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 ...

ENGLISH SOCIAL LIFE.

559

sobriety. Is there not a tendency in our own country to
this condition of things?
We chose as our abiding place in London the Inns of
Court Hotel, in High Holborn. Unpretentious in its external appearance, one does not imagine it can be a comfortable hotel, for, outwardly, it is devoid of what we regard as
attractive hotel features. To reach our apartments, we
passed through the main building on High Holborn, crossed
the street by a covered gallery to the "Annex," which was
new, handsome, and convenient, and then walked through
that to a second street. Here were our rooms, large, airy,
light, and well-furnished, and fronting on the street. ~ They
looked out upon a beautiful park, where flowers were in
blossom, fountains playing, and birds singing in the leafy
shades of the fine old trees. Here we found genuine comfort and quiet, undisturbed by the noise and dust of the
streets, and a home feeling settled upon us, when we
returned to them fatigued with sight-seeing. It seemed as
if we were located in our charming quarters for life.
As soon as we presented our letters of introduction, we
began to learn something of the hospitable nature of our
English cousins, and to get glimpses of English social life.
Men and women with whom we had corresponded for
years, but who were somewhat mythical to our imagination, we now met face to face, and found them as interesting in conversation, as they were entertaining in
correspondence. Before we could accept the numerous
invitations of our friends, it was necessary for us to go
"1shopping," and to consult tailors and dressmakers. For
our wardrobes had been prepared for travel, sight-seeing,
and hotel life, and not for social functions.
Our first visit was to the house of Mrs. Petet Alfred
Taylor, whose husband was a member of Parliament, a lib