Search -
Rural Letters; And Other Recorded of Thought at Leisure
Rural Letters And Other Recorded of Thought at Leisure Author:Nathaniel Parker Willis General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1851 Original Publisher: Baker Subjects: Health resorts, watering-places, etc Owego (N.Y.) Susquehanna River Germany History / Europe / Germany History / Military / World War II Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations ... more »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 books for free. Excerpt: LETTER II. Mr Dear Doctor : I have just had a visit from the assessor. As if a man should be taxed for a house, who could be luxurious under a bridge ! I have felt a decided "call" to disclaim roof and threshold, and write myself down a vagabond. Fancy the variety of abodes open, rent-free, to a bridge-fancier ! It is said among the settlers, that where a stranger finds a tree blown over, (the roots forming, always, an upright and well-matted wall,) he has only his house to finish. Cellar and chimney-back are ready done to his hand. But, besides being roofed, walled, and watered, and better situated, and more plenty than over-blown trees -- bridges are on no man's land. You are no " squatter," though you sit upon your hams. You may shut up one end with pine boughs, and you have a room a-la-mode -- one large window open to the floor. The view is of banks and running water -- exquisite of necessity. For the summer months I could imagine this bridge-gipsying delicious. What furniture might pack in a donkey-cart, would set forth a better apartment than is averaged in "houses of entertainment," (so yclept,) and the saving to your soul (of sins committed, sitting at a bell-rope, ringing in vain for water) would be worthy a conscientious man's attention. Vol. i. 2 I will not deny that the bridge of Glenmary is a favorable specimen. As its abutments touch my cottage-lawn, I was under the necessity of presenting the public with a new ...« less