People From London

"If you have not the faith of assurance, practise at least the faith of adherence. That, at least, is in your own power. Cleave to God exactly as if you were certain of being accepted by Him at last; and thus, fulfilling his own conditions, you will be accepted by Him whether you are assured of it beforehand or not."

"Only those who are in the closest intimacy with sacred objects venture to treat them familiarly, and the Irish peasant often speaks in an offhand manner of that which is dearest to him. Few nations could have produced such a harvest of humour under such depressing and unfavourable influences as Ireland has experienced. And it may be asserted with truth that many countries with far more reason for uninterrupted good-humour, with much less cause for sadness, would be hard put to it to show an equally valuable contribution to the world's lighter literature."

"Irish humour, properly speaking, is, one may venture to say, more imaginative than any other. And it is probably less ill-natured than that of any other nation, though the Irish have a special aptness in the saying of things that wound, and the most illiterate of Irish peasants can put more scorn into a retort than the most highly educated of another race. There is sometimes a half-pathetic strain in the best Irish humorous writers, and just as in their saddest moments the people are inclined to joke, so in many writings where pathos predominates, the native humour gleams. If true Irish humour is not easily defined with precision, it is at least easily recognisable, there is so much buoyancy and movement in it, and usually so much expansion of heart."

"YELLOW WATER-LILY. . This beautiful water plant is familiar to all who have ever enjoyed a season of river life, or even to those who make occasional boating excursions on our rivers. It belongs to the same natural order as its more modestly attired sister the , though of a different genus. "In golden armour glorious to behold," it forms a glorious object on the surface or lake or river, and is seen more frequently seen than the White Water-Lily. The golden blossom of this species has a more powerful and not very refined smell resembling ardent spirits, hence it has the common name of Brandy-Bottle. The Greeks prepare a from the flowers."

".—I once saw our almost like a field of gold when the was in full blossom. .—Although it grows so well in England and in some parts of Scotland, it is not so common everywhere, as it is here, Henry. , the great botanist, had never seen it in Sweden, his own country; and when he first saw it here in full golden blossom, he knelt down and thanked God for making anything so beautiful. Then its delicious scent, like pleasant , is very refreshing and nice, is it not? Linnæus is said to have lamented that he could not keep this beautiful plant alive in Sweden, even in a . Severe frosts even in England are apt to kill it. In many places the is used to make fires, and is cut down and kept as fuel, especially to heat bakers' ovens. Cattle also will eat it, and in some parts of Wales it is grown expressly to feed the horses during winter. .—But, Granny, how the thorns must prick the horses' mouths and throats! .—Ah, Alice, the Welsh people are wiser than you think. They cut the gorse when very young, and bruise it in a so as to break all the thorns."

"Ferns may be successfully cultivated either in a , a , or the open air. To accomplish this, and even to bring something of the verdure of a country lane into the close atmosphere of the city, by means of a closed or Wardian case, in which not only ferns but also some other plants will live and thrive, is perfectly easy. , the ingenious inventor, succeeded in cultivating many flowers—such as fairy roses, and even the most luxuriant tropical plants, in them. But it must be remembered that the chief object in these closed cases is to secure a moist atmosphere, and freedom from the all-pervading dirt and dust of cities. To many plants the moisture thus secured is injurious, but to nearly all ferns it is peculiarly grateful, and to them, therefore, especially, this mode of culture is chiefly applicable. In Mr. Ward's own book on the subject, he speaks of what may be done to imitate nature in the growth of ferns; how bits of natural scenery may be artificially built up, with water trickling down from elevated portions of rock, and flowing out of the fern-house in one continuous stream."

"Europe was only after all a peninsula of Africa and Asia"

"You crawl on your stomach for hours … climbing up yawning abysses (lighted only by an acetylene lamp …) and get knocked on the head by stalactites and on the legs by stalagmites, and in the end arrive at all sorts of wonders; bison modelled in clay, and portraits of sorcerers, and footprints of Magdalenian man."

"j’aime mieux écrire que discuter de vive voix [I much prefer to write than discuss aloud]"

"Mud, muck, ooze upon the floor, torn tents and thunder – all were forgotten as the sherry bottle was opened"

"Carey is extremely well read, and uses his impressive knowledge to point out some of the sillinesses of writers, such as in their attacks on "tinned food" and cremation as possible causes for the decline of British civilization. He is a healthy questioner of received opinions. It forces one to rethink one's preconceptions."

"Carey argued that the intelligentsia was driven to create literary modernism by a profound loathing of ordinary common readers. The intellectuals feared the masses not because they were illiterate but because, by the early twentieth century, they were becoming more literate, thanks to public education, adult education, scholarships, and cheap editions of the great books. If more and more working people were reading the classics, if they were closing the cultural gap between themselves and the middle classes, how could intellectuals preserve their elite status as arbiters of taste and custodians of rare knowledge? They had to create a new body of modernist literature which was deliberately made so difficult and obscure that the average reader could not understand it."

