A VISIT TO THE OLD COUNTRY.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue 7422, 27 March 1902, Page 4

A VISIT TO THE OLD COUNTRY.

(Specially written for Star.)

(Continued. )

From Edinburgh we went on to Glasgow, another mighty city. The exhibition was in full swing, and the city was full of visitors from all parts. Apart from this, there was plenty to interest us in the city itself. Like most of the large cities, there is a curious mixture of old and new in it. The old is represented by narrow streets and very ancient buildings, and the new by broad and handsome thoroughfares, electric trams, and immense warehouses, hotels, and other structures, with lifts and all other modern appliances. The tram system here, us is well known, is one of the most perfect in the world. We stayed about a week in Glasgow with an old friend who formerly lived in Wellington, and then started on a trip to the north of Scotland. We went by way of Perth to Inverness, and then by the east coast through Elgin, Aberdeen, and Dundee, back to Edinburgh. The trip up to Inverness is right through the Highlands, and the scenery is grand beyond description. We stopped three days at Perth, a fine old place indeed, on the banks of the grand River Tay, and with the beautiful Hill of Kinnoul looking down upon it. Wo stopped a while, too, at Inverness, also a most interesting old place, and somewhat resembling Perth. It also stands on the banks of a river (the Ness), and like Perth, its surroundings are very beautiful. There is a shop in the High street with a'placard in its window on which is printed this inscription, " Hector Macdonald served his apprenticeship in this establishment." At the time when we were in Inverness Hector Macdonald was paying his visit to New Zealand. Aberdeen, the " granite city," is another very fine place. Its principal thoroughfare is Union streer, a fine broad street running from east to west, with very haudpome buildings on both sides of it, all built of the famous Aberdeen granite.

This street wns evidently once a residential one, with flower gardens and iron railings in front of the houses. Now a large number of the houses have been made into shops, and the gardens and railings in front of them have, of course, been taken away. The result is a rather uneven arrangement, with the gardens and railings of the dwellinghouses apparently encroaching on the footpaths. They will probably all be removed in the future, and then there will be a splendid footpath of 25 feet or so in width all along the street. At Edinburgh, there is the old town and the new town, with a very marked difference between them, but all the principal streets are beautifully clean and well kept. Our stay here was very short, for our holiday was drawing to an end, and therefore we had to hurry back to London, staying only one day each at Edinburgh, Carlisle, Leeds, and Nottingham on the way, and taking just a flying look at Leicester, which we found to be one of the pretiiest and cleanest towns we had seen. After a stay of four days in London, we went down into Somersetshire to visit an old friend, and spent a very enjoyable week at his house in Taunton. This is a delightful town of the old-fashioned sort, and tbe scenery round about it is beautiful in the extreme. My friend is second master at the college there, an establishment which has grown from small beginnings to be one of the foremost educational institutions in England, attracting scholars from all parts of the United Kingdom. Before leaving, we had one day Exeter. Thia is another fine old town of the quiet sort, with a beautiful cathedral, and any number of quaint old buildings scattered about its quaint old streets. We were shown ovor a very old building indeed, now used as an art depot, but formerly a kitid of club called Moll's coffee house, in which Drake and other great men of Devon used to meet and confer upon affairs of state. It stands in a close, facing the cathedral. It is a place of the very oldfashioned sort, with small low rooms, all having oaken ceilings, and windows through which you can scarcely see on account of the veiy narrow panes. You enjoy the sight of the place very much, but the enjoyment is somewhat dulled by the importunity of the shopgirls pressing you to buy mementoes and photographs. On our way back to London, we had a day at Bristol, a very busy place, with a very splendid tram service. From here you take a tram round by the river to the Clifton suspension bridge, one of the great bridges of Great Britain. You are nearly underneath it when you alight from the tram, and you reach the heights above you by means of an almost perpendicular tram right up the face of the cliff. Tho scenery up and down tbe river from the centre of the bridge is very. charming indeed, and you would be amply repaid even if you had to clambor up the cliff on your hands and knees. It is now Beourely fenced, for at one time the bridge possessed quite a fascination for people anxious to "shuffle off this mortal coil."

