Random Recollections (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1905 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER VII Some Wanderings far Afield O American of English lineage, certainly no Virginian, steeped in the history and traditions of the Motherland, can, for the first time, set out to revisit the home of his forebears without having his heart strangely moved and his mind stimulated by the entrancing prospect before him. The glorious record of his people's progress, which has, as yet, been mirrored only on the pages of history or romance, will now be unrolled before him. The homes and graves of the great are there, and with swelling heart and uncovered head he can stand amid scenes made forever sacred by the Soldiers, Statesmen, Philosophers, Martyrs, Priests and Prophets of his race. Thackeray, in his Virginians, has portrayed the feelings with which his hero set out for old England: All Americans, says the author, who love the Old Country--and what gently nurtured man or woman of Anglo-Saxon race does not?--have ere this rehearsed their English travels, and revisited in fancy the spots with which their hopes, their parents' fond stories, and their friends' descriptions have rendered them familiar. There are few things to me more affecting in the history of the quarrel which divided the two great nations than the recurrence of that word Home, as used by the younger toward the older country. Harry Warrington had his chart laid out. Before London, and its glorious temples of St. Paul's and St. Peter's; its grim Tower where the brave and loyal had shed their blood from Wallace down to Balmerino and Kilmarnock--pitied by gentle hearts; before the awful window at Whitehall, whence the martyr Charles had issued to kneel once more and then ascend to heaven: --before Playhouses, Parks and Palaces, wondrous resorts of wit, pleasure and...