Lady Rolle had kindly invited me to visit her at Merton, which invitation I was very glad to accept; and I left London by an express train in full anticipation of much enjoyment. I had often heard the gardens at Bicton described as amongst the finest in this county; no pen, however, can do justice to their attractions, and the loveliness of the surrounding scenery, which burst forth in all the majesty of a warm spring day, agreeably contrasting with the dark and murky atmosphere of London.
The rapidity of travelling by an express train really seems magical. If I were to write to my friends in the East and tell them I had travelled about two hundred miles within five hours, they would at once come to the conclusion that my head was turned like the unfortunate Druse Sheikh to whom I have alluded before. An Indian friend who was residing with me near a railway station, always compared the approach of the express train to that of Satan himself, rushing through the land direct from the infernal regions; a simile, according to my notions, not at all bad.
As soon as I had arrived at Exeter, I found a fly waiting for me, when I took my seat by the driver, preferring it to the closeness of an inside seat. I observed a great number of boys who indulged in various remarks concerning my beard, dress, etc., and frequently called after me “Kossoo! Kossoo!” the meaning of which puzzled me not a little. I thought they meant the discoverer of the plant of that name so lately recommended for its medicinal properties, thinking they meant some allusion to my having studied medicine. In my perplexity I asked the driver for an explanation. “Why, maister, you sees they’ve never afore seed any foreign gentlemen like yourself, but that ’ere one they calls Kossoo, so they ’sposes you be he.” The subsequent conversation between the driver and myself turned upon Kossuth’s merits. On my asking him if he had ever seen the Hungarian governor, “No, maister, I wishes I could send such publican foreigners into the sea instead of having them in our country.” I told him that this is not the way in which we treat foreigners in our country, he replied, “You be come from the Holy Land which be’ant our country.”