visit to Stonehenge; the
strange meeting with a returned convict, who turns out to be the old
applewoman's son; the vignette of the hostelry, with the figures of the
huge fat landlord and the handmaid Jenny; the visit to the stranger
gentleman who protects himself by "touching" against evil chance; the
interview with the Rev. Mr. Platitude, and the bargain struck with the
travelling tinker, Jack Slingsby, whose stock-in-trade and profession the
writer determines to adopt. Then comes the word-master's detection in
his new sphere of life by the malignant gipsy godmother, Mrs. Herne, from
whose remorseless attempt to poison him he is rescued by the kindly
hearted Welsh preacher Peter Williams and his wife Winifred. In requital
he manages to relieve the good man of a portion of the load of
superstitious terror by which he is burdened. This section of the
narrative is terminated by a graphic description of his renewal of
associateship with his old friend Jasper Petulengro, the satisfaction he
gives that worthy for having been the innocent cause of Mrs. Herne's
death, and his decision to pitch his tent in the dingle. Chapters lviii.
to lxxxii. are taken up with the foregoing incidents, which lead up to
the central episode of the autobiography, the settlement in the dingle,
with which the reader is here presented. This episode, forming the
second panel in the detailed scheme, occupies chapters lxxxiii. to cxvi.,
but it is bisected near the middle by the termination of _Lavengro_ at
chapter c. The two parts are united now for the first time, and are
given a prominent setting in relief from the rest of the narrative. The
third compartment of the triptych, which occupies chapters cxvii. to
cxlvii. (that is, chapters xvii. to xlvii. of the _Romany Rye_), is
devoted to what we may call the horse-dealing episode. After the loss of
Isopel Berners, the Romany Rye, as the author-hero is now termed,
consoles himself by the purchase of a splendid horse, to obtain which he
consents, much against his will, to accept a loan of 50 pounds from
Jasper Petulengro, the product of that worthy's labours in the prize
ring. He travels across England with the horse, meeting with adventures
by the way, narrating them to others, and obtaining some curious
autobiographical narratives in return. Finally he reaches Horncastle,
and sells the animal at the horse fair there for 150 pounds. Here, in
August 1825, the narrative of his life abruptly en