ABSTRACT
Everything to be seen and heard and smelled was new and wonderful as Liverpool unfolded before them. Its solidity struck them at once, very unAmerican. “It was a real pleasure to stamp upon the neat, firm, solid masonwork of the dock," a contrast to the “shabby log wharves we had stumbled over as we left New York." To Frederick, Britain was not only the past, it was the most modern of nations in the year 1850. “The landing-place was spacious, not encumbered with shanties or piles of freight, and though there was a little rain falling, there was a smooth, clean stone pavement, free from mud, to walk upon. There was a slight smell of bituminous smoke in the air, not disagreeable, but, to me, highly pleasant. I snuffed it as if passing a field of new mown hay."3 Stocks and stones, and people, he missed nothing. His eye was caught by a huddle of women, prostitutes waiting quietly at the dock. “I was surprised at the quietness and decency of these 'sailors' wives,' as they called themselves."4
