Temperance > Autobiography and personal recollections of John B. Gough

DEPARTURE FOR AMERICA.
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glance at her departing child. I had never, till then, felt
that I was loved so much.
My mother took our separation very keenly to heart.
My sister has told me that she would sit, as if in deep
thought, looking out in the distance, as though she saw
something far away; and sometimes my sister would see
her at night, standing by the window, looking out at the
sea for hours. When spoken to on these occasions, she
would start and sigh, and creep quietly to her bed.
When we arrived at Ashford, we were placed inside the
vehicle. Amongst many things which impressed me on
my journey, was the circumstance of a poor, shivering
woman, begging alms at the coach-door at midnight, for
whom I felt keenly. At Footscray I was again placed
outside the coach. On arriving near the metropolis,
objects of interest increased every moment; and, when
fairly in the great city, of which I had heard so much, I
was almost bewildered with tho crowds, and the multi¬
plicity of attractive objects. A fight between two belli¬
cose individuals was almost my first town entertainment.
Whilst I remained in London I saw some of the great
gratuitous attractions,—such as St. Paul’s, the Tower, the
Eoyal Exchange, the Mansion-house, and the Monument
—to the summit of which I ascended, and surveyed from
thence the mighty mass of brick, and smoke, and ship¬
ping! On the 10th of June, everything being arranged,
we sailed from the Thames in the ship Helen. Passing
Dover, we arrived off Sandgate, when it fell a dead calm,
and the ship’s anchors were dropped. I afforded some
amusement to those around me, by the eagerness with
which I seized a telescope, and the positiveuess with which
I averred that I saw my old home. During that day,
boat after boat came off to us from the shore; and friends
of the family I was with paid them visits;—but I was