The Wolf in Winter (2014)
“It had, for much of its history, been the only business on Hunts Lane, a Brooklyn mews originally designed to stable the horses of the wealthy on nearby Remsen and Joralemon Streets.
The exterior wood surround was black, the lettering on and above the window gold, and its front door was permanently closed. The upstairs windows were shuttered, while the main window on the first floor was protected by a dense wire grille. The jumbled display behind it was a historical artifact, a collection o...f boxes and bottles bearing the names, where legible at all, of companies that no longer existed, and products with more than a hint of snake oil about them: Dalley’s Magical Pain Extractor, Dr. Ham’s Aromatic Invigorator, Dr. Miles’s Nervine.
Perhaps, at some point in the past, an ancestor of the last Blackthorn had seen fit to offer such elixirs to his customers, along with remedies stranger still. A glass case inside the door contained packets of Potter’s Asthma Smoking Mixture (“may be smoked in a pipe either with or without ordinary tobacco”) and Potter’s Asthma Care Cigarettes from the nineteenth century, along with Espic and Legras powders, the latter beloved of the French writer Marcel Proust, who used it to tackle his asthma and his hay fever.MoreLess
The exterior wood surround was black, the lettering on and above the window gold, and its front door was permanently closed. The upstairs windows were shuttered, while the main window on the first floor was protected by a dense wire grille. The jumbled display behind it was a historical artifact, a collection o...f boxes and bottles bearing the names, where legible at all, of companies that no longer existed, and products with more than a hint of snake oil about them: Dalley’s Magical Pain Extractor, Dr. Ham’s Aromatic Invigorator, Dr. Miles’s Nervine.
Perhaps, at some point in the past, an ancestor of the last Blackthorn had seen fit to offer such elixirs to his customers, along with remedies stranger still. A glass case inside the door contained packets of Potter’s Asthma Smoking Mixture (“may be smoked in a pipe either with or without ordinary tobacco”) and Potter’s Asthma Care Cigarettes from the nineteenth century, along with Espic and Legras powders, the latter beloved of the French writer Marcel Proust, who used it to tackle his asthma and his hay fever.MoreLess
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