The Remarkable History of Sir Thomas Upmore, bart., M.P., formerly known as Tommy Upmore""

The Remarkable History of Sir Thomas Upmore, bart., M.P., formerly known as Tommy Upmore""

R. D. Blackmore

5.0
Comment(s)
2
View
45
Chapters

The Remarkable History of Sir Thomas Upmore, bart., M.P., formerly known as Tommy Upmore"" by R. D. Blackmore

The Remarkable History of Sir Thomas Upmore, bart., M.P., formerly known as Tommy Upmore"" Chapter 1 No.1

(All rights reserved.)

* * *

LONDON:

PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED.

STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING-CROSS.

* * *

PREFACE.

When Sir Thomas Upmore came, and asked me to write a short account of his strange adventures, I declined that honour; partly because I had never seen any of his memorable exploits. Perhaps that matters little, while his history so flourishes, by reason of being more creditable, as well as far more credible, than that of England, for the last few years.

Still, in such a case, the man who did the thing is the one to tell it. And his veracity has now become a proverb.

My refusal seemed to pain Sir Thomas, because he is so bashful; and no one can see him pained, without grieving for his own sake also, and trying to feel himself in the wrong.

This compelled me to find other arguments; which I did as follows:-

"First, my dear sir, in political matters, my humble view's are not strong, and trenchant-as yours are become by experience-but exceedingly large, and lenient; because I have never had anything at all to do with politics.

"Again, of science,-the popular name for almost any speculation, bold enough,-I am in ignorance equally blissful, if it were not thrilled with fear. What power shall resist the wild valour of the man, who proves that his mind is a tadpole's spawn, and then claims for that mind supreme dominion, and inborn omniscience? Before his acephalous rush, down go piled wisdom of ages, and pinnacled faith, cloud-capped heights of immortal hope, and even the mansions everlasting, kept for those who live for them."

"All those he may upset," replied Sir Thomas, with that sweet and buoyant smile, which has saved even his supernatural powers, from the sneers of those below him; "or at least, he may fancy that he has done it. But to come to facts,-can he upset, or even make head, or tail, of such a little affair as I am? Not one of his countless theories about me has a grain of truth in it; though he sees me, and feels me, and pokes me in the side, and listens, as if I were a watch run down, to know whether I am going. I assure you, that to those who are not frightened by his audacity, and fame, his 'links of irrefragable proof' are but a baby's dandelion chain. In chemistry alone, and engineering, has science made much true advance. The main of the residue is arrogance."

"In that branch of science, we are all Professors," I answered, to disarm his wrath; knowing that, in these riper years, honest indignation wrought upon his system, as youthful exultation once had done; and I could not afford to have a hole made in my ceiling. "However, Sir Thomas, I shall stick to my resolve. Though your life-when its largeness is seen aright-will be an honour to the history of our race, justice comes before honour; and only you can do justice to it."

Humility, which competes with truth, for the foremost place in his character, compelled him to shake his head at this; and he began again, rather sadly.

"My purpose is a larger one, than merely to talk of my own doings. I want to put common sense into plain English, and to show-as our medical men show daily-that the body is beyond the comprehension of the mind. The mind commands the body to lie down, and be poked at, and probed, and pried into, with fifty subtle instruments, or even to be cut up, and analysed alive; and then understands never the more of it. If the mind can learn nothing of the body it lives in, grows, rejoices, and suffers with, how can it know all about it, for millions of years before either existed? How can it trace their joint lineage up to a thing, that had neither a head, nor a body?

"Go to; what I offer is not argument, but fact; and I care not the head of their ancestor for them. But if I write it, will you remove whatever may offend a candid mind?"

"If you offend no mind but that," said I, being fresh from a sharp review of something I had written; "you will give small offence indeed; and to edit you will be a sinecure."

Both these predictions have proved correct; except indeed that a few kind readers of sadly unscientific mind have hankered for some explanation of parts which they failed to witness.

The reply is truly simple-"if you were not there the fault was yours; here are the facts as in evidence, better supported, and less strange, than those you accept without a wink; and perhaps your trouble in realising a case of specific levity proceeds from nothing but your own excessive specific gravity."

R. D. Blackmore.

Continue Reading

Other books by R. D. Blackmore

More

You'll also like

The Billionaire's Cold And Bitter Betrayal

The Billionaire's Cold And Bitter Betrayal

Clara Bennett
5.0

I had just survived a private jet crash, my body a map of violet bruises and my lungs still burning from the smoke. I woke up in a sterile hospital room, gasping for my husband's name, only to realize I was completely alone. While I was bleeding in a ditch, my husband, Adam, was on the news smiling at a ribbon-cutting ceremony. When I tracked him down at the hospital's VIP wing, I didn't find a grieving husband. I found him tenderly cradling his ex-girlfriend, Casie, in his arms, his face lit with a protective warmth he had never shown me as he carried her into the maternity ward. The betrayal went deeper than I could have imagined. Adam admitted the affair started on our third anniversary-the night he claimed he was stuck in London for a merger. Back at the manor, his mother had already filled our planned nursery with pink boutique bags for Casie's "little princess." When I demanded a divorce, Adam didn't flinch. He sneered that I was "gutter trash" from a foster home and that I'd be begging on the streets within a week. To trap me, he froze my bank accounts, cancelled my flight, and even called the police to report me for "theft" of company property. I realized then that I wasn't his partner; I was a charity case he had plucked from obscurity to manage his life. To the Hortons, I was just a servant who happened to sleep in the master bedroom, a "resilient" woman meant to endure his abuse in silence while the whole world laughed at the joke that was my marriage. Adam thought stripping me of his money would make me crawl back to him. He was wrong. I walked into his executive suite during his biggest deal of the year and poured a mug of sludge over his original ten-million-dollar contracts. Then, right in front of his board and his mistress, I stripped off every designer thread he had ever paid for until I was standing in nothing but my own silk camisole. "You can keep the clothes, Adam. They're as hollow as you are." I grabbed my passport, turned my back on his billions, and walked out of that glass tower barefoot, bleeding, and finally free.

