登陆注册
15455900000035

第35章 OUT OF TOWN(3)

In the case of your being a pictorial artist, desirous of studying at small expense the physiognomies and beards of different nations, come, on receipt of this, to Pavilionstone. You shall find all the nations of the earth, and all the styles of shaving and not shaving, hair cutting and hair letting alone, for ever flowing through our hotel. Couriers you shall see by hundreds; fat leathern bags for five-franc pieces, closing with violent snaps, like discharges of fire-arms, by thousands; more luggage in a morning than, fifty years ago, all Europe saw in a week. Looking at trains, steamboats, sick travellers, and luggage, is our great Pavilionstone recreation. We are not strong in other public amusements. We have a Literary and Scientific Institution, and we have a Working Men's Institution - may it hold many gipsy holidays in summer fields, with the kettle boiling, the band of music playing, and the people dancing; and may I be on the hill-side, looking on with pleasure at a wholesome sight too rare in England!

- and we have two or three churches, and more chapels than I have yet added up. But public amusements are scarce with us. If a poor theatrical manager comes with his company to give us, in a loft, Mary Bax, or the Murder on the Sand Hills, we don't care much for him - starve him out, in fact. We take more kindly to wax-work, especially if it moves; in which case it keeps much clearer of the second commandment than when it is still. Cooke's Circus (Mr. Cooke is my friend, and always leaves a good name behind him) gives us only a night in passing through. Nor does the travelling menagerie think us worth a longer visit. It gave us a look-in the other day, bringing with it the residentiary van with the stained glass windows, which Her Majesty kept ready-made at Windsor Castle, until she found a suitable opportunity of submitting it for the proprietor's acceptance. I brought away five wonderments from this exhibition. I have wondered ever since, Whether the beasts ever do get used to those small places of confinement; Whether the monkeys have that very horrible flavour in their free state; Whether wild animals have a natural ear for time and tune, and therefore every four-footed creature began to howl in despair when the band began to play; What the giraffe does with his neck when his cart is shut up; and, Whether the elephant feels ashamed of himself when he is brought out of his den to stand on his head in the presence of the whole Collection.

We are a tidal harbour at Pavilionstone, as indeed I have implied already in my mention of tidal trains. At low water, we are a heap of mud, with an empty channel in it where a couple of men in big boots always shovel and scoop: with what exact object, I am unable to say. At that time, all the stranded fishing-boats turn over on their sides, as if they were dead marine monsters; the colliers and other shipping stick disconsolate in the mud; the steamers look as if their white chimneys would never smoke more, and their red paddles never turn again; the green sea-slime and weed upon the rough stones at the entrance, seem records of obsolete high tides never more to flow; the flagstaff-halyards droop; the very little wooden lighthouse shrinks in the idle glare of the sun. And here I may observe of the very little wooden lighthouse, that when it is lighted at night, - red and green, - it looks so like a medical man's, that several distracted husbands have at various times been found, on occasions of premature domestic anxiety, going round and round it, trying to find the Nightbell.

But, the moment the tide begins to make, the Pavilionstone Harbour begins to revive. It feels the breeze of the rising water before the water comes, and begins to flutter and stir. When the little shallow waves creep in, barely overlapping one another, the vanes at the mastheads wake, and become agitated. As the tide rises, the fishing-boats get into good spirits and dance, the flagstaff hoists a bright red flag, the steamboat smokes, cranes creak, horses and carriages dangle in the air, stray passengers and luggage appear.

Now, the shipping is afloat, and comes up buoyantly, to look at the wharf. Now, the carts that have come down for coals, load away as hard as they can load. Now, the steamer smokes immensely, and occasionally blows at the paddle-boxes like a vaporous whale-greatly disturbing nervous loungers. Now, both the tide and the breeze have risen, and you are holding your hat on (if you want to see how the ladies hold THEIR hats on, with a stay, passing over the broad brim and down the nose, come to Pavilionstone). Now, everything in the harbour splashes, dashes, and bobs. Now, the Down Tidal Train is telegraphed, and you know (without knowing how you know), that two hundred and eighty-seven people are coming.

