Miss Philly Firkin, The China-Woman

Miss Philly Firkin, The
China-Woman, by

Mary Russell Mitford This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at
no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it,
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License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: Miss Philly Firkin, The China-Woman
Author: Mary Russell Mitford
Release Date: October 2, 2007 [EBook #22844]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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FIRKIN ***

Produced by David Widger

MISS PHILLY FIRKIN, THE CHINA-WOMAN.
By Mary Russell Mitford
In Belford Regis, as in many of those provincial capitals of the south of
England, whose growth and importance have kept pace with the

increased affluence and population of the neighbourhood, the principal
shops will be found clustered in the close, inconvenient streets of the
antique portion of the good town; whilst the more showy and
commodious modern buildings are quite unable to compete in point of
custom with the old crowded localities, which seem even to derive an
advantage from the appearance of business and bustle occasioned by
the sharp turnings, the steep declivities, the narrow causeways, the
jutting-out windows, and the various obstructions incident to the
picturesque but irregular street-architecture of our ancestors.
Accordingly, Oriel Street, in Belford,--a narrow lane, cribbed and
confined on the one side by an old monastic establishment, now turned
into alms-houses, called the Oriel, which divided the street from that
branch of the river called the Holy Brook, and on the other bounded by
the market-place, whilst one end abutted on the yard of a great inn, and
turned so sharply up a steep acclivity that accidents happened there
every day, and the other terminus wound with an equally awkward
curvature round the churchyard of St Stephen's,--this most strait and
incommodious avenue of shops was the wealthiest quarter of the
Borough. It was a provincial combination of Regent Street and
Cheapside. The houses let for double their value; and, as a necessary
consequence, goods sold there at pretty nearly the same rate;
horse-people and foot-people jostled upon the pavement; coaches and
phaetons ran against each other in the road. Nobody dreamt of visiting
Belford without wanting something or other in Oriel Street; and
although noise, and crowd, and bustle, be very far from usual attributes
of the good town, yet in driving through this favoured region on a fine
day, between the hours of three and five, we stood a fair chance of
encountering as many difficulties and obstructions from carriages, and
as much din and disorder on the causeway as we shall often have the
pleasure of meeting with out of London.
One of the most popular and frequented shops in the street, and out of
all manner of comparison the prettiest to look at, was the
well-furnished glass and china warehouse of Philadelphia Firkin,
spinster. Few things are indeed more agreeable to the eye than the
mixture of glittering cut glass, with rich and delicate china, so beautiful

in shape, colour, and material, which adorn a nicely-assorted showroom
of that description. The manufactures of Sèvres, of Dresden, of Derby,
and of Worcester, are really works of art, and very beautiful ones too;
and even the less choice specimens have about them a clearness, a
glossiness, and a nicety, exceedingly pleasant to look upon; so that a
china-shop is in some sense a shop of temptation: and that it is also a
shop of necessity, every housekeeper who knows to her cost the infinite
number of plates, dishes, cups, and glasses, which contrive to get
broken in the course of the year, (chiefly by that grand demolisher of
crockery ware called Nobody,) will not fail to bear testimony.
Miss Philadelphia's was therefore a well accustomed shop, and she
herself was in appearance most fit to be its inhabitant, being a trim,
prim little woman, neither old nor young, whose dress hung about her
in stiff regular folds, very like the drapery of a china shepherdess on a
mantel-piece, and whose pink and white complexion, skin, eyebrows,
eyes, and hair, all tinted as it seemed with one dash of ruddy colour,
had the same professional hue. Change her spruce cap for a
wide-brimmed hat, and the damask napkin which she flourished in
wiping her wares, for a china crook, and the figure in question might
have passed for a miniature of the mistress. In one respect they differed
The china shepherdess was a silent personage. Miss Philadelphia was
not; on the contrary, she was reckoned to make, after her own mincing
fashion, as good a use of her tongue as any woman, gentle or simple, in
the whole town of Belford.
She was assisted in her avocations by a little shopwoman, not much