Excerpt from Sketches of English Character, Vol. 1 of 2This tedious uniformity of conventional life, which has converted society into a paper of pins with people stuck in rows, instead of minikins, is, we are told, the result Of a high state of civilization. The moment the English left off clipping their yew-trees and laying down their gravel walks at right angles, they transferred the system to society. Ye fallen avenues (so pathetically sung by Cowper, ) you have now your parallels at every dinner party, and not a coterie in Grosvenor Square but presents the stiff unmeaning rectangularity of Hampton Court Gardens.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.