DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.51521#0023
( *5)
said, and how it came into existence. I asked myself
feebly, was it before the land or after the land, and why
was it allowed to carve the land into islands and capes
and cliffs, and many other things which I had no stomach
to remember. It would have been better to have gone
below and to have forgotten all about A Modern Lover,
but I was intent on seeing the great cliffs of Dover rise
out of the horizon. Sometimes I saw them, sometimes
they disappeared into the clouds, but at last the shore
was certain and the vessel came to a standstill, and on
enquiry from a passenger ill as myself I learned that our
ship was turning round to back into the harbour stern
first. The passengers came up and crowded, all eager to
cross the gangway and to hasten down the pier to the
customs. A miserable place is Dover pier, with a shock"
ingly bad statue put up by the local Phidias—someone
was stabbing somebody or firing at him with a rifle, I
know not which. I had no bag to examine and was eager
to get into the train, but in the train was no amelioration.
The engine must have been a very little one, with not
much more strength than a donkey, so slowly did the
train creep up the acclivities. At the top of each it
trundled along, bringing us of course at every turn of the
wheels nearer to London, and the country cleared up, the
fields drew out and I dare say some cattle were grazing,
but after a stormy passage we had no eyes for the obser-
vation of natural things—I speak for the other passen-
said, and how it came into existence. I asked myself
feebly, was it before the land or after the land, and why
was it allowed to carve the land into islands and capes
and cliffs, and many other things which I had no stomach
to remember. It would have been better to have gone
below and to have forgotten all about A Modern Lover,
but I was intent on seeing the great cliffs of Dover rise
out of the horizon. Sometimes I saw them, sometimes
they disappeared into the clouds, but at last the shore
was certain and the vessel came to a standstill, and on
enquiry from a passenger ill as myself I learned that our
ship was turning round to back into the harbour stern
first. The passengers came up and crowded, all eager to
cross the gangway and to hasten down the pier to the
customs. A miserable place is Dover pier, with a shock"
ingly bad statue put up by the local Phidias—someone
was stabbing somebody or firing at him with a rifle, I
know not which. I had no bag to examine and was eager
to get into the train, but in the train was no amelioration.
The engine must have been a very little one, with not
much more strength than a donkey, so slowly did the
train creep up the acclivities. At the top of each it
trundled along, bringing us of course at every turn of the
wheels nearer to London, and the country cleared up, the
fields drew out and I dare say some cattle were grazing,
but after a stormy passage we had no eyes for the obser-
vation of natural things—I speak for the other passen-