Looking out from the dock, I felt the chilly blow of the wind. I heard the cry of seagulls as they circled, looking to taste their next meal. I smelled the salty spray of the ocean in the breeze as it came in from the east.
Appeal to the sense of sight only (how things look) and your writing will lack ... We can also use those words to describe how things feel, smell and taste, too. ... Don't attempt to paint the full picture, describing every tree and building and passing ... I didn't write those sentences descriptively, like I would have done in a novel.
Twain likely made Henry Adams an American in England to show how far removed he was from what was viewed as proper English society. As an American he would be considered a backwards outsider that could not possibly fit in. That all changes when he receives the bank-note and then can afford to buy his way into the English society.
