What I Remember, Volume 2 by Thomas Adolphus Trollope
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page 24 of 379 (06%)
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respecting her behaviour when she should be presented to the bishop,
while her mother screamed after her not to forget to pull up her frock when she kneeled down. "All the time employed in this little revision of the toilet had not been left unimproved by my companion, who at the end of it produced and showed to the proud mother an admirable full-length sketch of her pretty darling. The delighted astonishment of the poor woman, and her accent, as she exclaimed, '_O, si c'était pour moi_!' and then blushed to the temples at what she had said, were irresistible, and the good-natured artist was fain to make her a present of the drawing." My Breton book ("though I says it as shouldn't") is not a bad one, especially as regards the upper or northern part of the province. That which concerns Lower Brittany is very imperfect, mainly, I take it, because I had already nearly filled my destined two volumes when I reached it. I find there, however, the following notice of the sardine fishery, which has some interest at the present day. Perhaps the majority of the thousands of English people who nowadays have "sardines" on their breakfast-table every morning are not aware that the contents of a very large number of the little tin boxes which are supposed to contain the delicacy are not sardines at all. They are very excellent little fishes, but not sardines; for the enormously increased demand for them has outstripped the supply. In the days when the following sentences were written sardines might certainly be had in London (as what might not?) at such shops as Fortnum and Mason's, but they were costly, and by no means commonly met with. On reaching Douarnenez in the summer of 1839 I wrote:--"The whole population and the existence of Douarnenez depend on the sardine |
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