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
She remained at Newland some time, and then removed to Asselby. The
first change she made there was to turn out of his farm the tenant who
had given her so much information previous to the division of the land
with her Dublin cousin, by means of which she had obtained the best
land. For the purpose of gaining this information she had made her
tenant a promise that he should never be disturbed. He reminded her of
her promise, but she had made her plan, and cared neither for his
entreaties nor for her promise. He was compelled to leave the farm at
the termination of his tenancy, which was the Lady-day following her
final separation from her husband.
She persuaded her cousin to come and live with her at Asselby, promising
her if she would do so that she would leave her all her property. The
cousin, although to do so was extremely inconvenient, and certainly most
unpleasant, agreed on these terms to do what she wished.
Poor Mr. Nicholson had bought an accordion, which he amused himself in
the long evenings with playing. On a summer night he sat out under the
trees and practised on his instrument. Nancy was highly exasperated when
she heard this. It was done, she concluded, out of malice, to exhibit to
the whole parish that he was indifferent to his loss, and could be
supremely happy without his wife.
"And I can be happy too," said Nancy, and she launched out in the
extravagance of an organ. She could not play it, but she could pull out
all the stops, bang her fist on the notes, and let the roar of the
instrument proclaim to the neighbourhood through the open windows that
she too was merry.
But not satisfied with this, she determined to be revenged on her
husband by obtaining, if possible, his inhibition. She resolved on
bringing Mr. Nicholson's intemperance under the notice of the
Archbishop, yet so ingeniously did she lay her plans, that when the
investigation took place, the part she had taken in it did not
transpire.
It appears that Mr. Nicholson had a dispute with a tenant at Drax about
giving up possession of his premises at a certain time, and this tenant
called on Mrs. Nicholson at Asselby, requesting her to be a witness as
to the time of his entering into possession, when she instigated him to
write to the Archbishop of York and give a full account of Mr.
Nicholson's various acts of intemperance, with a full detail of all the
circumstances in his conduct which were likely to degrade him in the
eyes of the Archbishop.
Mrs. Nicholson then caused letters to be written to the Archbishop,
complaining that Mr. Nicholson had beat her, and caused her to be turned
away without a home. This brought about a correspondence between the
Archbishop and Mrs. Nicholson, but, contrary to her hopes, it ended in
the Archbishop advising Mrs. Nicholson to consult a solicitor on the
subject.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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