_MAY_
"Come lasses and lads, take leave of your dads,
And away to the May-pole hie;
For every he has got him a she,
And a minstrel standing by.
For Willy has gotten his Jill,
And Johnny has got his Joan
To jig, to jig it, jig it up and down."
_Old May Song._
All the morning Bess had been beside herself, jumping up and down,
and running round in gusts of wild excitement. At noon the _fête_ was
really to take place, and at that hour Constance and her band were to
come down by a back way through the town. The piano had already been
moved on the bowling green, between the yew hedges. In the distance I
had watched Burbidge superintending, and I am sure grumbling freely
by the ominous shakes of his head. Our old servant had been in a
great state of alarm about his lawns since the dawn, and the passing
of the piano under the great yew arch had been to him a matter of
grave anxiety "They be centuries in growing, be yews," he said to me,
"and the commonest piano as is made, can break 'em."
However, in spite of his hostile tone, Burbidge and "his boys" went
out quite early and brought back an abundance of fiery marsh
marigolds from the marshes, great sprays of budding beech, and a few
branches of opening hawthorn; besides which they gathered bunches of
primroses, the last of the season that were still in flower in damp
woodlands and against northern banks, and also purple heads of meadow
orchises. "She'll be fine," Burbidge told Nan, "but it be a sad waste
of time pulling wild things that come up all by themselves, when we
might have been puttin' taters in or wheelin' on manure." At this old
Nan had waxed wroth and had exclaimed, "There's none too old to idle
sometimes, Burbidge." "Ay," had replied our old gardener in a surly
tone, "but let me idle in my own way."
However, for all his apparent hostility, I had an idea at the back of
my head, that Burbidge would be concerned if the little _fête_ did
not go off well; and I believed, in spite of his angry tones, that he
and his boys would deck the May-stang and order all rightly for me.
I was not deceived, for as I looked out of the drawing-room windows,
I saw a little later the gardeners all at work, putting up the
May-pole. In a little while it was finely decked with gay flowers,
and Célestine and Nana, for once united in a common cause, brought
out many yards of coloured ribbon, which they tied in knots of pink,
red, white, blue, and yellow amongst the flowers. These floated like
a hundred little flags in the breeze, and seemed to fill the air with
gaiety.
[Sidenote: DECKED FOR THE FÊTE]
When this operation was at last completed, the dressing of Bess began
in earnest, and my little maid for once sat quite still, and allowed
mademoiselle to brush and fluff her hair till it stood out like the
mane of a Shetland pony. This done, Nana put her on a little white
bodice and paniers, and sewed on bunches of primroses and white
violets, and then crowned her with a crown of golden marsh marigolds
that the deft fingers of Célestine had twisted together. "Thee'll be
crowned, dear," said the old nurse softly, "with the lucky flower."
Then all the maids from upstairs and downstairs crowded to the
nursery, and Bess received me graciously, looking like a little
fairy. In her hand she held her sceptre as May Queen, round which was
wound a sprig of ivy, and one little bunch of violets.
All the time my little girl had been dressing, her lips had never
ceased to move. I asked her what was the matter? "My verses, my
verses," was her reply. When all was completed, and the bunches
re-sewn in places so that none could fall, Nana looked out of a
passage window. "They be all a-comin' to see my lamb," she cried. And
sure enough there were old men in smocks, old beldames in quaint old
black sun-bonnets, and all the children from the National School. On
they streamed together. Then Constance and her dancers appeared, some
of them running to escape observation, and all attired in
waterproofs, so that nobody might see the splendour of their festive
apparel. The garlands on their heads even were covered with Shetland
shawls. They had slipped down by the churchyard and so into the
ground, to try and gain unseen the back of the great yew hedge and
walnut tree.
"We are all ready," cried Constance, as we made our way out and
gained her group. I looked at her band of children. "Some will be
dancers," she said, "in yellow and green, some in blue, and the rest
in cherry or scarlet. Behind her little lasses stood eight little
lads in smocks, with soft felt hats, looped up with ribbons, and each
gay bachelor had a posy knot, like the bouquets coachmen used to wear
at a drawing-room in Queen Victoria's time.
"They will dance," whispered Constance to me in an aside, and pointed
to her little swains, "another year, and then the little girls will
not have all the fun to themselves."
Then there was a hush, and the Shetland shawls and the cloaks were
all taken off in a jiffey, and at a signal given, Dinah started
playing on the piano. The old tune across the lawn sounded like a
far-off tinkle. Dinah made a pretty picture. She was dressed like a
village maiden of the eighteenth century. On her head she had a
mobcap, across her shoulders was folded a fichu of lawn, and on her
hands were a pair of old black silk mittens that belonged long years
ago to Constance's grandmother.
All the people stood aside as the players and dancers made their way
to the centre of the lawn.
Then the singers stood by the piano and started in unison an old May
song. The sun shone forth brightly, and a throstle joined in from a
damson tree at the top of his voice.
There was a general sense of joy. The young voices sounded sweet and
clear, and all the meadows and distant hills seemed bathed in a blue
mist.
At last the singing died away. Then Bess, with bright eyes, but
somewhat nervous steps, advanced and repeated her verses. She spoke
as clearly as she could. Nana looked at her, as if she could eat her
up with pride, and afterwards declared that Bess had spoken like an
archbishop; and even old Sally Simons, who is believed to be deafer
than any post on the estate, affirmed that she could hear "'most
every word."
Across the budding sward Milton's beautiful verses in praise of May
seemed to ring in my ears. In the far meadows, the rooks were cawing
amongst the poplars, and over the Abbey pool a few swallows were
skimming and catching flies--
[Sidenote: "HAIL! BOUNTEOUS MAY"]
"Hail! bounteous May that dost inspire
Mirth and youth and warm desire."
The world seemed young again--old age a myth, and nature exceedingly
fair. At last Bess's lines were ended, and my little maid made her
curtesy and tripped back to me. Then the dancers stepped forward and
the music broke out afresh into a merry jingle. They stood round the
May-pole, advanced solemnly and made profound reverences. A few
seconds later, the tinkling of the piano grew quicker and quicker,
for the eight little maidens had all caught hold of each other's
hands, and round and round they went as fast as youth and gaiety
could take them. The people clapped, and the old folks broke forth
into shrill laughter. Old Timothy beat the gravel with his stick,
till Burbidge glared at him and muttered something disagreeable about
"folks not being able to behave themselves;" whereupon my old guest
hung his head and began to cough asthmatically.
The dance pleased all so well, that Constance and her little _corps
dramatique_ were obliged to go through the whole of it again. "It be
better nor a ballet" said old Timothy. "I seed one once years agone
at Shrewsbury Theatre, after the Crimean war; but this here be
dancing on the green--and not dancing for money, but for pure joy."
So away the little dancers footed it again. Even the little lads, who
hitherto had remained stolid and apparently indifferent, caught
something of the enthusiasm of the spectators, for at intervals they
bowed with eagerness, and pointed and laughed at the little maidens,
and ejaculated aloud, as they had been taught by Constance to do at
the rehearsals, "Good, good, well done, Mistress Betty; excellently,
madam," and so on, till, as a fond mother said, "Anybody might think
as they had been born play-actors, for they took to mumming same as
widdies (young ducks) do to water."
