Romesh Chunder Dutt

“ The Thames is exceedingly pretty here and very unlike the dirty river that flows by London. On both sides the banks were covered with the luxuriant verdure of spring. In England winters are longer, colder and more dreary than in India; for months and months together you have nothing but rain and mist and snow, freezing wind, a dark atmosphere, and cloudy sky. There is not a leaf in the trees, and all nature seems dead and cheerless. ”

“ There is but one Paris in the world,—and that is Paris! It would be difficult in any other part of the world to find such a crowd of public monuments and magnificent public buildings and fine specimens of architecture. It would be difficult to match her splendid Boulevards with spacious footpaths and fine rows of trees, and brilliantly lighted cafés on either side, thronged with people until midnight! The Bois de Boulogne is a perfect forest turned into a Park! The limpid Seine with her numerous bridges is a perfect picture, seen from any eminence. ”

“ The modern Florentines have done all that they could to wipe out the ingratitude of their fathers. The church, though it does not contain the tomb of Dante, has a magnificent monument of marble,—the finest in the church,—dedicated to the memory of the poet. And outside the church in the centre of the square there is a still finer marble statue of the great poet, 18 feet high, standing on a pedestal 22 feet high, and seeming, with his frowning meditating brow, to contemplate those scenes of the Inferno which are among the grandest and most terrible productions of the human imagination. ”

“ I must say I was very glad to come back to old London, unromantic as it is, with its busy shops and markets, its huge and unshapely omnibusses, clattering over stony streets, and its thousand haunts of business or pleasure,—such as you will seek for in vain in any other town in the world. Associations exercise a great influence over the human mind, and I could not look on the very streets and houses of old London without feeling a strange sort of pleasure, such as one feels on meeting an old acquaintance after a long absence. ”

“ Let us go and see the Land of the Midnight Sun! Let us go and see the wild and rugged coast of Norway, the wooded moutains and magnificent valleys and picturesque fiords and the quaint old timber-built towns of that country. Let us work up our way through the rocks and islands on the west coast to the North Cape where the sun never sets beneath the horizon for over two months! We are yet in time to see the midnight sun on the 29th July. Within two or three days after that the sun will set under the horizon. ”

“ All around you see the luxuriant vegetation of spring; trees and shrubs overshadow the river, little isles every here and there are reflected in the bosom of the river, clear and placid where it is deep, while in other places the rushing and troubled waves are torn on a hundred little pebbles and spread in a white sheet of foam. Near this place are the ruins of a very ancient castle of which no accounts can be had.
From Limmerick we went to the magnificent lakes of Killerney, the pride of Ireland, and equal in picturesque beauty to the prettiest lakes of Scotland. ”

“ The new Opera of Paris though one of the most magnificent buildings in Europe has its rivals in other cities,—but it is only in Paris that such a building is set off by lines of buildings on every side, six or seven storeys high, worthy of the Opera. The Place de la Concorde is perhaps the finest square in Europe—but its beauty consists not only in its fine statues and fountains and the Egyptian obelisk in the centre, but on the perfect symmetry of architecture in every direction. ”

“ It is in this beautiful natural amphitheatre that the ancient Republic of Genoa,—the rival and then the conqueror of Pisa, the pioneer of modern civilization and maritime discovery, and the birth place of Columbus,—is enthroned in her glory!
As one leaves the railway station and enters the town, almost the first object that strikes him is a fine marble monument with the figures of Religion and Geography, Force and Wisdom, on the pedestal. ”

“ On the 8th November I left Antwerp for Rotterdam in Holland. But before concluding my account of Belgium I must not forget to make mention of the wooden shoes of Flanders with which boys and girls, and men and women too love to clatter over the rough paved stone streets,—nor of the dogs of Flanders which in every town here draw small carts and tradesmen's waggons like ponies,—nor of the famous lace for the manufacture of which Brussels is famous all over the world. ”

“ England is great,—not as a military power in Europe,—but in her colonies. To display in a focus as it were the vast resources of her various colonies, to display to Europe and to the world the strength which she derives from her connection with various nations to the ends of the world, and to draw closer the bonds of sympathy and fellow-feeling which bind these colonies to her,—this was the idea of the Exhibition,—and of the reception of the Indian and Colonial visitors. ”

“ Of all the sights of London I know of none so striking, so really wonderful, as the miles of rich and magnificent shops one sees along the streets,—as the sea of busy human life which ebbs and flows from morning to evening along the sleepless thoroughfares! And now we were in the "City,"—the heart of London! There is the Bank of England,—the greatest of banks in the world,—and the narrow crowded streets of the city are lined with other banks too numerous to mention. ”

