Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Vol. V, No. XXV, June, 1852Various
General
Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Vol. V, No. XXV, June, 1852
Various
American literature -- Periodicals; Civilization -- Periodicals; Culture -- Periodicals
So large a piece of garden-ground waiting for flowers, only a quarter
of a mile from Holborn, was a curious thing to contemplate. When we
looked into the dead house, built for the reception of those children
whom skill and care shall fail to save, and heard of the alarm which
its erection had excited in the breasts of some "particular" old ladies
in the neighborhood, we felt inclined to preach some comfort to them.
Be of good heart, particular old ladies! In every street, square,
crescent, alley, lane, in this great city, you will find dead children
too easily. They lie thick all around you. This little tenement will
not hurt you; there will be the fewer dead-houses for it; and the place
to which it is attached may bring a saving health upon Queen-square, a
blessing on Great Ormond-street!
THE LAST REVEL.
A TALE OF THE COAST-GUARD.
When I was quite a lad, a servant lived with us of the name of Anne
Stacey. She had been in the service of William Cobbett, the political
writer, who resided for some years at Botley, a village a few miles
distant from Itchen. Anne might be about two or three and twenty years
of age when she came to us; and a very notable, industrious servant
she was, and remarked, moreover, as possessing a strong religious
bias. Her features, every body agreed, were comely and intelligent.
But that advantage in the matrimonial market was more than neutralized
by her unfortunate figure, which, owing, as we understood, to a fall
in her childhood, was hopelessly deformed, though still strongly set
and muscular. Albeit a sum of money--about fifty pounds--scraped
together by thrifty self-denial during a dozen years of servitude,
amply compensated in the eyes of several idle and needy young fellows
for the unlovely outline of her person; and Anne, with an infatuation
too common with persons of her class and condition, and in spite
of repeated warning, and the secret misgivings, one would suppose,
of her own mind, married the best-looking, but most worthless and
dissipated of them all. This man, Henry Ransome by name, was, I have
been informed, constantly intoxicated during the first three months
of wedlock, and then the ill-assorted couple disappeared from the
neighborhood of Itchen, and took up their abode in one of the hamlets
of the New Forest. Many years afterward, when I joined the Preventive
Service, I frequently heard mention of his name as that of a man
singularly skillful in defrauding the revenue, as well as in avoiding
the penalties which surround that dangerous vocation. One day, he was
pointed out to me when standing by the Cross-House near the Ferry,
in company with a comparatively youthful desperado, whose real name
was John Wyatt, though generally known among the smuggling fraternity
and other personal intimates, by the _sobriquet_ of Black Jack--on
account, I suppose, of his dark, heavy-browed, scowling figure-head,
one of the most repulsive, I think, I have ever seen. Anne's husband,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account