When all was over, and even the tinkling piano was heard no more,
Fremantle and footmen bearing trays of cake, beer, and milk appeared
on the scene. As to the children, we made them stand in long lines on
the paths, and gave them slices of cake and buns, and drinks of milk
in the blue and white mugs of the country; but before they fell to,
they repeated in chorus the old grace which Constance had found in
praise of May merry-making. At last, not even the youngest little boy
could eat any more, and gradually all my guests bowed and curtsied,
and left the lawn, but old Timothy who was seized with a violent fit
of coughing, leant feebly on his stick, and looked at me piteously
out of his rheumy eyes.
"'Tis the rheumatics as has got hold of me," he said, between two
fits of coughing. "They be terrible companions, be rheumatics, worse
than snakes nor wasps, and allus with 'un summer and winter.
Rheumatics," he added wheezily, "be like burrs, they hangs on to yer
all seasons."
"Come in for a bit," I said, "and rest by the fire." Young blood is
warm, but the sun hasn't much warmth yet. So I led old Timothy into
the housekeeper's room, whilst kind Auguste made him on the gas stove
a "bon bouillon" and prepared for him a glass of spiced beer.
"I can't say, marm, why I took on like that," said old Timothy,
humbly. "It cumed like all of a sudden, and I shook like a leaf, and
a kind of a swim-swammy sense mastered me, and dwang-swang, I think I
should have found myself on the turf, if you hadn't taken me in and
comforted me."
As the old man spoke, I saw that some colour was coming back into his
old cheeks. He felt cheered by his drop of broth, and when he had
sipped of the warm ale his tongue began to wag.
"To-day," he said, "put me to mind of the old days when the world ran
merrily at Wenlock, and for the matter of that, all through the
countryside. They had holidays, they had, afore they had invented
trains, trams, and motors. There war the Wakes proper, and the
Wisheng Wells--all sports and jollity after good work."
[Sidenote: "ONCE I GRINNED THROUGH A HORSE-COLLAR"]
Then old Timothy proceeded to tell me how, in the old times, "they
used to clap up booths and have shows, and dances. My grandam used to
tell how they had in her time Morris dancers and play-acting, and I
remember," he continued, "a rare bit of fun. 'Twas to grin through a
horse-collar at Church Stretton. When I war a lad," said old Timothy,
"'twas accounted a fine thing to be able to make the horriblest face
in the town--next best to being the sweetest scraper on a fiddle or a
fine singer in a catch. I was never much of a musician," pursued my
old guest, regretfully, "but for downright, hugeous horror put into a
human face, I war bad to beat."
Then, after a pause, he went on to say, "I mind me there war St.
Milburgha's Wake at Stoke. There used to be pretty sports there. The
lads used to come in smocks and dance. They used to foot it sharp to
old country dances, cheery with lot of jumping, skipping, and
bobbing. Men used to say 'twas in honour of St. Milburgha. I don't
hold to saints, as a rule," explained Timothy; "they be mostly old
bones, nails, and useless rubbish; but I draws a difference between
Shropshire and the rest, and I believes in Shropshire saints proper,
same as in my own parish church and in grandam's grave."
After a few minutes, the old man went on to tell me about the Well
Wakes. "Folks used to flock to 'em," he said. "They used to meet and
have a jolly time. There war the Beach Wake, near against Chirbury.
There they went in great numbers, and the best class of farmers and
their wives. There war a Whirl-stone then, but on Wake Sunday it
turned all by itself, Old Jackson as sold the best ale allus used to
say.
"Then when us could, us went to the Raven's Bowl and to the Cuckoo's
Cup on the Wrekin at the proper times. God Almighty, we war taught to
believe, kept they full of water for his birds, and 'twar there that
we Shropshire lads, seventy years agone and more, used to go and
wish, when we had a mind to wed a wench--seventy years agone," the
old man lingered over the words, repeating them softly. "One summer
mornin' I got up," he continued, "when the dew was lying like jewels
on the turf and wet the grass it war so that yer could wring it out
with a cloth. I war up betimes, and I walked, and walked till I got
to the spot. There warn't many places in Shropshire as I didn't know
then," Timothy exclaimed with pride; and added with enthusiasm, "yer
gets to know the betwixts and betweens of everything, sure enough,
when yer be earth-stopper to the hunt. Dad warn't by trade, but Uncle
Mapp war--Peregine Mapp, as us used to call un--as lived behind
Muckley Cross and war the best ount-catcher as ever I knowed,
rat-catcher, and stoat-trapper, and death to varmint generally. Well,
he took me on from rook scarin' for Farmer Burnell; I lived with he
till I war twelve. They talks now of eddication, but 'tis the
eddication of wood and hill as be the right 'un to make a man of yer."
[Sidenote: THE EDUCATION OF WOOD AND HILL]
"Yes, Timothy," I said; and to bring him back to his first subject, I
added, "but you were telling me about your walk to the Wrekin, and
how you drank from the Raven's and Cuckoo's bowls there."
"Ay, ay, sure I was," replied the old man, and a gleam of light shot
into his lustreless eyes. So saying he rubbed his hands softly before
the blazing logs and went on--
"Well, it war the longest day of the year. That night in June, I've
heard say, when they used to light fires on the hill tops, and when
the men used to sing, and some of 'em used to leap through the fires
and call it Johnnie's Watch; but the squires, when they took to
planting on the hillsides, forbid that sport, and there war somethin'
to be said on that score, for I believe myself it frightened foxes.
"Well, sure enough I walked, as I said, to the Wrekin over the Severn
by Buildwas Bridge, and up beyond near Little Wenlock and through
Wenlock Wood. I war desperate sweet on Susie Langford--I hadn't
hardly opened my mouth to her, but the sight of her remained with me,
night and day, same as the form of a good horse does to a young man
who can't afford to buy him--and I stood on the heights of the great
hill, and I drank out of the bowls and wished and wished, and made
sure as I should get my heart's desire, for grandam had allus said,
'Him as goes to the Wrekin on midsummer morning, gains his wish as
sure as a throstle catches a worm on May morning.' Them, her used to
say, 'as goes to the Wrekin on the May Wakes, gets nought but a jug
of ale and a cake.' Well, I think I got nought but water, and never a
cake that mornin', for little the wish or the bowls did for me."
"Did you mind very much?" I asked, watching the shadow that swept
over his face.
"Did I mind?" replied old Timothy, vehemently. "Some three months
arter, when they told me that Susie war agoin to marry the miller in
the Dingle, I laid me down on the cold ground in the old Abbey
Church, and thought I should have died of the pure howgy misery of
the whole job. Grandam she gave me all she could to comfort me. I got
thin as a lath--she gave me can-doughs and flap-jacks and begged
apples to slip into dumplins, off the neighbours; and her brewed me a
drop of beer from the water from the church roof. But it warn't
nothing to me, yer can't comfort a man by his stomach, when he be in
love.
"Anton Ames war a hugeous fellow and one of the best with fist or
gloves, or I'd have killed 'un," broke out old Timothy, "for he
seemed to poison the whole countryside for me."
"But you got over her loss at last," I ventured to say, "though you
have never married."
"One do," replied the old man grimly. "There be a time for
everything--for women, for posy knots, dancing, and all the
kickshaws. They be all toys, mere toys. 'Tis only sport and beer as
lasts." As he spoke the old man looked gloomily into the fire and
warmed his wrinkled hands afresh.
"And Susie?" I could not refrain from asking; "what happened to her?"
