| | 101 | Author: | Irving
Washington
1783-1859 | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | The Crayon miscellany  | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | I SIT down to perform my promise of giving
you an account of a visit made many years since
to Abbotsford. I hope, however, that you do
not expect much from me, for the travelling
notes taken at the time are so scanty and vague,
and my memory so extremely fallacious, that I
fear I shall disappoint you with the meagreness
and crudeness of my details. “On retiring to my bed chamber this evening
I have opened your letter, and cannot lose a
moment in expressing to you the strong interest
which it has excited both in Colonel Wildman
and myself, from the details of your peculiar
situation, and the delicate, and, let me add, elegant
language in which they are conveyed. I
am anxious that my note should reach you previous
to your departure from this neighbourhood,
and should be truly happy if, by any arrangement
for your accommodation, I could prevent the necessity
of your undertaking the journey. Colonel
Wildman begs me to assure you that he will
20
use his best exertion in the investigation of those
matters which you have confided to him, and
should you remain here at present, or return
again after a short absence, I trust we shall
find means to become better acquainted, and to
convince you of the interest I feel, and the real
satisfaction it would afford me to contribute in
any way to your comfort and happiness. I will
only now add my thanks for the little packet which
I received with your letter, and I must confess
that the letter has so entirely engaged my attention,
that I have not as yet had time for the
attentive perusal of its companion. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 103 | Author: | Irving
Washington
1783-1859 | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | The beauties of Washington Irving, author of "The sketch-book," "Knickerbocker," "Crayon miscellany," &c | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | During a journey that I once made through the Nctherlands,
I had arrived one evening at the Pomme d' Or,
the principal inn of a small Flemish village. It was after
the hour of the table d'hote, so that I was obliged to make
a solitary supper from the reliques of its ampler board.
The weather was chilly; I was seated alone in one end
of a great gloomy dining-room, and my repast being over,
I had the prospect before me of a long dull evening, without
any visible means of enlivening it. I summoned
mine host, and requested something to read; he brought
me the whole literary stock of his household, a Dutch
family-bible, an almanack in the same language, and a
number of old Paris newspapers. As I sat dozing over
one of the latter, reading old news and stale criticisms,
my ear was now and then struck with bursts of laughter
which seemed to proceed from the kitchen. Every one
that has travelled on the continent must know how favourite
a resort the kitchen of a country inn is to the
middle and inferior order of travellers; particularly in
that equivocal kind of weather, when a fire becomes agreeable
towards evening. I threw aside the newspaper, and
explored my way to the kitchen, to take a peep at the
group that appeared to be so merry. It was composed
partly of travellers who had arrived some hours before in
a diligence, and partly of the usual attendants and hangers-on
of inns. They were seated round a great burnished
stove, that might have been mistaken for an altar, at
which they were worshipping. It was covered with
various kitchen vessels of resplendent brightness; among
which steamed and hissed a huge copper tea-kettle. A
large lamp threw a strong mass of light upon the group
bringing out many odd features in strong relief. Its
yellow rays partially illumined the spacious kitchen, dying
duskily away into remote corners; except where they
settled into mellow radiance on the broad side of a flitch of
bacon, or were reflected back from well-scoured utensils,
that gleamed from the midst of obscurity. A strapping
Flemish lass, with long golden pendants in her ears, and a
necklace with a golden heart suspended to it, was the presiding
priestess of the temple. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 104 | Author: | Judd
Sylvester
1813-1853 | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | Margaret | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | “Didymus Hart being summoned to this Committee, on the
information of sundry witnesses, that the said Hart on the
27th day of this month, had violated the laws of the Continental
and Provincial Congress, and done other acts contrary to the
liberties of the country, appeared, and after due proof being
made of said charge, the said Hart was pleased to make a full
confession thereof, and in the most equivocal and insulting
manner attempted to vindicate said conduct, to wit: “Whereas I, the subscriber, have from the perverseness of
my wicked heart maliciously and scandalously abused the
character and proceedings of the Continental and Provincial
Congress, Selectmen of this town, and the Committees of
Safety in general, I do hereby declare, that at the time of my
doing it, I knew the said abuses to be the most scandalous
falsehoods, and that I did it for the sole purpose of abusing
those bodies of men, and affronting my townsmen, and all the
friends of liberty throughout the Continent. Being now fully
sensible of my wickedness, and notorious falsehoods, I humbly
beg pardon of those worthy characters I have so scandalously
abused, and voluntarily renouncing my former principles, do
promise for the future to render my conduct unexceptionable
to my countrymen, by strictly adhering to the measures of
Congress, and desire this my confession may be printed in the
Kidderminster Chronicle for three weeks successively. “Livingston.—We have long kept silence about the movements
in this place; but the matter has become too public to
excuse any farther negligence. Over the Red Dragon of Infidelity
they have drawn the skin of the Papal Beast, and tricked
the Monster with the trappings of Harlotry! On the ruins of
one of our Churches they have erected a Temple to Human
Pride and Carnal Reasoning. The contamination is spreading
far and wide; and unless something be attempted, the
Kingdom of God in our midst must soon be surrendered to the
arts of Satan. It is understood that the Rev. Mr. L—, of B—,
has openly and repeatedly exchanged pulpits with the man,
who having denied his Lord and Master, they have had the
hardihood to invest with the robes of the Christian Office.
