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BOOKS ON OUR TABLE. Remarkable Events in...
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Gold Fields of Australia. J. Wyld. Lives...
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I^nrtfntin
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We should do our utmost to encourage thc...
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ILISWB&S m £l WA«A©©ElgU I. Broeik-stree...
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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American Travels. Two Years On The Farm ...
not very instructive reading . His two years' residence in America seems to have given him a love of the country and a mitigated tolerance of slavery ; but for the rest he might have been there only a few weeks and brought back as much material . His volume seems made up from journals , and those the journals of a not very observant mind . The poetry interspersed among the pages is of the kind that many write , and no one re-reads .
Ar02006
Books On Our Table. Remarkable Events In...
BOOKS ON OUR TABLE . Remarkable Events in the Career of Napoleon . ( The Bookcase , No . VI . ) Sims and M'Intyre . A hyb eid of History and Romance , setting forth the main events in Napoleon ' s career : a readable book enough , but with too much effort and pretence about it . The opening sentence made us tremble : " We propose in the ensuing work to open out a Cycle of Life—pictures from the age of Napoleon . " The Popular Educator . Part IY . * John Cassell . This is the fourth part ( the first we have seen ) of a new journal devoted to the education of the people . It contains short treatises on Geology , Physiology , Geometry , Natural History , with lessons in Latin , German , French , & c , which are continued in successive numbers . It is also abundantly illustrated with woodcuts .
Mr . Dodis Parliamentary Companion . New Edition for the New Parliament . Whittaker & Co . Tuts is the twentieth year of Mr . Dod ' s very useful , important , and well-arranged manual . He very properly alludes in his preface to absolute freedom from " party tendencies , " as the best characteristic of such a publication ; and this character " Mr . Dod ' s Parliamentary Companion" has always preserved . The present is a second and completely revised edition of this year ' s " Companion , " rendered necessary by the dissolution of the old and the election of a new Parliament , as well as by a change of Ministry . We find that " Two hundred and one persons who had no seat in the House of Commons at the period of its dissolution have been returned to the new Parliament , of whoin 180 never were previously in Parliament , and 21 have only returned to public life after an interval of retirement . "
" The close balance of parties ( we quote Mr . Dod ) has rendered increased vigilance necessary in recording the polities of each member , and a more extended statement has been required than in the days when the short words " Whig" and " Tory , " " Conservative" and " Liberal , " sufficed to classify the House . In all possible cases the exact words of the Member himself have been preferred to any other statement of his political opinions , and considerable pains have been taken to record pledges upon the leading features of the day . " We can heartily recommend this " Companion" as fully sustaining the reputation of its predecessors . Mr . Dod has performed his task with conscientious accuracy , and has produced a manual of compendious utility to men engaged in public life .
Gold Fields Of Australia. J. Wyld. Lives...
Gold Fields of Australia . J . Wyld . Lives of the Sovereigns of Russia . By G-. Fowler . W . Shoberl . Bogue ' s Guide for Travellers—Switzerlaiid and Savoy . No . 2 . David Bogue . Japan ; An Account , Qeographical and Historical . ! By C . M'Farlane . G . Routledge . Gold-Mining and Assaying . By J . A . Phillips . J . I .. Griffin and Co . Darton's School Library : —The First Book of Poetry—A Short and Simple History of England—The First Pending Book—The Elements of Geography—Exercises for the Improvement of the Senses — The Modern French Word Book — An Easy and Practical Introduction to the French Language . Barton and Co . Christianity in its Homely Aspects . By A . B . Evans . Joseph Masters . Speech of Viscount Jocelyn . M . P ., on Ameers of Upper Scinde . Smith , Elder and Co . The Betting-Book . By Georgo Cruikshank . W . and _F . Q . Cash .
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We Should Do Our Utmost To Encourage Thc...
We should do our utmost to encourage thc 33 cautiful , for the Useful encourage itself . —Goethk .
Iliswb&S M £L Wa«A©©Elgu I. Broeik-Stree...
_ILISWB _& _S m £ l WA « _A _©© ElgU I . _Broeik-street , October 11 , 1851 . _£ ,, _Q _?^ 'OULD I j . aint to you , my dear Giorgio , the strange cupboard in _ta _^ which I am not only expected to deposit myself at night , but to (; K- 7 j perform some of the acts of life , and then send you into my own ( _zzAdAjS loon b into which half this bouse might be laid , with space to spare , you would jump to the very core of the contrast that one feels in coming from Val Perduta to London . But 1 had better write to Helen
lor you would not understand it without some explaining ; and so , beatrix domiis , to your memory I speak from this my cage in exile . I am sitting up to write after " thc family" have gone to bed , except Edwardes , who is out . To me is ceded " thc spare bed" iu thc second floor back , and you , Elena India , can tell the Anglomaniac Giorgio how , at first opening the door , thc curtain of the four-post bed seems to forbid admission ; how the dressing-table at the foot of the bed bars admission to the fire , which threatens thc bed-curtains on the other side : and how tliose . solid _nillnro /> f threatens thc licd-curtains on thc other side ; and how tliose solid illars of
p mahogany support the flat white ceiling above ; but you cannot tell him for I cannot- —how 1 have contrived to find a corner of tabic for my paper and a corner of floor for my chair . Now lead thc majestic Ciorgio into my room , and cast your eyes around ; sec where the thin red frame of the iron bed , though it would out-span this solid piece of chintz masonry , seems lost under the vaulted roof ; see where a hundred devices sport in the ample space of the many-coloured walls— how beautiful do they seem to me as I sec them from this spot ; and sec , dear Helen , if the tarantula
that scowled on us in lofty impunity is still clinging to the same spot in the ceiling , just by the shoulder of thc Cupid in a yellow scarf , or whether he has retired to his fastnesses on thc cornice . The English have at least one talent—that of fitting all things together . Edwardes has promised to have a dinner party in his parlour , iu order to show mo how many English-
Iliswb&S M £L Wa«A©©Elgu I. Broeik-Stree...
