Visit https://ebooknice.

com to download the full version and

explore more ebooks

(Ebook) The Batman Vault: A Museum-in-a-Book

with Rare Collectibles from the Batcave by
Greenberger Robert, Matthew Manning ISBN
9780762436637, 0762436638

_____ Click the link below to download _____

https://ebooknice.com/product/the-batman-vault-a-
museum-in-a-book-with-rare-collectibles-from-the-
batcave-2443522

Explore and download more ebooks at ebooknice.com

Here are some suggested products you might be interested in.
Click the link to download

(Ebook) Biota Grow 2C gather 2C cook by Loucas, Jason; Viles, James

ISBN 9781459699816, 9781743365571, 9781925268492, 1459699815,
1743365578, 1925268497

https://ebooknice.com/product/biota-grow-2c-gather-2c-cook-6661374

(Ebook) Batman the Ultimate Guide New Edition by Matthew K. Manning

ISBN 9780241531532, 9780744048216, 0241531535, 0744048214

https://ebooknice.com/product/batman-the-ultimate-guide-new-
edition-42534108

(Ebook) Matematik 5000+ Kurs 2c Lärobok by Lena Alfredsson, Hans

Heikne, Sanna Bodemyr ISBN 9789127456600, 9127456609

https://ebooknice.com/product/matematik-5000-kurs-2c-larobok-23848312

(Ebook) SAT II Success MATH 1C and 2C 2002 (Peterson's SAT II Success)

by Peterson's ISBN 9780768906677, 0768906679

https://ebooknice.com/product/sat-ii-success-
math-1c-and-2c-2002-peterson-s-sat-ii-success-1722018
(Ebook) Master SAT II Math 1c and 2c 4th ed (Arco Master the SAT
Subject Test: Math Levels 1 & 2) by Arco ISBN 9780768923049,
0768923042

https://ebooknice.com/product/master-sat-ii-math-1c-and-2c-4th-ed-
arco-master-the-sat-subject-test-math-levels-1-2-2326094

(Ebook) Cambridge IGCSE and O Level History Workbook 2C - Depth Study:

the United States, 1919-41 2nd Edition by Benjamin Harrison ISBN
9781398375147, 9781398375048, 1398375144, 1398375047

https://ebooknice.com/product/cambridge-igcse-and-o-level-history-
workbook-2c-depth-study-the-united-states-1919-41-2nd-edition-53538044

(Ebook) Scientific Opportunities with a Rare-Isotope Facility in the

United States by Rare Isotope Science Assessment Committee, National
Research Council ISBN 9780309104081, 0309104084

https://ebooknice.com/product/scientific-opportunities-with-a-rare-
isotope-facility-in-the-united-states-1956668

(Ebook) Hellboy II: The Golden Army by Robert Greenberger ISBN

9781593079543, 1593079540

https://ebooknice.com/product/hellboy-ii-the-golden-army-58771532

(Ebook) Book of Sith: Secrets from the Dark Side [Vault Edition] by
Daniel Wallace ISBN 9781612182612, 1612182615

