Young Americans Abroad | Page 9

left is the Bank of England. All these are very
noble-looking buildings, and you will hear about them from us as we
examine them in our future walks. We went to the counting-house of
Messrs. Baring & Co., the great merchants and bankers for so many
Americans, and there we found our letters and got some money. Mr.
Sturgis, one of the partners, told us to take the check to the bank, No.
68 Lombard Street, and informed us that was the very house where the
great merchant of Queen Elizabeth's time--Sir Thomas Gresham--used
to live. He built the first London Exchange, and his sign, a large
grasshopper, is still preserved at the bank. On Good Friday we had

bunns for breakfast, with a cross upon them, and they were sold
through the streets by children, crying "One a penny, two a penny, hot
cross bunns." We took a carriage and rode to Camden town to visit a
friend; thence we took the cars, to Hackney, and called on the Rev. Dr.
Cox, who some fifteen years ago made the tour of the United States,
and wrote a volume on our country. We then returned to London, and
took our dinner at the London Coffee House, Ludgate Hill. This has
been a very celebrated house for one hundred years, and figures largely
in the books of travellers fifty years ago. It has a high reputation still,
and every thing was excellent, and the waiting good. You cannot walk
about London without observing how few boys of our age are to be
seen in the streets, and when we asked the reason, we were told that
nearly all the lads of respectable families were sent to boarding schools,
and the vacations only occur at June and December; then the boys
return home, and the city swarms with them at all the places of
amusement. We seemed to be objects of attention, because we wore
caps; (here boys all wear hats;) and then our gilt buttons on blue jackets
led many to suppose that we were midshipmen. The omnibuses are
very numerous, and each one has a conductor, who stands on a high
step on the left side of the door, watching the sidewalks and crying out
the destination of the "bus," as the vehicle is called. There is a continual
cry, "Bank, bank," "Cross, cross," "City, city," &c. I must not forget to
tell you one thing; and that is, London is the place to make a
sight-seeing boy very tired, and I am quite sure that, in ten minutes, I
shall be unable to do what I can now very heartily, viz., assure you that
I am yours, affectionately,
GEORGE.

Letter 5.
LONDON.
DEAR CHARLEY:--

After passing a day or two in a general view of the city, and making
some preliminary arrangements for our future movements, we all called
upon Mr. Lawrence, the minister of our country at the court of St.
James, which expression refers to the appellation of the old palace of
George III. Mr. Lawrence resides in Piccadilly, opposite the St. James's
Park, in a very splendid mansion, which he rents from an English
nobleman, all furnished. We were very kindly received by his
excellency, who expressed much pleasure at seeing his young
countrymen coming abroad, and said he was fond of boys, and liked
them as travelling companions. I handed him a letter of introduction
from his brother. Mr. Lawrence offered us all the facilities in his power
to see the sights, and these are great, for he is furnished by the
government of England with orders which will admit parties to almost
every thing in and about London. Amongst other tickets he gave us the
following admissions: to the Queen's stables, Windsor Castle, Dulwich
Gallery, Woolwich Arsenal, Navy Yard, Sion House, Northumberland
House, Houses of Parliament, and, what we highly valued, an
admission to enter the exhibition, which is yet unfinished, and not open
to inspection.
After leaving the minister, we paid our respects to Mr. Davis, the
secretary of legation, and were kindly received. We walked on from
Piccadilly to the Crystal Palace, passing Apsley House, the residence of
the Duke of Wellington, and soon reached Hyde Park, with its famous
gateway and the far-famed statue of "the duke." As we shall go into
some detailed account of the palace after the exhibition opens, I would
only say, that we were exceedingly surprised and delighted with the
building itself, and were so taken up with that as hardly to look at its
contents, which were now rapidly getting into order. The effect of the
noble elms which are covered up in the palace is very striking and
pleasing, and very naturally suggests the idea that the house would, by
and by, make a glorious