The Grey Woman and other TalesGaskell, Elizabeth Cleghorn
General
The Grey Woman and other Tales
Gaskell, Elizabeth Cleghorn
England -- Social life and customs -- 19th century -- Fiction; Short stories
My last story is one of a disappearance which was accounted for after
many years. There is a considerable street in Manchester leading from
the centre of the town to some of the suburbs. This street is called
at one part Garratt, and afterwards, where it emerges into gentility
and, comparatively, country, Brook Street. It derives its former name
from an old black-and-white hall of the time of Richard the Third, or
thereabouts, to judge from the style of building; they have closed in
what is left of the old hall now; but a few years since this old house
was visible from the main road; it stood low on some vacant ground,
and appeared to be half in ruins. I believe it was occupied by several
poor families who rented tenements in the tumble-down dwelling. But
formerly it was Gerard Hall, (what a difference between Gerard and
Garratt!) and was surrounded by a park with a clear brook running
through it, with pleasant fish-ponds, (the name of these was preserved
until very lately, on a street near,) orchards, dovecotes, and similar
appurtenances to the manor-houses of former days. I am almost sure that
the family to whom it belonged were Mosleys, probably a branch of the
tree of the lord of the Manor of Manchester. Any topographical work of
the last century relating to their district would give the name of the
last proprietor of the old stock, and it is to him that my story refers.
Many years ago there lived in Manchester two old maiden ladies, of high
respectability. All their lives had been spent in the town, and they
were fond of relating the changes which had taken place within their
recollection, which extended back to seventy or eighty years from the
present time. They knew much of its traditionary history from their
father, as well; who, with his father before him, had been respectable
attorneys in Manchester, during the greater part of the last century:
they were, also, agents for several of the county families, who, driven
from their old possessions by the enlargement of the town, found some
compensation in the increased value of any land which they might
choose to sell. Consequently the Messrs. S——, father and son, were
conveyancers in good repute, and acquainted with several secret pieces
of family history, one of which related to Garratt Hall.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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