A train trip through the region in 1873

"FROM THE POTOMAC TO THE OHIO"

PART TWO

(Condensed from Lippincott's Magazine of

Popular Literature & Science, October 1873)

Berkeley Springs are probably as enjoyable as any on the continent. There is none of the desolation and pity-my-sorrows so common at the faded resorts of the unhappy South. A pleasant rurality is impressed on the entertainment.

The principal hotel is a vast building, curiously rambling in style. The dining-room is a house in itself, planted in a garden. Here, when the family is somewhat small and select, will be presented the marvels of Old Dominion cooking — the marrowy flannel-cake, the cellular waffle, the chicken melting in a beatitude of cream gravy. When the house is pressed with hundreds of midsummer guests, these choice individualities of kitchen chemistry are not attainable. Even then the bread, the roast, the coffee — a great chef is known by the quality of his simples — are of the true Fifth Avenue style of excellence.

Captain