John Palgrave Simpson

“ One attribute the last dwelling-places all have in common. Around all are gardens, greater or smaller—now filled with shrubberies, now only affording room for a few tiny plants. Everywhere hang the chaplets, woven of yellow, white, and green—everywhere lie scattered flowers, recently strewn—now fresh, now withered. Another peculiarity is as frequently to be found by the side of the humbler grave as on the splendid monument. ”

“ The city of tombs has its great holiday, like other cities. On “All Souls’ Day,” all Munich that has a friend or relative to mourn, flocks to the great Festival of the Dead, to adorn a tomb. On that day, amidst the thick mass of the unmeaning faces of the many of both sexes, and of every age, groups of interest now and then cross the visitor’s path. ”

“ The spirit was impossible to be fostered in the close and choked-up burial-place of the town, o’ertopping in its mass of corruption, gathered for centuries past, the streets that seethed with busy or careless life, and offering only the dismal aspect of blackened grave-headings, for only a brief space white, interspersing flagged monumental tablets, from which all inscription was wont quickly to disappear, as if as glad to be rid of its duty of recording, as the living might have been of the due meed of memory. ”

“ I could have fancied myself transported to the Olympian games, had not the crowd of vessels, the beauty of the Thames, and the immensity of the city of London, made me blush to think of comparing ancient Greece to England, as I saw it before my eyes. ”

“ One of the celebrated physicians of the Court, to whom I expressed my surprise, told me that what I had seen was nothing to what I should see in the months of November and March,—that people then hanged themselves by dozens, and melancholy pervaded the nation.
“‘Those are the seasons of the year,’ said he, ‘when the East Wind is constantly blowing. That wind is the evil genius of our island. The very beasts suffer from it, and hang their heads in despair. Those who are sufficiently robust to preserve their health during the prevalence of this accursed wind, at least lose their temper. ”

“ Sometimes the vision that came back upon the mind, spread out before it a scene of long walks, shadowy avenues, bright flower-beds, and clustering shrubberies—all studded with a thousand monuments, varied in architecture, and decked out with all the wealth of a neighbouring capital—here gorgeous trophies, erected to the fame of a country’s heroes—here elaborate works of art—and each, grand or humble, in itself a history. ”

“ Poor Molly appears to have been a beautiful girl, who was on the point of being married to the man of her choice. All the gentlemen, who seemed to have known her well, received the news without emotion. For my own part, horrified as I was at so strange a catastrophe, and at the indifference displayed, I could not refrain from inquiring what could possibly have induced a poor girl, to all appearance so happy in her lot, to take away her own life thus cruelly. ”

“ Aged females were decked out with gaudy caps, false curls upon their heads, and rouge upon their yellow waxen cheeks—an appalling mockery of life—a fantastic coquetry, hideous to see, even in the arms of death. ”

“ A main avenue leads up the centre: what may be called a boulevard sweeps, in similar breadth, along the outer walls; the streets and lanes intersect the plots of dwellings as ordinary streets and lanes, but with symmetrical regularity. These passages are nameless, it is true; but each bears at its corner a low numbered post, the especial mark of which is a sufficient direction to the dwelling to which a mourner may be bound. A city it is, once more, in its variety and distribution of building. The noblest monuments stand upon the broadest thoroughfares ”

“ These gentlemen did the honours of the day to me with the eagerness and cordiality of men who, in the full satisfaction of their own joy, are anxious to communicate the same feelings to others. They sent for a horse for me, offered me refreshments, and took care to place me in a position where I could best see the humours of the holiday crowd, and the view of the river, with London in the distance. ”

“ Little miniatures of the deceased who lie below, are let into a frame, overhanging the sculptured or painted epitaphs—poor memorials indeed, sometimes, and rude remembrancers of a living face. But in this again, as in all “city” life, the wealthy have their privilege. ”

“ A recognition of his power,—a steady consciousness that it is he, and he alone, who is in reality the cause of our melancholy, our irritability, our mental and physical depression, during his malignant reign, and not any of the other causes he persuades us to imagine—but, above all, patience! ”

“ Among some of the more lowly a wire grating affords a partial protection against the destructive ravages of weather upon these remembrancers; but in most the colours disappear, the features decay, and the feeble outline that remains, bears only the same ghastly resemblance to a pictured face that a skeleton does to a living body. ”

“ It is only at a compatively late period that we have permitted ourselves, in this country, any sympathy with those gentle and graceful cares, and affecting symbols of lingering attachment, which our continental neighbours have long since been accustomed to bestow upon the last dwelling-place of those they loved or respected in life. ”

“ He has been our great national enemy from time out of mind. He seems to delight in giving evidences of his bitter stinging enmity. When once he commences his hostile attacks, you may be well assured that his malignant influence will be exercised for a very long and painful period of time. ”

“ The mischief he effects is enormous: and no efforts of philosophical or statistical calculation can be ever made to bear upon the amount of evil, moral or physical, commercial or political, which may be reasonably laid to his baneful effects. ”

“ He tells us this fact in a letter, which is very little known among his voluminous works, but which we are disposed to quote, with all its little national errors, and national exaggerations, as characteristic of the celebrated man; at the same time that it is illustrative of the effect made by the visible influence of our old enemy, upon a foreigner, who gives himself the air of having made an important discovery in detecting his malignant agency. ”