First Impressions of the New World | Page 5

moustachios, a beard, a straw hat, and a cigar. West Point is the
Sandhurst of the United States, and is also the nearest summer
rendezvous of the fashionables of New York. It is beautifully situated
on the heights above the river, and the Military Academy, about ten
minutes' drive from the hotel, commands a most splendid view of the
Hudson, and the hills on either side.
We went to the chapel on Sunday the 5th, where we joined, for the first
time, in the service in America. It differs but little from our own, and
was followed by a not very striking sermon. The Holy Communion was
afterwards administered, and it was a comfort to us to join in it on this
our first Sunday in America. The cadets filled the centre of the chapel,
and are a very good-looking set of youths, wearing a pretty uniform,
the jacket being pale grey with large silver buttons. We dined at four
o'clock at the table d'hôte, in a room capable of holding about four
hundred. We sat next to the landlord, who carved at one of the long

tables. The dinner was remarkably well cooked in the French style, but
most deficient in quantity, and we rose from table nearly as hungry as
we sat down. Some of the ladies appeared at dinner in evening dresses,
with short sleeves (made very short) and low bodies, a tulle pelerine
being stretched tight over their bare necks. In some cases the hair was
dressed with large ornamental pins and artificial flowers, as for an
evening party. We met them out walking later in the evening, with light
shawls or visites on their shoulders, no bonnets, and large fans in their
hands. This toilette was fully accounted for by the heat, the
thermometer being at 80° in the shade. Many of the younger women
were very pretty, and pleasing in their manners.
We left West Point early on Monday morning, the 6th, taking the
steamboat back to New York, leaving William to pursue his journey to
the White Mountains and Montreal alone, and we are to meet him again
at Boston next week. The steamboat was well worth seeing, being a
wonderful floating house or palace, three stories high, almost
consisting of two or three large saloons, much gilt and decorated, and
hung with prints and filled with passengers. The machinery rises in the
centre of the vessel, as high nearly as the funnel. We went at the rate of
twenty miles an hour. We again enjoyed the beauties of the river, and
could this time see both sides, which we were unable to do on the
railway, by which means too we saw many pretty towns and villas
which we had missed on Saturday. We were back at the hotel by twelve
o'clock, and are to make our next move to-morrow afternoon to
Newport, a sea-bathing place, a little way north of this. We are doing
this at the strong recommendation of Lord Napier, who says, at this
time of the year Newport is worth seeing, as giving a better idea of an
American watering-place than Saratoga, where the season is now
drawing to a close.
We have now become more familiar with this place, and I think are
beginning to feel the total want of interest of any sort beyond a general
admiration of the handsome wide streets and well-built houses. The
Brevoort House is in the fifth avenue, which, in point of fashion,
answers to Belgrave Square with us, and consists of a long line of
houses of large dimensions. A friend, who accompanied us in our drive

yesterday evening, pointed out many of the best of them as belonging
to button-makers, makers of sarsaparilla, and rich parvenus, who have
risen from the shop counter. He took us to his own house in this line,
which was moderate in size, and prettily fitted up. He is a collector of
pictures, and has one very fine oil painting of a splendid range of
mountainous scenery, in the Andes. It is by Church, a rising young
American, whose view of the Falls of Niagara was exhibited this year
in London. We have made frequent use of the omnibus here; the fares
are half the price of the London ones, and the carriages are very clean
and superior in every way to ours. Great trust is shown in the honesty
of the passengers, there being no one to receive payment at the door,
but a notice within directs the money to be paid to the driver, which is
done through a hole in the roof, and he presents his fingers to receive it,
without apparently knowing how many passengers have entered. We
frequently meet woolly-headed negroes in our walks, and they seem to
form a large