You have already interviewed one breakfast, and are expecting soon to be coquetting with a tempting luncheon. Everybody knows that secrete crossword puzzle crosswords. I cared quite as much about renewing old impressions as about: getting new ones. He had placed the Royal box at our disposal, so we invited our friends the P-s to go with us, and we all enjoyed the evening mightily. A breakfast, a lunch, a tea, is a circumstance, an occurrence, in social life, but a dinner is an event. Others were sometimes absent, and sometimes came to time when they were in a very doubtful state, looking as if they were saying to themselves, with Lear, —.
Perhaps it is true; certainly it was a very convenient arrangement for discouraging an untimely visit. Thy element's below. I never get into a very large and lofty saloon without feeling as if I were a weak solution of myself, — my personality almost drowned out in the flood of space about me. The best thing in my experience was recommended to me by an old friend in London. Everybody knows that secrete crossword puzzle. In the evening a grand reception at Lady G-'s, beginning (for us, at least) at eleven o'clock. It is pure good-will to my race which leads me to commend the Star Razor to all who travel by land or by sea, as well as to all who stay at home. We had a saloon car, which had been thoughtfully secured for us through unseen, not unsuspected, agencies, which had also beautified the compartment with flowers. 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. It was plain that we could not pretend to answer all the invitations which flooded our tables.
So far as my wants were concerned, I found her zealous and active in providing for my comfort. I. I BEGIN this record with the columnar, self-reliant capital letter to signify that there is no disguise in its egoisms. I should never have thought of such an expedition if it had not been suggested by another member of my family that I should accompany my daughter, who was meditating a trip to Europe. I had set before me at the hotel a very handsome floral harp, which my friend's friend had offered me as a tribute.
A tug came off, bringing newspapers, letters, and so forth, among the rest some thirty letters and telegrams for me. I was so pleased with it that I exhibited it to the distinguished tonsors of Burlington Arcade, half afraid they would assassinate me for bringing in an innovation which bid fair to destroy their business. It is true that Sir Henry Holland came to this country, and travelled freely about the world, after he was eighty years old; but his pitcher went to the well once too often, and met the usual doom of fragile articles. I am disappointed in the trees, so far; I have not seen one large tree as yet. One slides by the other, half a length, a length, a length and a half. I had been talking some time with a tall, good-looking gentleman, whom I took for a nobleman to whom I had been introduced. After dinner came a grand reception, most interesting but fatiguing to persons hardly as yet in good condition for social service. Then to Mrs. C. F-'s, one of the most sumptuous houses in London; and after that to Lady R-'s, another of the private palaces, with ceilings lofty as firmaments, and walls that might have been copied from the New Jerusalem. I quote from a writer in the London Morning Post, whose words, it will be seen, carry authority with them: —. " If we had attempted it, we should have found no time for anything else. " Sir, I own I love the lion best before his claws are grown. " ''No, " she answered, " but I should certainly die were I to drink your two cups of strong tea. " 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. Frederick Locker's daughter to Lionel Tennyson, whose recent death has been so deeply mourned. Lord Rsuggested that the best way would be for me to go in the special train which was to carry the Prince of Wales.
There must have been some magic secret in it, for I am sure that I looked five years younger after closing that little box than when I opened it. Americans know Chester better than most other old towns in England, because they so frequently stop there awhile on their way from Liverpool to London. But as I went in to luncheon, I passed a gentleman standing in custody of a plate half covered with sovereigns. Everything was ready for us, — a bright fire blazing and supper waiting. 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. The visit has answered most of its purposes for both of us, and if we have saved a few recollections which our friends can take any pleasure in reading, this slight record may be considered a work of supererogation. It was close to Piccadilly, and closer still to Bond Street. My friends and I mingled freely in the crowds, and saw all the " humors " of the occasion.
Everybody stays on deck as much as possible, and lies wrapped up and spread out at full length on his or her sea-chair, so that the deck looks as if it had a row of mummies on exhibition. But the story adds interest to the lean traditions of our somewhat dreary past, and it is hardly worth while to disturb it. So they convoyed us to the Grand Hotel for a short time, and then saw us safely off to the station to take the train for Chester, where we arrived in due season, and soon found ourselves comfortably established at the Grosvenor Arms Hotel. In the afternoon we both went together to the Abbey. I did not take this as serious advice, but its meaning is that one who has all his senses about him cannot help being anxious. Deep as has hitherto been my reverence for Plenipotentiary, Bay Middleton, and Queen of Trumps from hearsay, and for Don John, Crucifix, etc., etc., from my own personal knowledge, I am inclined to award the palm to Ormonde as the best three-year-old I have ever seen during close upon half a century's connection with the turf. It is the last word of the last line of the Iliad, and fitly closes the account of the funeral pageant of Hector, the tamer of horses. I will not advertise an assortment of asthma remedies for sale, but I assure my kind friends I have had no use for any one of them since I have walked the Boston pavements, drank, not the Cochituate, but the Belmont spring water, and breathed the lusty air of my native northeasters. — They are off, — not yet distinguishable, at least to me. But it was one thing to go in with a vast crowd at five and twenty, and another thing to run the risks of the excursion at more than thrice that age. With the first sight of land many a passenger draws a long sigh of relief. I always heard it in my boyhood.
I was once offered pay for a poem in praise of a certain stove-polish, but I declined. 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. All rights reserved. It was the sight of the boats hanging along at the sides of the deck, — the boats, always suggesting the fearful possibility that before another day dawns one may be tossing about in the watery Sahara, shelterless, fireless, almost foodless, with a fate before him he dares not contemplate. 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.
On the other hand, Gustave Doré, who also saw the Derby for the first and only time in his life, exclaimed, as he gazed with horror upon the faces below him, Quelle scène brutale! While the race was going on the yells of the betting crowd beneath us were incessant. Near us, in the same range, were Browns' Hotel and Batt's Hotel, both widely known to the temporary residents of London. The tougher neighbor is the gainer by these acts of kindness; the generosity of a sea-sick sufferer in giving away the delicacies which seemed so desirable on starting is not ranked very high on the books of the recording angel. The pool, as I afterwards learned, fell to the lot of the Turkish Ambassador. The little box contained a reaping machine, which gathered the capillary harvest of the past twenty-four hours with a thoroughness, a rapidity, a security, and a facility which were a surprise, almost a revelation. A few years since Mr. Gladstone was induced by Lord Granville and Lord Wolverton to run down to Epsom on the Derby day. 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. We had been a fortnight in London, and were now inextricably entangled in the meshes of the golden web of London social life. I was in no condition to go on shore for sightseeing, as some of the passengers did. We lived through it, however, and enjoyed meeting so many friends, known and unknown, who were very cordial and pleasant in their way of receiving us. I did so, and, unfolding my paper, found it was a blank, and passed on. Among our ship's company were a number of family relatives and acquaintances.
' No, ' she answered, 1I began, Your Majesty, and signed myself, Your little servant, Sibyl. ' No offence, " he answered. I must say something about the race I had taken so much pains to see. The next day, Tuesday, May 11th, at 4. They explain and excuse many things; they have been alluded to, sometimes with exaggeration, in the newspapers, and I could not tell my story fairly without mentioning them. The Prince is of a lively temperament and a very cheerful aspect, — a young girl would call him " jolly " as well as "nice. " The grand stand to which I was admitted was a little privileged republic. The horses disappear in the distance. One thing above all struck me as never before, — the terrible solitude of the ocean. From this time forward continued a perpetual round of social engagements.