London at the End of the Century:A Book of Gossip
a Beckett, Arthur William
1900
A SUBSTITUTE FOR A DAY WITH 'ARRY.
In considering the Cockney as a class I have almost forgotten to suggest a mode of avoiding him as an individual. I have hinted that clubland is forbidden ground (at present) to the successor of Smith's snob. But there are other places that are equally sacred. 'Arry avoids a because he is refused admittance; he does not appear at any of the museums because he has no inclination. The young man is nothing if not light-hearted. He likes | |
265 | the open air, where there is plenty of room for his pipe, his stick, and his laugh. So if you want to avoid him on a Bank Holiday you cannot do better than visit the South Kensington Museum, or the National Gallery, or St. Paul's, or . Now that 'Arry can no longer inscribe his initials on the tombs of kings, or the funeral cars of emperors, he cares not for cathedrals. Now that he is expected to be silent in a public library, he no longer haunts the great reading-room of Bloomsbury. It is quite safe to go to any place of instruction open gratuitously to the public. The young man will not be found at the Diploma Gallery, nor the School of Mines in Jermyn Street, nor even at the Sir Hans Sloane's Museum in Lincoln's Inn Fields, so the general public may go to those haunts of the learned in their thousands. If they do, they will no doubt rather surprise the custodians, inured, as they must be, to solitude in its simplest form; but that is a matter of detail. As for the typical Cockney, he can go where he will, and no doubt will take full advantage of the privilege. A day devoted to the Diploma Gallery is not suggestive of the wildest delight, but it is better than 'Ampstead and 'Arry. At least, such is the opinion of those who have tried both, and have no desire to retry either. |
