Tuesday, August 21, 1928
After tramping about for Jack, he showed up at the Y and we got a room together. While at lunch we met a fraternity brother of his, Milton Beckstein [Washington University, St. Louis], and we all went out together, first to the post office and then through the National Gallery where there is a very fine collection. All the schools were represented there and there were very many fine ones such as Charles I on Horseback and others by Leonardo da Vinci, Giovanni Raphael, Rembrandt, Van Dyke, Rubens, Franeesca [?], Botticelli, Lippi, and Michelangelo. The gallery is on Pall Mall and we walked under the Admiralty Arch and down the spacious Mall to Buckingham Palace. With the gallery in Trafalgar Square is a tall monument to Nelson surrounded by a number of smaller ones. Four huge lions are at the corners. St. James Park is on the left of the Mall and on the right are a number of embassies, York House, the future home of the Prince of Wales, and Marlborough Palace, home of Princess Alexandria dowager. Also St. James Palace, the present residence of the Prince of Wales. Opposite Buckingham Palace and on the same side is Green Park and farther on is Hyde Park.
After dinner I took a walk while Jack and Milt went to the show. After a while I took a bus and rode through Piccadilly Circus, over the Thames past Parliament and the Westminster Abbey way out several miles from town. Getting off, I took a train back to London Bridge and found I didn’t know where I was. Bumped into the monument commemorating the Great London Fire. It is a tall shaft of granite with an observation tower on top. Saw where the fire started in a fish market, Billingsgate, once described as famous for good fish and bad language. Up the street a block was the Bank of England, the Mansion House, home of Lord Mayor, and the Royal Exchange noted for its fine Corinthian porticoes. From here I took a bus back to the Y. Some man who lives here and has a car has been trying to get in touch with me. Don’t know who he is. Received letters from Mother, Dad, Jean and Uncle Billy [and we don’t know who this is!] today.