On this page
-
Text (1)
-
MORE THAIST FIFTY YEARS AGO. 101
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
-^_ It Is Considerably More Than Fifty Y...
a fine horse that drew a small antique vehicle , some superb fowls , and the most magnificent dog in England ( my intimate friend ) .
These things constituted their sole claims to distinction . There was also a little library—or rather a few volumes , locked up in a glass
bookcase and never read , —which ought not to be forgotten ; for from this little library I obtained the first food for thought .
Although I was at that time a small scholar in a public school , I knew nothing ; for to be able to turn a Latin sentence into English ,
or to construe a few lines of Greek , by the aid of a lexicon , can scarcely be called " knowledge . " No ; it was from the Bible and
the History of England ( both filled with cuts ) , from Fleetwood's ' ' Life Arabian of Christ Nights , ' from ' blazing the charming with wonders peerless from Shakespeare ' Don Quixote , from , from the
, , ' Tristram Shandy , ' from ' The Pilgrim ' s Progress , ' from ' Pamela' and * Amelia , ' and such like precious wells , that I drew my first
nourishment . While I trample on Justin , on Caesar ( even ) , and on the Scriptores Grseci , I look back , languishing and full of love , to that
little old-fashioned mahogany bookcase with the glass door , from which I obtainedone bonethose pleasant volumes that first
encouraged me to , think ! y If I , have since that time attained any notorious eminence in geometry and the severer sciences , it must
have been owing to the spark then thrown into my mind , inflaming it with a noble ambitionwhen I was apparently nothing more than
, an idle urchin , enjoying my holdiays at W . And now that I have brought the reader to this point , I must tell
him that , although the dominant persons consisted , as I have said , of an ancient couple , there was a household also . The master and
mistress arose in the morning , ate , drank , prayed , and slept , —I trust the sleep of the rihteous ; but the household servants worked .
These were a man emp g loyed mainly in garden and field-work ; a stout young countrywomanwho scanned the cleanliness of the
dairy , the qualities of the bread , and meat , and other articles purchased from the neighbouring village ; and a female—a little
superior to her in station , and immeasurably in all other respectswhom I will call Alice Thorne .
Alice was about forty-five or perhaps fifty years of age ; of middle hei also ght in , thin face , somewhat but moving pale gentl , and , y to ( almost say the gracefull truth , somewhat y ) , and wrinkled with the
; sweetest voice that I ever heard . She was an extraordinary woman ; and it is to place on record my admiration and love for her , that I
write these few paragraphs . She was , I believe , the daughter of some small merchant or tradesman who had failed in business . She lishments
was imperfectly educated ; having acquired no " accomp , " as otherwise they are knowing called ; possessing nothing a beyond few trite her French native phrases English indeed . In ; this but
language lay her power ; and a great power it was . She had no
rules of grammar at her fingers' ends , no little tricks to detect you
More Thaist Fifty Years Ago. 101
MORE _THAIST FIFTY YEARS AGO . 101
-
-
Citation
-
English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), April 1, 1858, page 101, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01041858/page/29/
-