And prejudice against the Jews, I have noticed to be
far more common here, than it is even with us, who certainly are not
partial to them.
Of the beautiful country seats and villas which we now passed, I
could only through the windows of our coach gain a partial and
indistinct prospect, which led me to wish, as I soon most earnestly
did, to be released from this movable prison. Towards evening we
arrived at Richmond. In London, before I set out, I had paid one
shilling; another was now demanded, so that upon the whole, from
London to Richmond, the passage in the stage costs just two
shillings.
As soon as I had alighted at an inn and had drunk my tea, I went out
immediately to see the town and the circumjacent country.
Even this town, though hardly out of sight of London, is more
countrified, pleasanter, and more cheerful than London, and the
houses do not seem to be so much blackened by smoke. The people
also appeared to me here more sociable and more hospitable. I saw
several sitting on benches before their doors, to enjoy the cool
breeze of the evening. On a large green area in the middle of the
town, a number of boys, and even young men, were enjoying
themselves, and playing at trap-ball. In the streets there reigned
here, compared to London, a pleasing rural tranquillity, and I
breathed a purer and fresher air.
I went now out of the town over a bridge, which lies across the
Thames, and where you pay a penny as often as you pass over it. The
bridge is lofty and built in the form of an arch, and from it you
enter immediately into a most charming valley, that winds all along
the banks of the Thames.
It was evening. The sun was just shedding her last parting rays on
the valley; but such an evening, and such a valley! Oh, it is
impossible I should ever forget them. The terrace at Richmond does
assuredly afford one of the finest prospects in the world. Whatever
is charming in nature, or pleasing in art, is to be seen here.
Nothing I had ever seen, or ever can see elsewhere, is to be
compared to it. My feelings, during the few short enraptured
minutes that I stood there, it is impossible for any pen to
describe.
One of my first sensations was chagrin and sorrow for the days and
hours I had wasted in London, and I had vented a thousand bitter
reproaches on my irresolution, that I had not long ago quitted that
huge dungeon to come here and pass my time in paradise.
Yes, my friend, whatever be your ideas of paradise, and how
luxuriantly soever it may be depicted to your imagination, I venture
to foretell that here you will be sure to find all those ideas
realised.
