Recollections of Europe | Page 3

and like most of her countrywomen who will
consent to serve in a household, a most valuable domestic. She wished
much to go, but, on the other side, was the conviction, that a woman
who had never been at sea would be useless during the passage; and
then we were told so many fine things of the European servants, that
the odds were unfortunately against her. The principal objection,
however, was her forms of speech. Foreign servants would of
themselves be a great aid in acquiring the different languages; and poor

Abigail, at the best, spoke that least desirable of all corruptions of the
English tongue, the country dialect of New England. Her New England
morals and New England sense; in this instance, were put in the
balance against her "bens," "an-gels," "doozes," "nawthings," "noans,"
and even her "virtooes," (in a family of children, no immaterial
considerations,) and the latter prevailed. We had occasion to regret this
decision. A few years later I met in Florence an Italian family of high
rank, which had brought with them from Philadelphia two female
domestics, whom they prized above all the other servants of a large
establishment. Italy was not good enough for them, however; and, after
resisting a great deal of persuasion, they were sent back. What was
Florence or Rome to Philadelphia! But then these people spoke good
English--better, perhaps, than common English nursery-maids, the
greatest of their abuses in orthoepy being merely to teach a child to call
its mother a "mare."
It was a flat calm, and the packets were all dropping down the bay with
the ebb. The day was lovely, and the view of the harbour, which has so
many, while it wants so many, of the elements of first-rate scenery, was
rarely finer. All estuaries are most beautiful viewed in the calm; but
this is peculiarly true of the Bay of New York--neither the colour of the
water, nor its depth, nor the height of the surrounding land, being
favourable to the grander efforts of Nature. There is little that is
sublime in either the Hudson, or its mouth; but there is the very
extreme of landscape beauty.
Experience will teach every one, that without returning to scenes that
have made early impressions, after long absences, and many occasions
to examine similar objects elsewhere, our means of comparison are of
no great value. My acquaintance with the Hudson has been long and
very intimate; for to say that I have gone up and down its waters a
hundred times, would be literally much within the truth. During that
journey whose observations and events are about to fill these volumes,
I retained a lively impression of its scenery, and, on returning to the
country, its current was ascended with a little apprehension that an eye
which had got to be practised in the lights and shades of the Alps and
Appenines might prove too fastidious for our own river. What is

usually termed the grandeur of the highlands was certainly much
impaired; but other parts of the scenery gained in proportion; and, on
the whole, I found the passage between New York and Albany to be
even finer than it had been painted by memory. I should think there can
be little doubt that, if not positively the most beautiful river, the
Hudson possesses some of the most beautiful river-scenery, of the
known world.
Our ship was named after this noble stream. We got on board of her off
Bedlow's, and dropped quietly down as far as the quarantine ground
before we were met by the flood. Here we came to, to wait for a wind,
more passengers, and that important personage, whom man-of-war's
men term the master, and landsmen the captain. In the course of the
afternoon we had all assembled, and began to reconnoitre each other,
and to attend to our comforts.
To get accustomed to the smell of the ship, with its confined air, and
especially to get all their little comforts about them in smooth water, is
a good beginning for your novices. If to this be added moderation in
food, and especially in drink; as much exercise as one can obtain;
refraining from reading and writing until accustomed to one's situation,
and paying great attention to the use of aperients; I believe all is said
that an old traveller, and an old sailor too, can communicate on a
subject so important to those who are unaccustomed to the sea. Can
your experience suggest anything more?
We lay that night at the quarantine ground; but early on the morning of
the 2nd, all hands were called to heave-up. The wind came in puffs
over the heights of Staten, and there was every prospect of our being
able to get to sea in two or three