LONDON, _August 12, 1863_.
DEAR FRIEND: I thank you for your letter, which I was expecting
impatiently. I thought I should find London empty, and, indeed, that was
the first impression which I received. But after two days I perceived
that the great ant-hill was still inhabited, and especially, alas! that
they ate as much and as long as they did last year. Is not the slowness
with which people dine in this country inhuman? It even takes away my
appetite. One is never less than two hours and a half at table, and if
we add the half hour in which the men leave the women to speak ill of
them, it is always eleven o’clock when we return to the drawing-room. It
would be only half bad if we were eating all the time; but with the
exception of roast mutton, I find nothing to my taste.
The great men seem to me to have aged a little since my last visit. Lord
Palmerston has renounced his false teeth, which make an immense change
in his appearance. He has retained his whiskers, and looks like a
gorilla that is slightly tipsy. Lord Russell has a less good-humoured
expression than formerly. The great beauties of the season have
departed, but they were not praised as anything extraordinary. The
toilets seem to me, as usual, very common and shabby; but nothing can
resist the air of this country. My throat is an evidence of it. I am as
hoarse as a wolf, and breathe very badly.
I fancy that you must be having cooler weather than we, and that the
sea-baths will give you an appetite. I am beginning to be bored with
London and the English, and shall be in Paris before the 25th. And you?
I have read a rather amusing book, _The History of George III_, by a
Mr. Phillimore, who makes out this prince to be a rascal and a fool. It
is very witty, and convincing enough. I paid twenty francs for the last
work of Borrow, _The Wild Wales_. If you want to pay fifteen francs for
it, I shall be charmed to turn it over to you. But you will not want it
at any price. The fellow has altogether deteriorated. Good-bye, dear
friend.