tics and by our republican institutions. "Who are your best people?" was a favorite and unanswerable question. It is a strange and significant fact that Americans who travel in Europe are more amazed at the other Americans they meet there than at any other people who travel. So we may well stop trying to describe ourselves to foreigners. We are too vast, too heterogeneous. Lord Houghton said, "Don't try."
One question I always asked and never got answered satisfactorily. It was: "Why did England take the side of the South?" I hoped to receive some philosophical solution of this great problem. Sir John Bowring said, "She did not." Dr. Mackay, the poet, gave me a witty answer: "Because England loves all rebels except at home!" But, with all this, they were most kindly, most hospitable; they seemed to feel, in spite of themselves, a sort of brotherhood. They take trouble for you, are delighted if you enjoy England; take pleasure in opening wide those splendid doors within whose folds are hidden so much luxury, so much comfort. The conversation at an English dinner-table, cordial, refined, often learned, never (to my hearing) commonplace; the low, deliciously musical voices of Englishwomen (would that they could be imported!); the straightforward, pleasant talk of the men — all these things go to form a society such as we cannot have in this country for many, many years to come, if ever.
This was written in 1869, after my first visit. Since then I have spent five seasons in London and have almost lived a year in England, but I do not know that I could improve upon my early recollections; at any rate, I am glad that I saw England then as I have always seen it — kind, hospitable, and most agreeable.
