The sketch-book of Geoffrey Crayon, gent[pseud.] together with Abbotsford and other selections from the writings of Washington Irving .. . ed into a by-lane, and after passing throughseveral obscure nooks and angles, emerged into a quaint andquiet court with a grass-plot in the centre, overhung by elms,and kept perpetually fresh and green by a fountain with itssparkling jet of water. A student, with book in hand, wasseated on a stone bench, partly reading, partly meditatingon the movements of two or three trim nursery maids withtheir infant charges. 2. I was like an Arab, who had suddenly come
The sketch-book of Geoffrey Crayon, gent[pseud.] together with Abbotsford and other selections from the writings of Washington Irving .. . ed into a by-lane, and after passing throughseveral obscure nooks and angles, emerged into a quaint andquiet court with a grass-plot in the centre, overhung by elms,and kept perpetually fresh and green by a fountain with itssparkling jet of water. A student, with book in hand, wasseated on a stone bench, partly reading, partly meditatingon the movements of two or three trim nursery maids withtheir infant charges. 2. I was like an Arab, who had suddenly come upon anoasis amid the panting sterility of the desert. By degrees thequiet and coolness of the place soothed my nerves and re-freshed my spirit. I pursued my walk, and came, hard by,to a very ancient chapel, with a low-browed Saxon portal ofmassive and rich architecture. The interior was circularand lofty, and hghted from above. Around were monu-mental tombs of ancient date, on which were extended themarble effigies of warriors in armor. Some had the handsdevoutly crossed upon the breast; others grasped the pom- 114 THE SKETCH-BOOK. mel of the sword, menancing hostility even in the tomb! —while the crossed legs of several indicated soldiers of theFaith who had been on crusades to the Holy Land. I was,in fact, in the chapel of the Knights Templars, strangelysituated in the very centre of sordid traffic; and I do notknow a more impressive lesson for the man of the world thanthus suddenly to turn aside from the highway of busy money-seeking life, and sit down among theseshadowy sepulchres, where all is twi-light, dust, and forgetfulness. 3. In a subsequent tour of obser-vation, I encountered another of theserelics of a foregone world locked upin the heart of the city. I had beenwandering for some time through dullmonotonous streets, destitute of any-thing to strike the eye or excite the im-agination, when I beheld before me aGothic gateway of mouldering antiq-uity. It opened in
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Keywords: ., bo, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookidsketchbookofgeof14irvi