"Her married and reared a pack of childer," answered Timothy, "and
when Anton fell off his cart one dark night from Shrewsbury Market,
they said her cried, but cried fit to wash away her eyes. But her got
comforted in time--they mostly do, does women; and then, after a bit,
her took a chapman. They often do, for number two I've noticed,"
continued Timothy, meditatively; "for chapmans have ready tongues,
and be oily and cheeky in one. And Sue her had a bit of siller, and
they married sharp off, at Munslow Church, I heard, and Sue her used
to go hawking with Gipsy Trevors, as they called 'im, and they used
to pass through Bridgenorth, Stretton, and up by Ludlow, same as if
her had never been born respectable or had rubbed bright an oak
dresser, or swept a parlour carpet."
"What did you do at the Wakes, and how long did they last?" I asked
as old Timothy relapsed into silence.
[Sidenote: OLD SHROPSHIRE PLEASURES]
"Oh, they was most part a week," answered the old man. "There war too
much fun then in folks, to let the fun die out so quick as it does
now. Now, if a squire has a cricket-match, 'tis all over in no time.
Piff-paff like a train through a tunnel. There's nought now but a
smack, and a taste of jollity, and it dies with daylight. When I was
a boy, it was altogether different. Us could work, and us could play,
and us liked to take our fill, same as young bullocks on spring
grass. Us used to dance and sing, run races, and jump for neckties
and hat-bands, and play kiss-in-the-ring, and manage," said old
Timothy, with a twinkle in his eye, "to stand by a pretty lass then,
and to wrestle and box besides. They war merry times." And here his
voice sank almost to a whisper, "And then there was cock-fightin'."
"Cock-fightin'?" I enquired. "Have you ever seen much of that?"
"Lord love yer!" retorted Master Theobalds, with kindly contempt. "Of
course I have, and a prettier, more gentlemanly sport I b'aint
acquainted with. I mind me of the good old time, when every squire
had his own main of cocks, and many war the farmers as had a good
clutch, and great war the pride of the missus in rearin' a good 'un
round the Clee, and over at Bridgenorth. Folks used to say at Ludlow,
as there were some as thought more of their cocks, than of their own
souls. Why, marm, when I war a little un, we should have thought a
town a poor benighted one-horse place as hadn't got its cock-pit.
There used," continued old Timothy, "to be a fine place beyond what
is now the vicarage, where they used to fight 'em regularly on Easter
Monday, and at the May Fair at Much Wenlock. Every serving-man as had
a touch of sport in his blood used to get leave to go 'cocking,' as
they called it then, and a right merry sport it war, sittin' fine
days on the spring grass, and seeing two game uns go tooth and nail
for each other."
"Did they put spurs on them?" I asked the old man.
"Of course they did, and weighed 'em." And then old Timothy added,
"Scores of times I've put on the spurs myself to oblige a squire, or
a kindly farmer as had given me a jog back from the meet, or a lift
on, when I war searchin' after a terrier."
"Was there not a belief that a cock hatched in an owl or magpie's
nest was sure to have luck in the ring?" I asked.
[Sidenote: THE COCKFIGHTS OF THE PAST]
"Sure there war," answered Timothy, with conviction. "I remember
hearin' of one, Owen by the Clee, as had a cock that he allus swore
had been reared by an owl; and Davies, near Munslow, had a famous
green-tailed bird, that he used to say was hatched in a pie's nest. I
cannot say for sure how it war," said the old man, "but sartain I be
that them war the two best birds as ever I seed--let 'em be reared as
they might be. They war two upstanding birds, tall in the leg, long,
lean heads, and born game. No white feather in they. There war many,"
continued the old man, "who tried to get luck in all ways, and
stopped at nothing. Some gave 'em chopped beef afore fightin', and
many beat up an egg in their meal to give 'em courage and strength.
And then"--and here old Timothy paused--"there war other ways."
"What ways?" I asked with curiosity.
"Well," and my old guest sank his voice to a whisper, "there war some
on Easter Sunday as took the Sacrament, as took it at no other time."
"But what had that to do with cock-fighting?" I asked.
"Why, jist this," and Timothy's voice became hardly audible. "They
drank the wine, but saved the bread, for some believed that a cock
that had eaten consecrated bread afore he went into the ring, war
bound to win, as the devil fought for 'im himself."
"What a horrible sacrilege!" I could not refrain from exclaiming.
"That's what folks wud say now," agreed Timothy, complacently; "but
there war many as didn't feel that then. Times be different. It war
wrong, I suppose," he added, "but the sport war that strong in
Shropshire men then, they wud ha' raced angels for pence and fought
with Bibles, if so be folks would have laid on bets."
But after a pause, he added, "They didn't all go that far; some only
bought dust from church chancels that they threw on their bird's
feathers, or chucked a pinch into the bags, and there never came no
harm from that, for it gave the sextons and vergers a lucky penny,
and made use of what otherwise would have been let lie on the midgeon
heap. And even parsons didn't themselves interfere there, 'cause the
practice made sextons and church officials easy to find as nuts in
the Edge Wood."
Then I turned, and asked the old man about old Squire Forester's
hounds.
"Ay, they war grand ones." And my old guest's eyes flashed with
enthusiasm. And then old Timothy went on to ask me if I had ever
heard of Tom Moody, "as great a devil as ever rode a horse. There war
none to beat Tom--Tom war whipper-in, and then huntsman, and bred a
rider. One day he rode, as a little lad, an ugly cob with a
pig-bristled mane. Somehow Tom hung on, jumped with the best, and
never fell, though the leps that day, they said, were hugeous. I
never seed Tom myself," continued Timothy, "but grandam war his own
cousin right enough, and it war a proud moment for any lad to clasp
hands with old Tom. There war many then less proud to know a bishop
or a peer, than to know Tom.
"The old squire, when he seed the lad ride like that, said at the
finish--
"'Will you come back and whip in for me, for yer be the right sort?'
"'Will I, yer honour? Sure I will,' said Tom, and his ugly mug broke
out like May blows in sunshine, a friend standing by told us. Tom and
the squire they never parted till Tom war buried under the sod of
Barrow churchyard.
"Up and down dale, war Moody's way. Nothing lived before him. He
never stopped for hedge or ditch. Often 'tis told of 'im that he used
to take guests of the squire's back to Shifnal, where they met the
coach for London. Then Tom would drive his prime favourite in the
yellow gig. He counted his neck for nothing, and didn't set no store
on theirs, and they did say he would lep pikes and hedges same as if
he war hunting, and never injured tongue of buckle or stitch of a
strap."
[Illustration:
RUINS OF WENLOCK ABBEY IN 1778.
_From an Engraving after a Drawing by Paul Sandby, R.A._]
"Was that possible?" I exclaimed in amazement.
"Lor bless yer, mam, everythin' war possible with Tom. They said here
he war a devil incarnate on a horse, or in his shay, and nothing
could stop him. Folks said he loved his old horse better than his
soul."
"What was the name of his horse?"
[Sidenote: "OLD SOUL" TO RIDE]
"'Old Soul,' right enough," answered Timothy; "a great lean beaste,
sixteen hands and more. Any amount of bone and not a square inch of
flesh, with a docked tail and a wicked wall eye. He kicked and bit,
did Old Soul, as if he war the great Satan himself; and I've heard
'em say at the kennels, that there war none but Tom and one other man
about the place as dared go near him to dress him down, for he would
savage any one when he had a mind. Heels up, and ears back, and his
eye the colour of a yule log at Christmastide, those were his ways.
