The Paris Sketch Book of Mr. M. A. TitmarshThackeray, William Makepeace
General
The Paris Sketch Book of Mr. M. A. Titmarsh
Thackeray, William Makepeace
Paris (France) -- Description and travel
I never yet knew how a steamer began to move, being always too busy
among the trunks and children, for the first half-hour, to mark any of
the movements of the vessel. When these private arrangements are made,
you find yourself opposite Greenwich (farewell, sweet, sweet
whitebait!), and quiet begins to enter your soul. Your wife smiles for
the first time these ten days; you pass by plantations of ship-masts,
and forests of steam-chimneys; the sailors are singing on board the
ships, the bargees salute you with oaths, grins, and phrases facetious
and familiar; the man on the paddle-box roars, “Ease her, stop her!”
which mysterious words a shrill voice from below repeats, and pipes
out, “Ease her, stop her!” in echo; the deck is crowded with groups of
figures, and the sun shines over all.
The sun shines over all, and the steward comes up to say, “Lunch,
ladies and gentlemen! Will any lady or gentleman please to take
anythink?” About a dozen do: boiled beef and pickles, and great red raw
Cheshire cheese, tempt the epicure: little dumpy bottles of stout are
produced, and fizz and bang about with a spirit one would never have
looked for in individuals of their size and stature.
The decks have a strange look; the people on them, that is. Wives,
elderly stout husbands, nurse-maids, and children predominate, of
course, in English steamboats. Such may be considered as the
distinctive marks of the English gentleman at three or four and forty:
two or three of such groups have pitched their camps on the deck. Then
there are a number of young men, of whom three or four have allowed
their moustaches to BEGIN to grow since last Friday; for they are going
“on the Continent,” and they look, therefore, as if their upper lips
were smeared with snuff.
A danseuse from the opera is on her way to Paris. Followed by her bonne
and her little dog, she paces the deck, stepping out, in the real
dancer fashion, and ogling all around. How happy the two young
Englishmen are, who can speak French, and make up to her: and how all
criticise her points and paces! Yonder is a group of young ladies, who
are going to Paris to learn how to be governesses: those two splendidly
dressed ladies are milliners from the Rue Richelieu, who have just
brought over, and disposed of, their cargo of Summer fashions. Here
sits the Rev. Mr. Snodgrass with his pupils, whom he is conducting to
his establishment, near Boulogne, where, in addition to a classical and
mathematical education (washing included), the young gentlemen have the
benefit of learning French among THE FRENCH THEMSELVES. Accordingly,
the young gentlemen are locked up in a great rickety house, two miles
from Boulogne and never see a soul, except the French usher and the
cook.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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