Travels in England in 1782 | Page 6

and other public places in London; this arises, perhaps,
from their having been oftener mentioned in romances and other books
than ours have. Even the squares and streets of London are more noted
and better known than many of our principal towns.
But what again greatly compensates for the mediocrity of this park, is
the astonishing number of people who, towards evening in fine weather,
resort here; our finest walks are never so full even in the midst of
summer. The exquisite pleasure of mixing freely with such a concourse
of people, who are for the most part well-dressed and handsome, I have
experienced this evening for the first time.
Before I went to the park I took another walk with my little Jacky,
which did not cost me much fatigue and yet was most uncommonly
interesting. I went down the little street in which I live, to the Thames
nearly at the end of it, towards the left, a few steps led me to a
singularly pretty terrace, planted with trees, on the very brink of the
river.
Here I had the most delightful prospect you can possibly imagine.
Before me was the Thames with all its windings, and the stately arches
of its bridges; Westminster with its venerable abbey to the right, to the
left again London, with St. Paul's, seemed to wind all along the
windings of the Thames, and on the other side of the water lay
Southwark, which is now also considered as part of London. Thus,

from this single spot, I could nearly at one view see the whole city, at
least that side of it towards the Thames. Not far from hence, in this
charming quarter of the town, lived the renowned Garrick. Depend
upon it I shall often visit this delightful walk during my stay in London.
To-day my two Englishmen carried me to a neighbouring tavern, or
rather an eating-house, where we paid a shilling each for some roast
meat and a salad, giving at the same time nearly half as much to the
waiter, and yet this is reckoned a cheap house, and a cheap style of
living. But I believe, for the future, I shall pretty often dine at home; I
have already begun this evening with my supper. I am now sitting by
the fire in my own room in London. The day is nearly at an end, the
first I have spent in England, and I hardly know whether I ought to call
it only one day, when I reflect what a quick and varied succession of
new and striking ideas have, in so short a time, passed in my mind.

CHAPTER III
.

London, 5th June.
At length, dearest Gedike, I am again settled, as I have now got my
trunk and all my things from the ship, which arrived only yesterday.
Not wishing to have it taken to the Custom House, which occasions a
great deal of trouble, I was obliged to give a douceur to the officers,
and those who came on board the ship to search it. Having pacified, as I
thought, one of them with a couple of shillings, another came forward
and protested against the delivery of the trunk upon trust till I had given
him as much. To him succeeded a third, so that it cost me six shillings,
which I willingly paid, because it would have cost me still more at the
Custom House.
By the side of the Thames were several porters, one of whom took my
huge heavy trunk on his shoulders with astonishing ease, and carried it
till I met a hackney coach. This I hired for two shillings, immediately
put the trunk into it, accompanying it myself without paying anything
extra for my own seat. This is a great advantage in the English hackney
coaches, that you are allowed to take with you whatever you please, for
you thus save at least one half of what you must pay to a porter, and

besides go with it yourself, and are better accommodated. The
observations and the expressions of the common people here have often
struck me as peculiar. They are generally laconic, but always much in
earnest and significant. When I came home, my landlady kindly
recommended it to the coachman not to ask more than was just, as I
was a foreigner; to which he answered, "Nay, if he were not a foreigner
I should not overcharge him."
My letters of recommendation to a merchant here, which I could not
bring with me on account of my hasty departure from Hamburgh, are
also arrived. These have saved me a great deal of trouble in the
changing of my money. I can now take my German money back to
Germany, and when I return thither