[ Mrs Gore; 'silver fork' novels ] One leaf of the holograph manuscript of Sketches of English Character, with authorial corrections and additions.

Substantial part of pp. 226-7, in the section The Optimist and the Pessimist (vol.II, 1846). Two pages, 4to (19 x 20cm), crumpled, trimmed untidily, with several tears, many repaired as best they could. Text as follows, changes and additions noted in square brackets: First page [p.225 in book] important alliances, her most valuable colonies, her financial reputation; that [word eradicated] Britannia was now a lady of anything but unsullied reputation ; [word eradicated] that America had ceased to visit her, and Europe was cutting her acquaintance: and tried to preserve a becoming elongation of countenance, when every minute, like the toll of a funeral bell, Sir Josiah emitted some dolorous announcement. When, lo ! just as I was beginning to feel as though a parish pall hung heavy upon my shoulders, in bounced my friend Ramble, his mottled cheeks distended by a smile, and his white teeth glistening like those of a hungry [word later addition] pointer. Just arrived in England, my dear boy cried he: only [with cap. In MS above elided phrase] three hours landed at the Tower stairs - [in Published Work continues] Sir Josiah (who seemed to resent his intrusion in such towering spirits, as a personal offence) looked as if he longed to inquire whether poor Joe had travelled [phrase added above elision] on the broad grin all the way from France. Here's comfort ! resumed Ramble [trimmed so that next line can't be read].MS has Ramble instead of Sir Josiah. Overleaf [[pp.226-7 n book] I have always understood, sir, replied Crabbe - to whom he seemed to be addressing himself for confirmation - that there was nothing more unwholesome on earth than [previous word elided, fresh ink] a sea-coal fire. To say nothing of the cursed sulphur which turns everything black in the room, (even one's temper,) to say nothing of the filthy gases emitted, of which, not being a chemist, I am incompetent to speak, (and I wish I were also incompetent to smell there can be no doubt that innumerable lives are annually sacrificed in England to our mad habit of roasting ourselves half the morning before the bars of a grate, as a preparative for confronting the severity of the most damnable climate on the face of the habitable globe [substituted for phrase crossed out]"Climate, my dear Sir? Cried Ramble -Climate? Don't talk to me about the merit of foreign climates [sentence added in fresh ink later above following]. I've just come from Nice, where I was shrivelled up like a dead leaf [phrase added] with the bise. I spent the Spring in Constantinople, where [loss of part of first letter] where it snowed half the time and rained the [omitted in print] t'other: [;] and I am now enabled to [as]sert from experience [elision] as [added above] I have often [next line or more(?) trimmed]