ntil it is what he
calls _clothed_'.... Mrs. H. says he never knows when he is writing a
story how the characters will turn out; he waits for _them_ to influence
_him_.

"I asked her if Zenobia was intended for Margaret Fuller, and she said,
'No;' but Mr. Hawthorne admitted that Margaret Fuller seemed to be
around him when he was writing it.

"London, August. We went out for our first walk as soon as breakfast was
over, and we walked on Regent street for hours, looking in at the shop
windows. The first view of the street was beautiful, for it was a misty
morning, and we saw its length fade away as if it had no end. I like it
that in our first walk we came upon a crowd standing around 'Punch.' It
is a ridiculous affair, but as it is as much a 'peculiar institution' as
is Southern slavery, I stopped and listened, and after we came into the
house Miss S. threw out some pence for them. We rested after the shop
windows of Regent street, took dinner, and went out again, this time to
Piccadilly.

"The servility of the shopkeepers is really a little offensive. 'What
shall I have the honor of showing you?' they say.

"Our chambermaid, at our lodgings, thanks us every time we speak to her.

"I feel ashamed to reach a four-penny piece to a stout coachman who
touches his hat and begs me to remember him. Sometimes I am ready to
say, 'How can I forget you, when you have hung around me so closely for
half an hour?'

"Our waiter at the Adelphi Hotel, at Liverpool, was a very respectable
middle-aged man, with a white neck-cloth; he looked like a Methodist
parson. He waited upon us for five days with great gravity, and then
another waiter told us that we could give our waiter what we pleased. We
were charged L1 for 'attendance' in the bill, but I very innocently gave
half as much more, as fee to the 'parson,'

"August 14. To-day we took a brougham and drove around for hours. Of
course we didn't _see_ London, and if we stay a month we shall still
know nothing of it, it is so immense. I keep thinking, as I go through
the streets, of 'The rats and the mice, they made such a strife, he had
to go to London,' etc., and especially 'The streets were so wide, and
the lanes were so narrow;' for I never saw such narrow streets, even in
Boston.

"We have begun to send out letters, but as it is 'out of season' I am
afraid everybody will be at the watering-places.

THE GREENWICH OBSERVATORY. "The observatory was founded by Charles II.
The