Page:Once a Week June to Dec 1863.pdf/653

 28, 1863.] last week’s neighbours, whose bottles of Chambertin went flying out of the windows, leaving their contents in the empty compartment of their heads. But everything has an end, and when we reached Paris I sincerely but politely recommended them to God; for indeed I hope He will have them in His keeping, and that it may, for the present, be at some distance from me.

My journey from that point was simple enough; and if the douaniers, the commissionaires, the touts, and the stewards would have allowed me to rest in peace, I should not have felt so exceedingly tired as I did on my return from my holiday. They all say peace when there is no peace. A month’s vacation is one of the most fatiguing things in the world; and I have returned for the twentieth time to my ordinary occupations duly impressed with the infinite labour of taking a holiday. The fact is, holidays ought to come of themselves; but there is more exertion and forethought required to provide for our recreation than for our daily bread. Everything is overdone: Interlachen, Lucerne, Zurich, Baden, once so charmingly luxurious in their silence and magnificence, or voluptuous repose, have become huge caravanserais for the English, French, Austrian, Russian, and American peoples. The hotels are all full, the prices are all raised, the wines are adulterated; and at every station of consequence there is a struggle which is not exceeded by the graphic descriptions of the terminus on the day of a “slashing fight” for the belt. As soon as I shall have finished this article I shall warm myself at the fire after the fashion said to be peculiarly English, and shall endeavour to think about nothing; and I believe it will be of more service to me than all the wonders which I have not seen in my month’s inquiry after rest.

the Quay, at Great Yarmouth, in Norfolk, described in a recent number, there stands a house, built in the reign of Queen Elizabeth by a wealthy merchant named Benjamin Cowper, who represented that borough in parliament, when it was the custom, if not the law, for towns to return resident “burgesses,” and for counties to send up veritable “knights.” He was a member of the company of “Merchant Adventurers” incorporated by that queen, and their shield of arms, put up by him, still remains in one of the apartments. It is probable that he shared in the “rich spoyles” obtained from the expeditions fitted out by Raleigh, Drake, and Norris; for Yarmouth supplied these bold seamen with ships and money, and took an especial interest in the expedition to Cadiz under Essex, who, shortly after his successful exploit, became High Steward of the borough.