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text-indent: 0em; font-weight: bold; + line-height: 1.5; margin-top: 3em; } + .ph2 { text-indent: 0em; font-weight: bold; font-size: x-large; margin: .75em auto; + page-break-before: always; } + .double {border-style: double;border-width: 4px; padding: 1em; clear: both; } + .x-ebookmaker p.dropcap:first-letter { float: left; } + </style> + </head> + <body> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78182 ***</div> + +<div class='tnotes covernote'> + +<p class='c000'><strong>Transcriber’s Note:</strong></p> + +<p class='c000'>New original cover art included with this eBook is granted to the public domain.</p> + +</div> + +<div class='double titlepage'> + +<div class='nf-center-c0'> +<div class='nf-center c001'> + <div>“<i>Familiar in their Mouths as HOUSEHOLD WORDS.</i>”—<span class='sc'>Shakespeare.</span></div> + </div> +</div> + +<div> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_385'>385</span> + <h1 class='c002'>HOUSEHOLD WORDS.<br> <span class='xlarge'>A WEEKLY JOURNAL.</span></h1> +</div> + +<div class='nf-center-c0'> +<div class='nf-center c001'> + <div><span class='large'>CONDUCTED BY CHARLES DICKENS.</span></div> + <div class='c001'>N<sup>o.</sup> 17.]      SATURDAY, JULY 20, 1850.      [<span class='sc'>Price</span> 2<i>d.</i></div> + </div> +</div> + +</div> + +<div class='chapter'> + <h2 class='c003'>THE GHOST OF ART.</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c004'>I am a bachelor, residing in rather a dreary +set of chambers in the Temple. They are +situated in a square court of high houses, +which would be a complete well, but for the +want of water and the absence of a bucket. I +live at the top of the house, among the tiles +and sparrows. Like the little man in the +nursery-story, I live by myself, and all the +bread and cheese I get—which is not much—I +put upon a shelf. I need scarcely add, perhaps, +that I am in love, and that the father of +my charming Julia objects to our union.</p> + +<p class='c005'>I mention these little particulars as I might +deliver a letter of introduction. The reader +is now acquainted with me, and perhaps will +condescend to listen to my narrative.</p> + +<p class='c005'>I am naturally of a dreamy turn of mind; +and my abundant leisure—for I am called to +the bar—coupled with much lonely listening +to the twittering of sparrows, and the pattering +of rain, has encouraged that disposition. +In my “top set,” I hear the wind howl, on a +winter night, when the man on the ground +floor believes it is perfectly still weather. +The dim lamps with which our Honourable +Society (supposed to be as yet unconscious of +the new discovery called Gas) make the +horrors of the staircase visible, deepen the +gloom which generally settles on my soul +when I go home at night.</p> + +<p class='c005'>I am in the Law, but not of it. I can’t +exactly make out what it means. I sit in +Westminster Hall sometimes (in character) +from ten to four; and when I go out of Court, +I don’t know whether I am standing on my +wig or my boots.</p> + +<p class='c005'>It appears to me (I mention this in confidence) +as if there were too much talk and +too much law—as if some grains of truth +were started overboard into a tempestuous +sea of chaff.</p> + +<p class='c005'>All this may make me mystical. Still, I +am confident that what I am going to describe +myself as having seen and heard, I actually +did see and hear.</p> + +<p class='c005'>It is necessary that I should observe that +I have a great delight in pictures. I am no +painter myself, but I have studied pictures +and written about them. I have seen all the +most famous pictures in the world; my education +and reading have been sufficiently general +to possess me beforehand with a knowledge +of most of the subjects to which a Painter is +likely to have recourse; and, although I +might be in some doubt as to the rightful +fashion of the scabbard of King Lear’s sword, +for instance, I think I should know King +Lear tolerably well, if I happened to meet +with him.</p> + +<p class='c005'>I go to all the Modern Exhibitions every +season, and of course I revere the Royal +Academy. I stand by its forty Academical +articles almost as firmly as I stand by the +thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England. +I am convinced that in neither case could +there be, by any rightful possibility, one article +more or less.</p> + +<p class='c005'>It is now exactly three years—three years +ago, this very month—since I went from +Westminster to the Temple, one Thursday +afternoon, in a cheap steam-boat. The sky +was black, when I imprudently walked on +board. It began to thunder and lighten immediately +afterwards, and the rain poured +down in torrents. The deck seeming to smoke +with the wet, I went below; but so many +passengers were there, smoking too, that I +came up again, and buttoning my pea-coat, +and standing in the shadow of the paddle-box, +stood as upright as I could, and made the +best of it.</p> + +<p class='c005'>It was at this moment that I first beheld +the terrible Being, who is the subject of my +present recollections.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Standing against the funnel, apparently +with the intention of drying himself by the +heat as fast as he got wet, was a shabby man +in threadbare black, and with his hands in +his pockets, who fascinated me from the memorable +instant when I caught his eye.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Where had I caught that eye before? Who +was he? Why did I connect him, all at once, +with the Vicar of Wakefield, Alfred the +Great, Gil Blas, Charles the Second, Joseph +and his Brethren, the Fairy Queen, Tom +Jones, the Decameron of Boccaccio, Tam +O’Shanter, the Marriage of the Doge of +Venice with the Adriatic, and the Great +Plague of London? Why, when he bent one +leg, and placed one hand upon the back of +the seat near him, did my mind associate him +wildly with the words, “Number one hundred +and forty-two, Portrait of a gentleman?” +Could it be that I was going mad?</p> + +<p class='c005'><span class='pageno' id='Page_386'>386</span>I looked at him again, and now I could +have taken my affidavit that he belonged to +the Vicar of Wakefield’s family. Whether he +was the Vicar, or Moses, or Mr. Burchill, or +the Squire, or a conglomeration of all four, I +knew not; but I was impelled to seize him by +the throat, and charge him with being, in some +fell way, connected with the Primrose blood. +He looked up at the rain, and then—oh +Heaven!—he became Saint John. He folded +his arms, resigning himself to the weather, +and I was frantically inclined to address +him as the Spectator, and firmly demand to +know what he had done with Sir Roger de +Coverley.</p> + +<p class='c005'>The frightful suspicion that I was becoming +deranged, returned upon me with redoubled +force. Meantime, this awful stranger, inexplicably +linked to my distress, stood drying +himself at the funnel; and ever, as the steam +rose from his clothes, diffusing a mist around +him, I saw through the ghostly medium all the +people I have mentioned, and a score more, +sacred and profane.</p> + +<p class='c005'>I am conscious of a dreadful inclination that +stole upon me, as it thundered and lightened, +to grapple with this man, or demon, and +plunge him over the side. But, I constrained +myself—I know not how—to speak to him, +and in a pause of the storm, I crossed the +deck, and said:</p> + +<p class='c005'>“What are you?”</p> + +<p class='c005'>He replied, hoarsely, “A Model.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“A what?” said I.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“A Model,” he replied. “I sets to the profession +for a bob a-hour.” (All through this +narrative I give his own words, which are +indelibly imprinted on my memory.)</p> + +<p class='c005'>The relief which this disclosure gave me, +the exquisite delight of the restoration of my +confidence in my own sanity, I cannot describe. +I should have fallen on his neck, but for the +consciousness of being observed by the man at +the wheel.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“You then,” said I, shaking him so warmly +by the hand, that I wrung the rain out of his +coat-cuff, “are the gentleman whom I have so +frequently contemplated, in connection with a +high-backed chair with a red cushion, and a +table with twisted legs.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“I am that Model,” he rejoined moodily, +“and I wish I was anything else.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Say not so,” I returned. “I have seen +you in the society of many beautiful young +women;” as in truth I had, and always (I now +remembered) in the act of making the most of +his legs.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“No doubt,” said he. “And you’ve seen +me along with warses of flowers, and any +number of table-kivers, and antique cabinets, +and warious gammon.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Sir?” said I.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“And warious gammon,” he repeated, in a +louder voice. “You might have seen me in +armour, too, if you had looked sharp. Blessed +if I ha’n’t stood in half the suits of armour as +ever came out of Pratts’s shop; and sat, for +weeks together, a eating nothing, out of half +the gold and silver dishes as has ever been +lent for the purpose out of Storrses, and Mortimerses, +or Garrardses, and Davenportseseses.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>Excited, as it appeared, by a sense of injury, +I thought he never would have found an end +for the last word. But, at length it rolled +sullenly away with the thunder.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Pardon me,” said I, “you are a well-favored, +well-made man, and yet—forgive me—I +find, on examining my mind, that I associate +you with—that my recollection indistinctly +makes you, in short—excuse me—a +kind of powerful monster.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“It would be a wonder if it didn’t,” he +said. “Do you know what my points are?”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“No,” said I.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“My throat and my legs,” said he. “When +I don’t set for a head, I mostly sets for a +throat and a pair of legs. Now, granted you +was a painter, and was to work at my throat +for a week together, I suppose you’d see a +lot of lumps and bumps there, that would +never be there at all, if you looked at me, +complete, instead of only my throat. Wouldn’t +you?”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Probably,” said I, surveying him.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Why, it stands to reason,” said the Model. +“Work another week at my legs, and it’ll be +the same thing. You’ll make ’em out as +knotty and as knobby, at last, as if they was +the trunks of two old trees. Then, take and +stick my legs and throat on to another man’s +body, and you’ll make a reg’lar monster. +And that’s the way the public gets their +reg’lar monsters, every first Monday in +May, when the Royal Academy Exhibition +opens.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“You are a critic,” said I, with an air of +deference.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“I’m in an uncommon ill humour, if that’s +it,” rejoined the Model, with great indignation. +“As if it warn’t bad enough for a bob +a-hour, for a man to be mixing himself up +with that there jolly old furniter that one ‘ud +think the public know’d the wery nails in by +this time—or to be putting on greasy old ats +and cloaks, and playing tambourines in the +Bay o’ Naples, with Wesuvius a smokin’ +according to pattern in the background, and +the wines a bearing wonderful in the middle +distance—or to be unpolitely kicking up his +legs among a lot o’ gals, with no reason whatever +in his mind, but to show ’em—as if this +warn’t bad enough, I’m to go and be thrown +out of employment too!”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Surely no!” said I.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Surely yes,” said the indignant Model. +“<span class='sc'>But I’ll grow one.</span>”</p> + +<p class='c005'>The gloomy and threatening manner in +which he muttered the last words, can never +be effaced from my remembrance. My blood +ran cold.</p> + +<p class='c005'>I asked of myself, what was it that this +desperate Being was resolved to grow? My +breast made no response.</p> + +<p class='c005'>I ventured to implore him to explain his +<span class='pageno' id='Page_387'>387</span>meaning. With a scornful laugh, he uttered +this dark prophecy:</p> + +<p class='c005'>“<span class='sc'>I’ll grow one. And, mark my words, +it shall haunt you!</span>”</p> + +<p class='c005'>We parted in the storm, after I had forced +half-a-crown on his acceptance, with a +trembling hand. I conclude that something +supernatural happened to the steam-boat, as +it bore his reeking figure down the river; but +it never got into the papers.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Two years elapsed, during which I followed +my profession without any vicissitudes; never +holding so much as a motion, of course. At +the expiration of that period, I found myself +making my way home to the Temple, one night, +in precisely such another storm of thunder +and lightning as that by which I had been +overtaken on board the steam-boat—except +that this storm, bursting over the town at +midnight, was rendered much more awful by +the darkness and the hour.</p> + +<p class='c005'>As I turned into my court, I really thought +a thunderbolt would fall, and plough the +pavement up. Every brick and stone in +the place seemed to have an echo of its own +for the thunder. The water-spouts were +overcharged, and the rain came tearing down +from the house-tops as if they had been +mountain-tops.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Mrs. Parkins, my laundress—wife of +Parkins the porter, then newly dead of a +dropsy—had particular instructions to place +a bedroom candle and a match under the +staircase lamp on my landing, in order that I +might light my candle there, whenever I came +home. Mrs. Parkins invariably disregarding +all instructions, they were never there. Thus +it happened that on this occasion I groped +my way into my sitting-room to find the +candle, and came out to light it.</p> + +<p class='c005'>What were my emotions when, underneath +the staircase lamp, shining with wet as if he +had never been dry since our last meeting, +stood the mysterious Being whom I had +encountered on the steam-boat in a thunderstorm, +two years before! His prediction +rushed upon my mind, and I turned faint.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“I said I’d do it,” he observed, in a hollow +voice, “and I have done it. May I come +in?”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Misguided creature, what have you done?” +I returned.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“I’ll let you know,” was his reply, “if +you’ll let me in.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>Could it be murder that he had done? And +had he been so successful that he wanted to +do it again, at my expense?</p> + +<p class='c005'>I hesitated.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“May I come in?” said he.</p> + +<p class='c005'>I inclined my head, with as much presence +of mind as I could command, and he followed +me into my chambers. There, I saw that the +lower part of his face was tied up, in what is +commonly called a Belcher handkerchief. +He slowly removed this bandage, and exposed +to view a long dark beard, curling +over his upper lip, twisting about the corners +of his mouth, and hanging down upon his +breast.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“What is this?” I exclaimed involuntarily, +“and what have you become?”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“I am the Ghost of Art!” said he.</p> + +<p class='c005'>The effect of these words, slowly uttered in +the thunderstorm at midnight, was appalling +in the last degree. More dead than alive, I +surveyed him in silence.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“The German taste came up,” said he, +“and threw me out of bread. I am ready for +the taste now.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>He made his beard a little jagged with his +hands, folded his arms, and said,</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Severity!”</p> + +<p class='c005'>I shuddered. It was so severe.</p> + +<p class='c005'>He made his beard flowing on his breast, +and, leaning both hands on the staff of a carpet-broom +which Mrs. Parkins had left among my +books, said:</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Benevolence.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>I stood transfixed. The change of sentiment +was entirely in the beard. The man +might have left his face alone, or had no face. +The beard did everything.</p> + +<p class='c005'>He laid down, on his back, on my table, and +with that action of his head threw up his +beard at the chin.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“That’s death!” said he.</p> + +<p class='c005'>He got off my table and, looking up at +the ceiling, cocked his beard a little awry; +at the same time making it stick out before +him.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Adoration, or a vow of vengeance,” he observed.</p> + +<p class='c005'>He turned his profile to me, making his +upper lip very bulgy with the upper part of +his beard.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Romantic character,” said he.</p> + +<p class='c005'>He looked sideways out of his beard, as if +it were an ivy-bush. “Jealousy,” said he. +He gave it an ingenious twist in the air, and +informed me that he was carousing. He made +it shaggy with his fingers—and it was Despair; +lank—and it was avarice; tossed it all kinds +of ways—and it was rage. The beard did +everything.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“I am the Ghost of Art,” said he. “Two +bob a day now, and more when its longer! +Hair’s the true expression. There is no other. +<span class='sc'>I said I’d grow it, and I’ve grown it, +and it shall haunt you!</span>”</p> + +<p class='c005'>He may have tumbled down stairs in the +dark, but he never walked down or ran down. +I looked over the bannisters, and I was alone +with the thunder.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Need I add more of my terrific fate? It +<span class='fss'>HAS</span> haunted me ever since. It glares upon +me from the walls of the Royal Academy, (except +when <span class='sc'>Maclise</span> subdues it to his genius,) it +fills my soul with terror at the British Institution +it lures young artists on to their destruction. +Go where I will, the Ghost of Art, +eternally working the passions in hair, and +expressing everything by beard, pursues me. +The prediction is accomplished, and the Victim +has no rest.