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[Page 99]
spot where Charles I stood during his 7 days trial is still marked with brass plates. Then we entered the Abbey (see Guide) hoary with age & history & full of the ashes of the famous dead. As we move among their tombs we feel instinctively that we are touching all that is great in English history & the responsibility of our duty stands exemplified by the influence which the past sacrifices & memories of the dead overshadow us. Leaving here I proceed to London. The greater part of London is not London but the city of Westminster. I step in Carlton Street quite different from ours then Royal Cafe, Trocadero all of which places it is impossible to get a seat unless you have booked it in advance - a thing that revolts me for I love to wander without plan & to be committed to no set scheme of action but more like the wind where I listeth. Finally the name Elysee Cafe in 244 Coventry St catches my eye & I go in - see M. Card. It is said to be a replica of the dining saloon on the Lusitania Table 76. Luncheon 4/6 Bass 1/4 & is very nice though the Italians do not make good waiters. In the afternoon I took a bus 15 to the slum quarter of London down Aldgate, East India Dock Rd, Blackwell Tunnel, Poplar, East Barking, North Woolwich. These slums are much the same everywhere small houses but few tenement buildings these seem to exist nearer the city. Salmon Lane is a lively street & is dangerous. Chrisp St is an avenue of shops buttressed by two rows of costermonger barrows in the gutter while the crowd is thick. The way they eye me makes me verify that my pockets are buttoned especially one which has £20 in it. However I got back & had a look at Petticoat Lane about which more later. Dinner I had at Trocadero, one of Lyons places & a place so fashionable that you must order well ahead to get a place. However I found a place & had pleasure of seeing people line up in a queue among the tables waiting for a place whilst others wandered among the tables seeking a place. It was like having your meal in the streets & everyone envying you