Yet Tom at covert side thought mountains of him. 'Old Soul and I must
get to heaven together,' he used to say, 'for what the old chap wud
do without me, or I without he, 'twould puzzle me to think. And 'tis
the wickedest, cutest old devil that ever man sat across,' Tom used
to swear, 'but if a man's got a spice of the true hunter in him, he
blesses God to be on such a horse when hounds be running, devil or no
devil.'
"Once," continued Timothy, "I heard as Tom war lost. They hunted for
'un everywhere down beyond Kenley, where they had been in the
morning. In those days the country there war very marshy in the
winter time, for there wasn't a bit of draining. Well, I've heard it
said as Tom went in, and it happened in this way. Tom war leading his
horse, but the horse war wiser than Tom, for feelin' the ground
shaky, he jerked up his head sudden like, and snapped the bridle and
got away. Tom, he tried to leap out of the bog, but he couldn't, for
sure he war sucked in and kept fast prisoner in the clay.
"When the squire and the pack got back to the kennels there war no
Tom. 'Hullo! where be Tom?' cried the squire, and he got anxious, for
never in the born days of man had Tom not turned up. They called and
they sent out riders, and they shouted like scholards out on a
holiday, but nothin' of Tom could they hear. So out the squire and
the faithful hunt they set, with a fresh pack, and fresh horses, and
only a lick down of somethin' to keep the soul in 'em. On they went,
the squire leadin' like a lord on his white-legged chestnut. Only
this time it warn't no fox-hunting, but a man as they war searchin'
after.
"On they rode across Blakeway, beyond Harley, then turning straight
westwards they got to the wild country, and they rode round, I've
heard say, almost to Church Stretton, up to the foot of the Caradoc;
and sure enough, just as the squire war about to give up the job and
creep home to get a bit of supper, and get dogs and men to their
beds, they heard, as I'm a Christian man, somethin' a-croaking and
calling 'Tally-ho! tally-ho!' but so hoarse, and strange, and
misty-like, that it seemed no real voice, but whispers from a ghost.
[Sidenote: THE MIDNIGHT CHASE]
"One of the whipper-ins, a small white-haired little chap as they
used to call 'Soap,' because he looked so clean and peart, and was a
pet-like with the lasses, began to shiver and call out 'Lord 'a
mercy, let's hunt the fox, but leave alone devils and Herne the
Hunter, and such like.' But the squire, he never turned a hair, and
he called out, 'No bed, or rest for me till we've found Tom,' and he
rode on on his chestnut; and then Jack Pendrell, what was a groom, he
called out too, 'Where the squire goes, I go,' and he set spurs into
his grey; and then they followed on, hounds and men, like a covey of
partridges. And all of a sudden, I have heard 'em say (for it war the
talk of the country-side for many days), Old Dancer gave a whimper
and then Regent followed suit, and then Butterfly and Skylark threw
in their bell notes, and away the whole hunt burst like steam. They
barely seemed to touch the ground, but ran like mad, as hounds do in
a killing scent. The squire fairly split the chestnut, Tom Trig and
Bob Buckson followed close behind, and they rode as if the devil was
at their heels. And all the while the voice kept calling, hullooing
like a spirit in a tomb, only fainter and fainter--a kind of
unearthly screech like a raven dooming a Christian across a
churchyard. At last two hounds ran in, and the squire leapt from his
horse, which steamed like a chimney, and there they found Tom sucked
up in the ground fit to die, and the wind pretty nearly out of his
body. He looked like a ghost when they got him out. He must have
perished long before, he told 'em, if it hadn't been that he had
found a stout handful of grass by which he had hung on, and called
for his life.
"Well, the long and the short of it was, when they hauled him
out--which they did by ropes and knotting their handkerchiefs
together--they put him on an old dun pony. But Tom war that silly and
faint, that they had to tie him on to keep him from falling, and so
they got him home.
"When they got back to Willey, the squire had him taken straight to
his own bed, and clapt inside. 'Tom,' he said, 'don't yer die; yer
drink and yer bain't worth much, but fox-hunting in Shropshire can't
live without yer.' And," continued old Timothy, "Tom declared then he
felt fit to die of glory at the thought as he, Tom, and fox-hunting
war one and the same thin' in Shropshire. Well, Tom got round, for
all his chill and lying in the ground six mortal hours, but he never
war the same man again. The squire spared no expense on him, and made
him take the same medicines as he took himself, and gave him foreign
wines, though they do say as Tom would have liked old ale better."
"When did old Tom die at last?" I asked.
"I cannot precisely remember, but I've heard it war in 1796 or
thereabouts. He war no great age, but he had lived fast and went to
bed mellow, as fellows used to do then. Well, ma'am, when the doctor
gave up hope, it wasn't long as Tom was ill, for once out of the
saddle he hadn't much to live for, as I've heard 'em say. The days
seemed mortal long to Tom, lyin', as he said, mute as a log and
nothing to interest 'im but the goin' out and the comin' home of the
hounds. When Tom had made up his mind that he warn't long for this
world, he begged the squire to step down.
"'Squire,' he said, 'I've been a sinner, and God forgive me; not of
much good to nobody save on a horse, but I've hunted to please you
and to please myself.' And they say that the old squire, when he
heard Tom talk like that, spoke very gentle and pitiful, and he said,
taking Tom's hand, 'Tom, my man, yer don't owe me nothin'. You've
been a right good servant, gone like the devil, and loved the hounds
like yer brothers.'
[Sidenote: A HUNTING FUNERAL]
"'Right, squire, right,' answered Tom. And then he told him what war
in his mind about his berrial.
"There's some as like it one way and some another," said old Timothy,
"but Tom he'd set his mind on a hunting funeral. The hounds war to be
in at the death, as he called it, and the good men who rode hard and
straight war to be there too, and give a view holloa after parson had
said the prayers. Would parson mind? Tom had asked. But the squire
told 'im not to vex hisself, for the parson war of the right sort,
and would understand that fox-hunting and the Church war both the
glory of Englishmen. Then he asked, did Tom, that his favourite old
horse, him as he had called Old Soul, was to follow behind ready
saddled as for a day's hunting. And then, when all was settled to
Tom's mind, he and the squire shook hands and said good-bye to each
other. The squire," continued my old guest, "war a right proper man,
masterful but kind, knew his own mind, but war faithful to them as
had been faithful to him, and what he promised Squire George allus
did. He was iron as to promises--said little, but stuck to a promise
as if it had been the last word of his mother, folks said. So in
November, a matter of a few days after poor Tom had died, they buried
him accordin' to his instructions, and all the good fellows that had
followed the hunt, and seen him show them rattling sport fine days
and foul days alike, came from far and near to do him honour. And
when they shouted, after lowering Tom's coffin, there war no
irreverence in the job whatever. People now," continued Timothy,
"don't understand sport. They think 'tis only fit stuff for a daily
paper, and mayn't come nohow to church or touch Church goings on. Oh,
but Lord love yer!"--and my old friend drew himself up straight in
his chair--"they thought different then, and they gave Tom a view
holloa, for all they were worth, did the hunt, and stood there
reverent and pious over his grave bareheaded alongside, till the
woods and hills fair rang with their voices. No harm," said my old
friend, "war meant, and no harm war done, for God Almighty wouldn't
make foxes if he didn't hold to fox-chasing." As he spoke, Master
Theobalds got up. "Good-bye, marm, and thank you kindly," he said.
"It does me good to talk of the old days and of the old goin's on. It
kind of brings back a bit of sun to me."
