Books and reading -- Great Britain; Conduct of life; Social problems; Women
{16} I meant that the beautiful places of the world—Switzerland, Italy,
South Germany, and so on—are, indeed, the truest cathedrals—places to be
reverent in, and to worship in; and that we only care to drive through
them: and to eat and drink at their most sacred places.
{17} I was singularly struck, some years ago, by finding all the river
shore at Richmond, in Yorkshire, black in its earth, from the mere drift
of soot-laden air from places many miles away.
{18} One of the things which we must very resolutely enforce, for the
good of all classes, in our future arrangements, must be that they wear
no “translated” articles of dress. See the preface.
{19} This abbreviation of the penalty of useless labour is curiously
coincident in verbal form with a certain passage which some of us may
remember. It may perhaps be well to preserve beside this paragraph
another cutting out of my store-drawer, from the ‘Morning Post,’ of about
a parallel date, Friday, March 10th, 1865:—“The _salons_ of Mme. C—, who
did the honours with clever imitative grace and elegance, were crowded
with princes, dukes, marquises, and counts—in fact, with the same _male_
company as one meets at the parties of the Princess Metternich and Madame
Drouyn de Lhuys. Some English peers and members of Parliament were
present, and appeared to enjoy the animated and dazzlingly improper
scene. On the second floor the supper tables were loaded with every
delicacy of the season. That your readers may form some idea of the
dainty fare of the Parisian demi-monde, I copy the menu of the supper,
which was served to all the guests (about 200) seated at four o’clock.
Choice Yquem, Johannisberg, Laffitte, Tokay, and champagne of the finest
vintages were served most lavishly throughout the morning. After supper
dancing was resumed with increased animation, and the ball terminated
with a _chaîne diabolique_ and a _cancan d’enfer_ at seven in the
morning. (Morning service—‘Ere the fresh lawns appeared, under the
opening eyelids of the Morn.—’) Here is the menu:—‘Consommé de volaille
à la Bagration: 16 hors-d’œuvres variés. Bouchées à la Talleyrand.
Saumons froids, sauce Ravigote. Filets de bœuf en Bellevue, timbales
milanaises, chaudfroid de gibier. Dindes truffées. Pâtés de foies gras,
buissons d’écrevisses, salades vénétiennes, gelées blanches aux fruits,
gâteaux mancini, parisiens et parisiennes. Fromages glacés. Ananas.
Dessert.’”
{20} Please observe this statement, and think of it, and consider how it
happens that a poor old woman will be ashamed to take a shilling a week
from the country—but no one is ashamed to take a pension of a thousand a
year.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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