DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12664#0127
118 INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL.
the Nile. Indeed, I hope I may be pardoned a
burst of national feeling, and be allowed to say,
without meaning any disrespect to any other coun-
try, that I would rather travel under the name of an
American, than under any other known in Eu-
rope. Every American abroad meets a general
prepossession in favour of his country, and it is an
agreeable truth that the impression made by our
countrymen abroad, generally sustains the prepos-
session. I have met with some, however, who de-
stroyed this good effect, and made themselves disa-
greeable and gave offence, by a habit of intruding
their country and its institutions, and of drawing
invidious comparisons, with a pertinacity and self-
complacency I never saw in any other people.
But to return to the dinner ; a man may make
a long digression before a dinner on paper, who
would scorn such a thing before a dinner de facto.
The party consisted of four, a gentleman and his
lady, he an honourable and heir to an old and re-
spectable title, a brother of the lady, an ex-captain
in the guards, who changed his name and re-
signed his commission on receiving a fortune from
an uncle, and another gentleman, I do not know
whether of that family, but bearing one of the
proudest names in England. They were all young,
the oldest not more than thirty-five, and, not ex-
cepting the lady, full of thirst for adventure and
travel. I say not excepting the lady; I should
rather say that the lady was the life and soul of
the party. She was young and beautiful, in the
the Nile. Indeed, I hope I may be pardoned a
burst of national feeling, and be allowed to say,
without meaning any disrespect to any other coun-
try, that I would rather travel under the name of an
American, than under any other known in Eu-
rope. Every American abroad meets a general
prepossession in favour of his country, and it is an
agreeable truth that the impression made by our
countrymen abroad, generally sustains the prepos-
session. I have met with some, however, who de-
stroyed this good effect, and made themselves disa-
greeable and gave offence, by a habit of intruding
their country and its institutions, and of drawing
invidious comparisons, with a pertinacity and self-
complacency I never saw in any other people.
But to return to the dinner ; a man may make
a long digression before a dinner on paper, who
would scorn such a thing before a dinner de facto.
The party consisted of four, a gentleman and his
lady, he an honourable and heir to an old and re-
spectable title, a brother of the lady, an ex-captain
in the guards, who changed his name and re-
signed his commission on receiving a fortune from
an uncle, and another gentleman, I do not know
whether of that family, but bearing one of the
proudest names in England. They were all young,
the oldest not more than thirty-five, and, not ex-
cepting the lady, full of thirst for adventure and
travel. I say not excepting the lady; I should
rather say that the lady was the life and soul of
the party. She was young and beautiful, in the