Besides, if we will visit London, the present time is the best time, as some signs portend that it has reached its highest point. It is observed that the English interest us a little less within a few years; and hence the impression that the British power has culminated, is in solstice, or already declining.
As soon as you enter England, which, with Wales, is no larger than the State of Georgia, (*) this little land stretches by an illusion to the dimensions of an empire. The innumerable details, the crowded succession of towns, cities, cathedrals, castles, and great and decorated estates, the number and power of the trades and guilds, the military strength and splendor, the multitudes of rich and of remarkable people, the servants and equipages, -- all these catching the eye, and never allowing it to pause, hide all boundaries, by the impression of magnificence and endless wealth.
(*) Add South Carolina, and you have more than an equivalent for the area of Scotland.
I reply to all the urgencies that refer me to this and that object indispensably to be seen, -- Yes, to see England well needs a hundred years; for, what they told me was the merit of Sir John Soane's Museum, in London, -- that it was well packed and well saved, -- is the merit of England; -- it is stuffed full, in all corners and crevices, with towns, towers, churches, villas, palaces, hospitals, and charity-houses.
Pages:
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48