248 LAST YEARS IN ENGLAND. [Chap. VI. 



"A real live Yankee, called Train, great in horse-cars, 

 had met me \ and finding that I had ridden in them all, 

 from Boston to St. Louis, and that no one else had, had 

 entreated me to go to Section G. [Mechanical Science], and 

 open out a discussion. . . . The Train moved at high pressure 

 with his model. I laughed in my sleeve, while the John Bulls 

 would not understand, and asked absurd questions, which the 

 poor Train was not slow enough to understand. Then I got 

 up, and translated the whole thing into English ideas; and 

 answered all the objections — some from the crooked narrow 

 streets of the cow-path city (Boston), some from the hilly roads 

 of the monumental city (Baltimore), etc. The English like 

 facts. I felt a wicked satisfaction in blowing up Mr. Bull for 

 not introducing American improvements. It was settled that 

 Birkenhead was to try it. . . . The Train met me at the soiree, 

 in great ecstasy at my speech. He seemed to wonder that an 

 Englishman could get out so many words and facts in so few 

 minutes. He had it specially reported, in true Yankee fashion. 

 The President [of the Section], Professor McQuorn Rankine, 

 also came to talk to me. Good fun, to compare notes of old 

 days, when we sat together at J. D. Forbes's class [see p. 14], 

 with Captain Basil Hall wrapped up in sheep-skins ! . . . 



" Our most pleasant introduction was to Professor Jowett * 

 (him of the Broad Church), whose face in the print-shops, com- 

 bining the greatest sweetness with ideality and intellect, had won 

 our hearts, as his writings had previously done. You can hardly 

 believe him an old bachelor. He is greatly beloved by the 

 students in his college. I feel inclined to confound those ante- 

 matrimonial fellowships ! He invited us to breakfast next 

 morning, in his rooms in Balliol College. This was, of course, 

 the nicest thing that could be. . . . He was more anxious 

 to learn from Mary about schools, and from me about America, 

 than to let us draw him out. ... It was very delightful 

 to know him. One reads a man so much better afterwards, 

 when one has been in his atmosphere. We then attended 

 Sections a little, and took train to Bristol. I found my sister 



* Now Master of Balliol. 



