1936 On the Continent

will be sure to tell you the correct charge. On the other hand, railway porters are of little use as a source of information, firstbecause they are by nature uncommunicative and do not see why they should do other people’s work (every Main Line station has its Continental Inquiry Office), and, secondly, because you would probably not understand them, in spite of the fact that they are all Anglo-Saxons and most of them are convinced that they speak perfect English. Railway porters, taxi-drivers and bus and tram conductors sometimes speak Cockney—the London dialect—with regard to whose musical qualities opinions are sharply divided.
Passports
    As a rule the traveller on arrival in London has nothing further to do with passport and customs examinations, as these unpleasant but necessary formalities are carried out at the port of arrival. As compared with most Continental countries, the foreign visitor’s entry into England is a complicated affair. Citizens of the United States of America experience little difficulty, but Continental visitors cannot help noting on arrival that they have come to an island whose inhabitants are under the impression that they must protect themselves against the intrusion of undesirable elements. Travellers of former centuries also complained of their unfriendly reception in England. All the travel books of the eighteenth century—e.g., those of Andreas Reim, De Esaussure and Sophie von Laroche—complain, either bitterly or in humorous vein, of the ruthless methods of the customs authorities at Dover. The passport and customs examinations are carried out no less strictly to-day, but the traveller is treated with every courtesy and, unless he gives cause for suspicion, he is accorded a friendly reception.
Customs
    It should be noted, however, that even the little “harmless” irregularities which may be overlooked elsewhere, cannot be attempted with impunity in England. The traveller who is going to London on business should not tell the Immigration Officer, who has full authority to grant or refuse him permission to land, that he is going there as a tourist. Such statements are carefully checkedin England, and trouble is bound to follow sooner than the untruthful visitor expects.
    The same applies to the customs authorities. The customs officials are far more generous than travellers would expect, but they do insist on truthfulness. A bottle of liqueur for private use, or a box of your favourite cigars, as well as many another dutiable article, will be passed without the least difficulty, provided you frankly declare them, but the least concealment may prove a bitterly expensive game.
    The foreign visitor cannot help observing, immediately on his arrival in England, the Englishman’s fundamental attitude towards his fellow men, namely, that everybody is honest until he is proved dishonest; but in the latter case the dishonest one is denied all further credence.
    It must be admitted that these matters are taken somewhat less seriously on the Continent. Harmless little irregularities, playful attempts at smuggling, are engaged in as a sort of sport; but England, the home of sport, frowns at this particular variety.
    However, as we have said, the traveller who has arrived in London without mishap has all these things behind him, and is now intent on finding suitable accommodation.
Hotels
    Two generations ago London was anything but a tourist centre, and was in no way equipped for an influx of foreign visitors. At a time when Paris, Vienna and several other big European cities already had many good hotels, London hardly possessed suitable accommodation for travellers. It was only in the eighteen-sixties that the building of hotels was begun. Some of the first luxury hotels survive to this day, such as the
Great Western Hotel
, which adjoins Paddington station, and has recently experienced a further process of rejuvenation, and the dignified
Langham Hotel
, close to Oxford Circus, which is a favourite resort of the musical world. Indeed the railway companies have done a great deal of pioneer work in connection with the English hotel industry. Thus, for instance, the building of
Charing Cross Hotel
, at Charing Cross station, close to Trafalgar Square, which until the end of the nineteenth century was counted among London’smost exclusive hotels, was an important step forward in the provision of adequate accommodation for visitors to London.
    To-day, of course, not only has the