An emigrant's home letters/Letter One
LETTER ONE.
London,
My Dear Sister,
By the time you receive this letter I hope my father will have got the better of the severe illness which he suffered under when I left Birmingham, and together with my poor dear mother, and you all, be better in health and spirits than I can hope for. As I did not get lodgings till late yesterday, I hope you will excuse my not writing before to-day. I shall now endeavour to tell you all that has passed since we parted.
The train which we came up by left Birmingham about one o'clock, and for the first fifty miles of the journey the rain and wind beat through the nothing but naked windows of our second-class carriage with such bitterness that I began to think we should surely be the subject of a tale in the 'Penny Storyteller,' entitled 'The Weather Slain.' We saw very little of any interest on the way, except the tunnels, one of which is nearly two miles long. Had it been a hundred, we should not have been so murdered by the weather, but as it was, we were through it in five minutes. We saw nothing of Coventry but about a hundred poor men's houses, two church steeples, and two or three high chimneys, the line of road being cut through the rising ground on the right of the city several yards deep. The day cleared up as it died away, and the ghost of a devil that dragged us along tore out from Primrose Hill with the bright crescent moon above us in a calm and beautiful sky. In half an hour afterwards we were in London.
I enquired of one of the company's porters where I could get lodged for the night, and he directed me to a coffee-house just outside the gates, and offered to carry our baggage there; but when we got to the gates the sentinel would not let him go out. That the fellow knew well enough, so I was obliged to have another to carry it the other six yards. A double expense to begin with. On Friday I found out Houldin's, and went there thinking that John might be able to tell me where I could get a lodging; but, after wasting all the morning, and being treated with 'London gin' at my own expense, I was as forward as ever. In the afternoon I saw Hornblower, but I succeeded no better for that day with him. He could do nothing for the first two or three hours but tell me how glad he was to see me, and stuff me with good things, and he then took me through the streets till nearly eight o'clock to show me the fine places. All the time Clarinda was waiting at the coffee house. The next morning he got me a very comfortable lodging at a respectable house in Hatton Gardens. We have a furnished room, and a good sized dressing closet, where we keep our bread and cheese, and our coals, &c., on the fourth floor, for six shillings per week, and find our own linen and crocks. Staying at the coffee house was very expensive, but I was afraid of going to strange lodgings, and am glad I did not. We have got out of about 24s. since we have been in London, though we have been as careful as we could.
I can say nothing of how we are likely to succeed at present, but I am in good spirits. We were both so ill the first night after we got in that we could not get an hour's sleep, but are much better.
I should very much like to have the dog, but will write further about it in my next, if you will be kind enough to keep him till then.
Send the remains of the things by the first waggon. You had better put the brown paper package in the rabbit pen, and be sure that the boards are nailed down on the top.
Your affectionate brother,
Give my best love to my mother.