Letter I.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF LONDON.

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recollected Goethe's lines on a mighty river: " The Atlas bears
houses of cedar on his giant shoulders : a thousand flags float over
his head in the air, testimonies of his glory." I was charmed to
find the poetical expression for this new and grand scene in the
poet of my own country, whose clear and noble genius has so
often refreshed me in the course of my life, and of whom I could
say at an early period, in his own words, " Thou hast powerfully
attracted me ; I have long drunk at thy fountain."

The banks of the Thames, which, after Gravesend, become
here and there very animated, were clothed in a vernal green
of the most wonderful brightness, so that England appeared to
me to be really an Emerald isle, as Ireland is so often denomi-
nated. On the left bank I saw Woolwich, with the immense
military arsenal, and soon afterwards Greenwich (an asylum for
invalid seamen), the splendid buildings of which are adorned with
numerous pillars. When we soon afterwards arrived at the port
of London, and I expressed my surprise at the forest of masts, I
was told that those ships were but a small portion ; the far greater
number were in vast artificial basins called Docks. Contrasted
with such manifold and grand impressions of the most animated
present, the lofty Tower, with its four corner turrets, rose as a
remarkable monument of the past. Yet not to its advantage. For
the images of the children of Edward IV., of Anne Boleyn, of Jane
Grey, and of the many innocent victims murdered in the times of
despotism and tyranny, passed like dark phantoms before my mind.

I must mention as a particularly fortunate circumstance, that
the sea had gradually subsided from a state of violent agitation to
a total calm ; and as bright sunshine alternated with a clouded sky
and flying showers, I had had an opportunity of observing, in suc-
cession, all the situations and effects which have been represented
by the celebrated Dutch marine painters, William Van de Velde,
and Backhuysen. Now, for the first time, I fully understood the
truth of their pictures, in the varied undulation of the water, and
the refined art with which, by shadows of clouds, shifting gleams
of sunshine, and vessels animating the scene, they produce such a
charming variety on the monotonous surface of the sea. As an ap-
propriate conclusion to this series of pictures, Nature favoured us at
last with a thunder-storm, but one fortunately of very short duration.

At the Custom-house, after two hours' waiting, I had an

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