Monmouth Historic Inn

Henry Quitman Travels Abroad - 1853

April 29 2015 | News

Today's posting is taken from our collection of Quitman letters and is written by Henry Quitman to his father, General Quitman, and dated June 8, 1853.  This posting is the first half of the letter, and next week I'll post the other half of the letter.  It's interesting to read Henry's take on England and traveling abroad.  Until next time - happy travels!

Liverpool June 8, 1853

 

Dear Father

                   We arrived in this city yesterday about six o’clock p.m. after an unusually fine voyage of about ten days.  We were particularly favored as to weather during the whole passage.  The ocean seemed as smooth and as placid as a lake the whole time.  Neither Jordan nor myself had the slightest symptom of seasickness which was contrary to my anticipations; in fact, I did not believe it possible that I could cross the Atlantic without at least experiencing some slight touch of that dire disease.  The Baltic is certainly in every respect the finest Ocean Steamer I have ever seen.  She has every comfort - every luxury which the most fastidious could wish for.  She has been acknowledged one of the finest models of naval architecture that any nation had ever produced.  We are very comfortably installed in a very good hotel, but I do not feel at home.  I do not like the guilt, I feel the want of that bustle which we have always been accustomed to find in an American hotel.  I never see a face of anybody except bouts of the Chamber Maid; in solitude we sit in the coffee as they call it and take our meals.  A solitary waiter seems to flit around the room like a ghost, no sound is heard except the low murmur of our voices in conversation or the occasional rattle of plate.  Liverpool seems to be a great overgrown city with but few objects to interest or attract the attention of the traveler as far as I have been able to judge.  The docks and here and there a fine public building or a small monument of Lord Nelson or George the third are all the things in the way of curiosities I have yet seen.