</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_388'>388</span> + <h2 class='c003'>THE WONDERS OF 1851.</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c004'>A certain Government office having a +more than usual need of some new ideas, and +wishing to obtain them from the collective +mind of the country, consulted Mr. Trappem, +the official solicitor—a gentleman of great +experience—on the subject. “A new idea,” +said he, “is not the only thing you will want; +these new ideas, to be worth anything, must +be reduced to practical demonstration, by +models, plans, or experiments. This will cost +much time, labour, and money, and be attended +through its progress with many disappointments. +The rule, therefore, is to +<i>throw it open</i> to the public. Let the inventive +spirits of the whole public be set to work; +let them make the calculations, designs, +models, plans; let them try all the experiments +at their own expense; let them all +be encouraged to proceed by those suggestions +which are sure to excite the greatest hopes +and the utmost emulation, without committing +the Honourable Board to anything. When +at length two or three succeed, then the +Honourable Board steps in, and taking a bit +from one, and a bit from another, but the +whole, or chief part, from no one in a direct +way, rejects them all individually and collectively, +and escapes all claims and contingencies. +A few compliments, enough to keep alive +hope, and at the same time keep the best men +quiet, should finally be held out, and the competitors +may then be safely left to long delays +and the course of events. That’s the way.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>Too true, Mr. Trappem—that <i>is</i> the way; and +many a Government office, or other imposing +array of Committee-men, and Honourable +Boards, have practised this same expedient +upon the inventive genius and collective knowledge +and talent of the public. The last instances +which deserve to be recorded, not merely +because they are the most recent, but rather on +account of their magnitude and completeness, +are the invitations to competitors for models +and plans, issued by the Metropolitan Commissioners +of Sewers,—and by the Commissioners +of the Exhibition of Industry of all Nations.</p> + +<p class='c005'>In order to supersede prevaricating denials +and evasions of what we have to say concerning +the Metropolitan Commissioners of Sewers, +it may be as well to premise that they have +for some time adopted the cunning “fence” +of a “<i>Committee</i> of Commissioners,” behind +which the Commissioners make a dodge on all +difficult, alarming, and responsible occasions. +When all is safe, and clear, and sunshiny, it is +the Commissioners who have done the thing; +directly matters look awkward, and a bad +business, the diplomatic bo-peeps leap away +from the bursting clouds—and the Committee +of Commissioners have done it all, for which +the main body of the Right Honourable Board +is by no means responsible. A similar +manœuvre has been adopted by the Commissioners +of the Exhibition of Industry, who +have got two Committees to screen them.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Now, in the name of all worthily striving +spirits,—of all those who have devoted their +talents, time, and money to the production of +models, designs, or plans,—of all those who +have laboured hard by day or by night, perhaps +amidst other arduous and necessary +avocations,—in the name of all those, who, +possessing real knowledge and skill, have +naturally and inevitably been led to indulge +in high hopes, if not of entire success, at least +of fair play and of some advantage to themselves +in reward, remuneration for reasonable +and necessary expenses incurred, or, at any +rate, in receiving honourable mention,—and, +finally, in the name of common justice, we do +most loudly and earnestly protest against all +these and similar appeals to the collective +intellect of the public, unless conducted upon +some liberal and definite method of compensation +for all eminently meritorious labours.</p> + +<p class='c005'>That one great prize—either as a substantial +tribute, or in the exclusive adoption of an +entire plan—should be awarded to one man, +and that the half-dozen next to him in merit, +perhaps equal or superior, should derive no +benefit at all, is manifestly a most clumsy and +unjust arrangement. But when we find great +appeals to the public, nobly answered, and +yet <i>no one</i> work selected as the work desired,—no +one rewarded—but every one <i>used</i> and +got rid of—then, indeed, we see an abuse of +that kind which ought to be most fully exposed, +so that it may serve as a warning in +future “to all whom it may concern.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>It is curious to observe how much more +quickly some nations, as well as individuals, +take a hint than others. Among the models +and plans sent in answer to the public invitation +of the Commissioners of the Exhibition +of Industry, there are a great many, and of a +most excellent kind, from our sprightly and +sanguine friends, the French—while, notwithstanding +the chief originator and patron +is from the <i>Faderland</i>, not one of those who +are more especially distinguished as entitled +to the highest honours, is from Germany! +Out of the eighteen names thus selected, no +less than twelve are Frenchmen; four are +English; one Austrian; and a solitary Dutchman. +In all Prussia, there was not found one +man to venture. It would seem as though +they were aware of these tricks. But how is +it that so few of our own countrymen are thus +distinguished and complimented? Is it because +they are deficient in the requisite talent, +or do they not take sufficient interest in the +matter? Surely neither of these reasons will +be satisfactory to account for the fact of our +native architects and designers having been +so palpably beaten at this first trial of skill. +We shall probably be told that the best men +of France have entered the lists in this competition; +whereas our best men have stood +aloof. Why is this? May it not be that +“old birds are not caught with chaff?” Our +best men are generally well employed, and it +is not worth their while to waste their time +<span class='pageno' id='Page_389'>389</span>in competitions which almost invariably end +in so unsatisfactory a manner. The same +thing occurred, and may be answered in the +same way, with regard to the hundred and +sixty or seventy Plans sent in for the Drainage +of London. Our most eminent civil engineers +stood aloof. A few very able men, it is true, +entered into the contest with enthusiasm, at +great expense of time, labour, and money, (one +of them, Mr. J. B. M‘Clean, spent nearly 500<i>l.</i> +in surveys, &c.) but very few of them will +ever do this again. Out of the two hundred +and forty-five competitors who have sent +designs and plans, in reply to the equally +vague and formal invitation of the Commissioners +of the Exhibition of 1851, not a +single name of the hundred and sixty or +seventy engineers, surveyors, architects, +builders, &c., who sent in designs for the +Drainage of London, is to be found either in +List A, or List B, of those whom the Commissioners +of the Exhibition have mentioned +as entitled to honorary distinction. They +were, no doubt, very thoroughly sickened by +the previous affair.</p> + +<p class='c005'>We have said that, at the very least, those +who have sent in excellent designs should +receive honourable mention. This is liberally +bestowed by the Commissioners of the Exhibition +on eighteen individuals; but that is +not sufficient. Neither is the longer list of +names, thus honoured, perfectly just, inasmuch +as it excludes many whose plans display +very great merit. As for the Commissioners +of Sewers, the report they issued concerning +the plans sent to them, was meagre and mean +to the last degree. Its timidity at a just and +decent compliment, absolutely amounted to +the ludicrous. If they thanked anybody at +all, the thanks seemed warily pushed towards +the parties by the Solicitor of the Commission +at the end of a long pole. They had not +even a word of commendation to offer to two +or three men who had sent in designs of the +most comprehensive and original character,—designs +which were, at least, as practicable as +any of the “tunnel schemes,” or others which +they ventured, in their caustic way, to applaud. +We would more especially mention the plans +of Mr. Richard Dover, Mr. John Martin, Mr. +John Sutton (<cite>The Margin Sewer</cite>), Mr. Jasper +Rogers, Mr. William H. Smith (<cite>Second Series</cite>), +and the one signed “<i><span lang="la">Nunc aut Nunquam</span></i>,” +which latter, for grandeur of conception, +equals the very greatest works of ancient and +modern times. Placed beside such unmannerly +treatment as this, and comparing the +two reports, that of the Commissioners of +the Exhibition reads like the production of +gentlemen and scholars, beside the penurious +reservations and dryness of the Commissioners +of Sewers.</p> + +<p class='c005'>With regard, however, to the great superiority +of foreign artists over our own in the +present matter of competition, and our utter +defeat in the first trial of the respective +strength of Nations, some very excellent +remarks have been put forth by the “Athenæum.” +“Let us see,” says the writer, “if +the men who did come up to this architectural +battle have been fairly dealt with. It is +essential to the integrity of a combat that it +should be fought with the weapon prescribed. +If one of two combatants bring a sword double +the length of his adversary’s, or a rifle to his +rival’s pistol, we should scarcely hold that the +defeat of the latter is proof that he is inferior +in fence or in aim.” This is closely and fairly +put. The answer must be, that our artists +have <i>not</i> been fairly beaten. The advertisement +of the Committee requested “information +and suggestions” on the general form +of the building in plan, &c., and they laid +down rules and regulations to which “they +earnestly requested the contributors to conform,” +declaring that they would not recognise +any plans which were “sent in a form +inconsistent with these rules.” They were +clearly defined. For instance—they directed +that the communications must consist of a +single sheet of paper of given dimensions; +that the drawing should be a simple ground-plan, +also of limited dimensions; and that it +should <i>only</i> contain “such elevations and +sections of the building, on the same sheet, +as might be necessary to elucidate the system +proposed.” Surely all this is clear enough.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Let us now see how some of the most +successful of the competitors have attended +to these conditions on which they were to +enter the arena.</p> + +<p class='c005'>What extensive pleasure-grounds are those?—and +adorned with such architectural displays? +They are the work of Monsieur Cailloux. +But, a little further on, we behold +pleasure-grounds and architectural structures +yet more ornate and refined. They are from +the hand of Monsieur Charpentier. Further +on, another, by Monsieur Cleemputte; and +another by Monsieur Gaulle—a complicated +work of thoughtful elaboration. Yet even +these are destined to be surpassed by the +luxurious fancies of other artists.</p> + +<p class='c005'>So far from denying or doubting that many +of these designs are beautiful, we close our +eyes, and see in imagination the exquisite +magnificence of the structures, into which no +coarse and profane hands should dare to +wheel or carry rude raw materials of any +kind; there, everything must be finished to +the highest degree of polished art and refined +taste. Also, no lumbering pieces of machinery +or mechanism must risk doing injury to the +walls, and pillars, and profusion of glass—no +uncouth agricultural implements, or other +tools of horny-handed Industry. Hither, let +no enthusiasts in smoke-jacks, patent capstans, +door-hinges, dock-gates, double-barred +gridirons, humane chimney-sweeping apparatuses, +peat-charcoal, bachelor’s broilers, fire-annihilators, +patent filters, portable kitchens, or +electric telegraphs, dare to send their uncouth +machinery and compounds; but only such +things as are delicate of texture, rainbow-coloured, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_390'>390</span>and exquisite to the smell, while the +visitors (none of whom will be admitted except +in full dress, and great numbers of whom +will always appear in court dresses) perambulate +about, gazing now on this side, and +now on that, to the sound of the seraphine +and Moorish flutes.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Let us awake from this charming vision; but +it was natural to fall into it on such suggestions. +Again we are in danger. For who can +contemplate the elegant originality of Monsieur +Jacquet (No. 25) without emotion, or a +“wish to be there?” His ground-plan resembles +a section of some enormous fan-light +of painted glass, or like part of a gigantic +Oriental fan, made of the plumes of some +fabulous peacock. Nor must we pass over +the suggestion of our countrymen, Messrs. +Felix and White (No. 72), because they are +not equally imaginative, for they certainly +manifest very much and excellent thought in +their architectural display; though, like our +foreign friends, no thought at all of the cost +of such a work. The same may be said of +the beautiful pleasure-grounds designed by +Mr. Reilly (No. 102), with circular, oval, and +serpentine garden-plots, flower-beds, and shrubberies, +and labyrinthine walks or covered +ways of glass.</p> + +<p class='c005'>But there are more—yet more of these +delightful and deliberate violations of the +terms on which competitors were to enter +the lists—one vieing with another, not in +producing the most excellently useful and +economical structure for the purpose required, +but the most perfect exhibition of the artist’s +especial taste, “regardless of expense.” Yes, +there are more of these deserving notice. One +competitor—nay, three of them—propose that +the entire building should be made of iron, +domes and towers inclusive; another, that it +shall be all made of glass, such as we might +find in an Arabian Nights’ Tale. Monsieur +Soyer, the mighty cook (No. 165), begins the +synopsis of his design by proposing to take +up, and remove the great marble arch from +Buckingham Palace, as though it were a +“trifle,” and serve it up for a grand entrance +opposite the Prince of Wales’s Gate. Here, +also, is a structure which arrests the attention +even amidst the surrounding wonders, and +appears to be several conservatories and +libraries on a colossal scale of glass frame-work, +delightfully intermingled with domes +and turrets, and observatories, with here and +there minarets and pagodas, of the delicious +character presented by those fragile structures +which make such a tempting figure on +the festive board, standing erect among the +dessert-plates. Yet, once more, behold the +prodigal laying out of palace-gardens, not to +speak of the ante-industrial palace itself +(which reminds one of Thomson’s “Castle of +Indolence”), gardens with alcoves and aviaries, +and fountains, glass temples, green labyrinths, +flower-beds and flower-stands, vases and <i><span lang="fr">jets-d’eaux</span></i>, +sculpture, shrubberies, shaded lovers’ +walks, public promenades, with lords and +ladies and princes and princesses, of all +nations, sauntering about, and the clouds and +sky of an Italian sunset lighting up and +colouring the whole. For this, and similar +<i><span lang="fr">chateaux</span></i>, we are quite at a loss to conjecture +the principle on which they present themselves +on this occasion; but we have no +doubt that they all belong to that munificent +patron of art, and great landed proprietor, the +Marquis of Carrabas.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Now, that our own architects are able to +compete successfully with the best of our +foreign friends in works of imaginative design, +we do not affirm; neither, for the reasons previously +adduced by the “Athenæum,” do we +consider ourselves justified in denying it, from +the result of the present struggle. But for our +own artists and others, who have confined +themselves to the terms and preliminaries +announced by the Commissioners, have they +succeeded?—that is the question. Not satisfactorily, +we think. Our architects are, for +the most part, impracticable, from the expense +required, and the wilful forgetfulness that the +building is to be of a temporary character; +while our surveyors and builders have been +thinking too much of railway-stations, not of +that sober, simple, and sufficient kind which +the occasion requires, but (according to the +error in these stations) of that large, ornate, +and redundant kind which is meant to be +admired as much as used, and also to last for +ages. This latter mistake is very characteristic +of our countrymen. They do not feel, +nor comprehend, the act of knocking up a +temporary structure; they are always for +something that will endure.</p> + +<p class='c005'>In certain matters requiring great skill and +many forethoughts, most of these plans are +not very successful. For instance, the prevention +of terrible confusion and danger in +the constant arrivals and departures of visitors—carriages, +vehicles of all sorts, horsemen, +and shoals of pedestrians. This relates to the +approaches and entrances outside; and the +position and approaches of the exit-doors +inside; also, the best means of directing and +managing the currents of visitors within. It +seems pretty clear that everybody must not +be allowed to follow his “own sweet will” in +all respects, or there will be many a deadlock, +and perhaps a deadly struggle, with all +the usual disastrous consequences. Many of +the plans seek to direct the current of visitors +(indicated by shoals of little arrows with their +heads pointing the same way) not so much for +the convenience and freedom of the public, as +in accordance with the architectural points to +be displayed. Others appear to intend that +the direction of the current shall be forced by +the pressure from the column constantly +advancing behind. This might be dangerous. +The current might surely be managed so as +to combine direction on a large scale with a +considerable amount of individual freedom; +and, in any case, the amount of pressure +<span class='pageno' id='Page_391'>391</span>from the masses behind should be regulated +by sectional barriers.