https://ebooknice.com/product/book-of-sith-secrets-from-the-dark-side-
vault-edition-5539340
The Batman Vault A Museum in a Book with Rare
Collectibles from the Batcave Robert Greenberger Digital
Instant Download
Author(s): Robert Greenberger
ISBN(s): 9780762436637, 0762436638
Edition: Spi
File Details: PDF, 59.59 MB
Year: 2009
Language: english
Exploring the Variety of Random
Documents with Different Content
although exercise was so necessary for our existence, yet from the
winds drawing through the straits and down our harbour as through
a funnel, there were many days, and even weeks, when we could
scarcely leave the ship. The men set fox-traps in all directions, and
Mr. Petersen set seal-nets under the ice. The nets were not
successful, but the traps gave an object for a walk. Magnetic
observations were carried on throughout the winter;—the reading of
one instrument, placed in a snow-house some 200 yards from the
ship, being registered every hour night and day. On some of the wild
winter nights, there was some risk in going even that distance from
the ship. Christmas and New Year’s days were spent with such
rejoicing as in our situation we could make, and we entered upon
the year 1859 with good health and spirits. Our dogs, upon which so
much depended, were also in first-rate condition, and not one of
them had died.
The sun returned to us on January 26th; the daylight soon began
to increase; and by February 10th, we were all ready to start upon
our first winter journey. Bad weather detained us until the 17th,
when Captain M‘Clintock and Young both left the ship; the Captain,
with only two companions, Mr. Petersen (interpreter) and Thompson
as dog-driver, to travel down the west coast of Boothia, to
endeavour to obtain information, preparatory to the long spring
journeys, from some natives supposed to live near the magnetic
pole. Young was to cross Victoria Straits with a depôt of provisions,
to enable him in the spring to search the coast of Prince of Wales
Land, wherever it might trend. He returned on March 5.
The Captain’s party hove in sight on the 14th, and we all ran out
to meet him. He had found a tribe of natives at Cape Victoria, near
the magnetic pole, and from them he learnt that some years ago a
large ship was crushed by the ice, off the north-west coast of King
William Land; that the people had come to the land, and had
travelled down that coast to the estuary of the Great Fish River
where they had died upon an island (Montreal Island); the natives
had spears, bows and arrows, and other implements made of wood,
besides a quantity of silver spoons and forks, which they said they
had procured on the island (more probably by barter from other
tribes). It was now evident that we were on the right track, and with
this important information Captain M‘Clintock returned to the ship.
Our winter travelling was thus ended, fortunately without any
mishap.
Those only who know what it is to be exposed to a temperature of
frozen mercury accompanied with wind, can form any idea of the
discomforts of dragging a sledge over the ice, upon an unknown
track, day after day, and for eight or ten consecutive hours, without
a meal or drink, the hands and face constantly frostbitten, and your
very boots full of ice; to be attacked with snow blindness; to encamp
and start in the dark, and spend sixteen hours upon the snow, in a
brown-holland tent, or the hastily erected snow-house, listening to
the wind, the snow-drift, and the howling of the dogs outside, and
trying to wrap the frozen blanket closer round the shivering frame.
The exhaustion to the system is so great, and the thirst so intense,
that the evening pannikin of tea and the allowanced pound of
pemmican would not be given up were it possible to receive the
whole world in exchange; and woe to the unlucky cook if he
capsized the kettle!
On the 18th March, Young again started for Fury Beach, distant
seventy-five miles, to get some of the sugar left there by Parry in
1825, and now considered necessary for the health of our men by
the surgeon. This journey occupied until the 28th, one sledge having
broken down, and the whole weight—about 1200 lbs.—having to be
worked back piecemeal with one sledge, by a sort of fox-and-goose
calculation. Dr. Walker, who had also volunteered to go down for the
provisions left on the east coast in the autumn, and now not
required there, returned about the same time. With the information
already obtained, and which only accounted for one ship, Captain
M‘Clintock saw no reason for changing the original plan of search,
viz., that he should trace the Montreal Island and round King William
Land; that Hobson should cross from the magnetic pole to
Collinson’s farthest on Victoria Land, and follow up that coast; and
that Young should cross Victoria Straits and connect the coast of
Prince of Wales Land with either Collinson’s farthest on Victoria
Island or Osborne’s farthest on the west coast of Prince of Wales
Land, according as he might discover the land to trend. Young was
also to connect the coast with Browne’s farthest in Peel Sound, and
explore the coast of North Somerset from Sir James Ross’s farthest
(Four River Bay) to Bellot Straits. This would complete the
examination of the whole unexplored country.
The travelling parties were each to consist of four men drawing
one sledge, and six dogs with a second sledge, besides the officer in
charge, and the dog-driver. By the aid of depôts, already carried out,
and from the extreme care with which Captain M‘Clintock had
prepared the travelling equipment, and had reduced every ounce of
unnecessary weight, we expected to be able to be absent from the
ship, and without any other resource, for periods of from seventy to
eighty days, and if necessary even longer. The Captain and Hobson
both started on the 2nd April, and Young got away upon the 7th.
The Fox was left in charge of Dr. Walker (surgeon), and three or four
invalids, who were unfit for the fatigues of travelling.
Although we all felt much excited at the real commencement of
our active work, and interested in these departures, this was
perhaps the most painful period of our voyage. We had hitherto
acted in concert, and all the dangers of our voyage had been shared
together. We were now to be separated, and for three months to
travel in detached parties over the ice, without an opportunity of
hearing of each other until our return. It was like the breaking up of
a happy family, and our only consolation lay in the hope that when
we again met it would be to rejoice over the discovery of the lost
ships. Nothing of interest occurred on board during our absence; but
one of the invalids, poor Blackwell, had been getting gradually
worse, and died of scurvy on June 14, the very day on which Hobson
returned.
The Captain and Hobson travelled together as far as Cape Victoria.
There they learnt the additional news that another ship had drifted
on shore on the west coast of King William Land in the autumn of
the same year in which the first ship was crushed. Captain
M‘Clintock, now knowing that both ships had been seen off that
coast, and that on it the traces must be found, most generously
resigned to Hobson the first opportunity of searching there, instead
of crossing to Victoria Land, as originally intended. Captain
M‘Clintock then went down the east side towards the Fish River.
Near Cape Norton, he found a tribe of some thirty or forty natives,
who appeared much pleased to meet the strange white people. They
answered readily any inquiries, and concealed nothing. They
produced silver spoons and forks, and other relics from the lost
ships, and readily bartered them for knives or needles. They were
acquainted with the wreck, which they said was over the land (on
the south-west coast), and for years they had collected wood and
valuables from it, but they had not visited it for a long time. They
had seen Franklin’s people on their march southward, but had not
molested them. They said that they had seen one human skeleton in
the ship. Proceeding on his route, Captain M‘Clintock next found a
native family at Point Booth, near the south-east extreme of King
William Land; these natives gave him the additional information that
the remains of some of the lost people would be found on Montreal
Island. Having searched Montreal Island and main land in the
neighbourhood without finding other traces than a few pieces of
copper and iron, and now having connected the search from the
north with Anderson’s from the south, Captain M‘Clintock proceeded
to examine the shores of Dease and Simpson Straits, and the
southern shore of King William Land.
Near Cape Herschel, the Captain’s party found a human skeleton
upon the beach as the man had fallen down and died, with his face
to the ground; and a pocket-book, containing letters in German
which have not yet been deciphered, was found close by.
The large cairn, originally built by Simpson, at Cape Herschel, had
been pulled down, probably by the natives, and if any record or
document had ever been placed therein by Franklin’s people, they
were now lost, for none could be found within or around the cairn.
Passing Cape Herschel, Captain M‘Clintock travelled along the
hitherto unknown shore, and discovered it to extend out as far as
