FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25  
26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   >>   >|  
The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Lady Of Blossholme, by H. Rider Haggard This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org Title: The Lady Of Blossholme Author: H. Rider Haggard Release Date: April 13, 2006 [EBook #3813] Language: English Character set encoding: ASCII *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LADY OF BLOSSHOLME *** Produced by John Bickers; Dagny THE LADY OF BLOSSHOLME By H. Rider Haggard CHAPTER I SIR JOHN FOTERELL Who that has ever seen them can forget the ruins of Blossholme Abbey, set upon their mount between the great waters of the tidal estuary to the north, the rich lands and grazing marshes that, backed with woods, border it east and south, and to the west by the rolling uplands, merging at last into purple moor, and, far away, the sombre eternal hills! Probably the scene has not changed very much since the days of Henry VIII, when those things happened of which we have to tell, for here no large town has arisen, nor have mines been dug or factories built to affront the earth and defile the air with their hideousness and smoke. The village of Blossholme we know has scarcely varied in its population, for the old records tell us this, and as there is no railway here its aspect must be much the same. Houses built of the local grey stone do not readily fall down. The folk of that generation walked in and out of the doorways of many of them, although the roofs for the most part are now covered with tiles or rough slates in place of reeds from the dike. The parish wells also, fitted with iron pumps that have superseded the old rollers and buckets, still serve the place with drinking-water as they have done since the days of the first Edward, and perhaps for centuries before. Although their use, if not their necessity, has passed away, not far from the Abbey gate the stocks and whipping-post, the latter arranged with three sets of iron loops fixed at different heights and of varying diameters to accommodate the wrists of man, woman, and child, may still be found in the middle of the Priests' Green. These stand, it will be remembered, under a quaint old roof supported on rough, oaken pillars, and surmounted by a weathercock which the monkish fanc
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25  
26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
Blossholme
 

Haggard

 

BLOSSHOLME

 

Gutenberg

 
Project
 
population
 

covered

 
slates
 

parish

 

scarcely


varied

 

doorways

 
readily
 

aspect

 
railway
 
Houses
 

records

 

walked

 
generation
 

centuries


middle

 

Priests

 

wrists

 
heights
 

varying

 
diameters
 

accommodate

 

surmounted

 

pillars

 

weathercock


monkish

 

remembered

 
quaint
 

supported

 

Edward

 

drinking

 
superseded
 
rollers
 

buckets

 

arranged


whipping

 

stocks

 

Although

 

necessity

 
passed
 

fitted

 
GUTENBERG
 

PROJECT

 
Produced
 

English