“ These towns do not pretend to the beauty of Paris or of Brussels, but are merely systems of canals,—successions of quays, wharves and jetties, with hundreds of vessels and ships eternally unloading their cargoes from the far Indies! Towns with regular streets and uniform houses with canals and wharves and numerous heavy laden ships,—a country protected by dykes, intersected by a regular net-work of canals, and dotted over with thousands of wind-mills,—a population hard-working, pushing, self-asserting and selfish if you like—that is Holland! ”

“ And may our sons' sons when they come to Europe feel that India can take her place among the great advancing countries of the earth. Let us trust to the future, but trust still more to our own honest work and hard endeavour. There is not a race in Europe or in the whole world but has gained its place by hard, severe, unremitted struggle and toil. And if we too, each individual among us, learn to work honestly and truly for our country, we cannot fail. ”

“ The great towns of Belgium like Brussels and Antwerp are beautiful imitations of Paris, the Belgian Cafés and Restaurants are like French Cafés and Restaurants, the beautiful and gorgeous cathedrals and churches of Belgium are like the magnificent French Churches, and preach the same Roman Catholic religion to the same Celtic people. In Holland the traveller is struck with a vast difference in all these respects. He suddenly comes amidst a vigorous self asserting long-headed Tuton race, speaking a Tuton tongue, living in the bustle of trade and activity. ”

“ Railway carriages run from London to Derby, I don't know, how many times every hour, and the road to Derby was almost blocked up with cabs, hansoms, landaulets, flys, omnibuses, traps, dog-carts, and, in fact, conveyances of all size, shape and description that imagination can invent. This is one of the few occasions when Englishmen throw off—or try to throw off—their habitual reserve, and become as merry as possible, and it makes one's heart glad to see crowds of people neatly dressed with faces beaming with gladness and hilarity. ”

“ Every capital town in the continent of Europe has, within the last 20 or 30 years, been beautified with spacious streets Vienna.and fine houses after the fashion of Paris, but the improvements made in Vienna are perhaps unique even in Europe. New streets and squares and gardens have been laid out, and palatial buildings constructed with a rapidity which is marvellous. Fine rows of houses,—palaces to all appearance,—line the spacious streets in every direction, and the visitor is bewildered in the midst of this forest of fine architecture, which is modern Vienna! ”

“ What tales could the very stones of Pompeii tell!
But the stones and the houses are not altogether silent, there are no more valuable materials of history in its true sense, than these silent ruins. They tell us how the ancients lived and died, how they assembled in their forum, worshipped in their temples, gathered in thousands in the amphitheatres. We see the houses where they lived, the rooms which their women occupied, the shops where they purchased their food, the wine stalls where they gathered in crowds. The very sins of this ancient people are laid open to modern eyes. ”

“ High hills rose precipitously from the sea, while little creeks winded at their foot. Farms and dwelling houses dotted the valleys, and green cultivated fields checkered the birch-covered hill sides. There is nothing like a regular village in the whole Norwegian coast, only scattered farms and houses,—three or four at one place,—and patches of green fields indicated the habitation of man.
When we came out of this beautiful Rafter Sund we saw regular Arctic scenery on all sides of us. A still cold sea, bleak rocks on all sides, snow and glacier resting on the rocks! ”

“ Imagination can scarcely compass the vastness of modern London whose population exceeds that of the whole of Scotland or the kingdom of Holland, whose traffic and trade are almost fabulous, and whose wealth as displayed in the miles and miles of the richest shops in every direction and in every part of the town, are almost beyond the dreams of Alladdin! ”

“ The Crystal Palace is a sight which children are never tired of seeing, and the splendid shops with which it is crowded, the beautiful gardens by which it is surrounded, and the illuminations and fireworks given on two nights in the week, add to the attractions of the place. Madame Tussaud's figures were a source of surprise and infinite pleasure to my children. The Albert Palace was also visited, but the Colonial and Indian Exhibition was the most attractive of the sights in London. ”

“ With their matchless and ancient wealth of intellect they were wanting in the vigour of youthful political life. Prussia which formed itself into a kingdom in recent times exactly supplies this want. The Prussian Germans whose history during the last 200 years has been a history of vigorous struggles and unscrupulous annexations were exactly the people who could cement the scattered German races together with their young energy and vigour, into one great Empire. Germany represents the intellect, and Prussia the will of that great Empire. ”