the meridian of 100° West. There all traces of the natives ceased,[31]
and it appeared as if they had not for many years lived or hunted
beyond that point which was named Cape Crozier (after Captain
Crozier, Franklin’s second in command).
The land then trended to the north-eastward, and about twenty
miles from Cape Crozier, M‘Clintock found a boat, which had only a
few days previously been examined by Hobson from the north, and
in it a note left by Hobson to say that he had discovered the records
of the Erebus and Terror, and after travelling nearly to Cape
Herschel without finding further traces, had returned towards the
Fox. Captain M‘Clintock, from the south, had now connected his
discoveries with those of Lieutenant Hobson, to whose very
successful journey we will now turn.
Parting from the Captain at Cape Victoria, Hobson crossed to Cape
Felix, and near that point he found a cairn, around which were
quantities of clothing, blankets, and other indications of Franklin’s
people having visited that spot, and probably formed a depôt there,
in the event of their abandoning their ships. Anxiously searching
among these interesting relics without finding any record, Hobson
continued along the shore to Cape Victoria, where, on May 6, he
discovered a large cairn, and in it the first authentic account ever
obtained of the history of the lost expedition. It was to the following
effect:—That the Erebus and Terror had ascended Wellington
Channel to latitude 77° north, and had returned west of Cornwallis
Island to Beechey Island, where they spent their first winter, 1845-
46. Sailing thence in the following season, they were beset, on
September 12, 1846, in latitude 70° 5′ north, longitude 98° 23′
west. Sir John Franklin died on June 11, 1847; and on the 22nd of
April, 1848, having, up to that date, lost by death nine officers and
fifteen men, both ships were abandoned in the ice, five leagues
north north-west of Point Victory. The survivors, 106 in number, had
landed, under the command of Captain Crozier, on the 25th April, at
Point Victory, and would start on the morrow (April 26) for the Great
Fish River. Another record was also found, stating that previously, on
the 24th May, 1847, Lieutenant Grahame Gore and Mr. Charles
DesVœux, mate, had landed from the ship, with a party of six men.
The record did not state for what reason they had landed; but from
the number who finally abandoned the ships, this party must have
returned on board, and it is probable that they merely landed to
examine the coast.
Quantities of clothing, cooking, and working implements were
scattered about near Point Victory, and a sextant, on which was
engraved the name of Frederick Hornby, was found among the
débris. Collecting a few of the most interesting of these relics to take
with him upon his return, Hobson then pushed on to the southward,
and when near Cape Crozier he discovered the boat above
mentioned, by a small stanchion just showing up above the snow.
Clearing away the snow, he found in the bottom of the boat two
human skeletons, one of which was under a heap of clothing. There
were also watches, chronometers, silver spoons, money, &c., besides
a number of Bibles, prayer and other religious books; and although
one of the Bibles was underlined in almost every verse, yet not a
single writing was found to throw further light upon the history of
the retreating parties. There were two guns, one barrel of each
being loaded and cocked, as if these poor fellows had been
anxiously longing for a passing bear or fox to save them from
starving; for nothing edible was found, save some chocolate and tea,
neither of which could support life in such a climate. Lieutenant
Hobson, having searched the coast beyond Cape Crozier, returned to
the ship on June 14, in a very exhausted state. He had been
suffering severely from scurvy, and was so reduced in strength that
he could not stand. He had been for more than forty days upon his
sledge, carried in and out of the tent by his brave companions, and
his sufferings must have been beyond description. Throughout his
journey he had only killed one bear and a few ptarmigan.
Captain M‘Clintock returned on board the Fox on June 19, having
been absent eighty days. He brought with him a number of relics,
and had minutely examined every cairn and the whole coast of King
William. He supposes that the wreck of the ship, unless upon some
off-lying island, has been run over by the ice, and has disappeared;
as he saw nothing of it. He made most valuable discoveries in
geography, and surveyed the coast from Bellot Straits to the
magnetic pole, besides having travelled completely round King
William Island, and filled up its unknown coasts. Besides his other
instruments, he carried with him a dip circle, weighing 40 lbs., with
which he also made most valuable observations.
Young had crossed Victoria Straits (now Franklin Straits),
discovered M‘Clintock Channel, and proved Prince of Wales Land to
be an island; having reached the point which Captain Sherard
Osborn came to from the north. Owing to the very heavy character
of the ice, he had failed in crossing M‘Clintock Channel, and returned
to the ship on June 8, for a day or two’s rest. He had again started,
on June 10, to recross Victoria Straits, and to complete the search to
the northward upon Prince of Wales Land, and the unknown land of
North Somerset, and was now absent; and although the ice was fast
breaking up, and the floes already knee-deep with water, Captain
M‘Clintock, notwithstanding his late severe journey, fearing that
something might be wrong, most kindly started immediately, with
only one man and a dog-sledge, to look for him. He found Young
perched up out of the water upon the top of the islet, off Cape Bird,
and they returned together to the ship on June 28. We were now all
on board, and once more together. We were in fair health, although
some of us were a little touched with scurvy. We passed our time in
shooting, eating, and sleeping, and then eating again: our craving
for fresh food, or, as the sailors call it, blood-meat, was excessive;
seal and bear flesh, foxes, gulls, or ducks, went indiscriminately into
the pot. We rejoiced whenever we got a fresh mess of any sort.
The summer burst upon us; water was pouring down all the
ravines, and flooding the ice in the harbour, and with extreme
satisfaction we saw the snow houses and ice hummocks fast melting
away in the now never-setting sun. A joyous feeling existed
throughout the ship, for our work was done, and we had only to look
forward to an early release, and a return to our families and homes.
 Over and over again we told our adventures, and we never tired
of listening to the one all-absorbing, though melancholy subject, of
the discovery of the fate of Sir John Franklin and his companions.
We had been prepared by the report brought from the Esquimaux
in February to find that all hopes of survivors were at an end, and
that the expedition had met with some fatal and overwhelming
casualty; but we were scarcely prepared to know, nor could we even
have realized the manner, in which they spent their last days upon
earth, so fearful a sojourn must it have been. Beset and surrounded
with wastes of snow and ice, they passed two more terrible winters
drifting slowly to the southward at the rate of one mile in the month,
hoping each summer that the ice would open, and determined not to
abandon their ships until every hope was gone. In nineteen months
they had only moved some eighteen miles, their provisions daily
lessening, and their strength fast failing. They had at last left their
ships for the Fish River at least two months before the river could
break up and allow them to proceed, and in the then imperfect
knowledge of ice travelling they could not have carried with them
more than forty days’ provisions. Exhausted by scurvy and
starvation, “they dropped as they walked along,”[32] and those few
who reached Montreal Island must all have perished there; and but
for their having travelled over the frozen sea we should have found
the remains of these gallant men as they fell by the way, and but for
the land being covered deeply with snow, more relics of those who
had struggled to the beach to die would have been seen. They all
perished, and, in dying in the cause of their country, their dearest
consolation must have been to feel that Englishmen would not rest
until they had followed up their footsteps, and had given to the
world what they could not then give—the grand result of their
dreadful voyage—their Discovery of the North-West Passage. They
had sailed down Peel and Victoria Straits, now appropriately named
Franklin Straits, and the poor human skeletons lying upon the shores
of the waters in which Dease and Simpson had sailed from the
westward bore melancholy evidence of their success.
 By the middle of July the dark blue stream rolled again through
Bellot Straits, but yet not a drop of water could be seen in Regent
Inlet. Our ship was refitted, the stores all on board, and we were
quite prepared for sea. Our engineers were both lost to us, but the
Captain soon got the engines into working order, and determined to
drive them himself, for without steam we could reckon upon nothing.

