London at the End of the Century:A Book of Gossip
a Beckett, Arthur William
1900
VIEWS OF LIFE FROM AN EXALTED POSITION.
I have been wise. Knowing that the Fair City is I have written for a room. I hear that | |
310 | scores and hundreds of would-be sojourners have been turned away. But to me is given a small book and a key. Then I enter the lift, and ascend to a dizzy height. For the moment I feel like when, described as the son of the saint, he was invited to But I get no further in that direction than the . Later on I suggest that something lower would suit me equally well, and I descend. Still, there are worse places in the world than a room overlooking the boulevards at the Grand Hotel. Of course it is economical, and then I fancy you can see (with the aid of a telescope) down some of the chimneys of the neighbouring houses. But this is a fancy, and nothing more. |
I am in , and everything is fresh and charming. It is Monday, and having had a good night's rest I am fit for anything. A (taken in the residential rival to the summit of the Tour Eiffel) has made us regardless of the pangs of hunger until one o'clock, so we determine to see all . How is it done? Nothing easier. Patronise the omnibuses and tramcars. All we have to do is to climb up on a vehicle labelled and you are carried to one or the other. Then get on to a coach bearing the legend and you are taken there. Lastly, you ascend a carriage inscribed and you are | |
311 | conveyed everywhere. If you wish to do the place thoroughly, seeing all the latest improvements and new buildings, you can spend hours and hours upon the omnibuses. Let them take you where they will, and supposing you have not been in for a year or two, you will find every yard of the ground interesting. |
Of course if you want to go to the Bois (which, by the way, Zola considered finer than our parks and gardens!) you can take a voiture, at 2.50 the hour; ninety minutes will be quite enough of it in the autumn, when the leaves are falling and the lakes look and cheerless. But I cannot recommend a breakfast at the either in the wood or the Champs Elysees. | |
