Page:Life of Isaiah V Williamson.djvu/69

Rh traveller he was individualistic. And he felt. His heart responded to the great things of art and nature—to the grandeur of cathedral and mountain, to the beauty of stained glass or velvety lawn and waving meadow, to the colors and figures of tapestry, and to the light and shade of encastled river and lake. Many things that he saw were not mentioned in the guide book.

He was sympathetic, too, to human conditions, pitiful toward poverty and sorrow; and humorously cynical of shams. He knew, also, when he was paying moderate prices and when he was being overcharged.

Transoceanic steamers in 1841 landed their passengers at Clifton, near Bristol. From there Williamson went to London, with stops at Bath and Reading. Before leaving England he seems to have planned his Continental tour with his usual care for detail. Railroads were still few. As in the United States one had to travel between many points by river steamer and stage. From London he went to Brighton, Portsmouth, and the Isle of Wight. The Channel steamer took him up the Seine to Rouen. After a stay in Paris and Lyons, he