July passed away, and during the first week in August we could
still see one unbroken surface of ice in Regent Inlet; from the
highest hill not a spoonful of water could be made out. We were
getting rather anxious, for had we been detained another winter, we
must have abandoned the ship in the following spring and trusted to
our fortunes over the ice. However, a gale of wind on the 7th and
8th of August caused some disruption in the inlet, for on the
morning of the 9th a report came down from the hills that a lead of
water was seen under the land to the northward. Steam was
immediately made, and pushing close past the islands, we were
enabled to work up the coast in a narrow lane of water between it
and the pack.
 We reached the north side of Creswell Bay on the following day,
but, the wind changing, we saw the pack setting rapidly in upon the
land, and it had already closed upon Fury Beach. Our only chance
was now to seek a grounded mass of ice, and to hang on to it. We
were indeed glad to get a little rest, and especially for our captain,
who had not left the engines for twenty-four hours. But we lay in a
most exposed position on an open coast without an indentation, the
pack closing in rapidly before the wind and threatening us with the
same fate as befell the Fury when she was driven on the shore
about seven miles from our present position. Hanging on to this
piece of ice with every hawser, we saw it gradually melting and
breaking away, and at spring tides it began to float. On the 15th the
gale shifted to the westward, and blew off the land; we watched the
ice gradually easing off, and directly that we had room, we cast off
under storm-sails, and succeeded in getting out of Regent Inlet and
into Lancaster Sound on the following day. We entered Godhavn, in
Greenland, on the night of August 26, and not having heard from
our friends for more than two years, we did not even wait for
daylight for our expected letters. The authorities on shore kindly
sent all they had for us at once to the ship, and I suppose that
letters from home were never opened with more anxiety.
Having a few repairs to do, especially to our rudder, which, with
the spare one, had been smashed by the ice, we remained a day or
two to patch it up for the passage home. Then leaving Godhavn on
the 1st September, although the nights were extremely dark, and
the weather stormy, with many bergs drifting about, we passed
down Davis Strait without incident, and, rounding Cape Farewell on
the 13th, we ran across the Atlantic with strong, fair winds. Captain
M‘Clintock landed at the Isle of Wight on the 20th, and on the 23rd
the Fox entered the docks at Blackwall.
Our happy cruise was at an end, and by the mercy of Providence
we were permitted to land again in England.

