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    ( 401 ) :

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    LYTII.—A VILLAGE SKETCH.. -*»-

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    It is most provable that the reader has ...

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  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

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    ( 401 ) :

    ( 401 ) :

    Lytii.—A Village Sketch.. -*»-

    LYTII . —A VILLAGE SKETCH . . - _*» -

    It Is Most Provable That The Reader Has ...

    It is most _provable that the reader has never turned aside to visit the pleasant village of Benniworth . I say turned aside , for

    nobody ever goes there who does not go on purpose . The village seems to have got out of the way as if preferring not to have remarks

    passed upon it , for so long ago as half a century , pompous men looked down from the height of the old oscillating coaches , and , if

    the leafless trees permitted a glimpse of the roofs , would designate it a decayed hamlet ! The designation is unjust . Never did a group

    of habitations more successfully resist decay than that in whose midst stands the dwelling in which I first saw daylight , or

    candlelight perhaps it was , I forget just now . Benniworth wets in its prime in the days of our good Elizabeth .

    Then merrie faces looked out from those thatch-hooded windows that glisten in the roofs , and held quaint discourse _^ with passing swains

    while the gammer gave mete attendaunce in y butterie , or strove with oddly "habited yearlingswho , I suppose , had a preference for

    unrestrained liberty and uncooked , thumb as now and from the beginning . Now as it is insisted that one essential attribute of enjoyable

    writing is clearness , I beg distinctly to advertise that I had not a being , and perhaps had not been _thong-ht of , when she of famous

    memory swayed the sceptre of these realms . I never saw half the people whose dust has raised a mound about the ancient church ,

    never saw the venerable dames with kerchiefed chins , wending to worshipor the maidens with petticoats so saucily tucked up behind :

    but there , is a distinct tof interestI had almost said relationshi subsisting between the ype dwellers in these , sequestered villages . There p ,

    is an echo awakened by legend and story , second only in interest to that which memory evokes .

    The first specimen submitted to my youthful contemplation by the genius of fashion was—let me see , —imagine a pair of tongs with

    gown made to figure , let imagination also suj ) ply scarf and bonnet . Naymy sisteryou who observe the mode in this new year of grace

    suppress , that smile , , for are not all sensible men laughing at you ? , Hopeless as the acquisition of the philosopher ' s stone , difficult as the

    discernment of that occult law by which perpetual motion may be regulated and sustained , futile as have hitherto been all attempts to

    square the circle must be the effort to reconcile fashion and common sense .

    And we are _degenerating . Is it not so ? Place simple , regal Mary Stuart beside Eugenie , and let any man accord the palm of grace .

    But remark is useless . Expostulation , caricature , nay , the sacrifice of human life itselffails as a counterpoise to fashion . But I am

    getting angry . We , will return to Benniworth .

    I should like to have seen those quaint forms hi the sixteenth

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Feb. 1, 1860, page 401, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01021860/page/41/