SPECTATOR'S LIBRARY.

TRAVEL%

My Last Tour and First Work; or A Visit to the Baths of Wildbad and Rippoldsau.

By Lady Vavasour. Cunningham. Summarily,

The United Irishmen, their Lives and Times. By R. R. Madden, M.D., Author of

., Travels in the East," &c. Stc. lu two volumes Madden and Co. Poem,

Edwin the Fair; an Historical Drama. By Henry Taylor, Author of "Philip Van Artevelde." Martyry. MHIMOIltE, The Simple Treatment of Disease deduced from the Methods of Expectancy and Re-

vulsion. By James M. Holly, M.D. Sm. &c Churchill.

LADY VAVASOIIR'S LAST TOUR AND FIRST WORK.

ABOUT three years ago, Lady VAVASOUR passed the winter on a small property she possesses in the mountainous parts of Wicklow ; and saw a great deal of misery, not merely among the masses, which in Ireland are always starving or on its verge, but among the mountain-farmers, "who are often in great distress, where they might be in ease and comfort if they knew how to cultivate their lands in a proper manner." To remedy this evil, Lady VAvAsourt proposed to herself to erect an agricultural school for the purpose of giving practical instruction to the rising generation : but she found the outlay for one hundred and sixty children beyond her means. Being soon afterwards obliged to travel for her health, she resolved to make a book upon her tour, and devote the profits to her proposed school ; but as Lady VAYASOUR entertains some judicious misgivings as to how far the profits of My Last Tour and First Work will suffice for her purpose, she announces a subscription in aid of the gains of authorship.

The field of exploration in My Last Tour embraced an ascent of the Rhine, and a short land-journey to Wildbad ; at which spa Lady VAVASOUR and her family resided till the weather became too cold for an invalid, and she was ordered to Italy. Thither she drove slowly with four German horses, and her son for charioteer; passing the autumn and winter at various places, from Milan to Genoa, and returning to Germany in the season, to spend it at the baths of Rippoldsau.

In all this route there is nothing new ; but Lady VAVASOUR has contrived to make a very agreeable " first book" out of her "last tour," simply by trusting to nature and giving herself free play. A feminine character pervades the volume, to which Lady VAVA- somes own idiosyncracy is superadded. Her topics have novelty, though it is often only the accidental novelty arising from the choice of subjects which professed writers have overlooked, or de- signedly neglected ; and her manner has the freshness that springs from an independent mind, pouring forth itself without much re- gard to the opinion of others. Lady VAVASOUR, moreover, has a quick eye for the beauties of nature, or any peculiarities in customs or costume ; and her passing descriptions often pro- duce a better impression of the reality than the laboured inventories of professed litterateurs. Her sketches of characters and society, too, are lively and pleasant ; and she gives a much more favourable picture of the happiness of married life among foreigners, and of the real attention which foreign hus- bands pay to their wives, than is put forward by persons who probably had not such good opportunities of judging. Her sug- gestions, and sometimes her sentiments, are of less value than her facts and descriptions ; not because they are womanish, but because she is discussing subjects, such as education, or matters really involving political economy, which mere good intentions and plain sense are insufficient to determine without a wide range of view and a deference to prejudices of other kinds than those entertained by ladies. For example, abstractedly considered, it may be a right thing both morally and intellectually to send a young man to be educated in Germany. It may be done cheaper; he will learn more useful knowledge as Lady VAvasons main- tains—meaning modern languages and geography ; and he can at several of the courts be introduced to the highest and best so- ciety; embracing men of art, science, and letters, as well as rank. All which is probably true, (though we strongly doubt whether his morals will be mended by the company at any foreign court); but an Englishman who is to live with Englishmen, to deal with Eng- lishmen, and perhaps to manage Englishmen, after he throws off the pedagogue, will perhaps find he has imbibed habits, ideas, and prejudices, in his German education, that have quite unfitted him for his life's business. It may be that the habits, ideas, and preju- dices imbibed at Eton and Oxford are no better; possibly they may be a good deal worse, as they are certain to be of a more blackguard cast ; but, such as they are, they fit him for the com- pany he is to keep and the persons he is to des/ with.

Besides the good qualities we have mentioned, the book is real, with the exception of two dialogues—one on the distress in Ire- land and its causes, another instituting a comparison between Eng- lish and foreign life ; and though these may have some founda- tion in actuality, they have a made air. The continual running away from her theme, in which Lady VAVASOUR indulges—be- ginning a subject, starting after some thought it suggests, and leaving the original—is doubtless a fault, but is not felt to be so great a fault as it is, because it is her nature ; and sometimes the extraneous matter is the best part—as in this account of the

ENGLISH ABROAD, WITH A STORY ATTACHED.