FOOTNOTES:
[31] The wanderings of the Esquimaux may be traced by the
circles of stones by which they keep down their skin summer
tents.
[32] Esquimaux report.
 The First Morning of 1860.

One evening mid the summer flown

Has stamp’d my memory more than any;
It pass’d us by among the many,
And yet it stands there, all alone.

We sate without our open’d room,

While fell the eve’s transparent shade;
The out-door world, all warmth and bloom,
To us a summer parlour made.

The garden’s cultivated grace,

The luxury of neatness round,
The careless amplitude of space,
The silence, and the casual sound,

Told of a state thro’ many years

Serenely safe in doing well;
And while we sate, there struck our ears
The summons of the evening bell.

It call’d to food, it call’d to rest,

The many whom the rich man’s dome
Had gathered in its ample breast,
To them and him alike a home.

That very hour, was thund’ring o’er

A neighbouring land, the tramp of War,
Which stalked along the lovely shore,
Its shapes to blast, its sounds to mar.
And ’gainst our own, the reflux wave
Had pushed its harsh in-flooding swell:
The clouds which there a tempest gave,
In shadow on our own land fell.

The pang my bosom rudely beat—

What if that fate our own had been?
What if or victory or defeat
Had wrapp’d us in its woe, and sin?

What if it still our fate should be?

And the safe hours, enjoy’d like this,
Amid our home-scenes safe and free,
Should be the passing year of bliss?

The new one on the lecturn lies,

Its leaves the turning hand await;
Those fresh unopen’d leaves comprise
Th’ unread, but written words of Fate.

O God! what are they? if they be

The bloody words of ruffian war,
Grant us success!—but rather far
Avert the scourge of victory!

Too dear the price! Ah! human forms

Of guardian husbands, cherish’d sons
Once children, hid from smallest harms
Of mind and body, cherish’d ones!

Shall ye stand up, the gallant mark

Of the brute shot, and iron rod,
And man’s frame, exquisite in work,
Be treated like earth’s common clod?

Shall England’s polish’d glory, pure

In freedom, wisdom, high estate,
Her open Bible, and her poor
Becoming one with rich and great,—

Shall these high things be but the aim

Of envious men, in rough affray,
To try against the noble frame
Their brutal skill to rob and slay?

Forbid it Thou, who to the strong,

And wise, hast might and counsel lent;
And lead’st them danger’s path along,
Audacious, firm, and confident.

Forbid it, Thou, who to the weak

Permittest to be strong in pray’r;
From Whom we wives and mothers seek
Peace to endow the new-born year.

V.
 Roundabout Papers.—No. I.

ON A LAZY IDLE BOY.

