about me,
and they, though they have heard it a dozen times already, are never
tired of hearing me re-tell the story which seems to them so wonderful.

Then, again, I am often visited by folk who have heard of my travels,
and would fain have particulars of them from my own lips; so that
ofttimes I have to tell my tale, or part of it, a dozen times in the
year. Nay, upon one occasion I even told it to the King's majesty, which
was when I went up to London on some tiresome law business. Sir Ralph
Wood, who is my near neighbor and a Parliament man, had mentioned me to
the King, and so I had to go to Whitehall and tell my story before the
court, which was a hard matter for a plain-spoken country gentleman, as
you may well believe.

Now all these matters have oft prompted me to write down my story, so
that when any visitor of mine might ask me for it, I could satisfy him
without trouble to myself, by simply putting the manuscript into his
hand and bidding him read what I had there written. But until this
present time I have never seemed to have opportunity such as I desired,
for my duties as magistrate and church-warden have been neither light
nor unimportant. Now that I have resigned them to younger hands, I have
leisure time of my own, and therefore I shall now proceed to carry out
the intention which has been in my mind for many years.

I was born at York, in the year 1558. My father, Richard Salkeld
was the youngest son of Oliver Salkeld, lord-of-the-manor of
Beechcot-on-the-Wold, and he practiced in York as an attorney. Whether
he did well or ill in this calling I know not, for at the early age of
six years I was left an orphan. My father being seized by a fever, my
mother devoted herself to nursing him, which was a right and proper
thing to do; but the consequence was disastrous, for she also contracted
the disease, and they both died, leaving me alone in the world.

However, I was not long left in this sad condition, for there presently
appeared my uncle, Sir Thurstan Salkeld of Beechcot, who settled my
father's affairs and took me away with him. I was somewhat afraid of him
at first, for he was a good twenty years older than my father, and wore
a grave, severe air. Moreover, he had been knighted by the Queen for his
zealous conduct in administering the law. But I presently found him to
be exceeding kind of heart, and ere many months were over I had grown
fond of him, and of Beechcot. He had never married, and was