From Bristol we went on to Bath, where we stayed from Saturday to Monday. This is certainly one of the most beautiful towns we saw. Its name is of course familiar to everybody, esp? cially to all who have laughed, over their " Pickwick," the first book written by the great novelist of the last generation. Who can forget the experiences of Pickwick and his friends in the pump rooms, the "friendly swarry, consisting of a boiled leg of mutton and the usual trimmings," to which Sam Weller was invited by his friend, Mr John Smakuer, the gentleman residing on Clapham Green, who could not be moved in consequence of acute suffering, and who had the water from the King's Bath bottled at one hundred and three degrees and sent to his bedroom in town, where he bathed, sneezed, and same day recovered, and last, but not least, the extraordinary adventures which befell Mr Winkle when he came down-stairs half dressed to answer the knocking at the door of the hotel in the middle of the night ? It is a charming place indeed. It depends so much upon the visitors who flock to it that great pains are taken to keep it clean and attractive, and its natural attractions are enhanced by all kinds of devices in the way of gardens and drives and promenades. It is all very quiet, and eminently respectable. There is no noise, and anything approaching rowdyism would be sternly put down at once. Tho principal vehicles are bath chairs, the only tram in the place being drawn by one horse, and running at very long intervals, apparently knocking off for meals whenever the driver gets hungry". We went into all the pump rooms, and saw the people sitting about drinking the water and passing to and from the numerous bath rooms. Those who drink the waters certainly deserve to get well, for a taste of it nearly makes you sick. We attended the beautiful old abbey on the Sunday, and heard the farewell address of Canon Quirk, who has just been appointed Bishop of Sheffield. The abbey is a very beautiful old place, and contains more memories to notable men and women than any place we saw, the one erected to the celebrated Beau Nash being one of the most conspicuous of them all. We returned straight to London, and in a j very few days had to get ready for the j return voyage. I have left mention till the last of two trips we had down into Suffolk to visit the place where I was born. This is in the heart of an agricultural district, very quiet and very Blow, but very nice

for all that. I walked one day to a small market town three miles off, and met exactly three people on the way/ The beautiful rural scenery is very attractive indeed, and it was delightful to wander about the old lanes and between the hedge-rows where I used to play when I was a boy. I had been away 26 years, but I still found people whom I knew, and. who recognised me after all those years. The old church where I used to sleep away the time of the sermon was, of course, still there, but sleep would ' now be impossible, for the old-fashioned high-backed pews have now given place to modern benches, and the occupation of the old sexton, who used to parade up and down the aisles with his long stick to arouse the sleeping youngsters, is gone for ever. Another old functionary is also gone for ever. This is the old clerk, with his desk under the pulpit, and his look of high importance as he droned out the responses. He has had to give way to a surpliced choir of men and boys, who intone the responses, and chant the psalms, and sing the anthems in very fair time and tune, but who would assuredly be very dreadful to the good old folks lying in the churchyard outside if they could by any chance ocoupy their old places in the church any Sunday afternoon. One thinks of the old Scotch serving woman who attended service in an English church for the first time, and who told her mistress when she got baok that it was very nice, " but oh, mem, what an awfu' way of spendin' the Sabbath !" We had a very good time at the old place, and heartily enjoyed looking up the folks we used to know 30 years ago.

I ought to mention that four days after we reached England we went to Epsom to see the great racing carnival of tho year, the Derby. This, as every, body knows, is London's great festival, and is the one event which almost literally empties the big city. High and low, rich and poor, they all go, Booking down to the course in all ports of conveyances — from the smart four-in-hand to the humble coster-cart. Crowds, too, go by tail, and the result is a spectacle such as is to be seen nowhere else in the world. We went by rail, walking the two miles or so from the railway station to the racecourse, thus having a good view of the multitude of vehicles which were just then arriving at the course. The minor races had been run when we got there, and the hill seemed packed as tightly as a beehive, but by dint of a good deal of squeezing we got a fairly good place to see the finish of tbe big race. It was a splendid race, and the finish was very exciting. Then tho huge assemblage dispersed, and swarmed all over the enclosure to see the numerous sideshows which were in active progress, or to find some spot with a little seclusion where they could eat their lunch in peace. It was all very interesting, and was a great study for us, but, to speak truth, it was very much quieter than we had expected to find it. There was no drunkenness that we could see, very little rowdyism, and none of that hilarity which we had read of as being associated with Derby Day. Ou our way back to the station we stood at the corner where the road branches off, and saw lots of - drags and carriages, and other traps, on their return journey, and really every thing was very quiet and orderly. Tho Derby Day certainly seems to have lost one of its most distinctive features.

Retaining a great liking for cricket, I took the opportunity of seeing as much of it as I could. In addition to several county matches, I saw two days' play in the Gentleinon v. Players match at Leeds, and part of two days' play in the Oxford and Cambridge match. Both matches are very popular, as is well known, and both of them attracted a huge crowd of people. The crowd at the first-mentioned match is composed mostly of people who go to see the cricket, but the other is one of the great society shows of the season, and the cricket plays quite a secondary part iv the programme. Fry and Ranji among the amateurs, and " Bobby " Abel a-nd Hay ward (''Cautious Tommy " the crowd call him) seem to be the most popular batsmen of the present day, although I heard some grumbling among the Surrey crowd at the excessively cautious style of batting sometimes indulged in by Hayward. At the Oval they like to ccc a batsman hit hard and hit often. I saw the great sinitor Jessop two or three times, but neither of them was his day out. Foster and Palairet ar6 both very finished batsmen, and it is a treat to watch them when they are in the humor for hitting, which is nearly every day they play. Hirst and Rhodes are the best bowlers. Lockwood, one of the feat all-round crioketers (perhaps the best) of the day, was somewhat under a cloud. A match was set apart for his benefit, but the weather was so bad that not a ball could be bowled, and after that he dropped out of tho County Eleven for some reason, and was seen no more till quite late in the season. A very attractive match was that between Surrey and Essex, at the pretty little ground at Leyton.

{To be continued.)