But a free agent ought to live well on his travels--some
degrees better, without doubt, than when at home. People seldom live
very well at home. There is always something requiring to be eaten up,
that it may not be lost, which destroys the soothing and satisfactory
symmetry of an unexceptionable dinner. We have detected the same duck
through many unprincipled disguises, playing a different part in the
farce of domestic economy, with a versatility hardly to have been
expected in one of the most generally despised of the web-footed
tribe. When travelling at one's own sweet will, one feeds at a
different inn every meal; and, except when the coincidence of
circumstances is against you, there is an agreeable variety both
in the natural and artificial disposition of the dishes.
_Blackwood's Magazine_.
* * * * *
ENGLISH FRUITS.
(_Continued from page 231_.)
_The Currant_--The native place of this useful fruit is not exactly
ascertained; nearly allied to the gooseberry, it receives the same
treatment, shows the same changes, and may be further improved by
the same means; a cross between the white Dutch and red, might be a
valuable mule. It is probable the black also may be induced to sport
from that steady character it has hitherto maintained; there are but
few domesticated plants but which (like animals) depart, in some way
or other, from their native caste.
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