The Sun.
London, England, 1853-09-09 00:00:00

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COMPARATIVE TRAVELLING-HOTEL
OVERCHARGES.

(Prom the Times. )
11 iw is it that Englishmen—with the exception
of c i is n ercial travellers—see but little of their own
country? We are the most migratory people in
Europe, and yet we are not acquainted with the
beautiful scenery and more interesting towns of
the islands in which our lot is cast. In the green
uplands and sparkling streams of Devon—in the
picturesque valleys of North and South Wales—in
the lake scenery of the North of England and the
west coast of Ireland—and, above all, in the Scot-
tish Highlands—there is surely enough to attract
the tourist ; but, for some reason or another, he
directs his wandering steps elsewhere. No doubt,
this in a certain degree depends upon that mys-
terious principle in human nature which drives
sightseers far away from their own homes for the
purpose of visiting sights which they would haie
passed over with indifference had they been
situated at their own doors. How often in the
course of his life does a Londoner visit Westminster
Abbey or St. Paul's except as escort to a country
cousin ? We fear the Parisians display the same
apathy as to the attractions of Notre Dame, and
that the Viennese do not throw away much time
upon St. Stephen's. This principle is no doubt
operative to a certain extent, but it is insufficient
to account for the fact of the reluctance of English
people to travel in their own country. There is
surely enough in the historical traditions of the
English soil, and in the absolute beauty of
its surface, to attract us in youth or in old age to
every corner of our islands. We are, in point of
fact, deterred from making the tour by the exe-
crable character of our hotels, and the extortionate
charges exacted for insufficient accommodation.
It is a somewhat startling fact, but one which is
absolutely true, that a tourist could spend a couple
of months upon the double journey between the
United States and England, visit every State of
the ,Union, from the Falls of Niagara to New
Orleans, and live in comfort during his whole trip,
for a less sum of money than it would cost him to
" aim at," we do not say to " attain," the same
amount of comfort during a two months' journey
in the British Isles. Let us presume the English
traveller during the period of his tour to visit
North and South Wales, the English Lakes, the
Scottish Highlands, and to return to his starting
point, London, through York and the Midland
Counties. He is in his own country—he has no
trouble with languge, currencies, or customs ; but
although the fare for the steamer backwards and
forwards between England and the States is 301.
either way, the whole Transatlantic trip will cost
the tourist considerably less than if he had confined
his wanderings to his own little island. As to the
amount of comfort t o be met with on either route,
it would simply be idle to institute a comparison,
so greatly is the result in favour of the more dis-
tant trip.
Now, we would say a word or two upon either
point—and, first, as to the character of hotel ac-
commodation in England. This is entirely mis-
managed from beginning to end. That which the
traveller does not want he can meet with—that
which he absolutely requires for his comfort and
refreshment is not forthcoming. There is not the
slightest occasion for red cotton velvet sofas, four-
post bedsteads with faded brocade, or piles
of use-
less furniture either in sitting-room or bed-room.
No traveller cares to see his mutton chops set be-
fore him in a dingy kind of imitation of a silver
dish. These displays are unnecessary, or simply
annoying. A traveller would rather pay for their
absence than their presence. That which is wanted,
however, is an establishment in which the passing
guest can obtain clean and wholesome food at a
moderate cost—something less than twenty times
more than he would have paid for it in his own
home. Then, again, can there be a more inconve-
nient arrangement than that which seals the
public-entry room to ladies when in the company
of father, husband, or any male relative ? Any
one who is unfortunate enough to have any
experience of English travelling must be well
aware that the presence of a lady well nigh
quadruples hotel charges. A private sitting-room
is absolutely necessary, and then the bill is calcu-
lated upon the private-room scale, with the usual
accompaniments of " wax lights," and other
abominations of the same description. In Eng-
land, in almost every case, the coffee-room is a
den partitioned off into little pens, over each of
which a gas-burner is set ablazing at night, to the
discomfiture of the dismal occupant who may be
confined within its narrow limits. Compare this
for a moment with the " public room" in the
day dinner, either in common at the table d'hBte,
or separately if desired, without the expense of
a private sitting-room. The bedrooms, too, in
the hotels on the principal continental lines are
infinitely superior to our own. In them at least
there is-air and space—no filthy carpet, reeking
with the pollution of a thousand feet, and of -wiry
a winter's soot. There is a bed without curtains
—and consequently without saved-up dirt—a
table, a sofa, a few chairs, and a little bureau,
and the usual apparatus for washing. That
is all there is, and all that is required. Even
under the head of ablutions the continental
hotels are better provided than our own. There
are either hot or cold baths in the house, or
they are to be met with at a bath establish-
ment a few minutes distant from the hotel. In
France and Germany this is invariably the case,
and how much the arrangement promotes the corn-
fort of the traveller they only can tell who, after
a hard day's travel, have not been able to procure
the refreshment and comfort of a bath. There are
hotels in England, we deny it not, where such
things are to be procured, but they must be paid
.for at a rate far beyond the means of ordinary tra-
vellers. It is simply ridiculous to point to such an
establishment as the Bedford Hotel at Brighton,
and to cite it as au example of , the comfort of
British hotels. To frequent or to use such a house
a man must either be a millionnaire or under the
reckless influence of approaching bankruptcy.
Bad as the character of English hotels must be
considered with reference to the accommodation
they afford, they appear still more discreditable
when their charges are called in question. Perhaps
the shortest manner of testing the comparative
merit of the two systems as to price will be to
reprint an extract from the letter of a correspon-
dent which appeared yestereay in our columns.
This gives the relative cost of two autumn trips
made respectively in the years 1851-52 by the
writer, in company with his wife and daughter.
The first tour extended through a portion of
Switzerland :
"1851.—Cost of railway travelling for three persons for
a period of seven weeks, through Belgium, France,
&c., with fare by diligence occasionally 1,200 f.
1,300 f.
" Cost of hotel expenses, ditto