Brethren shall we sleep, while the enemy is sowing tares in our
midst? | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 105 | Author: | Judd
Sylvester
1813-1853 | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | Richard Edney and the governor's family | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | It began to snow. What the almanac directed its readers
to look out for about this time — what his mother told Richard
of, as she tied the muffler on his neck in the morning —
what the men in the bar-rooms, where he stopped to warm
himself, seemed to be rubbing out of their hands into the fire
— what the cattle, crouching on the windward side of barn-yards,
rapped to each other with their slim, white horns —
what sleigh-bells, rapidly passing and repassing, jingled to
the air — what the old snow, that lay crisp and hard on the
ground, and the hushed atmosphere, seemed to be expecting
— what a “snow-bank,” a dense, bluish cloud in the south,
gradually creeping along the horizon, and looming midheavens,
unequivocally presaged, — a snow-storm, came
good at last. “This may certify that the bearer, Richard Edney by
name, son of John and Mary Edney, of this town, whose
birth has been duly registered in the town records, and his
baptism in the records of the Church; having arrived at
man's estate, and profited of such occasions as his native
village affords, being desirous to see other places, and visit
cities and towns more remote, is a member of the Church of
Christ in this town, and has maintained a good walk and
conversation; that he is a lover of truth, and a friend of
humanity; is a practical agriculturist; ingenious in the
understanding of mechanics, and industrious in the fulfilment
of his tasks. He is believed to be a youth of honor
and trustworthiness. As such, he is recommended to the
fellowship and sympathy of the good, the true, the noble,
everywhere. “Mr. Edney is requested to discontinue his visits at the
Governor's. Depravity of heart, foulness of intention, and
viciousness of life, cannot always be concealed. If he
wishes for information, he can inquire of Miss Plumy
Alicia Eyre. In the absence of the Governor and his family,
the undersigned, retaining sole charge of the house,
deems it her duty to protect its purity and defend its honor;
and she would leave Mr. Edney no possible room to doubt
that an authority assumed by weak and feeble hands will
be supported by others stronger than herself, and as strong
as anybody. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 106 | Author: | Kennedy
John Pendleton
1795-1870 | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | Swallow Barn, or A sojourn in the Old Dominion | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | I can imagine your surprise upon the receipt
of this, when you first discover that I have really
reached the Old Dominion. To requite you for my
stealing off so quietly, I hold myself bound to an explanation,
and, in revenge for your past friendship,
to inflict upon you a full, true, and particular account
of all my doings, or rather my seeings and thinkings,
up to this present writing. You know my cousin
Ned Hazard has been often urging it upon me,—so
often that he began to grow sick of it,—as a sort of
family duty, to come and spend some little fragment
of my life amongst my Virginia relations, and I have
broken so many promises on that score, that, in truth,
I began to grow ashamed of myself. “Dear and Respected Friend,—Touching the
question of the law-suit which, notwithstanding the
erroneous judgments of our unlearned courts, still
hangs in unhappy suspense, I am moved by the consideration
urged in your sensible epistle to me of the
fifteenth ultimo, to submit the same, with all the
matters of fact and law pertinent to a right decision
thereof, to mutual friends, to arbitrate the same between
us; not doubting that the conclusion will be
agreeable to both, and corroborative of the impressions
which I have entertained, unaltered from the
first, arising of this controversy with my venerated
neighbour, the late Walter Hazard. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 107 | Author: | Kennedy
