Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1859-08-16
THE GAZETTE.
TUESDAY MORNING, AUGUST is, 1859.
A CoCKNEY On LONDON SUNSHINE.


A COCkNEY oN LONDON SUNSHINE.
often wonder il there will ever be Lon
don Claude Lorraine. Ii there ever be. he
will, for the first thing, paint London Sun
shine, uut of whose radiance have just come
from st. Martins lane into my dark cham
Der, as man comes from morning bath ~
the molten gold of the sea with the sun 1t,
to redress himself before breakfast III the
soft darkness of Marine Parade room with
the blind down. Sunshine through spring
weeds is delicious thing. 80 IL sunshine
through three feet of June grass, fit for NOW
ing. when the thick flowers close like waves
over your face rs you lie on your back and
listen to the lark that the angels are calling
to, from that hollow SNOWFALL of cloud
But as we have none of these delights, and
are all built in for various terms Of imprisOn-
ment in long defiles of houses. walled all
round with black and brown brick, Gagged
under miles of red tile roof. in streets where
the chimneys keep telegraphing to each
other by smoke signals, at windows where
consumptive geraniums sicken for fresher air,
and no thin weed dares to take root between
backward, where flowers are cnriosities, and
the hot dark breath Of Cares kiln's and fur
naces thickens the smiling air, which strug-
giles to be bright and free, let us make the
best of it.
Talk of your mountain distance. your air
perspeetives. never saw anything IN the
blue gaps Of'the Apennines more fairy beau
tiful than the blue grey fog that turns the
end Of London street as you look down III
it into mystery and beauty. thut gives the
present tinge Of the uncertainty OF the tu-
ture and the past. and throwsa halo OF poetry
over Cover street or Soho. And look now
how the London sunshine falls on q white
luminous veil, such as hid the face Of Moses,
before that vulgar block of houses in Blue
Ruin street; two pawn-brokers. Il publcan's
and an undertaker's. That white fog of
glory slants across the end of the street, where
the cab No 3l73 is breaking through it, like
a new Jacobs ladder, the cords, golden
threads of sunbeams, let down in gracious
mercy once more to allow some poor suffering
life-burlened wretch to crawl up it to the
Bright City. Why it is a complete angelic
exhibition, and should be charged for. 1t Is
worth guinea u seat, yet no one looks up, no
one but that poor little skeleton girl with
frozen bunch of yesterdays water crosses in
her lean hand. who huddles in the doorway
of Lattat. the sharp attorney, who (brute) Is,
actually as Ispeak, tapping at the glass t"
bid her go away. See. too, yon pur-blindi
artist with the microscope eyes, who can find
nothing to paint in this our dear London
the darker bar that strikes like giants sword
blade through the great woof of cobweb sun
shine we speak of-can't imagine where it
comes from? Oh, Macguelp, thou mole eyed
misuser of unpaid pigments. dost thou not
see that it is the shadow of the chimney above
us, which standing in the way of the royal
blessed purifying sunshine that brings hope
and gladness into the very eyes Of the dying
enfeebles and dims that path of darkness
Talk of Samarcand and your Chinese splen-
dor. Is it not gorgeous to see how the sun
shine gistens ON those great old letters, Bar
clay, Perkins 4 Co.," that are heraldically
displayed ON the great board above the pub
LEANS Druggel's) garnet window at the
"Fivealls," and makes them shine like letters
hewn in the solid bullion! Charles Dickens