RISE OF NEW HOTELS 117 



which the coaches started, and the country through 

 which they passed. The first house which, as far 

 as I remember, laid itself out for the reception and 

 special comfort of ladies and their families was 

 Bacon's Hotel in Great Queen Street. It was 

 next door to the Freemasons' Tavern, of which 

 Mr. Thomas Bacon was then the proprietor. He 

 was a very gentlemanlike man of excellent address 

 and manners, and his wife was a charming lady, 

 well fitted to attract ladies and their families to 

 their comfortable and homely establishment. This 

 hotel was then followed by the ' Golden Cross,' 

 Charing Cross, when suddenly, as if by magic, the 

 railway companies found the paramount necessity of 

 accommodating their numerous travellers, and the 

 London and North- Western built the Euston and 

 Victoria hotels. The Midland, Great Northern, 

 the Great Western, London Bridge, Victoria, 

 and others followed suit, thus demonstrating that 

 the same necessity existed for passengers by these 

 railways as it did for the coaches, and the routes 

 through which their lines passed. About the 

 same time Morley's, in Trafalgar Square, the 

 ' Langham,' in Portland Place, and others rapidly 

 followed, so that London, which had long borne 

 the reproach of deficient hotel accommodation, 

 developed a series of inns superior to every city on 

 the Continent. The ' Inns of Court,' the ' Royal,' 

 the 'First Avenue,' the 'Grand,' the 'Victoria,' 

 the ' Metropole,' the ' Alexandra,' ' Bailey's,' whilst 

 lately the 'Savoy,' the 'Cecil,' the 'Hans Place,' 



