Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 61, No. 377, March 1847Various
General
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 61, No. 377, March 1847
Various
England -- Periodicals; Scotland -- Periodicals
or there has long ago been a divorce. I am told, the more manifest the
nonsense, the better the song.
GRATIAN.--Then I leave you to sing it, and reserve your sense and
sense-verses for to-morrow. But it cannot be till the evening, for I
must attend an agricultural meeting in the morning, some distance off.
Would you believe it, I have to defend my own statement. A stupid fellow
said publicly, that he would not believe that the produce of my Belgian
carrots, which you saw, was 360 lbs. per land-yard, which is at the rate
of 25 tons, 14 cwt. 1 qr. 4 lbs. per acre. There are people who will
doubt every thing. You see they doubt what I say of my carrots, and what
Horace says of his own words.--So, good-night.
This "good night," Eusebius, was not the abrupt leave-taking which it
may here appear. For our friend's habit was to close the day not
unthankful. We regularly retired to the dining-room, where the servants
and family were assembled, and prayers were read. So that this
"good-night" of our excellent host were but his last worldly and social
words. And if devotion, and most kind feelings towards all
creatures--man and beast--can ensure pleasant and healthful sleep, his
pillow is a charm against comfortless dreams and rheumatic pains.
There we leave him--and if, Eusebius, you are amused with this our chat,
you may look again for Noctes Catullianae.
POSTSCRIPT.--This should have gone to you, my dear Eusebius, two days
ago, but by some accident it was left out of the post-bag. By the
neglect, however, I am enabled to tell you that our friend the Curate is
in trouble: the very trouble, too, which I foresaw. He came to us this
morning with a very long face, and told us that yesterday, on going as
usual to his parochial Sunday school, he was surprised that nearly all
the bigger girls were absent; that the mistress of the school did not
receive him with her usual respect; that the three maiden ladies, Lydia
Prateapace, Clarissa Gadabout, and Barbara Brazenstare, were at the
farther end of the room, affectedly busy with the children; that seeing
him, they slightly acknowledged his presence, as Goldsmith well
expresses it, by a "mutilated curtsey." He approached them, and
expressed his surprise at the absence of the elder children. Prateapace
looked first down, then away from him, and said it was no business of
hers to question their parents. Miss Gadabout added, that every body
knew the reason. And Brazenstare looked him boldly in the face, and
said, she supposed nobody knew so well as himself. Prateapace put in her
word, that now he was come, there was no need of their presence, as
there were not too many to teach. Upon which Gadabout cried, "Then let
us be off: it is quite time we should." And as they were moving off,
Brazenstare turned round and asked him, mutteringly, if he intended to
kiss the schoolmistress. Upon this, he went to some of the parents to
inquire respecting the absence of their daughters, and little
satisfaction could he get.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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