In which we reflect on themes introduced in these pages
Last Orders, Please!
TIM OCKENDEN/PA ARCHIVE/PA PHOTOS
The sound of water escaping from mill-dams, willows, old rotten planks, slimy posts and brickwork, I love such things…those scenes made me a painter and I am grateful.
There is nothing ugly; I never saw an ugly thing in my life: for let the form of an object be what it may—light, shade and perspective will always make it beautiful.
John Constable
The deviation of man from the state in which he was originally placed by nature seems to have proved to him a prolific source of diseases.
The joy I felt at the prospect before me of being the instrument destined to take away from the world one of its greatest calamities was so excessive that…I have sometimes found myself in a kind of reverie.
I hope that some day the practice of producing cowpox in human beings will spread over the world. When that day comes, there will be no more smallpox.
Edward Jenner
My only objection to the custom of giving books as Christmas presents is perhaps the selfish one that it encourages and keeps in the game a number of writers who would be far better employed if they abandoned the pen and took to work.
P.G. Wodehouse
You want to be foretold the weather? It is bad enough when it comes, without our having the misery of knowing about it beforehand.
Jerome K. Jerome
The Wit and Wisdom of William McGonagall:
Black Beard derived his name from his long black beard,
Which terrified America more than any comet that had ever appeared;
“Captain Teach alias ‘Black Beard’”
Alas! Lord and Lady Dalhousie are dead and buried at last,
Which causes many people to feel a little downcast.
“The Death of Lord and Lady Dalhousie”
Beautiful Moon, with thy silvery light, Thou cheerest the lovers in the night As they walk through the shady groves alone, Making love to each other before they go home.
“The Beautiful Moon”