fiefoe

English magic vs. fairy magic:

"I was in London and I met with a street magician, a vagabonding, yellow-curtain sort of fellow with a strange disfiguration."
The Foreign Secretary. "Do not speak to me of magic! It is just like everything else, full of setbacks and disappointments."
But, though French, (the mermaid) was also very brave and said she would like to see the man that would try to burn her. And she lashed her tail and waved her arms menacingly; and all the wooden starfish and crabs in her hair bristled.
"Other countries," he said, "have stories of kings who will return at times of great need. Only in England is it part of the constitution."

"It is possible, of course," he said, "to imprison someone within the pattern of a carpet for a thousand years or so. That is a particularly horrible fate which I always reserve for people who have offended me deeply - as have these magicians! The endless repetition of colour and pattern - not to mention the irritation of the dust and the humiliation of stains - never fails to render the prisoner completely mad!"
Though the pork steaks are indeed quite plain, they have been fried in fat that was rendered down from the exorcised ghosts of black Welsh pigs that wander through the hills of Wales at night terrifying the inhabitants of that deplorable country! The ghostliness and ferocity of the pigs lends the steaks a wonderful flavour which is quite unlike any other!

"Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell"