| | 41 | Author: | Irving
Washington
1783-1859 | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | The sketch book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent  | | | | 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 always fond of visiting new scenes,
and observing strange characters and manners.
Even when a mere child I began my travels,
and made many tours of discovery into foreign
parts and unknown regions of my native city,
to the frequent alarm of my parents, and the
emolument of the town-crier. As I grew into
boyhood, I extended the range of my observations.
My holiday afternoons were spent in
rambles about the surrounding country. I
made myself familiar with all its places famous
in history or fable. I knew every spot
where a murder or robbery had been committed,
or a ghost been seen. I visited the neighbouring
villages, and added greatly to my stock
of knowledge, by noting their habits and customs,
and conversing with their sages and great
men. I even journeyed one long summer's
day to the summit of the most distant hill,
from whence I stretched my eye over many a
mile of terra incognita, and was astonished to
find how vast a globe I inhabited. It is with feelings of deep regret that I have
noticed the literary animosity daily growing up
between England and America. Great curiosity
has been awakened of late with respect to
the United States, and the London press has
teemed with volumes of travels through the republic;
but they seem intended to diffuse error
rather than knowledge; and so successful have
they been, that, notwithstanding the constant
intercourse between the nations, there is none
concerning which the great mass of the British
people have less pure information, or more prejudices. On a soft sunny morning, in the month of
May, I made an excursion to Windsor, to visit
the castle. It is a proud old pile, stretching its
irregular walls and massive towers along the
brow of a lofty ridge, waving its royal banner
in the clouds, and looking down with a lordly
air upon the surrounding world. It is a place
that I love to visit, for it is full of storied and
poetical associations. On this morning, the
weather was of that soft vernal kind that calls
forth the latent romance of a man's temperament,
and makes him quote poetry, and dream
of beauty. In wandering through the magnificent
saloons and long echoing galleries of the
old castle, I felt myself most disposed to linger
in the chamber where hang the portraits of the
beauties that once flourished in the gay court of
Charles the Second. As I traversed the “large
green courts,” with sunshine beaming on the
gray walls, and glancing along the velvet turf,
I called to mind the tender, the gallant, but
hapless Surrey's account of his loiterings about
them in his stripling days, when enamoured of
the Lady Geraldine—
“With eyes cast up unto the maiden's tower,
With easie sighs, such as men draw in love.”
A COLLOQUY IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 42 | Author: | Irving
Washington
1783-1859 | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | Bracebridge Hall, or, The humorists | | | | 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 again taking pen in hand I would fain
make a few observations at the outset, by way
of bespeaking a right understanding. The volumes
which I have already published have met
with a reception far beyond my most sanguine
expectations. I would willingly attribute this to
their intrinsic merits; but, in spite of the vanity
of authorship, I cannot but be sensible that
their success has, in a great measure, been
owing to a less flattering cause. It has been a
matter of marvel, at least to the European part
of my readers, that a man from the wilds of
America should express himself in tolerable
English. I was looked upon as something new
and strange in literature; a kind of demi-savage,
with a feather in his hand instead of on his head,
and there was a curiosity to hear what such a
being had to say about civilized society. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 43 | Author: | Irving
Washington
1783-1859 | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | Bracebridge Hall, or, The humorists | | | | 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 take great pleasure in accompanying the
Squire in his perambulations about his estate,
in which he is often attended by a kind of cabinet
council. His prime minister, the steward, is a
very worthy and honest old man, and one of those
veteran retainers that assume a right of way;
that is to say, a right to have his own way, from
having lived time out of mind on the place. He
loves the estate even better than he does the
Squire, and thwarts the latter sadly in many of
his projects of improvement and alteration. Indeed,
the old man is a little apt to oppose every
plan that does not originate with himself, and
will hold long arguments about it, over a stile,
or on a rise of ground, until the Squire, who has
a high opinion of his ability and integrity, is fain
to give up the point. Such concession immediately
mollifies the old steward; and it often happens,
that after walking a field or two in silence
with his hands behind his back, chewing the cud
of reflection, he will suddenly observe, that “he
has been turning the matter over in his mind,
and, upon the whole, he thinks he will take his
honour's advice.” | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 44 | Author: | Irving
Washington
1783-1859 | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | Letters of Jonathan Oldstyle, gent | | | | 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: | Nothing is more intolerable to an old
person than innovation on old habits. The customs
that prevailed in our youth become dear to
us as we advance in years; and we can no more
bear to see them abolished, than we can to behold
the trees cut down under which we have sported
in the happy days of infancy. I perceive by the late papers, you have been
entertaining the town with remarks on the Theatre.
As you do not seem from your writings to be
much of an adept in the Thespian arcana, permit
me to give you a few hints for your information. I once more address you on a subject that I
fear will be found irksome, and may chafe
that testy disposition (forgive my freedom) with
which you are afflicted. Exert, however, the good
humour of which, at bottom, I know you to have a
plentiful stock, and hear me patiently through. It
is the anxious fear I entertain of your sinking into
the gloomy abyss of criticism, on the brink of
which you are at present tottering, that urges me
to write. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 45 | Author: | Irving
Washington
1783-1859 | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | A chronicle of the conquest of Granada | | | | 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 history of those bloody and disastrous wars,
which have caused the downfall of mighty empires,
(observes Fray Antonio Agapida,) has ever been considered
a study highly delectable, and full of precious
edification. What then must be the history of
a pious crusade, waged by the most Catholic of sovereigns,
to rescue from the power of the Infidels one
of the most beautiful but benighted regions of the
globe? Listen then, while, from the solitude of my
cell, I relate the events of the conquest of Granada,
where Christian knight and turbaned Infidel disputed,
inch by inch, the fair land of Andalusia, until
the crescent, that symbol of heathenish abomination,
was cast down, and the blessed cross, the tree of our
redemption, erected in its stead. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 46 | Author: | Irving
Washington
1783-1859 | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | A chronicle of the conquest of Granada | | | | 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 hand of God,” exclaims an old Arabian
chronicler, “is the destiny of princes; he alone
giveth empire. A single Moorish horseman, mounted
on a fleet Arabian steed, was one day traversing
the mountains which extend between Granada and
the frontier of Murcia. He galloped swiftly through
the valleys, but paused and looked out cautiously
from the summit of every height. A squadron of
cavaliers followed warily at a distance. There were
fifty lances. The richness of their armor and attire
showed them to be warriors of noble rank, and their
leader had a lofty and prince-like demeanor.” The
squadron thus described by the Arabian chronicler,
was the Moorish king Boabdil and his devoted followers. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 47 | Author: | Irving
Washington
1783-1859 | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | The devil and Tom Walker | | | | 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 few miles from Boston, in Massachusetts,
there is a deep inlet winding several miles into
the interior of the country from Charles Bay,
and terminating in a thickly wooded swamp, or
morass. On one side of this inlet is a beautiful
dark grove; on the opposite side the land
rises abruptly from the water's edge, into a high
ridge, on which grow a few scattered oaks of
great age and immense size. It was under one
of these gigantic trees, according to old stories,
that Kidd the pirate buried his treasure. The
inlet allowed a facility to bring the money in a
boat secretly, and at night, to the very foot of
the hill. The elevation of the place permitted
a good look-out to be kept, that no one was
at hand—while the remarkable trees formed
good landmarks by which the place might easily
be found again. The old stories add, moreover,
that the devil presided at the hiding of the
money, and took it under his guardianship; but
this, it is well known, he always does with buried
treasure, particularly when it has been ill
gotten. Be that as it may, Kidd never returned
to recover his wealth—being shortly after
seized at Boston, sent out to England, and there
hanged for a pirate. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 48 | Author: | Irving
Washington
1783-1859 | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | The Alhambra | | | | 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 spring of 1829, the author of this work,
whom curiosity had brought into Spain, made a
rambling expedition from Seville to Granada, in
company with a friend, a member of the Russian
embassy at Madrid. Accident had thrown us together
from distant regions of the globe, and a similarity
of taste led us to wander together among
the romantic mountains of Andalusia. Should
these pages meet his eye, wherever thrown by
the duties of his station, whether mingling in the
pageantry of courts or meditating on the truer
glories of nature, may they recal the scenes of
our adventurous companionship, and with them the
remembrance of one, in whom neither time nor
distance will obliterate the recollection of his gentleness
and worth. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 49 | Author: | Irving
Washington
1783-1859 | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | The Alhambra | | | | 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 common people of Spain have an oriental
passion for story-telling and are fond of the marvellous.
They will gather round the doors of
their cottages in summer evenings, or in the
great cavernous chimney corners of their ventas
in the winter, and listen with insatiable delight
to miraculous legends of saints, perilous adventures
of travellers, and daring exploits of robbers
and contrabandistas. The wild and solitary nature
of a great part of Spain; the imperfect state
of knowledge; the scantiness of general topics
of conversation, and the romantic, adventurous
life that every one leads in a land where travelling
is yet in its primitive state, all contribute
to cherish this love of oral narration, and to produce
a strong expression of the extravagant and
wonderful. There is no theme, however, more
prevalent or popular than that of treasures buried
by the Moors. It pervades the whole country.
In traversing the wild Sierras, the scenes of ancient
prey and exploit, you cannot see a Moorish
atalaya or watch-tower perched among the cliffs,
or beetling above its rock-built village, but your
muleteer, on being closely questioned, will suspend
the smoking of his cigarillo to tell some tale
of Moslem gold buried beneath its foundations;
nor is there a ruined alcazar in a city, but has
its golden tradition, handed down, from generation
to generation, among the poor people of the
neighbourhood. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 50 | 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: | In the often vaunted regions of the Far West,
several hundred miles beyond the Mississippi, extends
a vast tract of uninhabited country, where
there is neither to be seen the log house of the
white man, nor the wigwam of the Indian. It
consists of great grassy plains, interspersed with
forests and groves, and clumps of trees, and watered
by the Arkansas, the grand Canadian, the
Red River, and all their tributary streams. Over
these fertile and verdant wastes still roam the
Elk, the Buffalo, and the wild horse, in all their
native freedom. These, in fact, are the hunting
grounds of the various tribes of the Far West.
Hither repair the Osage, the Creek, the Delaware
and other tribes that have linked themselves
with civilization, and live within the vicinity
of the white settlements. Here resort also,
the Pawnees, the Comanches, and other fierce,
and as yet independent tribes, the nomades of
the prairies, or the inhabitants of the skirts of
the Rocky Mountains. The regions I have mentioned
forms a debateable ground of these warring
and vindictive tribes; none of them presume
to erect a permanent habitation within its borders.
Their hunters and “Braves” repair thither
in numerous bodies during the season of game,
throw up their transient hunting camps, consisting
of light bowers, covered with bark and skins,
commit sad havoc among the innumerable herds
that graze the prairies, and having loaded themselves
with venison and buffalo meat, warily
retire from the dangerous neighbourhood.
These expeditions partake, always, of a warlike
character; the hunters are all armed for action,
offensive and defensive, and are bound to
incessant vigilance. Should they, in their excursions,
meet the hunters of an adverse tribe,
savage conflicts take place. Their encampments,
too, are always subject to be surprised
by wandering war parties, and their hunters,
when scattered in pursuit of game, to be captured
or massacred by lurking foes. Mouldering
skulls and skeletons, bleaching in some dark ravine,
or near the traces of a hunting camp, occasionally
mark the scene of a foregone act of
blood, and let the wanderer know the dangerous
nature of the region he is traversing. It is the purport
of the following pages to narrate a month's
excursion to these noted hunting grounds, through
a tract of country which had not as yet been explored
by white men. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 51 | 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 |
| 53 | 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 |
| 54 | 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 |
| 55 | 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 |
| 56 | 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 |
| 57 | 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 |
| 58 | 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 |
| 59 | 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 |
| 60 | 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 |
|