I had occasion to pass a week in the autumn in the little old town of
Coire or Chur, in the Grisons, where lies buried that very ancient
British king, saint, and martyr, Lucius,[33] who founded the Church of
St. Peter, which stands opposite the house No. 65, Cornhill. Few
people note the church now-a-days, and fewer ever heard of the
saint. In the cathedral at Chur, his statue appears surrounded by
other sainted persons of his family. With tight red breeches, a
Roman habit, a curly brown beard, and a neat little gilt crown and
sceptre, he stands, a very comely and cheerful image: and, from
what I may call his peculiar position with regard to No. 65, Cornhill, I
beheld this figure of St. Lucius with more interest than I should have
bestowed upon personages who, hierarchically, are, I daresay, his
superiors.
The pretty little city stands, so to speak, at the end of the world—
of the world of to-day, the world of rapid motion, and rushing
railways, and the commerce and intercourse of men. From the
northern gate, the iron road stretches away to Zürich, to Basel, to
Paris, to home. From the old southern barriers, before which a little
river rushes, and around which stretch the crumbling battlements of
the ancient town, the road bears the slow diligence or lagging
vetturino by the shallow Rhine, through the awful gorges of the Via
Mala, and presently over the Splügen to the shores of Como.
I have seldom seen a place more quaint, pretty, calm, and
pastoral, than this remote little Chur. What need have the
inhabitants for walls and ramparts, except to build summer-houses,
to trail vines, and hang clothes to dry? No enemies approach the
great mouldering gates: only at morn and even, the cows come
lowing past them, the village maidens chatter merrily round the
fountains, and babble like the ever-voluble stream that flows under
the old walls. The schoolboys, with book and satchel, in smart
uniforms, march up to the gymnasium, and return thence at their
stated time. There is one coffee-house in the town, and I see one
old gentleman goes to it. There are shops with no customers
seemingly, and the lazy tradesmen look out of their little windows at
the single stranger sauntering by. There is a stall with baskets of
queer little black grapes and apples, and a pretty brisk trade with
half a dozen urchins standing round. But, beyond this, there is
scarce any talk or movement in the street. There’s nobody at the
book-shop. “If you will have the goodness to come again in an hour,”
says the banker, with his mouthful of dinner at one o’clock, “you can
have the money.” There is nobody at the hotel, save the good
landlady, the kind waiters, the brisk young cook who ministers to
you. Nobody is in the Protestant church—(oh! strange sight, the two
confessions are here at peace!)—nobody in the Catholic church: until
the sacristan, from his snug abode in the cathedral close, espies the
traveller eyeing the monsters and pillars before the old shark-
toothed arch of his cathedral, and comes out (with a view to
remuneration possibly) and opens the gate, and shows you the
venerable church, and the queer old relics in the sacristy, and the
ancient vestments (a black velvet cope, amongst other robes, as
fresh as yesterday, and presented by that notorious “pervert,” Henry
of Navarre and France), and the statue of St. Lucius, who built St.
Peter’s Church, opposite No. 65, Cornhill.
What a quiet, kind, quaint, pleasant, pretty old town! Has it been
asleep these hundreds and hundreds of years, and is the brisk young
Prince of the Sidereal Realms in his screaming car drawn by his
snorting steel elephant coming to waken it? Time was when there
must have been life and bustle and commerce here. Those vast,
venerable walls were not made to keep out cows, but men-at-arms
led by fierce captains, who prowled about the gates, and robbed the
traders us they passed in and out with their bales, their goods, their
pack-horses, and their wains. Is the place so dead that even the
clergy of the different denominations can’t quarrel? Why, seven or
eight, or a dozen, or fifteen hundred years ago (they haven’t the
register, over the way, up to that remote period. I daresay it was
burnt in the fire of London)—a dozen hundred years ago, when
there was some life in the town, St. Lucius was stoned here on
account of theological differences, after founding our church in
Cornhill.
There was a sweet pretty river walk we used to take in the
evening, and mark the mountains round glooming with a deeper
purple; the shades creeping up the golden walls; the river brawling,
the cattle calling, the maids and chatterboxes round the fountains
babbling and bawling; and several times in the course of our sober
walks, we overtook a lazy slouching boy, or hobbledehoy, with a
rusty coat, and trousers not too long, and big feet trailing lazily one
after the other, and large lazy hands dawdling from out the tight
sleeves, and in the lazy hands a little book, which my lad held up to
his face, and which I daresay so charmed and ravished him, that he
was blind to the beautiful sights around him; unmindful, I would
venture to lay any wager, of the lessons he had to learn for to-
morrow; forgetful of mother waiting supper, and father preparing a
scolding;—absorbed utterly and entirely in his book.
What was it that so fascinated the young student, as he stood by
the river shore? Not the Pons Asinorum. What book so delighted
him, and blinded him to all the rest of the world, so that he did not
care to see the apple-woman with her fruit, or (more tempting still
to sons of Eve) the pretty girls with their apple cheeks, who laughed
and prattled round the fountain? What was the book? Do you
suppose it was Livy, or the Greek grammar? No; it was a Novel that
you were reading, you lazy, not very clean, good-for-nothing,
sensible boy! It was D’Artagnan locking up General Monk in a box, or
almost succeeding in keeping Charles the First’s head on. It was the
prisoner of the Château d’If cutting himself out of the sack fifty feet
under water (I mention the novels I like best myself—novels without
love or talking, or any of that sort of nonsense, but containing plenty
of fighting, escaping, robbery, and rescuing)—cutting himself out of
the sack, and swimming to the Island of Montecristo. O Dumas! O
thou brave, kind, gallant old Alexandre! I hereby offer thee homage,
and give thee thanks for many pleasant hours. I have read thee
(being sick in bed) for thirteen hours of a happy day, and had the
ladies of the house fighting for the volumes. Be assured that lazy
boy was reading Dumas (or I will go so far as to let the reader here
pronounce the eulogium, or insert the name of his favourite author);
and as for the anger, or it may be, the reverberations of his
schoolmaster, or the remonstrances of his father, or the tender
pleadings of his mother that he should not let the supper grow cold
—I don’t believe the scapegrace cared one fig. No! Figs are sweet,
but fictions are sweeter.
 Have you ever seen a score of white-bearded, white-robed
warriors, or grave seniors of the city, seated at the gate of Jaffa or
Beyrout, and listening to the story-teller reciting his marvels out of
Antar or the Arabian Nights? I was once present when a young
