Olla Podrida

Those who have visited our West India possessions must have often been amused with the humour and cunning which occasionally appear in a negro more endowed than the generality o...

Jack Littlebrain was, physically considered, as fine grown, and moreover as handsome a boy as ever was seen, but it must be acknowledged that he was not very clever. Nature is,...

It was a flue autumnal evening; I had been walking with a friend until dusk on the Piazza Grande, or principal square in the town of Lucca. We had been conversing of England, ou...

I have often thought, when you consider the difference of comfort between houses built from sixty to a hundred years back, in comparison with the modern edifices, that the cry o...

June, Steam-boat Princess Victoria. It certainly appears that the motion of a steam-vessel produces more nausea than that of a sailing-vessel; and people appear to suffer in som...

_Ansard_. (alone.) Well, I thought it hard enough to write a novel at the dictate of the bibliopolist; but to be condemned to sit down and write my travels--travels that have ne...

It was not until many months after the war had been carried on, that Sir Archibald Campbell found himself in a position to penetrate into the heart of the Burmah territory, and...

There was a grand procession through the streets of the two towns of Perth and Dundee. The holy abbots, in their robes, walked under gilded canopies, the monks chanted, the cens...

Strasbourg is full of the pomp and circumstance of war. Being one of the keys of France, it has a garrison of ten thousand men, and the drums and bands play from morning to even...

Brussels. Authors, like doctors, are very apt to disagree. Reading, the other day, a very amusing publication, called the "Diary of a Desennuyee," some passages in it induced me...

Liege. I have been reading the "Salmonia" of Sir Humphry Davy: what a pity it is that he did not write more! there are so many curious points started in it. I like that descript...

En route, August, 1837. There is a great art in packing property, and in it our profession are fortunately adepts. A midshipman, for instance, contrives to put every thing at th...

I must find a regular _graver_ to write this chapter of horrors. No goose quill could afford me any assistance. Now then. Let me see--(_Reads, and during his reading_ BARNSTAPLE...

MR ARTHUR ANSARD'S _Chambers as before_. MR ANSARD. _with his eyes fixed upon the wig block, gnawing the feather end of his pen. The table, covered with sundry sheets of foolsca...

Yes, there you stand, "partner of my toils, my feelings, and my fame." We do not _suit_, for we never gained a _suit_ together. Well, what with reporting for the bar, writing fo...

Spa. Yes, now Spa is agreeable: we have no _redoubte_ open with fools losing their money, no English _passants_ looking after amusement, no valetudinarians drinking the _poupon_...

There certainly is an impulse implanted in our natures to love something; our affections were never intended to lie in abeyance, and if they cannot be placed upon the other sex...

February, 1836. The Burmahs are decidedly a brave nation: the government being despotic, their rulers are cruel, but the people are not. I state this, as cowardice and cruelty u...

May, 1836. Although on friendly terms with the chief of Naputah, he was a person of such weight in that part of the country, that it was advisable, if possible, to identify him...

Spa, June 10. Here we are, and for a time at rest. Rest! no, the wheels of the carriage may rest, even the body for a time may rest, but the mind will not. We carry our restless...

Paddle, paddle--splash, splash--bump, thump, bump. What a leveller is sea-sickness--almost as great a radical as death. All grades, all respect, all consideration are lost. The...

Brussels. I have lost all my memoranda! I cannot find them any where. Well-- children are a great blessing when they are kept in the nursery--but they certainly do interfere a l...

To continue.--Should travellers think it advisable to proceed upon the Rhine, so far as Mayence, let them be careful how they venture to proceed farther. I did so, out of curios...

The Queen of Belgium "a fait un enfant." On the Continent it is always the wife who is considered as the faiseuse; the husband is supposed, and very often with justice to have h...

Cut your coat according to your cloth, is an old maxim and a wise one; and if people will only square their ideas according to their circumstances, how much happier might we all...

Lausanne. I recollect some one saying, that in walking out you should never look up in the air, but always on the ground, as, by the former practice, you were certain never to f...

Spa, July 15. What a curious history might be afforded by Spa and its gaming tables! When Spa was in its glory, when crowned heads met and dukes were forced to remain in their c...

Oh dear!--this is a very long morning. I feel such suspense--such anxiety; and poor Sergeant-major O'Callaghan is quite in a perspiration! He is drinking and smoking down in the...

