'Pray tell him [Mr Kinglake] that I have been an admirer of his for - Heaven knows how long! - since the days when I was shocked and delighted by "Eothen." I remember being very much amused by the opening out of two old neighbours of mine at Ealing, after a discussion of his first volume. In the enthusiasm created by it one of them, an old Peninsular officer, instructed me carefully how to make a pontoon bridge and get my (!) troops over it; while the other, Admiral Collinson, burst forth into naval experiences.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Margaret Oliphant Print: Book
'"The words I didn't understand I just skipped over, yet managed to get a good idea of what the story was about", wrote James Murray, the son of a Scottish shoemaker. "By the time I was ten or eleven years old I did not need to skip any words in any books because by then I had a good grounding in roots and derivations". Crusoe so aroused his appetite for literature that, when his schoolteacher asked the class to list all the books they had read, Murray rattled off titles by Ballantyne, Kingston and Dickens until "I realised the eyes of everyone in the room were on me..."'
Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: James Murray Print: Book
'Read Travels in the East called Eothen, they are by a Mr Kinglake of Taunton a Chancery Barrister, and are written in a very lively manner; they will amuse Lord Grey who I presume is regularly read to every day'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sydney Smith Print: Book
'Looked over King's "Origin of Evil"...'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Green Print: Book
Elizabeth Barrett to Robert Browning, on childhood religious beliefs and practices, 15 January 1846:
'As to the [classical] gods and goddesses, I believed in them all quite seriously, & reconciled them to Christianity [...] As soon as I began to doubt about my goddesses, I fell into a vague sort of general scepticism, .. & though I went on saying "the Lord's prayer" at nights & mornings, & the "Bless all my kind friends" afterwards, by the childish custom .. yet I ended this liturgy with a supplication wihch I found in "King's memoirs" & which took my fancy & met my general views exactly .. "O God, if there be a God, save my soul, if I have a soul".'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Barrett Print: Book