</p> + +<p class='c005'>How to find your way out? This may be +a question well worth consideration. Of +course there will be a sufficient number of +exit-doors; but if you have to walk and +struggle through several miles of bazaar-counters +or winding ways, amidst dense +crowds, before you can discover a means of +egress, your amount of pleasure is not likely to +induce a second visit. Mr. Brandon for instance +(No. 207), has beautiful domed temples +and libraries (so they appear) or other “glass +cases,” while the ground-plan presents a series +of circuitous batches of stalls, or bazaar-counters, +not unlike large circles of sheep-pens, +except that there is a free passage between +them. Hence, the currents, or rather, +the “rapids,” of visitors must inevitably be +going and coming, and jostling, and conflicting; +and others arriving at a dead stand, and +having no chance of progression, or retreat, +without a “trial of strength,”—the whole +producing of necessity an inextricable maze +and confusion, with an impossibility for a +long time of finding a way out, even when +able to move.</p> + +<p class='c005'>This question of the current of visitors, and +of movement in general, is ingeniously settled +by one gentleman, who proposes to have a +railway along the grand central line, for the +conveyance up and down of all sorts of goods +and articles, heavy or light. We presume +that the progress of the carriages and trucks +would be very slow, so that the visitors, when +fatigued, might, at their pleasure, step up to a +seat, and be quietly conveyed along to any part +of the line. This notion has, of course, been +laughed at, and we confess to having amused +ourselves considerably with the “train” of +thought induced by it; but we are not sure, +in the present state of mechanical science, +whether something very commodious might +not result from a modification of the idea. +The fares, if any (and we think there should +be a trifle paid to check reckless crowding), +should not exceed a penny. The inventor +will thus perceive that, if we have laughed, +we have also sympathised, and are quite ready +to get up and have a ride. One gentleman +(Mr. C. H. Smith) proposes to erect three +octagonal vestibules, communicating with all +principal compartments; the roof to be upheld +by suspension chains. Cast-iron frames +are to hold rough glass, laid in plates lapping +over each other, like tiles. This is certainly a +sensible provision against a hail-storm, which +has occurred to no one else, amidst their prodigalities +in glass.</p> + +<p class='c005'>But, amidst all these wonders of 1851, are +there no plain, simple, practical plans sent in? +There are a good many. Some of these are +certainly not very attractive, presenting, as +they do, the appearance of a superior kind of +barracks, hospitals, alms-houses, nursery-grounds; +and one of these plans is laid out +entirely like a series of cucumber-frames, with +shifting lights at top. There are, however, +several of these sober designs which possess +great practical merit, and have preserved a +due consideration of the terms on which the +competition was proposed. Of these, the +Commissioners and Committees have availed +themselves in all respects suited to their own +views and wishes; and out of all these, combined +with their own especial fancies, they +seem likely to produce an interminable range +of cast-iron cow-sheds, having (as a specimen +of the present high state of constructive +genius) an enormous slop-basin, of iron +frame-work, inverted in the centre, as an +attraction for the admiring eyes of all the +nations.</p> + +<p class='c005'>But other problems have to be solved. The +classification and arrangement of the raw +materials, the manufactured articles, the machinery, +and the works of plastic art, is a +question of very great importance. It not +only involves the things themselves, but their +respective countries. Should the productions +of each country be kept separate? This +appears the natural arrangement, or how +should any one make a study of the powers +of any special country. Prince Albert, it +seems, wishes otherwise. He thinks that a +fusion of the productions of all nations will +be more in accordance with the broad general +principle of the Exhibition—more tending to +amalgamate and fraternise one country with +another. This feeling is excellent; but we +fear it would cause an utter confusion, and +amidst the heterogeneous masses, nobody +would be able to make a study of the productions +of any particular nation. An eminent +civil engineer suggests that the productions +of the respective countries should be ranged +together from side to side of the entire width +of the edifice—thus you can at once see the +works of industry of England, France, Germany, +America, Switzerland, &c., &c., by +walking up and down from one side to the +other; and you can obtain a collective view +of the works of all these countries by walking +longitudinally, or from end to end of the +building. To some such classification and +arrangement as this, we think, the Committee +will be compelled to have recourse at last.</p> + +<p class='c005'>The other problem to which we adverted, is +one which is not so liable to be solved as +saturated with hot water, and then dragged +from one quarter of the metropolis to another +before it is settled by some arbitrary decision. +We allude to the spot on which the buildings of +the Exhibition are to be erected. Hyde Park +is not unlikely to be a subject of much contest. +The latent idea of preserving the most important +part of the “temporary” structure +has alarmed all the drivers and riders in Hyde +Park, and all those whose windows overlook +it. And no wonder;—to say nothing of the +crowds and stoppages outside the park, and +the slough within, produced by the enormous +traffic of heavy wheels, long before the Exhibition +opens. Battersea Fields was next +<span class='pageno' id='Page_392'>392</span>mentioned, and thought advantageous, not +only from the open space they present, but the +facilities of water-conveyance for goods and +passengers. Still, the distance is rather against +such a choice. It would probably reduce the +number of times each visitor would go to +the Exhibition, and, consequently, be a check +upon the money taken at the doors. Hundreds +of thousands flock daily to Greenwich +during the Fair; but the argument will not +hold good, in all respects, as regards the +present question. Regent’s Park has been +named as more appropriate; but there is a +strong and manifest objection to any interference +with that much-used place of +public recreation. To cut up its green turf, +and gravelled roads, would be even more +monstrous than any spoliation of Hyde Park. +No locality could be selected, perhaps, for +such a purpose that would be perfectly free +from all objections. Still we are so convinced +of the multitude of inconveniences inevitably +attendant on such an Exhibition in the midst +of the metropolis—and we feel so strongly the +cool, high-handed injustice of parcelling out +the public property at Court, and stopping up +the public breathing-places, for any purpose—that +we urge its removal to some spot out +of the town, easily accessible both by railway +and river.</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <h2 class='c003'>“I WOULD NOT HAVE THEE YOUNG AGAIN.”</h2> +</div> + +<div class='lg-container-b c006'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>I would not have thee young again</div> + <div class='line in2'>Since I myself am old;</div> + <div class='line'>Not that thy youth was ever vain,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Or that my age is cold;</div> + <div class='line'>But when upon thy gentle face</div> + <div class='line in2'>I see the shades of time,</div> + <div class='line'>A thousand memories replace</div> + <div class='line in2'>The beauties of thy prime.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Though from thine eyes of softest blue</div> + <div class='line in2'>Some light hath passed away,</div> + <div class='line'>Love looketh forth as warm and true</div> + <div class='line in2'>As on our bridal day.</div> + <div class='line'>I hear thy song, and though in part</div> + <div class='line in2'>’Tis fainter in its tone,</div> + <div class='line'>I heed it not, for still thy heart</div> + <div class='line in2'>Seems singing to my own.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='chapter'> + <h2 class='c003'>LITTLE MARY.</h2> +</div> + +<div class='nf-center-c0'> +<div class='nf-center c001'> + <div>A TALE OF THE BLACK YEAR.</div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c004'>That was a pleasant place where I was +born, though ’twas only a thatched cabin by the +side of a mountain stream, where the country +was so lonely, that in summer time the wild +ducks used to bring their young ones to feed +on the bog, within a hundred yards of our +door; and you could not stoop over the bank +to raise a pitcher full of water, without +frightening a shoal of beautiful speckled trout. +Well, ’tis long ago since my brother Richard, +that’s now grown a fine clever man, God bless +him!—and myself, used to set off together up +the mountain to pick bunches of the cotton +plant and the bog myrtle, and to look for +birds’ and wild bees’ nests. ’Tis long ago—and +though I’m happy and well off now, living +in the big house as own maid to the young +ladies, who, on account of my being foster-sister +to poor darling Miss Ellen, that died of +decline, treat me more like their equal than +their servant, and give me the means to improve +myself; still at times, especially when +James Sweeney, a dacent boy of the neighbours, +and myself are taking a walk together +through the fields in the cool and quiet of a +summer’s evening, I can’t help thinking of the +times that are passed, and talking about them +to James with a sort of peaceful sadness, more +happy maybe than if we were laughing aloud.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Every evening, before I say my prayers, I +read a chapter in the Bible that Miss Ellen +gave me; and last night I felt my tears +dropping for ever so long over one verse,—“And +God shall wipe away all tears from +their eyes; and there shall be no more death, +neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there +be any more pain; for the former things are +passed away.” The words made me think of +them that are gone—of my father, and his +wife that was a true fond mother to me; and, +above all, of my little sister Mary, the <i>clureen +bawn</i><a id='r1'></a><a href='#f1' class='c007'><sup>[1]</sup></a> that nestled in her bosom.</p> + +<div class='footnote' id='f1'> +<p class='c005'><a href='#r1'>1</a>. White dove.</p> +</div> + +<p class='c005'>I was a wild slip of a girl, ten years of age, +and my brother Richard about two years +older, when my father brought home his +second wife. She was the daughter of a +farmer up at Lackabawn, and was reared with +care and dacency; but her father held his +ground at a rack-rent, and the middleman +that was between him and the head landlord +did not pay his own rent, so the place was +ejected, and the farmer collected every penny +he had, and set off with his family to America. +My father had a liking for the youngest +daughter, and well become him to have it, for +a sweeter creature never drew the breath of +life; but while her father passed for a <i>strong</i><a id='r2'></a><a href='#f2' class='c007'><sup>[2]</sup></a> +farmer, he was timorous-like about asking her +to share his little cabin; however, when he +found how matters stood, he didn’t lose much +time in finding out that she was willing to be +his wife, and a mother to his boy and girl. +<i>That</i> she was, a patient loving one. Oh! it +often sticks me like a knife, when I think +how many times I fretted her with my foolishness +and my idle ways, and how ’twas a long +time before I’d call her “mother.” Often, +when my father would be going to chastise +Richard and myself for our provoking doings, +especially the day that we took half-a-dozen +eggs from under the hatching hen, to play +“Blind Tom” with them, she’d interfere for +us, and say,—“Tim, <i>aleagh</i>, don’t touch them +this time; sure ’tis only <i>arch</i> they are: they’ll +get more sense in time.” And then, after he +was gone out, she’d advise us for our good so +pleasantly, that a thundercloud itself couldn’t +look black at her. She did wonders too about +the house and garden. They were both dirty +<span class='pageno' id='Page_393'>393</span>and neglected enough when she first came +over them; for I was too young and foolish, +and my father too busy with his out-door +work, and the old woman that lived with us +in service too feeble and too blind to keep the +place either clean or decent; but my mother +got the floor raised, and the green pool in +front drained, and a parcel of roses and honeysuckles +planted there instead. The neighbours’ +wives used to say ’Twas all pride and +upsetting folly, to keep the kitchen-floor swept +clean, and to put the potatoes on a dish, instead +of emptying them out of the pot into the +middle of the table; and, besides, ’twas a +cruel unnatural thing, they said, to take away +the pool from the ducks, that they were +always used to paddle in so handy. But my +mother was always too busy and too happy to +heed what they said; and, besides, she was +always so ready to do a kind turn for any of +them, that, out of pure shame, they had at last +to leave off abusing her “fine English ways.”</p> + +<div class='footnote' id='f2'> +<p class='c005'><a href='#r2'>2</a>. Rich.</p> +</div> + +<p class='c005'>West of our house there was a straggling, +stony piece of ground, where, within the +memory of man, nothing ever grew but nettles, +docks, and thistles. One Monday, when +Richard and myself came in from school, my +mother told us to set about weeding it, and +to bring in some basketsful of good clay from +the banks of the river: she said that if we +worked well at it until Saturday, she’d bring +me a new frock, and Dick a jacket, from the +next market-town; and encouraged by this, +we set to work with right good will, and +didn’t leave off till supper time. The next +day we did the same; and by degrees, when +we saw the heap of weeds and stones that we +got out, growing big, and the ground looking +nice and smooth and red and rich, we got +quite anxious about it ourselves, and we built +a nice little fence round it to keep out the +pigs. When it was manured, my mother +planted cabbages, parsnips, and onions in it; +and, to be sure, she got a fine crop out of it, +enough to make us many a nice supper of +vegetables stewed with pepper, and a small +taste of bacon or a red herring. Besides, she +sold in the market as much as bought a +Sunday coat for my father, a gown for herself, +a fine pair of shoes for Dick, and as pretty a +shawl for myself, as e’er a colleen in the +country could show at mass. Through means +of my father’s industry and my mother’s good +management, we were, with the blessing of +God, as snug and comfortable a poor family +as any in Munster. We paid but a small +rent, and we had always plenty of potatoes to +eat, good clothes to wear, and cleanliness and +decency in and about our little cabin.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Five years passed on in this way, and at +last little Mary was born. She was a delicate +fairy thing, with that look, even from the first, +in her blue eyes, which is seldom seen, except +where the shadow of the grave darkens the +cradle. She was fond of her father, and of +Richard, and of myself, and would laugh and +crow when she saw us, but <i>the love in the core +of her heart</i> was for her mother. No matter +how tired, or sleepy, or cross the baby might +be, one word from <i>her</i> would set the bright +eyes dancing, and the little rosy mouth smiling, +and the tiny limbs quivering, as if walking or +running couldn’t content her, but she must fly +to her mother’s arms. And how that mother +doted on the very ground she trod! I often +thought that the Queen in her state carriage, +with her son, God bless him! alongside of +her, dressed out in gold and jewels, was not +one bit happier than my mother, when she sat +under the shade of the mountain ash near the +door, in the hush of the summer’s evening, +singing and <i>cronauning</i> her only one to sleep +in her arms. In the month of October, 1845, +Mary was four years old. That was the bitter +time, when first the food of the earth was +turned to poison; when the gardens that used +to be so bright and sweet, covered with the +purple and white potato blossoms, became in +one night black and offensive, as if fire had +come down from heaven to burn them up. +’Twas a heart-breaking thing to see the +labouring men, the crathurs! that had only +the one half-acre to feed their little families, +going out, after work, in the evenings to dig +their suppers from under the black stalks. +Spadeful after spadeful would be turned up, +and a long piece of a ridge dug through, +before they’d get a small kish full of such +withered <i>crohauneens</i>,<a id='r3'></a><a href='#f3' class='c007'><sup>[3]</sup></a> as other years would +be hardly counted fit for the pigs.</p> + +<div class='footnote' id='f3'> +<p class='c005'><a href='#r3'>3</a>. Small potatoes.</p> +</div> + +<p class='c005'>It was some time before the distress reached +us, for there was a trifle of money in the +savings’ bank, that held us in meal, while the +neighbours were next door to starvation. As +long as my father and mother had it, they +shared it freely with them that were worse +off than themselves; but at last the little +penny of money was all spent, the price of +flour was raised; and, to make matters worse, +the farmer that my father worked for, at a +poor eight-pence a day, was forced to send +him and three more of his labourers away, as +he couldn’t afford to pay them even <i>that</i> any +longer. Oh! ’twas a sorrowful night when my +father brought home the news. I remember, +as well as if I saw it yesterday, the desolate +look in his face when he sat down by the +ashes of the turf fire that had just baked a +yellow meal cake for his supper. My mother +was at the opposite side, giving little Mary a +drink of sour milk out of her little wooden +piggin, and the child didn’t like it, being +delicate and always used to sweet milk, so +she said:</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Mammy, won’t you give me some of the +nice milk instead of that?”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“I haven’t it <i>asthore</i>, nor can’t get it,” said +her mother, “so don’t ye fret.