My First Day in London

I shall never forget, as long as I live, the day when I first set foot in London. I came from a quiet little town in Switzerland and I had never before lived in a big city, so London was a new world to me and I was dying to find out more about it¹for myself.

The general opinion abroad is that London has fog or rain, or both every day of the year, but on the day that I arrived it was fine and warm, the sun was shining brightly and the sky was cloudless. The next day was just as beautiful; a slight wind was blowing and you could smell the spring in the air. I went for a walk in Kensington Gardens. I found the way there quite easily. When I got my first sight of the gardens the beauty of it took my breath away . The trees were just bursting into leaf, fresh and green⁴, and there were beds of spring flowers, red and yellow and blue. People in light spring clothes were walking about, and to my surprise, they were walking not only along the paths but also across the grass. I passed a pool in which ducks were swimming: children were playing in playgrounds.

It was time for me to go home, but which way was it? I hurriedly turned down one path that I thought would take me back⁵— and found myself in Hyde Park. I ran to the left and to the right, asked several men for the way to the street where I had stayed, but I found to my horror that I could not understand a single word they said in reply. I wandered on till I came to a big open place where men were standing on a chair, or on a platform, or on the ground. They were speaking or preaching, and people of all kinds were listening or asking questions or making remarks and sometimes laughing at the speaker. Other groups were singing loud. This was the famous Hyde Park meeting. Meanwhile, the sun went behind the cloud, I was terribly tired. At last I got to the park gate and came out into the street, but this was worse than ever⁶. Motorcars, bicycles, buses were running, people were climbing in buses

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or hurrying along. In despair I crossed the street on to an island where I found a policeman who explained the way to me.