Chapter I: Preface

I do not deem it necessary to apologize for this memoir of a farmer’s visit to England. Every man in travelling will be directed in peculiar paths of observation by his peculiar tastes, habits, and personal interests, and there will always be a greater or less class who will like to hear of just what he liked to see. With a hearty country appetite for narrative, I have spent, previous to my own journey, a great many long winter evenings in reading the books so frequently written by our literary tourists, upon England; and although I do not recollect one of them, the author of which was a farmer, or whose habits of life, professional interests, associations in society, and ordinary standards of comparison were not altogether different from my own, I remember none from which I did not derive entertainment and instruction.

Notwithstanding, therefore, the triteness of the field, I may presume to think, that there will be a great many who will yet enjoy to follow me over it, and this although my gait and carriage should not be very elegant, but so only as one farmer’s leg and one sailor’s leg with the help of a short, crooked, half-grown academic sapling, for a walking stick, might be expected to carry a man along with a head and a heart of his own.

And as it is especially for farmers and farmers’ families that I have written, I trust that all who try to read the book, will be willing to come into a warm, good-natured, broad country kitchen fireside relation with me, and permit me to speak my mind freely, and in such language as I can readily command on all sorts of subjects that come in my way, forming their own views from the facts that I give them, and taking my opinions for only just what they shall seem to be worth.

Some explanation of a few of the intentions that gave direction to my movements in travelling may be of service to the reader.

The wages, and the cost and manner of living of the labouring men, and the customs with regard to labour of those countries and districts, from which foreign writers on economical subjects are in the habit of deriving their data, had been made a subject of more than ordinary and other than merely philanthropical interest to me, from an experience of the difficulty of applying their calculations to the different circumstances under which work must be executed in the United States. My vocation as a farmer, too, had led me for a long time to desire to know more of the prevailing, ordinary, and generally accepted practices of agriculture, than I could learn from Mr. Coleman’s book, or from the observations of most of the European correspondents of our agricultural periodicals, the attention of these gentlemen having been usually directed to the exceptional improved modes of cultivation which prevail only among the amateur agriculturists and the bolder and more enterprising farmers.

The tour was made in company with two friends, whose purposes somewhat influence the character of the narrative. One of them, my brother, hoped by a course of invigorating exercise, simple diet, and restraint from books and other in-door and sedentary luxuries, to re-establish his weakened health, and especially to strengthen his eyes, frequent failures of which often seriously annoyed and interrupted him in the study of his profession. The other, our intimate friend from boyhood, desired to add somewhat to the qualifications usually inquired after in a professed teacher and adviser of mankind, by such a term and method of study as he could afford to make, of the varying developments of human nature under different biases and institutions from those of his own land.

We all considered, finally, that it should be among those classes which form the majority of the people of a country that the truest exhibition of national character should be looked for, and that in their condition should be found the best evidence of the wisdom of national institutions.

In forming the details of a plan by which we could, within certain limits of time and money, best accomplish such purposes as I have indicated, we were much indebted to the information and advice given by Bayard Taylor in his “Views a-Foot.”

The part now published contains the narrative of the earlier, and to us most interesting, though not the most practically valuable, part of our journey. I was in the habit of writing my diary usually in the form of a letter, to be sent as occasion offered to friends at home. It is from this desultory letter-diary, with such revision and extension and filling up of gaps, as my memory and pocket-book notes afford, that this volume has been formed. I have most desired to bring before my brother farmers and their families such things that I saw in England as have conveyed practical agricultural information or useful suggestions to myself, and such evidences of simply refined tastes, good feelings, and enlarged Christian sentiments among our English brethren, as all should enjoy to read of. It was my design to have somewhat extended this volume, that it might contain a greater proportion of more distinctly rural matter, but the liberal proposal of Mr. Putnam to include it in the excellent popular Series he is now publishing, makes a limit to its length necessary. Should I have reason to believe, however, that I have succeeded in the purposes which led me to write for the public, I shall be most happy at another time to continue my narrative.

