John William Polidori • 24 april 1816

• John William Polidori (1795-1821) was Engelse schrijver en arts, en initiator van het vampiergenre in de literatuur. Onderstaand fragment, over een reis naar Europa in het gezelschap van Lord Byron, is afkomstig uit: The Diary of Dr. John William Polidori (1816).



1816. April 24. — I left London at 10 in the morning, with Lord Byron, Scrope Davies, Esq., and J. Hobhouse, Esq.
The view from Shooter's Hill was extensive and beautiful, being on a much larger scale than the view from Stirling.
The plain, enamelled with various colours according to the different growth of the corn, spread far before our sight, was divided irregularly by the river. The Thames next, with its majestic waves, flowed in the plain below, bearing numerous fleets upon its flood. Its banks in many parts were beautiful. The chalky banks were alternated with the swelling hills, rising from the waves, of the pleasing green-brown, the effect of the first dawn of spring on the vegetable creation.
At Canterbury we saw the Cathedral. I know not how it was, whether my mind had been prepared by the previous sight of glorious nature to receive pleasing impressions, but the spot where the high altar and Thomas à Becket's tomb stood seemed to me one of the most beautiful effects that I had ever seen arising from Saxo-Gothic architecture; for, though it had not all the airiness and awe-inspiring height that I had seen in other cathedrals, yet its simple beauty pleased me more than anything I had yet seen.
Remounting, we soon arrived at Dover, where we slept, when the packet-boat captain had sufficiently disturbed us.