arrival at falmouth.—custom house.—food of the english.—noise and bustle at the inn.
wednesday, april 21, 1802.
i write to you from english ground. on the twelfth morning after our departure from lisbon we came in sight of the lizard, two light-houses on the rocks near the land’s end, which mark a dangerous shore. the day was clear, and showed us the whole coast to advantage; but if these be the white cliffs of england, they have been strangely magnified by report: their forms are uninteresting, and their heights 2diminutive; if a score such were piled under cape finisterre, they would look like a flight of stairs to the spanish mountains. i made this observation to j—, who could not help acknowledging the truth, but he bade me look at the green fields. the verdure was certainly very delightful, and that not merely because our eyes were wearied with the gray sea: the appearance was like green corn, though approaching nearer i perceived that the colour never changed; for the herb, being kept short by cattle, does not move with the wind.
we passed in sight of st maurs, a little fishing-town on the east of the bay, and anchored about noon at falmouth. there is a man always on the look-out for the packets; he makes a signal as soon as one is seen, and every woman who has a husband on board gives him a shilling for the intelligence. i went through some troublesome forms upon landing, in consequence of the inhospitable laws enacted at the beginning of the war. there were then the 3vexatious ceremonies of the custom-house to be performed, where double fees were exacted for passing our baggage at extraordinary hours. j— bade me not judge of his countrymen by their sea-ports: it is a proverb, said he, “that the people at these places are all either birds of passage, or birds of prey”; it is their business to fleece us, and ours to be silent.—patience where there is no remedy!—our own aphorism, i find, is as needful abroad as at home. but if ever some new cervantes should arise to write a mock heroic, let him make his hero pass through a custom-house on his descent to the infernal regions.
the inn appeared magnificent to me; my friend complained that it was dirty and uncomfortable. i cannot relish their food: they eat their meat half raw; the vegetables are never boiled enough to be soft; and every thing is insipid except the bread, which is salt, bitter, and disagreeable. their beer is far better in 4spain, the voyage and the climate ripen it. the cheese and butter were more to my taste; manteca indeed is not butter, and the englishman[1] who wanted to call it so at cadiz was as inaccurate in his palate as in his ideas. generous wines are inordinately dear, and no others are to be procured; about a dollar a bottle is the price. what you find at the inns is in general miserably bad; they know this, and yet drink that the host may be satisfied with their expences: our custom of paying for the house-room is more economical, and better.
1. this blunder has been applied to the french word eau. which ever may be original, it certainly ought not to be palmed upon an englishman.—tr.
falmouth stands on the western side of the bay, and consists of one long narrow street which exhibits no favourable specimen either of the boasted cleanliness or wealth of the english towns. the wealthier merchants dwell a little out of 5the town upon the shore, or on the opposite side of the bay at a little place called flushing. the harbour, which is very fine, is commanded by the castle of pendennis; near its mouth there is a single rock, on which a pole is erected because it is covered at high tide. a madman not many years ago carried his wife here at low water, landed her on the rock, and rowed away in sport; nor did he return till her danger as well as fear had become extreme.
some time since the priest of this place was applied to to bury a certain person from the adjoining country. “why, john,” said he to the sexton, “we buried this man a dozen years ago:” and in fact it appeared on referring to the books of the church that his funeral had been registered ten years back. he had been bed-ridden and in a state of dotage during all that time; and his heirs had made a mock burial, to avoid certain legal forms and expenses which would else have been necessary 6to enable them to receive and dispose of his rents. i was also told another anecdote of an inhabitant of this town, not unworthy of a stoic:—his house was on fire; it contained his whole property; and when he found it was in vain to attempt saving any thing, he went upon the nearest hill and made a drawing of the conflagration:—an admirable instance of english phlegm!
the perpetual stir and bustle in this inn is as surprising as it is wearisome. doors opening and shutting, bells ringing, voices calling to the waiter from every quarter, while he cries “coming,” to one room, and hurries away to another. every body is in a hurry here; either they are going off in the packets, and are hastening their preparations to embark; or they have just arrived, and are impatient to be on the road homeward. every now-and-then a carriage rattles up to the door with a rapidity which makes the very house shake. the man who cleans the boots is running 7in one direction, the barber with his powder-bag in another; here goes the barber’s boy with his hot water and razors; there comes the clean linen from the washer-woman; and the hall is full of porters and sailors bringing in luggage, or bearing it away;—now you hear a horn blow because the post is coming in, and in the middle of the night you are awakened by another because it is going out. nothing is done in england without a noise, and yet noise is the only thing they forget in the bill!
8
