From the Times of London Archives: Thomas Cook’s Lost Dispatch

Travel Blog  •  Eva Holland  •  08.22.08 | 11:16 AM ET

The latest in an ongoing series of “travel classics” from the Times of London’s seemingly bottomless vaults? Thomas Cook‘s six dispatches from a ‘round-the-world trip in the early 1870s. One of the just-published pieces, written from the Red Sea, never appeared in print before. Why? As we learn now from an editor, in those pre-email days, “[I]t did not reach London until the Parliamentary Season, when it was impossible to find room in the paper.” Better late than never, right?

In the others, Cook’s thoughts on American drinking etiquette, from a letter sent in January 1873, caught my eye:

“I saw at the dinner of the Grand Central Hotel, New York, about 200 ladies and gentlemen seated at tables, and I could only see a single glass containing beer, and not a bottle of wine. I asked an intelligent waiter what was thought of such exceptional drinkers. He replied, ‘They are either English or come from the south.’”

Related on World Hum:
* From the Times of London Archives: Thesiger in Ethiopia

Tags: Europe, England, Life of a Travel Writer, Literary Travel

Eva Holland is a contributor to the World Hum blog. She is also a contributing editor at the Matador Network and at Not Coming to a Theater Near You, and a regular contributor to the Ottawa Citizen. Based in Ottawa, Canada, she loves to write about travel, history, sports, and culture high or low.


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