United States or Sint Maarten ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
The next specimen is perhaps a 'swell' out at elbows, a seedy and somewhat ragged remnant of a very questionable kind of gentility a gentility engendered in 'coal-holes' and 'cider-cellars, in 'shades, and such-like midnight 'kens' suckled with brandy and water and port-wine negus, and fed with deviled kidneys and toasted cheese.
“And what, in the name of caves and coal-holes, do you expect to find at the bottom of that gulf but a broken neck—why, it looks blacker than our ship’s hold, and the roar of those waterfalls down there would batter one’s brains to pieces.”
From his dissipation in cider-cellars and coal-holes, this rival of Tom and Jerry wrote a sonnet that applies well enough to Reynolds's own career: "Were this a feather from an eagle's wing, And thou, my tablet white! a marble tile Taken from ancient Jove's majestic pile And might I dip my feather in some spring, Adown Mount Ida threadlike wandering: And were my thoughts brought from some starry isle In Heaven's blue sea I then might with a smile Write down a hymn to fame, and proudly sing!
We gentlemen of England who live at home at ease have, I suspect, very insufficient ideas on the subject. All the world over, people are stowing away in coal-holes and dark corners, and when ships are once out to sea, appearing again, begrimed and bashful, upon deck. The career of these sea-tramps partakes largely of the adventurous.
'Haven't you heard her say, over and over again, that on this account she wished to spare me a great deal of trouble, which she thinks I am not suited for, and which I really don't know myself that I AM suited for; and isn't she up early and late, and going to and fro continually and doesn't she do all sorts of things, and grope into all sorts of places, coal-holes and pantries and I don't know where, that can't be very agreeable and do you mean to insinuate that there is not a sort of devotion in that?
And as many, even after they were unearthed, stubbornly persisted in remaining in the cellars whither they had fled for shelter, the patrols were obliged to fire on them through the coal-holes. It was a man-hunt, a brutal and cruel battue, during which the city resounded with rifle-shots and outlandish oaths.
Millner did not dislike animals, though he preferred that they should be healthy and handsome. The dog under his feet was neither. Its cringing contour showed an injudicious mingling of races, and its meagre coat betrayed the deplorable habit of sleeping in coal-holes and subsisting on an innutritious diet.
To Jabel Blake, who came up lugging an ancient and large carpet-bag, and who repelled every urchin who wanted the job of carrying it, Elk MacNair spoke cordially but without enthusiasm. "Jabel," he said, "if I hear you growl about money as long as you are here, I'll take you up to the Capitol and lose you among the coal-holes."
'The Baptists used to meet in garrets, cheese-lofts, coal-holes, and such like mice walks, 'theses tumultuous, blood-thirsty, covenant-breaking, government-destroying Anabaptists. The offence that called forth these epithets was, that in addressing Charles II on his restoration, they stated that "they were no abettors of the Quakers."
'And what, in the name of caves and coal-holes, do you expect to find at the bottom of that gulf but a broken neck why it looks blacker than our ship's hold, and the roar of those waterfalls down there would batter one's brains to pieces.
Word Of The Day