Sunny Memories of Foreign Lands, vol 2 | Page 9

girl, and, lastly, rushed up stairs to
bathe her glowing cheeks, smooth her hair, draw on satin dress and kid
gloves, and appear in the drawing room as if nothing were the matter?
Certainly the undaunted bravery of our American females can never
enough be admired. Other women can play gracefully the head of the
establishment; but who, like them, could be head, hand, and foot, all at
once?
As I have spoken of stoves, I will here remark that I have not yet seen
one in England; neither, so far as I can remember, have I seen a house
warmed by a furnace. Bright coal fires, in grates of polished steel, are
as yet the lares and penates of old England. If I am inclined to mourn
over any defection in my own country, it is the closing up of the
cheerful open fire, with its bright lights and dancing shadows, and the
planting on our domestic hearth of that sullen, stifling gnome, the
air-tight. I agree with Hawthorne in thinking the movement fatal to
patriotism; for who would fight for an airtight!
I have run on a good way beyond our evening company; so good by for
the present.

LETTER XXI
May 13. Dear father:--
To-day we are to go out to visit your Quaker friend, Mr. Alexander, at
Stoke Newington, where you passed so many pleasant hours during
your sojourn in England. At half past nine we went into the
Congregational Union, which is now in session. I had a seat upon the
platform, where I could command a view of the house. It was a most
interesting assemblage to me, recalling forcibly our New England
associations, and impressing more than ever on my mind how much of
one blood the two countries are. These earnest, thoughtful,
intelligent-looking men seemed to transport me back to my own

country. They received us with most gratifying cordiality and kindness.
Most naturally Congregationalism in England must turn with deep
interest and sympathy to Congregationalism in America. In several
very cordial addresses they testified their pleasure at seeing us among
them, speaking most affectionately of you and your labors, and your
former visit to England. The wives and daughters of many of them
present expressed in their countenances the deepest and most
affectionate feeling. It is cheering to feel that an ocean does not divide
our hearts, and that the Christians of America and England are one.
In the afternoon we drove out to Mr. Alexander's. His place is called
Paradise, and very justly, being one more of those home Edens in
which England abounds, where, without ostentation or display, every
appliance of rational enjoyment surrounds one.
We were ushered into a cheerful room, opening by one glass door upon
a brilliant conservatory of flowers, and by another upon a neatly-kept
garden. The air was fresh and sweet with the perfume of blossoming
trees, and every thing seemed doubly refreshing from the contrast with
the din and smoke of London. Our chamber looked out upon a beautiful
park, shaded with fine old trees. While contemplating the white
draperies of our windows, and the snowy robings of the bed, we could
not but call to mind the fact, of which we were before aware, that not
an article was the result of the unpaid oil of the slave; neither did this
restriction, voluntarily assumed, fetter at all the bountifulness of the
table, where free-grown sugar, coffee, rice, and spices seemed to derive
a double value to our friends from this consideration.
Some of the Quakers carry the principle so far as to refuse money in a
business transaction which they have reason to believe has been gained
by the unpaid toil of the slave. A Friend in Edinburgh told me of a
brother of his in the city of Carlisle, who kept a celebrated biscuit
bakery, who received an order from New Orleans for a thousand dollars
worth of biscuit. Before closing the bargain he took the buyer into his
counting room, and told him that he had conscientious objections about
receiving money from slaveholders, and that in case he were one he
should prefer not to trade with him. Fortunately, in this case,
consistency and interest were both on one side.
Things like these cannot but excite reflection in one's mind, and the
query must arise, if all who really believe slavery to be a wrong should

pursue this course, what would be the result? There are great practical
difficulties in the way of such a course, particularly in America, where
the subject has received comparatively little attention. Yet since I have
been in England, I am informed by the Friends here, that there has been
for many years an association of Friends in Philadelphia, who have sent
their agents through the