesmen, and poets, might almost have been incited to appear, when the
signature of Richard Cobden was preferred before all.
CHAPTER XI.
"I've seen nothing" - A disappointment - Incongruities - Hotel gaieties and
"doing Niagara" - Irish drosky-drivers - "The Hell of Waters" - Beauties of
Niagara - The picnic party - The White Canoe - A cold shower-bath - "The
Thunder of Waters" - A magic word - "The Whirlpool" - Story of "Bloody Run" -
Yankee opinions of English ladies - A metamorphosis - The nigger guide - A
terrible situation - Termination Rock - Impressions of Niagara - Juvenile
precocity - A midnight journey - Street adventures in Hamilton.
"Have you seen the Falls?" - "No." "Then you've seen nothing of America." I
might have seen Trenton Falls, Gennessee Falls, the Falls of Montmorenci
and Lorette; but I had seen nothing if I had not seen the Falls (par
excellence) of Niagara. There were divers reasons why my friends in the
States were anxious that I should see Niagara. One was, as I was
frequently told, that all I had seen, even to the "Prayer Eyes," would
go for nothing on my return; for in England, America was supposed to be a
vast tract of country containing one town - New York; and one astonishing
natural phenomenon, called Niagara. "See New York, Quebec, and Niagara,"
was the direction I received when I started upon my travels. I never could
make out how, but somehow or other, from my earliest infancy, I had been
familiar with the name of Niagara, and, from the numerous pictures I had
seen of it, I could, I suppose, have sketched a very accurate likeness of
the Horse-shoe Fall. Since I landed at Portland, I had continually met
with people who went into ecstatic raptures with Niagara; and after
passing within sight of its spray, and within hearing of its roar - after
seeing it the great centre of attraction to all persons of every class - my
desire to see it for myself became absorbing. Numerous difficulties had
arisen, and at one time I had reluctantly given up all hope of seeing it,
when Mr. and Mrs. Walrence kindly said, that, if I would go with them,
they would return to the east by way of Niagara.
Between the anticipation of this event, and the din of the rejoicings for
the "capture of Sebastopol," I slept very little on the night before
leaving Toronto, and was by no means sorry when the cold grey of dawn
quenched the light of tar-barrels and gas-lamps. I crossed Lake Ontario in
the iron steamer Peerless; the lake was rough as usual, and, after a
promenade of two hours on the spray-drenched deck, I retired to the cabin,
and spent some time in dreamily wondering whether Niagara itself would
compensate for the discomforts of the journey thither. Captain D - -
gravely informed me that there were "a good many cases" below, and I never
saw people so deplorably sea-sick as in this steamer. An Indian officer
who had crossed the Line seventeen times was sea-sick for the first time
on Lake Ontario. The short, cross, chopping seas affect most people. The
only persons in the saloon who were not discomposed by them were two tall
school-girls, who seemed to have innumerable whispered confidences and
secrets to confide to each other.
We touched the wharf at Niagara, a town on the British side of the Niagara
river - "cars for Buffalo, all aboard," - and just crossing a platform, we
entered the Canada cars, and on the top of some frightful precipices, and
round some terrific curves, we were whirled to the Clifton House at
Niagara. I left the cars, and walked down the slope to the verge of the
cliff; I forgot my friends, who had called me to the hotel to lunch - I
forgot everything - for I was looking at the Falls of Niagara.
"No more than this! - what seem'd it now
By that far flood to stand?
A thousand streams of lovelier flow
Bathe my own mountain land,
And thence o'er waste and ocean track
Their wild sweet voices call'd me back.
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