, 1880-09-13
English Notes.


fcers and handsome buildings is pleas
ant and gives the traveller an agreeable
impression of the country.
it is attractive; much more SO, to me,
than London. The streets are wide
and clean, and the cdifices massive and
architecturally beautiful. The hotels.
as rule, are richly fitted, the furniture
costly and elaborate, and so far as un-
iqueness and individuality in embel-
! lishment go, are rather ahead of ours.
If the house alone could receive its
guests and entertain them, no one
could have cause for complaint, but it
is necessary to introduce English man
agement and English ideas, both of
/ which come into opposition to Amer
! lean notions.
The ordinary comforts of life, such
as are found in American hotels, are
lacking in the English or are exceed
ingly costly. A room for two on the
fourth floor of frst-class hotel, such
as the Adelphi or North Western, at
Liverpool, costs five sIiillings per day,
equal in our money to one dollar and
twenty-five cents, and on the lower
floors this figure, of course, increases.
This amount entities one merely to the
use of the room and bel and two can
dies. When ones bill is presented he
finds one shilling six pence daily for
each person charged for attendance,
consisting in bringing pitcher of wa
ter to the room each night and empty
ing it when making the bed next morn
ing. This aggregates eight shillings,
or two dollars per day for lodging only
ON the fourth floor. No hotel in Liv-
erpool has gas in the rooms, and but
two in London; not even a lamp can be
had, but one must be content with n
candle giving light the Egyptians and
Greeks disdained two thousand years
ago. The elevators which they ele-
gantly call g lifts'') have no one regu
larly employed to run them, but are
manipulated by the various porters,
and one must be hun d up before the
elevator Can be utilized. They will
not ascend for the purpose OF bringing
people downsbut merely carry them
up. No bells are at the various floors
to call them aud such thing as run
ming up and down continually for pas
sengers is unheard of.
The hotels have restaurant attached
and regular scale of prices. A plain
/ breakfast, las they call it, which con-
sists of a cup of coffee and two pieces
of bread that are actually harder than
the much -maligred "hard tack" Of
war times, costs two shillings and six
pence for one. If an egg is ordered
the charge is three shillings. That is
sixty three cents for coffee and bread,
superior to which Delmonico would
give for twenty five cents, and an egg
| added for seventy-tve cents in all, for
which one codld get from Dieter an en-
tire dinner better cooked and served.
The drinking water has no ice, and is
ct least tepid and generally warm.
Sore hotels have gone so far as to
adopt system Of shrewd swindling in
forcing guests to become boarders at
these excessive prices. They have, for
instance, notice, always in small type
and at the least conspicuous part OF
their regulations, that all persons hir-
ing rooms and not taking meals in the
house are to be charged fifty per cent
additional for lodging. This scheme
was originated by the Midland Grand
Hotel, at London.
The plan Of paying for attendance is,
we should suppose, more disgraceful
to the proprietor than unpleasant to
the visitor. He who hires the room
looks merely to the aggregate when
making settlement, without caring
whether it is charged to attendance or
taxes or what not. But with the land
lord it is as if he expected his boarder
not only to give the understood profit
for his accommodations, but pay in ad-
dition part of the expenses actually
necessary to carry on the business. 1t
would be no more out of place for the
hotel-keeper to require each person to
pay, in addition to the rates charged in
America, portion of the rent, or the
fire insurance on the building, or the
cooks wages, or his wifes mothers
funeral expenses, or something else
equally foreign to the situation. 1t is
merely a species of beggary less excus.
able than at the street corners, and Of
which an American hotel man would
be ashamed.
The omnibus, or the tramway car is
vastly superior to ours It is commo
dious and easy. One can stand without
fear of having his hat knocked over his
eyes, and can sit down without fear of
being jolted to pieces. The seats on
top are accessible by flight of steps,
which are handy for gentlemen, but
not so convenient for ladies as those
found in Paris. The horses are in ex-
cellent condition. fat and healthy. Are
we'll treated, apparently. and not over
strained. Even the hacks and cabs
have fine animals, AID no such miser-
able creatures are seen as we have in
America. The stages and cars have
three and four horses, and they drag
but forty to fifty persons at time, a
vast difference from the Third Avenue
line. when almost q hundred paSsengars