Chapter II: Preface

--------------

A volume of Travels rarely or never, in our days, appears in Spain: in England, on the contrary, scarcely any works are so numerous. If an Englishman spends the summer in any of the mountainous provinces, or runs over to Paris for six weeks, he publishes the history of his travels; and if a work of this kind be announced in France, so great a competition is excited among the London booksellers, that they import it sheet by sheet as it comes from the press, and translate and print it piece-meal. The greater number of such books must necessarily be of little value: all, however, find readers, and the worst of them adds something to the stock of general information.

We seldom travel; and they among us who do, never give their journals to the public. Is it because literature can hardly be said to have become a trade among us, or because vanity is no part of our national character? The present work, therefore, is safe from comparison, and will have the advantage of novelty. If it subject me to the charge of vanity myself, I shall be sorry for the imputation, but not conscious of deserving it. I went to England under circumstances unusually favourable, and remained there eighteen months, during the greater part of which I was domesticated in an English family. They knew that it was my intention to publish an account of what I saw, and aided me in my enquiries with a kindness which I must ever remember. My remarks were communicated, as they occurred, in letters to my own family, and to my Father Confessor; and they from time to time suggested to me such objects of observation as might otherwise perhaps have been overlooked. I have thought it better to revise these letters, inserting such matter as further research and more knowledge enabled me to add, rather than to methodize the whole; having observed in England, that works of this kind wherein the subjects are presented in the order wherein they occurred, are always better received than those of a more systematical arrangement: indeed, they are less likely to be erroneous, and their errors are more excusable, in those letters which relate to the state of religion, I have availed myself of the remarks with which my Father Confessor instructed me in his correspondence. He has forbidden me to mention his name; but it is my duty to state, that the most valuable observations upon this important subject, and, in particular, those passages in which the Fathers are so successfully quoted, would not have enriched these volumes, but for his assistance.

In thus delineating to my countrymen the domestic character and habits of the English, and the real state of England, I have endeavoured to be strictly impartial; and, if self-judgment may in such a case be trusted, it is my belief that I have succeeded. Certainly, I am not conscious of having either exaggerated or extenuated any thing in any the slightest degree—of heightening the bright or the dark parts of the picture for the sake of effect—of inventing what is false, nor of concealing what is true, so as to lie by implication. Mistakes and misrepresentations there may, and, perhaps, must be: I hope they will neither be found numerous nor important, as I know they are not wilful; and I trust that whatever may be the faults and errors of the work, nothing will appear in it inconsistent with that love of my country, which I feel in common with every Spaniard; and that submission, which, in common with every Catholic, I owe to the Holy Church.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

CONTENTS

OF THE

FIRST VOLUME.

--------------

LETTER I.

Page

Arrival at Falmouth.—Custom House.—Food 1
of the English.—Noise and Bustle at
the Inn

LETTER II.

Mode of 8
Travelling.—Penryn.—Truro.—Dreariness
of the Country.—Bodmin.—Earth-Coal the
common Fuel.—Launceston.—Excellence of
the Inns and Roads.—Okehampton.—Exeter

LETTER III.

Exeter Cathedral and public 24
Walk.—Libraries.— Honiton.—Dangers of
English Travelling, and Cruelty with
which it is
attended.—Axminster.—Bridport

LETTER IV.

Dorchester.—Gilbert Wakefield.—Inside of 37
an English Church.—Attempt to rear
Silk-worms.—Down-country.—Blandford.—Salisbury.—Execrable
Alteration of the Cathedral.—Instance
of public Impiety

LETTER V.

Old Sarum.—Country thinly 54
peopled.—Basingstoke.—Ruins of a
Catholic Chapel.—Waste Land near
London.—Staines.—Iron Bridges.—Custom
of exposing the dead Bodies of
Criminals.—Hounslow
Brentford.—Approach to London.—Arrival

LETTER VI.

Watchmen.—Noise in London Night and 65
Morning.—An English Family.—Advice to
Travellers

LETTER VII.

General Description of London.—Walk to 72
the Palace.—Crowd in the
Streets.—Shops.—Cathedral of St
Paul.—Palace of the Prince of
Wales.—Oddities in the Shop Windows

LETTER VIII.

Proclamation of Peace.—The English do 85
not understand
Pageantry.—Illumination.—M. Otto’s
House.—Illuminations better managed at
Rome

LETTER IX.

Execution of Governor Wall 97

LETTER X.

Martial Laws of England.—Limited Service 109
advised.—Hints for Military Reform

LETTER XI.

