Ellesmere's Plan for a New Essay. on the Miseries of Human Life. Life Not So Miserable. on Pleasantness. Conversation Upon Pleasantness. Lover's Quarr (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1860 Excerpt: ...in mare evadit. Ellesmere. I think I can make out most of that: it is tolerably easy Latin. The poets always talk of the gliding of rivers. Now it is this gliding I dislike. Very well for them, but decidedly slow for us when we are upon them. I like the Great Western express train, especially for the last fifty-six miles, from Didcot to London, done in an hour. How characteristic this speech was of the impatient Ellesmere. He cannot sit quietly in a boat, like any other reasonable being. Milverton. For me a light carriage and two post horses is sufficient. Ellesmere. Nobody has written the poetry of posting. Milverton. Nothing used to be more delightful than a long day's posting in the olden time. You could see enough of the country: you could stop to look at anything beautiful (not that one ever did stop); there was a pleasant life and bustle in the constant change of horses and postboys: and altogether it was a most inspiriting transaction. I sympathize with a great traveller in Russia who confessed that the length of the journeys was the main delight to him. But in those golden days there was no electric telegraph. Once off, you were well off; and nuisances of all kinds were soon left long behind. Now, to be secure, a man must go away in a yacht; and the very name of yacht is odious to poor creatures like me who suffer from sea-sickness. Mr. Midhurst. Milverton, I see, would have agreed with Dr. Johnson that there was nothing so delightful as travelling in a post-chaise, with a pretty woman by one's side. Milverton. I decline the pretty woman. The chief merit of a carriage is that you can be alone, and not have to talk. Ellesmere. She might be deaf, or have a singular talent for silence. Milverton. After one has left college, where hap-.pily we could &qu...