Breakfasts, lunches, dinners, teas, receptions with spread tables, two, three, and four deep of an evening, with receiving company at our own rooms, took up the day, so that we had very little time for common sight-seeing. Of these kinds of entertainment, the breakfast, though pleasant enough when the company is agreeable, as I always found it, is the least convenient of all times and modes of visiting. Yet everybody knows that the worst dangers begin after we have got near enough to see the shore, for there are several ways of landing, not all of which are equally desirable. I replied that I was going to England to spend money, not to make it; to hear speeches, very possibly, but not to make them; to revisit scenes I had known in my younger days; to get a little change of my routine, which I certainly did; and to enjoy a little rest, which I as certainly did not in London. Near us, in the same range, were Browns' Hotel and Batt's Hotel, both widely known to the temporary residents of London. He was only twice my age, and was gettingon finely towards his two hundredth year, when the Earl of Arundel carried him up to London, and, being feasted and made a lion of, he found there a premature and early grave at the age of only one hundred and fifty-two years. A special tug came to take us off: on it were the American consul, Mr. Russell, the viceconsul, Mr. Secret crossword clue answer. Sewall, Dr. N-, and Mr. R-, who came on behalf of our as yet unseen friend, Mr. W-, of Brighton, England. At his house I first met Sir James Paget and Sir William Gull, long well known to me, as to the medical profession everywhere, as preëminent in their several departments. It is a clear case of Sic(k) vos non vobis. I had been talking some time with a tall, good-looking gentleman, whom I took for a nobleman to whom I had been introduced. It was but a short distance from where we were standing, and I could not help thinking how near our several life-dramas came to a simultaneous exeunt omnes.
Ellen Terry was as fascinating as ever. Everybody knows that secrete crosswords. Two horses have emerged from the ruck, and are sweeping, rushing, storming, towards us, almost side by side. One costly contrivance, sent me by the Reverend Mr. H-, whom I have never duly thanked for it, looked more like an angelic trump for me to blow in a better world than what I believe it is, an inhaling tube intended to prolong my mortal respiration. We Americans are a little shy of confessing that any title or conventional grandeur makes an impression upon us.
One thing above all struck me as never before, — the terrible solitude of the ocean. There was no train in those days, and the whole road between London and Epsom was choked with vehicles of all kinds, from four-in-hands to donkeycarts and wheelbarrows. I always heard it in my boyhood. They are not considered in place in a wellkept lawn. All this was tempting enough, but there was an obstacle in the way which I feared, and, as it proved, not without good reason. I had set before me at the hotel a very handsome floral harp, which my friend's friend had offered me as a tribute. They have a tough gray rind and a rich interior, which find food and lodging for numerous tenants, who live and die under their shelter or their shadow, — lowly servitors some of them, portly dignitaries others, humble, holy ministers of religion many, I doubt not, — larvæ of angels, who will get their wings by and by. All the usual provisions for comfort made by sea-going experts we had attended to. In the brief account of my first visit to England, more than half a century ago, I mentioned the fact that I want to the famous Derby race at Epsom. Among our ship's company were a number of family relatives and acquaintances. I had been twice invited to weddings in that famous room: once to the marriage of my friend Motley's daughter, then to that of Mr. Everybody knows that secrete crossword clue. Frederick Locker's daughter to Lionel Tennyson, whose recent death has been so deeply mourned. There is, however, something about the man who deals in horses which takes down the spirit, however proud, of him who is unskilled in equestrian matters and unused to the horse-lover's vocabulary.
Rumor credits Dr. Holmes, " so The Field says, " with desiring mentally to compare his two Derbies with each other. " The most conspicuous object was a man on an immensely tall pair of stilts, stalking about among the crowd. Mr. Gladstone, a strong man for his years, is reported as saying that he is too old to travel, at least to cross the ocean, and he is younger than I am, — just four months, to a day, younger. There was still another great and splendid reception at Lady G-'s, and a party at Mrs. S-'s, but we were both tired enough to be willing to go home after what may be called a pretty good day's work at enjoying ourselves. It was impossible to stay there another night. The old cathedral seemed to me particularly mouldy, and in fact too highflavored with antiquity.
A first impression is one never to be repeated; the second look will see much that was not noticed, but it will not reproduce the sharp lines of the first proof, which is always interesting, no matter what the eye or the mind fixes upon. " " Well, you don't love kings, then. " There was a preliminary race, which excited comparatively little interest. There is only one way to get rid of them; that which an old sea-captain mentioned to me, namely, to keep one's self under opiates until he wakes up in the harbor where he is bound. 17 Dover Street, Mackellar's Hotel, where we found ourselves comfortably lodged and well cared for during the whole time we were in London. I could not help comparing some of the ancient cathedrals and abbey churches to so many old cheeses.
At any rate, we saw nothing more than a few porpoises, so far as I remember. After the first night and part of the second, I never lay down at all while at sea. "The Bard" has made a good fight for the first place, and comes in second. I once made a similar mistake in addressing a young fellow-citizen of some social pretensions.
My companion and myself required an attendant, and we found one of those useful androgynous personages known as courier-maids, who had travelled with friends of ours, and who was ready to start with us at a moment's warning. A little waiting time, and they swim into our ken, but in what order of precedence it is as yet not easy to say. I thought they might be mutes, or something of that sort, salaried to look grave and keep quiet. I was off on my first long vacation for half a century, and had a right to my whims and fancies. This, I told my English friends, was the more civilized form of the Indian's blanket.
He showed us various fine animals, some in their stalls, some outside of them. I approved of this " counter " on the teacup, but I did not think either of them was in much danger. A reverend friend, who thought I had certain projects in my head, wrote to me about lecturing: where I should appear, what fees I should obtain, and such business matters. I found it very windy and uncomfortable on the more exposed parts of the grand stand, and was glad that I had taken a shawl with me, in which I wrapped myself as if I had been on shipboard. I must say something about the race I had taken so much pains to see.