Shopmen, why preferred to Women in 119
England.—Division of London into the
East and West Ends.—Low State of
domestic
Architecture.—Burlington-House

LETTER XII.

Causes of the Change of Ministry not 127
generally understood.—Catholic
Emancipation.—The Change acceptable to
the Nation.—State of Parties.—Strength
of the new Administration.—Its good
Effects.—Popularity of Mr Addington

LETTER XIII.

Dress of the English without Variety.— 137
Coal-heavers.—Post-men.—Art of
knocking at the Door.—Inscriptions
over the Shops.—Exhibitions in the
Shop-windows.—Chimney-sweepers.—May-day.—These
Sports originally religious

LETTER XIV.

Description of the Inside, and of the 149
Furniture, of an English House

LETTER XV.

English Meals.—Clumsy Method of 164
Butchery.—Lord Somerville.—Cruel
Manner of killing certain
Animals.—Luxuries of the
Table.—Liquors

LETTER XVI.

Informers.—System upon which they 173
act.—Anecdotes of their
Rascality.—Evil of encouraging
them.—English Character a Compound of
Contradictions

LETTER XVII.

The Word _Home_ said to be peculiar to 180
the English.—Propriety of the
Assertion questioned.—Comfort.—Curious
Conveniences.—Pocket-fender.—Hunting-razors

LETTER XVIII.

Drury-Lane Theatre.—The Winter’s 187
Tale.—Kemble.—Mrs Siddons.—Don Juan

LETTER XIX.

English Church Service.—Banns of 200
Marriage.—Inconvenience of having the
Sermon a regular Part.—Sermons an
Article of Trade.—Popular
Preachers.—Private Chapels

LETTER XX.

Irreverence of English towards the 215
Virgin Mary and the Saints.—Want of
Ceremonies in their Church.—Festival
Dainties.—Traces of Catholicism in
their Language and Oaths.—Disbelief of
Purgatory.—Fatal Consequences of this
Error.—Supposed Advantages of the
Schism examined.—Clergy not so
numerous as formerly

LETTER XXI.

Show of Tulips.—Florists.—Passion for 228
Rarities in England Queen Anne’s
Farthings.—Male Tortoise-shell
Cat.—Collectors.—The King of
Collectors

LETTER XXII.

English Coins.—Paper Currency.—Frequent 241
Executions for Forgery.—Doctor
Dodd.—Opinion that Prevention is the
End of Punishment.—This End not
answered by the Frequency of
Executions.—Plan for the Prevention of
Forgery rejected by the Bank

LETTER XXIII.

Westminster Abbey.—Legend of its 256
Consecration.—Its single Altar in bad
Taste.—Gothic or English
Architecture.—Monuments.—Banks the
Sculptor.—Wax-work.—Henry the
Seventh’s Chapel.—Mischievous
Propensity of the People to mutilate
the Monuments

LETTER XXIV.

Complexion of the English contradictory 274
to their historical
Theories.—Christian Names, and their
Diminutives.—System of Surnames.—Names
of the Months and Days.—Friday the
unlucky Day.—St Valentine.—Relics of
Catholicism

LETTER XXV.

Vermin imported from all 285
Parts.—Fox-Hunting.—
Shooting.—Destruction of the
Game.—Rural Sports

LETTER XXVI.

Poor-Laws.—Work-Houses.—Sufferings of 294
the Poor from the Climate.—Dangerous
State of England during the
Scarcity.—The Poor not bettered by the
Progress of Civilization

LETTER XXVII.

Saint Paul’s.—Anecdote of a female 307
Esquimaux.—Defect of Grecian
Architecture in cold
Climates.—Nakedness of the
Church.—Monuments.—Pictures offered by
Sir Joshua Reynolds, &c. and
refused.—Ascent.—View from the Summit

LETTER XXVIII.

State of the English Catholics.—Their 322
prudent Silence in the Days of
Jacobitism.—The Church of England
jealous of the Dissenters.—Riots in
1780.—Effects of the French
Revolution.—The Re-establishment of
the Monastic Orders in England.—Number
of Nunneries and Catholic
Seminaries.—The Poor easily
converted.—Catholic Writers.—Dr Geddes

LETTER XXIX.

Number of Sects in England, all 333
appealing to the
Scriptures.—Puritans.—Nonjurors.—Rise
of Socinianism, and its probable
Downfall

LETTER XXX.

Watering Places.—Taste for the 346
Picturesque.—Encomiendas

LETTER XXXI.

Journey to Oxford.—Stage-Coach 354
Travelling and Company

------------------------------------------------------------------------

ESPRIELLA’S

LETTERS FROM ENGLAND.

---------------------