Household words, no. 304, January 19, 1856 : $b A weekly journal
General
Household words, no. 304, January 19, 1856 : $b A weekly journal
English literature -- Periodicals
the respectability of Richmond Hill, after a trial at the Central
Criminal Court in eighteen hundred and fifty-six. And yet this exactly
illustrates the requirement of the particular Insularity under
consideration.
When shall we get rid of the Insularity of being afraid to make the
most of small resources, and the best of scanty means of enjoyment? In
Paris (as in innumerable other places and countries) a man who has six
square feet of yard, or six square feet of housetop, adorns it in his
own poor way, and sits there in the fine weather because he likes to
do it, because he chooses to do it, because he has got nothing better
of his own, and has never been laughed out of the enjoyment of what
he has got. Equally, he will sit at his door, or in his balcony, or
out on the pavement, because it is cheerful and pleasant and he likes
to see the life of the city. For the last seventy years his family
have not been tormenting their lives with continual enquiries and
speculations whether other families, above and below, to the right
and to the left, over the way and round the corner, would consider
these recreations genteel, or would do the like, or would not do the
like. That abominable old Tyrant, Madame Grundy, has never been of his
acquaintance. The result is, that, with a very small income and in a
very dear city, he has more innocent pleasure than fifty Englishmen
of the same condition; and is distinctly, in spite of our persuasion
to the contrary (another Insularity!) a more domestic man than the
Englishman, in regard of his simple pleasures being, to a much greater
extent, divided with his wife and children. It is a natural consequence
of their being easy and cheap, and profoundly independent of Madame
Grundy.
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.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account