He took a house in Hampshire. Why? Because he said he liked to visit his old Hants.
Sir,--I have recently seen letters and paragraphs in various newspapers instigating travellers going abroad to choose the Folkestone and Boulogne route instead of going _viâ_ Dover and Calais. I forget what particular reasons are given for advocating this substitution, nor do I care what they are or what they may be. Why? Because, first, undeniably _viâ_ Dover to Calais is the shortest route, and to those of BRITANNIAS'S sons and daughters--gallant islanders all--who detest the sea as much as does the humble individual who now addresses you, the saving of twenty minutes or half an hour, or in some instances it may be even more, of the sea-passage would be well worth any extra expense (if extra expense there be, which, an' I remember rightly, is not the case), especially when aboard such steam-vessels as are now provided; though, be the steam-vessels what they may, there is still in one and all of them that peculiar flavour and motion about which I would rather not speak, or even think, lest I should be unable to finish this important letter.
But there is yet another reason why the Dover and Calais route is the best of all ways to the Continent, and that is on account of the excellent _déjeuner_--still, as I believe, unequalled at any port or at any station in Europe--served to the many poor hungry and thirsty travellers quickly, hotly, and as comfortably as the confounded bustling circumstances of travel will permit. Why the railway company which takes us to Paris cannot give us three quarters of an hour for our very necessary toilette (after the sea passage) and our food, and then do the journey in double quick time, or in the same time as now for the matter of that (for what does it matter to the accomplished traveller who "_does_ know where he are" and where he _will_ be, and has pre-ordered everything wisely and well?), and so get up to Paris in time for a little late supper and an early bed?
For those who value their digestions, and who love good food and drink, even when they have but a short time for refreshment, there is but one route to Paris from London, and that is _viâ_ Calais, _i.e._ _viâ_ the buffet. Only, _cher messieurs les directeurs de la ligne du Nord_, cannot you possibly manage to extend our luncheon-time at Calais to just three quarters of an hour, instead of giving us only a beggarly twenty-five minutes at best, and do the thing well while you are about it? As to the Boulogne route, well, one goes to Boulogne to stay, and so the buffet, _en passant_, is of small importance.