Publisher's Synopsis
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. 1855 edition. Excerpt: ...have described it during the first and second fetes--on both which occasions Mr. Crane bewailed the useless expense into which his gallantry had seduced him, with a truly touching degree of pathos--these tickets remained unused until the third and last flower-show, when "the face of all nature looking gay," and "bright Phoebus" obligingly condescending to " adorn the hills," the ex-cotton-spinner and his spouse, Harry Coverdale and Alice, together with Arabella Crofton, availed themselves of five of them--Horace D'Almayne quietly pocketing the sixth in a fit of mental (and physical) abstraction. They were to start at a quarter before two, as Mr. Crane always preferred being early on all occasions; but at a quarter before two, when the carriages drew up to the door, Alice was not ready, and moreover it was Alice's own fault that she was not ready; and thus it fell out. Lord Alfred Courtland played the flute well for so young a man, and an amateur; since he had been in town, a talented professor instructed him in this art, who was an exiled patriot--that is to say, he and several other ardent young men had attempted one fine morning to take their "Fatherland" away from the gentleman in possession, and give it to the Secret-blood-and-bones-united-brother-band--the same beirg a pet name by which they saw fit to call themselves. What they would have done with their fatherland, if they had got it, neither do they, nor does any one else appear to have the least idea; but this difficulty of disposing of their country was fortunately spared them, as their enterprise consisted simply of a stroll along the principal street of their native city, in company with a drum and a little red flag, bearing the cheerful...
