my heart. The first difficulty was surmounted. Honours,
which, on application being made through my friends, Philadelphia
had refused, Liverpool freely accorded.
I left that emporium of commerce, with many a passport,
bent upon visiting fair Edina, for I longed to see the men
and the scenes immortalized by the fervid strains of BURNS,
and the glowing eloquence of SCOTT and WILSON. I arrived
at Manchester; and here, too, the GREGGS, the LLOYDS, the
SERGEANTS, the HOLMES, the BLACKBALLS, the BENTLEYS,
and many others, rendered my visit as pleasing as it was profitable
to me. Friends pressed me to accompany them to the
pretty villages of Bakewell, Mattlock, and Buxton. It was a
jaunt of pure enjoyment. Nature was then at her best, at least
such was the feeling of our whole party; the summer was full
of promise.
My journey to Scotland was performed along the northwestern
shores of England. I passed in view of Lancaster
Castle, and through Carlisle. I had by this time much altered
my ideas of this Island and its inhabitants. I found her
churches all hung with her glories, and her people all alive to
the kindest hospitality. I saw Edinburgh, and was struck with
the natural pictorial elegance of her site; and I soon found
that her inhabitants were as urbane as those whom I had left
behind me. The principal scientific and literary characters of
the ancient metropolis of Scotland received me as a brother.
It is impossible for me to mention all the individuals fiom
whom I received the kindest attention ; but gratitude forbids
my omitting the names of Professors JAMESON, GRAHAM,
RUSSEL, WILSON, BROWN, and MONRO, Sir WALTER
SCOTT, Captain HALL, Dr BREWSTER, Dr GREVILLE,
not exceeding three years had elapsed, I had my portfolio filled
again.
America being my country, and the principal pleasures of
my life having been obtained there, I prepared to leave it with
deep sorrow, after in vain trying to publish my Illustrations in
the United States. In Philadelphia, WILSON'S principal engraver,
amongst others, gave it as his opinion to my friends, that
my drawings could never be engraved. In New York, other
difficulties presented themselves, which determined me to carry
my collections to Europe.
As I approached the coast of England, and for the first
time beheld her fertile shores, the despondency of my spirits
became very great. I knew not an individual in the country;
and, although 1 was the bearer of letters from American friends,
and statesmen of great eminence, my situation appeared precarious
in the extreme. I imagined that every individual whom
I was about to meet, might be possessed of talents superior to
those of any on our side of the Atlantic! Indeed, as I for the
first time walked on the streets of Liverpool, my heart nearly
failed me, for not a glance of sympathy did I meet in my wanderings,
for two days. To the woods I could not betake myself,
for there were none near.
But how soon did all around me assume a different aspect!
How fresh is the recollection of the change! The very first
letter which I tendered procured me a world of friends. The
RATHBONES, the ROSCOES, the TRAILLS, the CHORLEYS,
the MELLIES, and others, took me by the hand; and so kind
and beneficent, nay, so generously kind, have they all been towards
me, that I can never cancel the obligation. My drawings
were publicly exhibited, and publicly praised. Joy swelled