The Book of the Boudoir, Volume 2

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J. & J. Harper, sold by Collins and Hannay, 1829 - English literature

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Page 184 - It was an attempt to blend the two kinds of romance: the ancient and the modern. In the former, all was imagination and improbability; in the latter, nature is always intended to be, and sometimes has been, copied with success. Invention has not been wanting; but the great resources of fancy have been dammed up, by a strict adherence to common life.
Page 196 - Dowagers, as plenty as flounders, inhabit all around ; and Pope's ghost is just now skimming under my window by a most poetical moonlight.
Page 192 - But the road, West, the road ! winding round a prodigious mountain, and surrounded with others, all shagged with hanging woods, obscured with pines, or lost in clouds ! Below, a torrent breaking through cliffs, and tumbling through fragments of rocks ! Sheets of cascades forcing their silver speed down channelled precipices, and hasting into the roughened river at the bottom ! Now and then an old foot-bridge, with a broken rail, a leaning cross, a cottage, or the ruin of an hermitage ! This sounds...
Page 214 - There never was so pretty a sight as to see them all three sitting in the shell; a thousand years hence, when I begin to grow old, if that can ever be, I shall talk of that event, and tell young people how much handsomer the women of my time were than they will be then: I shall say, " Women alter now; I remember Lady Ailesbury looking handsomer than her daughter, the pretty Duchess of Richmond, as they were sitting in the shell on my terrace with the Duchess of Hamilton, one of the famous Gunnings.
Page 195 - It is a little play-thing-house that I got out of Mrs. Chenevix's shop, and it is the prettiest bauble you ever saw. It is set in enamelled meadows, with filigree hedges : — ' A small Euphrates through the piece is roll'd And little finches wave their wings in gold.
Page 216 - But I do not mean to defend by argument a small capricious house. It was built to please my own taste, and in some degree to realize my own visions. I have specified what it contains. Could I describe the gay but tranquil scene where it stands, and add the beauty of the landscape to the romantic cast of the mansion, it would raise more pleasing sensations than a dry list of curiosities can excite ; at least...
Page 195 - Two delightful roads, that you would call dusty, supply me continually with coaches and chaises : barges as solemn as Barons of the Exchequer move under my window...
Page 216 - It was built to please my own taste, and in some degree to realise my own visions. I have specified what it contains ; could I describe the gay but tranquil scene where it stands, and add the beauty of the landscape to the romantic cast of the mansion, it would raise more pleasing sensations than a dry list of curiosities can excite; at least, the prospect would recall the...
Page 194 - I like both. The former is the very abbey. The great east window of the church remains, and connects with the house ; the hall entire, the refectory entire, the cloister untouched, with the an'cient cistern of the convent, and, their arms on it ; a private chapel quite perfect. The park, which is still charming, has not been so much unprofaned ; the present lord has lost large sums, and paid part in old oaks, five thousand pounds of which have been cut near the house.
Page 42 - After dinner they were sent to walk on the terrace, and I had the honour of assisting at their coucher, for which a number of comfortable cushions were prepared in the bishop's dressing-room. The Archbishop of Taranto, so well known through Italy as the author of many clever works, has also produced one on cats, full of ingenuity and pleasantry.

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