France -- Description and travel; France -- Social life and customs
_April 27th._--We saw the Western Exchange, which is something like
a large room full of shops; from that we went to Miss Linwood's
Exhibition. The pictures were exactly like paintings; there was a
railing before them, so that one could not see very near them; some of
the prettiest were Jephtha's Daughter, a nymph turning into a fountain,
a little girl and a kitten, some children on an ass, a girl and a bird,
a woodman and a lobster; in a smaller room were several pictures of
our Saviour, the finest was a head; there was no railing before them,
and when one looked near and could see the stitches, they looked quite
rough; we went along a passage and looked through a kind of grating
in which there was a head of Buonaparte, in another a lion's den; but
the most amusing thing was some children in a cottage; underneath a
shelf lay a little black-and-white dog, which we were afraid to go
near thinking it was alive; Catherine said she saw its eyes moving.
The streets in London were a great deal prettier than I imagined, such
numbers of shops, carriages, etc.--indeed the whole far exceeded my
expectation. There were a great many carriages in Bond Street driving
backwards and forwards.
_April 28th._--We left London about half-past nine o'clock; we passed
close by Westminster Abbey, which is prettier than St. Paul's; we had
a beautiful view of London from Westminster Bridge, where I think it
looks best, all the ships look so lively on the river, and London
appears so large. Somerset House is one side of the Thames; we had
another view after we were out of the city, where we saw London much
better than when we were coming in; we saw the Monument and the Tower
at a distance: it was delightful weather, the leaves were quite out; we
saw a great number of butterflies, one kind of a bright yellow (that
I had never seen before). The country looked very pretty, but the
cottages were not so nice as those in Hertfordshire; we had several
views of the Thames; we slept at Canterbury.
_April 29th._--We breakfasted at Dover.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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