The book of Christmas : $b descriptive of the customs, ceremonies, traditions, superstitions, fun, feeling, and festivities of the Christmas seasonHervey, Thomas K.
Religion
The book of Christmas : $b descriptive of the customs, ceremonies, traditions, superstitions, fun, feeling, and festivities of the Christmas season
Hervey, Thomas K.
Christmas
In making the annexed sketch we presume that Mr. Seymour must have had
in mind, and intended to illustrate by "modern instances," that class of
"wise saws" such as "Birds of a feather flock together," "Tell me the
company, and I will tell you the man," and others which tend generally
to show that men are apt to catch the hues of surrounding objects, and
take the features of their associates. If this was not his design, we
have only the alternative conclusion, that he had drawn turkeys till he
could draw nothing else, and till his best efforts at representing "the
human face divine" resulted in what the Scotch call a "bubbly-jock."
Some poet, in describing the perfections of his mistress's countenance,
speaks of it as conveying the impression that she "had looked on heaven,
and caught its beauty." Our friend the guard of this coach seems to
have looked on those turkeys of which he has charge till he has "caught
their beauty." It is impossible to conceive that the breath which he is
pouring into that horn of his should issue in any other form of sound
than that of a gobble. The coachman is clearly a turkey in disguise; and
the old-looking figure that sits behind him, with something like a
sausage round its neck, is probably his father. As for the swan with two
necks that floats on the panel of the coach-door, it is a
strange-looking bird at any time, but looks considerably more strange in
its present situation. It is unquestionably out of place, and forms no
fitting cognizance for a Norfolk coach at Christmas time.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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