Old English Rose Reads » Commonplace Quotations

Commonplace Quotations: Forgotten Rooms

oldenglishrose — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 14:33:12 +0000

Now, no beauty blushed and dimpled along the sides of the Cranford Assembly Room; no handsome artist won hearts by his bow, chapeau bras in hand; the old room was dingy, the salmon-coloured paint had faded into a drab; great pieces of plaster had chipped off from the white wreaths and festoons on its walls; but still a mouldy odour of aristocracy lingered about the place, and a dusty recollection of the days that were gone made Miss Matty and Mrs. Forrester bridle up as they entered, and walk mincingly up the room, as if there were a number of genteel observers, instead of two little boys with a stick of toffy between them with which to beguile the time.

- Cranfordby Elizabeth Gaskell

When I was reading Cranford today, I came across this lovely passage and was instantly put in mind of our wedding day (as if I need an excuse). Our reception was held in the old Winchester Assembly Rooms which have just such salmon walls and plaster moulding and the same slightly sad air of faded grandeur that Gaskell describes. Unless someone told you about this place you would never even know it was there, so it felt wonderful to revive the place with some proper dancing (though probably much less decorous than any Jane Austen would have witnessed if ever she visited) and laughter, if only for a night.

Commonplace Quotations

oldenglishrose — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 15:01:16 +0000

In recent times, muffins have regained some popularity; in common with crumpets and pikelets, they provide a physical base and a pretext for eating melted butter.

- The Pleasures of English Food by Alan Davidson

Commonplace Quotations

oldenglishrose — Mon, 16 May 2011 09:16:56 +0000

Why do cats sleep so much? Perhaps they’ve been trusted with some major cosmic task, an essential law of physics – such as: if there are less than five million cats sleeping at any one time the world will stop spinning. So that when you look at them and think what a lazy, good-for-nothing animal, they are, in fact, working very, very hard.

- Human Croquet by Kate Atkinson