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London Films By: William Dean Howells (1837-1920) |
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BY W. D. HOWELLS [Illustration: HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT] CONTENTS I. METEOROLOGICAL EMOTIONS II. CIVIC AND SOCIAL COMPARISONS, MOSTLY ODIOUS III. SHOWS AND SIDE SHOWS OF STATE IV. THE DUN YEAR'S BRILLIANT FLOWER V. THE SIGHTS AND SOUNDS OF THE STREETS VI. SOME MISGIVINGS AS TO THE AMERICAN INVASION VII. IN THE GALLERY OF THE COMMONS VIII. THE MEANS OF SOJOURN IX. CERTAIN TRAITS OF THE LONDON SPRINGTIME X. SOME VOLUNTARY AND INVOLUNTARY SIGHTSEEING XI. GLIMPSES OF THE LOWLY AND THE LOWLIER XII. TWICE SEEN SIGHTS AND HALF FANCIED FACTS XIII. AN AFTERNOON AT HAMPTON COURT XIV. A SUNDAY MORNING IN THE COUNTRY XV. FISHING FOR WHITEBAIT XVI. HENLEY DAY XVII. AMERICAN ORIGINS MOSTLY NORTHERN XVIII. AMERICAN ORIGINS MOSTLY SOUTHERN XIX. ASPECTS AND INTIMATIONS XX. PARTING GUESTS ILLUSTRATIONS HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT FLEET STREET AND ST. DUNSTAN'S CHURCH THE CARRIAGES DRAWN UP BESIDE THE SACRED CLOSE SUNDAY AFTERNOON, HYDE PARK ROTTEN ROW A BLOCK IN THE STRAND ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL WESTMINSTER ABBEY THE HORSE GUARDS, WHITEHALL WESTMINSTER BRIDGE AND CLOCK TOWER A HOUSE BOAT ON THE THAMES AT HENLEY THE CROWD OF SIGHT SEERS AT HENLEY THE TOWER OF LONDON ST. OLAVE'S, TOOLEY STREET LONDON BRIDGE THE ANCIENT CHURCH OF ST. MAGNUS THE EAST INDIA HOUSE OF CHARLES LAMB'S TIME CHURCH OF THE DUTCH REFUGEES BOW BELLS (ST. MARY LE BOW, CHEAPSIDE) STAPLE INN, HOLBORN CLIFFORD'S INN HALL ANCIENT CHURCH OF ST. MARTINS IN THE FIELDS HYDE PARK IN OCTOBER THAMES EMBANKMENT I METEOROLOGICAL EMOTIONS Whoever carries a mental kodak with him (as I suspect I was in the habit of doing long before I knew it) must be aware of the uncertain value of the different exposures. This can be determined only by the process of developing, which requires a dark room and other apparatus not always at hand; and so much depends upon the process that it might be well if it could always be left to some one who makes a specialty of it, as in the case of the real amateur photographer. Then one's faulty impressions might be so treated as to yield a pictorial result of interest, or frankly thrown away if they showed hopeless to the instructed eye. Otherwise, one must do one's own developing, and trust the result, whatever it is, to the imaginative kindness of the reader, who will surely, if he is the right sort of reader, be able to sharpen the blurred details, to soften the harsh lights, and blend the shadows in a subordination giving due relief to the best meaning of the print. This is what I fancy myself to be doing now, and if any one shall say that my little pictures are superficial, I shall not be able to gainsay him. I can only answer that most pictures represent the surfaces of things; but at the same time I can fully share the disappointment of those who would prefer some such result as the employment of the Roentgen rays would have given, if applied to certain aspects of the London world. Of a world so vast, only small parts can be known to a life long dweller. To the sojourner scarcely more will vouchsafe itself than to the passing stranger, and it is chiefly to home keeping folk who have never broken their ignorance of London that one can venture to speak with confidence from the cumulative misgiving which seems to sum the impressions of many sojourns of differing lengths and dates. One could have used the authority of a profound observer after the first few days in 1861 and 1865, but the experience of weeks stretching to months in 1882 and 1883, clouded rather than cleared the air through which one earliest saw one's London; and the successive pauses in 1894 and 1897, with the longest and latest stays in 1904, have but served to confirm one in the diffident inconclusion on all important points to which I hope the pages following will bear witness. What appears to be a fact, fixed and absolute amid a shimmer of self question, is that any one coming to London in the beginning of April, after devious delays in the South and West of England, is destined to have printed upon his mental films a succession of meteorological changes quite past computation... Continue reading book >>
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