Page:Romance & Reality 1.pdf/256

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
250
ROMANCE AND REALITY.

with a hammer. 'Bad taste' said Mr. Morland; 'very bad taste!' At first I thought he alluded to the murder; but I after wards found it was the mode in which the murder was committed."

Edward Lorraine.—"Allowing for a little feminine exaggeration, you are not far wrong. Mr. Morland carries his principle to its extent; but in his hands it is an excellent rule of action. To avoid the ridiculous, and pursue the beautiful, would be equally his rule for the statesman and the upholsterer. Consistency of action, attention to results, and also to present benefit on the one side, and harmony of colour and graceful effect on the other, he urges arise from the same principle under different circumstances—viz. good taste! His house and his conduct, his dress and his language, are equally perfect. He lives a short distance out of London. 'I must have,' I have often heard him say, 'quiet; so I avoid living in a street—I look upon my fine old trees—my growth of summer flowers, links between myself and nature. I grow too worldly, and I freshen my imagination with my roses. I grow disputatious and discontented among volumes of feverish study, vain aspirings, and useless information; I open one of my