nds, there are my books, to
which I have not yet bid farewell, and there are my amusements."

But even Johnson, who is always quoted as the typical lover of London,
was not more enthusiastic in its praise than Gibbon. To him "London was
never dull, there at least he could keep the monster _Ennui_ at a
respectful distance." For him its heat was always tempered; even its
solitude was "delicious." In "the soft retirement of my _bocage de_
Bentinck Street" the dog-days pass unheeded. "Charming hot weather! I am
just going to dine alone. Afterwards I shall walk till dark in _my_
gardens at Kensington, and shall then return to a frugal supper and
early bed in Bentinck Street. I lead the life of a philosopher, without
any regard to the world or to fashion."

So much for the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries; we now return to
the nineteenth and are listening to Sydney Smith. "I look forward
anxiously to the return of the bad weather, coal fires, and good society
in a crowded city." "The country is bad enough in summer, but in winter
it is a fit residence only for beings doomed to such misery for misdeeds
in another state of existence." "You may depend upon it, all lives lived
out of London are mistakes, more or less grievous--but mistakes." "I
shall not be sorry to be in town. I am rather tired of simple pleasures,
bad reasoning, and worse cookery."

Let Lord Beaconsfield have the last word, as is his due; for truly did
he know and love his London.

"It was a mild winter evening, a little fog still hanging about, but
vanquished by the cheerful lamps, and the voice of the muffin-bell was
heard at intervals; a genial sound that calls up visions of trim and
happy hearths. If we could only so contrive our lives as to go into the
country for the first note of the nightingale, and return to town for
the first note of the muffin-bell, existence, it is humbly presumed,
might be more enjoyable."

FOOTNOTES:

[21] Lord Beaconsfield, _Tancred_.

[22] Written in May, 1910.

[23] A nickname invented by the famous Eton tutor, "Billy Johnson," for
a florid journalist.

[24] Lord Beaconsfield, _Lothair_.

[25] See M. Arnold's Letters, May 15, 1880.

[26] The Right Hon. J. W. Lowther.

[27] Sir George Trevelyan, _The Ladies in Parliament_.

VIII

HOSPITALITY

"I never eat and I never drink," said the Cardinal. "I am sorry to
say I cannot. I like dinner-society very much. You see the world,
and you