One Night With My Billionaire Boss

One Night With My Billionaire Boss

Nathaniel Stone
4.5

I woke up on silk sheets that smelled of expensive cedar and cold sandalwood, a world away from my cramped apartment in Brooklyn. Beside me lay Ezra Gardner—my boss, the billionaire CEO of Gardner Holdings, and the man who could end my career with a snap of his fingers. He didn’t offer an apology for the night before; instead, he looked at me with terrifying clarity and proposed a cold, calculated business arrangement. "Marriage. It stabilizes the board and solves the PR crisis before it begins." He dressed me in archival Chanel and sent me home in his Maybach, but my life was already falling apart. My boyfriend, Irving, claimed he had passed out early, yet his location data placed him at my best friend’s apartment until three in the morning. When I tried to run, I realized Ezra was already ten steps ahead, tracking my movements and uncovering the secret I’d spent twenty years hiding: my connection to the powerful Senator Grimes. I was trapped between a CEO who treated me like a line item on a quarterly report and a boyfriend who had been using me while sleeping with my closest friend. I felt like a pawn in a game I didn't understand, wondering why a man like Ezra would walk up forty flights of stairs on a broken leg just to make sure I was safe. "Showtime, Mrs. Gardner." Standing on the red carpet in a gown that cost more than my life, I watched my cheating ex-boyfriend’s face turn pale as Ezra claimed me in front of the world. I wasn't just an assistant anymore; I was a weapon, and it was time to burn their world down.

Chapters
Read Now
Download Book
The Remarkable History of Sir Thomas Upmore, bart., M.P., formerly known as Tommy Upmore"" The Remarkable History of Sir Thomas Upmore, bart., M.P., formerly known as Tommy Upmore"" R. D. Blackmore Literature
“The Remarkable History of Sir Thomas Upmore, bart., M.P., formerly known as Tommy Upmore"" by R. D. Blackmore”
1

Chapter 1 No.1

06/12/2017

2

Chapter 2 SIGNS OF EMINENCE.

06/12/2017

3

Chapter 3 ITUR AD ASTRA.

06/12/2017

4

Chapter 4 THE DAWN OF SCIENCE.

06/12/2017

5

Chapter 5 THE PURSUIT OF SCIENCE.

06/12/2017

6

Chapter 6 GRIP.

06/12/2017

7

Chapter 7 TRUE SCIENCE.

06/12/2017

8

Chapter 8 THE GREAT WASHED.

06/12/2017

9

Chapter 9 FOR CHANGE OF AIR.

06/12/2017

10

Chapter 10 THALATTA!

06/12/2017

11

Chapter 11 THE NEW ADMIRAL.

06/12/2017

12

Chapter 12 LARGE IDEAS.

06/12/2017

13

Chapter 13 TWENTIFOLD TOWERS.

06/12/2017

14

Chapter 14 WHALEBONES.

06/12/2017

15

Chapter 15 A SILLY PAIR.

06/12/2017

16

Chapter 16 POLITICAL CONOMY.

06/12/2017

17

Chapter 17 NO EXTRAS.

06/12/2017

18

Chapter 18 SELF-DEFENCE.

06/12/2017

19

Chapter 19 AH ME!

06/12/2017

20

Chapter 20 COMFORT.

06/12/2017

21

Chapter 21 BOIL NO MORE.

06/12/2017

22

Chapter 22 THE SEAT OF LEARNING.

06/12/2017

23

Chapter 23 HEREDITARY LAWS.

06/12/2017

24

Chapter 24 A COUNTY MEETING.

06/12/2017

25

Chapter 25 OLD BONES, AND YOUNG ONES.

06/12/2017

26

Chapter 26 ON THE ROCKS.

06/12/2017

27

Chapter 27 BENEATH THEM.

06/12/2017

28

Chapter 28 PLEASANT, AND UNPLEASANT THINGS.

06/12/2017

29

Chapter 29 THE WELFARE OF THE FAMILY.

06/12/2017

30

Chapter 30 BECAUSE HE HAD NO PITY.

06/12/2017

31

Chapter 31 PERFIDY.

06/12/2017

32

Chapter 32 FREE TRADE.

06/12/2017

33

Chapter 33 A PAIR OF BLUE EYES.

06/12/2017

34

Chapter 34 STRONG INTENTIONS.

06/12/2017

35

Chapter 35 FAMES FAM .

06/12/2017

36

Chapter 36 NATIONAL EMERGENCY.

06/12/2017

37

Chapter 37 VOTE FOR TOMMY!

06/12/2017

38

Chapter 38 SUNNY BAY.

06/12/2017

39

Chapter 39 PREPARE.

06/12/2017

40

Chapter 40 FOR PUBLIC AND PRIVATE BENEFIT.

06/12/2017