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Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 1804-1864

"Passages from the French and Italian Notebooks, Complete"

On the side of the house there is a marble
slab inserted, recording that here he resided, and that here he died in
1767, between eighty and ninety years of age. My first acquaintance with
him was in Smollett's "Roderick Random," and I have met him in a hundred
other novels.
His marble statue is in a niche at one end of the great pump-room, in
wig, square-skirted coat, flapped waistcoat, and all the queer costume of
the period, still looking ghost-like upon the scene where he used to be
an autocrat. Marble is not a good material for Beau Nash, however; or,
if so, it requires color to set him off adequately. . . . .
It is usual in Bath to see the old sign of the checker-board on the
doorposts of taverns. It was originally a token that the game might be
played there, and is now merely a tavern-sign.

LONDON.

31 Hertford Street, Mayfair, May 16th, 1860.--I came hither from Bath on
the 14th, and am staying with my friends, Mr. and Mrs. Motley. I would
gladly journalize some of my proceedings, and describe things and people;
but I find the same coldness and stiffness in my pen as always since our
return to England.


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