men can be stowed , " in comfort , " within twelve feet by thirteen , with flattening their ribs . ' ° You are surprised that I say nothing of Julie ; but , after all , she is not coming till the spring . As I supposed , her letter was written before sh had mine , and after stopping in Paris , only time to write those two lines t you , I found in London , instead of Julie , a second letter by the same mail ° to say that she should wait . ' I found , indeed , something more , and that was—a hearty welcome Escaping from steam-boat , custom-house , railway , and a London drizzle ' grasping Edwardes ' s manly hand , I felt myself ushered out of the narrow passage into the fire , and into the presence of a most engaging and genial young lady , whose softer hand was almost as cordial in its grasp as her husband ' s . Scarcely had my luggage subsided to quiescence , and my host
and hostess to the interrogatory stage of a welcome , ere the door opened again , and a tea-kettle , hissing from the kitchen , attended by a comelv handmaid , proclaimed its right of way to the fire ; and Mrs . Edwardes was again on her feet , " making tea . " How familiar and how strange it all seemed ! Boxed in between four walls of paper , and window curtains lounging on a sofa , one end of which flanked the tea table , while the other was burning at the fire ; the air perfumed with coal and tea ; that comely maid , quiet and well appointed ; that blooming hostess , quiet , rosy , beaming with kindness ; Edwardes before me , with just the professional allowance of whisker , straightforward , gentlemanly , intelligent ; the bread and butter the " tea-things , " the beef-steak on a tray , with a cloth—all so English . You will see the whole scene . Edwardes sate with his legs squared , his hands on his knees , his whole attitude an interrogation . Mrs . Edwardes
talked and busied herself . The very handmaid laid down the adjuncts to the tea-table with an emphasis of implied welcome . If there is a thing respectable in England , it is home ; and here I was , in the very thick of it . And no wonder that an Englishman values it—as I did . It is a changing climate , and home " shuts out the weather . " An English home is a residential umbrella . Tea was long , talk longer ; bedtime indefinitely deferred . Edwardes you may remember a boy—if you can remember him at all . I remember him
later ; but he is altogether different from the wild , random , " young man , " and has settled into a pleasant , gay , serious man , of strong-boned mind . The changes that had happened since I was last in England , he told in the trenchant , explicit , concise style of a report on a " case . " And when he had done , his wife , who had now learned whereabouts I was in English and domestic matters , took up the story . For all her gay face , she sees deeply . At last , Edwardes himself , presuming my fatigue in the teeth of fatigues , exclaimed , — " Come , Yseult , we must not keep him up : time enough for
talking before us !" " Yseult ! " You may imagine how the name struck on my ear . I remembered that I knew it , when Edwardes wrote to me of his marriage ; but how little written words affect one ! The coincidence struck me then ; but now , how many changes give it a new force ! Yseult herself , the name of a memory ; this Yseult , no longer a name , but a living woman before me ; so different from the other , and yet possessing the same strange name . You may guess how different is this one from what I have already said of her rosy cheeks and her fair hair . And yet , although so totally unknown , how much did that name appear to be at once the challenge and the right of a better knowledge !
This morning ' s breakfast was but the renewal of the evening ' s impression , in a new shape—so essentially English . Edwardes has three children —two Edwardeses in different stages of growth , and a little Yseult between them , who is called Marianne . English children—fair , clean , rosy , shy , and good-humoured . I am struck with a sort of " spick and span" condition all round , from the fire-irons to the children's p inafores . After breakfast , Edwardes hurried off to see his patients ; and I to see Beddowes and anybody else that I could get at on this dull Saturday . the
London looked to my unfamiliar eyes one crowd waiting until omnibuses should have passed by in order to cross over in the mud . JNee ( not tell you what omnibuses are . Three things struck me on this first day . the downrightness , the placid frankness and fairness of the tradespeople , who have only one price for their goods ! Also , the general air of independence ; and the dull countenance of everybody . You see newspapers lying about iu all directions , with the fresh remarks on Government ; pontics are the second or third subject in every conversation—the weather hemg
the first , as of old ; and no one looks round to see who is in company Nevertheless , although they are so well off and so free , thc people do not look at all as if they appreciated the blessings . They do not look anxious , they do not look gloomy , nor stupid ; but a certain dulncss is the genera expression . Enter any omnibus , survey any crowd as it passes , and survey cither side of the counter ; and you will find that the people mostly look as if they were thinking of nothing in particular , — certainly of nothing p sant ; a shade graver than indifference . " Merry Old Eng land" is a p h » 'a 8 °
to puzzle a stranger on first seeing the English countenance . Late and tired " home" to Edwardes ' s—a late tea , and again a long chut . Mrs . Edwardes improves upon knowledge . At last Edwardes sen us off to bed—he going out to see a patient . ., He has just returned , and invades my door with a knock and a fricn < y injunction to go to bed : " It is not wholesome , " ho Bays , " to sit up » late . " Wholesome t The word sec in a to be common in the Eng hs i mouth ; for I remember to have heard it used often within these two
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 21, 1852, page 20, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_21081852/page/20/
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