The National tribune., 1909-09-30

H. y
walked up past him. 1t semed a Curl
Gus combination, this dark, removed
holy room, with its ancient atmosphere,
and this product of the goth century.
1 wondered what had brought him
there.
From the Abbey I crossed over to
the Parliament building, close by, tho
l had been told / could not SEE the
House of Lords and Commons without
a permit from some member. But l
thought l would chance IL, hoping to
run into some goOd-natured official or
doorkeeper who would have pity on me
and pass me in. But that is not the way
they do business in Old England. Lovely
woman has no show whatever when
she runs up against an old, established
custom, idiotic tho that custom may
be. The redfaced, pompous door
keeper stopped me on the steps leading
to the corridor where l saw members
moving about. Cant go in there,
lady he said; its against the rules"
and / saw there was no use trying to
appeal to his better nature. The only
thing 1 was allowed to look at was the
big room on your left as you enter
called Westminster Hail." Here, on
one of the wide steps leading down to
it, Charles l stood during his memorable
trial. 1 stood on that step. The old
doorkeeper did have the grace to show
it to me, as well as a hole thru which
members used to make a short cut to
the chamber of the House, now walled
up. That is every bit 1 got out of the
Parliament buildings.
l wonder if you are bored to ex-
tnction with this interminable letter,
and if you will feel when you receive
it as / often have when the post has
brought to me some closely written,
lengthy epistle from friend across the
water making the grand tour" per-
haps, filed, l know before opening it.
with tiresome guide-booky descriptions
of this cathedral, that picture, etc. If
this be the case, just intimate the same,
and you'll get no more "sich." But since
I'm set a-going now, l shall keep on
till l get our drive to Hyde Park out of
my system.
We started about o'clock quite
grandly in d victoria and two horses,
and told the driver to take us past st.
Paups and London Bridge, also thru
the fashionable quarter of Mayfair, and
to point out the houses of the swells
Ever since / read Thackeray, in the in
nOcent days of my girlhood, have l
wanted to see Mayfair. When We got to
st. Paul's l made the driver stop while
ran in a minute. 1t is very large, not
Uttered up like the Abbey with statues,
etc, but big open space. and is in
the form of cross, and that is all I
know about st. Pauls. While on Lon
don Bridge / was inclined to pause and
muse a minute, but Elizabeth had no
sympathy whatever with the idea, and
we went on. The driver, true to his
instructions, pointed out Marlborough
House, ugly as sin and right on the
street; Dorchester House, where our
Embassador lives, very fine, brown
edifice, with fence around it and con-
siderable ground: Buck ngham Palace,
plain as pipestem except from the
side where you see the garden, etc. 1
was much surprised not to see more
handsome houses and more evidence of
wealth. Mayfair is a rather narrow
street with hardly a noticeable house.
The apartment houses looking out on
the park are attractive, with window
boxes of flowers and that sort of thing,
but if our driver really took us thru
the fashionable quarter should say
that the houses could not compare for
n moment with those in the best resi-
dental parts OF Washington, for in
stance. IN .a1
Hyde Park is beautiful, great big
park, rather difficult to describe, for
altho we entered thru a gate. you do
not seem to be in a park, but. rather,
driving along fine road with attrac-
tive things all around you. Rotten Row.
the narrow dirt road for .equestrians.
runs alongside that designed for car
riages for quite distancea The park
is the fashionable drive for the great
world of London, but unfortunately il
rained the day we were there, and we
met no one of any Importance. At
least our driver said so. There were
magnificent beds of flowers and little
woodsy bits, and lou couldn't help say
ing it was very fne, but it wasn't like
any park / was ever in before. Finally
We crossed a real street and entered
another park, l don't know what it is
called, and came to the splendid Albert
memorial erected by his beloved Vic
toria. 1t stands on a slight eminence,
with many white marble steps leading
up to ii, and the monument proper is
with statues of distinguished
men of all lands and all ages. The
view from the top is very fine. Near
the entrance gate of Hyde Park is the
famous dogs cemetery, and on our way
out we went in and looked at it for
minute. Several hundred little pets lie
buried there, each with its tiny tomb
stone marked in this fashion: ITO my
loved Fido, my faithful friend for four
years" etc. Elizabeth said we had our
dog cemeteries at home, and wasn't in
clined to waste much time on that one.
We had a splendid view of the gardens
of Buckingham Palace. as we bowled
along homeward, which are very large
and beautiful and quite redeem the
plainness, not to say ugliness, of the
front.
ain 10, 1rr ~ oil Il