COMFORT IN TRAVEL
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—Even at this distance of time and space I should like to comment upon the letter from the editor -of the Wall Street Journal on accommodation in English hotels. America leads the world in bathroom provision, and having on my travels tasted the comfort of a bed and bathroom suite, I am not going to pretend that such luxuries are not agreeable.
I suggest, however, that their importance can be exaggerated, and that possibly some of our American friends are in this respect (as perhaps in others) in danger of mistaking comfort for civilization. Babbitt had an excellent bathroom. It seems to me, and I think to other Colonials, that this insistence on a bathroom for every bedroom, or thereabouts, is a mani- festation of a standard of living which American wealth threatens to force on other countries.
We fear either that our poor pockets will suffer, for obviously such luxuries have to be paid for, or that we shall be prevented from travelling. Moreover, there is a danger that the sense of wonder, without which travel is a dead thing, will be weakened. Is it going to be contended that Americans should visit only those places of romantic, historic, and aesthetic interest where there are hotels on the American model ? Surely the delights of travel are worth some sacrifice, and 'the traveller has really no right to demand much more comfort and luxury than he enjoys in his own home. In how many homes in America, the country where the standard of living is highest, is there a bathroom to every bedroom ?
Your correspondent says there are two or three tolerable hotels in Edinburgh. I was in Edinburgh two years ago. I put up at a modest inn in a back street, where I slept in the basement and had my bath in a bathroom two floors up. I think I had to wait for my bath. This accommodation did not cause me any worry ; on the contrary, I was quite com- fortable and would cheerfully go there again. I loved Edinburgh, finding that in that noble city everything came up to expectations, and I could not have loved her one whit more had I stayed in the most expensive hotel in the place.— I am, Sir, &c., ALAN MULGAN. " The Auckland Star," Auckland, N.Z.
[We agree with our correspondent. The delights of travel are worth very considerable sacrifice. But we prefer these delights when they are accompanied with modern comforts, such as central heating and running hot and cold water in one's bedroom and a bathroom next door. Perhaps advancing years makes us set undue store on creature comforts.—En. Spectator.]
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