Appendix. 0* NOTE I-Liverpool. p 126. x my next visit to Liverpool after twenty years of absence, the change seemed like that which surprised Rip Van Winkle on awaking from his twenty years' slumber in the Sleepy Hollow. From a flourishing seaport of moderate size it had become a great commercial city, with a railway and docks of vast extent thronged with shipping. Salt water baths from which at high water numerous swimmers used to plunge into the Mersey, had given place to a large landing stage for passengers by steam and sailing vessels. The dreaded schoolmaster was only remembered for his cruel tyranny, the site of his forsaken: school and its large playground being covered with streets. Everton, a rural village, resorted to on holidays, and famous for a popular Lancashire confection called "Toffy," was a parish of Liverpool. The city then extended far beyond Rodney Street, towards Edgehill. I was hospitably entertained for a day or two by Mr. and Mrs. Gladstone at their marine residence, they being among the few remaining friends of my father and mother's family. At cach succeeding visit to Liverpool it has appeared to spread rapidly like London, which has trebled its population since I saw it illuminated in the summer of 1813, on the arrival of the news of Wellington's victory at the great and decisive battle of Vittoria. It now vies with the metropolis in the number and APPENDIX NOTE II. 153 size of the fine parks with which public spirit and enterprise have adorned it. NOTE II.-Borodino, p 128. THE battle of BORODINO of the 7th of September 1812, at which General Baron Driesen was wounded. was the most obstinately disputed and terrible battle recorded in history. The Russians lost one of their best Generals, Bagrathion, two other generals killed, and thirty wounded; fifteen thousand troops killed, thirty thousand wounded, and two thousand prisoners. Of the French, Generals Montbrun, Caulaincourt, and many more were killed, and thirty wounded; their total loss being twelve thousand killed and thirty-eight thousand wounded. The Russians notwithstanding this terrific onslaught, retired towards. Moscow in good order and with seventy thousand men undaunted, and under arms. Had they known that the provisions and ammunition of the French were nearly exhausted they might have renewed the fight, with the assurance of victory, but with the sacrifice of many more lives. It was the critical battle of the war, followed by the heroic burning of Moscow, the ancient capital, sacrificed to save the country by the inevitable retreat of the invaders, amid the snows of a Russian winter which completed the overthrow of Napoleon's vast army. POET LAUREATE'S ODE TO DUCHESS OF EDINBUrgh. On the arrival and hearty welcome in England of the Duke of Edinburgh and his bride the Russian Princess, knowing how much the descriptions given in the newspapers of their reception in England would. interest my Russian relations, I sent several extracts relating to it, and also the Bridal Ode of the Poet Laureate, as soon as they appeared. My eldest niece to whom they were sent having been one of the Maids of Honour during her father's lifetime, at the court of 154 APPENDIX NOTE II. the Emperor Nicolas, when my letter arrived was writing to Her Imperial Majesty, and having hastily read my letter she sent Mr. Tennyson's Ode as my composition! This brought a letter from the private Secretary of the Empress, to THE BARONESS VON KAULBARS "Gracious Lady Baroness, I had the pleasure of receiving your honoured letter on the 9th of this month, and of forwarding it to Her Majesty the Empress, and (after replying to her own letter), the Secretary requested her "to take the "trouble of conveying in her Majesty's name to your dear uncle mentioned in the same letter, P. F. 'Aiken, Esq., residing at Bristol, her most gracious "thanks for the memorial by him in a poetical form, "of moments not to be forgotten by the Imperial "family," &c., &c. 66 (Signed), MAURITZ. St. Petersburg, 14th March, 1874. The above date in the old style would be the 26th of March, and when the original German letter was. forwarded to me, I was in great consternation at my undeserved elevation to the rank of Poet Laureate, and lost no time in giving honour to Mr. Tennyson, to whom the honour was due, whose beautiful poems with myriads of my countrymen I greatly admired, and from whose wreath I should have been sorry to pluck a single leaf. I sent therefore the following letter to the Baroness von Kaulbars who forwarded it to Her Majesty the Empress of Russia by whom it was read and acknowledged. Wallcroft House, Durdham Down, My dear Alexandrine, Immediately after the public entry of the Duke of Edinburgh and his Russian bride into London, APPENDIX NOTE II. 155 I sent to you from a newspaper a description of the reception of the Russian Princess by the inhabitants of our great metropolis, and also a copy of the poem composed for the occasion by Mr. Tennyson, our most celebrated living poet, whose special duty it was to write it, as being Poet Laureate, an officer appointed for the celebration in verse of such happy events. Along with your own congratulations you sent the poem to Her Majesty the Empress of Russia, and said by mistake that I was the author of it. Her Majesty, with kind condescension has transmitted to you, a gracious message through her private secretary, General Mauritz, and to myself also, as the supposed author of the poem, of which however I am unworthy. But I feel grateful for the intended honour, and am glad that I have been the instrument of bringing before Her Majesty a composition of superior merit, by which she has been pleased and interested. In every beautiful sentiment of that welcome, I can agree more completely than most Englishmen can do; because my sister was the wife of your dear father, and both of them acknowledged as their friend and benefactor, the late Emperor Alexander; and while they lived at Oranienbaum, more especially, had frequent interviews with their Imperial Majesties. Hence my interest in Russia and its Imperial families extends to nearly the beginning of this century, during the whole of which my life has been prolonged. I remember the battle of Borodino in which my brotherin-law, then a General in the Russian army received his wound, and the retreat of the French Emperor Napoleon and his army from Moscow, which checked the ambitious career of the greatest enemy of Russia and of England, and led to his downfall which was completed at Waterloo. Let us hope that the auspicious alliance of the Royal families of two great and powerful nations, will tend to their closer union and friendship, and to the preservation of the peace and happiness of all other nations. Your very affectionate uncle. 66 156 APPENDIX NOTE III. NOTE III.-Edinburgh, p 141. WHEN Burns wrote his Ode to Edinburgh soon after his arrival, in December, 1786, the North Loch, as it was called, must have extended from the base of the grand old Castle-"grim rising o'er the rugged rock," -to near the North bridge, and but a very small part of the New Town could have been built. Many of the gentry still lived in the old city, in the High Street, with its houses of ten or twelve stories, and even in courts and closes of the Canongate; the better and more agreeable residences being towards the south of that long street which extends from the Castle Hill to Holyrood palace. Twenty-seven years afterwards, at seven o'clock on a cold, dark November morning, I left Simpson's" noted inn, at the end of the old bridge of Ayr, whence the coach for Glasgow started at that hour. It was heavily laden before we arrived at the place for breakfast, a way-side inn on a bleak moor, where a scanty crop of oats was still in sheaves in a field exposed to the weather. We reached the appointed hotel in Glasgow at two o'clock, and were joined at dinner by an unfortunate traveller who had been an outside passenger about six weeks before. The coach having upset, fell upon his ancle, which was so injured that he was only able to pursue his homeward journey that day. At four we started, and arrived at the west end of Prince's Street about ten at night. My boyish admiration of the long line of lamps, though dimly lighted with train oil, was great, and of the wide and regular streets still greater. One night a considerable number of those lamps in Leith walk, which connects Edinburgh with its harbour at Leith, were extinguished by a crew of Greenlanders or Finlanders, who after strolling about the city, when returning to their ship, climbed the lamp posts and refreshed themselves with the oily beverage which gave us light before gas was invented. There were watchmen in those days, who carried lanterns and called out the time of night and the state of the weather to |