Friday, September 29th 1854 ~ Ghent, Belgium

"St John the Evangelist at Patmos" (1479, H. Memling).

Late last evening, we visited the Biguinage, a very large nunnery where we saw service performed in a dimly lighted room, in presence of six hundred nuns clothed in white and black; black dresses with white capes and a white piece of linen folded over making the scene very solemn and impressive. The lodging houses of these nuns are small and surround the central point, the building for worship. The people of Belgium are celebrated, and long have been, for their religious devotion or perhaps superstition, whichever you choose to call it. They are said to be controlled more by their priests than any other nation in Europe. This morning early, we left Ghent in the cars for Bruges (about 18 miles distant) and we hardly know whether to be dissatisfied with our days employment or not. Bruges is a smaller city than Ghent, but has two very fine cathedrals and many very curious paintings, products of the early German schools. It also boasts a chime of bells said to be the finest in Europe, which Longfellow has much admired and immortalized. They are played by machinery every quarter hour and are very musical, but did not strike us as of great power, or as being very much superior to all the other chimes of Europe!! They should be heard on Sunday when they are played by a musician. We sat on a bench in the great square to listen to them. Previously we had visited with a guide the Hospitial of “St. Sean” where there are several fine pictures – a Van Dyke the “Virgin and Child.” The Child is sleeping on its mother’s breast, St. Joseph enters in the background and the mother’s face expresses fear least he should awaken the infant. The most beautiful specimen of the Flemish schools we have yet seen are here. The Decolation of John the Babtist and the inspiration of John at Patmos. In the last mentioned St. John is sitting in a rapt attitude and sees in the air above God the Father in encircled by a rainbow of glory and by his side is a white Lamb standing on a throne and around them are the four and twenty elders and in the distance the seven plagues represented by strange looking monsters. The colors of this painting are extremely briht and hard. It is said to be a fine type of the style and strange conceptions of this school in the middle ages. In the cathedral of Notre Dame we were shown a Michael Angelo (the Supper at Emmaus) a beautiful painting, but I should think of doubtful genuineness. Also the tombs of Charles the Bold and his daughter wife of Maximilian, on these tombs were their figures in time worn gilt bronze. In passing, our guide pointed out to us a house in which Charles 2nd of England lived while in exile here. It is in the square before the cathedral and is a large house, but not remarkable in appearance. Everything in this section of country recalls the middle ages. The ordinary buildings here seem to have been preserved an immense time. Among the relics at the Hospital is an area of St. Ursula preserved in a case of wood, on the sides of which are sketches of her life in several parts, representing her voyage to Rome with the eleven thousand virgins, their return with the Pontiff and subsequent massacre by the Huns at Cologne. These virgins were English and went up the Rhine crossed Switzerland and returned in the same way. This was in the third century. We took the cars at two o’clock back to Ghent having gone through a dinner of half a dozen courses of fish at Bruges (a place celebrated for its Friday fish dinners) but not appreciated by us. At six we took the cars from Ghent for Brussels. The conductor uses a large brass horn slung around his neck to direct the movements of the train. He as well as all the other officials are in a sort of uniform. In England a whistle was used for the same purpose. The lower classes here speak Flemish but nearly every one we meet speaks French. The money is francs and centimes.

Thursday, September 28th 1854 ~ Ghent, Belgium

Hotel Royale ~ We breakfasted early and started at nine o’clock to visit the celebrated cathedral ‘St. Bavous.” It was founded in 944 and is a fine type of the architecture of all this country during the middle ages. The inside is of white stone and the choir lined with black marble which of course presents a very strange appearance. Here Charles 5th was baptized - our guide pointed out the exact spot and showed us also the font in which the water stood. There were some (so called) fine paintings here by Rubens and Van Eyck but we did not appreciate them as much as we did the statuary on the sarcophagi. The figures of two bishops in marble reclining on their own graves seemed to us very beautiful. The perfect attitude of repose, natural position was wonderful one could almost see the marble breathe. We dined at the table d’hote at four o’clock and met there but four ladies. Almost all the guests were officers in uniform and it gave the table a very gay appearance. All drink wine. We saw scarcely a person at the table that had not his bottle. The wine are generally Rhemish. After dinner we drove to the “Marchi de Corseaux," saw the house where John of Gaunt was born. A very old looking building, narrow, and a story higher than its fellows.