'
c 1/ -.,
(

"Total £loo
" 1852.—Cost of railway travelling for three persona
during a period of six weeks and three days, through
the south, south-west, and west of England—by North
and South Wales towards Liverpool, through Scot-
land, and back to London, via Newcastle, Durham,
York, Leeds, Nottingham, Leicester, Leamington,
and Oxford . £lls
" Cost of hotel expenses, ditto

"I give Total
you my word of honour thartll
"was
not only Now,
13 eStitre r lodged andmfeydhmdourienf my Continental
,
much our
gfroerat3e6ro Ic. ,onbauit.
u
was,tour for 1001.
e rt,h
treatedand
r during
gith very
dersauticohn aandealcult
respect."ain may perhaps in-
dicatesufficientlytheveiling
in
theirrea so reason
own why Englishmen
are shy oft -
country.
meansAn English tourist
of moderate
Highlands, and flies tnaturally declines the Scotch
Minor.
to travel in England—that
is the simple reason why he remains ignorant
of the scenery of his
own country, although he may
have verified the statements of every one of Mr.
Hurray's handbooks in the
refers. The cost of railway travelling, although
this is far higher with us than on the continent,
and far higher than it should be, cannot account
for the result. It is at the hotels the difference is
felt—and, when we say hotels, we are not speaking
of such a den of thieves as Dover, but of the ordi-
nary English hotel. We find precisely the same
kind of result if we go into an hotel in the neigh-
bourhood of town—at Greenwich or at Richmond
—say, at the Crown and Sceptre, or at the Star
and Garter. Excellent dinners at a high rate can
no doubt be served at either of these establishments,
but let a party of three or four who require a quiet
meal think twice of the cost before they venture
in. They will find themselves mulcted in the sum
of six shillings for little more than a pint of most
indifferent wine, and other charges in proportion.
Compare this system with that of foreign restau-
rants and tables d'hote, and is it much wonder that
Englishmen avoid the hotels of their own country I

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MBEEouIdPA:NyOn A
28
lingto'n, before S. Reed, Esq., coroner, on the bodies of
of Wm. Baker and James Laverick, pitmen, who were
killed by an explosion of fire-damp in Cramlington Col-
liery, on the 12th August. The inquest had been ad-
journed to take the evidence of John Brown, a
deputy overman, who had been severely burnt by the
explosion, but is slowly recovering. The evidence went
to show that the fire had been caused by a blower which
had unexpectedly come off at " the pillars," where
the deceased had been working with naked lights. It
was stated that gas was more apt to come off the pillars,
and the inquiry turned upon whether due precaution
was used in working there with naked lights, instead of
Davy lamps.