Unknown London - Softcover
This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1922. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... XIV WAXWORKS IN THE ABBEY I CONFESS some reverence for the waxworks at Westminster Abbey that too often is withheld from them, paying to them the respect due to the burial customs of our ancestors. Their homeliness, too, has pleased me. It is part of the topsy-turviness of things that a show of wax figures of historical personages nowadays has no interest for the young, but makes its appeal solely to the aged. It is always a pleasure to revive the memories of youth, and that we greyheads may enjoy in their company, for in our time these and their like were the simple joys of our growing years. The blase" lad of to-day (a horror to his grandfather, dissimulate he never so well) who is familiar with stage heroes and reared to association with sock and buskin at a time of life when his sedate elders considered an annual visit to the pantomime the limit of permissible enjoyment--he affects scorn for mere wax figures. Were I the guardian and showman of the Abbey waxworks, I would exclude the impudent young. Such powers of stimulating interest as I might possess I would give to those whom time has sobered. They should see Queen Elizabeth in all her panoply of monstrous fashion. For them alone should King Charles II. stare out of his glass pane, and Nelson with his one good eye gaze into futurity. The Duchess of Richmond should stand with her parrot only before them. Monck, Duke of Albemarle, I say with regret, is to-day too dilapidated even to be shown. But there are those mentioned and various others still fit companionship for the appreciative audiences of the middle-aged and elders whom I would invite to tour with me the Abbey waxworks. The young scoffer outside the portals would not trouble me. The ignorant alone find incongruity in the association of wax figures ...
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- PublisherGeneral Books LLC
- Publication date2012
- ISBN 10 1151296538
- ISBN 13 9781151296535
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages54
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