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"Crossing the stream;" Brittany
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Games on the Ice in Holland
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Chelsea in 1872
[Landells was an artist and correspondent on the Illustrated London News. He died in 1882.] / Well worth a ride in a penny steamer to see. Chelsea/ still helps us to/ Forget six centuries over hung with smoke,/ Forget the snorting steam and piston stroke,/ Forget the spreading of the hideous town;/ And to/ Think rather of the pack-horse on the down,/ And dream of London, small and white and clean,/ The clean Thames bordered by its gardens green./ W. Morris. // On the right of the picture as you look is Cheyne-row, where and in the adjoining Cheyne-walk, so many celebrated persons have lived--Carlyle, George Eliot, and D. G. Rossett.
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Old Northumberland House
Old Northumberland House on the south side of Trafalgar square was pulled down a few years ago to make Northumberland Avenue, the new road leading from the square to the Embankment.
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Old Westminster Bridge
It was of old London, such as is shown in this picture, that Wordsworth wrote his sonnet "On Westminster Bridge:"/ Earth has not anything to show more fair;/ Dull would he be of soul who could pass by/ A sight so touching in its majesty./ Much of old London is still left, and much has since been added which is beautiful: but why are we not more careful to see that works of utility should also be made beautiful? The Charing Cross Railway Bridge is hardly "a sight so touching in its majesty."
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Lord North
Lord North, whom Pitt succeeded, is the Prime Minister to whose weakness we owe disunion with America.
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W. Pitt
William Pitt, son of the first Earl of Chatham, was Prime Minister and Chancellor of Exchequer at the age of 24, and during the war with Napoleon, was perhaps the greatest man in Europe. he died, Prime Minister, in 1806, in his forty-seventh year. He is buried in Westminster Abbey, close to his great father, and, "as the coffin descended into the earth, the eagle face of Chatham from above seemed to look down with consternation into the dark house which was receieving all that remained of so much power and glory."
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Sir Joshua Reynolds
Sir Joshua Reynolds was the first President of the Royal Academy, and the greatest of English portrait painters. Several of his best pictures are in the National Gallery.
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Room in which Gambetta died
Gambetta died in his villa, near Paris, at midnight, on Tuesday, December 31st, 1882. At the Palais Bourbon, his official residence as President of the Chamber, Gambetta had lived in much splendour, for he believed in the importance of surrounding the highest officers, even of a democracy, with state and maginificence; but this picture shows how small and unpretending was the private house of the greatest man in France. Across the bed is a tri-colour, the national flag of France, in which the body was afterwards wrapped--a fitting shroud for a man who loved his country.
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Leon Gambetta
Gambetta, who more than any other man was the founder of the present French Republic, was a native of Cahors, in the South of France, and his fiery southern temperament may be seen in his face. In this portrait he is standing with folded arms in the "tribune," or platform, in the French Chamber of Deputies, from which members have to speak. There is a glass of water before him, about which there is a story told, which well illustrates the effect of his oratory. On one occasion he knocked a glass of water, with a seep of the hand, off the ledge of the tribune on to the head of a servant of the House sitting underneath. "In the case of an ordinary speaker this must have provoked considerable laughter, but the deputies were so thoroughly under the spell of Gambetta's eloquence, that there was hardly a smile and no interruption at all, as the victim resignedly wiped his head."
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Two views in Africa
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Two views in Africa
These views show the kind of country in which our soldiers have been fighting in the Soudan, and through which General Gordon made his way on a dromedary to Khartoum.
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Toboggining
The "toboggin" is a miniature of the large agricultural sledges used by the Swiss peasants to transport their wood, wine, and other things across the frozen road. The tobogginer sits rather to the back of his sledge; and when he is once in motion has only to steer, and be careful not to retard speed by pressure of his feet upon the ground. Toboggin races are a favorite pastime during winter in the high alpine valleys.
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Beef-eater
The word beef-eater is a corruption for the french buffetier, a side-board man.
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Doubts
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Coming down a Swiss Mountain
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The Great Sphinx, near the Pyramids of Ghizeh
(A study made on the spot in January, 1862)./ Look on my works, ye mighty and despair!/ Nothing beside remains, round the decay/ Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,/ The lone and level sands stretch far away. (Shelley).
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"Enough is as good as a feast"
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"The maiden spring upon the plain" The fields shall wear their robes of praise/ The south winds softly sigh,/ And sweet calm days in golden haze/ Melt down the amber sky. (J. G. Whittier)
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Meditating a bath
"Coming events cast their shadows before."
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A family party in Holland
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An Arab Girl
Oh thou child of many prayers!/ Life hath quicksands, life hath snares!/ Care and age come unwawares.--(Longfellow)
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Kinsfolk from Town
City life has made the farmer's cousins become "town birds," but when they get down into the country they still find themselves among their kindred. Town life changes out habits, not our natures.
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A rainy Sunday
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Thames, below Bridge
The city rises in a grey mist, behind the shipping. The boats are "outward bound," and beyond / "fair and free / The floodgates are open away to the sea."--(C. Kingsley)