166 AN OCTOBER ABROAD. 



are called roads, as King's Eoad, City Eoad, Edge- 

 ware Road, Tottenham Court Road, etc., with innu- 

 merable lesser roads. Then there are lanes and walks, 

 and such rural names among the streets as Long 

 Acre, Snowhill, Poultry, Bush-lane, Hill-road, Houns- 

 ditch, etc., and not one grand street or imperial 

 avenue. 



My visit fell at a most favorable juncture as to 

 weather, there being but few rainy days and but little 

 fog. I had imagined that they had barely enough fair 

 weather in London, at any season, to keep alive the 

 tradition of sunshine and of blue sky, but the October 

 days I spent there were not so very far behind what 

 we have at home at this season. London often puts 

 on a night-cap of smoke and fog, which it pulls down 

 over its ears pretty close at times, and the sun has a 

 habit of lying abed very late in the morning, which 

 all the people imitate ; but I remember some very 

 pleasant weather there, and some bright moonlight 

 nights. 



I saw but one full-blown characteristic London fog. 

 I was in the National Gallery one day, trying to make 

 up my mind about Turner, when this chimney-pot 

 meteor came down. It was like a great yellow dog 

 taking possession of the world. The light faded from 

 the room, the pictures ran together in confused masses 

 of shadow on the walls, and in the street only a dim 

 yellowish twilight prevailed, through which faintly 

 twinkled the lights in the shop windows. Vehicles 

 came slowly out of the dirty obscurity on one side and 



