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
"Many other carriages passed us on the road, and they sang and shouted
loudly without regarding them; but I did not feel so mortified as I
should have done had I not been a stranger whom they could not know.
"At length we arrived at Selby, and I begged that I might be allowed to
get out at the entrance to the town. But no. She declared I should not
till we arrived at the inn where the cart would put up; and I was
obliged to submit. On reaching the inn many were the people that stood
looking at us as we alighted. I got out almost the first, and Mrs.
Nicholson was the last. I had then an opportunity of seeing her costume
in full. There she stood, dressed in an old dirty print gown, so
straight that it was like a sack around her, and over her shoulders was
thrown an old scarlet cloak, very short, with three small capes, the
largest of which did not reach down to her waist. Then the bonnet is
beyond description, and the cap beneath, with one plain muslin border
that had not been ironed, and sadly soiled. These, with a pair of great
dirty shoes that looked fit for a ploughman, over a pair of coarse
black, or rather brown, worsted stockings, which her short petticoats
displayed to full advantage, completed her attire. And thus, with a
great, square, butter basket hanging over her arm, stood like some gipsy
woman the wife of the Rev. Mr. Nicholson.
"We then went to the inn, where Mr. Nicholson and all the other
clergymen were to meet the children, from whence they would proceed to
church, each at the head of his own flock. We found Mr. Nicholson in a
room upstairs with some other clergymen. To these he introduced me as
his cousin, but none of them appeared to notice Mrs. Nicholson. At last
she said, 'Come, Mr. Nicholson, we have business at the bank, and we
will have time enough to get it done before you have all to walk to
church.' And bidding me come with them also, she proceeded downstairs,
and left the inn. Mr. Nicholson was dressed in his gown and bands, and
no one who was not acquainted with them would have thought for a moment
that she was his wife. However, she trotted on before us with her
basket, and, I daresay, we were neither of us sorry that she did so.
When we reached the bank Mr. Nicholson's business was soon settled, and
then she said he had better go on to the children, or he would be too
late. 'Come, then, Miss H----n,' said Mr. Nicholson, 'she can meet us at
the church.' I replied, 'I had better wait for her.' (I had been told
that she was jealous of almost every female that he spoke to, so I
feared if I went with him she might abuse me about it another time.) But
though I declined going with him till I was ashamed, she insisted that I
should go. Accordingly we left her, and went again to the inn. The
procession was just walking off when Mr. Nicholson requested me to take
his arm, and we walked before the children of his flock to the church.
At the entrance we separated. He desired me to go upstairs into the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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