ENGLISH CHARACTERISTICS, 



181 



equal than in this country, and is less subject to insult 

 and to leering, brutal comment there than here. We 

 are her slave or her tyrant ; so seldom her brother and 

 friend. I thought it a significant fact that I found no 

 place of amusement set apart for the men ; where one 

 sex went the other went ; what was sauce for the gan- 

 der was sauce for the goose ; and the spirit that pre- 

 vailed was soft and human accordingly. The hotels 

 had no Ci ladies' entrance/' but all passed in and out the 

 same door, and met and mingled commonly in the same 

 room, and the place was as much for one as for the 

 other. It was no more a masculine monopoly than it 

 was a feminine. Indeed, in the country towns and vil- 

 lages the character of the inns is unmistakably given 

 by woman ; hence the sweet, domestic atmosphere that 

 pervades and fills them is balm to the spirit. Even the 

 larger hotels of Liverpool and London have a private, 

 cosy home character that is most delightful. On enter- 

 ing them, instead of finding yourself in a sort of pub- 

 lic throughfare or political caucus, amid crowds of men 

 talking, and smoking, and spitting, with stalls on either 

 side, where cigars and tobacco, and books and papers 

 are sold, you perceive you. are in something like a 

 larger hall of a private house, with perhaps a parlor 

 and coffee-room on one side, and the office, and smok- 

 ing-room, and stairway, on the other. You may leave 

 your coat and hat on the rack in the hall, and stand 

 your umbrella there also, with full assurance that you 

 will find them there when you want them, if it be the 