"As an element in the reaction against mass values the intellectuals brought into being the theory of the avant-garde, according to which the mass is, in art and literature, always wrong. What is truly meritorious in art is seen as the prerogative of a minority, the intellectuals, and the significance of this minority is reckoned to be directly proportionate to its ability to outrage and puzzle the mass. Though it usually purports to be progressive, the avant-garde is consequently always reactionary. That is, it seeks to take literacy and culture away from the masses, and so to counteract the progressive intentions of democratic educational reform."

"Behold this ruin! 'Twas a skull Once of ethereal spirit full! This narrow cell was Life's retreat; This place was Thought's mysterious seat! What beauteous pictures fill'd that spot, What dreams of pleasure, long forgot! Nor Love, nor Joy, nor Hope, nor Fear, Has left one trace, one record here."

"The rulers whom we supplanted were, like ourselves, aliens and usurpers. We found the Hindoos a conquered people, and, little by little, we substituted one yoke for another."

"None of this is to say that Rufus was not homosexual. But if he were, there is no evidence for it. Too many historians—though not all, it should be said—have simply inherited a lurid tradition and embellished it."

"As an investment on which he expected a good return, Robert Bloet had been willing to pay £5,000 for his bishopric. Henry of Huntingdon remembered being in Bishop Robert’s household: ‘the handsome knights, noble young men, expensive horses, his golden and gilt dishes, the number of courses, the splendour of his servants, the purple garments and the satins’."

"In eleventh-century Europe, kingdoms, like other landed estates, were family firms and, as in modern family businesses, there was no fixed order of succession. At any time a struggle for control could pit brother against brother, nephew against uncle or, as here, son against father. Victory brought massive rewards. We know from Domesday Book (1086) that the winner in this game of thrones got no less than 20 per cent of all the land in England."

"Opinion against ordeals hardened during the twelfth century, and in 1215 the pope prohibited priests from taking part in them, a ban which effectively ended the practice, leading, in Britain, to trial by jury instead."

"But despite dangers to themselves, rulers and would-be rulers were expected to share the risks when they sent their followers to fight, not stay behind their desks as rulers do today. For as long as this expectation prevailed, it was virtually impossible for women to become monarchs."

"The major churches were immensely rich. Approximately one-quarter of the wealth of all England as measured in Domesday Book belonged to them."

"There is nothing to indicate that Rufus learned to read or write—unlike Henry, who did, whether because he had originally been intended for the priesthood, or because he was ten years younger than Rufus, in a world of changing expectations. By the 1120s the saying ‘an illiterate king is an ass wearing a crown’ had become proverbial."

"Hunting, like war, was dangerous. One of Rufus’ older brothers, Richard, died as a result of injuries suffered while hunting in the New Forest. In consequence Rufus became the second oldest of the three surviving brothers: Robert, William, Henry. Their rivalry was to shape the politics of a generation."

"The plural of goose is geese, But the plural of moose ain't meese, And the plural of noose ain't neese, But the plural of goose — is geese."

"Now, children, you must never laugh At the stately tall giraffe. She's sensitive, as you can tell; But, my dears, she kicks like hell!"

"In this mechanic age the skunk Inspires no terror — he's the bunk; For people in cars, Returning from bars, Quite frequently flatten the skunk."

"The cow's a gentle, patient soul, With milk she fills the flowing bowl. She's kind to babies, mean to flies, She has the most coquettish eyes."

"And here’s the happy, bounding flea — You cannot tell the he from she. The sexes look alike, you see; But she can tell, and so can he."

"The sacred ape, now, children, see. He's searching for the modest flea. If he should turn around we'd find He has no hair on his behind."

"The little penguins look alike Even as Ike resembles Mike. They are so gentle and so nice God keeps these little birds on ice."

"The long march teems with adventure and spirited enterprise; and, noting mistakes and failures in the past, we may surely and wisely, and yet with greater daring and finer courage, pursue the road, not unmindful of the charge committed to us in the centuries left behind."

"I will say this categorically — that you cannot change your sex. Your sex actually is there in every single cell in the body; you have a chromosomal sex, you have genetic sex, you have hormonal sex, you have... psychological brain sex."

"What's your idea of an ideal date? She screws until four o'clock in the morning, then turns into a pizza."

"Our knowledge of how men lived and thought in the Valley of the Nile five or six thousand years before the Christian era is ever on the increase. It keeps pace with the march of , and that march extends every year over a wider area. Each season beholds the exploration of new sites, and each explorer has some new thing to tell."

"Eager for conquest, and tempted by the rich pearls and tin mines for which the island was famous, but pretending only to punish the poor savages for having helped the Gauls, with whom he was at war, Julius Caesar came over from Italy with his ships and soldiers, plundered and killed in every direction round about , and made the first conquest of Britain. This happened just fifty-five years before Christ. Scarcely a hundred more had gone by when the came with fifty thousand men, and subdued it over again ( 43). It was during the reign of this emperor that , a patriot Briton, made the first effort to free his country from the Roman yoke. After nine years conflict he was taken prisoner ; but was afterwards released by the clemency of Claudius."

