restoration,--a discovery which greatly helped to sustain and
confirm the name of both church and village as 'St. Rest,' and to
entirely disprove the frequently-offered suggestion that it could
ever have been meant for 'St. East.' And this is how the discovery
happened.
One never-to-be-forgotten morning when the workmen were hewing away
at the floor of the chancel, one of their pickaxes came suddenly in
contact with a hard substance which gave back a metallic echo when
the blow of the implement came down upon it. Working with caution,
and gradually clearing away a large quantity of loose stones, broken
pieces of mosaic and earth, a curious iron handle was discovered
attached to a large screw which was apparently embedded deep in the
ground. Walden was at once informed of this strange 'find' and
hastened to the spot to examine the mysterious object. He was not
very long in determining its nature.
"This is some very ancient method of leverage," he said, turning
round to the workmen with an excitement he could barely conceal;
"There is something precious underneath in the ground,--something
which can probably be raised by means of this handle and screw. Dig
round it about a yard away from the centre,--loosen the earth
gently--be very careful!"
They obeyed; and all that day Walden stood watching them at work,
his mind divided between hope and fear, and his spirit moved by the
passionate exultation of the antiquary whose studies and researches
are about to be rewarded with unexpected treasure. Towards sunset
the men came upon a large oblong piece of what appeared to be
alabaster, closely inlaid with patterns of worn gold and bearing on
its surface the sculptured emblems of a cross, a drawn sword and a
crown of laurel leaves intertwisted with thorns, the whole most
elaborately wrought, and very little injured. As this slowly came to
light, Walden summoned all hands to assist him in turning the great
iron screw which now stood out upright, some three or four feet from
the aperture they had been digging. Wondering at his 'fancy' as they
termed it, they however had full reliance on his proved knowledge of
what he was about, and under his guidance they all applied
themselves to the quaint and cumbrous iron handle which had been the
first thing discovered, and with considerable difficulty began to
day to the effect that as the Reverend John Walden was now the
possessor of the living of St. Rest and had furthermore obtained a
'faculty' for the proper restoration of the church, which was to be
carried out at the said John Walden's own risk and personal
expenditure, the matter was not open to any outside discussion.
Whereat, Sir Morton's fury became so excessive that he actually shut
up Badsworth Hall and went away for a whole year, greatly to the
relief of the editor of the 'Riversford Gazette,' who was able to
dismiss him with a comfortable paragraph, thus:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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