FRED. LAW OLMSTED.

_Tosomock Farm, Southside, Staten Island._

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

Emigrant Passenger Agents.—Second Cabin.—Mutiny.—Delay.—Departure. 9

CHAPTER II.

At Sea.—Incidents.—Sea Sociability.—A Yarn.—Sea Life.—Characters.—
English Radicals.—Skeptics.—Education.—French Infidelity.—Phrenology.—
Theology. 14

CHAPTER III.

Sailors.—“Sogers.”—Books.—Anecdotes. 37

CHAPTER IV.

On Soundings.—English Small Craft.—Harbour of Liverpool. 41

CHAPTER V.

The first of England.—The Streets.—A Railway Station.—The Docks at
Night.—Prostitutes.—Temperance.—The Still Life of Liverpool.—
A Market. 50

CHAPTER VI.

The People at Liverpool.—Poverty.—Merchants.—Shopkeepers.—
Women.—Soldiers.—Children.—Donkeys and Dray Horses. 60

CHAPTER VII.

Irish Beggars.—Condition of Labourers.—Cost of Living.—Prices.—
Bath House.—Quarantine.—The Docks.—Street Scene.—“Coming Yankee”
over Nonsense.—Artistic Begging. 65

CHAPTER VIII.

Birkenhead.—Ferry-Boats.—Gruff Englishman.—The Abbey.—Flour.—
Market.—The Park.—A Democratic Institution.—Suburban Villas, &c. 74

CHAPTER IX.

A Railway Ride.—Second Class.—Inconvenient Arrangements.—First
Walk in the Country.—England itself.—A Rural Landscape.—Hedges.—
Approach to a Hamlet.—The old Ale-House and the old John Bull.—
A Talk with Country People.—Notions of America.—Free Trade.—The
Yew Tree.—The old Rural Church and Graveyard.—A Park Gate.—A Model
Farmer.—The old Village Inn.—A Model Kitchen.—A Model Landlady. 85

CHAPTER X.

Talk with a Farmer.—With a Tender-Hearted Wheelwright.—An Amusing
Story.—Notions of America.—Supper.—Speech of the English.—Pleasant
Tones.—Quaint Expressions.—The twenty-ninth of May.—Zaccheus in the
Oak Tree.—Education.—Bed-chamber.—A Nightcap and—a Nightcap. 92

CHAPTER XI.

The Break of Day.—A Full Heart.—Familiar Things.—The Village at
Sunrise.—Flowers.—Birds.—Dog Kennels.—“The Squire” and “The Hall.”—
Rooks.—Visit to a Small Farm.—The Cows.—The Milking.—The Dairy-Maids.—
The Stables.—Manure.—Bones.—Pasture.—White Clover.—Implements.—Carts.—
The English Plough and Harrow. 99

CHAPTER XII.

Breakfast at the Inn.—A Tale of High Life.—The Garden of the Inn.—An
old Farm-House.—Timber Houses.—Labourer’s Cottages.—Wattles and Noggin
Walls.—A “Ferme Ornée.”—A Lawn Pasture.—The Copper-Leaved
Beech.—Tame Black Cattle.—Approach to Chester. 104

CHAPTER XIII.

Chester without.—A Walk on the Walls.—Antiquities.—Striking
Contrasts. 111

CHAPTER XIV.

Chester within.—Peculiarities of Building.—The Rows.—The old
Sea-Captain.—Romancing.—An Old Inn.—Old English Town Houses.—
Timber Houses.—Claiming an Inheritance.—A Cook Shop.—One of the
Alleys.—Breaking into the Cathedral.—Expulsion.—The Curfew. 119

CHAPTER XV.

Chester Market.—The Town Common.—Race-Course.—The Yeomanry Cavalry,
and the Militia of England.—Public Wash-House.—“Mr. Chairman.” 128

CHAPTER XVI.

