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(5).
evenly upwards in sugar loaf style. At all seasons of the year, this garden presents a gorgeous profusion of color and with its beautifully kept grass and playing fountains it is a sight of wonderful beauty. Morton Bay and Port Jackson Figs and Bamboo do well and a start seems to have been made in Norfolk Island Pines. A surprise to me was to find Bananas flourishing. I should not think that the fruit would come to anything in this climate but the foliage is equal to anything I have seen in Fiji or Queensland. The plants which I saw hadxx been started in huge wooden tubs sunk into the earth each containing about a ton of (I presume) imported soil.
About half the Hotels in the Riviera have been closed up ever since the war started and those which remain open are, in most cases, by no means full. They are, however, magnificent Hotels as of course they would need to be to suit some of the people who visit here in the season. I was rather amused to find in a book at one of the hotels a few hints to Hotel Proprietors in the handling of British guests. As far as I can remember they were as follows:
- An Englishmen will forgive a lot if he is served with a cup of hot tea early in the morning. (Here great emphasis was laid upon the word "hotx", it being explained that more than the French "chaud" or the German "heiss" was required, in fact the water had to be poured BOILIING on to tea in a heated pot.)
- Importance ought to be attached to hot plates at meals, especially soup plates.
- For the beds the want of large blankets which tuck in round both sides of the mattress is frequently felt.
- Don't put newspapers on sticks. The Englishman likes to take his in to breakfast and read it whilst eating.
- (this is a good one) Chambermaids ought to ask the guest whether he wants his room tidied or not. In 99 cases out of 100 she will be answered "not". Nothing is more aggravating to the Englishman than to come to his room and have to hunt unknown cupboards or corners to find his slippers, to pull his bed to pieces to discover his night shirt or to have his wrappers, pieces of brown paper, string and seeming rubbish relegated to the dustbin.