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>Not a word more out of the little one’s +mouth, only she turned her little cheek in +towards her mother, and stayed quite quiet, as +if she was hearkening to what was going on.</p> + +<p class='c005'><span class='pageno' id='Page_394'>394</span>“Judy,” said my father, “God is good, and +sure ’tis only in Him we must put our trust; +for in the wide world I can see nothing but +starvation before us.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“God <i>is</i> good, Tim,” replied my mother; +“He won’t forsake us.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>Just then Richard came in with a more +joyful face than I had seen on him for many +a day.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Good news!” says he, “good news, father! +there’s work for us both on the Droumcarra +road. The government works are to begin +there to-morrow; you’ll get eight-pence a +day, and I’ll get six-pence.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>If you saw our delight when we heard this, +you’d think ’twas the free present of a thousand +pounds that came to us, falling through +the roof, instead of an offer of small wages +for hard work.</p> + +<p class='c005'>To be sure the potatoes were gone, and the +yellow meal was dear and dry and chippy—it +hadn’t the <i>nature</i> about it that a hot potato +has for a poor man; but still ’twas a great +thing to have the prospect of getting enough +of even that same, and not to be obliged to +follow the rest of the country into the poorhouse, +which was crowded to that degree that +the crathurs there—God help them!—hadn’t +room even to die quietly in their beds, but +were crowded together on the floor like so +many dogs in a kennel. The next morning +my father and Richard were off before daybreak, +for they had a long way to walk to +Droumcarra, and they should be there in time +to begin work. They took an Indian meal +cake with them to eat for their dinner, and +poor dry food it was, with only a draught of +cold water to wash it down. Still my father, +who was knowledgeable about such things, +always said it was mighty wholesome when it +was well cooked; but some of the poor people +took a great objection against it on account of +the yellow colour, which they thought came +from having sulphur mixed with it—and they +said, Indeed it was putting a great affront on +the decent Irish to mix up their food as if +’twas for mangy dogs. Glad enough, poor +creatures, they were to get it afterwards, +when sea-weed and nettles, and the very grass +by the roadside, was all that many of them +had to put into their mouths.</p> + +<p class='c005'>When my father and brother came home in +the evening, faint and tired from the two long +walks and the day’s work, my mother would +always try to have something for them to eat +with their porridge—a bit of butter, or a bowl +of thick milk, or maybe a few eggs. She always +gave me plenty as far as it would go; but +’twas little she took herself. She would often +go entirely without a meal, and then she’d +slip down to the huckster’s, and buy a little +white bun for Mary; and I’m sure it used to +do her more good to see the child eat it, than +if she got a meat-dinner for herself. No +matter how hungry the poor little thing +might be, she’d always break off a bit to put +into her mother’s mouth, and she would not +be satisfied until she saw her swallow it; then +the child would take a drink of cold water +out of her little tin porringer, as contented as +if it was new milk.</p> + +<p class='c005'>As the winter advanced, the weather became +wet and bitterly cold, and the poor men +working on the roads began to suffer dreadfully +from being all day in wet clothes, and, +what was worse, not having any change to +put on when they went home at night without +a dry thread about them. Fever soon got +amongst them, and my father took it. My +mother brought the doctor to see him, and by +selling all our decent clothes, she got for him +whatever was wanting, but all to no use: +’twas the will of the Lord to take him to +himself, and he died after a few days’ illness.</p> + +<p class='c005'>It would be hard to tell the sorrow that +his widow and orphans felt, when they saw +the fresh sods planted on his grave. It was +not grief altogether like the grand stately +grief of the quality, although maybe the same +sharp knife is sticking into the same sore +bosom <i>inside</i> in both; but the <i>outside</i> differs +in rich and poor. I saw the mistress a week +after Miss Ellen died. She was in her +drawing-room with the blinds pulled down, +sitting in a low chair, with her elbow on the +small work-table, and her cheek resting on her +hand—not a speck of anything white about her +but the cambric handkerchief, and the face +that was paler than the marble chimney-piece.</p> + +<p class='c005'>When she saw me, (for the butler, being +busy, sent me in with the luncheon-tray,) she +covered her eyes with her handkerchief, and began +to cry, but quietly, as if she did not want it +to be noticed. As I was going out, I just heard +her say to Miss Alice in a choking voice:—</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Keep Sally here always; our poor darling +was fond of her.” And as I closed the +door, I heard her give one deep sob. The +next time I saw her, she was quite composed: +only for the white cheek and the +black dress, you would not know that the +burning feel of a child’s last kiss had ever +touched her lips.</p> + +<p class='c005'>My father’s wife mourned for him after +another fashion. <i>She</i> could not sit quiet, +she must work hard to keep the life in them +to whom he gave it; and it was only in the +evenings when she sat down before the fire +with Mary in her arms, that she used to sob +and rock herself to and fro, and sing a low +wailing keen for the father of the little one, +whose innocent tears were always ready to +fall when she saw her mother cry. About +this time my mother got an offer from some +of the hucksters in the neighbourhood, who +knew her honesty, to go three times a week +to the next market-town, ten miles off, with +their little money, and bring them back supplies +of bread, groceries, soap, and candles. +This she used to do, walking the twenty miles—ten +of them with a heavy load on her back—for +the sake of earning enough to keep us +alive. ’Twas very seldom that Richard could +get a stroke of work to do: the boy wasn’t +<span class='pageno' id='Page_395'>395</span>strong in himself, for he had the sickness too; +though he recovered from it, and always did +his best to earn an honest penny wherever he +could. I often wanted my mother to let me +go in her stead and bring back the load; but +she never would hear of it, and kept me at +home to mind the house and little Mary. My +poor pet lamb! ’twas little minding she +wanted. She would go after breakfast and +sit at the door, and stop there all day, watching +for her mother, and never heeding the neighbours’ +children that used to come wanting her +to play. Through the live-long hours she +would never stir, but just keep her eyes fixed +on the lonesome <i>boreen</i>;<a id='r4'></a><a href='#f4' class='c007'><sup>[4]</sup></a> and when the +shadow of the mountain ash grew long, and +she caught a glimpse of her mother ever so +far off, coming towards home, the joy that +would flush on the small patient face, was +brighter than the sunbeam on the river. And +faint and weary as the poor woman used to be, +before ever she sat down, she’d have Mary +nestling in her bosom. No matter how little +she might have eaten herself that day, she +would always bring home a little white bun for +Mary; and the child, that had tasted nothing +since morning, would eat it so happily, and +then fall quietly asleep in her mother’s arms.</p> + +<div class='footnote' id='f4'> +<p class='c005'><a href='#r4'>4</a>. By-road</p> +</div> + +<p class='c005'>At the end of some months I got the sickness +myself, but not so heavily as Richard +did before. Any way, he and my mother +tended me well through it. They sold +almost every little stick of furniture that was +left, to buy me drink and medicine. By +degrees I recovered, and the first evening I +was able to sit up, I noticed a strange wild +brightness in my mother’s eyes, and a hot flush +on her thin cheeks—she had taken the fever.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Before she lay down on the wisp of straw +that served her for a bed, she brought little +Mary over to me: “Take her, Sally,” she +said—and between every word she gave the +child a kiss—“Take her; she’s safer with +you than she’d be with me, for you’re over +the sickness, and ’tisn’t long any way I’ll be +with you, my jewel,” she said, as she gave the +little creature one long close hug, and put her +into my arms.</p> + +<p class='c005'>’Twould take long to tell all about her +sickness—how Richard and I, as good right +we had, tended her night and day; and how, +when every farthing and farthing’s worth we +had in the world was gone, the mistress herself +came down from the big house, the very day +after the family returned home from France, +and brought wine, food, medicine, linen, and +everything we could want.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Shortly after the kind lady was gone, my +mother took the change for death; her senses +came back, she grew quite strong-like, and sat +up straight in the bed.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Bring me the child, Sally <i>aleagh</i>,” she said. +And when I carried little Mary over to her, +she looked into the tiny face, as if she was +reading it like a book.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“You won’t be long away from me, my own +one,” she said, while her tears fell down upon +the child like summer-rain.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Mother,” said I, as well as I could speak +for crying, “sure you <i>know</i> I’ll do my best +to tend her.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“I know you will, <i>acushla</i>; you were always +a true and dutiful daughter to me and to him +that’s gone; but, Sally, there’s <i>that</i> in my +weeney one that won’t let her thrive without +the mother’s hand over her, and the mother’s +heart for her’s to lean against. And now—.” +It was all she could say: she just clasped the +little child to her bosom, fell back on my arm, +and in a few moments all was over. At first, +Richard and I could not believe that she was +dead; and it was very long before the orphan +would loose her hold of the stiffening fingers; +but when the neighbours came in to prepare +for the wake, we contrived to flatter her +away.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Days passed on; the child was very quiet; +she used to go as usual to sit at the door, and +watch hour after hour along the road that +her mother always took coming home from +market, waiting for her that could never +come again. When the sun was near setting, +her gaze used to be more fixed and eager; +but when the darkness came on, her blue eyes +used to droop like the flowers that shut up +their leaves, and she would come in quietly +without saying a word, and allow me to undress +her and put her to bed.</p> + +<p class='c005'>It troubled us and the young ladies greatly +that she would not eat. It was almost impossible +to get her to taste a morsel; indeed +the only thing she would let inside her lips +was a bit of a little white bun, like those her +poor mother used to bring her. There was +nothing left untried to please her. I carried +her up to the big house, thinking the change +might do her good, and the ladies petted her, +and talked to her, and gave her heaps of toys +and cakes, and pretty frocks and coats; but +she hardly noticed them, and was restless +and uneasy until she got back to her own low +sunny door-step.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Every day she grew paler and thinner, and +her bright eyes had a sad fond look in them, +so like her mother’s. One evening she sat at +the door later than usual.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Come in, <i>alannah</i>,” I said to her. “Won’t +you come in for your own Sally?”</p> + +<p class='c005'>She never stirred. I went over to her; +she was quite still, with her little hands +crossed on her lap, and her head drooping on +her chest. I touched her—she was cold. +I gave a loud scream, and Richard came +running—he stopped and looked, and then +burst out crying like an infant. Our little +sister was dead!</p> + +<p class='c005'>Well, my Mary, the sorrow was bitter, but +it was short. You’re gone home to Him +that comforts as a mother comforteth. <i>Agra +machree</i>, your eyes are as blue, and your hair +as golden, and your voice as sweet, as they +were when you watched by the cabin-door; +<span class='pageno' id='Page_396'>396</span>but your cheeks are not pale, <i>acushla</i>, nor +your little hands thin, and the shade of sorrow +has passed away from your forehead like a +rain-cloud from the summer sky. She that +loved you so on earth, has clasped you for +ever to her bosom in heaven; and God himself +has wiped away all tears from your eyes, and +placed you both and our own dear father far +beyond the touch of sorrow or the fear of death.</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <h2 class='c003'>A GREAT MAN DEPARTED.</h2> +</div> + +<div class='lg-container-b c006'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line in2'>There was a festive hall with mirth resounding;</div> + <div class='line in2'>Beauty and wit, and friendliness surrounding;</div> + <div class='line'>With minstrelsy above, and dancing feet rebounding.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line in2'>And at the height came news, that held suspended</div> + <div class='line in2'>The sparkling glass!—till slow the hand descended—</div> + <div class='line'>And cheeks grew pale and straight—and all the mirth was ended.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line in2'>Beneath a sunny sky, ’twas heard with wonder,</div> + <div class='line in2'>A flash had cleft a lofty tree asunder,</div> + <div class='line'>Without a previous cloud—and with no rolling thunder.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line in2'>Strong was the stem—its boughs above all ’thralling—</div> + <div class='line in2'>And in its roots and sap no cankers galling—</div> + <div class='line'>Prosperity was perfect, while Death’s hand was falling.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line in2'>Man’s body is less safe than any tree;</div> + <div class='line in2'>We build our ship in strong security—</div> + <div class='line'>A Finger, from the dark, points to the trembling sea.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line in2'>Man, like his knowledge, and his soul’s endeavour,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Is framed for no fixed altitude—but ever</div> + <div class='line'>Moves onward: the first pause, returns all to the Giver.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line in2'>Riches and health, fine taste, all means of pleasure;</div> + <div class='line in2'>Success in highest efforts—fame’s best treasure—</div> + <div class='line'>All these were thine,—o’ertopped—and over-weighed the measure.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line in2'>But in recording thus life’s night-shade warning,</div> + <div class='line in2'>We hold the memory of thy kind heart’s morning:—</div> + <div class='line'>Man’s intellect is not man’s sole nor best adorning.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='chapter'> + <h2 class='c003'>THE ADVENTURES OF THE PUBLIC RECORDS.</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c004'>“Burn all the records of the realm! <i>My</i> +mouth shall be the parliament.” Thus spoke +Jack Cade; and it would appear from the +manner in which the public records are at +the present time “bestowed,” that those who +have had the stowing of them, cordially echo +the sentiment. The historical, legal, and territorial +archives of this country—believed to +be, when properly arranged and systematised, +the most complete and valuable in existence—are +spread and distributed over six depositories. +Some little description of three of +these only, will show the jeopardy in which +such records of the Wisdom of our ancestors, +as we yet possess, are placed, and the adventures +which have befallen many of them.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Many of the most valuable documents of the +past—including the Chancery Records from +the reign of John to Edward I.—are kept in +the Tower of London. Some in the White +and some in the Wakefield Tower, close to +which is an hydraulic steam-engine in daily +operation. The basement of the former contains +tons of gunpowder, the explosion of +which would destroy all Tower Hill, and +change even the course of the Thames; while +the fate of paper and parchment thrown up +by such a volcano, it is not even possible to +imagine. The White Tower is also replenished +with highly inflammable ordnance stores, +tarpaulins carefully pitched, soldiers’ kits, and +all kinds of wood-work, among which common +labourers not imbued with extra-carefulness +are constantly moving about. That no risk +may be wanting, an eye-witness relates that +he has seen boiling pitch actually in flames, +quite close to this repository. When the fire +of the Tower <i>did</i> take place, its flames leaped +and darted their dangerous tongues within +forty feet of it. So alarmed were the authorities +on that occasion, that this tower underwent +a constant nocturnal shower-bath during +the time the small Armoury was burning. +But when the danger was over, though fireproof +barrack-houses were built for the soldiers, +the records were still left to be lodged +over the gunpowder.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Among the treasures in these ill-kept +“keeps,” are the logs and other Admiralty +documents, state papers, and royal letters, +many of which have never been consulted; +because the manner in which they are stowed +away rendered consultation impossible. They +are, no doubt, silently waiting to clear up +many of the disputed points, and to set +right many of the false impressions and unmitigated +untruths of history. Inquisitions—the +antiquity of which may be guessed when +we state that those up to the 14th of +Richard II. have only yet been arranged in +books—are also massed together ready for +explosion or ignition. These are amongst the +most curious of our ancient documents, being +the notes of the oldest of our legal rituals—the +“Crowner’s quest.” The Chancery proceedings +and privy seals piled in the White +Tower, are endless.