Book Description

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1838 edition. Excerpt: ... will pass over them, and merely state, that my application was noticed and praised by all whose lectures I attended. Nothing worth relating occurred until January 1815; when, during one miserable foggy and snowy day, which is peculiarly unpleasant to a native of the torrid zone, I went into a haird resser's shop in Warwick Street, Golden Square, to get my hair trimmed. The operator and his assistant were both employed; I was, therefore, obliged to wait until one of them was disengaged. The barber observing, by my blowing my fingers, that I was disagreeably affected by the cold, asked me to go into his back room, where there was a fire. I agreed to this proposition, and went in, took a seat before the grate, and warmed myself, until the hairdresser despatched his customers. On looking round me, I saw on a sidetable a body of the most beautiful hair I ever beheld. It was of a light-brown colour, most elegantly curled, more than six feet in length, and of the most silky texture I ever touched. The man of the shop, having finished with his other customers, came to me. He was a short dapper man, with a deep pock-marked countenance, which looked as though it had been sculptured with a rough chisel out of a cask of tallow: and yet his pale crumpet-looking features had the traits of good-natnre and intelligence so plainly written on them, that, nngainly as they were, they seemed any thing but disagreeable. Real good-humour can throw a pleasant expression into an ugly visage. "You seem, sir, to enjoy the fire; you don't like cold," said he. I replied, that a clear frosty day was tolerable, because I could brace myself with exercise; but that I hated the foggy weather of his climate. "Perceive, sir, you are a foreigner?" "Not exactly: I am a West...