Geneva. Twenty years have made a wonderful alteration in the good sober puritanical city of Geneva. The improvement from the new buildings which have been erected is so great, t...

I have been reading Jesse's "Gleanings." Is he quite correct? I have my doubts. In one point I certainly do not agree with him, in his favourite opinion of cats. I do, however,...

En route, May 26. Passed Waterloo--was informed that two days before the Marquis of Anglesey had arrived there, and stayed a short time to visit the cemetery of his leg; a regul...

Antwerp. Every one has heard of the cathedral at Antwerp and the fine pictures by Rubens--every one has heard of the siege of Antwerp and General Chasse, and how the French marc...

Brussels. There are few people in Brussels, indeed in Belgium, who do not complain of the revolution; all that goes wrong is at once ascribed to this cause--indeed I was rather...

Brussels, May 5. His Belgian Majesty, the Belgian ministers, Belgian ambassadors, Belgian authorities, and all the Belgian nobility and gentry, all the English who reside in Bru...

May 23. With all the faults of the Roman church, it certainly appears to me that its professors extend towards those who are in the bosom of their own church a greater share tha...

Lausanne. What a continual strife there is between literary men! I can only compare the world of authors to so many rats drowning in a tub, forcing each other down to raise them...

Liege, May 30th. What strange meetings take place sometimes! I recollect once, when I was sitting at a _table d'hote_, at Zurich, being accosted by a lady next to me, and being...

In this world we are so jealous of any discovery being made, that innovation is immediately stigmatised as quackery. I say innovation, for improvement is not the term. The attem...

Scene.--_A sick room_.--Mr CADAVEROUS _in an easy chair asleep, supported by cushions, wrapped up in his dressing-gown, a night-cap on his head.--A small table with phials, gall...

Brussels, May 22. Among the _lions_ of Brussels, a dog was pointed out to me, as he lay on the pavement in front of the House of Assembly. It was a miserable looking cur; but he...

June 3. Went to Harquet's manufactory of arms, and was much amused. They export all over the world, and the varieties they make up for the different markets are astonishing. The...

Reader, did you ever feel in that peculiarly distressing state of mind in which one oppressing idea displaces or colours every other, absorbing, intermingling with, empoisoning,...

The Hotel des Bergues is certainly a splendid establishment; many people winter at this hotel in preference to going to a pension, which is, with the best arrangements, disagree...

Lausanne. After all, there is more sympathy in this world than we would suppose, and it is something to find that, in the turmoil and angry war of opinion and interest, nations...

To one who has visited foreign climes, how very substantial everything appears in England, from the child's plaything to the Duke of York's column! To use a joiners phrase, ever...

May 25. "A man cannot die more than once," is an old apothegm, and it would appear bold to dispute it; but still there are lives within lives, such as political lives, literary...

I am grave to-day; it is the birth-day of one of my children--a day so joyful in youth, in more advanced life so teeming with thought and serious reflections. How happy the chil...

SEEDY. I believe now, sir, that every thing is arranged in your will according to your instructions. Shall I read it over again; for although signed and witnessed, you may make...

Spa, June 30. Yesterday I fell in with two old friends, who, from a mere "truant disposition," joined perhaps with a little good will towards me, came over to Spa. As soon as th...

Well, as I said in my last chapter, I planned--and planned--but I might as well conjugate it, as many others assisted--it was I planned, thou plannedst, he planned, we planned,...

Liege, June 2. The academy or college established at Liege in 1817 is very creditable to the Liegeois. Much has been done in fifteen years: the philosophical apparatus, collecti...

Ostend. From Spa to Liege, from Liege to Brussels, from Brussels to Ostend, how detestable it is to go over the same ground again and again! only to be imposed upon and cheated...

I was confoundedly taken in by a rascal of a commissionnaire, and aware how the feelings of travellers are affected by the weather or the treatment they receive at any place the...

London, November. We have the signs of the times here. I peep through the fog and see quite enough to satisfy me that the prosperity is but partial. Money in plenty, but lying i...

CLEM. I have just received a letter from my dear Edward: he knows of my uncle's danger, and is anxious to see me. I expect him immediately. I hope he will not be seen by Mrs Jel...