A YORKSHIRE NATURALIST 17 



town north-east of Calais, they decided I should 

 also go. What followed is characteristic of two 

 things not uncommon in those pre-railroad times 

 viz., lack of experience in travel; and along with 

 costly postage a very considerable lack of cash. 

 One of my mother's brothers occupied a respon- 

 sible position in a merchant's warehouse which 

 stood in Cheapside, at the corner of Wood Street, 

 and my first business was to find my way to 

 him. I had never before been more than twenty 

 miles away from home. Under these circumstances, 

 it would have been reasonable for my parents to 

 have ascertained that my uncle was at home and 

 could receive me, instead of pitching a raw young 

 lad into the heart of London alone. The steamer 

 "James Watt/' running between Leith and London, 

 picked me up at Scarborough on the afternoon of 

 the last Sunday in September 1831, and landed me 

 at Blackwall early on Tuesday morning. I had then 

 to reach London, a distance of several miles, and, 

 knowing nothing of omnibuses or cabs, I stepped 

 into the first vehicle I found on the Quay, which 

 was a two-horse hackney coach, for which I had to 

 pay seven-and-sixpence out of my thinly lined purse. 

 On reaching my uncle's warehouse I received the 

 paralysing information that he was in Scotland, and 

 would not be home for some days. The steamer 

 which was to convey me cheaply to Calais sailed 

 from the Thames a little after noon, and meanwhile 

 I had to go to the French Ambassador's office in 



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