On this page

• Text (1)

  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.

  • 

    A VIIXAGE SKETCH. 408 V.

• Transcript

  • 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.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    It Is Most Provable That The Reader Has ...

    fdls . And I know all about the thatch-like arrangement of their hairtheir flaming * neckerchiefsand their waistcoats _bedig-ht with

    , , _g-lass buttons for _church-g-oing _* . And I know , too , that the women wear muslin caps of ancient pattern , that their shawls last through .

    a whole generation , and that they wear antiquated bonnets and dreadful attens . And I confess with a feeling * of humility that

    the elderly p women are slightly superstitious , and that the maidens do now and then tender their hands to women of doubtful probity

    and who are _distinguished for tawny skins and coal-black hair . Norwere we to lift the latch and look in upon Sally Holt , wlio keeps

    , the village school , would matters present a more becoming aspect . I am afraid that the girls wear short petticoatsand that their boots

    , are of masculine sort . And then I doubt ( that is , I hope ) that their shirts are six weeks in hand , and that half of the cotton is wasted 1

    in makingsee-saws and lip-cherries . And then the boys' pinafores half have the holes time or unlacing patches at and elbows lacing without their boots excep , and tion , ty and ing handker they are

    chiefs round their legs ; to say nothing of leaves set at liberty from bookbinders' thread , and covers _dang-ling on a single hing'e .

    Ah ! but from a group like that went the first volunteer for the forlorn hope at Badajos ; and , of course , it soon became ocularly

    evident that he _j _> ossessed hrains . Where is there a hamlet that has not a life to offer at every call of our country ? "Where one that has

    not its old soldier with need but for one stocking " , or who pins up a superfluous ing brave coat- boys sleeve who ? From bare group their s throats like these to ocean , too , are breezes graduall , finer y

    sailors emerg than whom the sea never rocked in a hammock . Last—and the last shall be first—Benniworth sent forth a martyr

    for our holy faith in the days of the merciless Mary ; and many Talk other of traditions an _" evenin testif g' y s entertainment to the constancy ! " and Give patriotism me a ponderous of its sons log - , .

    thoroughly dry , and plenty , of chimney room . Then let us have the first edition of a sailor ' s adventures and the twentieth of an old

    soldier ' s , then Benniworth ' s traditions , last of all a good ghost story and faith to believe it : and when all have become delightfully

    horrified , a little mirth and confusion to drive the faith out of us _'ainI ive me these thingswith plenty of g _* ood English

    cheer ag There , . , and is you say one are g featur welcome e in connection to more fashionable with , the village amusem of ent Benniworth .

    which it is difficult accurately to render . It is easy to sketch the silver group of low ent thatched and a few houses other , outl around ing habitations which the beck which coiled seemed like to a

    have g serp _* ot entang , led , among the trees y . Perhaps the term , " easy-g'oing _*" will best describe this peculiarity . The trees grew in the most easy

    and comfortable postures imaginable . Everything- had such a selfsatisfied i ood-neilibourly airbetokening * at the same time a fixed

    determination , g to look g at the bri , ght side of things . The

    weathercock on the steeple stood tailward to the iiortli _, nor could any

    A Viixage Sketch. 408 V.

    A VIIXAGE SKETCH . 408 V .

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Feb. 1, 1860, page 403, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01021860/page/43/