Throughout the week, the
tides will be so low as not to cover the shallow basin of this bay, if a
bay it be. The weather was sullen, with now and then a faint gleam of
sunshine, lazily tracing our shadows on the sand; the wind rather quieter
than on preceding days. . . . . In the sunshine the sands seem to be
frequented by great numbers of gulls, who begin to find the northern
climate too wintry. You see their white wings in the sunlight, but they
become almost or quite invisible in the shade. We shall soon have an
opportunity of seeing how a watering-place looks when the season is quite
over; for we have concluded to remain here till December, and everybody
else will take flight in a week or two.
A short time ago, in the evening, in a street of Liverpool, I saw a
decent man, of the lower orders, taken much aback by being roughly
brushed against by a rowdy fellow. He looked after him, and exclaimed
indignantly, "Is that a Yankee?" It shows the kind of character we have
here.
October 7th.--On Saturday evening, I gave a dinner to Bennoch, at the
Adelphi Hotel. The chief point or characteristic of English customs was,
that Mr. Radley, our landlord, himself attended at table, and officiated
as chief waiter. He has a fortune of 100,000 pounds,--half a million of
dollars,--and is an elderly man of good address and appearance. In
America, such a man would very probably be in Congress; at any rate, he
would never conceive the possibility of changing plates, or passing round
the table with hock and champagne.
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