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Virginia, Especially Richmond, in By-Gone Days: With a Glance at the Present, Being Reminiscences and Last Words of an Old Citizen
This scarce antiquarian book is included in our special Legacy Reprint Series. In the interest of creating a more extensive selection of rare historical book reprints, we have chosen to reproduce this title even though it may possibly have occasional imperfections such as missing and blurred pages, missing text, poor pictures, markings, dark backgrounds and other reproduction issues beyond our control. Because this work is culturally important, we have made it available as a part of our commitment to protecting, preserving and promoting the world's literature.
359 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1856
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September 17, 2017
A must-read for Richmond history geeks! Samuel Mordecai is a treasure because though a lot is said about Richmond and everybody who's never spent more than five minutes here seemingly has an opinion, this one was generously and playfully written by an insider and longtime resident.
This is a book written in 1860 about Richmond in "by-gone" days, so the stories go wayyyy back and take some unexpected deep dives. It's told conversationally and the topics range on anything or anyone the author feels like mentioning. Lifelong Richmonders will love the vivid spatial descriptions of various parts of town, especially the Rocketts area and Court Square—I was picturing every intersection mentioned and having my mind blown by what used to be there. I love that he talks about relatively silly / routine things (see random salty cut-downs uttered in the courtroom or local taverns and oft-repeated) right in the mix with the "big" things (see Lafayette's 1824 visit to RVA). I highlighted my copy all to heck and I can't possibly put all my favorite quotes here as I like to do, so I'll leave you with this statement, which I feel holds true:
"The lovely city of Richmond! In infancy beautiful by nature, and the abode of talent and refinement, of elegance without ostentation, of hospitality without extravagance. Some alloy to these precious qualities may have been introduced in later years; but the beautiful has been retained and enhanced in the progress to maturity."
This is a book written in 1860 about Richmond in "by-gone" days, so the stories go wayyyy back and take some unexpected deep dives. It's told conversationally and the topics range on anything or anyone the author feels like mentioning. Lifelong Richmonders will love the vivid spatial descriptions of various parts of town, especially the Rocketts area and Court Square—I was picturing every intersection mentioned and having my mind blown by what used to be there. I love that he talks about relatively silly / routine things (see random salty cut-downs uttered in the courtroom or local taverns and oft-repeated) right in the mix with the "big" things (see Lafayette's 1824 visit to RVA). I highlighted my copy all to heck and I can't possibly put all my favorite quotes here as I like to do, so I'll leave you with this statement, which I feel holds true:
"The lovely city of Richmond! In infancy beautiful by nature, and the abode of talent and refinement, of elegance without ostentation, of hospitality without extravagance. Some alloy to these precious qualities may have been introduced in later years; but the beautiful has been retained and enhanced in the progress to maturity."
Displaying 1 of 1 review