Yorkshire Oddities, Incidents, and Strange EventsBaring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
History
Yorkshire Oddities, Incidents, and Strange Events
Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Legends -- England -- Yorkshire; Yorkshire (England) -- Miscellanea
"One evening after tea my sister and I proposed, as we frequently did,
to walk out as far as Newland, to see Mr. and Mrs. Nicholson. It was a
delightful evening, and a pleasant walk we had. Chatting over bygone
times and talking about our future prospects, we soon arrived at the
little gate, through which we entered the back grounds belonging to the
house, and passed on into the kitchen, where we found Mr. and Mrs.
Nicholson seated by the little window which looks out upon the road. As
soon as we had got seated and the usual salutations were over, Mrs.
Nicholson (who, by-the-bye, I must confess, however little to my credit,
was my cousin) began with saying, 'Well, Miss H----n, there is going to
be a confirmation at Selby to-morrow, and Mr. Nicholson will have to go
with the young people; what do you say, will you go with him? You have
never been at Selby, and it will be a nice opportunity.' 'I certainly
would like it very much,' I replied, 'if you are going also. But how are
we to go?' 'By Langrick Ferry,' said Mr. Nicholson. 'We must be up there
by nine o'clock, and meet the packet. You can be up by that time?' 'And
who do you think is going to pay a shilling a-piece to go by the packet?
Not I, nor you either,' said Mrs. Nicholson, in an angry tone. 'And as
for Mary Anne, she has more sense than to waste her money in that way.'
I replied by saying, 'Oh, a shilling is not much; and as there is no
other conveyance by which we can get, we have no alternative, as we
cannot possibly walk it.'--'No,' said she, 'we cannot walk it, but there
is a man who has a cart, and I am sure if we could get a dozen to go he
would take us at threepence a-piece. There's plenty of lasses and lads
who are going to be confirmed would be glad of the chance. Why, you see,
we should make three ourselves, and Mr. Nicholson can speak to some of
them. The man can put the shelvings on, and we'll go rarely.' 'Who do
you mean will go?' said the clergyman. 'Do you think that I will go to
Selby in a waggon, or Miss H----n either? No, you shall not bring me to
that. You have made me give up my horse and gig long since; but, go as
you will yourself, I and Miss H----n will take the packet.' At this his
amiable wife got into such a rage, and went on at such a rate, that to
make matters up I was glad to give my consent to go with her in the
waggon, and Mr. Nicholson said he would ask one of the churchwardens to
take him in his gig. This pacified her, and as we rose to take our
departure, she said she would see the man about the cart, and I was to
mind and be ready at nine o'clock, when they would call for me with it.
However, I could not bear the idea of the neighbours around seeing a
great waggon filled with country rustics stopping at our door for me to
go with them, so I told her I would come up to their house by that time,
and we would go direct from thence. But she was afraid I wanted to get
off going, and it was not without extorting a faithful promise from me
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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