n. But as I can not find that either
mentions the name "Rossetti," I am going to set down (not in malice) the
places in London that are closely connected with the Rossetti family,
nothing extenuating.
London is the finest city in the world for the tourist who desires liberty
as wide as the wind, and who wishes to live cheaply and live well. In New
York, if you want lodgings at a moderate price, you must throttle your
pride and forsake respectability; but they do things different in Lunnon,
you know. From Gray's Inn Road to Portland Place, and from Oxford Street
to Euston Road, there is just about a square mile--a section, as they say
out West--of lodging-houses. Once this part of London was given up to the
homes of the great and purse-proud and all that. It is respectable yet,
and if you are going to be in London a week you can get a good room in one
of these old-time mansions, and pay no more for it than you would pay for
a room in an American hotel for one day. And as for meals, your landlady
will get you anything you want and serve it for you in the daintiest
style, and you will also find that a shilling and a little courtesy will
go a very long way in securing creature comforts. American women in London
can live in this way just as well as men. If you are a schoolma'am from
Peoria, taking your vacation, follow my advice and make your home in the
"Bedford District," within easy reach of Stopford Brooke's chapel, and
your London visit will stand out forever as a bright oasis in memory's
desert waste. All of which I put in here because Larry Hutton forgot to
mention it and Mein Herr Baedeker didn't think it worth while.
When in London I usually get a room near the British Museum for ten
shillings a week; and when I want to go anywhere I walk up to the Gower
Street Station, past the house where the mother of Charles Dickens had her
Young Ladies' Establishment, and buying a ticket at the "Booking-Office"
am duly set down near the desired objective point. You can go anywhere by
the "Metropolitan," or if you prefer to take Mr. Gladstone's advice, you
climb to the top of an Oxford Street bus, and if you sit next the driver
you have a directory, guide and familiar friend all at your service.
Charlotte Street is a narrow little passage running just two squares,
parallel with Portland Place. The houses are built in blocks of five (or
more), of the plainest of plain bricks. The location is not far from the
Gower Street Stat
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