Now, the fishing-boats that have been out, sail in at the top of the tide. Now, the bell goes, and the locomotive hisses and shrieks, and the train comes gliding in, and the two hundred and eighty-seven come scuffling out. Now, there is not only a tide of water, but a tide of people, and a tide of luggage - all tumbling and flowing and bouncing about together. Now, after infinite bustle, the steamer steams out, and we (on the Pier) are all delighted when she rolls as if she would roll her funnel out, and all are disappointed when she don't. Now, the other steamer is coming in, and the Custom House prepares, and the wharf-labourers assemble, and the hawsers are made ready, and the Hotel Porters come rattling down with van and truck, eager to begin more Olympic games with more luggage. And this is the way in which we go on, down at Pavilionstone, every tide. And, if you want to live a life of luggage, or to see it lived, or to breathe sweet air which will send you to sleep at a moment's notice at any period of the day or night, or to disport yourself upon or in the sea, or to scamper about Kent, or to come out of town for the enjoyment of all or any of these pleasures, come to Pavilionstone.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 相思谋:妃常难娶

    相思谋:妃常难娶

    某日某王府张灯结彩,婚礼进行时,突然不知从哪冒出来一个小孩,对着新郎道:“爹爹,今天您的大婚之喜,娘亲让我来还一样东西。”说完提着手中的玉佩在新郎面前晃悠。此话一出,一府宾客哗然,然当大家看清这小孩与新郎如一个模子刻出来的面容时,顿时石化。此时某屋顶,一个绝色女子不耐烦的声音响起:“儿子,事情办完了我们走,别在那磨矶,耽误时间。”新郎一看屋顶上的女子,当下怒火攻心,扔下新娘就往女子所在的方向扑去,吼道:“女人,你给本王站住。”一场爱与被爱的追逐正式开始、、、、、、、
  • 谎言,还是谎言

    谎言,还是谎言

    只是一个自传,只是一本让自己记住自己的书,没有高潮,没有低落,只有一点点的生活
  • 武玄风暴

    武玄风暴

    这世界,绝世强者,横行天下!这世界,武道理念,强者独尊!从地球穿越而来的穆风晨,步入这精彩纷纭武道大世界,登顶武道之巅,追逐力量极限,脚踏一切不爽!
  • 黑客也修神

    黑客也修神

    普通学生?凌霄遥慢慢揭开的一真正的生世之谜,没落的修真时代,即将没落的神佛时代,等着凌霄遥的一一崛起,背后的真正BOSS到底又是怎么样的目的?等着我们一起去挖掘......
  • 佛说八正道经

    佛说八正道经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 笑黄沙

    笑黄沙

    英雄,都是人意淫出来的,小说,是作家意淫出来的,就像男人通过看AV得到快感,平凡的人通过英雄可以重振雄风。对于大多数人来说,这个故事就是一张片片,而且是剧情系列,长达数百万的小说就像男优们,精久不射,高潮迭起的剧情,就像女忧们雅蠛蝶的呼唤;但是,我要说,就像所有片片里一样,所有的高潮都是一样,所有的玄幻都是一样。而今天,我带给你,一个,不一样的世界!【本书开头让扶月找找感觉,15年3月将每天定时更新,3月之前喜欢小月月的可以支持一下《大禅宗》】
  • 异界龙血至尊

    异界龙血至尊

    当华夏顶级世家的传承者碰撞到异界的顶级纨绔当默默无闻的修炼天才碰撞到各大修炼圣地的传承者当着一切的一切碰撞到一切,将会撞出怎样的火花且看《异界龙血至尊》龙的传人如何脚踩纨绔,捏爆天才,踏上无上巅峰。
  • 诸天大轮回

    诸天大轮回

    莫云得到了一个轮回符,可以保留记忆投胎转世到其他世界,重活一生。从此,莫云穿越诸天,开始在各个不同的世界磨砺自身意志,增长自身智慧,累积自身知识,最终升华自身的生命本质!第一个世界——《高手寂寞1》
  • 洞真太上神虎玉经

    洞真太上神虎玉经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 海贼王:承冠

    海贼王:承冠

    【欲戴王冠,必承其重。】陪你去航海,陪你看遍海上的风景。即便下一站是万劫不复的地狱,走吧,船长。她是天之家族的继承者,她拥有最令人羡煞的恶魔果实能力,她有海军的重重保护……但,她却厌极了这枷锁。直到有一天……呐,我要成为海贼王,你要陪我一起来吗?