A ROUND-THE-WORLD TRIP.

Otago Witness, Issue 2298, 17 March 1898, Page 63

A ROUND-THE-WORLD TRIP.

No, XX. EDINBURGH — THS C^ STLE — HOLYROOD—GLASGOW—BLACKFOOL—THE FOUDROYANT— SIMS REEVES. My first impressions of Edinburgh were uoi gained under the mesS favourable cirenmfitano'.'F, for the morning was web and disagreeable, a state of things which did not altogetherwear eff during my two days' stay in the northern capital. There were, however, occo. sional Lours of sunshine, and during these I made the most of my spare time. I can quite understand the fervent love of the S.3o',Bman for his ccuotry. I cannot lay claim to the nationality, aud 3 et thr. sight, first ot the purple heather as we flashed by m the express, and now of tte strikingly picturesque snd beautiful city oi which so much has been written, are sufficient to rouse in me aloa-s 1 ; the spirit of KeobUsth patriotism with which in Duaedin I had become co familiar. For Edinburgh in indeed a charming city, Rnd welt calculated to inspire feeiings of the liveliest admiration. Ib is impossible to look on the bold and rugged hs-ights on which stands the castle, to take a sweeping survey of the olfl town with Holyrood nestling in tbe valley below, cf the Pentlands in the iar distance, and 1o remember the historic associations of the romantic city, without ah once recognising ■ that Edinburgh has received no more than a jusb tribute from the hundreds of v?riters, with Sir W^l'er Scab's at their head, who have sounded her praises. And yefc how entirely different from what I had conceived it to be wss the city as ib presented itssif to me when 1 first took a survey of my surroundings from the door of the BUraoml Hotel. Princes street icislf — Edinburgh's delightful promenade — was quite a surprise. I had always imagined ib to be a busy and crowded thoroughfare, wifch fine shops and warehouses rangiug along each side of its footpaths ; bub judge of my surprise when I found it a one-sided Btreet, with no buildings whatever on the other, their place taken by a well-planted reserve, Scott's monu--men)-, a produce market, &c, and the ground i falling away rapidly into a valley crossed by I bridges connecting the new wibh the old ! 1 town, and with the railway station located in ! the valley below. i Crossing one of the bridges I made my way to the narrow street which leads up to the castle on one Bide and down the valley to Holyrood on tbe other. "What a curious old town it seems, with its tail tenements houses rearing j their severely plain-lookiug ftcades, storey ! after storey, high above me. And their appearance is not improved by th* practice the dwellers have of hanging out tbeiir week's washing on long lines hi retched from window to window far cverhead. A few minufctjb' walking up a very steep street brought me to the entrance to the Cssd*, where a small fes has to be paid to a guide before entrance is obtained. Much of the h : story of tbe fortress and castle is related by the guide, who has gob his lesson off by heart and rolls it off in a monotonous tone of voice. He takes his party of visitors the complete tcur of the building and we !t : shown everything of interest, including the Scottish regalia, Mons. Meg (the great gun, whee fame is world- wide), and other noteworthy tilings. We wind up a pleasant hour by admiring, as it deserves, the ! splendid view from the walls of the Castle at its western side. What a precipice discloses itself on the other side of the wall ! and how keenly one realises the feelings of the hero of Robert Louis Stevenson's posthumous work " St. Ives," as he found himself dangling in the air at the end of the rope by which he effected his escape despite the watchfulness of the tentry whose "Jfasb yin o'clock, and a dark, haary rnoarnin' " broke the darkness and silence of the early hour following a night which "closed about the Castle with volumes of sea fog." j From the Castle to Holyrood is a natural j transition. Each has its specially interesting features, and both claim that hoary antiquity which always appeals to the imagination and j adds to the interest with which the object is regarded. Far away in the distant age 3 thia venerable abbey was founded by David I for the reception of canons of the order of Sfc. I Auguftine. Following in the footsteps of his royal parents, Malcolm and Margaret, whose liberality ta the church had set him a good example, David became a munificent patron and J benefactor of the Roman Church, — Holyrood, j Melrcse, and oilier noble abbeys being examples ot his rel'gious fervour and mnnificsnre. The chronicles of Melroae and Holyrond date the foundation of Ihe Abbay from 1128, and it received many beDefacli s from the Scottish ,kia£S who sucneried iU aider, Its history i is a record of deep .te> *■*<-, (.;> t\cotsnjeD, ] and cos..pri3Mi jßiuy 0 cmcnies cjlup ; ret v?ifch ike. lives c£ the fij/ -i ncrjocago \\Lo v. r ere familiar-, vsifch its wftl's> — birtln u;i 1 i u'litigcand coiouation? bdng eei< braied vc th £real I mcguificeijea. No--?here in iLc Kingdom is I there to be found an ediiiiv* iuo. v. aV"""l.i,igly i interesting than the ruin 3cf the Ch. pel "03 al, j the sole portion now remaiiii.i,; -A ■'• • o^.;tery of Holyrood founded by Lsi-via i, ~u<\ l. has been truly written that "the stt^tc-i'd church of King David is still a deeply interest ijg relic to every student of architectural and 1 ecclesiastical antiquity." And only ■$ sh^huiy less iutereali is fcbu ealaco iCotli, qi ihthei' iac-