As he spoke the old man rapped his stick feebly along the old cement
floor of the monks and crept out of the door. My big dog looked after
him and growled, for the tapping of a stick is a thing that few dogs
can stand.
What strong men for good or ill, I argued, they were, those men who
saw the end of the eighteenth and the birth of the nineteenth
century. How brave and undaunted! They fought England's quarrels over
Europe, and they died in Spain, and won on the plains of Waterloo.
How narrow they were, how intolerant, and how brave! Surely
fox-hunting taught them some of their endurance and courage, and the
long days over woodland and moor gave them strong muscles and brave
hearts, and prepared them for the hardships of war.
The morning, with its glory of sunshine had passed, and the afternoon
had grown grey and still. The joy of the morning seemed hushed, a
chill grey sky was overhead, and the lowering clouds promised, a wet
night.
I wandered out and walked amongst the ruins. Outside the grounds I
heard a dog faintly barking, and the faint murmur of children's
voices reached me, but as in a dream; all the laughter and the gaiety
of May morning had fled. I noticed that the thorns were bursting into
blossom, and that a white lilac was covered with snow-like flowers.
I passed into the Chapter House. Alas! in the nineteenth century one
complete set of arches had fallen, but the beautiful interlaced
arches were still there, although every saint had been knocked off
his niche and destroyed by the hooligan of Henry VIII.'s or
Elizabeth's reign. On the northern side, says tradition, reposed the
body of St. Milburgha.
[Sidenote: THE HOLY ONE AND MIRACLES]
I felt in the grey evening as if I was standing on holy ground. It
was here, according to William of Malmesbury, the historian monk,
"that there lived formerly a very ancient house of nuns. The place
(Wenlock)," he tells us, "was wholly deserted on account of the Danes
having destroyed the fabric of the nunnery. After the Norman
conquest, Roger de Montgomery filled the monastery with Clugniac
monks, where now," wrote the pious monk, "the fair branches of virtue
strain up to heaven. The virgin's tomb was unknown to the new-comers,
for all the ancient monuments had been destroyed by the violence of
the foemen and time. But when the fabric of the new church was
commenced, as a boy ran in hot haste over the floor, the grave of the
virgin was broken through, and disclosed her body. At the same time a
fragrant odour of balsam breathed through the church, and her body,
raised high aloft, wrought so many miracles that floods of people
poured in thither. Scarcely could the broad fields contain the
crowds, whilst rich and poor together, fired by a common faith,
hastened on their way. None came to return without the cure or the
mitigation of his malady, and even king's evil, hopeless in the hands
of the leech, departed before the merits of the virgin."
As I stood on the well-shorn turf, the holy scene seemed to come back
to me; then, later, the crowd of devout pilgrims overflowing fields
and common. I seemed almost to see the bands of eager devotees, to
hear their outburst of faith and thanksgiving, and to feel them near.
I imagined cripples cured, the blind returning with their sight, all
relieved and all blessing the Giver of life and health in their
strong belief of the eleventh century.
Miss Arnold Forster, in her admirable work on "Church Dedications,"
declares that the little leaden geese sometimes dug up in London are
the same images that were bought by pilgrims and taken back to their
homes from Wenlock.
In 1501, by order of Henry VII., a splendid shrine was built for the
bones and relics of St. Milburgha, but after the dissolution of the
monasteries, the mob broke in and robbed the tomb of its jewels, and
scattered the saint's bones and ashes to the winds.
I thought of all the old stories connected with the place, of the
many deeds of piety of the Saxon saint and of her tomb, then of the
rough usage of her shrine, and of the demolition of the churches
after the Reformation.
The last twenty years has brought great changes, and none are greater
than the changes in many of our views respecting the Reformation. No
longer a narrow Protestant spirit governs us, or makes us believe
that all done at the Reformation was well done, and for the glory of
God. We mourn over the ruined churches, the deserted altars, and the
loss to the world of so much that was venerable and beautiful.
[Sidenote: SAINTS WERE DRIVEN FORTH]
Bishop Godwin lamented bitterly over the fall of the monasteries.
"Godly men," he wrote, "could not approve of the destruction of so
many grand churches built," as the bishop expressed it, "for the
worship of God by our ancestors. It was deeply to be regretted," he
declared, "the diversion of such an amount of ecclesiastical revenues
to private use, and the abolition of every place where men might lead
a religious life in peace, and retirement from worldly business,
devoting themselves wholly to literary toil and meditation."
Till the reign of Henry VIII. England was studded over with beautiful
church buildings and monuments. They were centres of learning and
culture. Buildwas, the great Cistercian monastery only three miles
away, on the banks of the Severn, was famous in the Middle Ages for
its workshops, and for the many copies of the Scriptures which were
penned there, whilst in many of the monasteries, as even Lord Herbert
said, the brothers behaved so well "that not only were their lives
exempt from notorious faults, but their spare time was bestowed in
writing books, in painting, carving, graving, and the like exercises,
so that even their visitors became intercessors for their
continuance." But Cromwell would not allow the monks any virtues, and
declared brutally that their houses should be thrown down to the
foundations, and continued to fill the king's coffers and his private
purse with their gold.
Camden wrote: "Up to the thirty-sixth year of Henry VIII.'s reign,
there were six hundred and forty-five religious houses erected for
the honour of God, the propagation of Christianity and learning, and
the support of the poor.
"Then," says the historian, "a storm burst upon the English Church,
like a flood, breaking down its banks, which, to the astonishment of
the world and the grief of the nation, bore down the greater part of
the religious houses, and with them their fairest buildings.
"These buildings were almost all shortly after destroyed, their
monastic revenues squandered, and the wealth which the Christian
piety of the English nation had from their first conversion dedicated
to God, was in a moment dispersed."
After doing away with the smaller monasteries, Henry VIII. found
himself and the State but little richer for the confiscations. The
story runs that he complained bitterly to his minister, Cromwell, of
the rapacity of his courtiers, and is said to have exclaimed angrily--
"By our Lady! the cormorants, when they have got the garbage, will
devour the fish."
"There is more to come, your grace," answered the wily vicegerent.
"Tut, tut, man," the king is supposed to have answered, "my whole
realm would not stanch their maws."
Great was the sorrow of the poor at the dissolution. For the monks,
as a rule, had been kind masters. They had nursed the sick, and had
given away many doles at Christmas and welcome charities. They had
fed and had clothed the indigent, and had opened their houses often
as places of rest to travellers and to those in distress.
"It was," wrote Strype, "a pitiful thing to hear the lamentations
that the people of the country made for the monasteries. For in
them," he asserts, "was great hospitality, and by the doing away of
the religious houses, it was thought more than 10,000 persons,
masters and servants, had lost their living."
[Sidenote: LATIMER'S PLEA]
Even Latimer, strong, sturdy Protestant that he was, though he flamed
with righteous wrath at the abuses that went on in many of the
religious houses, prayed that some of the superior and blameless
houses might be spared. It was not wise, he thought, to strike all
with one sweeping blow, and he begged "that some of the monasteries
might continue and be filled with inmates not bound by vows, and
revised by stringent statutes, where men in every shire might
meditate and give themselves up to holy prayer, and acquire the art
of preaching."
"That soul must be low indeed," wrote Cobbett, in his "History of the
Protestant Reformation," "which is insensible to all feelings of
pride in the noble edifices of its country."