John Pendleton
1795-1870 | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | Swallow Barn, or A sojourn in the Old Dominion | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | In the time of the Revolution, and for a good
many years afterwards, Old Nick enjoyed that solid
popularity which, as Lord Mansfield expressed it,
follows a man's actions rather than is sought after
by them. But in our time he is manifestly falling
into the sere and yellow leaf, especially in the
Atlantic states. Like those dilapidated persons who
have grown out at elbows by sticking too long to a
poor soil, or who have been hustled out of their profitable
prerogatives by the competition of upstart numbers,
his spritish family has moved off, with bag and
baggage, to the back settlements. This is certain,
that in Virginia he is not seen half so often now as
formerly. A traveller in the Old Dominion may
now wander about of nights as dark as pitch, over
commons, around old churches, and through graveyards,
and all the while the rain may be pouring
down with its solemn hissing sound, and the thunder
may be rumbling over his head, and the wind
moaning through the trees, and the lightning flinging
its sulphurous glare across the skeletons of dead
horses, and over the grizzly rawheads upon the tombstones;
and, even, to make the case stronger, a
drunken cobbler may be snoring hideously in the
church door, (being overtaken by the storm on his
way home,) and every flash may show his livid,
dropsical, carbuncled face, like that of a vagabond
corpse that had stolen out of his prison to enjoy the
night air; and yet it is ten to one if the said traveller
be a man to be favoured with a glimpse of that old-fashioned,
distinguished personage who was wont to
be showing his cloven foot, upon much less provocation,
to our ancestors. The old crones can tell you
of a hundred pranks that he used play in their day,
and what a roaring sort of a blade he was. But,
alas! sinners are not so chicken-hearted as in the
old time. It is a terribly degenerate age; and the
devil and all his works are fast growing to be forgotten. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 108 | Author: | Kennedy
John Pendleton
1795-1870 | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | Rob of the Bowl | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | It is now more than one hundred and forty-four
years since the ancient capital of Maryland was
shorn of its honours, by the removal of the public
offices, and, along with them, the public functionaries,
to Annapolis. The date of this removal, I think, is
recorded as of the year of grace sixteen hundred
and ninety-four. The port of St. Mary's, up to that
epoch, from the first settlement of the province, comprehending
rather more than three score years, had
been the seat of the Lord Proprietary's government.
This little city had grown up in hard-favoured times,
which had their due effect in leaving upon it the visible
tokens of a stunted vegetation: it waxed gnarled
and crooked, as it perked itself upward through the
thorny troubles of its existence, and might be likened
to the black jack, which yet retains a foothold in this
region,—a scrubby, tough and hardy mignon of the
forest, whose elder day of crabbed luxuriance affords
a sour comment upon the nurture of its youth. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 109 | Author: | Kennedy
John Pendleton
1795-1870 | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | Rob of the Bowl | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | The festival of St. Therese, Blanche's birth-day,
so anxiously looked for by the younger inhabitants
of St.Mary's, and scarcely less heartily welcomed
by the elder, at length came round. Towards sunset
of an evening, mild in temperature and resplendent
with the glorious golden-tipped clouds of the
October sky, the air fraught with that joyful freshness
which distinguishes this season in Maryland,
groups of gay-clad persons were seen passing on the
high road that led from the town to the Rose Croft.