“ Even the Tuilleries, the residence of the Kings and Emperors of France, have been seriously injured, and in some places totally demolished, and one feels a strange sort of feeling as he walks about these deserted gardens and lingers near the desolated walls and statues. Notwithstanding however these ruins, a stranger cannot but be struck with the beauty of Paris, and as he walks through the brilliantly illuminated streets or the thronged boulevards, he almost thinks that the whole town is devoted to mirth and festivity. ”

“ Before I conclude my letter on Ireland, I must add a few words about the beautiful green aspect of the country which has given it the name of "the Emerald Isle." As one is hurried on through the open county by the train, his eye is refreshed by the deep-green fields and plains which surround him on every side—by the clusters of deep-green trees and woods and thick vegetation such as one would seek for in vain in England. ”

“ The marbles and beautiful sculpture of ancient Greece recall the days when European civilization was still in its infancy,—when a handful of people in the south-eastern corner of Europe were carefully nursing the light of civilization which now illumines all the world. ”

“ The paterfamilias is troubled out of his wits to support such a large family,—the misery and sufferings he gets familiar with make him callous in his feelings, and a cheerless home impels him to seek comfort elsewhere. Where is he to seek such comfort? Why, London is swamped with public houses, blazing with volumes of gas, with comfortable seats and comfortable fires to invite the poor laborers to a few glasses of beer. These public houses are the resorts of the London laborer, and out of his scanty earning he learns to spend something on intoxication. ”

“ Coming down from London, for miles and miles together, the Thames is quite as dirty as at London, ships and steamers without number steaming up and down the river, while on the banks you could see nothing but wharfs and factories and traders' establishments, and smoke and dust; everything, in fact, indicating the expensive commerce of London. As however we sailed down the scene changed, and on both sides of us we could see extensive agricultural and pasture lands, green fields, rich meadows, beautiful rows of trees and green undulating hills with sheep and kine grazing on them by the hundred. ”

“ From Carnarvon we went to Llanberis, a most picturesque town, surrounded on all sides by high mountains and beautiful lakes. We passed through the "Llanberis Pass" which in its aspect of bleak sublimity yields to none else that I have yet seen. At its foot a mountain torrent rushes and foams over a bed of stone, and makes its way through vast masses of rugged rocks which have rolled down from the mountains on both sides. When we had left behind this terrible pass—a most beautiful valley greeted our eye. ”

“ The Campo Santo or burial ground of Bologna (and that of Genoa) are considered the finest cemeteries in Europe. The Campo Santo is not like the Pere la Chaise of Paris, a crowd of monuments on a vast exposed plain, but is a great structure, in which the graves and beautiful marble monuments are arranged in long arcades. ”

“ Perhaps you will come to the conclusion, from what I have told you, that in the formation of the opinions of the several classes of people a perception of self-interest has a very important part to play, and that every class has a tendency more or less to represent its own interests as the interests of the public. If you think so, I have only to remark that such a tendency is based on human nature. As in a prospect before us a continuous hill appears larger than a distant mountain, as in a picture the objects which are near occupy a larger
The Tower of London. ”

“ Glaciers are streams of ice slowly descending from mountains and hanging on the slopes of those mountains from century to century. The white mass gradually descends, but so slowly that its progress is imperceptible to the eye. But as it descends and the lower parts melt, fresh ice forms in the upper part, and the great mass, therefore, remains the same in hulk. The slow and eternal descent of these hard fields of ice crushes the rocks beneath, and the glacier water, therefore, is mingled with powdered rocks and is whiter than the blue sea-water. ”

“ I have seen different places of interest in England, and have, I hope, learnt some lessons that will be useful to me in life from the every-day life and manners, the characters and virtues of Englishmen. We in India have an ancient and noble civilization, but nevertheless we have much to learn from modern civilization. And I hope as we become more familiar with Europe and with England we shall adopt some great virtues and some noble institutions which are conspicuous in Europe in the present day, and which we need so much. ”

“ Denmark, Austria and France and rose to be the foremost power of Europe. On the south side of the pedestal is represented the return of the troops from France 1871 under their great ruler who had in that momentous and glorious year assumed the ancient title of "Emperor." On this base stands the column, the base of which is surrounded by an open colonnade, and on the summit of which stands a noble guilded statue of victory. Verily every German, as he beholds this noble and lofty monument, recalls with pride and exultation the glorious victories which culminated in 1871. ”

“ Not far from this chapel is a monument to the memory of the late Prince Imperial of France who died fighting England's battles in far Zululand.
Among the sights of London I must not forget to mention that wonderful institution which is the pride of England, and with which my brother, who is something of an antiquarian, was more pleased than almost with anything else he saw in London. One can spent days and days strolling through the British Museum, and everything he sees excites his interest and adds to his knowledge. ”