gentleman at table put a tart away from him, and said to his
neighbour, the Younger Son (with rather a fatuous air), “I never eat
sweets.”
“Not eat sweets! and do you know why?” says T.
“Because I am past that kind of thing,” says the young gentleman.
“Because you are a glutton and a sot!” cries the elder (and Juvenis
winces a little). “All people who have natural, healthy appetites, love
sweets; all children, all women, all Eastern people, whose tastes are
not corrupted by gluttony and strong drink.” And a plateful of
raspberries and cream disappeared before the philosopher.
You take the allegory? Novels are sweets. All people with healthy
literary appetites love them—almost all women;—a vast number of
clever, hard-headed men. Why, one of the most learned physicians in
England said to me only yesterday, “I have just read So-and-So for
the second time” (naming one of Jones’s exquisite fictions). Judges,
bishops, chancellors, mathematicians are notorious novel readers; as
well as young boys and sweet girls, and their kind, tender mothers.
Who has not read about Eldon, and how he cried over novels every
night when he was not at whist?
As for that lazy naughty boy at Chur, I doubt whether he will like
novels when he is thirty years of age. He is taking too great a glut of
them now. He is eating jelly until he will be sick. He will know most
plots by the time he is twenty, so that he will never be surprised
when the Stranger turns out to be the rightful earl,—when the old
waterman, throwing off his beggarly gabardine, shows his stars and
the collars of his various orders, and clasping Antonia to his bosom,
proves himself to be the prince, her long-lost father. He will
recognize the novelists’ same characters, though they appear in red-
heeled pumps and ailes-de-pigeon, or the garb of the nineteenth
century. He will get weary of sweets, as boys of private schools grow
(or used to grow, for I have done growing some little time myself,
and the practice may have ended too)—as private schoolboys used
to grow tired of the pudding before their mutton at dinner.
And pray what is the moral of this apologue? The moral I take to
be this: the appetite for novels extending to the end of the world;—
far away in the frozen deep, the sailors reading them to one another
during the endless night;—far away under the Syrian stars, the
solemn sheikhs and elders hearkening to the poet as he recites his
tales;—far away in the Indian camps, where the soldiers listen to
——’s tales, or ——’s, after the hot day’s march;—far away in little
Chur yonder, where the lazy boy pores over the fond volume, and
drinks it in with all his eyes;—the demand being what we know it is,
the merchant must supply it, as he will supply saddles and pale ale
for Bombay or Calcutta.
But as surely as the cadet drinks too much pale ale, it will disagree
with him; and so surely, dear youth, will too much novels cloy on
thee. I wonder, do novel writers themselves read many novels? If
you go into Gunter’s, you don’t see those charming young ladies (to
whom I present my most respectful compliments) eating tarts and
ices, but at the proper evening-tide they have good plain wholesome
tea and bread-and-butter. Can anybody tell me does the author of
the Tale of two Cities read novels? does the author of the Tower of
London devour romances? does the dashing Harry Lorrequer delight
in Plain or Ringlets or Sponge’s Sporting Tour? Does the veteran,
from whose flowing pen we had the books which delighted our
young days, Darnley, and Richelieu, and Delorme[34] relish the works
of Alexandre the Great, and thrill over the Three Musqueteers? Does
the accomplished author of the Caxtons read the other tales in
Blackwood? (For example, that ghost-story printed last August, and
which for my part, though I read it in the public reading-room at the
Pavilion Hotel at Folkestone, I protest frightened me so that I scarce
dared look over my shoulder.) Does Uncle Tom admire Adam Bede;
and does the author of the Vicar of Wrexhill laugh over the Warden
and the Three Clerks? Dear youth of ingenuous countenance and
ingenuous pudor! I make no doubt that the eminent parties above
named all partake of novels in moderation—eat jellies—but mainly
nourish themselves upon wholesome roast and boiled.
Here, dear youth aforesaid! our Cornhill Magazine owners strive to
provide thee with facts as well as fiction; and though it does not
become them to brag of their Ordinary, at least they invite thee to a
table where thou shall sit in good company. That story of the Fox
was written by one of the gallant seamen who sought for poor
Franklin under the awful Arctic Night: that account of China is told
by the man of all the empire most likely to know of what he speaks:
those pages regarding Volunteers come from an honoured hand that
has borne the sword in a hundred famous fields, and pointed the
British guns in the greatest siege in the world.
Shall we point out others? We are fellow-travellers, and shall make
acquaintance as the voyage proceeds. In the Atlantic steamers, on
the first day out (and on high and holidays subsequently), the jellies
set down on table are richly ornamented; medioque in fonte leporum
rise the American and British flags nobly emblazoned in tin. As the
passengers remark this pleasing phenomenon, the Captain no doubt
improves the occasion by expressing a hope, to his right and left,
that the flag of Mr. Bull and his younger Brother may always float
side by side in friendly emulation. Novels having been previously
compared to jellies—here are two (one perhaps not entirely
saccharine, and flavoured with an amari aliquid very distasteful to
some palates)—two novels under two flags, the one that ancient
ensign which has hung before the well-known booth of Vanity Fair;
the other that fresh and handsome standard which has lately been
hoisted on Barchester Towers. Pray, sir, or madam, to which dish will
you be helped?
So have I seen my friends Captain Lang and Captain Comstock
press their guests to partake of the fare on that memorable “First
day out,” when there is no man, I think, who sits down but asks a
blessing on his voyage, and the good ship dips over the bar, and
bounds away into the blue water.
 FOOTNOTES:
[33] Stow quotes the inscription, still extant, “from the table fast
chained in St. Peter’s Church, Cornhill;” and says “he was after
some chronicle buried at London, and after some chronicle buried
at Glowcester”—but oh! these incorrect chroniclers! when Alban
Butler, in the Lives of the Saints, v. xii., and Murray’s Handbook,
and the Sacristan at Chur, all say Lucius was killed there, and I
saw his tomb with my own eyes!
[34] By the way, what a strange fate is that which has befallen
the veteran novelist! He is her Majesty’s Consul-General in Venice,
the only city in Europe where the famous “Two Cavaliers” cannot
by any possibility be seen riding together.
 Transcriber’s Notes
The following changes have been made:
A table of contents has been added for the convenience of the reader.
Some illustrations have been moved outside the enclosing paragraphs.
Changed dorekie to dovekie in “saw a solitary dovekie in winter plumage” on page
105.
*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CORNHILL
MAGAZINE, VOL. I, JANUARY 1860 ***

Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions

will be renamed.

Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S.

copyright law means that no one owns a United States
copyright in these works, so the Foundation (and you!) can copy
and distribute it in the United States without permission and
without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth in the
General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to copying and
distributing Project Gutenberg™ electronic works to protect the
PROJECT GUTENBERG™ concept and trademark. Project
Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if
you charge for an eBook, except by following the terms of the
trademark license, including paying royalties for use of the
Project Gutenberg trademark. If you do not charge anything for
copies of this eBook, complying with the trademark license is
very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose such
as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
research. Project Gutenberg eBooks may be modified and
printed and given away—you may do practically ANYTHING in
the United States with eBooks not protected by U.S. copyright
law. Redistribution is subject to the trademark license, especially
commercial redistribution.

START: FULL LICENSE

THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
 PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK

To protect the Project Gutenberg™ mission of promoting the

free distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this
work (or any other work associated in any way with the phrase
“Project Gutenberg”), you agree to comply with all the terms of
the Full Project Gutenberg™ License available with this file or
online at www.gutenberg.org/license.

Section 1. General Terms of Use and

Redistributing Project Gutenberg™
electronic works
1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg™
electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand,
agree to and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual
property (trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree
to abide by all the terms of this agreement, you must cease
using and return or destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg™
electronic works in your possession. If you paid a fee for
obtaining a copy of or access to a Project Gutenberg™
electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the terms
of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.

1.B. “Project Gutenberg” is a registered trademark. It may only

be used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by
people who agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.
There are a few things that you can do with most Project
Gutenberg™ electronic works even without complying with the
full terms of this agreement. See paragraph 1.C below. There
are a lot of things you can do with Project Gutenberg™
electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement and
help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg™
electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below.
1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation (“the
Foundation” or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the
collection of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works. Nearly all the
individual works in the collection are in the public domain in the
United States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright
law in the United States and you are located in the United
States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from copying,
distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative works
based on the work as long as all references to Project
Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope that you will
support the Project Gutenberg™ mission of promoting free
access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg™
works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for
keeping the Project Gutenberg™ name associated with the
work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement
by keeping this work in the same format with its attached full
Project Gutenberg™ License when you share it without charge
with others.

1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also
govern what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most
countries are in a constant state of change. If you are outside
the United States, check the laws of your country in addition to
the terms of this agreement before downloading, copying,
displaying, performing, distributing or creating derivative works
based on this work or any other Project Gutenberg™ work. The
Foundation makes no representations concerning the copyright
status of any work in any country other than the United States.

1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project

Gutenberg:

1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other

immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg™ License must
appear prominently whenever any copy of a Project
Gutenberg™ work (any work on which the phrase “Project
Gutenberg” appears, or with which the phrase “Project
Gutenberg” is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed,
viewed, copied or distributed:

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United

States and most other parts of the world at no cost and
with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it,
give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project
Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United
States, you will have to check the laws of the country
where you are located before using this eBook.

1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg™ electronic work is

derived from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not
contain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of
the copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to
anyone in the United States without paying any fees or charges.
If you are redistributing or providing access to a work with the
phrase “Project Gutenberg” associated with or appearing on the
work, you must comply either with the requirements of
paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use
of the work and the Project Gutenberg™ trademark as set forth
in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.

1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg™ electronic work is

posted with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and
distribution must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through
1.E.7 and any additional terms imposed by the copyright holder.
Additional terms will be linked to the Project Gutenberg™
License for all works posted with the permission of the copyright
holder found at the beginning of this work.

1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project

Gutenberg™ License terms from this work, or any files
 containing a part of this work or any other work associated with
Project Gutenberg™.

1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute

this electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1
with active links or immediate access to the full terms of the
Project Gutenberg™ License.

1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form,
including any word processing or hypertext form. However, if
you provide access to or distribute copies of a Project
Gutenberg™ work in a format other than “Plain Vanilla ASCII” or
other format used in the official version posted on the official
Project Gutenberg™ website (www.gutenberg.org), you must,
at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a copy,
a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy
upon request, of the work in its original “Plain Vanilla ASCII” or
other form. Any alternate format must include the full Project
Gutenberg™ License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.

1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,

performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg™
works unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.

1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or

providing access to or distributing Project Gutenberg™
electronic works provided that:

• You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive
from the use of Project Gutenberg™ works calculated using the
method you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The
fee is owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg™ trademark,
but he has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to
the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty
 payments must be paid within 60 days following each date on
which you prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your
periodic tax returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked
as such and sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
Foundation at the address specified in Section 4, “Information
about donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
Foundation.”

• You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who

notifies you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt
that s/he does not agree to the terms of the full Project
Gutenberg™ License. You must require such a user to return or
destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
Project Gutenberg™ works.

• You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of

any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in
the electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90
days of receipt of the work.

• You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
distribution of Project Gutenberg™ works.

1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project

Gutenberg™ electronic work or group of works on different
terms than are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain
permission in writing from the Project Gutenberg Literary
Archive Foundation, the manager of the Project Gutenberg™
trademark. Contact the Foundation as set forth in Section 3
below.

1.F.

1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend

considerable effort to identify, do copyright research on,
transcribe and proofread works not protected by U.S. copyright
Welcome to our website – the ideal destination for book lovers and
knowledge seekers. With a mission to inspire endlessly, we offer a
vast collection of books, ranging from classic literary works to
specialized publications, self-development books, and children's
literature. Each book is a new journey of discovery, expanding
knowledge and enriching the soul of the reade

Our website is not just a platform for buying books, but a bridge
connecting readers to the timeless values of culture and wisdom. With
an elegant, user-friendly interface and an intelligent search system,
we are committed to providing a quick and convenient shopping
experience. Additionally, our special promotions and home delivery
services ensure that you save time and fully enjoy the joy of reading.

Let us accompany you on the journey of exploring knowledge and

personal growth!

ebooknice.com