Sunny Memories Of Foreign Lands, Volume 1Stowe, Harriet Beecher
History
Sunny Memories Of Foreign Lands, Volume 1
Stowe, Harriet Beecher
Europe -- Description and travel
It has also the faintest and most ethereal perfume,--a perfume that
seems to come and go in the air like music; and you perceive it at a
little distance from a tuft of them, when you would not if you gathered
and smelled them. On the whole, the primrose is a poet's and a painter's
flower. An artist's eye would notice an exquisite harmony between the
yellow-green hue of its leaves and the tint of its blossoms. I do not
wonder that it has been so great a favorite among the poets. It is just
such a flower as Mozart and Raphael would have loved.
Then there is the bluebell, a bulb, which also grows in deep shades. It
is a little purple bell, with a narrow green leaf, like a ribbon. We
often read in English stories, of the gorse and furze; these are two
names for the same plant, a low bush, with strong, prickly leaves,
growing much like a juniper. The contrast of its very brilliant yellow,
pea-shaped blossoms, with the dark green of its leaves, is very
beautiful. It grows here in hedges and on commons, and is thought rather
a plebeian affair. I think it would make quite an addition to our garden
shrubbery. Possibly it might make as much sensation with us as our
mullein does in foreign greenhouses.
After rambling a while, we came to a beautiful summer house, placed in a
retired spot, so as to command a view of the Mersey River. I think they
told me that it was Lord Denman's favorite seat. There we sat down, and
in common with the young gentlemen and ladies of the family, had quite a
pleasant talk together. Among other things we talked about the question
which is now agitating the public mind a good deal,--Whether it is
expedient to open the Crystal Palace to the people on Sunday. They said
that this course was much urged by some philanthropists, on the ground
that it was the only day when the working classes could find any leisure
to visit it, and that it seemed hard to shut them out entirely from all
the opportunities and advantages which they might thus derive; that to
exclude the laborer from recreation on the Sabbath, was the same as
saying that he should never have any recreation. I asked, why the
philanthropists could not urge employers to give their workmen a part of
Saturday for this purpose; as it seemed to me unchristian to drive trade
so that the laboring man had no time but Sunday for intellectual and
social recreation. We rather came to the conclusion that this was the
right course; whether the people of England will, is quite another
matter.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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