Clergy -- Fiction; Great Britain -- Fiction; Religious fiction
It would be quite impossible to give any thing deserving the name of a
catalogue of the articles contributed to this charming exhibition; and
it will therefore be better not to attempt it. It will be sufficient to
observe, that, by a sentiment of elegant refinement which seemed to have
pervaded all the contributors, every article to which the idea of
utility could attach was scrupulously banished; it not being fair, as
some of the ladies very judiciously observed, to injure the poor
shopkeepers by permitting the sale of any thing that any body in the
world could really wish to buy. One instance of very delicate attention
on the part of Mrs. Cartwright towards the hero of the fête deserves to
be recorded, as showing both the natural kindness of her temper, and the
respect in which every feeling of this celebrated character was held.
Among the almost incredible number of devices for winding silks, or for
converting them into bobbins, or for some other of the ingenious little
contrivances invented for--one hardly knows what, was a very pretty
thing, more in the shape of a Jew's harp than any thing else. The
instant Mrs. Cartwright cast her eyes on this, she ordered it to be
withdrawn, observing that, as the Reverend Isaac Isaacs himself was
expected to honour the entertainment with his presence, she could by no
means permit any thing bearing such a name to appear.
It may be feared that it was with a far different spirit Mr. Jacob
Cartwright, on hearing his stepmother mention this exclusion, and the
motive for it, proposed that all the cold chickens and turkies to be
eaten at the banquet should appear without their usual accompaniment of
cold hams,--a pleasantry which, though it won a smile from his indulgent
father, was by no means well received by Mrs. Cartwright.
The twelfth day of July itself arrived at last, and fortunately was as
fine a day as ever shone. Helen asked Rosalind if she remembered the day
on which Charles came of age, and the question brought tears to the eyes
of both: this, however, was but a trifling exception to the general
cheerfulness; all the world really looked as gay as if the Fancy Fair
were not a serious one. In one of the long and elegantly decorated
booths, indeed, one silly young girl was heard to exclaim, "Oh! what a
beautiful place this would be for dancing!"--but the levity was checked
by Mr. Cartwright, who, happening to overhear her, replied, "My dear
young lady, there is no dancing in heaven!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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