Essays of Travel

Essays of Travel

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Essays of Travel, by Robert Louis
Stevenson (#30 in our series by Robert Louis Stevenson)
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Title: Essays of Travel
Author: Robert Louis Stevenson
Release Date: August, 1996 [EBook #627] [This file was first posted
on July 3, 1996] [Most recently updated: September 2, 2002]
Edition: 10

Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, ESSAYS
OF TRAVEL ***

Transcribed from the 1905 Chatto & Windus edition by David Price,
email [email protected]

ESSAYS OF TRAVEL

Contents
THE AMATEUR EMIGRANT: FROM THE CLYDE TO SANDY
HOOK THE SECOND CABIN EARLY IMPRESSION STEERAGE
IMPRESSIONS STEERAGE TYPES THE SICK MAN THE
STOWAWAYS PERSONAL EXPERIENCE AND REVIEW NEW
YORK COCKERMOUTH AND KESWICK COCKERMOUTH AN
EVANGELIST ANOTHER LAST OF SMETHURST AN AUTUMN
EFFECT A WINTER'S WALK IN CARRICK AND GALLOWAY
FOREST NOTES - ON THE PLAINS IN THE SEASON IDLE
HOURS A PLEASURE-PARTY THE WOODS IN SPRING
MORALITY A MOUNTAIN TOWN IN FRANCE RANDOM
MEMORIES: ROSA QUO LOCORUM THE IDEAL HOUSE
DAVOS IN WINTER HEALTH AND MOUNTAINS ALPINE
DIVERSION THE STUMULATION OF THE ALPS ROADS ON
THE ENJOYMENT OF UNPLEASANT PLACES

CHAPTER I
--THE AMATEUR EMIGRANT

THE SECOND CABIN
I first encountered my fellow-passengers on the Broomielaw in
Glasgow. Thence we descended the Clyde in no familiar spirit, but
looking askance on each other as on possible enemies. A few

Scandinavians, who had already grown acquainted on the North Sea,
were friendly and voluble over their long pipes; but among English
speakers distance and suspicion reigned supreme. The sun was soon
overclouded, the wind freshened and grew sharp as we continued to
descend the widening estuary; and with the falling temperature the
gloom among the passengers increased. Two of the women wept. Any
one who had come aboard might have supposed we were all
absconding from the law. There was scarce a word interchanged, and
no common sentiment but that of cold united us, until at length, having
touched at Greenock, a pointing arm and a rush to the starboard now
announced that our ocean steamer was in sight. There she lay in
mid-river, at the Tail of the Bank, her sea-signal flying: a wall of
bulwark, a street of white deck-houses, an aspiring forest of spars,
larger than a church, and soon to be as populous as many an
incorporated town in the land to which she was to bear us.
I was not, in truth, a steerage passenger. Although anxious to see the
worst of emigrant life, I had some work to finish on the voyage, and
was advised to go by the second cabin, where at least I should have a
table at command. The advice was excellent; but to understand the
choice, and what I gained, some outline of the internal disposition of
the ship will first be necessary. In her very nose is Steerage No. 1,
down two pair of stairs. A little abaft, another companion, labelled
Steerage No. 2 and 3, gives admission to three galleries, two running
forward towards Steerage No. 1, and the third aft towards the engines.
The starboard forward gallery is the second cabin. Away abaft the
engines and below the officers' cabins, to complete our survey of the
vessel, there is yet a third nest of steerages, labelled 4 and 5. The
second cabin, to return, is thus a modified oasis in the very heart of the
steerages. Through the thin partition you can hear the steerage
passengers being sick, the rattle of tin dishes as they sit at meals, the
varied accents in which they converse, the crying of their children
terrified by this new experience, or the clean flat smack of the parental
hand in chastisement.
There are, however, many advantages for the inhabitant of this strip. He
does not require to bring his own bedding or dishes, but finds berths
and a table completely if somewhat roughly furnished. He enjoys a
distinct