Francis Hopkinson Smith

Name: In Dickens's London — Chapter 1
Author: Francis Hopkinson Smith

In Dickens's London — Chapter 1 (1914)

Summary

“In Dickens's London — Chapter 1”, published in 1914, is a work by Francis Hopkinson Smith. It explores elements such as Wardle, landlady and spinster.

Quotes from In Dickens's London — Chapter 1 (Francis Hopkinson Smith)

Francis Hopkinson Smith, In Dickens's London — Chapter 1 (1914)

“ Here, too, within reach of the rummery, was a coffee-room, its yard wall lighted by a line of windows propping up a smoke-dried ceiling, their rays falling on a row of white-clothed tables, framed in settles, with pew backs—so high that the fellow in the next pew could by no possible stretch of his neck discover what the fellow in the adjoining pew was having for dinner—unless, of course, he stood on the settle and looked over the top—an unheard of liberty in so well-bred an inn as the "George." ”

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Source: Wikisource

Francis Hopkinson Smith, In Dickens's London — Chapter 1 (1914)

“ What did interest me—interest me enormously—was the hostelry itself—particularly that part of the sleeping gallery from which the musical chambermaid shouted to the boot cleaner in the sleeve waistcoat with blue-glass buttons. But for a coat of paint applied every twenty years or so, and the bracing up of a snaggle-toothed balustrade, it is precisely as Mr. Dickens saw and described it seventy-five years ago in his immortal "Pickwick." ”

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Source: Wikisource

Francis Hopkinson Smith, In Dickens's London — Chapter 1 (1914)

“ Looked at close by, however, say from beneath the chambermaid's gallery, it resolves itself to your glad surprise into quite another kind of rookery, putting to flight all your first conclusions; the same sort of surprise that comes to a man who, having made up his mind to ignore some approaching shabby person, finds himself bowing and scraping when he gets near enough to look into the kindly eyes and reassuring face of the misjudged individual.
It did not take me many minutes to change my own opinion of "George Inn." ”

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Source: Wikisource

Francis Hopkinson Smith, In Dickens's London — Chapter 1 (1914)

“ You see in the old days the government put a wicked tax on clocks, so high that the people refused to pay, and these old timepieces were put up in the publics so that you got your time with your mug of beer. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Francis Hopkinson Smith, In Dickens's London — Chapter 1 (1914)

“ Private room! and a lady, too! If he's anything of a gen'lm'n, he's vurth a shillin' a day, let alone the arrands."
No smart young chambermaid called to me from over the balustrade of the upper sleeping gallery when I alighted from a hansom in the courtyard of this same inn, known then and now as "George Inn," and gazed about me this morning in June—nor did any bustling old landlady make her appearance on the opposite gallery.
There was a maid, of course, who might, and possibly did, cajole all the subsequent Sam Wellers of her time ”

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Source: Wikisource

Francis Hopkinson Smith, In Dickens's London — Chapter 1 (1914)

“ Although the imposition of the obnoxious tax paralyzed the Horological trades it had the effect of creating one new kind of time keeper for tavern keepers anticipating a scarcity of time keepers among individuals, who with one mind seem to have adapted a bold mural time piece for the benefit of those who visited their public rooms. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Francis Hopkinson Smith, In Dickens's London — Chapter 1 (1914)

“ The bed with its high posts and the short flight of steps leading to its mattress and pillows were still in place—just the kind of bed the famous spinster would have rejoiced in—dreaming dreams of her wedding on the morrow. And so were the chairs and the big rocker and rag-carpet rug and large fireplace, with its appropriate fittings.
I could even hear old Wardle's voice denouncing the scoundrel, and smooth Perker's cautious reminders, and Mr. Pickwick's bland inquiry regarding the nature of the compromise offered by "Mr. ”

Francis Hopkinson Smith

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