The greater number, according to the usage of that
day, rode on horseback, the women seated on pillions
behind their male escort. Some of the younger
men trudged on foot, and amongst these was even
seen, here and there, a buxom damsel cheerily making
her way in this primitive mode of travel and
showing by her merry laugh and elastic step how
little she felt the inconvenience of her walk. “ORDER OF COUNCIL. “I, Gilbert Travers, sergeant of musqueteers, who
formerly served in the Walloon Guard of his Highness
the Prince of Orange, and hath held the degree of
Master of the Noble Science of Defence in forty-seven
prizes, besides four that I fought as a provost
before I took said degree, will not, in regard to the
fame of Stark Whittle, fail to meet this brave inviter
at the time and place appointed; desiring a clear
stage and from him no favour. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 110 | Author: | EDITED BY
A Son of Temperance. | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | The fountain and the bottle | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | By Father Frane. “My dear Daughter,—As I write this, you are
playing about my room, a happy child, and all unconscious
of the great loss you will soon have to bear in
the death of your mother. Not long have I now to
remain upon the earth. The sands in my glass have
run low; the life-blood in my heart is ebbing; a few
more fluttering pulses, and my spirit will take its
flight from earth.—Ah, my child! not until you are
yourself a mother, can you understand how I am distressed
at the thought of leaving you alone in this
selfish and cruel world! But I will not linger on
this theme. “Mr. Guzzler,—Dear Sir:—I find that it won't
be convenient for me to lend you the money we
talked about. In fact, to tell the plain truth, I hardly
think it prudent to risk any thing with a man who
neglects his business. No one who lies in bed until
eleven or twelve in the morning, need expect to get
along. Pardon this freedom; but he is the best
friend, generally, who speaks the plainest. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 115 | Author: | Lippard
George
1822-1854 | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | The Rose of Wissahikon, or, The Fourth of July, 1776 | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | A hale old man, leaning on his rifle, with an iron frame,
a bronzed visage, and snow-white hair! Ere you receive this, you will have learned that the prominent members
of the Rebel Congress have been seized and made prisoners, by
certain gentlemen who have proclaimed George Washington, the Rebel
General, King. At this hour, Hancock, Jefferson, Adams, with other
Delegates, are prisoners at my house, near Philadelphia. Thus have
we introduced dissension among the ranks of the rebels; while one
party prate about a republic, another talk of returning to their allegiance,
and a third—I know your excellency will smile—prate of King
Washington. How this has been accomplished, will be made known
at the proper time. Enough to say, that this Declaration, about which
they whispered so deeply, for a month back, this Proclamation of Independence,
is now crushed—quite forgotten in the public clamor. Permit
me to hope, that in announcing these facts to his Majesty, you will
neither forget the services, nor promised reward of | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 118 | Author: | Lippard
George
1822-1854 | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | Washington and his men | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | “I was born of a noble ancestry,” said a great man
who had risen from the kennel where Poverty hides its
hopeless face—“True, my parents were poor, but
three hundred years ago, the blood which flows in my
veins, coursed in the veins of Lords, Archbishops,
Counts, Dukes and Kings.” | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 119 | Author: | Longstreet
Augustus Baldwin
1790-1870 | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | Georgia scenes | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | If my memory fail me not, the 10th of June, 1809,
found me at about 11 o'clock in the forenoon, ascending
a long and gentle slope, in what was called “The Dark
Corner” of Lincoln. I believe it took its name from
the moral darkness, which reigned over that portion of
the county, at the time of which I am speaking. If in
this point of view, it was but a shade darker than the
rest of the county, it was inconceivably dark. If any
man can name a trick, or sin, which had not been committed
at the time of which I am speaking, in the very
focus of all the county's illumination, (Lincolnton) he
must himself be the most inventive of the tricky, and the
very Judas of sinners. Since that time, however, (all
humor aside) Lincoln has become a living proof “that
light shineth in darkness.” Could I venture to mingle
the solemn with the ludicrous, even for the purposes of
honorable contrast, I could adduce from this county instances
of the most numerous and wonderful transitions,
from vice and folly, to virtue and holiness, which have
ever perhaps been witnessed since the days of the apostolic
ministry. So much, lest it should be thought by
some, that what I am about to relate, is characteristic of
the county in which it occurred. “Dear Sir:—I send you the money collected on the
notes you left with me. Since you left here, Polly has
been thinking about old times, and she says, to save her
life she can't recollect you.” | | | Similar Items: | Find |
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