</p> + +<p class='c005'>In the Rolls’ House, in Chancery Lane—which, +with its chapel, was annexed by +Edward III., in 1377, to the office of Custos +Rotulorum, or Keeper of the Rolls—are located +the Records of the Court of Chancery from +that year to the present time. That every +public document, wherever situated, may be +rendered in as great jeopardy as possible, a +temporary shed, like a navvy’s hut, has been +recently knocked up for the Treasury papers +in the Rolls’ Garden; other of the Records are +quietly accommodated in the pews and behind +the communion-table in the Rolls’ Chapel—a +<span class='pageno' id='Page_397'>397</span>building which is heated by hot-air flues, in +a manner similar to that which originated +the burning of the Houses of Parliament.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Perhaps, however, our most valuable muniments +repose in the Chapter-House of Westminster +Abbey, a building still surrounded +by the same facilities for fire as those which +the late Charles Buller detailed to the House +of Commons fourteen years ago. “Ever +since 1732,” he said, “it had been reported +to the House of Commons that there was +a brewhouse and a washhouse at the back +of the Chapter-House, where the Records +were kept, and by which the Chapter-House +was endangered by fire. In 1800, this brewhouse +and this washhouse were again reported +as dangerous. In 1819, this brewhouse +and washhouse again attracted the +serious notice of the Commissioners. In +1831, it was thought expedient to send a +deputation to the Dean and Chapter of Westminster, +and to request His Majesty’s Surveyor +General to report upon the perils of +this brewhouse and washhouse, and endeavour +to get the Dean and Chapter to pull them +down. But the Dean and Chapter asserted +the vested rights of the Church, and no +redress was obtained against the brewhouse +and washhouse. In 1833, another expedition, +headed by the Right Honourable Sir R. +Inglis, was made to the Chapter-House; but +the right honourable baronet, desiring not to +come into collision with the Church, omitted +all mention of the brewhouse and washhouse. +And thus the attention of the Commissioners +had been constantly directed to this eternal +brewhouse and this eternal washhouse, without +any avail. There they still remain, as a +monument of the inefficiency of the Commissioners, +and of the great power and pertinacity +of the Church of this country.” +The newspaper reports of this speech end +with “Loud laughter from all parts of the +House.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>In the Chapter-House of Westminster Abbey, +the Conqueror’s Domesday Book, an unequalled +collection of treaties and state documents from +the twelfth to the seventeenth centuries; +others bearing upon the important events +during the York and Lancastrian wars, and +excambial returns belonging to the English +Crown, of the most minute and precise character, +are still at the mercy of the brewhouse +and washhouse. There is a little adventure +connected with the proceedings of the Courts +of Star Chamber which we must here introduce:—Their +registries and records were +kept in an apartment of the Royal Palace of +Westminster from the time of the dissolution +of the Courts. They were shifted from room +to room at the mercy of the Officers of the +Palace. Committees of the House of Commons +from time to time examined them, and reported +equally as to their value, and the dirt, +confusion, and neglect in which they were set +apart for the public use. But it was not till +the fire in the Cottonian Library, in 1731, +frightened the custodian, that an order from +the Privy Council was obtained for the removal +of these documents to the Chapter-House. +This house also possesses a unique +collection of the disused dies for coining; +and when the Nepaulese Minister and his +suite visited the Office, they were particularly +attracted by these primitive dies, which were +at once recognised as being now used in +the north-west of India. There are the washhouse +and the brewhouse still.</p> + +<p class='c005'>But the most monstrous instance furnished +to us of the disregard and contempt in which +our civil, political, legal, or ecclesiastical +authorities hold the very pedigrees of their +professional avocations, is to be found in +the ludicrously huge and unsuitable storehouse +called Carlton Ride—a low, brick-slated +roof, workhouse-looking building, at +the east end of Carlton Terrace. Mr. Braidwood, +the superintendent of the London Fire-Brigade, +has pithily said, that “The Public +Records in the Tower of London and Carlton +Ride are exposed to risks of fire to which no +merchant of ordinary prudence would subject +his books of accounts.” The protective staff +of this establishment, besides the clerks and +workmen during the day, consists of two +soldiers, two policemen, and two firemen, four +thousand gallons of water—a sort of open +air bath at the top of the building—three +rows of buckets, ready-charged fire-mains, +two tell-tale clocks, five dark lanthorns, and +a cat.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Carlton Ride was, originally, the Riding-House +of the Prince of Wales’s residence, +Carlton House. Under it are arched storehouses +for carriages and horse furniture; +and these were used for the carriages and +horses of the late good Queen Dowager. +When a question was raised as to the capability +of the structure to support the thousands +of tons of records which were to be +treasured therein, the district Clerk of the +Works satisfied all enquiries by noticing the +fact, that the strength of the building had +been tested to the utmost during the Spa +Fields riots, when it was occupied by the +horses and ammunition-waggons of the Royal +Artillery, packed together as close as they +could stand.</p> + +<p class='c005'>To adapt the interior of this place for the +public archives, the first process of building, +and that only, was resorted to;—scaffolding +was put up, so that, on entering this +receptacle of the national records of Great +Britain, the visitor finds himself in one of a +series of gloomy, dimly-lighted, mouldy-smelling +alleys, or stacks, of wooden scaffolding, +the sides of which are faced with records, +reaching to some thirty feet high. At first +sight it reminds him of an immense mediæval +timber-yard, in which no business has been +done since the time of the Tudors. Here +two-thirds of our country’s public and private +history are huddled together; not with the +systematic red tapery of a public office, but,—to +<span class='pageno' id='Page_398'>398</span>use an expressive vulgarism—“anyhow.” +Whichever way the eye turns, it meets reams +of portfolios, piles of boxes, stacks of wills—rolls +of every imaginable shape, like those of +a baker—square, round, flat, oblong, short, +and squat; some plaited like twopenny twists, +others upright as rolls of tobacco; a few in +thick convolutions, jammed together as if they +were double Gloucester cheeses; there are +heaps laid lengthwise, like mouldering coffins; +some stacked up on end, like bundles of firewood, +and others laid down, like the bottles +in a wine-bin. The hay-loft which extends +over the riding-school is similarly occupied, +and all the racks, presses, shelves, boxes, +beams, and scaffolding, being of wood, Mr. +Braidwood has good right for estimating that +a fire would burn it up “like matches” in +less than twenty minutes. That, however, +there should be no accidental deficiency of +combustibles, the riding-school was partitioned +into two divisions, one side for the +records of the Courts of Common Pleas +and Exchequer, and the other for the +domestic furniture, china, paintings, weapons +of warfare of all kinds, books, prints, &c., belonging +to Carlton House. It is evident that +in the estimation of the powers that were, the +records were classed with the other lumber. +But this store of second-hand furniture could +not take fire of itself; and that no chance +might be lost, the functionary in charge of it, +finding his half of the “ride” a dreary, comfortless, +and cold place, even for a lumber +store, warmed it by means of a large stove +with a chimney-flue which perforated one side +of the building. On several occasions he was +observed during the winter months—particularly +after meal-time—to be somnolently +reposing by the stove, while the flue was +judiciously emulating his example, by acquiring +all the heat possible from the fire—and, +indeed, once or twice its face was illumined +by a red glow of satisfaction rather +alarming to those in charge of the records, +who witnessed it. Some five or six years ago, by +the instigation of Lord Lincoln, who was then +Chief Commissioner of Woods and Forests, +Prince Albert paid a visit to Carlton Ride, and +after examining the furniture, &c., directed +that it should be all removed, and that the +remainder of the building should be given up +for the records; consequently, a variety of important +parchments were removed into it—chiefly +ecclesiastical records, touching the +property belonging to the religious houses +dissolved in King Henry VIII.’s time, together +with a most valuable and minute +series of documents, relating to the receipt +and expenditure of the royal revenue, from +Henry II. down to Charles II. To these +were added various Exchequer and Common +Pleas records.</p> + +<p class='c005'>The water as well as the fire test of destruction +has been also applied to our national +muniments. The Common Pleas records previous +to the coronation of George IV. were +deposited in a long room, called “Queen +Elizabeth’s Kitchen,” lying under the Old +Court of Exchequer on the west side of +Westminster Hall. This room was frequently +flooded during the prevailing high tides of +spring or autumn. Rats and vermin abounded, +and neither candle nor soap could be kept in the +rooms, although mere public documents were +deemed quite safe there. The consequence was, +that before these could be removed, the authorities +had to engage in a little sporting. The +rats had to be hunted out by means of dogs. +We believe this was about the time that the +celebrated dog “Billy” was in the height of +fame; and we are not quite sure that his +services were not secured for this great Exchequer +Hunt. After several fine “bursts” +the rats allowed the documents to be removed, +and turned into a temporary wooden building, +which was so intensely cold during winter +time, that those wishing to make searches +prepared themselves with clothing as if they +were going on an Arctic expedition. Here +mice abounded in spite of the temperature; +and the candles, which the darkness of this +den rendered necessary, were gradually consumed +by them. But this light sort of food +wanted a more consolidating diet, and they +found a relishing <i><span lang="fr">piece de resistance</span></i> in the +prayer-book of the Court, a great portion of +which they nibbled away. Ten years afterwards +the records were packed off to the +King’s Mews, Charing Cross, into stables and +harness lofts; and on the demolition of this +building in 1835, Carlton Ride was selected +as their resting-place. The records of the +Queen’s Remembrancer of the Exchequer +(an officer who was presumed to preserve +“memoranda or remembrances” of the condition +of the royal exchequer) kept company +with the Common Pleas muniments in their +trials and journeyings.</p> + +<p class='c005'>At present, we repeat, the whole of the +records of the three Courts, Queen’s Bench, +Exchequer, and Common Pleas, are located +under the same roof at Carlton Ride. Such +of the records as are in this building are +reasonably accessible to the public. Many of +them are of intense interest. Fees only nominal +in amount are imposed, to restrain inquisitive, +troublesome, or merely idle inquirers; +a restriction highly necessary against +pedigree-hunters and lady-searchers. One +poor deluded female, who fancied herself +Duchess of Cornwall, and claimed the hereditary +fee-simple of the counties of Devon +and Cornwall, caused the employment of more +clerks and messengers to procure the documents +for her extravagant humours than any +legion of lawyers’ clerks hot with the business +of term time. She begged, she implored, she +raved, she commanded, she threatened, she +cried aloud for “all the fines,” for “all the +recoveries,” for “all the indentures of lease +and release” touching the landed property of +these two counties.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Pedigree-hunters abound. One of these +<span class='pageno' id='Page_399'>399</span>requested to be allowed to remain among +these founts of antiquity day and night. In +his unwearied and invincible zeal he brought +his meals with him, and declared that rest +was out of the question until he was satisfied +which of his ancestors were “Roberts,” and +which “Johns,” from the time of the Seventh +Henry. A hair-brained quack doctor has +seriously asserted his claim to a large quantity +of these public documents.</p> + +<p class='c005'>On the other hand, persons really interested +in these records take no heed of +them. Messrs. Brown, Smith, and Tomkins +buy and sell manors and advowsons, Waltons +and Stokes, and Combes cum Tythings, without +knowing or caring that there are records +of the actual transfers of the same properties +between the holders of them since the days of +King John! There is no sympathy for these +things, even with those who might fairly be +presumed to have a direct interest in the preservation +of them, or with the public at large. +Out of many examples of this sort, we need +only cite one from the “Westminster Review:”—The +Duke of Bedford inherits the Abbey of +Woburn, and its monastic rights, privileges, +and hereditaments; and there are public +records, detailing with the utmost minuteness +the value of this and all the church property +which “Old Harry” seized, and all the stages +of its seizure; the preliminary surveys to +learn its value; perhaps the very surrender +of the monks of Woburn; the annual value +and detail of the possessions of the monastery +whilst the Crown held it; the very particulars +of the grant on which the letters patent to +Lord John Russell were founded; the inrolment +of the letters patent themselves. But +neither his Grace of Bedford, the duke and +lay impropriator, nor his brother, the Prime +Minister and the historian, have seemed to +regard these important documents as worthy +of safe keeping.</p> + +<p class='c005'>On public grounds, nothing was for a long +time done, although, as Bishop Nicholson +said in 1714, “Our stores of Public Records +are justly reckoned to excel in age, beauty, correctness, +and authority, whatever the choicest +archives abroad can boast of the like sort.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>We are happy to perceive by the “Eleventh +Report of the Deputy Keeper of the Public +Records” that the work of arranging, repairing, +cleaning, cataloguing, and rendering +accessible these documents, proceeds diligently. +But we are more happy to discover +that the disastrous adventures of our Public +Records are nearly at an end. The Deputy +Keeper acknowledges “with extreme satisfaction +the receipt of communications made +to Lord Langdale from the Lords Commissioners +of Your Majesty’s Treasury, intimating +that their Lordships propose to commence +the building of the Repository so emphatically +urged by his Lordship the Master of the +Rolls, and so long desired; the site thereof +to be the Rolls Estate, and the Building to be +comprehended within the boundaries of such +Estate, the said site being in all respects the +best and most convenient which the metropolis +affords.”</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <h2 class='c003'>A MIGHTIER HUNTER THAN NIMROD.</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c004'>A great deal has been said about the +prowess of Nimrod, in connexion with the +chase, from the days of him of Babylon to +those of the late Mr. Apperley of Shropshire; +but we question whether, amongst all the +sporting characters mentioned in ancient or +modern story, there ever was so mighty a +hunter as the gentleman whose sporting +calendar now lies before us.<a id='r5'></a><a href='#f5' class='c007'><sup>[5]</sup></a> The annals of +the chase, so far as we are acquainted with +them, supply no such instances of familiar +intimacy with Lions, Elephants, Hippopotami, +Rhinoceroses, Serpents, Crocodiles, and other +furious animals, with which the human species +in general is not very forward in cultivating +an acquaintance.</p> + +<div class='footnote' id='f5'> +<p class='c005'><a href='#r5'>5</a>. A Hunter’s Life in South Africa. By R. Gordon +Cumming, Esq., of Altyre.</p> +</div> + +<p class='c005'>Mr. Cumming had exhausted the Deer +forests of his native Scotland; he had sighed +for the rolling prairies and rocky mountains +of the Far West, and was tied down to +military routine as a Mounted Rifleman in +the Cape Colony, when he determined to +resign his commission into the hands of +Government, and himself to the delights of +hunting amidst the untrodden plains and +forests of Southern Africa. Having provided +himself with waggons to travel and live in, +with bullocks to draw them, and with a host of +attendants; a sufficiency of arms, horses, dogs, +and ammunition, he set out from Graham’s-Town, +in October 1843. From that period +his hunting adventures extended over five +years, during which time he penetrated from +various points and in various directions from +his starting-place in lat. 33 down to lat. 20, +and passed through districts upon which no +European foot ever before trod; regions +where the wildest of wild animals abound—nothing +less serving Mr. Cumming’s ardent +purpose.</p> + +<p class='c005'>A lion story in the early part of his book +will introduce this fearless hunter-author +to our readers better than the most elaborate +dissection of his character. He is +approaching Colesberg, the northernmost +military station belonging to the Cape Colony. +He is on a trusty steed, which he calls also +“Colesberg.” Two of his attendants on horseback +are with him. “Suddenly,” says the +author, “I observed a number of vultures +seated on the plain about a quarter of a mile +ahead of us, and close beside them stood a huge +lioness, consuming a blesblok which she had +killed. She was assisted in her repast by about +a dozen jackals, which were feasting along with +her in the most friendly and confidential manner. +Directing my followers’ attention to the +spot, I remarked, ‘I see the lion;’ to which +<span class='pageno' id='Page_400'>400</span>they replied, ‘Whar? whar? Yah! Almagtig! +dat is he;’ and instantly reining in their +steeds and wheeling about, they pressed their +heels to their horses’ sides, and were preparing +to betake themselves to flight. I asked +them, what they were going to do? To which +they answered, ‘We have not yet placed caps +on our rifles.’ This was true; but while this +short conversation was passing, the lioness +had observed us. Raising her full round face, +she overhauled us for a few seconds and then +set off at a smart canter towards a range of +mountains some miles to the northward; the +whole troop of jackals also started off in +another direction; there was, therefore, no +time to think of caps. The first move was to +bring her to bay, and not a second was to be +lost. Spurring my good and lively steed, and +shouting to my men to follow, I flew across +the plain, and, being fortunately mounted on +Colesberg, the flower of my stud, I gained +upon her at every stride. This was to me a +joyful moment, and I at once made up my +mind that she or I must die.” The lioness +soon after “suddenly pulled up, and sat on her +haunches like a dog, with her back towards +me, not even deigning to look round. She +then appeared to say to herself, ‘Does this +fellow know who he is after?’ Having thus +sat for half a minute, as if involved in thought, +she sprang to her feet, and facing about, stood +looking at me for a few seconds, moving her +tail slowly from side to side, showing her +teeth, and growling fiercely. She next made +a short run forwards, making a loud, rumbling +noise like thunder. This she did to intimidate +me; but, finding that I did not flinch an inch, +nor seem to heed her hostile demonstrations, +she quietly stretched out her massive arms, +and lay down on the grass. My Hottentots +now coming up, we all three dismounted, and +drawing our rifles from their holsters, we +looked to see if the powder was up in the +nipples, and put on our caps. While this +was doing, the lioness sat up, and showed +evident symptoms of uneasiness. She looked +first at us, and then behind her, as if to see if +the coast were clear; after which she made a +short run towards us, uttering her deep-drawn +murderous growls. Having secured +the three horses to one another by their +<a id='t400'></a>reins, we led them on as if we intended to +pass her, in the hope of obtaining a broadside; +but this she carefully avoided to expose, presenting +only her full front. I had given +Stofolus my Moore rifle, with orders to shoot +her if she should spring upon me, but on no +account to fire before me. Kleinboy was to +stand ready to hand me my Purdey rifle, in +case the two-grooved Dixon should not prove +sufficient. My men as yet had been steady, +but they were in a precious stew, their faces +having assumed a ghastly paleness; and I had +a painful feeling that I could place no reliance +on them. Now, then, for it, neck or nothing! +She is within sixty yards of us, and she keeps +advancing. We turned the horses’ tails to +her. I knelt on one side, and, taking a steady +aim at her breast, let fly. The ball cracked +loudly on her tawny hide, and crippled her in +the shoulder; upon which she charged with +an appalling roar, and in the twinkling of an +eye she was in the midst of us. At this +moment Stofolus’s rifle exploded in his hand, +and Kleinboy, whom I had ordered to stand +ready by me, danced about like a duck in a +gale of wind. The lioness sprang upon +Colesberg, and fearfully lacerated his ribs and +haunches with her horrid teeth and claws; +the worst wound was on his haunch, which +exhibited a sickening, yawning gash, more +than twelve inches long, almost laying bare +the very bone. I was very cool and steady, +and did not feel in the least degree nervous, +having fortunately great confidence in my +own shooting; but I must confess, when the +whole affair was over, I felt that it was a very +awful situation, and attended with extreme +peril, as I had no friend with me on whom I +could rely. When the lioness sprang on +Colesberg, I stood out from the horses, ready +with my second barrel for the first chance she +should give me of a clear shot. This she +quickly did; for, seemingly satisfied with +the revenge she had now taken, she quitted +Colesberg, and, slewing her tail to one side, +trotted sulkily past within a few paces of me, +taking one step to the left. I pitched my +rifle to my shoulder, and in another second +the lioness was stretched on the plain a lifeless +corpse.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>This is, however, but a harmless adventure +compared with a subsequent escapade—not +with one, but with six lions. It was the +hunter’s habit to lay wait near the drinking-places +of these animals, concealed in a hole +dug for the purpose. In such a place on the +occasion in question, Mr. Cumming—having +left one of three rhinoceroses he had previously +killed as a bait—ensconsed himself. +Such a savage festival as that which introduced +the adventure, has never before, we +believe, been introduced through the medium +of the softest English and the finest hot-pressed +paper to the notice of the civilised +public. “Soon after twilight,” the author relates, +“I went down to my hole with Kleinboy +and two natives, who lay concealed in another +hole, with Wolf and Boxer ready to slip, in +the event of wounding a lion. On reaching +the water I looked towards the carcase of the +rhinoceros, and, to my astonishment, I beheld +the ground alive with large creatures, as +though a troop of zebras were approaching +the fountain to drink. Kleinboy remarked +to me that a troop of zebras were standing on +the height. I answered, ‘Yes;’ but I knew +very well that zebras would not be capering +around the carcase of a rhinoceros. I quickly +arranged my blankets, pillow, and guns in the +hole, and then lay down to feast my eyes on +the interesting sight before me. It was bright +moonlight, as clear as I need wish, and within +one night of being full moon. There were six +<span class='pageno' id='Page_401'>401</span>large lions, about twelve or fifteen hyænas, +and from twenty to thirty jackals, feasting on +and around the carcases of the three rhinoceroses. +The lions feasted peacefully, but the +hyænas and jackals fought over every mouthful, +and chased one another round and round +the carcases, growling, laughing, screeching, +chattering, and howling without any intermission. +The hyænas did not seem afraid of +the lions, although they always gave way +before them; for I observed that they followed +them in the most disrespectful manner, and +stood laughing, one or two on either side, when +any lions came after their comrades to examine +pieces of skin or bones which they were +dragging away. I had lain watching this +banquet for about three hours, in the strong +hope that, when the lions had feasted, they +would come and drink. Two black and two +white rhinoceroses had made their appearance, +but, scared by the smell of the blood, they +had made off. At length the lions seemed +satisfied. They all walked about with their +heads up, and seemed to be thinking about +the water; and in two minutes one of them +turned his face towards me, and came on; +he was immediately followed by a second lion, +and in half a minute by the remaining four. +It was a decided and general move, they were +all coming to drink right bang in my face, +within fifteen yards of me.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>The hunters were presently discovered. +“An old lioness, who seemed to take the lead, +had detected me, and, with her head high and +her eyes fixed full upon me, she was coming +slowly round the corner of the little vley to +cultivate further my acquaintance! This unfortunate +coincidence put a stop at once to all +further contemplation. I thought, in my +haste, that it was perhaps most prudent to +shoot this lioness, especially as none of the +others had noticed me. I accordingly moved +my arm and covered her; she saw me move +and halted, exposing a full broadside. I fired; +the ball entered one shoulder, and passed out +behind the other. She bounded forward with +repeated growls, and was followed by her five +comrades all enveloped in a cloud of dust; +nor did they stop until they had reached the +cover behind me, except one old gentleman, +who halted and looked back for a few seconds, +when I fired, but the ball went high. I +listened anxiously for some sound to denote +the approaching end of the lioness; nor +listened in vain. I heard her growling and +stationary, as if dying. In one minute her +comrades crossed the vley a little below me, +and made towards the rhinoceros. I then +slipped Wolf and Boxer on her scent, and, +following them into the cover, I found her +lying dead.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>Mr. Cumming’s adventures with elephants +are no less thrilling. He had selected for the +aim of his murderous rifle two huge female +elephants from a herd. “Two of the troop +had walked slowly past at about sixty yards, +and the one which I had selected was feeding +with two others on a thorny tree before me. +My hand was now as steady as the rock on +which it rested, so, taking a deliberate aim, I +let fly at her head, a little behind the eye. +She got it hard and sharp, just where I aimed, +but it did not seem to affect her much. Uttering +a loud cry, she wheeled about, when I +gave her the second ball, close behind the +shoulder. All the elephants uttered a strange +rumbling noise, and made off in a line to the +northward at a brisk ambling pace, their huge +fanlike ears flapping in the ratio of their +speed. I did not wait to load, but ran back +to the hillock to obtain a view. On gaining its +summit, the guides pointed out the elephants; +they were standing in a grove of shady trees, +but the wounded one was some distance +behind with another elephant, doubtless its +particular friend, who was endeavouring to +assist it. These elephants had probably never +before heard the report of a gun; and having +neither seen nor smelt me, they were unaware +of the presence of man, and did not seem +inclined to go any further. Presently my +men hove in sight, bringing the dogs; and +when these came up, I waited some time +before commencing the attack, that the dogs +and horses might recover their wind. We +then rode slowly towards the elephants, and +had advanced within two hundred yards of +them, when, the ground being open, they +observed us, and made off in an easterly +direction; but the wounded one immediately +dropped astern, and next moment she was +surrounded by the dogs, which, barking angrily, +seemed to engross her attention. Having +placed myself between her and the retreating +troop, I dismounted, to fire within forty yards +of her, in open ground. Colesberg was extremely +afraid of the elephants, and gave me +much trouble, jerking my arm when I tried +to fire. At length I let fly; but, on endeavouring +to regain my saddle, Colesberg declined +to allow me to mount; and when I +tried to lead him, and run for it, he only +backed towards the wounded elephant. At +this moment I heard another elephant close +behind; and on looking about I beheld the +‘friend,’ with uplifted trunk, charging down +upon me at top speed, shrilly trumpeting, +and following an old black pointer named +Schwart, that was perfectly deaf, and trotted +along before the enraged elephant quite unaware +of what was behind him. I felt certain +that she would have either me or my horse. +I, however, determined not to relinquish my +steed, but to hold on by the bridle. My men, +who of course kept at a safe distance, stood +aghast with their mouths open, and for a few +seconds my position was certainly not an +enviable one. Fortunately, however, the dogs +took off the attention of the elephants; and +just as they were upon me I managed to +spring into the saddle, where I was safe. As +I turned my back to mount, the elephants +were so very near, that I really expected to +feel one of their trunks lay hold of me. I rode +<span class='pageno' id='Page_402'>402</span>up to Kleinboy for my double-barrelled two-grooved +rifle: he and Isaac were pale and +almost speechless with fright. Returning to +the charge, I was soon once more alongside, +and, firing from the saddle, I sent another +brace of bullets into the wounded elephant. +Colesberg was extremely unsteady, and +destroyed the correctness of my aim. The +‘friend’ now seemed resolved to do some mischief, +and charged me furiously, pursuing me +to a distance of several hundred yards. I +therefore deemed it proper to give her a gentle +hint to act less officiously, and accordingly, +having loaded, I approached within thirty +yards, and gave it her sharp, right and left, +behind the shoulder; upon which she at once +made off with drooping trunk, evidently with +a mortal wound. Two more shots finished +her: on receiving them she tossed her trunk +up and down two or three times, and falling +on her broadside against a thorny tree, +which yielded like grass before her enormous +weight, she uttered a deep hoarse cry and +expired.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>Mr. Cumming’s exploits in the water are +no less exciting than his land adventures. +Here is an account of his victory over a +hippopotamus, on the banks of the Limpopo +river, near the northernmost extremity of his +journeyings.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“There were four of them, three cows and +an old bull; they stood in the middle of the +river, and, though alarmed, did not appear +aware of the extent of the impending danger. +I took the sea-cow next me, and with my first +ball I gave her a mortal wound, knocking +loose a great plate on the top of her skull. +She at once commenced plunging round and +round, and then occasionally remained still, +sitting for a few minutes on the same spot. +On hearing the report of my rifle two of the +others took up stream, and the fourth dashed +down the river; they trotted along, like oxen, +at a smart pace as long as the water was +shallow. I was now in a state of very great +anxiety about my wounded sea-cow, for I +feared that she would get down into deep +water, and be lost like the last one; her +struggles were still carrying her down stream, +and the water was becoming deeper. To +settle the matter I accordingly fired a second +shot from the bank, which, entering the roof +of her skull, passed out through her eye; she +then kept continually splashing round and +round in a circle in the middle of the river. I +had great fears of the crocodiles, and I did +not know that the sea-cow might not attack +me. My anxiety to secure her, however, +overcame all hesitation; so, divesting myself +of my leathers, and armed with a sharp knife, +I dashed into the water, which at first took +me up to my arm-pits, but in the middle was +shallower. As I approached Behemoth her +eye looked very wicked. I halted for a moment, +ready to dive under the water if she +attacked me, but she was stunned, and did +not know what she was doing; so, running +in upon her, and seizing her short tail, I +attempted to incline her course to land. It +was extraordinary what enormous strength +she still had in the water. I could not guide +her in the slightest, and she continued to +splash, and plunge, and blow, and make her +circular course, carrying me along with her as +if I was a fly on her tail. Finding her tail +gave me but a poor hold, as the only means of +securing my prey, I took out my knife, and +cutting two deep parallel incisions through +the skin on her rump, and lifting this skin +from the flesh, so that I could get in my two +hands, I made use of this as a handle, and +after some desperate hard work, sometimes +pushing and sometimes pulling, the sea-cow +continuing her circular course all the time +and I holding on at her rump like grim Death, +eventually I succeeded in bringing this gigantic +and most powerful animal to the bank. +Here the Bushman quickly brought me a +stout buffalo-rheim from my horse’s neck, +which I passed through the opening in the +thick skin, and moored Behemoth to a tree. +I then took my rifle, and sent a ball through +the centre of her head, and she was numbered +with the dead.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>There is nothing in “Waterton’s Wanderings,” +or in the “Adventures of Baron Munchausen” +more startling than this “Waltz +with a Hippopotamus!”</p> + +<p class='c005'>In the all-wise disposition of events, it is +perhaps ordained that wild animals should be +subdued by man to his use at the expense of +such tortures as those described in the work +before us. Mere amusement, therefore, is +too light a motive for dealing such wounds +and death Mr. Cumming owns to; but he had +other motives,—besides a considerable profit +he has reaped in trophies, ivory, fur, &c., he +has made in his book some valuable contributions +to the natural history of the animals +he wounded and slew.</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <h2 class='c003'>CHIPS.</h2> +</div> + +<div class='nf-center-c0'> +<div class='nf-center c001'> + <div>A MARRIAGE IN ST. PETERSBURG.</div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c004'>A fair Correspondent supplies us with the +following “Chip” from St. Petersburg:—</p> + +<p class='c005'>In England we used to think the marriage +ceremony, with all its solemn adjuncts, an impressive +affair; but it is child’s play when +compared with the elaborate formalities of a +Russian wedding. In England, the bride, +though a principal, is a passive object; but in +Russia she has, before and at the ceremony, to +undergo as much physical fatigue and exertion +as a prima donna who has to tear through +a violent opera, making every demonstration +of the most passionate grief. But you shall +hear how they manage on these occasions.</p> + +<p class='c005'>The housekeeper of Mons. A., who has +been in his service for eighteen years, and +consequently no very youthful bride, took it +into her head to marry a shoemaker, who, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_403'>403</span>like his intended, is not remarkable for his +personal beauty. Friday was fixed for the +happy day, and about two in the afternoon I +caught sight of the bride, weeping and wailing +in a most doleful manner. I saw or heard +no more of her till six in the evening, when +she appeared in Mad. A.’s room, attired for +the ceremony. Her dress was of dark silk, +(she not being allowed to wear white, in consequence +of some early indiscretions,) with a +wreath of white roses round her head, and a +long white veil, which almost enveloped her. +She sobbed, howled, went off into hysterics, +and fainted; I felt excessively sorry for her, +but did all my soothing in vain, for she refused +to be comforted. As soon as she became +calm, we all assembled in the drawing-room, +and Mons. A.’s godson, a little fellow of +five years old, entered the room first, bearing +the patron saint, St. Nicholas, then came the +bride, followed by her train of female friends. +She knelt down before Mons. and Mad. A., +and they each in turn held the image over her +head, saying they blessed her, and hoped she +would “go to her happiness.” She kissed their +feet frantically; and they then assisted her up, +kissed her, and she was conducted weeping +to the carriage.