348 A Walk from 



read them here, to have read them anywhere, bearing 

 such deplorable meaning. They were U. -S. A. and 

 C. S. A., as it were chasing each other up and down 

 the pages of the visitors' register. Sad, sad was the 

 sight sadder, in a certain sense, than the smoke- 

 wreaths of the Tuscarora and Alabama ploughing the 

 broad ocean with their keels. U. S. A. and C. S. A. ! 

 What initials for Americans to write, with the precious 

 memories of a common history and a common weal 

 still held to their hearts to write here or anywhere ! 

 What a riving and a ruin do those letters record ! 

 Still they brought in their severed hands a common 

 homage-gift to the memory of the Writer of Abbots- 

 ford. If they represented the dissolution of a great 

 political fabric, in which they once gloried with equal 

 pride, they meant union here a oneness indissoluble 

 in admiration for a great genius whose memory can 

 no more be localised to a nation than the interest of 

 his works. 



American names, both of the North and South, may 

 be found on almost every page of the register.. I wrote 

 mine next to that of a gentleman from Worcester, 

 Mass., my old place of residence, who only left an hour 

 before my arrival. Abbotsford and Stratford-upon- 

 Avon are points to which our countrymen converge 

 in their travels in this country ; and you will find 



