The Steam-Packet: A Tale of the River and the Ocean — page 139: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

98 “THE STEAM PACKET, present representative of that respectable race assured the Lumin- aries that the portraits were those of certain illustrious warriors and - statesmen, whom he named, and that he ‘‘ knew for a fact,” that they were Rubens, Titians, and Rembrandts. Indeed, the old gentleman nearly went into ecstacies of joy, when Captam Pentonville gravely assured him that one particular portrait, whose eyes had both been poked ‘out by some mischievous boy’s fingers, was a real Titian, as he (Captain Pentonville) had seen a copy of it in the palace of the Tuil- eries some years previously. Then there were some landscapes of a peculiar smoky and dirty appearance, and which in consequence had been pronounced by friendly connoisseurs to be the genuine works of Teniers, Claude, and Ruysdael. There were also three or four por- traits in an adjacent closet—portraits of ancient ladies and gentlemen, with glaring red and white cheeks, and stony blue eyes, that at the first glance chilled through the gazer like an east wind. These were declared, ‘‘ upon the virtuoso’s honour,” to be all veritable Vandykes, and Raphaels,—supposed so probably from the fact, that they looked as little like the works of those immortal artists as it was ion for a bad painter with bad materials to make them. ; bf ef In addition to these invaluable paintings, Mr. Terence Seniaana pos- sessed a stuffed owl, monkey, and large lizard, (which the virtuoso de- clared to be a baby crocodile of peculiar species); several snakes (origi- nally caught under a hedge in the neighbouring fields) in glass bottles, and said to be reptiles from India, America, and Africa; a number of shells picked up on the shore between Dunkirk and Gravelines ; together with all manner of unknown and unknowable curiosities from the four quarters of the world, including of course that article indispensable to all well-regulated museums, ‘‘ the identical club with which the renowned Captain Cook was killed at Owhyhee.” The son of the Widow Vandermissen—a youth of about fourteen, had been peculiarly active in securing rubbish for this collection, which, by the way, he must have done from sheer love of science, as he never received any remuneration for his pains, save a permanent admission- ticket to the museum,—a favour which he shared in common with she other acquaintance of Mr. Smiggs. ae ** Now, gentlemen,” said the virtuoso, glancing around his mist with an air of the most complete satisfaction; ‘“‘ what do you think of my collection ?” ee ‘Quite delightful, my dear sir!” exclaimed Giptain Pentonville; who was turning over in his mind the possibility of diverting himself and his companions at the expense of Mr. Smiggs. ** But. pray what is this coil of rope in the glass case?” Hor Bok \ \ Gomichbooks!.co