The Works of Charles Dickens ...: American notesC. Scribner's sons, 1868 |
Common terms and phrases
America AMERICAN NOTES appearance beautiful Belleville BLACK DRIVER boat Boston bright cabin called carriage cell Charles Dickens cheerful church coach colours comfort CONNECTICUT RIVER crowd dark deck delight dinner door dress England English eyes face fancy fire gallery Genoa gentleman green hand head horses hour Johnny Cake journey kind labour lady Laura Bridgman legs light live look looking-glass Lowell Offering Mantua manual alphabet miles morning Mount Vesuvius Naples negro never night o'clock painted party passed passengers picture PICTURES FROM ITALY pleasant portmanteaus pretty prison river road Rome roof round ruin seemed seen shining ship side sight slavery soon steamboat stone stopped streets strong thing thought town travelling trees turned walk walls whole wind young
Popular passages
Page 236 - It was not until I came on Table Rock, and looked — Great Heaven, on what a fall of bright green water ! — that it came upon me in its full might and majesty. Then when I felt how near to my Creator I was standing, the first effect, and the enduring one — instant and lasting — of the tremendous spectacle, was — Peace, Peace of Mind : Tranquillity : Calm recollections of the dead : Great Thoughts of Eternal Rest and Happiness : nothing of Gloom or Terror. Niagara was at once stamped upon...
Page 29 - ... disseminate no prejudices ; rear no bigots ; dig up the buried ashes of no old superstitions ; never interpose between the people and their improvement ; exclude no man because of his religious opinions; above all, in their whole course of study and instruction, recognize a world, and a broad one too, lying beyond the college walls.
Page 43 - After this, the beads were all unheeded ; the playthings which were offered to her were utterly disregarded ; her playmates, for whom but a moment before she gladly left the stranger, now vainly strove to pull her from her mother ; and though she yielded her usual instantaneous obedience to my signal to follow me, it was evidently with painful reluctance. She clung close to me, as if bewildered and fearful ; and when, after a moment, I took her to her mother, she sprang to her arms, and clung to...
Page 180 - On Sunday morning we arrived at the foot of the mountain, which is crossed by railroad. There are ten inclined planes; five ascending, and five descending ; the carriages are dragged up the former, and let slowly down the latter, by means of stationary engines; the comparatively level spaces between being traversed, sometimes by horse, and sometimes by engine power, as the case demands. Occasionally the rails are laid upon the extreme verge of a giddy precipice ; and looking from the carriage window,...
Page 156 - The black driver grins again, but there is another hole, and beyond that, another bank, close before us. So he stops short : cries (to the horses again) " Easy. Easy den. Ease. Steady. Hi. Jiddy. Pill. Ally. Loo," but never " Lee ! " until we. are reduced to the very last extremity, and are in the midst of difficulties, extrication from which appears to be all but impossible. And so we do the ten miles or thereabouts in two hours and a half; breaking no bones, though bruising a great many; and in...
Page 41 - She sometimes purposely spells a word wrong with the left hand, looks roguish for a moment, and laughs, and then with the right hand strikes the left, as if to correct it. During the year she has attained great dexterity in the...
Page 398 - But anywhere : in the churches, among the palaces, in the streets, on the bridge, or down beside the river : it was always pleasant Verona, and in my remembrance always will be. I read Romeo and Juliet in my own room at the inn that night — of course, no Englishman had ever read it there, before ' — and set out for Mantua next day at sunrise, repeating to myself (in the coupe...
Page 154 - an American cries " Go ahead ! " which is somewhat expressive of the national character of the two countries. The first half mile of the road is over bridges made of loose planks laid across two parallel poles, which tilt up as the wheels roll over them ; and IN the river. The river has a clayey bottom and is full of holes, so that half a horse is constantly disappearing unexpectedly, and can't be found again for some...
Page 35 - Like other inmates of that house, she had a green ribbon bound round her eyelids. A doll she had dressed lay near upon the ground. I took it up, and saw that she had made a green fillet such as she wore herself, and fastened it about its mimic eyes. She was seated in a little enclosure, made by school-desks and forms, writing her daily journal. But soon finishing this pursuit, she engaged in an animated communication with a teacher who sat beside her. This was a favorite mistress with the poor pupil....
Page 102 - This is the place : these narrow ways, diverging to the right and left, and reeking everywhere with dirt and filth. Such lives as are led here, bear the same fruits here as elsewhere.