The White Lady of Hazelwood, by Emily Sarah Holt.
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Her is another of Emily Holt's books set in the middle ages, this time
at the end of the fourteenth century. We are kept constantly aware of
this by the quaint words and expressions the players in the drama are
always using. Many of these phrases have dropped out of the language,
but sometimes the usage is very illuminating, as we can see how we got
some modern expression or spelling.
On the whole in this story life goes on quite evenly, with not too many
of those murders that aspiring members of the noblest families of
England used to perpetrate in those days.
The heroine of the story is the "White Lady", the Countess of Montfort,
who had fought bravely to bring her son back to power, but who was then
ignored by him for many years until her death. For that reason the
story is very moving. One part of the story I liked very much was when
a Mercer, a dealer in rich cloths, is trying to tempt his customers to
buy his wares. The variety of his goods, and the prices of them, make
one realise what a wealthy trade he was engaged in.
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THE WHITE LADY OF HAZELWOOD, BY EMILY SARAH HOLT.