olijor portions, closely connected as they are Tith many ijitcroitieg events in Scottish history. The v.ietvu'e gallj'-y, 150!t loi-g by 24ft wide, is alone worth a l^ng journey to see, containing as ifc dos 3 portraits of long lines of Scottish kinf-s from Fergus I to tils last of the Stuarts. Thia apartment was used by tbe Pretender as a balhoom when ho occupied the p&lae3, suid Sir Walter ScoLfc describes it in ■•V/averley " as the scene of the great ball at which figured that uu£>-.itunate prince and his devoted followers. Ihsn there are Lord Darnley'fl rooms, Q'leen Mary's private «tt<ir and apartments — waose walls are hung with ancient tapestry, her bed with its faded ciimson damc.sk iiangitgs and green silk fringes still in position in ifce royal bedroom. Opening out of this room is a small door, partly hidden by tap?stry, which leads to the secret stair up which Darnley and his crime-stained companions ascended to assassinate tee unfortunate R'zzio. Bat I need not further particularise. Ho'yrood with all i's interesting as«ociations is too \veU known to require description at my handa, aud will, as long as ifc survives the ravages of time, be v.ss'ed by everyone who finds himself in its neighbourhood from f&raway lands.

We make our way back to the Balmoral by way of the Calton Hill iv time to see a great gathering t f people before the &ote' dcor. They are waiting the txifc of Ghtu&lougtjorn I, King of Siatn, who is one of our fellow-guests. The King makes his appearance and enters his carriage just as we arrive, and the expectant people raise a cheer ; for he is a great; favourite — a courteous pleasant, and kindlv-natured gentleman, who speaks English fluently. The crowd is dense, and smong those who are anxious to see Chulalongkorn is a little girl who had come a loag distance for the purpose. She is unceremoniously pu.-hed back by a nolicemaD. aud retires disappointed and crying. The incident dops not end there, however, for tha kindly monarch sees what has occurred, aud, addressing a faw reassuring words to his little admirer, gladdens her heart by presenting her with soint) trifling memeiito — which will doubtless be treasured aud handed down as a family h'-irlorna.

.Visits to various parts of the city disclose maur points of inttresb or beauty. I see for tbe first time a true specimen of the Edinburgh fishwife, wiih her broad back and stalwart limbs, for her skirts are not long enough to hamper her movements. Her creel is on her back, but it is empty, so I have no opportunity of hearing the cry of "Caller ou," which is familiar to me only through the concert platform of Dunedin. An inspection of one of the " c106e3 " or " wynds " is of interest, showiog as it does that the inhabitants of houses on opposite sides of tbe narrow thoroughfare could almost shake hands with each otber from their upstairs windows. On a wall of one of the houses is a, Scriptural quotation calculated to make tbe frequenters of the «■ close " look on the more serious side of life. A not uncommon practice is thi3 placing of religious precepts on tl;p walls of thr houses in these old "closes" : ir is a rclie of a bygone age. Edinburgh afforded me much pleasure in my fleeting visit, and I left it with a good deal of regret on a still shorter visit to Glasgow, ■which I reached in the afternoon of a wet and disagreeable day. My 'purpose was to inquire into tramway matters, and to vist some Glasgow residents who hsd bec-n fellow passengers in the Moana from New Zealand to San Francisco. I inquired my way to the corporation offices, found the magnificent building in which they are located, and was courteously given the information I required. Thence by trata to Sir William AtroU'a great engineering works gave ma an idea of the extent of such concerns as this. I returned to the heart of the city, and thence by train to Pollookshiels, where I received a hearty welcome from my r<3o»na acquaintances and spent a really enjoyable evening. .Resisting a pressing invitation to stop for the night, 10 o'clock again found me in the train returning to Edinburgh preparatory to leaving for London, via Liverpool, Preston, and Blackpool, in the morning. I w*s astir betimes and, after an early breakfast, started ou my southward journey. I reached Blackpool at 10 o'clock en a Saturday nighb, having had a long day's training through visiting Live-pool and then returning to Black-n->ri. which is reached by a branch line from Presfcon.

