ntrol the fare was very scanty and very unappetizing. As a
rule, it is plain and wholesome, with no pretense of being
_recherche_. Tea is almost always very good; coffee not on the same
level. Their tea rooms are all places designed for small, quick
meals; and are in no sense lounges.

[Illustration: TEA BALCONY IN THE HOTEL CECIL, LONDON]

Lyons have refreshment-houses of different grades. The Popular Cafe
is a cut above the tea rooms, and so are the Corner Houses. Two
years ago, the A.B.C. amalgamated with Buzard's, an old established
confectioner's in Oxford Street--a famous cake-house.

The Monico and Gatti's appeal to a quite different class from that
catered to by the tea shops, although perhaps not to what Mrs.
Boffin would call "the highfliers of fashion" who frequent the
lounges of the fashionable hotels. Gatti's original cafe was under
the arches of Charing Cross station.

[Illustration: SLATER'S, A BETTER-CLASS CHAIN SHOP, LONDON]

I may add about the Savoy that it was an outcome of the successful
Gilbert and Sullivan operas of the seventies, D'Oyly Carte having
expended some of his profits on building the hotel on a piece of
waste ground by the Savoy Theatre. He brought over M. Ritz from
Monte Carlo to manage the hotel and restaurant, and Escoffier, the
greatest chef of the day, to preside over the cuisine. They made
the Savoy famous for its dinners, and it has always maintained a
high reputation, although Escoffier, who has now retired, ruled
later at the Carlton; and Ritz, at the hotel in Piccadilly which
bears his name.

BULGARIA. In Bulgaria, Arabian-Turkish methods of making coffee prevail.
The accompanying illustration shows a group in a caravan of the faithful
on the annual pilgrimage to Mecca. The venerable Moslem, who is
ambitious of becoming a hadji, is attended by his guards, distinguished
by their fantastic dress; their glittering golden-hafted _hanjars_,
stuck in their shawl girdles; and their silver-mounted pistols; the
grave turban replaced by a many-tasseled cap. Their accommodation is the
stable of a khan, or serai, shared with their camel. Their refreshment
is coffee, thick, black and bitter, served by the khanji in tiny
egg-shaped cups.

[Illustration: ST. JAMES'S RESTAURANT, PICCADILLY, LONDON]

In DENMARK and FINLAND coffee is made and served after the Fren