An account of Paris at the close of the seventeenth century : relating to the buildings of that city, its libraries, gardens, natural and artifical curiosities, the manners and customs of the people, their arts, manufactures, &c / by Martin Lister.

  • Lister, Martin, 1638?-1712.
Date:
[1823]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An account of Paris at the close of the seventeenth century : relating to the buildings of that city, its libraries, gardens, natural and artifical curiosities, the manners and customs of the people, their arts, manufactures, &c / by Martin Lister. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    irony, arid I will therefore select two or three of the most ludicrous and satirical. One, alluding to Dr. Lister’s avowal of his love of nature, &c. in the introduction, is as follows: “ though I met with an English gentleman Avho proffered to shew me the princes of the blood, the prime ministers of state, &c. yet I refused the civility, and told him that I took more pleasure to see honest John Sharp of Hackney, in his white frock, crying turnips, ho ! four bunches a penny ! than Sir Charles Cotterel making' room for an ambassador; and I found myself better disposed and more apt to learn the physiognomy of a hundred weeds, than of five or six princes.” Another is as follows : “The reason why there are more boats below bridge than above, is because there is a custom house, &c. and the reason why there lie so many hundred large vessels of all sorts, and of all nations is, because they cannot get through bridge, heigh ! and there are a great many light boats laden with brooms, gingerbread, tobacco, and a dram of the bottle, ho!” The last specimen of this satirical paraphrase that I shall produce is this : “ I w as walking in St. James’s park. There were no pavilions nor decoration of treillage and flowers, but I saw there a vast number of ducks. These were a most surprising sight. I could not forbear to say to Mr. Johnson Avho was pleased to accompany me in this walk, that sure all the ponds in England had contributed to this profu- sion of ducks; which he took so well, that he ran immediately to an old gentleman that sat in a chair and was feeding them, who rose up very obligingly, embraced me, and saluted me with a kiss, and invited