This is an OCR edition without illustrations or index. It may have numerous typos or missing text. However, purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original rare book from GeneralBooksClub.com. You can also preview excerpts from the book there. Purchasers are also entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Original Published by: W. Blackwood in 1900 in 425 pages; Subjects: Comics & Graphic NovelsPeriodicals; Comics & Graphic Novels / Comics & Cartoons; Humor / General; Humor / Form / Comic Strips & Cartoons; Photography / General; Photography / Techniques / General; Photography / Techniques / Digital;

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1900. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER VI. “A face flashed like a cymbal on his face.” Middleminster is a fine old town—dull of course, and narrow-minded: was there ever a cathedral town that was not dull and narrow-minded? But it possesses all the attractions as well as the drawbacks of these old county towns; it has quaintly gabled, black-beamed houses, a charming old market-place, ancient panelled rooms and carved ceilings, old walls and ancient churches, not to mention one of the finest cathedrals in England. Queen Elizabeth slept at Middleminster on one of those bedairing tours which seem to have constituted that remarkable woman's chief duty—or recreation; there is no accounting for tastes, and perhaps she liked strange beds. It must have been a more attractive town in the past than in the present, for most of our monarchs seem to have taken a bed there from time to time; it may have been an advanced town in the old days—at the present date there is no doubt that it is decidedly behindhand. The fact that Middleminster, although the county town of one of the richest and most fruitful shires in England, and the home of some of the wealthiest men in the country, possesses no public library, is alone enough to condemn it. Middleminster has not long overcome an inveterate prejudice against gas, and as for electricity, you might as soon expect to meet mercy in a country magistrate as the electric light in Middleminster. Opinions, thoughts, and theories that have waxed old and hoary in London are not out of their long-clothes in Middleminster, and, by the time they are short-coated, a new set of thoughts, theories, and opinions will have been born and have grown up in other parts of England. The clerical element pervades Middleminster: long black coats and high white collars surge th...

Jane Jones is Head of MFL Teacher Education in the Department of Education and Professional Studies, and member of the AfL group at King's College London, UK.

Angela McLachlan is the Course Leader for Modern Languages in the Primary PGCE and Teach First programmes in the School of Education, University of Manchester, UK.