The Leisure Hour (page 3/3)

Charles Dickens in 1868

From a photograph by Mason. Reproduced in “The Dickens Country” by kind permission of Messrs. Chapman and Hall

“On the page opposite to that which contains this touching picture we have placed a rmarkably handsome photograph of the great novelist as he was in the height of his fame. What a striking contrast! What a world of life-emotion [more...] [$]

Gad’s Hill Place, near Rochester (Kent, UK)

Gad’s Hill Place, Near Rochester [Kent]; The home of Charles Dickens from 1857 to 1870. [more...] [$]

The Deceiver: Grania and Verney in the Garden

Grania’s face was full of tenderness, and her eyes seemed to plead for pardon. The hands she held out to Verney trembled.

“Verney Drake did not see his sister-in-law till late in the morning following the excited arrival of the evening before.

He was standing with all the weariness of reaction after stirred emotion, looking at the blackened shell which was all that remained of the place he had called home. [..]

Then he heard the rustle of her dress, and turning saw her coming slowly over the blackened débris towards him.

The moment he saw her he was conscious of some change in her, something more powerful than the fire that had set a torch to her nature. He saw by the weariness of her eyes that she had kept vigils, and by the redness of their rims that she had wept [more...] [$]

Who ploughs with pain his native lea / And reaps the labour of his hands

The farmer stands in a muddy field with one hand on his hip, behind a pair of horses hitched to a single-furrow plough [US: plow]. He wears a hat, a tied neckerchief and tall boots. [more...] [$]

A Vision of the Future

A vision of a car of the future from May 1905. Amusingly, the two ladies in the passenger compartment are dressed in costume of the period, and appear to be paying no attention [...] [more...] [$]

A Calculating Machine

“Showing the numbers (in black marks) struck on the register, and the keys struck to multiply 2253 by 84. The answer is shown on the register.” (p. 775) [more...] [$]