" Here Mr. Blyth stopped
again: this passage had cost him some trouble, and he was proud of
having got smoothly to the end of it.
"Glorious!" cried enthusiastic Mr. Gimble.
"Turgid," muttered critical Mr. Hemlock.
"Very," assented compliant Mr. Bullivant.
"Go on--get to the picture--don't stop so often," said Lady
Brambledown. "Bless my soul, how the man does fidget!" This was not
directed at Valentine (who, however, richly deserved it), but at the
unhappy gardener, who had made a second attempt to escape to the
sheltering obscurity of the doorway, and had been betrayed by his
boots.
"To exemplify what has just been remarked, by the picture at my side,"
proceeded Mr. Blyth. "The moment sought to be represented is sunrise on
the 12th of October, 1492, when the great Columbus first saw land
clearly at the end of his voyage. Observe, now, in the upper portions
of the composition, how the spirit of the age is mystically developed
before the spectator. Of the two winged female figures hovering in the
morning clouds, immediately over Columbus and his ship, the first is
the Spirit of Discovery, holding the orb of the world in her left hand,
and pointing with a laurel crown (typical of Columbus's fame) towards
the newly-discovered Continent.
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