Irving, Washington / 2008-06-30 00:00:00
1819-20
THE SKETCH BOOK
A SUNDAY IN LONDON*
by Washington Irving
* Part of a sketch omitted in the previous editions.
IN A preceding paper I have spoken of an English Sunday in the
country, and its tranquillizing effect upon the landscape; but where
is its sacred influence more strikingly apparent than in the very
heart of that great Babel, London? On this sacred day, the gigantic
monster is charmed into repose. The intolerable din and struggle of
the week are at an end. The shops are shut. The fires of forges and
manufactories are extinguished; and the sun, no longer obscured by
murky clouds of smoke, pours down a sober, yellow radiance into the
quiet streets. The few pedestrians we meet, instead of hurrying
forward with anxious countenances, move leisurely along; their brows
are smoothed from the wrinkles of business and care; they have put
on their Sunday looks, and Sunday manners, with their Sunday
clothes, and are cleansed in mind as well as in person.
And now the melodious clangor of bells from church towers summons
their several flocks to the fold. Forth issues from his mansion the
family of the decent tradesman, the small children in the advance;
then the citizen and his comely spouse, followed by the grown-up
daughters, with small morocco-bound prayer-books laid in the folds
of their pocket-handkerchiefs.
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