Railway ―

Rose at 6 resolved to be early enough. This Herzog Karl house is very attentive & good: ― tho’ all Wien Hotels seem to me stuffy & cramped ― as needs must be. ― At 7 went off with the “luggage” ――― what hideous worlds of gt. domino houses are they building all round Vienna! ―― to Rail: & after a long waiting, got ticket & luggage=ticket, & at 8.30 off. ― All day long I was alone quite ― yet happily happier than in 1855 or 1857 ― wh. then I could not have believed I could be. ― A mist at first, it became fine at Gloggnitz ― (how they do bow to the train all along!) ― at 11.25 & so up the terrible beautiful Semmering ― by 1 P.M. & to Murchslusslag1 by 1.40. They allow next to no time on the way, & only by force there could one snatch a glass of beer & bolt a piece of meat, ere the bell rang. Ravines & growing darkness ― & Gratz when it was dark ― at 5.30 I think ― but all through they were exactly punctual ― stopping at every station; wearying enough, but that I was so well. ― Later ― about 11 ― there was a tremendous Gorge=railway & “still waters between walls of Gleaming Granite in a Moonlight pass”2 ――― & so I became dead tired by Sasbach, at 1 P.M. ― & only waked up [thoroughly]3 about 5 ― as we came to Nabresina4 ― & ran down the long slope to Trieste. 23 Hours of rail since Vienna ― by this 2nd sort of train: yet I bore it pretty well, having room to stretch & walk about, wh. is a reason for travelling 1st class.

[Transcribed by Marco Graziosi from Houghton Library, Harvard University, MS Eng. 797.3.]

  1. Mürzzuschlag. [↩]
  2. From the first stanza of the “Choric Song” of Tennyson’s “The Lotos-Eaters:”There is still music here that softer falls
    Than petals from blown roses on the grass,
    Or night-dews on still waters between walls
    Of shadowy granite, in a gleaming pass. [↩]
  3. Blotted. [↩]
  4. Nabrežina. [↩]