. Indeed, the very cans that came up to my bedroom with hot water
were marked with coronet and cipher. I was inclined to scoff at this, at
first, as ostentatious; but after all, as the things were to be marked,
how could it be done better?

After dinner, a very pleasant chat in the drawing-room until about eleven
o'clock, when Lord ---- sent Lady ---- to bed. She shakes hands on bidding
me good-night, and asks if half-past nine o'clock is too early for
breakfast for me. I was tempted to say that it was, and to ask if it
couldn't be postponed till ten; but I didn't. The drawing-room, by the
way, altho it was handsome and cheerful, was far inferior in its show to a
thousand that might be found in New York, many of which, too, are quite
equal to it in comfort and in tasteful adornment. Lord ---- and I sit up
awhile and chat about old times and the shooting on Long Island, and when
I go to my room I find that, altho I am to stay but two days, my trunk has
been unpacked and all my clothes put into the wardrobe and the drawers,
and most carefully arranged, as if I were going to stay a month. My
morning dress has been taken away.

In the morning the same servant comes, opens my window, draws my bed
curtain, prepares my bath, turns my stockings, and in fact does everything
but actually bathe and dress me, and all with a very pleasant and cheerful
attentiveness. At a quarter past nine the gong rings for prayers. These
are generally read by the master of the household in the dining-room, with
the breakfast table laid; but here in a morning-room. After breakfast you
are left very much to yourself. Business and household affairs are looked
after by your host and hostess; and you go where you please and do what
you like.

On Sunday I of course went to church with the family: a charming old
church; tower of the time of Edward III.; some fine old monuments. We
merely walked through the park a distance of about the width of Washington
Square, passed through a little door in the park wall, and there was the
church just opposite. It was Harvest Thanksgiving day, a festival recently
introduced in England, in imitation of that which has come down to us from
our Puritan forefathers. There was a special service; and the church was
very prettily drest with oats, flowers, grass, and grapes, the last being
substituted for hops, as it was too late for them. The offerings were for
the Bulgarians; for everything now in England is tinged with the