English essays -- 19th century; Great Britain -- Social life and customs; London (England) -- Description and travel
Since womankind existed, has any woman ever had such a greeting? At ten
hours' distance, there is a city far more magnificent than ours. With
every respect for Kensington turnpike, I own that the Arc de l'Etoile
at Paris is a much finer entrance to an imperial capital. In our black,
orderless, zigzag streets, we can show nothing to compare with the
magnificent array of the Rue de Rivoli, that enormous regiment of stone
stretching for five miles and presenting arms before the Tuileries.
Think of the late Fleet Prison and Waithman's Obelisk, and of the Place
de la Concorde and the Luxor Stone! “The finest site in Europe,” as
Trafalgar Square has been called by some obstinate British optimist,
is disfigured by trophies, fountains, columns, and statues so puerile,
disorderly, and hideous that a lover of the arts must hang the head of
shame as he passes, to see our dear old queen city arraying herself so
absurdly; but when all is said and done, we can show one or two of the
greatest sights in the world. I doubt if any Roman festival was as vast
or striking as the Derby day, or if any Imperial triumph could show
such a prodigious muster of faithful people as our young Princess saw on
Saturday, when the nation turned out to greet her. The calculators are
squabbling about the numbers of hundreds of thousands, of millions,
who came forth to see her and bid her welcome. Imagine beacons flaming,
rockets blazing, yards manned, ships and forts saluting with their
thunder, every steamer and vessel, every town and village from Ramsgate
to Gravesend, swarming with happy gratulation; young girls with flowers,
scattering roses before her; staid citizens and aldermen pushing and
squeezing and panting to make the speech, and bow the knee, and bid her
welcome! Who is this who is honored with such a prodigious triumph, and
received with a welcome so astonishing? A year ago we had never heard
of her. I think about her pedigree and family not a few of us are in the
dark still, and I own, for my part, to be much puzzled by the allusions
of newspaper genealogists and bards and skalds to Vikings, Berserkers,
and so forth. But it would be interesting to know how many hundreds of
thousands of photographs of the fair bright face have by this time made
it beloved and familiar in British homes. Think of all the quiet country
nooks from Land's End to Caithness, where kind eyes have glanced at it.
The farmer brings it home from market; the curate from his visit to
the Cathedral town; the rustic folk peer at it in the little village
shop-window; the squire's children gaze on it round the drawing-room
table: every eye that beholds it looks tenderly on its bright beauty and
sweet artless grace, and young and old pray God bless her. We have an
elderly friend, (a certain Goody Twoshoes,) who inhabits, with many
other old ladies, the Union House of the parish of St. Lazarus in Soho.
One of your cousins from this house went to see her, and found Goody and
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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