First Impressions of the New World | Page 4

to make a tour in the White Mountains, and he is
to join us at Boston on Monday week.
You must consider this as the first chapter of my Journal, which I hope
now to continue regularly.
FOOTNOTE:
[1] The admiration thus claimed for the scenery was sometimes so
extravagant as to make us look for a continuance of it, a reproach of
this kind being so often made against the Americans; but we are bound
to add this note, to say that we very seldom met afterwards with
anything of the kind, and the expressions used on this occasion were
hardly, after all, more than the real beauty of the scenery warranted.

LETTER II.
WEST POINT.--STEAMER TO NEWPORT.--NEWPORT.--BISHOP

BERKELEY.--BATHING.--ARRIVAL AT BOSTON.
Brevoort House, 5th Avenue, New York, 8th Sept., 1858.
My letter to you of the 3rd instant gave you an account of our voyage,
and of our first impressions of this city. In the afternoon of the 4th,
William went by steamboat to West Point, on the river Hudson, and we
went by railway. This was our first experience of an American Railway,
and it certainly bore no comparison in comfort either to our own, or to
those we have been so familiar with on the Continent. The carriages are
about forty feet long, without any distinction of first and second classes:
the benches, with low backs, carrying each two people, are arranged
along the two sides, with a passage down the middle. The consequence
is, that one may be brought into close contact with people, who, at
home, would be in a third-class carriage. There are two other serious
drawbacks in a long journey; the one being that there is no rest for the
head, and therefore no possible way of sleeping comfortably; the other,
that owing to the long range of windows on either side, the unhappy
traveller may be exposed to a thorough draught, without any way of
escape, unless by closing the window at his side, if he is fortunate
enough to have a seat which places it within his reach. Another serious
objection is the noise, which is so great as to make conversation most
laborious. They are painstaking in their care of the luggage, for besides
pasting on labels, each article has a numbered check attached to it, a
duplicate of which is given to the owner; time is saved in giving up the
tickets, which is done without stoppage, there being a free passage from
one end of the train to the other. This enables not only ticket-takers, but
sellers of newspapers and railway guides, to pass up and down the
carriages; iced water is also offered gratis.
The road to Garrison, where we had to cross the river, runs along the
left bank of the Hudson, a distance of fifty miles, close to the water's
edge nearly the whole way, and we were much struck by the
magnificence of the scenery. The river, generally from two to three
miles in breadth, winds between ranges of rocks and hills, mostly
covered with wood, and sometimes rising to a height of 800 feet.
Owing to the windings and the islands, the river frequently takes the

appearance of a lake; while the clearness of the atmosphere, and the
colouring of the sunset, added to the beauty of the scene. We travelled
at the rate of twenty miles an hour, and arrived in darkness at Garrison.
Here we crossed the river in a ferry-boat to West Point, and found
William, who had come at the same speed in the steamer. The hotel
being full, we accepted the offer of rooms made us by Mr. Osborn, an
American friend of papa's, at a little cottage close to the hotel. Mr. and
Mrs. Osborn and their two children had passed some weeks there, and
said they frequently thus received over-flowings from the hotel, and but
for their hospitality on this occasion, we should have been houseless for
the night. This cottage belonged to the landlord of the hotel, and there
being no cooking accommodation in it, we all took our meals in the
public dining-room. The hotel itself is a very spacious building, with a
wide verandah at each end. We found an endless variety of cakes
spread for tea, which did not exactly suit our appetites, but we made the
best of it, and then went into the public drawing-room, where we found
all the guests of the hotel assembled, and the room brilliantly lighted.
Here balls, or as they call them "hops," take place three or four times a
week. The scene is thoroughly foreign, more German than French. The
ladies' hoops are extravagant in circumference; the colouring of their
dresses is violent and heavy; and there is scarcely a man to be seen
without