Now comes on the Sunday dinner, which, to the city
tradesman, is a meal of some importance. There is more leisure for
social enjoyment at the board. Members of the family can now gather
together, who are separated by the laborious occupations of the
week. A school-boy may be permitted on that day to come to the
paternal home; an old friend of the family takes his accustomed Sunday
seat at the board, tells over his well-known stories, and rejoices
young and old with his well-known jokes.
On Sunday afternoon the city pours forth its legions to breathe
the fresh air and enjoy the sunshine of the parks and rural
environs. Satirists may say what they please about the rural
enjoyments of a London citizen on Sunday, but to me there is something
delightful in beholding the poor prisoner of the crowded and dusty
city enabled thus to come forth once a week and throw himself upon the
green bosom of nature. He is like a child restored to the mother's
breast; and they who first spread out these noble parks and
magnificent pleasure-grounds which surround this huge metropolis, have
done at least as much for its health and morality, as if they had
expended the amount of cost in hospitals, prisons, and penitentiaries.
THE END
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