Twice round the clock; or, The hours of the day and night in London . k jokeswith one another—I have even seen the friendly dig in the ribs, accom-panied by the sly chuckle, occasionally administered—and to ask ques-tions and receive answers. They are iNotes and Queries (chattiest,most quaintly-erudite of periodicals) incarnated. But they abjure notthe presence of the gentler, unscientific sex. These rare old boys oflearning and science thread their way through the rooms (sometimesalmost inconveniently crowded, for the Royal Inquiring Society is verypopular) with blooming wives and daughters o
Twice round the clock; or, The hours of the day and night in London . k jokeswith one another—I have even seen the friendly dig in the ribs, accom-panied by the sly chuckle, occasionally administered—and to ask ques-tions and receive answers. They are iNotes and Queries (chattiest,most quaintly-erudite of periodicals) incarnated. But they abjure notthe presence of the gentler, unscientific sex. These rare old boys oflearning and science thread their way through the rooms (sometimesalmost inconveniently crowded, for the Royal Inquiring Society is verypopular) with blooming wives and daughters on their arms. The youngladies delight in these conversaziones—for a change. They are sostrange, so peculiar, they say. You dont meet anybody to dance withor to talk about the weather, or the Crystal Palace, or crinoline, or theBotanical Gardens; but you see such nice old gentlemen, with dear,shiny, bald heads, and such wonderful intellectual-looking beings, withlong hair, turn-down collars, and large feet, who smell musty bones with 312 TWICE BOUND THE ELEVEN —A SCIENTIFIC CONVERSAZIONE. 313 unpronounceable names, and make* extraordinary instruments to whizround, and point out places upon maps, and talk so cleverly (but so in-comprehensibly to you, my dears) about rusty coins and the backbonesof fishes, and battered saucepans, which they say are helmets. Andthen there are the nice stereoscopes to peep through, and the beautifulwater-colour drawings and photographs to look at, and the old gentle*men are so quiet and so polite, and so different from the young men onemeets in society, who either stammer and blush or are superciliouslyrude and put their hands in their trousers pockets. Yes, young ladies,the bald-headed old gentlemen, the careworn, long-haired, slovenly-looking men, are quiet and polite. They were, many of them, poor andhumble once ; but they have hewn out steps from the rock of knowledge,whereby they have mounted to that better fortune—Europea
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Keywords: ., bookauthormcconnel, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1850, bookyear1859
