But all these must wait until
the present preposterous price of paper has descended to more
normal levels.
I consider myself exceptionally fortunate in having lived at a
time when modern conveniences of transport were already in
existence, but had not yet produced their inevitable results. It
is quite sufficiently obvious that national customs and national
peculiarities are being smoothed out of existence by facilities of
travel. My father and mother, early in their married life, drove
from London to Naples in their own carriage, the journey occupying
over a month. They left their own front door in London, had their
carriage placed on the deck of the Channel steamer, sat in it
during the passage (what a singularly uncomfortable resting-place
it must have been should they have encountered bad weather!), and
continued their journey on the other side. During their leisurely
progress through France and Italy, they must have enjoyed
opportunities of studying the real life of these countries which
are denied the passengers in a rapide, jammed in amongst a
cosmopolitan crew in the prosaic atmosphere of dining and sleeping
cars, and scarcely bestowing a passing glance on the country
through which they are being whirled.
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