</p> + +<p class='c005'>On arriving at the church about half-past +seven we were met by friends of the bridegroom, +who stood at one end of the church, +surrounded by his family, and every now and +then casting anxious and tender looks at the +beloved one, who was again howling and sobbing +like a mad woman. I thought how +painful it must be for him, poor man, to witness +such distress, and wondered why she +should marry any one for whom she manifested +so much dislike. After administering restoratives, +she became calmer, and the priests appeared—when +off she went again into a fit of +hysterics more sudden, though not so violent +as her previous performances; but, this time, +was soon restored, and the ceremony commenced.</p> + +<p class='c005'>One priest stood at the altar, and two others +at a kind of table or reading-desk at some +distance. The un-happy couple were placed +beside each other, behind the priests, who commenced +chaunting the service in beautiful +style. The bride and bridegroom held each a +lighted wax taper in their hand; a little more +chaunting, and rings were exchanged; more +chaunting, and then a small piece of carpet was +brought, upon which they both stood; two +crowns were then presented to them, and after +they had kissed the saint upon them, these +were held over their heads by the bridesmen. +More chaunting; then there was wine brought, +which they were obliged to drink, first he and +then she; they made three sups of it, though, +at first, there appeared only about a wine-glassful; +after this the Priest took hold of +them and walked them round the church +three times, the bridegroom’s man following +holding the crowns over their heads to the +best of his ability; but he fell short of his +duty, for the bridegroom was rather tall and +his man rather short: hence there was some +difficulty and slight awkwardness in this part +of the proceedings; then followed a kind of +exhortation, delivered in a very impressive +manner by the senior Priest. After this, +they proceeded to the altar, prostrated themselves +before it, kissing the ground with +great apparent fervour; then all the saints +on the wall were kissed, and lastly the whole +of the party assembled. We then adjourned +to the carriages, and after a quick ride soon +found ourselves at home.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Here Monsieur and Madame A. performed +the part of <i><span lang="fr">Père et Mère</span></i>, met the bridal party, +carrying the black bread and salt which is +always given on such occasions. This was, with +some words—a blessing, of course—waved over +the heads of the newly married couple, who +were on their knees kissing most vehemently +the feet of their <i><span lang="fr">Père et Mère</span></i>. After this ceremony, +which means “May you never want +the good here offered you,” they arose, +and again the kissing mania came upon the +whole party with greater vehemence than +ever. Nothing was heard for some time but +the sound of lips; at length a calm came, and +with it champagne, in which every one of +them drank “Long life and happiness to the +newly-wed pair,” all striking their glasses till +I thought there would be a universal smash, +so violently were they carried away by their +enthusiasm; then came chocolate, and lastly +fruit.</p> + +<p class='c005'>As soon as the feasting was over, the dancing +commenced with a Polonaise; the steward, a +great man in the house, leading off the bride, +who by this time had forgotten all her +sorrows. About twenty couple followed, and +away they went, through one room, out at +another, until they had made the whole +circuit of the apartments.</p> + +<p class='c005'>We left them at half-past eleven, but they +kept up the fun till five in the morning, when +they conducted the happy pair to their +dwelling.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Upon my expressing pity for the bride, and +also my astonishment why she married a +man who appeared so very repugnant to her, +I learnt that she would not be considered +either a good wife or a good woman unless +she was led to the altar in a shower-bath of +tears; in fact, in Russia, the more tears a +woman sheds, the better her husband likes +her!</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <h2 class='c003'>A NEW JOINT-STOCK PANDEMONIUM COMPANY.</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c004'>Gaming without risk, certainty in chance, +Fortune showering her favours out of the +dice-box, are promised by the promoters of a +New Joint-Stock Company just set on foot +in Paris, the prospectus of which now lies +before us. This is nothing less than a society +for the propagation of gambling in San Francisco; +“capital, one hundred and fifty thousand +francs, in three hundred shares of five +<span class='pageno' id='Page_404'>404</span>hundred francs each, provisionally registered +on May 10, 1850. Chief Office, No. 17, Rue +Vivienne.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>The promoters of this precious <span class='sc'>Cercle +de San Francisco</span> declare that certainty will +be the issue of this notable scheme, the +essence of which is hazard. “There never +was,” they say, “an enterprise more sure of +gain. Three years, with twelve dividends, +paid once a quarter, will produce enormous +results. These have been accurately tested +by the most conscientious (?) calculations, +based on the produce of the German gaming-houses, +and we have ascertained that each +share of five hundred francs will yield an +annual dividend of three thousand francs over +and above interest at six per cent!”</p> + +<p class='c005'>The future House itself is thus painted in +bright perspective:—“A fine house of wood, +of two stories, with a magnificent coffee-room +on the ground floor; a vast saloon on the +first-floor for two roulette-tables; on the +second, apartments for the manager, the +servants; and the officers; the whole completely +furnished, with all necessary appurtenances +for warming and lighting. Tables, +implements, counters, iron coffers for the +specie, &c., are to be immediately exported +by a sailing vessel. M. Mauduit, the manager, +will accompany these immense munitions, together +with subordinates of known probity. +M. Charles, chief-of-the-play at Aix, in Savoy, +is to follow, as director of the expedition, at +the end of October, by steamer. It is expected +that preparations will be complete, so +as to open the Cercle in San Francisco on the +31st December of this year.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>Of all the bare-faced schemes that was ever +presented to a French public, this is surely +the most extravagant. There is nothing in +<i>Jerome Patûrot</i> that equals it in impudence.</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <h2 class='c003'>YOUTH AND SUMMER.</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c004'>It is Summer. Day is now at its longest, +the season at its brightest; and the heat +comes down through the glowing heavens—broiling +the sons of labour, but whitening the +fields for the harvest. Like hapless Semele, +consumed by the splendours of her divine +lover, Earth seems about to perish beneath +the ardent glances of the God of Day. The +sun comes bowling from the Tropics to visit +the Hyperboreans. The strange phenomenon +of the Polar day—when for six months he +keeps careering through the sky, without a +single rising or setting, rolling like a fiery ball +along the edge of the horizon, glittering like a +thousand diamonds on the fields of ice—is +now melting the snows that hide the lichens, +the rein-deer’s food; and, quivering down +through the azure shallows of the Greenland +coast, infuses the fire of love and the lust for +roaming into the “scaly myriads” of the +herring tribe.</p> + +<p class='c005'>On ourselves, the Summer sun is shining, +glowing—robing in gold the declining days of +July, and taking her starry jewels from the +crown of Night—nay, lifting the diadem from +her sable brow, and invading the skies of midnight +with his lingering beams. Oh, what a +glory in those evening skies! The sun, just set, +brings out the summits of the far-off hills +sharp and black against his amber light: +Nature is dreaming; yonder sea is calm as if +it had never known a storm. It is the hour +of Reverie: old memories, half-forgotten +poetry, come floating like dreams into the soul. +We wander in thought to the lonely Greek +Isle, where Juan and Haidee are roaming +with encircling arms upon the silvery sands, +or gaze in love’s reverie from the deserted +banquet-room upon the slumbering waters of +the Ægean. We see the mariner resting on +his oars within the shadow of Ætna, and +hear the “Ave Sanctissima” rising in solemn +cadence from the waveless sea. We stand +beneath the lovely skies of Italy—we rest on +the woody slopes of the Apennines, where the +bell of some distant convent is proclaiming +sundown, and the vesper hymn floats on the +rosy stillness, a vocal prayer.</p> + +<div class='lg-container-b c008'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“Ave Maria! blessed be the hour,</div> + <div class='line in2'>The time, the clime, the spot where I so oft</div> + <div class='line'>Have felt that moment in its fullest power</div> + <div class='line in2'>Sink o’er the earth so beautiful and soft;</div> + <div class='line'>While swung the deep bell in the distant tower,</div> + <div class='line in2'>And the faint dying day-hymn stole aloft;</div> + <div class='line'>While not a breath stole through the rosy air,</div> + <div class='line'>And yet the forest leaves seem’d stirr’d with prayer!”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c005'>Study is impossible in the Summer evenings—those +long, clear, mellow nights, when the +Evening Star hangs like a diamond lamp in +the amber skies of the West, and the hushed +air seems waiting for serenades. The very +charm of our Study is then our ruin. Whenever +we lift our eyes from the page, we +look clear away, as from a lofty turret, upon +the ever-shifting glories of sunset, where far-off +mountains form the magic horizon, and a +wide arm of the sea sleeps calmly between, +reflecting the skyey splendours. Our heart is +not in our task. There is a vague yearning +within us, for happiness more ethereal than +any we have yet beheld, a happiness which +the eye cannot figure, which only the soul can +feel—it is the Spirit dreaming of its immortal +home. Now and then we pause—the beauty +without, half-unconsciously fixes upon itself +our dreamy gaze.</p> + +<div class='lg-container-b c008'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“Oh, Summer night!</div> + <div class='line'>So soft and bright!”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c005'>That air, that lovely serenade of Donizetti’s, +seems floating in the room. A sweet voice is +singing it in my ear, in my heart. Ah, those +old times! I think of the hour when first I +heard that strain, and of the fair creature +singing it—with the twilight shadows around +us, and her lip, that might have tempted an +Angel, curling, half-proudly, half-kindly, as +“upon entreaty” she resumed the strain. +I fall into deeper reverie as I recollect it +<span class='pageno' id='Page_405'>405</span>all—those evenings of entrancement, those +days of boyish pain and jealousy. And ever +the melody comes floating in through my +brain, yet without attracting my thoughts—a +strain of sweetest sounds accompanying +the dissolving views which are dreamily, perpetually, +forming and changing, gathering and +dispersing, before my mind’s eye, like the +rose-clouds of sunset. Those shapes are too +ethereal for the mind to grasp them. Is it a +Juno-like form, beneath the skies and amid +the flowers of Summer—with Zephyr playing +among her golden curls, as she lifts from her +neck a hair-chain to yield it to the suit of +love! Or is it a zigzag path on a hill-side—a +steed backing on a precipice—a lovely girl on +the green bank, clinging to her preserver—sinking, +swooning, quivering from that vision +of sudden death! Who shall daguerreotype +those airy shapes? We feel their presence +rather than know their form, and the instant +we try to see what we are seeing, they are +gone!</p> + +<p class='c005'>We are no bad risers in the morning, but +we never saw the sun rise on Midsummerday +but once. It is many years ago, yet we +remember it as vividly as if it had been this +morning. It was from the summit of the +Calton Hill, the unfinished Acropolis, the +still-born ruin of Modern Athens. The +whole sky in the south and west, opposite +to where the sun was about to appear, +was suffused from the horizon to the zenith +with a deep pink or rose hue; and in the +midst, spanning the heavens, stood a magnificent +Rainbow! A symbol of peace in +a sea of blood! There lay the palatial +edifices of the New Town, white and still in +the hush of early morning, and high above them +and around them rose that strange emblem of +mercy amid judgment. Such an apparition +might fitly have filled the skies of the Cities +of the Plain on that woeful morn, the last the +blessed sun ever rose upon them;—ere amid +mutterings in the earth and thunders in the +clouds, the volcano awoke from its sleep, and +the red lava poured from its sources of fire—when +clouds of stones and ashes, falling, +falling, falling, gathered deeper and deeper +above the Plain, and the descending lightnings +set fire to the thousand founts of +naphtha bubbling up from their subterranean +reservoirs—when a whirlwind of flame shot +up against the face of the sky, like the last +blasphemy of a godless world; and with a +hollow groaning, the sinking, convulsed earth +hid the scene of pollution and wrath beneath +the ever mournful-looking waters of the Dead +Sea. The skies of night and morning are +familiar to me as those of day, but never but +that once did that Heavenly Spectre meet my +eye.</p> + +<p class='c005'>As I reached the northern brow of the hill, +it wanted but a minute or two of sunrise; in +a few seconds a new Day would dawn—a +flake would separate itself from the infinite +Future, and be born into the world. I stood +awaiting the Incarnation of Time. A flapping +wing broke on the solemn stillness. Two +rooks rose slowly from the ground, where +they had been preying upon the tenants of +the turf. Below me, to the east and north, +spread out the waters of the Firth of Forth—not +a billow breaking against its rocky +islets—its broad expanse of the colour of +lead, sombre and waveless, like the lifeless +waters of the Asphaltite Sea; while, toiling +like an imp of darkness, a small steam-boat +tore up its leaden-like surface, disappearing +behind the house-tops of Leith. The spirits +of night seemed hurrying to their dens, to +escape the golden arrows of the God of Day. +In the bowery gardens below me, the birds +began an overture as the curtain of the Dawn +was lifting. At length the sun shot up into +the sky; then seemed to pause for some time, +his lower limb resting on the dark sea, his +upper almost touching a bank of overhanging +cloud. Pale tremulous rays, like +those of the aurora borealis, darted laterally +from the orb, shooting quiveringly along the +sky, and returning: the waves of light were +ebbing and flowing on the sands of Night. +The sea and the slopes of the Calton still lay +in the dull hues of dawn; but a strange +cold sun-gleam which one felt instinctively +would be short-lived, glittered around me +on the crest of the hill, and on the white +stone monuments that crown it as with a +diadem. Foremost and loftiest rose the +noble columns of the National Monument, +even in their imperfection the most Grecian +of British edifices, standing aloft like the +ruins of Minerva’s temple on the bluff Cape +of Sunium, visible from afar to mariners +entering the romantic Bay of the Forth. +The glitter which now tinged them with gold +was bright and brief as the national fervour +which gave them birth. In a few minutes +the sun passed up behind the bank of +cloud, and nothing remained of his beams +but a golden streak on the far edge of the +waters.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Fair Summer has come, and the ocean wooes +us. Breaking her ward, she has leapt like a +lovely Bacchante to our arms; while men who +have been “sighing like furnace” for her, and +chiding the dull delay of her coming, now +fly from her embraces into the sea—plunge +into the haunts of the Nereids. In what +“infernal machines” do they go a-wooing! +And yet they appear to have every confidence +in their natural powers of attraction; +the Nereids run no danger of being deceived +as to the <i>physique</i> of their human admirers. +Queer fishes some of them are certainly! +Only look at yon big fat old fellow, for all +the world like a skinned porpoise, floundering +and blowing in the shallows like a +stranded whale! while another more modest +animal, of like dimensions, floats like +cork or blubber in deep water, thumping +energetically with leg and arm, and hides +obesity in a cataract of foam. Yonder, over +<span class='pageno' id='Page_406'>406</span>the clear blue depths, breasting at his ease +the flood, goes the long steady stroke of the +practised swimmer—an animal half-amphibious, +seen at times afar off, lifting on the +crest of a wave a mile at sea. With laugh and +splutter a band of juveniles rub their heads +with water in the most approved manner, +as if they were a set of old topers afraid of +apoplexy; or with whoop and hollo engage in +a water-combat, or in a race in bunting that +reminds one of running in sacks; while a +still younger member of the human family +roars lustily as he clings to his pitiless +nurse’s neck, or emerges half-suffocated from +the prescriptive thrice-repeated dip. Yet +there is something gladsome in the flash of +the waters around the sportive bathers, and +in the glancing glitter of the sun-beams on +the ivory-like arms that are swaying to and +fro upon the blue waters. It speaks of +Summer; and that of itself awakens gladness.