Visit to Eaton Hall.—The largest Arch in the World.—The Outer
Park.—Backwoods’ Farming.—The Deer Park.—The Hall.—The Parterre.—
The Lawn.—The Fruit Garden.—Stables. 133

CHAPTER XVII.

Gamekeeper.—Game Preserves.—Eccleston, a Pretty Village.—The School-
House.—Draining.—Children Playing.—The River-side Walk.—Pleasure
Parties.—A Contrasting Glimpse of a Sad Heart.—Saturday Night.—Ballad
Singer.—Mendicants.—Row in the Tap-Room.—Woman’s Feebleness.—Chester
Beer, and Beer-Drinking. 140

CHAPTER XVIII.

Character of the Welsh.—The Cathedral; the Clergy, Service, Intoning,
the Ludicrous and the Sublime.—A Reverie.—A Revelation.—The Sermon.—
Communion.—Other Churches.—Sunday Evening.—Character of the
Townspeople. 150

CHAPTER XIX.

Clandestine Architectural Studies.—A Visit to the Marquis of
Westminster’s Stud.—Stable Matters. 162

CHAPTER XX.

The Cheshire Cheese District and English Husbandry Upon Heavy
Soils.—Pastures.—Their Permanence.—The Use of Bones as a Manure in
Cheshire.—A Valuable Remark to Owners of Improved Neat Stock.—Breeds
of Dairy Stock.—Horses. 169

CHAPTER XXI.

Tillage.—Size of Farms.—Condition of Labourers.—Fences.—Hedges.—
Surface Drainage.—Under Drainage.—Valuable Implements for Stiff Soils,
not used In the United States. 177

CHAPTER XXII.

The General Condition of Agriculture.—Rotation of Crops.—
Productiveness.—Seeding down to Grass.—Comparison of English and
American Practice.—Practical Remarks.—Rye-Grass, Clover.—Biennial
Grasses.—Guano.—Lime.—The Condition of Labourers, Wages, etc.—
Dairy-Maids.—Allowance of Beer. 183

CHAPTER XXIII.

Remarks on the Cultivation of Beet and Mangel-Wurzel. 191

CHAPTER XXIV.

Delightful Walk by the Dee Banks, and through Eaton Park.—Wrexham.—A
Fair.—Maids by a Fountain.—The Church.—Jackdaws.—The Tap-Room and
Tap-Room Talk.—Political Deadness of the Labouring Class.—A Methodist
Bagman. 194

CHAPTER XXV.

Morning Walk through a Coal District.—Ruabon.—An Optimist with a Welsh
Wife.—Graveyard Notes.—A Stage-Wagon.—Taxes.—Wynstay Park.—Thorough
Draining.—A Glimpse of Cottage Life.—“Sir Watkins Williams
Wyn.” 199

CHAPTER XXVI.

Stone Houses.—Ivy.—Virginia Creeper.—A Visit to a Welsh Horse-Fair.—
English Vehicles.—Agricultural Notes.—Horses.—Breeds of Cattle;
Herefords, Welsh, and Smutty Pates.—Character of the People.—Dress.—
Powis Park. 206

CHAPTER XXVII.

English Vehicles.—A Feudal Castle and Modern Aristocratic Mansion.—
Aristocracy in 1850.—Primogeniture.—Democratic Tendency of Political
Sentiments.—Disposition towards the United States.—Combativeness.—
Slavery. 212

CHAPTER XXVIII.

Paintings.—Cromwell.—Pastoral Ships.—Family Portraits and Distant
Relations.—Family Apartments.—Personal Cleanliness.—The Wrekin. 224

CHAPTER XXIX.

Visit to a Farm.—Farm-House and Farmery.—Fatting Cattle.—Sheep.—
Vetches.—Stack Yard.—Steam Threshing.—Turnip Sowing.—Excellent
Work.—Tram-Road.—Wages. 228