Wednesday, September 27th 1854 ~ Ghent, Belgium

Hotel Royale ~ We breakfasted in London at half past six this morning and at seven took a carriage for the South Eastern railway, and at eight we were en route for the Continent. Hack hire in London is regulated according to distance, a hackman having a right to charge six pence for each mile if only two people ride, if more than two then an additional 6 d is charged for each additional person for the whole trip, not per mile. The miles of an English drive are always very short!! We have purchased tickets right through to Cologne and begin to feel quite like travelers. The ticket is given in a book of checks which the conductor tears off a leaf from, from time to time. An English Railway car is a very different thing from our own – they are long nearly as long as our own, but subdivided so that there are only two seats in each car, or rather in each partition. These seats run across and hold four persons each, so that four ride backward and four ride forward in stage coach fashion. The first class cars are nicely lined with cloth or leather and the seats and backs well stuffed, but the second class which are made just as well in every other respect have no cushions either for the back or seat and are therefore of course much more fatiguing. The third class are generally uncovered. Many gentlemen travel in the second class cars and sometimes ladies take them but not so often. The prices for second class in England is about the same as for first class at home. The ride to Dover is tolerably pleasant, but not as much as that from Liverpool to London. The country not as fine though having the same characteristics, until near Dover where it is more barren and where there are several long tunnels in which the road is carried through the chalk cliffs. Arriving at Dover at eleven o’clock we took the boat immediately for Calais. The water was perfectly smooth and although the boat was very small there was no motion. In two hours we landed in Calais and at halfway we could distinguish the land on either side. At first the French language sounded very strange and incomprehensible to us, but we are gradually getting accustomed to the sound and able to understand conversations. We walked to the custom hous and passport offices between a file of French soldiers in their brick red pants and blue coats. This is a great place for imposition on English and Americans where we experienced a small degree. We dined here and then took our place in the cars for Lille and Ghent. Between these two places by the way we came very near being left by the cars. For on crossing the frontier of Belgium I did not know what was going on and therefore did not get out and have any trunks opened and examined until just as the train was ready to start again and then they waited it for me some moments until a hasty custom house examination could be made. Our passports have been [visiid?] three times today, and it is a great nuisance, this being our first experience with a passport. The country here (France) has entirely a different appearance from that of England. There we saw generally beautiful meadowland divided by live hedges. Here one sees nothing but ploughed land. The houses are poorer, built mostly of stone or brick, and not picturesque, while men and women in queer costumes are working the ground. We arrived at Ghent at eight o’clock and were very much struck by its odd appearance in our drive to the hotel. The streets are narrow, entirely without sidewalks and paved with round stones. The houses are all tiled (at least the roofs of the houses) and this is entirely new to us. The tiles are made of red clay. Our rooms look out on a canal, one of several that run through the city.

Tuesday, September 26th 1854 ~ London

St. Paul's Cathedral.

London ~ My physician called again this morning and told me I had better leave London as soon as possible and breathe a purer air and there in accordance been making preparations to leave tomorrow. Today we visited St. Pauls cathedral, one of the largest buildings in the world. It is cruciform and of stone which time has made of a reddish brown color. The outside of St. Pauls is far more imposing than the interior. It requires 20 minutes to half an hour for driving around it and gives one a fine idea of the greatest of architectural wonders of past centuries. One does not obtain as good an idea of it however as if it stood in an open space instead of being shut in and encompassed by narrow struts. The interior is of course very magnificent from its vast proportion but is devoid of ornament and is somewhat broken by columns so that the size does not take in all at once. The dome is enormous, its highest point is 350 feet above the pavement of the church. The building is well lighted and has not the solemn grandeur that a soft light united with such vastness must give. In the crypt lies the body of the Iron Duke. I changed some of my English gold for French today at h 86 Cheapside.

Monday, September 25th 1854 ~ London

A horsedrawn "Handsome" carriage (Bettman archive).

London ~ This morning when the Doctor came he gave me permission to go out for a little drive, so Lizzie and myself got into a “Handsome” which is a one horse conveyance like a chaise except that there is a seat for a driver behind and above so that the reins pass over the chaise top, and the house (to those inside) seems to be without guidance. We saw the outside of St. James Palace of Buckingham Palace, drove around Hyde Park, St. James Park, saw “Temple bar” where the right of the Sovereign bows to the authority of the municipal authorities. Temple Bar was one of the gates of London and it still marks the terminus of the ancient city. It looks not unlike a small and somewhat defaced triumphal arch. The Dr. had forbidden me to breathe the atmosphere of the old city, so Temple Bar was an effectual bar to me. It seems a great pity. I should be thus laid up where there is so much to see, where every foot of ground, the name of every street recalls some story or history.

Sunday, September 24th 1854 ~ London

Have been up a little while today and am very much better but still very weak, scarcely able to stand. The doctor has been here twice today. Have had a very serious attack, which would have ended a poor constitution.

Saturday, September 23rd 1854 ~ London

I am still better today. The doctor has been here and pronounced me much improved, but I cannot get out of bed yet. When I rise for a moment my head swims and I am obliged to lie down again. He has called again this evening.