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- neglected step-son of heaven, permitted to run on and riot out his days
with no hand to restrain him, while others are watched over and
tenderly cared for; yet we feel and we know that God is the true Father
of all, and that none of his children are without the pale of his care.
CHAPTER XXX.
REDBURN GROWS INTOLERABLY FLAT AND STUPID OVER SOME OUTLANDISH OLD
GUIDE-BOOKS
Among the odd volumes in my father’s library, was a collection of old
European and English guide-books, which he had bought on his travels, a
great many years ago. In my childhood, I went through many courses of
studying them, and never tired of gazing at the numerous quaint
embellishments and plates, and staring at the strange title-pages, some
of which I thought resembled the mustached faces of foreigners. Among
others was a Parisian-looking, faded, pink-covered pamphlet, the rouge
here and there effaced upon its now thin and attenuated cheeks,
entitled, _“Voyage Descriptif et Philosophique de L’Ancien et du
Nouveau Paris: Miroir Fidèle”_ also a time-darkened, mossy old book, in
marbleized binding, much resembling verd-antique, entitled,
_“Itinéraire Instructif de Rome, ou Description Générale des Monumens
Antiques et Modernes et des Ouvrages les plus Remarquables de Peinteur,
de Sculpture, et de Architecture de cette Célébre Ville;”_ on the
russet title-page is a vignette representing a barren rock, partly
shaded by a scrub-oak (a forlorn bit of landscape), and under the lee
of the rock and the shade of the tree, maternally reclines the
houseless foster-mother of Romulus and Remus, giving suck to the
illustrious twins; a pair of naked little cherubs sprawling on the
ground, with locked arms, eagerly engaged at their absorbing
occupation; a large cactus-leaf or diaper hangs from a bough, and the
wolf looks a good deal like one of the no-horn breed of barn-yard cows;
the work is published _“Avec privilege du Souverain Pontife.”_ There
was also a velvet-bound old volume, in brass clasps, entitled, _“The
Conductor through Holland”_ with a plate of the Stadt House; also a
venerable _“Picture of London”_ abounding in representations of St.
Paul’s, the Monument, Temple-Bar, Hyde-Park-Corner, the Horse Guards,
the Admiralty, Charing-Cross, and Vauxhall Bridge. Also, a bulky book,
in a dusty-looking yellow cover, reminding one of the paneled doors of
a mail-coach, and bearing an elaborate title-page, full of printer’s
flourishes, in emulation of the cracks of a four-in-hand whip,
entitled, in part, _“The Great Roads, both direct and cross, throughout
England and Wales, from an actual Admeasurement by order of His
Majesty’s Postmaster-General: This work describes the Cities, Market
and Borough and Corporate Towns, and those at which the Assizes are
held, and gives the time of the Mails’ arrival and departure from each:
Describes the Inns in the Metropolis from which the stages go, and the
Inns in the country which supply post-horses and carriages: Describes
the Noblemen and Gentlemen’s Seats situated near the Road, with Maps of
the Environs of London, Bath, Brighton, and Margate.”_ It is dedicated
_“To the Right Honorable the Earls of Chesterfield and Leicester, by
their Lordships’ Most Obliged, Obedient, and Obsequious Servant, John
Gary,_ 1798.” Also a green pamphlet, with a motto from Virgil, and an
intricate coat of arms on the cover, looking like a diagram of the
Labyrinth of Crete, entitled, “A _Description of York, its Antiquities
and Public Buildings, particularly the Cathedral; compiled with great
pains from the most authentic records.”_ Also a small
scholastic-looking volume, in a classic vellum binding, and with a
frontispiece bringing together at one view the towers and turrets of
King’s College and the magnificent Cathedral of Ely, though
geographically sixteen miles apart, entitled, _“The Cambridge Guide:
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