"Miss Clara Vaughan lodges at number seven in Prince Albert Street in
London town near Windsor Castle in Gloucestershire the daughter of Mr.
Henry Valentine Vaughan Esquire a nice tall young lady her always wears
black things and walks very peart pale with a little red on her cheeks
when they lets her alone can’t be no mistake without it be done a
purpose If so be this here little maun hain’t brought to her safe and
sweet and wholesome will be prosecuted with the _utmost rigour of the
law_ signed John Huxtable his mark x witness Timothy Badcock his’n X."
I wondered much whether Mr. Beany Dawe had been called in to achieve
this masterpiece of manuscript, which was all in large round hand, but
without any stops. It seemed beyond poor Sally’s art, yet were some
loops and downstrokes that must be dear little Sally’s. I took it off
with much trouble--the parchment was joined in four places--and I have
it now.
Meanwhile Mrs. Shelfer was dancing around it, neglecting her supper in
the wonder of this gigantic hamper. "Let me get a chopper, Miss, you’ll
never get it open. Why it’s sewed as tight as an oyster."
However, I did get it open at last, and never shall I forget the
contents. There was a month’s food for a family of twelve. First came
hay, such as I never smelt out of Devonshire; then eighteen rolls of
butter, each with a snowy cloth around it; the butter so golden even at
that time of year, that Mrs. Shelfer compared it to the yolk of an egg
looking out of the white. Then a storey of clotted cream and beautiful
lard and laver, which they knew I loved. Then a floor of hay. Below it
a pair of guinea fowls, two large turkeys, and most carefully wrapped
from the rest a fine hare filled with dried sweet herbs. Below these a
flitch of bacon, two wood-smoked hams, a pair of tongues, a leg of
Exmoor mutton, and three bottles of best elder wine. Then a brown paper
parcel containing Sally’s last copy-book (I had set her copies for half
a year to come) and a long letter, the first I had ever received from
Tossil’s Barton.
When all was out at last, after the greatest delight and laughter as
each thing appeared, I fell back in utter dismay at the spectacle before
me. Mrs. Shelfer sat on the floor unable to find her way out, she was
so flounced and tippeted with good things. When I came to her relief,
she did nothing but go round and round what was left of the little room,
humming a Catholic hymn, and pressing both hands to her side.
But something must be done at once. Waste is wickedness; how could we
stave it off? Everything would depend upon the weather. At present all
was beautifully fresh, thanks to the skilful packing and the frost,
albeit the mighty package had made the round of all the Albert Streets
in London. Mrs. Shelfer would have looked at it for a month, and at
intervals exclaimed, "Bless me, my good friend, that beats Charley’s
pockets. How they must eat in Devonshire!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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