The Note Book of a Country Clergyman - Softcover

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1833. Excerpt: ... THE HALL. CHAPTER I. Few are the visitors who have explored the beauties of the pleasant village of B--. Of all the innumerable tribes whom the summer sends forth to wander over the earth, countless as the gnats which people the moist air of a mild winter's day, or as the shoals of finny fry which the inexhaustible north produces; few of them all have been seen within our confines. Though, in this erratic country, health and sickness, poverty and wealth, idleness and business, sorrow and pleasure, a wedding and a funeral, alike compel our mercurial countrymen to travel hither and thither; to hurry through this district, and hasten over that; and generally to grumble through all, as if they were flying from companions who were continually proving that they could travel as quickly as themselves; in spite of all these different causes, and various companies, rarely have we, quiet inhabitants of B--, seen the sketch book of the accomplished loiterer; or figured in the diary of the travelling author. And yet we have scenery to shew, in which a Claude would not have despised to find the subject of his pencil, when the glowing sun streams in golden lustre over the waves of our rocky coast; and we have legends and tales to tell which might perchance, even in their simple language, bring tears to many a gentle eye, or banish the colour from many a fair cheek. But we are in the neighbourhood of scenery familiar to every hunter after happiness; and well it is for us that this draws away the stream of strangers with which we might otherwise be inundated. It was not, however, always thus with us. There was a time when the rattling wheels of the travelling carriage, and the cracking whip of the postboy were no unusual sound in our village. Many were the tingling heads ...