cious of the splendid appetite a day on the
glaciers had given him than of what he is eating. Switzerland entirely
demoralises the judgment of a gourmet, for its mountain air gives it
undue advantages over most other countries, and an abundant appetite has
a way of paralysing all the finer critical faculties.

At one period all hotels in Switzerland were "run" on one simple, cheap,
easy plan. There were meals at certain hours, there was a table in the
big room for the English, another for the Germans, and another for mixed
nationalities. If any one came late for a meal, so much the worse for
him or her, for they had to begin at the course which was then going
round. If travellers appeared when dinner was half over, they had to
wait till it was quite finished; and then, as a favour, the
_maitre-d'hotel_ would instruct a waiter to ask the cook to send the
late comers in something to eat, which was generally some of the relics
of the just-completed feast, the odours of which still hung about the
great empty dining-hall.

I fancy that it is a matter of history that M. Ritz, who has since
become the Napoleon of hotels, coming as manager to the National at
Lucerne and finding this system in practice, put an end to it at once
and started the restaurant there, which was and is quite first class.
Whether some one else was making history at the Schweitzerhof at the
same time in the same way I do not know, but the two hotels have run
neck and neck in the excellence of their restaurants, and not only are
they first rate, but, as is always the case, the average of the cooking
at the other hotels has gone up in sympathy, as the doctors would say,
with the two leading caravanserais, and one usually finds that any one
who has stayed at Lucerne has a good word to say for his hotel. I was
once at Lucerne during race week, and was doubtful whether I should find
a room vacant at either of the hotels I usually stay at. A charming old
priest, who was a fellow-voyager, suggested to me that I should come to
a little hotel hard by the river; and there, though the room I was given
was of the very old continental pattern, the dinner my friend ordered
for himself and me was quite excellent. I have breakfasted at the buffet
at the station and found it very clean, and the simple food was well
cooked. There is a restaurant at the Kursaal, but I have never had
occasion to breakfast or dine there.

In Northern Switzerland some of the towns have resta