The Russians and the English are the two great travelling nations; and they are the only two who travel in the large heavy family coach, though the latter seem to be giving up that heavy machine, which one cannot see out o£ One of these carriages arrived two nights ago, and there was an immediate wager to

which it belonged, England or Russia : the. former gained it. The English have little idea how every thing they do and say is discussed by foreigners: they mark and remark the most trifling circumstances; every thing seems of consequence; even the dress is noted in the memory. Madame =was "mule merveille," or " comme un ours"; and while they me going in and out walking or talking just as they would if they were at home, they are little aware of the construction put upon every word and action, particularly in countries where they are not much known. The want of " risibility of the countenance and flexibility of the body " is the first thing that strikes ; and it may be a question whether the general acquirement of these agremens in society might not be useful, inasmuch as the first would increase our own happiness and the last the contentment of our neighbours. All persons like to be re- spected: "preferring one another" is a Christian principle ; and there is a pleasure in the feeling of a well-regulated mind, in showing deference to others, as well as receiving it one's self; and if we do not pay it, we cannot expect to receive it. The outward attention and respect paid by foreigners to women, and the inattention to her of our lords of the creation, is evident to the most unobserving. I could give many examples of my own experience of this; but were I to mention them it might be Galled vanity ; however, one is vivid in my imagination.

We were once in a hurry to get our passports, and, knowing there is nothing like "making a page of your own age," that is, doing your own business, I drove first to the English then to the Austrian Ambassador's: my own "coun- tryman" received me in dishabille—civilly, however, though hurried in his movements : the passport was signed, the gentleman bowed and retired to his den, leaving the lady to make her way out as she could. I then proceeded to the Austrian Ambassador ; and was shown into his room, where he was writing. I ought to have mentioned, the Englishman kept me waiting some time. Mon- sieur received me with the pace and politeness of his nation. When he found we were going to Italy, be inquired by what route ; discussed the merits of them all; gave me much information; and when the passport was ready, accompanied me to the head of the stairs, presented it, and with many good wishes for an agreeable journey, and as many obeisances as if we had been at court, we parted. One was an unpleasant business, the other an agreeable visit ; and manner made the difference. If it is true that action is three parts of speaking, manner must be three parts of diplomacy.

BATHING ON THE CONTINENT.

The English are babies in bathing, compared to the people on the Continent. A lady told me she had bathed at Plombiers, in France. There was only a wooden partition between the ladies and the gentlemen, and the noise the latter made was beyond any thing she ever heard. They first had instrumental music ; then sang a duet ; laughed, joked, hallooed; and lastly they danced. I mentioned the French lady having proposed we should dance a quadrille ; so I suppose it is common. There is another bath, I forget the name, where they stay eight hours at a sitting. A gentleman told me he went to this place to see a friend, who introduced him to several ladies and gentlemen : they per- suaded him to take a bath next morning, and be was greatly surprised to find the whole party he had supped with the night before in the water; one gentle- man breakfasted, dined, and supped in it. This will hardly be believed in England ; but as we improve upon every thing done by our neighbours, no doubt, in time, bathing-parties will be made, and gentlemen will invite the ladies to bathe with them, as they now do to dance ; and it appears both may be done at the same time.

A DISCURBION FROM TURIN AND A WOMAN WITH A NEEDLE.

We did not see the woman we remembered the last time we visited Turin, who gained a livelihood by threading a needle : every day at twelve o'clock she weed a carpet in the Grande Place, and while she spun round like a teetotum, all the time repeating a sort of incantation, she put the thread into the needle's eye. Scripture tells us, "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom at God." This seemed such a far-fetched simile that it has been explained by turning "camel" into "cable." There is another explanation of this, agreeing with our Saviour's mode of speaking, which was always in accordance with the times and the manners of the Jews : that there was a gate at Jerusalem called the Needle's Eye, so narrow that loaded camels could not pass through ; therefore it was necessary to unload them ; and as it is said there was a tax to be paid upon all goods entering the city, they were then examined.

If there really was a gate of that name at Jerusalem, the parable is explained at once. It would be interesting if travellers who go there would inquire into this. I cannot give the name of the work I allude to, having forgotten it; but it WRS found among some very old books, many years ago, in Canada.

VICARS IN GERMANY.

The Vicars in this country have no sinecure, are most miserably paid, and yet contrive to dress respectably and appear happy. Monsieur Dechingen re- ceived six pounds a year and his board, for which he is allowed twenty-four dollars annually. Before they are ordained, each is obliged to preach a sermon in presence of the older clergy, who correct the faults they may find in it ; and as be must do this extempore, he writes it first and then learns it by heart. They do not appear to have a fixed liturgy, for the service varies in different places. The Vicar here teaches German to the English, which increases his small salary : he appears a very respectable person.

USE OF SMALL RIVERS IN GERMANY.

