Lyons Quotes

“There was a new smell in the air at Lyons, of sun-baked southern stuffs, of strong red vinegar, and spikes of rosemary. It was a good thing too, for some of the streets were stinking warrens, and the beggars near withered me to death. The beggary was not for want of charity, for the place was a mass of popish churches and convents, ringing out their bells every quarter-hour. Yet thank my stars, our new lodgings were mighty grand, with glass windows, and our linen scented with orange blossom.”
― Martine Bailey, An Appetite for Violets

“The open-house hospitality which all commentators note as a feature of Abbotsford began with Charlotte's regime at 50 George Street.

One of the very few facts we know about the Charpentier household in Lyons where she was brought up was that many interesting strangers seem to have dropped in. So to did people drop in on the Scotts in the New Town and at the houses they later kept in the country.”
― John Sutherland, The Life of Walter Scott: A Critical Biography