William Nelson A Memoir 9
At an earlier date the mischievous effects of a strike extended to the
Hope Park works, ending in the places of some of the strikers being
supplied by other applicants. But the victims learned by experience that
they never appealed in vain to the sympathy of William Nelson, even when
their share in the revolt had been characterized by ingratitude or
breach of faith. It was sufficient that they were impoverished. “Poor
fellow!” he would say, “he brought it on himself; but what of that?” And
the liberal aid was given only too readily; for the plea was discovered
to be one to which he most promptly responded, and was resorted to
frequently by impostors who preyed on his kindly sympathy. What, indeed,
the Rev. Dr. Alison remarked of him after his death, when he said: “He
simply could not turn from distress of any sort without doing something
to relieve it,” was no more than an echo of the sentiment which
experience had rendered familiar to many.
CHAPTER VI.
_EGYPT AND PALESTINE._
The excursions of early years, and the longer holiday rambles of student
life, for which the environs of Edinburgh and the neighbouring shores of
Fife afforded so many attractions, were exchanged for a time for the
prosaic rounds of the commercial traveller and book-agent. But this duty
was transferred ere long to trustworthy subordinates; and so soon as
prosperity rewarded the intelligent labours of the young adventurer, the
spirit that prompted earlier excursions revived. This was further
stimulated by that keen desire to see and judge for himself in reference
to all matters of general interest which manifested itself through life.
The occurrence of any unusual event, or the opening up of some new
region, was sufficient at any time to awaken the desire to explore a
scene rendered interesting by its novelty, or by the exceptional
circumstances which attracted his notice. When the first Pacific Railway
was completed, he crossed the Atlantic in company with Mrs. Nelson,
travelled to San Francisco, visited the Yellowstone Region and the
Mariposa Valley, and returned through Canada to renew his intercourse
with old friends there. While in the Mariposa Valley, Mrs. Nelson was
presented with one of the giant _Sequoia_, or _Wellingtonia_, which now
bears, on a marble tablet attached to it, the name of “Auld Reekie,”
then bestowed on it. At Salt Lake City a Scotsman addressed Mr. Nelson
by name, and begged him to convey his respects to his old clergyman, the
Rev. W. Arnot of Edinburgh; but in mentioning this, Mr. Nelson dryly
added that the Free Churchman of Salt Lake City seemed to take very
kindly to its spiritual wives! He visited Paris in 1851, and exposed
himself to its dangers at the time of the famous _coup d’état_ by which
the Third Napoleon made himself emperor. Twenty years later he hastened
again to the French capital in the perilous outbreak of the Commune; and
when the Christmas season of 1879 was overclouded by the disastrous fall
of the Tay Bridge, immediately on learning of the event he made his way
to Dundee to see for himself the ruins and to investigate the cause. He
succeeded in finding a man who had watched the lights of the train as it
swept on in the profound darkness, and was startled by their being
suddenly extinguished. The bridge had given way; and the train, with all
its passengers, was precipitated into the Tay. In like manner he set out
for the Scilly Islands on the occasion of the wreck of the _Schiller_;
travelled to Ischia after the occurrence of the earthquake of 1881, in
which the town of Casamicciola was almost totally destroyed; and when,
in the following year, the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act led to a
violent popular outbreak in Connemara, he crossed over to Ireland, that
he might visit the disturbed district and judge for himself of the
merits of the conflict.
The amount of preparation for even the longest journey was amazingly
trifling. William Nelson would start almost at a day’s notice for an
extended tour; and this course of procedure, so characteristic of his
equanimity, conjoined with calm, resolute endurance, was curiously
exemplified in his first extended journey. In 1849 he left home with the
intention of spending a six weeks’ holiday in the south of Europe. He
was in Leghorn when a letter reached him which showed that all was going
on satisfactorily in the business. He thereupon decided to make an
extended journey to the East. But his funds were exhausted, and it was
before the days of railways or telegraphs. With a faith in human nature
characteristic of him through life, he stepped into the counting-house
of Messrs. Henderson Brothers, the leading British merchants in Leghorn.
He was a total stranger, with no introduction. He told them his story,
and asked them to cash a draft on Edinburgh for £300. They looked at
him, and after a pause told him to draw the cheque, and gave him the
money. The strangers became friends in later years; and one day, when
Mr. Robert Henderson was dining at Salisbury Green, William Nelson asked
him how it was that he and his brother had ventured to give a stranger
so large a sum. “Well,” said Mr. Henderson, “in plain truth, it was just
your Scotch tongue and honest Scotch face, and nothing else!” The
friendship which originated in this novel introduction lasted with their
lives.
