ant of giving this difference due
consideration which raises, from time to time, a crusade against the
hotels at home, by instituting comparisons with those of the United
States. If people want to have hotels as cheap as they are in America,
they must use them as much, and submit to fixed hours and a mixture of
every variety of cultivation of mind and cleanliness of person--which
change is not likely, I trust, to take place in my day. It is a curious
fact, that when the proprietor of the Adelphi, at Liverpool--in
consequence of a remonstrance made by some American, gentlemen as to his
charges--suggested to them that they should name their own hour and dine
together, in which case his charges would be greatly diminished, they
would not hear of such a thing, and wanted to know why they should be
forced to dine either all together, or at one particular hour. An
American gentleman, with whom I am acquainted, told me that, when he
first came over to England, the feeling of solitude, while breakfasting
alone, at his table in Morley's coffee-room, was quite overpowering.
"Now," he added, "I look forward to my quiet breakfast and the paper
every morning with the greatest pleasure, and only wonder how I can have
lived so long, and been so utterly ignorant of such simple enjoyment." I
have thought it better to make these observations thus early, although
it must be obvious they are the results of my subsequent experience, and
I feel I ought to apologize for their lengthiness.

There is comparatively little difficulty in finding your way about New
York, or, indeed, most American towns, except it be in the old parts
thereof, which are as full of twists, creeks, and names as our own. The
newer part of the town is divided into avenues running nearly parallel
with the Hudson; the streets cross them at right angles, and both are
simply numbered; the masses of buildings which these sections form are
very nearly uniform in area, and are termed blocks. The great place for
lounging, or loafing, as they term it--is Broadway, which may be said to
bisect New York longitudinally; the shops are very good, but, generally
speaking, painfully alike, wearying the eye with sameness, when the
novelty has worn off: the rivalry which exists as to the _luxe_ of
fitting up some of these shops is inconceivable.

I remember going into an ice-saloon, just before I embarked for England;
the room on the ground-floor was one hundred and fifty feet long by
for