I round the Lancashire holiday, resort crowded with people. I had imagined ib to be a quieb reaside town, but its esplanade and principal 3fcreetß presented more the appearance of the Strand or srme other crowded London street than anything else. I made my way to a great hotel — bhe Imperial Hydropathic Establishment — and managed to secure a room although the hobel wa» crowded with visitors. Until midnight the sbop3 were ablaze wibh electric and gas lights, and the sbreets densely crowded with people, and tbe following day (Sunday) the fine esplanade which skirts the shore in front of dozens of great boarding bouses and hotels was packed with a moving mass of people, through whom ib was difficult to make headway. Electric cars, worked on the conduit system, were crowded with passengers. Stranded on the beach in fronb of me lay a small vessel whose linss told of the naval architecture of years gone by. She was the centre of attraction, and making inquiries I learned she was Nelson's old teader the Foudroyanfc, whose fate was recorded a few weeks since by cable. It will be rememberad that this old vessel, around whose timbers cluster so many memories of the noble deeds of England's great naval hero, had been sold by the Admiralty. She was purchased to go to Germany, and was actually baken there by her purchasers. But British patriotism could nob tolerate this, and the necessary funds were subscribed to repurchase the old vessel and bring her back to England. The voyage was accomplished safely, but in a storm off Blackpool she was driven ashore on the beach. It seemed to be understood that it was impossible to get her off, and finally a great storm a few weeks sioce broke her up, and so she fittingly ended her days on the coastline of the land whose flag she had proudly borne aloft in days long gone by. i My inberesb next centred in posters on the i hoardings, which announced a " grand sacred concert by Mr Sims Reeves and other arbistes at the Winter Gardens, Blackpool." My visit to \ Blackpool was indeed well timed. I had seen the lasb of the old Foudroyant. Now an opporbunifcy presented itself of seeing and hearing the great tenor, whose career ia also nearing its 'j close. The great opera house of the WinterGardens wa3 crowded in all its pai'bslon^ before > the performance commenced. Besides the' special attraction of bhe evening there were parformances by two really talented artistes — Madsme Bews, a contralto singer, who delighted tut* audience with beautiful renderings of GoufcoJ's " There is a green hill," Cowen's " s'roanise of life," and Wallscs's ever-popular ii Ah:< i th^so chimes," and Mons. Auguste van Bier!?, a violoncello player, who roused his h't'in'.slo y,ositivF) futLusiiism. I enrry with uif ih • i.e'oilecii-.ri ol hi'! rsjjgmficenl playing. au' 1 will linf;Oi ia the memory for years io < owe,. Bui to tr,e tbotviintof tho eveniQg ;\'i b the appt,s' auce before the footlitfhl's ■>! S'imi \i, ,es. Tie looked veiy old, but earned liiui3cii with a» esreC^ness which. modiSed tke na-

pression at Srsb formed as to his physical impairment. He was greeted with a cordial round of applause, and, with a careful management of his voice, rendered MendalssjLa's leeitative and aria "Ye people, Tead your hearts" and "If with all your bearis." Ib need sca-er.ly bp s&'d th*t justice was hardly done to tbe biwtifal airs, for the singer's voice is tjvly crly a racioiy of the past. He waa, hcv/.ivor,'^v&..'a'ly arplauded. At a laler a!,ago of tte cue it Ihe once great singe* j.avo a csiefr4 rmderirig of "The M:_elie.l iijy." Uoouest 'ouaLly the master or musical tecl-'t-Jque e'.."d b°fore me, bui; with ail the m?sl-.-yly K.a'ir-&<nnent of bis voice ib was v-ith d'fUiulty he p-cduced the higher i.otes of Moore's favourite melody, and I experienced a feeling cf de^.p regret that ie I his old ggp England's popular idol of a quarter i of a century since should in his old age still Sad ifc riPcessary to make his living as a public singer long atter the voles which orice had i>ower 'o rb*"i» had bt-oome but a recolketion. Jle uasn: tf '.Le mo^t kindly rc-sbp'viou at the 1 c.t.d'S c- ; i- s audi'itce, Vrho were unstinted in ' 'heir Rfsr/lavwe, a token of iheir w^.rm feelings towards, him which, JVIr liseves mu3t have deeply felb. Bub I canaofc d-.'.vote more ppace to Blackpool, vrifh i 3 raj 37 thousands of plcasure.•ieekers, its gig^JiLie Forris wheel, .its SiStl tower (since dssiicyed by fire), acid o'.iicr attractions. , The following morning I was pgain in the I train speeding to London, whence I was thortly ■ to embark in 'the s.s. China on my homeward i voyage via Suez.