The quantity of wood that is brought down by this shallow little river Enz is immense, and must be seen to be believed. They raise the water by little sluices until it is high enough to float the trees; which are first peeled, and then tied together with a sort of rope made of small fir-trees, which is quite a trade in the upper part of the forest. The smallest trees are placed first, to make the raft narrower in front : three men, with long leather boots much above their knees, stand upon the fore-part, and with their long poles guide it : they are up to their ankles in water, their extra clothes hang upon a rail on the raft, and so they go down to the Rhine, shooting every fall, turning every angle with the greatest ease, until they come up with the great monsters on that river. Some of the trees are sixty feet long ; I measured one eighty; and we have counted eighteen of these lengths. When they wish to stop it, they ran one of the middle lengths against the bank, and they soon become a van- dyke. They go with great rapidity. The firewood, which is split and cut into lengths of three feet, goes down in part of itself, as if it knew its own business, and, like a good and faithful servant, would perform it. But the idle and dila- tory stop on the way ; these attract others, (it is wonderful how catching idle- ness is,) until at last the river is fringed with them the whole way. After leaving them many days to their own cogitations, men come with long poles and sharp hooks, and soon send them down after their brethren. These little rivers are of immense value to the people of the country, as they carry down all the wood of the Black Forest. This slides down the mountain upon little single wooden railways, looking like spouts at a distance.

LIGHT WAGONS.

There is a great trade in charcoal here : they are loading it now ; and they contrive to put enormous loads in their light and alight wagons, with wheels not larger than the fore-one of our carriages in England. But the perch is moveable, and they can make it any length they please : it is of so simple a construction that every farmer can repair his own, and make any thing of it. If he has parch, a pole, and four wheela, that is enough: with a little inge-

unity he makes it carry stones, bay, earth, or any thing he wants, by putting a plank at each side. When he wants a carriage for pleasure, he fits it up for that purpose ; his moveable perch allows him to make it any thing. I counted seventeen grown persons sitting side by side, looking most happy, in one of them, drawn only by a pair of small horses, and in this hilly country. If the farmers in England would adopt these light wagons, instead of their own ex- pensive heavy ones, it would be a great saving, and the roads would not be ground into deep ruts as they are now.

Before an English farmer uses these wagons otherwise than as an experiment, he had better consider the loads he is to put in them.

FOREIGN NOTIONS OF ENGLISH MARRIAGES.

A Hungarian lady once asked me to tell her truly, "if there was such a thing as a happy couple in England ? " and when I assured her the contrary was rare, she looked at me with a face of incredulity—"C'est possible, mais." She had a friend who passed some time in England ; and he said there appeared little courtesy upon the part of English husbands to their wives, which produced a degree of incivility and quick retort unknown in her country. I tried to prove to her there were no husbands in the world so faithful, so true, as Englishmen. "It may be I do not understand y our customs, but we pity English very much."

WEALTH ABROAD.

When nothing better can be said of any one, the kind world says they are goodnatured, as a sort of apology for their being nothing else; although there is hardly a man in society would accept the cognomen of the goodnatured man. And yet there can be no comparison in the compliment between him and the rich man, or in the way they will make in foreign society ; a good edu- cation and amiable manners being all there looked for in a stranger. Many a wealthy citizen has been surprised to find how little impression his riches have made upon the society he courts, or how they laugh at an expenditure an un- necessary to happiness, and so infinitely beyond their own that they never think of competing with him or returning his hospitalities. I can never for- get a calculation being made of the cost of a dinner given by an Englishman to a mixed company of Continental and English subjects in Paris, and which the former declared was so insufferably dull they wished they had the twenty- five francs it cost for each, as it would have been more useful to them, less mischievous to Monsieur, and have been accepted as a greater civility.

REFLECTIONS ON OVER-WORK.

No extra gain can ever pay a man for the loss of health and life before his natural time for dropping off; and it is surprising, that those employed in pub- lic offices, counting-houses, or any sedentary labour, should not divide their time so as to give themselves at least two hours in the day for exercise. To say it cannot be done is absurd. If the work is really so heavy that a man must continue at it twelve or fourteen hours a day to get it done, an additional hand should be put to it. The saving of expense is no excuse, where there is such a benefit to be gained as a continued state of good health ; and the work would be better done.

When the mind is on the fall stretch for so many hours a day, it loses its power; its elasticity is gone ; and in many cases, justice, absolutely justice, is not done, for he who administers it is not himself—his mind is gone from over.fatigue. This class of persons, and the young girl kept hard at work at her needle, often both day and night, are most to be pitied. The poor girl, shut up in a little back-room looking to a dead wall ; the face growing pale, the mind growing melancholy ; no day let out but Sunday, and then perhaps a lover meets her : he may be true, and may be not ; and here the hardness of woman's lot on earth commences.