CHAP. I.] CLIMATE, SEASONS, &C. 53 



1818. 



Jan. 15. the city greatly improved?" They 

 seem to me to confound augmenta 

 tion with improvement. It always 

 was a fine city, since I first knew it; 

 and it is very greatly augmented. 

 It has, I believe, nearly doubled its 

 extent and number of houses since 

 the year 1799. But, after being, 

 for so long a time, familiar with 

 London, every other place appears 

 little. After living within a few 

 hundreds of yards of Westminster 

 Hall and the Abbey Church and the 

 Bridge, and looking from my own 

 windows into St. James's Park, all 

 other buildings and spots appear 

 mean and insignificant. I went to 

 day to see the house I formerly oc 

 cupied. How small! [t is always 

 thus : the words large and small are 

 carried about with us in our minds, 

 and we forget real dimensions. 

 The idea, suck as it was received, 

 remains during our absence from 

 the object. When I returned to 

 England, in 1800, after an absence 

 from the country parts of it, of six 

 teen years, the trees, the hedges, 

 even the parks and woods, seemed 



