CHAPTER IX 



Boston. No Private Lodgings. Boarding-houses. Hotels. Effects of the 

 Climate on Health. Large Fortunes. Style of Living. Servants. 

 Carriages. Education of Ladies. Marriages. Professional Incomes. 

 Protectionist Doctrines. Peculiarities of Language. Literary Tastes. 

 Cost of Living. Alarms of Fire. 



As we intended to pass nearly two months in Boston, we de 

 termined to look out for private lodgings, such as might be met 

 with in every large town in England, but which we found it 

 almost impossible to procure here. It does not answer to keep 

 houses, or even suites of apartments to let in a city where house- 

 rent is so dear, and well-trained servants so difficult to hire, even 

 at high wages. In this country, moreover, the mass of the peo 

 ple seem to set less value on the privilege of living in private than 

 we English do. Not only strangers and bachelors, but whole 

 families, reside in boarding-houses, usually kept by a widow who 

 has known better days, and is a good manager, and can teach and 

 discipline servants. 



During a former tour, we had found it irksome to submit to 

 the rules of a boarding-house for any length of time ; to take every 

 meal at a public table, where you are expected to play the agree 

 able to companions often uncongenial, and brought together on 

 no principle of selection ; to join them in the drawing-room a short 

 time before dinner ; to call on them in their rooms, and to listen 

 to gossip arid complaints about the petty quarrels which so often 

 arise among fellow-boarders, as in a ship during a long voyage. 

 The only alternative is to get private rooms in an hotel, which 

 I at length succeeded in procuring at the Tremont House, after 

 I had failed in negotiating a treaty with several landlords to 

 whom I had been recommended. One of these, after showing 

 me his apartments, and stating his terms, ended by saying, &quot;Ours 

 is a temperance house prayers orthodox.&quot; I presume that my 

 countenance betrayed the amusement which this last piece of in- 



