The English migrate as regularly as rooks. Home-sickness is a disease which has no existence in a certain state of civilization or of luxury, and instead of it these islanders are subject to periodical fits, of what I shall beg leave to call oikophobia, a disorder2 with which physicians are perfectly3 well acquainted though it may not yet have been catalogued in the nomenclature of nosology.
In old times, that is to say, two generations ago, mineral springs were the only places of resort. Now the Nereids have as many votaries4 as the Naiads, and the tribes of wealth and fashion swarm5 down 347to the sea coast as punctually as the land crabs6 in the West Indies march the same way. These people, who have unquestionably the best houses of any people in Europe, and more conveniences about them to render home comfortable, crowd themselves into the narrow apartments and dark streets of a little country town, just at that time of the year when instinct seems to make us, like the lark7, desirous of as much sky-room as possible. The price they pay for these lodgings8 is exorbitant9; the more expensive the place, the more numerous are the visitors; for the pride of wealth is as ostentatious in this country as ever the pride of birth has been elsewhere. In their haunts, however, these visitors are capricious; they frequent a coast some seasons in succession, like herrings, and then desert it for some other, with as little apparent motive10 as the fish have for varying their track. It is fashion which influences them, not the beauty of the place, not the desirableness of the 348accommodations, not the convenience of the shore for their ostensible11 purpose, bathing. Wherever one of the queen-bees of fashion alights, a whole swarm follows her. They go into the country for the sake of seeing company, not for retirement12; and in all this there is more reason than you perhaps have yet imagined.
The fact is, that in these heretical countries parents have but one way of disposing of their daughters, and in that way it becomes less and less easy to dispose of them every year, because the modes of living become continually more expensive, the number of adventurers in every profession yearly increases, and of course every adventurer’s chance of success is proportionately diminished. They who have daughters take them to these public places to look for husbands; and there is no indelicacy in this, because others who have no such motive for frequenting them go likewise, in consequence of the fashion,—or 349of habits which they have acquired in their younger days. This is so general, that health has almost ceased to be the pretext13. Physicians, indeed, still send those who have more complaints than they can cure, or so few that they can discover none, to some of the fashionable spas, which are supposed to be medicinal because they are nauseous; they still send the paralytic14 to find relief at Bath or to look for it, and the consumptive to die at the Hot-wells: yet even to these places more persons go in quest of pleasure than of relief, and the parades and pump-rooms there exhibit something more like the Dance of Death than has ever perhaps been represented elsewhere in real life.
There is another way of passing the summer which is equally, if not more, fashionable. Within the last thirty years a taste for the picturesque has sprung up,—and a course of summer travelling is now looked upon to be as essential as ever a course of spring physic was in old 350times. While one of the flocks of fashion migrates to the sea-coast, another flies off to the mountains of Wales, to the lakes in the northern provinces, or to Scotland; some to mineralogize, some to botanize, some to take views of the country,—all to study the picturesque, a new science for which a new language has been formed, and for which the English have discovered a new sense in themselves, which assuredly was not possessed15 by their fathers. This is one of the customs to which it suits a stranger to conform. My business is to see the country,—and, to confess the truth, I have myself caught something of this passion for the picturesque, from conversation, from books, and still more from the beautiful landscapes in water colours, in which the English excel all other nations.
To the lakes then I am preparing to set out. D. will be my companion. We go by way of Oxford16, Birmingham, and Liverpool, and return by York and Cambridge, 351designing to travel by stage over the less interesting provinces, and, when we reach the land of lakes, to go on foot, in true picturesque costume, with a knapsack slung17 over the shoulder.—I am smiling at the elevation18 of yours, and the astonishment19 in your arched brows. Even so:—it is the custom in England. Young Englishmen have discovered that they can walk as well as the well-girt Greeks in the days of old, and they have taught me the use of my legs.
I have packed up a box of encomiendas to go during my absence by the Sally, the captain of which has promised to deposit it safely with our friend Baltazar. One case of razors is for my father; they are of the very best fabric20; my friend Benito has never wielded21 such instruments since first he took man by the nose. I have added a case of lancets for Benito himself at his own request, and in addition the newest instrument for drawing teeth, remembering the last grinder which he dislocated 352for me, and obeying the precept22 of returning good for evil. The cost stands over to my own charity score, and I shall account for it with my confessor. Padre Antonio will admit it as alms, it being manifestly designed to save my neighbours from the pains of purgatory23 upon earth. The lamp is infinitely24 superior to any thing you have ever seen in our own country,—but England is the land of ingenuity25. I have written such particular instructions that there can be no difficulty in using it. The smaller parcel is Dona Isabel’s commission. If she ask how I like the English ladies, say to her, in the words of the Romance,
Que no quiero amores
En Inglaterra,
Pues otros mejores
Tengo yo en mi tierra.[21]
21. That I want no loves in England, because I have other better ones in my own country.—Tr.
The case of sweetmeats is Mrs J—’s present to my mother. There is also a hamper26 353of cheese, the choicest which could be procured27. One, with the other case of razors, you will send to Padre Antonio, and tell him that in this land of heresy28 I shall be as mindful of my faith as of my friends.
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1
picturesque
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| adj.美丽如画的，（语言）生动的，绘声绘色的 | |
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disorder
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| n.紊乱，混乱；骚动，骚乱；疾病，失调 | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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votaries
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| n.信徒( votary的名词复数 )；追随者；（天主教）修士；修女 | |
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swarm
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| n.(昆虫)等一大群；vi.成群飞舞；蜂拥而入 | |
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crabs
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| n.蟹( crab的名词复数 )；阴虱寄生病；蟹肉v.捕蟹( crab的第三人称单数 ) | |
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lark
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| n.云雀，百灵鸟；n.嬉戏，玩笑；vi.嬉戏 | |
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lodgings
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| n. 出租的房舍, 寄宿舍 | |
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exorbitant
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| adj.过分的；过度的 | |
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motive
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| n.动机，目的；adv.发动的，运动的 | |
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11
ostensible
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| adj.(指理由)表面的，假装的 | |
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12
retirement
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| n.退休，退职 | |
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pretext
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| n.借口，托词 | |
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paralytic
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| adj. 瘫痪的 n. 瘫痪病人 | |
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possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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Oxford
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| n.牛津（英国城市） | |
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slung
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| 抛( sling的过去式和过去分词 )； 吊挂； 遣送； 押往 | |
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18
elevation
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| n.高度；海拔；高地；上升；提高 | |
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astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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fabric
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| n.织物，织品，布；构造，结构，组织 | |
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21
wielded
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| 手持着使用（武器、工具等）( wield的过去式和过去分词 )； 具有； 运用（权力）； 施加（影响） | |
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precept
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| n.戒律；格言 | |
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purgatory
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| n.炼狱；苦难；adj.净化的，清洗的 | |
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24
infinitely
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| adv.无限地，无穷地 | |
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ingenuity
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| n.别出心裁；善于发明创造 | |
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26
hamper
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| vt.妨碍，束缚，限制；n.(有盖的)大篮子 | |
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procured
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| v.（努力）取得， （设法）获得( procure的过去式和过去分词 )；拉皮条 | |
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28
heresy
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| n.异端邪说；异教 | |
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