under the name of "Portland Town." The rustic
and primaeval meadows of Kilburn are also filling with raw
buildings and incipient roads; to say nothing of the
charming neighbourhood of St. John's Wood Farm, and other
spots nearer town.
~73~~where Charles Churchill, and Lloyd, and Bonnel Thornton used to
meet and mix wit, and whim, and strong potation, has sunk into a common
pot-house, and is wholly neglected by the scholars of the present
time: not that they are a whit more moral than their predecessors,
but, professing to be more refined, they are now to be found at the
Tavistock, or the Hummums, at Long's, or Steven's; more polished in
their pleasures, but more expensive in their pursuits."
[Illustration: page73]
As we approached the centre of Dean's-yard, Crony's visage evidently
grew more sentimental; the curved lips of the cynic straightened to
an expression of kindlier feeling, and ere we had arrived at the
school-door, the old eccentric had mellowed down into a generous
contemplatist. "Ay," said Crony, "on this spot, Mr. Black mantle, half
a century ago, was I, a light-hearted child of whim, as you are now,
associated with some of the greatest names that have since figured in
the history of our times, many of whom are now sleeping in their tombs
beneath a weight of worldly honours, while some few have left a nobler
and a surer monument to exalt them with posterity, the well-earned
tribute of a nation's gratitude, the never-fading fame which attaches
itself to good works and great actions.
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