Notes, 2 May 1820
From the notes of Mr Jonathan Strange, 2 May 1820 - or thereabouts.
I have not neglected my studies since arriving in this place (the inhabitants call it simply The Mansion, as though it is beyond names or ad-dresses); the building, whose exact geography still seems uncertain and quite prone to unexpected alterations, houses the most magnificent library, even more wonderful than anything Norrell could have accumulated at Hertfew Abbey. I have discovered books on every sort of fantastic subject, from texts on dragon-herding to truly imaginative, bizarre novels, to treatises on a most mysterious subject referred to as Automobile Repair (an automobile, I believe, from what I have gleaned from these texts, is some sort of carriage which moves at a tremendous pace without any horses or, indeed, any external force at all, moving on some form of magic called eclecticity elastiricity well, I seem to have misplaced my notes on the subject, but called something or other.
The residents are very nearly as interesting as the books which they, for the most part, seem horribly to neglect. Really, a most...interesting population! I shall look forward to conversing with as many of the odder ones as I am able, though of course the library shall come first, and shall doubtless prove a much more honest source of information.
I have not neglected my studies since arriving in this place (the inhabitants call it simply The Mansion, as though it is beyond names or ad-dresses); the building, whose exact geography still seems uncertain and quite prone to unexpected alterations, houses the most magnificent library, even more wonderful than anything Norrell could have accumulated at Hertfew Abbey. I have discovered books on every sort of fantastic subject, from texts on dragon-herding to truly imaginative, bizarre novels, to treatises on a most mysterious subject referred to as Automobile Repair (an automobile, I believe, from what I have gleaned from these texts, is some sort of carriage which moves at a tremendous pace without any horses or, indeed, any external force at all, moving on some form of magic called eclecticity elastiricity well, I seem to have misplaced my notes on the subject, but called something or other.
The residents are very nearly as interesting as the books which they, for the most part, seem horribly to neglect. Really, a most...interesting population! I shall look forward to conversing with as many of the odder ones as I am able, though of course the library shall come first, and shall doubtless prove a much more honest source of information.