</p> + +<p class='c005'>As we look upon the earth in a glorious +summer-day, we feel as if all nature loved us, +and that a spirit within is answering to the +loving call of the outer world. We feel as if +<i>caressed</i> by the beauty floating around—as if +the mission of nature were to delight us. And +it is so. It was to be a joy for Man that this +glorious world sprang out of Chaos, and it +was to enjoy it that we were gifted with our +many senses of beauty. How narrow the +enjoyment of the body to the domain of the +spirit! The possessions and enjoyments of +man consist less in the acres we can win from +our fellows, than in the wide universe around +us. Creature-comforts are unequally divided, +but the charm of existence, the joy that rays +from all nature, are the property of all. Who +can set a price upon the colours of the rose +or the hues of sunset? Yet, would the +Vernon Gallery be an adequate exchange? +Water and air, prime necessaries of physical +life, are not more free to all, than is its best +and highest food everywhere accessible to +the spirit. What we want is, to rub the dust +of the earth off our souls, and let them mirror +the beauty of the universe. What we want +is, to open the nature within to the nature +without—to clear the mind from ignorance, +the heart from prejudice. We must learn to +see things as they are—to find beauty in +nature, love in man, good everywhere; not to +shut our eyes or look through a distorting +medium. We scramble for the crumbs of +worldly success, and too often have neglected +the higher delights that are free to our taking. +Like the groveller in the Pilgrim’s Progress, +we rake amid straws on the ground, when a +crown of joy is ready to descend upon us if +we will only look up. We turn aside the +river from its bed, and toil in the sand for +golden dust, destroying happiness in the search +for its symbol, and forget that the world itself +may be made golden, that the art of the +Alchemist may be ours. The true sunshine +of life is in the heart. It is there that +the smile is born that makes the light +of life, the rosy smile that makes the world +of beauty, and keeps life sweet—the smile +that “makes a summer where darkness else +would be.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>We are in one of the pretty lanes of +England. The smoke of a great city is beginning +to curl up into the morning skies, but +the sounds of that wakening Babylon cannot +reach us in our green seclusion. As we step +along lightly, cheerily, in the cool sunlight, +hark to the glad voices of children; and lo! a +cottage-home, sweeter-looking than any we +have yet passed. Honeysuckles and jessamine +wreathe the wooden trellis of the porch with +verdure and flowers. In those flowers the +early bee is hanging and humming, birds are +chirping aloft, and cherubs are singing below. +An urchin, with his yellow curls half-blinding +his big blue eyes, sits on the sunny gravelwalk, +playing with a frisky, red-collared +kitten. On the steps of the door, beneath the +shade of the trellis-work, sit two girls, a +lapful of white roses before them, which +they are gathering into a bouquet, or sticking +into each other’s hair. What are they +singing?</p> + +<div class='lg-container-b c008'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Come, come, come! Oh, the merry Summer morn!</div> + <div class='line in6'>From dewy slumbers breaking,</div> + <div class='line in6'>Birds and flowers are waking.</div> + <div class='line'>Come, come, come! and leave our beds forlorn!</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Hark, hark, hark! I hear our playmates call!</div> + <div class='line in6'>Hurrah! for merry rambles!</div> + <div class='line in6'>Morn is the time for gambols.</div> + <div class='line'>Yes, yes, yes! Let’s go a-roving all!</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Haste, haste, haste! To woodland dells away!</div> + <div class='line in6'>There flowers for us are springing,</div> + <div class='line in6'>And little birds are singing—</div> + <div class='line'>“Come, come, come! Good-morrow! come away!”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c005'>A wiseacre lately remarked, as a proof of +the <i>sober sense</i> of the age, that no one now sang +about the happiness of childhood! <i>Sombre</i> +sense, he should have said,—if he misused the +word “sense” at all. No happiness,—nay, no +peculiar happiness in childhood! Does he +mean to maintain that we get happier as we +get older?—that life, at the age of Methuselah, +is as joyous as at fifteen? Has novelty, +which charms in all the details of existence, +no charm in existence itself? Is suspicion—that +infallible growth of years, that baneful +result of knowledge of the world—no damper +on happiness? Is innocence nothing? Is <i>ennui</i> +known to the young? No, no!</p> + +<p class='c005'>Youth is the summer of life; it is the very +heyday of joy,—the poetry of existence. Youth +beholds everything through a golden medium,—through +the prism of fancy, not in the glass +of reason; in the rose hue of idealism, not +the naked forms that we call reality.</p> + +<div class='lg-container-b c008'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“All that’s bright must fade,</div> + <div class='line'>The brightest still the fleetest!”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c005'>We have but to look around us and within +us to see the sad truth exemplified. Summer +is fading with its roses—Youth vanishes +with its dreams. “Passing away” is written +<span class='pageno' id='Page_407'>407</span>on all things earthly. Yet “a thing of beauty +is a joy for ever.” We have a compensating +faculty, which gives immortality to the mortal +in the cells of memory; the joys of which +Time has robbed us still live on in perennial +youth. Nay, more, they live unmarred by +the sorrows that in actual life grow up +along with them. As the colours of fancy +fade from the Present, they gather in brighter +radiance around the Past. We conserve the +roses of Summer—let us embalm the memories +of Youth.</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <h2 class='c003'>THE POWER OF SMALL BEGINNINGS.</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c004'>A grim Lion obstructs the paths of ardent +Benevolence in its desire to lessen the monster +evils of society, and constantly roars “Impossible! +Impossible!” Well-disposed Affluence +surveys the encroaching waves of destitution +and crime as they roll onwards, spreading their +dark waters over the face of society, and +folds its hands in powerless despair,—a despair +created by a false notion of the inefficacy of +individual or limited action. “Who can stem +such a tide?” it exclaims; “we must have +some great comprehensive system. Without +that, single efforts are useless.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>Upon this untrue and timid premise many +a purse is closed, many a generous impulse +checked. It is never remembered that all +great facts, for evil or for good, are an aggregate +of small details, and must be grappled +with <i>in</i> detail. Every one who hath and to +spare, has it in his power to do some good and +to check some evil; and if all those to whom +the ability is given were to do their part, the +great “Comprehensive System” which is so +much prayed for would arrange itself. The +hand of Charity is nowhere so open as in this +country; but is often paralysed for the want +of being well directed.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Of what individual energy can accomplish +in a very limited sphere, we can now afford a +practical instance. What a single individual +in energetic earnest has effected in the “Devil’s +Acre,” described in a former number,<a id='r6'></a><a href='#f6' class='c007'><sup>[6]</sup></a> can be +done by any other single individual in any +other sink of vice and iniquity, in every other +part of the globe.</p> + +<div class='footnote' id='f6'> +<p class='c005'><a href='#r6'>6</a>. At page 297.</p> +</div> + +<p class='c005'>In the spring of 1848 the attention of +Mr. Walker, the Westminster Missionary of +the City Mission, was called to the necessity +of applying some remedy to the alarming vice +and destitution that prevailed amongst a +large section of a densely peopled community, +whose future prospects seemed to be totally +neglected. A vast mass of convicted felons, +and vagrants, who had given themselves up +as entirely lost to human society, and whose +ambition was solely how they could attain the +skill of being the most accomplished burglars, +congregate upon the “Devil’s Acre.” Most +of these degraded youths were strangers to all +religious and moral impressions—destitute of +any ostensible means of obtaining an honest +livelihood, and having no provision made for +them when sent from prison. They had no +alternative but again resorting to begging or +stealing for a miserable existence; and not +only they themselves being exposed to all the +contaminating influences of bad example, and +literally perishing for lack of knowledge, but +also leading others astray—such as boys from +nine to twelve years of age, whom, in a short +time, they would train as clever in vice as +themselves, and make them useful in their +daily avocations.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Nearly ten years’ experience in visiting their +haunts of misery and crime, and entering into +friendly conversation with them, taught Mr. +Walker that punishment acted with but little +effect as a check upon criminal offenders; and +it was thought more worthy of the Christian +philanthropists to set on foot a system of improvement, +which should change the habits +and elevate the character of this degraded +part of our population,—a system which should +rescue them from the haunts of infamy, instil +into their minds the principles of religion and +morality, and train them to honest and industrious +occupations. With these great objects +in view, a scheme of training was commenced +which has since flourished. <i>One lad</i> was +selected from the Ragged School, fed, and +lodged, as an experiment. The boy had been +a thief and vagrant for several years, was +driven from his home through the ill-usage +of a step-grandfather: the only clothing he +possessed was an old tattered coat, and part +of a pair of trousers, and these one complete +mass of filth. After five months’ training, +through the kindness of Lord Ashley, he +was accepted as an emigrant to Australia. +Finding he was successful, his joy and gratitude +were unbounded. A short time before +he embarked, he said, “If ever I should be +possessed of a farm, it shall be called Lord +Ashley’s Farm. I shall never forget the +Ragged Schools; for if it had not been for +it, instead of going to Australia with a good +character, I should have been sent to some +other colony loaded with chains.” He has +since been heard of as being in a respectable +situation, conducting himself with the strictest +propriety.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Being successful in reclaiming one, Mr. +Walker was encouraged to select six more from +the same Ragged School, varying from the age +of fifteen to nineteen years; although at the +time it was not known where a shilling could +be obtained towards their support, he was +encouraged to persevere. A small room was +taken at two shillings per week; a truss of +straw was purchased, and a poor woman was +kind enough to give two old rugs, which was +the only covering for the six. They were content +to live on a small portion of bread and +dripping per day, and attend the Ragged +School; at last an old sack was bought for +the straw, and a piece of carpet, in addition to +the two rugs, to cover them. One of them +<span class='pageno' id='Page_408'>408</span>was heard to say one night, while absolutely +enjoying this wretched accommodation, “Now, +are we not comfortable?—should we not be +thankful? How many poor families there are +who have not such good beds to lie on!” One +of those he addressed, aged nineteen years, had +not known the comfort of such a bed for upwards +of three years, having slept during that +time in an empty cellar. Five of those lads +are now in Australia, and the other—who had +been the leader of a gang of thieves for several +years—is now a consistent member and communicant +in the Church, and fills a responsible +situation in England.</p> + +<p class='c005'>When the experiment was in this condition, +a benevolent lady not only contributed largely +towards the support of the inmates, but also +recommended her friends to follow her example. +A larger room was taken; the lady +ordered beds and bedding to be immediately +purchased: the merits of the system became +more publicly known; two additional rooms +were taken, and ultimately the whole premises +converted into a public institution, +known as the Westminster Ragged Dormitory, +and particularly alluded to in the article before +mentioned.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Since its establishment, there have been +one hundred and sixty-three applications. +Seventy-six have been admitted from the +streets; thirteen from various prisons, recommended +by the Chaplains; twenty-three did +not complete their probation; four were dismissed +for misconduct; three absconded after +completing their probation; five were dismissed +for want of funds; two restored to their +friends; two are filling situations in England; +fifteen emigrated to Australia; five to the +United States; and thirty are at present in +the Institution.</p> + +<p class='c005'>The expense at which fifty-four young persons +were thus, between April 1848 and May +1850, rescued from perdition, has been +376<i>l.</i> 16<i>s.</i> 3<i>d.</i>, which took two years to +collect and disburse. More than double +the number of cases presented themselves +than could be admitted, and five were obliged +to be hurled back into crime and want after +admission, for want of funds. We mention +this to show what might have been done, had +Mr. Walker’s efforts been seconded with anything +like liberality.</p> + +<p class='c005'>As a specimen of the sort of stuff the +promoters of this humble Institution had to +work upon, we add the “case” of a couple of +the inmates which was privately communicated +to us. We shall call the boys Borley +and Pole.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“R. Borley, 14 years of age, born in Kent +Street, Borough; never knew his father; his +mother died two years ago; she lived by +hawking. Since her death he has lived by +begging, sometimes got a parcel to carry at +the Railway Station; also got jobs to carry +baskets and hold horses at the Borough +Market; when he had money, lodged in low +lodging-houses, near the London Docks and +in the Mint in the Borough. The most money +he ever got in one day was 9<i>d.</i> He has been +in the habit of attending the different markets +in London. He has been weeks together +without ever being in a bed; he generally +slept about the markets, in passages, under +arches, and in carts. He had no shirt for the +last twelve months, no cap, no shoes; an old +jacket and a pair of trousers were his only +covering; sometimes two days without food, +and when he had food, seldom anything but +dry bread; sometimes in such a state of +hunger, that he has been compelled to eat +raw vegetables, this was the case when he +took the fever; he had been lying out in the +streets for some nights; he was in such a +weak state that he dropped down in the +streets. A gentleman lifted him up, took him +to a shop and gave him some bread and cheese, +afterwards took him to a magistrate, who sent +him to the workhouse, where it was found the +poor boy had fever, and was immediately sent +to the fever hospital. When brought to Pear +Street yesterday, he was not a little surprised +to find the boy Pole in the school; he would +not have known him but for his speech, so +much had he improved in appearance. Pole +had lived in the lodging-houses with him. +He said he has cause to remember Pole. On +one occasion he was Pole’s bedfellow, they +were both in a most destitute state for want of +clothing; neither of them had a shirt, but of +the two, Borley had the best trousers; when +he rose in the morning Pole was off and had +put on Borley’s trousers, leaving behind him a +pair that had but one leg, and that was in rags; +although yesterday was their first meeting after +this robbery, still it was a very happy one! +They congratulated each other at the good +fortune of being received into such an Institution. +Borley tells me that Pole was a dreadful +thief. He stole wherever he could; he +brought the articles he stole to the lodging-house +keepers, who bought them readily. So +notorious did Pole become, that before +morning he would have stolen the article he +had sold or anything else, and sold it to +another lodging-house keeper. Thus he went +on until he could scarce get lodgings either in +the Borough or Whitechapel. Since Pole +has been in Pear Street, he has never shown +anything but a desire to do what is right. +Borley is an interesting lad, and will do well.”</p> + +<div class='lg-container-l'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>May 16, 1850.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c005'>One Mr. Walker, who would begin, as he +did, with one wretched boy in each metropolitan +district, and in each town throughout +Great Britain, would do more to reduce poor’s +rates, county rates, police rates—to supersede +“great penal experiments,” and to diminish +enormous judicial and penal expenditure, +than all the political economists and “great +system” doctors in the world. But the main +thing is to begin at the cradle. It is many +millions of times more hopeful to prevent, +than to cure.</p> + +<div class='nf-center-c0'> +<div class='nf-center c001'> + <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_409'>409</span><span class='small'>Published at the Office, No 16, Wellington Street North, Strand. Printed by <span class='sc'>Bradbury & Evans</span>, Whitefriars, London.</span></div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='pbb'> + <hr class='pb c009'> +</div> +<div class='tnotes x-ebookmaker'> + +<div class='chapter ph2'> + +<div class='nf-center-c0'> +<div class='nf-center c010'> + <div>TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES</div> + </div> +</div> + +</div> + +<table class='table0'> + <tr> + <th class='c011'>Page</th> + <th class='c011'>Changed from</th> + <th class='c012'>Changed to</th> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c013'><a href='#t400'>400</a></td> + <td class='c014'>rheims, we led them on as if we intended to</td> + <td class='c015'>reins, we led them on as if we intended to</td> + </tr> +</table> + + <ul class='ul_1'> + <li>Fixed typos; non-standard spelling and dialect retained. + + </li> + <li>Renumbered footnotes. + </li> + </ul> + +</div> + +<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78182 ***</div> + </body> + <!-- created with ppgen.py 3.57i (with regex) on 2026-02-05 17:32:01 GMT --> +</html> |