Neighbourhood: A year's life in and about an English villageEdwardes, Tickner
General
Neighbourhood: A year's life in and about an English village
Edwardes, Tickner
Country life -- England
But at the wheelwright’s yard, a little farther along the green, you are
confronted with quite a different breed of Sussex peasant. The Drays are
thickset, of middle height; and dark, almost swarthy of feature. Up in
the churchyard, you come upon the two names at every step. You read
Clemmer, Dray, Dray and Clemmer, everywhere amidst the moss-grown stones,
in varying degrees of illegibility back for hundreds of years. The two
families are by far the oldest in Windlecombe. You note that the
Clemmers were nearly always Thomases, and the Drays for the most part
Daniels; while the females of both races were, and are still, either
Marthas or Janes. Looking over the ranks of this silent company, it is
impossible to think of any member of the former clan as other than
long-limbed, grey-eyed and fair; and a Dray, even though he were a serf
under Harold, who was not dark of glance and visage would be an anomaly
unthinkable. Young Daniel now—as you pass by and see him bending to and
fro over his cavern of a sawpit, with the red elm-dust spurting up
fountain-like in the sunshine between his gaitered legs—must be the very
counterpart of the Dray who, doubtless, fought at Hastings; or him of
older times who, daubed in blue war-paint, might have watched with wrath
and wonder from his seaside ambush the first Phoenician galley that came
adventuring after Cornish tin.
When it rains, though work and the house have for the nonce become alike
intolerable, I have several havens wherein I can be sure of finding just
that quiet anchorage that the moment needs. The little sweetstuff shop
is foremost among them. Over the long, low window, with its curious
lattice panes of bull’s-eye glass, there runs a legend, in one uniform
character and without stop or break:—‘BERLIN WOOLS TOYS SUSAN ANGEL ALL
KINDS OF SWEETS.’ And within at her fireside behind the little counter,
sits Miss Angel, always busily knitting, and always ready for a chat.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account