E-text prepared by Bethanne M. Simms, Sigal Alon, Mary Meehan, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net) THE SQUIRE OF SANDAL-SIDE A Pastoral Romance by AMELIA E. BARR Author of "Jan Vedder's Wife," "A Daughter of Fife," "The Bow of Orange Ribbon," etc. New York The A.D. Porter Co. Publishers 1886 CONTENTS. I. SEAT-SANDAL II. THE SHEEP-SHEARING III. JULIUS SANDAL IV. THUS RUNS THE WORLD AWAY V. CHARLOTTE VI. THE DAY BEFORE CHRISTMAS VII. WOOING AND WEDDING VIII. THE ENEMY IN THE HOUSEHOLD IX. ESAU X. THE NEW SQUIRE XI. SANDAL AND SANDAL CHAPTER I. SEAT-SANDAL. "This happy breed of men, this little world." "To know That which before us lies in daily life Is the prime wisdom." "All that are lovers of virtue ... be quiet, and go a-angling." There is a mountain called Seat-Sandal, between the Dunmail Raise and Grisedale Pass; and those who have stood upon its summit know that Grasmere vale and lake lie at their feet, and that Windermere, Esthwaite, and Coniston, with many arms of the sea, and a grand brotherhood of mountains, are all around them. There is also an old gray manor-house of the same name. It is some miles distant from the foot of the mountain, snugly sheltered in one of the loveliest valleys between Coniston and Torver. No one knows when the first stones of this house were laid. The Sandals were in Sandal-Side when the white-handed, waxen-faced Edward was building Westminster Abbey, and William the Norman was laying plans for the crown of England. Probably they came with those Norsemen who a century earlier made the Isle of Man their headquarters, and from it, landing on the opposite coast of Cumberland, settled themselves among valleys and lakes and mountains of primeval beauty, which must have strongly reminded them of their native land. For the prevailing names of this district are all of the Norwegian type, especially such abounding suffixes and prefixes as _seat_ from "set," a dwelling; _dale_ from "dal," a valley; _fell_ from "fjeld," a mountain; _garth_ from "gard," an enclosure; and _thwaite_, from "thveit," a clearing. It is certain, also, that, in spite of much Anglo-Saxon admixture, the salt blood of the roving Viking is still in the Cumberland dalesman. Centuries of bucolic isolation have not obliterated it. Every now and then the sea calls some farmer or shepherd, and the restless drop in his veins gives him no peace till he has found his way over the hills and fells to the port of Whitehaven, and gone back to the cradling bosom that rocked his ancestors.