 | Lady Layard’s Journal Go to a Date Search the Journal |
|
Previous Entry
|
Following Entry
| |
23 September 1901 — Dolobran, Haverford, Pennsylvania | |
Monday. 23rd September [1901]. Juan & I left Dolobran by an early train & went to Philadelphia & took the train for Washington. Mr Griscom’s man met us at the Phila: station & handed us free tickets. We had hardly got settled in our parlour car seats & paid the extra dollar a piece which is the fare for a seat in it before Juan discovered a compatriot also going to Washington for the day—the Duke de Montillana, son of the Duke of Fernan Nuñez. I had known his parents well & himself when he was a boy. He came & joined our party & lunched with us & made himself very agreeable & as he was travelling alone, with the exception of his servant he was delighted to have met us. His servant is a solemn looking Spaniard not knowing a word of English so that we cannot see of what advantage he was to his master on such a journey, but it appears that the Duke who is now a man over 40 is helpless when entirely alone & prefers to take even his servant with him. On arriving at Washington we went to the Hotel Shoreham & secured 2 rooms & then got into a trolly & went round the town to the Free Library. The town is gay, clean & shady with numerous avenues. The public buildings are fine and the streets laid out symmetrically all converging to the Capitol a fine mass of building on an eminence. The Library is striking outside & in & inside is lined everywhere with handsome marbles. The Chief Librarian being absent, another gentleman in office kindly showed us over the establishment. We saw the clever mechanisms wh are used to distribute a book asked for at the center bureau. We saw the way the books are stored, the prints & how they are exhibiting, the binding, printing, cataloging &c. All is done most perfectly & is very marvellous. We thanked our kind guide & then went on to the Capital. The interior disappointed me– The halls did not impress me. From there we mounted a trolly & went round the town to see the residential part where there are many fine mansions & at last abt 6 we went to the Shoreham & I rested while Juan took the Duke to the station & put him in the train which was to take him back to N. York. At 7.30 Juan & I dined in the hotel restaurant & then I went early to bed. This being still the hot season, & it is much hotter here now than at Phila: This town is deserted & there is nothing going on except that the “Schley” enquiry is taking place & the Courts have just begun to sit so that people at the Restaurant were talking about it. | |
|
Previous Entry
|
Following Entry
| |