"Till the publication of 's Guide to the Eastern Alps in 1868, and the appearance of Messrs. Gilbert and Churchill's joint volume in 1864,—the was scarcely known even by name to any but scientific travellers. A few geologists found their way now and then to ; a few artists, attracted in the first instance to as the birthplace of , carried their sketch-books up the ; but there it ended."

"}} has put Egypt in an epigram. " A donkey-ride and a boating-trip interspersed with ruins " does, in fact, sum up in a single line the whole experience of the Nile traveller. Àpropops of these three things—the donkey, the boat, and the ruins—it may be said that a good and a comfortable Dahabeeyah add very considerably to the pleasure of the journey; and that the more one knows about the past history of the country, the more one enjoys the ruins."

"Where this terrible dogma does not embitter happiness, it corrupts character. Where people believe with a realized belief, their whole lives must be overshadowed with its stupendous horror; where they only pretend to believe, the extent of their hypocrisy can be measured only by their pretence."

"The arrival of Lord Charles Cornwallis, the First Marquis Cornwallis, marked possibly the toughest challenge that Tipu faced in his life. Cornwallis was fiercely patriotic, upright, fair and just in his dealings, except war with his enemies, when he forgot all tenets of mercy."

"As Tippoo has on all occasions since the commencement of the war carefully avoided an action with the British armies of very inconsiderable numbers, and in particular could not venture to attack this army when a large part of it was employed in the siege of Bangalore, there is not the least probability that he will now hazard a battle with the strongest army that was ever brought in the field against him. It therefore falls to the share of the infantry to proceed with the artillery according to the plan which has been settled to attack Seringapatam and it is the duty of the cavalry to overrun the country, to cut off Tippoo’s communication with his capital and to prevent the approach of his small detachments of light horse to disturb the troops that will be employed in the siege. To answer these purposes I desire that you will immediately detach a body of His Highness’ [Nizam’s] cavalry . . . to drive the enemy’s small parties from the neighbourhood of the army and to intercept everything going to or coming out of Seringapatam . . . the detached corps should leave its heavy baggage with the army and move into the country as lightly equipped as possible which will enable it either to avoid with facility and detachments of the enemy that may be furnished with infantry and guns or to attack them with success if a favourable opportunity should offer."

"On 30 March 1790, Cornwallis sent a letter to Medows, the new Governor of Madras: So far am I from giving credit to the late Government for economy in not making the necessary preparations for war according to the positive orders of the Supreme Government, after having received the most gross insults that could be offered to any nation, I think it is very possible that every cash of that ill-judged saving may cost the Company a crore of rupees, besides which I still more sincerely lament the disgraceful sacrifice which you have made by that delay, of the honour of your country by tamely suffering an insolent and cruel enemy to overwhelm the dominions of the Rajah of Travancore which we were bound by the most sacred ties of friendship and good faith to defend.61"

"Things look more hopeful now than ever."

"Eliza Orme’s Ambitions fills out earlier scant accounts of this intriguing life, while speculating about why it has been overlooked."

"Perhaps I should have been more persistent."

"Eliza Orme had argued more generally in the 1890s that it was necessary to break down conventional barriers, allowing “each individual to do what natural talent prompts rather than what social status demands”"

"Bishop Grimes held his office for twenty-seven years, during which period he made frequent visitations throughout his enormous diocese, which included some of the roughest country in New Zealand. He was indefatigable as an organiser, and was primarily responsible for the great number of Roman Catholic institutions which were established under efficient management during his long term as Bishop. He gained, and held to the end, the love and respect of his people, and has left, in the Cathedral, a lasting memorial of a singularly active life."

"He was a jazz-trained drummer, but also got into other styles such as playing African rhythms, which worked brilliantly. No doubt a big influence on many rock and metal drummers over the years, and one of the most creative and entertaining drummers of all time."

"O, what makes woman lovely? Virtue, faith, And gentleness in suffering—an endurance Through scorn or trial. These call beauty forth, Give it the stamp celestial, and admit it To sisterhood with angels."

"Once Rick started to get heavily involved, he said he wanted to try a different drummer, someone who wasn't 'straight-up rock', in his words. He kept suggesting Ginger Baker, who'd obviously been in Cream and in Hawkwind for a while with my great friend Lemmy Kilmister, God rest his soul. But Baker was crazier than me. I mean, there was a documentary about him, Beware of Mr. Baker, where he broke the director’s nose with a metal cane at his house in South Africa. And that was after the guy had been thrown out of every other country. Not that he would have taken the job anyway. He was nuts. He’d have been a liability on tour."

"It is true that in the most hallowed and ancient of our institutions of higher education, still whispering the last enchantments of the Middle Ages, it can be asserted that the best that has been thought and said must inevitably and inescapably be handcuffed to the study of the Anglo-Saxon. Still there has been a change."