There was, in truth, something singularly winning in his open, handsome
countenance; and its influence on strangers was anew illustrated at a
later date, when Mrs. Nelson accompanied him in a tour through the Black
Forest. They were overtaken by a thunderstorm when in Baden-Baden, and
taking refuge in the nearest shop, they found it devoted to articles of
_virtu_. A woman in charge, who spoke English fluently, received them
courteously, and responded to Mr. Nelson’s inquiries in a way that
greatly interested him. On leaving he expressed his grateful thanks, and
said he would have liked to make some purchases, but unfortunately his
remaining funds were not more than sufficient for his journey home. The
reply was: “Take whatever you please, sir. No one could look in your
face and distrust you.” He did accordingly carry off some choice
objects of _virtu_, always a temptation to him; the money for which, it
is scarcely necessary to add, was duly remitted on reaching England.
Provided, on such novel security, with funds requisite for a prolonged
tour in the East, he was absent upwards of ten months, and turned the
time to account with characteristic assiduity. The late President of
Queen’s College, Belfast, the Rev. Dr. J. Leslie Porter, who, as a
traveller in Palestine, was familiar with the scenes embraced in Mr.
Nelson’s tour, and repeatedly conversed with him on points of mutual
interest, remarks:--“He did not as a rule enter into detailed
descriptions of the localities he had visited. His chief desire
apparently was to elicit from those with whom he talked the fullest
information, as if to add to or correct his own impressions. One thing
particularly struck me: his questions were all pertinent and exactly to
the point. He showed a talent in obtaining exactly the information he
wished such as I have never known equalled, except in the case of one
person. He could glean a wonderful amount of knowledge in a very brief
period. He had himself been a close and accurate observer. He knew
exactly the points which, from want of time or opportunity, he had not
been able perfectly to grasp, and he put his questions in a form that
brought out every particle of information the person he addressed could
give.
“Of Damascus Mr. Nelson spoke with great enthusiasm. ‘Yes,’ he said,
‘richness, beauty, and fertility are there. Where,’ he asked, ‘was the
scene of Paul’s conversion? Was it near the east gate, where tradition
has located it?’ I pointed out that this could scarcely be, as Paul was
on his way from Jerusalem, and the road from the Holy City approaches
Damascus from the opposite side. He next inquired whether there was
still any tradition of Abraham; and he was very much interested when I
told him that a few miles to the north there is still a shrine, at the
foot of the hills, called the prayer-place of Abraham. ‘Is not that,’ he
said, ‘a proof of the tenacity with which even the oldest traditions
cling to the country?’ There was much in this; and he seemed to feel, as
others have felt, that it may be used as an argument in favour of the
truth of the early Christian traditions regarding the holy places of
Jerusalem and other cities in Palestine. He asked much about the
leprosy. ‘Did any tradition of it exist in Damascus?’ I remember well
how deeply he seemed to be impressed when I told him that a short
distance outside the east gate there were the remains of a very ancient
building, called Naaman’s House, and that a portion of it was still used
as a leper hospital. He said to me, ‘I looked for the Straight Street,
mentioned in connection with the conversion of St. Paul, but could see
no trace of it.’ Then I told him the results of more recent researches;
how they had brought to light the position and character of that great
street which ran through the city from the east to the west gate, and
had on each side a double row of columns, fragments of which can still
be seen in the houses and courts adjoining.”
But he had a no less keen eye for the modern Damascus, with its motley
population, its narrow streets and thronged bazaars, all full of strange
Eastern life and habits. “The mean, dirty thoroughfares, worse,” as he
says, “than an Old Town Edinburgh close, run between low, shabby-looking
houses; and nothing surprised me more than when I was taken through a
long dark passage, to suddenly find that the shabby street-front
concealed a beautiful court, laid out in garden fashion, with a fine
fountain in the centre, and flower-beds and orange trees, and round this
the chambers, brightly furnished with cushions and matting, etc., all
opening on to it, like a scene from the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments.”
Nevertheless the predominant thought in his mind was the Damascus of
Roman and New Testament times; the city to which Saul the persecutor was
journeying when he was arrested on the way, and commissioned to go far
hence to proclaim the gospel of glad tidings to the Gentile world.
Having gratified his intelligent curiosity, in seeking to discover the
ancient localities of Damascus associated with scripture history, he
proceeded by way of Lebanon to Jerusalem. The associations of the city
of Zion, of Nazareth, the Jordan, the Syrian desert, and the Dead Sea,
were replete with interest to a mind trained from earliest childhood in
devout familiarity with every incident of sacred story. The novel scenes
of Eastern life were, moreover, explored with peculiar zest in this his
first escape from the restraints of homely Western civilization into
that strange old East where the customs and ideas of an ancient past
still survive. In referring to this visit to Jerusalem he remarks:--“I
was there before any guide-book was written; and so I had to consult my
Bible, and occasionally Josephus, on a point of history. After these I
found Robinson’s ‘Biblical Researches’ the most thorough and useful.
Robinson seemed to me to write, and study, and investigate as a scholar.
Perhaps he paid rather too little regard to tradition; but this was
natural in a place like Jerusalem, which absolutely swarms with the most
absurd legends. He lays down on the whole a firm basis of biblical and
historical facts; then he leads one on in a logical and critical manner
to the truth regarding the exact sites of the great events of the Gospel
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