Spiers: Memoranda of an autumn tour in 1836
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Contd Augt 10. Wed
– the British museum in which was included our namesake & relative’s bible of Charlemagne gave rise to animated discussions.
AUG. 11. THURS: – At half past 11 we stepped on board the magnificent steam packet Soho & until it started 3/4 of an hour afterwards, the arrival of passengers, especially the later ones afforded some ludicrous scenes. Why will people subject themselves to the inconvenience & uncertainty of being half an hour later than they ought to be. A cause for it may perhaps be found in an observation I made that the latest arrivals had generally some ladies among them & the last of all was a lady solus. Poor thing she had no one to hurry or scold her as others seemed to have. Her thick quilted gown proclaimed her to be a dutchwoman, but to her praise be it said, that although clothed in a garment of heat she bore herself with as much coolness & placidity as though she had experienced no chance of the loss of her passage. I soon discovered the difficulty of travelling to any place incognito, even if I wished it, for here were 5 on board who immediately recognised me, viz. Profrs Borrer & Obre of Oriel, W.F. Wingfield of Ch Ch, Woodgate & Brown of St Johns. They were very friendly & chatty throughout the voyage: the other passengers seemed to be about 80 in number & many of them cultivated our acquaintance & appeared pleasant fellows. The Rhine formed the principal topic of conversation & points of destination & there were few others than English. The voyage down the Thames was much as usual & so was the scrumbling dinner where as at most public ones there is little difficulty in procuring what you do not want but much in what you do. The pitching of the vessel sent me down to my berth before 8 o’clock & in the interval between 8 on the following morning I slept soundly. I had felt a little qualmish before going below and hesitated whether I shd give
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