Holmes

OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES (1809 - 1894)

The celebrated American essayist visited Alnwick around 1830, while on holiday from his studies in Paris. Alnwick is the only English place he mentions in detail in his best book Autocrat of the Breakfast Table (1858) - indeed the only English location mentioned at all, apart from London:

I remember the Percy lion on the bridge over the little river at Alnwick - the leaden lion with his tail stretched out straight like a pump-handle - and why? Because of the story of the village boy who must fain bestride the leaden tail, standing out over the water, - which breaking, he dropped into the stream far below, and was taken out an idiot for the rest of his life.

Myers Literary Guide:	The North-East
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES (1809 - 1894) The celebrated American essayist visited Alnwick around 1830, while on holiday from his studies in Paris. Alnwick is the only English place he mentions in detail in his best book Autocrat of the Breakfast Table (1858) - indeed the only English location mentioned at all, apart from London: I remember the Percy lion on the bridge over the little river at Alnwick - the leaden lion with his tail stretched out straight like a pump-handle - and why? Because of the story of the village boy who must fain bestride the leaden tail, standing out over the water, - which breaking, he dropped into the stream far below, and was taken out an idiot for the rest of his life.
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