Memorials and Other Papers — Volume 1De Quincey, Thomas
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Memorials and Other Papers — Volume 1
De Quincey, Thomas
English essays
drunkards, receipts--have descended, I believe, to chaos or to Hades,
with hardly one exception. Chancery itself, though somewhat of an Indian
juggler, could not play with such aerial balls as these.
On what ground it was that my mother quarrelled with the advantages of
Bath, so many and so conspicuous, I cannot guess. At that time, namely,
the opening of the nineteenth century, the old traditionary custom of
the place had established for young and old the luxury of sedan-chairs.
Nine tenths, at least, of the colds and catarrhs, those initial stages
of all pulmonary complaints (the capital scourge of England), are caught
in the transit between the door of a carriage and the genial atmosphere
of the drawing-room. By a sedan-chair all this danger was evaded: your
two chairmen marched right into the hall: the hall-door was closed;
and not until then was the roof and the door of your chair opened: the
translation was--from one room to another. To my mother, and many in
her situation, the sedan-chair recommended itself also by advantages of
another class. Immediately on coming to Bath her carriage was "laid up
in ordinary." The trifling rent of a coach-house, some slight annual
repairs, and the tax, composed the whole annual cost. At that time, and
throughout the war, the usual estimate for the cost of a close carriage
in London was three hundred and twenty pounds; since, in order to have
the certain services of two horses, it was indispensable to keep three.
Add to this the coachman, the wear-and-tear of harness, and the duty;
and, even in Bath, a cheaper place than London, you could not accomplish
the total service under two hundred and seventy pounds. Now, except the
duty, all this expense was at once superseded by the sedan-chair--rarely
costing you above ten shillings a week, that is, twenty-five guineas
a year, and liberating you from all care or anxiety. The duty on four
wheels, it is true, was suddenly exalted by Mr. Pitt's triple assessment
from twelve guineas to thirty-six; but what a trifle by comparison with
the cost of horses and coachman! And, then, no demands for money were
ever met so cheerfully by my mother as those which went to support Mr.
Pitt's policy against Jacobinism and Regicide. At present, after five
years' sinecure existence, unless on the rare summons of a journey, this
dormant carriage was suddenly undocked, and put into commission. Taking
with her two servants, and one of my sisters, my mother now entered
upon a _periplus_, or systematic circumnavigation of all England; and
in England only--through the admirable machinery matured for such a
purpose, namely, inns, innkeepers, servants, horses, all first-rate of
their class--it was possible to pursue such a scheme in the midst of
domestic comfort. My mother's resolution was--to see all England with
her own eyes, and to judge for herself upon the qualifications of each
county, each town (not being a bustling seat of commerce), and each
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