"Love of country, that variety of feelings which all together
constitute what we properly call patriotism, consists in part, of the
admiration and of veneration for ancient and magnificent proofs of
skill, and of opulence.
"The monks built, as well as wrote, for posterity. The never-dying
nature of their institutions set aside in all their undertakings
every calculation as to time and age. Whether they built, or whether
they planted, they set the generous example of providing for the
pleasure, the honour, the wealth and greatness, of generations upon
generations, yet unborn. They executed everything in the best
possible manner. Their gardens, their fish-ponds, farms; in all, in
the whole of their economy they set an example tending to make the
country beautiful--to make it an object of pride with the people, and
to make the nation truly, and permanently great."
Full of these different thoughts, I walked beneath arch and column,
and so away from the old world and its belongings, until I stood
before my aviary of canaries. I entered the cage. As I watched my
birds I heard a pitter-patter overhead, and, looking up, I saw,
leaning against a rail, my little friend Thady Malone.
"Well, Thady," I said, "what has brought you here? I missed you this
morning during the May Dance."
"'Deed," said Thady, slowly, "it was sorry I was not to be wid you,
for I hear the little leddy danced like a cat in the moonlight, and
shone like a glow-worm at the point of day."
"Oh, but Bess didn't dance," I answered laughing.
"But, 'deed, if she had," replied Thady, enthusiastically, "there's
not a fairy in auld Oireland that would have kept pace with her, or
looked half the darlint."
"Have it your own way, Thady," I said, for I knew that Thady had long
since kissed the Blarney Stone. "And now tell me why you didn't come.
There were cakes, and singing."
"My mother," answered Thady, solemnly. "It was my mother that was the
prevention of my best intentions. My mother," he continued, "is as
full of pride as an egg is full of meat. And 'Thady,' she said, in a
voice as deep as death, yer leddyship knows her way of speakin',
''yer must never,' she said, 'give the name of your father a
downfall. When yer go to her leddyship's sports it must be clad as
the best of 'em,' and where were my boots to begin with?" And Thady
sighed, and looked down rather piteously at his bare feet.
But a minute later, with the grace of an Irish lad, his face became
wreathed in smiles, and he turned to me saying, "Well, though I
stayed at home I gave yer all the good wishes in the world, and as I
couldn't be here in the morning, 'tis here I am in the evening."
Then I stepped out of the aviary, and, as I mounted the stairs, I
noted that Thady's face had an air of mystery. As I approached him,
he held out something in his hand, and said, in a tone of charming
apology, "Here is something I have for yer, and for yourself alone.
It's never dirt with yer leddyship, whatever it is that a poor lad
brings yer," and as I got near, Thady uncovered one hand, and I saw
through the fingers of the other a little black bird.
[Sidenote: "A JACK SQUEALER, BEGORRA"]
"A jack squealer, begorra," he exclaimed triumphantly, as I reached
the same level that he was on. Then Thady went on to say that he had
picked him up last night. "He's tired with coming," he explained,
"poor bit of a bird, but if yer can keep him safe for a day or two,
he'll live to fly with the best over crypt and arch." So Thady and I
bore away our prize, and mounted to the old chamber, which is known
as the leper's room, and there we deposited our little feathered
friend.
"He'll do here," said Thady, "no cat can get him here. Give him a
dish of water, and he'll catch flies for himself." The little bird
was of a dusty black, with faint green reflections, and with a light
drab tint beneath his beak, but with no white whatever under the
tail. His short face expressed no fear at human contact. His legs I
noted were very short. I put him down on the powdery dust of the
chamber. He did not attempt to fly away, but when I placed him
against my dress, he ran up my shoulder, to quote Thady's words, "as
active as a rabbit in a field of clover."
"He's a late un," said Thady, contemplating his little prize. "'Last
to come, first to go,' I've heard 'em say about swallows, but I don't
know if 'tis true or not; but he's pretty in a way, and doesn't know
what fear is." Then Thady went on to say nobody hurts a squealer, not
even Wenlock boys, even _they_ let him be. He's the Almighty's prime
favourite, after a wren or a cock robin, Thady gave as an
explanation. Then he told me how he found him at the bottom of the
Bull Ring last night.
"Tired he was," continued Thady, "like a tired horse that had taken
three parties to a wedding. So I took him up safe from the cats; and
old Timothy, him as they call Maister Theobalds, he said, leaning on
his stick and his smock floating behind him like a petticoat, 'Let
the lady of the Abbey have 'im. Varmint and such toys be all in her
line. She or the lady Bess wull be sure to like 'im.' So I brought
'im here."
"He is most fascinating," I answered, watching my new pet; "but how
can I catch him flies?"
"Let him be," answered Thady; "feeding birds is mostly killing 'em.
With water he'll freshen up, and go and get his own meat."
I stood a few minutes watching the little bird. He ran about on the
floor, and apparently found what was necessary for his subsistence;
but his wings were so weak that he could not rise. Thady disappeared
for a moment, and then reappeared with an armful of branches. "These
will be a pleasure to him and harbour insects, and such birds like
shade. Now he'll do."
We arranged the boughs, and Thady fetched a saucer of water, which he
put down. The bird, after a moment's hesitation, plunged in, expanded
his wings with a cry of pleasure, and then lay contentedly on the
ground.
"He'll be well now," said Thady, "well as Uncle Pat's pig when it
got into an orchard of cider apples." So we shut the old door of
the leper's chamber carefully behind us, and descended the
steps--overgrown with budding valerian.
[Sidenote: FRESH NESTS TO SEE]
"They be wonderfully dressy, be swallows," piped Thady, "in the
building of their nests. There's nought that comes amiss to them.
Shreds of gauze, scraps of muslin, bits of mud, in fact," he added,
"any iligant thing that they can meet with, they dart off with in a
minute. 'Tis wonderful the fancy and the invention of the craythures.
In August they'll go, this sort; but where they go there's few as
knows."
I was about to return to the Abbey, when Thady stopped me. "I've
somethin' else to show you, somethin' as you'll be pleased wid," he
said.
"What is it?"
"A real pretty bird," was Thady's answer. "None of yer common kinds.
The cock is the bonniest little fellow I have ever seen; fire snaps,
I call 'em,--that's the name that Ben O'Mally called one that we saw
together near Birmingham. He's about the size of a robin, but 'tis a
more spirited tail that he has, a black waistcoat, and a lavender
head. None of your mud-pie midgeon tits, but a real gay hopper. About
the bonniest little fellow that I have ever seen. He's got a flash of
brightness about him, like the foreign flower that Mister Burbidge
declared he would whip the life out of me if I touched. Jump the
flame, the blazer, and kitty brantail, I've heard him called in
different places; but call 'em what they will, they all think a lot
of him."
Then I asked Thady about the plumage of the little hen.
"Oh, the missus," answered Thady. "Well she's purty but not so fine
as her mate. She's a bitter duller, and the fire has gone out of her
tail."
"Where is the nest?" I asked.
Thady did not answer, but walked across the ruined church to a broken
column, and there, sure enough, in a little hole screened from the
winds by a spray of budding eglantine, I found the nest of the
redstart. The eggs, of which there are four, reminded me of those of
the hedge-sparrow; but the blue was fainter, and on one or two I
noticed a few dim brownish specks. Then we retired quickly, for
hovering close by was the brilliant little cock bird himself. How
beautiful he was! Like a vision of the tropics. The redstart is never
found in great numbers in Shropshire, but every year there is a pair
that comes and builds somewhere in our ruined church. Three years ago
they built in a wall, last year in a crevice in the crypt, and this
year in a ruined column.
