U---- has been ill, in consequence of having been overheated at
Newby Bridge. We have no books, except guide-books, no means of
amusement, nothing to do. There are no newspapers, and I shall remember
Lowwood not very agreeably. As far as we are concerned, it is a
scrambling, ill-ordered hotel, with insufficient attendance, wretched
sleeping-accommodations, a pretty fair table, but German-silver forks
and spoons; our food does not taste very good, and yet there is really no
definite fault to be found with it.
Since writing the above, I have found the first volume of Sir Charles
Grandison, and two of G. P. R. James's works, in the coffee-room. The
days pass heavily here, and leave behind them a sense of having answered
no very good purpose. They are long enough, at all events, for the sun
does not set till after eight o'clock, and rises I know not when. One of
the most remarkable distinctions between England and the United States is
the ignorance into which we fall of whatever is going on in the world the
moment we get away from the great thoroughfares and centres of life. In
Leamington we heard no news from week's end to week's end, and knew not
where to find a newspaper; and here the case is neither better nor worse.
The rural people really seem to take no interest in public affairs; at
all events, they have no intelligence on such subjects. It is possible
that the cheap newspapers may, in time, find their way into the cottages,
or, at least, into the country taverns; but it is not at all so now.
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