Charing Cross

She then expressed great pleasure at the account I gave her of the beau monde.

She said she had herself removed the hundreds of Drury to the hundreds of Charing Cross, and was very much delighted to find they had spread into St. James's.

That she imputed this chiefly to several of her dear and worthy friends, who had lately published their excellent works, endeavouring to extirpate all notions of religion and virtue, and particularly to the deserving author of the Bachelor's Estimate.

To whom, said she, if I had not reason to think he was a surgeon, and had therefore written from mercenary views, I could never sufficiently own my obligations.

Passing northward, one observes Westminster Bridge, notable as a principal station of the Underground Railway.

This station and the one next above it, the Charing Cross one, are connected by a wide thoroughfare called Whitehall.

One of the best American drugstores is here situated.

the upper end of whitehall opens into the majestic and spacious trafalgar square here are grouped in imposing proximity the offices of the canadian pacific and other railways the international sleeping car company the montreal star and the anglo-dutch bank two of the best american barber shops are conveniently grouped near the square while the existence of a tall stone monument in the middle of the square itself enables the american visitor to find them without difficulty passing eastwards towards the heart of the city one notes on the left hand the imposing pile of st paul's an enormous church with a round dome on the top suggesting strongly the first church of christ scientist on euclid avenue cleveland but the english churches not being labelled the visitor is often at a loss to distinguish them a little further on one finds oneself in the heart of financial london here all the great financial institutions of america the first national bank of milwaukee the planters national bank of st louis the montana farmers trust company and many others have either their offices or their agents the bank of england which acts as the london agent of the montana farmers trust company and the london county bank which represents the people's deposit company of yonkers new york are said to be in the neighborhood this particular part of london is connected with the existence of that strange and mysterious thing called the city i am still unable to decide whether the city is a person or a place or a thing but as a form of being i give it credit for being the most emotional the most volatile the most peculiar creature in the world you read in the morning paper that the city is deeply depressed at noon it is reported that the city is buoyant and by four o'clock that the city is wildly excited i have tried in vain to find the causes of these peculiar changes of feeling the ostensible reasons as given in the newspaper are so trivial as to be hardly worthy of belief for example here is the kind of news that comes out from the city the news that a modus vivendi has been signed between the sultan of kofat and the shriek ul islam has caused a sudden buoyancy in the city steel rails which had been depressed all morning reacted immediately while american mules rose up sharply to par m poncar speaking at bordeaux said that henceforth france must seek to retain by all possible means the ping-pong championship of the world values in the city collapsed at once and despatches from bombay say that the shah of persia yesterday handed a golden slipper to the grand vizier feebly pasha as a sign that he must go and chase himself the news was at once followed by a drop in oil and a rapid attempt to liquidate everything that is fluid the but these mysteries of the city i do not pretend to explain i have passed through the place dozens of times and never noticed anything particular in the way of depression or buoyancy or falling oil or rising rails but no doubt it is there a little beyond the city and further down the river the visitor finds this district of london terminating in the gloomy and forbidding tower the principal penitentiary of the city here queen victoria was imprisoned for many years excellent gasoline can be had at the american garage immediately north of the tower where motor repairs of all kinds are also carried on these however are but the superficial pictures of london gathered by the eye of the tourist a far deeper meaning is found in the examination of the great historic monuments of the city the principal ones are those of the tower of london just mentioned the british museum and westminster abbey no visitor to london should fail to see these indeed he ought to feel that his visit to england is wasted unless he has seen them i speak strongly on the point because i feel strongly on it to my mind there is something about the grim fascination of the historic tower the cloistered quiet of the museum and the majesty of the ancient abbey which will make it the regret of my life that i didn't see any one of the three i fully meant to but i failed and i can only hope that the circumstances of my failure may be helpful to other visitors the tower of london i most certainly intended to inspect each day after the fashion of every tourist i wrote for myself a little list of things to do and i always put the tower of london on it no doubt the reader knows the kind of little list that i mean it runs one go to bank two buy a shirt three national picture gallery four razor blades five tower of london six soap this itinerary i regret to say was never carried out in full i was able at times both to go to the bank and buy a shirt in a single morning at other times i was able to buy razor blades and almost to find the national picture gallery meantime i was urged on all sides by my london acquaintances not to fail to see the tower there's a grim fascination about the place they said you mustn't miss it i am quite certain that in due course of time i should have made my way to the tower but for the fact that i made a fatal discovery i found out that the london people who urged me to go and see the tower had never seen it themselves it appears they never go near it one night at a dinner a man next to me said have you seen the tower you really ought to there's a grim fascination about it i looked him in the face have you seen it yourself i asked oh yes he answered i've seen it "'When?' I asked.

Certain manuscripts which his revered friend had left he edited with piety and adorned with prefaces in which discretion tempered enthusiasm.

To be sure, a sullen gentleman residing in the neighborhood of Charing Cross declared these prefaces to be the Apostle's Creed without the mysteries, but this ill-natured boutade was drowned in the acclamations of the polite.

For these last, in fact, Tommy grew rapidly into a personage.

He passed for one of your wits, a right jocose character.

Meanwhile, in his name all steps were being taken to ensure a quiet accession, and the hopes and fears which the anticipation of the Queen's death had excited were alike calmed.

A Jacobite bishop offered in his lawn sleeves to proclaim King James III at Charing Cross, and when his friends refused to act with him declared that the finest possible opportunity had been lost for want of spirit.

George I, whom circumstances and the act of settlement had thus called to be King of Great Britain and Ireland, had been a sovereign prince for sixteen years, during which time he had been Elector of Brunswick-Lüneburg.

He was the second who ever bore that title.

Always ready for controversy, he was too much of a partisan, too much of a politician, to be a good bishop.

Had he not been in orders his talents would have brought him to the front rank of statesmen, but he would have been more distinguished for his zeal and courage than for his wisdom.

Adderbury was the bishop who on the death of Queen Anne offered, if he could procure a sufficient guard, himself in his lawn sleeves at Charing Cross to proclaim her brother as king.

When the ministers, though friendly, declined his offer, he is reported to have exclaimed with an unepiscopal oath that the finest cause in Europe had been lost through want of spirit.

I feel as though I died and went to... went to...

That nightclub in Charing Cross.

God, what is it called?

There are stories about you.

"Otherwise, do you suppose they would have been here? They were far too clever.

They telegraphed after lunch, giving the train by which they were to arrive, but no address save Charing Cross.

I thought of moving up to the Berkeley Square house, but it was impossible in the time.

Also, I didn't know how to catch you.