The redstart visits our shores in April, and always commands
attention by his brilliant plumage. He is a bold bird and not easily
frightened. He dips his tail up and down, with a movement which
recalls that of a water-wagtail, only it is not so fussy, or
continuous; and when he flies, he leaves behind him the vision of a
red-hot coal on the wing, so glorious are the feathers on the top of
the tail.
I begged Thady to show no one the nest. Nests are best kept dead
secrets, and this one, I said, will be a joy and an interest to me
for the next two months.
"I've somethin' more," and Thady hesitated--"and a real beauty," he
added. "I know yer was occupied with play-acting and entertainments
and what not," and Thady waved his hand majestically, as if on May
morning of 1904 ours had been the revels of Kenilworth, and added "it
isn't beasts, and birds, that the gentry care for at such times, so I
waited my time," and Thady beckoned to me to follow.
I crossed the garden, and let myself out by the lily gates while
Thady stepped over the wall, and found myself in a few minutes' time
across the meadows and standing with Thady by the furthest point of
the old Abbey fish-ponds.
[Sidenote: A RING-OUZEL'S NEST]
"'Tisn't often as this sort will come down from the hills and the
wild ground," Thady said. "They are wild folk and belong to the north
moorland. I've never heard of a rock-jack here. Some folks call 'em
burn-dippers." I looked, and saw amongst the branches of an old
willow a nest which was not unlike that of a blackbird, but the eggs
were not quite the same, being splashed with spots of a reddish brown
on a ground of a brighter green.
"What is it?" I asked, for Thady's country names did not convey much
to me. And then I saw, not far off on the grass, a bird not unlike
the familiar blackbird, or black ouzel of the garden, as some country
folks still call him, save that he had a white throat. It was the
first that I ever saw in England, although I believe the ring-ouzel
is not uncommon on the Church Stretton hills; but on cultivated land,
save in a few parts of Scotland, he is always a rare visitor.
I watched him hop about, with the same heavy flop of his cousin, the
blackbird, but I noted that his plumage was not so brilliant as our
garden favourite. He had greener shades in the black, and his plumage
was almost of a rusty brown in places. Underneath his throat he had a
brilliant white tie. He was certainly a handsome fellow. His
movements recalled those of a blackbird, but he had not the "yellow
dagger" that Tennyson praised, and at our approach he did not make
his exit with the angry rattle which is so characteristic of our
garden friend.
"Why, Thady," I said, "I am pleased. The ring-ouzel is a very rare
English bird. At least, so they say in books."
"Begorra, I have never seen one in these parts but once," answered
Thady, "and that was in Sherlot Forest by the lake."
Then we got back over the rails, and I followed Thady to one of the
small plantations where the young trees were about twenty years old.
"What else have you got?" for Thady was beginning to run, so great
evidently was his impatience to show me something that he knew of.
"A nest of the finest singer in Shropshire," replied Thady, "as good,
some say, as the nightingale. I've heard him called the mock
nightingale, and by others the coal tuft, Jack smut, and black the
chimney. Anyway, whatever they like to call him, he's a fine songster
for all his poor dull feathers. He can pipe loud and full right
across a wood, and then warble soft as a nope's bride. He won't stay
here in August, and flies away with the first of the swallows."
Then I recalled the olive woods in Southern France, and remembered
how sweetly I had heard the blackcaps sing in March mornings from the
Hotel Bellevue windows. I looked at the little nest built in the
branches of a budding bramble; it was not unlike that of a robin,
save that it had no moss interwoven in its structure, and that it was
entirely lined with horse hair and the hair off the backs of the red
and white cows of the country. Inside I saw three eggs of a palish,
reddish brown, sprinkled over with spots of purple. I could not help
noticing how different the three eggs were.
"I've never before found eggs like this so early," said Thady.
"Generally the Jack smuts take a deal of time to settle, but this
pair have a-nested and laid as soon as they got to the parish." I
bent over the nest.
[Sidenote: THE BOWER OF THE MOCK NIGHTINGALE]
"Don't touch 'em," cried Thady, excitedly, "since it's yer
leddyship's pleasure to leave them; for the mock warbler, as dad
calls him, he says are as shy as a hawk, and a touch of the nest will
make 'em quit in a twinkling. Some morning, yer leddyship," Thady
continued, "yer must come down and hear him. If yer was to get
outside the fence, yer'd catch him some day singing. For he's got a
strange voice, soft and pretty at one moment as if he was charming,
and the next as if telling the tales of a thousand victories."
Thady and I walked home in the twilight. I love seeing the nests of
God's little wild birds. How wonderfully they are built. What
marvellous architects birds are, how clever and dexterous, with claw
and beak.
In the still light of the dying day, the old spire of the parish
church loomed like a gigantic lance across the rich meadows, and
through the stillness I heard the sound of the chimes. They filled
this old English spot with a sense of rest. No hurry, they seemed to
call, no hurry. Leisure, the best gift of the gods, is yours and
ours. Time to wander, time to see, time to sleep. I stood and gazed
on the quiet scene. All the pleasant things of spring and summer were
before us. White mists were gathering from the beck and running in
long lines of diaphanous obscurity across the fields. There was no
sound but the distant chimes. All was sinking gently to rest.
I entered the eastern gate and called to Mrs. Langdale, the old
housekeeper, and begged her to give me a hunch of cake to bestow on
Thady. The good dame handed it through the mullioned window sourly
enough, for Thady was no favourite with such a barndoor-natured woman
as my old housekeeper. "'Tis little I'd get if yer leddyship wasn't
here," laughed Thady. "'Get out and don't poison the place with yer
breath, yer limb of Satan,'--that's what I'd hear if yer wasn't by,
to stand by me," Thady whispered, as Mrs. Langdale shut the window
with an angry snap.
I passed the hunch of cake to Thady, and quickly, silently he put it
into his voluminous pocket, in which it disappeared as in a well.
Then Thady lifted his cap, and a second later I heard him whistling
softly in the gloaming.
As I went into the chapel hall I was greeted by Constance. I
congratulated her warmly on her successful morning. Nothing could
have been better, I said. It was a real scene of gaiety, and gave, I
am sure, all the young and old, a great deal of enjoyment.
"There not a budding boy or girl this day
But is got up and gone to bring in May,"
I quoted laughingly. "The old times will come back to Wenlock, thanks
to you, Constance," I said. "Over each house will be hung bough and
garlands, till each household is given up to laughter and frolic."
"There is much wisdom in wholesome laughter," my friend replied.
"Perhaps the best thing that can be done for the people is to teach
them how to play. They have almost forgotten how, in their desire to
make money."
Then my friend and I parted.
[Sidenote: IN THE RUINED CHURCH]
After dinner I wandered into the garden. It was a lovely night. The
moon was hardly seen, only in faint peeps at intervals, but there was
a mist of stars. I faintly saw the vane of the flying crane pointing
due south, and in the distance I heard the hoot of an owl far away in
the Abbot's Walk. In the pathway I saw dim shadowy creatures, which
turned out to be toads enjoying the cool moisture of the night. Far
away, in a cornfield, I caught the harsh cry of the corncrake,
calling, calling--as he would call, I knew, all through the May
nights. A little later, and over Windmoor Hill on the sheep-nipped
turf would glisten nature's jewel, the glow-worm, but early in May
such gems are rarely to be met with in our cold country. How lovely
it was to wander round the garden and ruined church--to inhale the
scent of the budding lilac, and the poet's narcissus in the grass,
for where pious knees once knelt was then a milky way of floral
stars. They glittered in the grass like faint jewels, and their rich
perfume gave the evening air an intoxicating sweetness.
