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Alton Locke, Tailor and Poet [by C. Kingsley]. by the Author of 'yeast'
Alton Locke Tailor and Poet by the Author of 'yeast' - by C. Kingsley Author:Charles Kingsley General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1852 Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million book... more »s for free. Excerpt: CHAPTER XI. " THE YARD WHERE THE GENTLEMEN LIVE." I Mat be forgiven, surely, if I run somewhat into detail about this my first visit to the country. I had, as I have said before, literally never been farther a- field than Fulham or Battersea Kise. One Sunday evening, indeed, I had got as far as Wandsworth Common; but it was March, and, to my extreme disappointment, the heath was not in flower. But, usually, my Sundays had been spent entirely in study; which to me was rest, so worn out were both my body and my mind with the incessant drudgery of my trade, and the slender fare to which I restricted myself. Since I had lodged with Mackaye, certainly, my food had been better. I had not required to stint my appetite for money wherewith to buy candles, ink, and pens. My wages, too, had increased with my years, and altogether I found myself gaining in strength, though I had no notion how much I possessed till I set forth on this walk to Cambridge. It was a glorious morning at the end of May ; and when I escaped from the pall of smoke which hung over the city, I found the sky a sheet of cloudless blue. How I watched for the ending of the rows of houses, which lined the road for miles -- the great roots of London, running far out into the country, up which poured past me an endless stream of food and merchandise, and human beings -- the sap of the huge metropolitan life-tree ! How each turn of the road opened a fresh line of terraces or villas, till hope deferred made the heart sick, and the country seemed -- like the place where the rainbow touches the ground, or the El Dorado of Ealeigh's Guiana settlers...« less