me the heartiest welcome that I have received since I have been in England.  He has altered somewhat since he was in New York; is grown a little stouter, and a very little graver, but is just the same frank, simple fellow as when you saw him.  About seven o’clock I was asked if I would like to go up to my room.  He went with me,—­an attention which I found general; and “directly he had left me,” according to the phrase here, a very fine-mannered person, in a dress coat and a white tie, appeared, and asked me for my keys.

I apprehended the situation at once, and submitted to his ministrations.  He did everything for me except actually to wash my face and hands and put on my clothes.  He laid everything that I could need, opened and laid out my dressing-case, and actually turned my stocking’s.  Dinner at eight.  I take in Lady ——.  Butler, a very solemn personage, but not stout nor red-faced.  I have seen no stout, red-faced butler since I have been in England.  Dining room large and handsome.  Some good portraits.  Gas in globes at the walls; candles on the table.  Dinner very good, of course.  Menu written in pencil on a porcelain card, with the formula in gilt and a coronet.  Indeed, the very cans that came up to my bedroom with hot water were marked with coronet and cipher.  I was inclined to scoff at this, at first, as ostentatious; but after all, as the things were to be marked, how could it be done better?

After dinner, a very pleasant chat in the drawing-room until about eleven o’clock, when Lord ——­ sent Lady ——­ to bed.  She shakes hands on bidding me good-night, and asks if half-past nine o’clock is too early for breakfast for me.  I was tempted to say that it was, and to ask if it couldn’t be postponed till ten; but I didn’t.  The drawing-room, by the way, altho it was handsome and cheerful, was far inferior in its show to a thousand that might be found in New York, many of which, too, are quite equal to it in comfort and in tasteful adornment.  Lord ——­ and I sit up awhile and chat about old times and the shooting on Long Island, and when I go to my room I find that, altho I am to stay but two days, my trunk has been unpacked and all my clothes put into the wardrobe and the drawers, and most carefully arranged, as if I were going to stay a month.  My morning dress has been taken away.

In the morning the same servant comes, opens my window, draws my bed curtain, prepares my bath, turns my stockings, and in fact does everything but actually bathe and dress me, and all with a very pleasant and cheerful attentiveness.  At a quarter past nine the gong rings for prayers.  These are generally read by the master of the household in the dining-room, with the breakfast table laid; but here in a morning-room.  After breakfast you are left very much to yourself.  Business and household affairs are looked after by your host and hostess; and you go where you please and do what you like.