The story of my life ; or, The sunshine and shadow of seventy years / by Mary A. Livermore ... with hitherto unrecorded incidents and recollections of three years' experience as an army nurse in the great Civil War, and reminiscences of twenty-five years' experiences on the lecture platform ... to which is added six of her most popular lectures ... with portraits and one hundred and twenty engravings from designs by eminent artists ...

LONDON THE GREAT WORLD CENTER. 5

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four quarters of the globe - north, south, east, and west.
A dozen magrnificent bridges span it, and on either side sits
London, as unchangeable and unalterable as her historic
tower, or her venerable Abbey.
One cannot in a year familiarize himself with the scenes
and localities of London, immortalized by history, romance,
and poetry, or become acquainted with the geography of its
highways and byways, as they were in the historic past,
and as they are to-day. So much is London a great world
center, a vast storehouse of universal knowledge, that one
can learn more in that metropolis, at the proper headquarters, concerning the political, industrial, and social status of
countries like China and India, than by traveling through
them with intelligent guides. Their history, geography,
climatic conditions, the peculiarities of their people, with all
other desired information, can be acquired from the same
sources. The same is true of the ancient and dead cities of
the past.
If one may choose the time for visiting England, let it
be early in the month of May, the very first, if possible.
Then with a season that is from four to six weeks in
advance of our climate, one can comprehend and appreciate
"11the dance around the May pole," the "1crowning of the
May queen," and the Maying parties of which Tennyson
and other authors have so often sung. Then is the air of
England soft and balmy; everywhere flowers are in bloom,
and the earth is covered with a carpet of green velvet.
There is a charm about travel in England that is found
nowhere else in the world. The absolute finish and perfection of everything is mellowed and beautified by time.