Below a jacket and one of the big
flapping collars of the period, he wore a waistcoat of crimson
cut-velvet with gold buttons, a pair of skin-tight pantaloons of green
tartan with Hessian boots to the knee, further adorned with large
brass spurs with brass chains. A schoolboy of twelve would excite some
comment were he to appear dressed like that to-day, though my father
assured me that he could run in his Hessian boots and spurs as fast as
any of his school-fellows.
Though my recollections may not go back to pre-railway days, the
conditions under which we travelled in my youth would be thought
intolerable now. No sleeping- or dining-cars, long night-journeys in
unheated, dimly lit carriages devoid of any kind of convenience, and
sea-passages in small, ill-equipped steamers. All these were accepted
as a matter of course, and as inevitable incidents of travel.
The first long-distance voyage I ever made was just forty years ago,
and I should like people who grumble at the accommodation provided in
one of the huge modern liners to see the arrangements thought good
enough for passengers in 1882. Our ship, the _Britannia_ of the
Pacific Steam Navigation Co., was just over 4,000 tons, and we
passengers congratulated each other loudly on our good fortune in
travelling in so fast and splendid a vessel.
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