My great hound walked at my heels. At night she is always watchful,
and is haunted by a persistent sense of danger. But even she, that
still night, could find nothing to be alarmed about, or to hurl
defiance at. All the world seemed bathed in a mystic sapphire bath of
splendour, and round me I knew that mystic process of what we call
life was silently but rapidly taking form. I could almost feel the
budding of the trees, for the wonderful revelation of summer was at
hand. To-night, on an ancient larch, one of the first I have heard
that was planted in Shropshire, a storm-cock, as the country people
call the missel-thrush, piped into the growing night. What a joyous
song his was. He had sung on and off, since January, and his voice
was almost the loudest and clearest of all the feathered songsters.
No cold could daunt him, but soon he would be silent, for the
storm-cock sings little after May.
The world, where not spoilt by smoke and man, was very fair and full
of wonderful things. All was flowering and growing apace. As I stood
in the ruined church, love and joy seemed to be borne upon the soft
winds as they fanned my face and played amongst the tender leaves. I
sat down by the ancient lavabo and looked at the ruined church. How
much the walls might tell me if they could but speak. What stories of
stately processions, for kings and queens were often the guests of
the Prior of Wenlock. Henry I., Henry III., and his queen Eleanor
came, if tradition says true, Charles Stuart, when fate fought
against him, and Impetuous Rupert, at least to Wenlock. Then the
story runs that Arthur and his Spanish bride passed through Wenlock
on their way to Ludlow. And as I sat there and mused, I thought of
all the great ones who had passed through and spent days, happy or
otherwise, at Wenlock--the world's delight and wonder, they were all
gone, and the Abbey too, which was once the pride of Catholicism in
Shropshire, the meeting-place of devout pilgrims, the resort of
royalty, that too had gone. Its walls have served to build cottages.
Its splendour is a thing of the past, and the owl and the wild birds
fly where once abbot and friar paced in solemn devotion.
[Illustration:
_Photo by Mr. W. Golling._
THE LAVABO.]
In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the church was used as a
quarry, the old folks have often said. "No need to dig out stone,"
one old wheezy man told me; "when cottages was run up, us used to
know where to go, for pigsties, or even a patch on the road. Have in
a cart, and down went a bit of the Abbey. It was mighty handy, a deal
better than blasting the rock as they do now to rear a wall."
"King Collins," as the old people used to call Sir Watkin's agent,
who lived in the red-brick house which is now the Vicarage, carted
away whatever he had a mind to. "What he set his heart on that he
took," another old man said, "and put it afore his own door."
[Sidenote: A HANDFUL OF EARTH]
I thought of all the changes that Wenlock had seen, beginning with
the foundation of the Saxon nunnery. Then later of Roger de
Montgomery's Clugniac monks--the fame of the great Abbey, the
Dissolution, poor John Cressage, its last Prior, the Civil Wars, and
the breaking up of the Abbey fabric through the nineteenth century.
Life often seems to go so slowly, and yet how many changes
Wenlock--and for that matter, every yard of English soil--has seen,
since the dawn of English history, up to this twentieth century.
Here we were in the year 1904, I mused, and this little plot of
ground on which I sat had seen a Saxon saint go by. It had been
traversed by Roger de Montgomery, Cromwell's soldiers had fired
across it with cannon, and all the while, sun and rain had had their
turns, and soft spring showers had rejoiced daisy and lady's-slipper.
Deep winter snows had enshrined tomb and arch, and all the natural
changes of season and climate had occurred, and will recur to the end
of time. Ah, there are many thoughts to ponder over merely in a
handful of British earth!
As I sat on, lost in thought, my great hound's head resting at my
feet, the silence was broken by the sound of the old church clock. It
struck eleven. I touched the grass at my feet: it was wet with dew.
From behind me as I rose came strongly in a soft breeze all the
perfumes of the sweet things then in flower, and as I passed out of
the cloisters my last vision was the mead of narcissi nodding softly
in the night wind.
Mouse and I turned back out of the lily gate, and so into the
quadrangle. Light flashed from the hanging lamps in the ambulatory,
and I heard in the distance the refrain of an old Brittany song, that
Auguste was singing in his kitchen. Half an hour later not a sound,
and the lights were put out, and all was still. Only the scents of
the honeysuckle and the budding lilac reached me from my open
casement, and the cry of the corncrake, which seemed mysteriously to
record the passing of the hours and the passing of all things--Kings,
Queens, Abbots, Kingdoms and Commonwealths. So musing I fell asleep.
Several weeks later I rose "betimes," as they say here, and whilst
the dew was lying like a mantle of diamonds on the glistening turf. I
stepped off to the old red-walled garden and visited the beds of
tulips.
My late tulips were all out in a blaze of beauty--rose, red, white,
yellow, and gold, whilst some were splashed with sombre purple. On
the walls, the creepers were all clad in green, and the honeysuckles
cast their perfume in all the corners of the garden. But I did not
stop to linger; a wild spirit was on me, and I made my way across the
golden meadows, past the fern-clad hill, and beyond what folks call
here the paddock. I walked on, faithful Mouse following closely,
until I reached the bottom of the hill on which the hamlet of Wyke is
built, and then I turned to the north, and retraced my steps by
Farley Dingle.
What an enchantingly beautiful thing the dew on the opening flowers
of the dog-rose is, and how delicate are the red shades of the
opening fronds of the bracken. Then I saw other treasures, none of
which were more lovely than some pink cheeked oak-apples, encircled
in the golden tassels of the oak blossom.
Why does one not get up every morning? I said to myself. Why miss
daily the enchantments of morning? The dew, the scents, and the
sunshine were all delicious.
I returned through the little town. Life was just beginning. Shops
were opening. A few people drove past in noisy carts. Mothers were
preparing their children to go to school. Men were going to work
after their breakfasts, to the near fields, or in the shops; whilst
whelp, and hound, and pup, were all gaily frolicking in the streets.
[Sidenote: THE ROYAL OAK]
I saw little friends go by. They laughed and bowed to me. Nearly all
the little lads had got, I noticed, a sprig of oak leaves in their
cap, for it was the 29th of May, Royal Oak Apple Day, as the folks
call it; and some of them as they passed called out--
"Royal Oak
I Whig provoke,"
and pointed to the badge in their caps.
Shropshire is the land of loyalty, and people still cherish there the
memory of the hiding of the King at Boscobel.
The 29th of May is the anniversary of Charles II.'s Restoration, and
the custom since then of wearing oak leaves on that day still lingers
on in many counties.
I read once a terrible story of two soldiers in George I.'s time who
were nearly flogged to death in 1716 for putting oak sprigs in their
hats.
The Royal Oak, wrote Stukeley, "stood a bow shot from the house (of
Boscobel). Into this tree, Colonel Carlos and the King climbed by the
aid of a hen-roost ladder. Members of the family fed them by
fastening the victuals to a nut hook. The tree is now enclosed with a
brick wall in the inside of which are placed laurels. Close to the
oak is a thriving plant reared from one of its acorns."
The story runs that the King, in gratitude, collected some acorns at
a later date from the oak which had afforded him a shelter, had them
planted in St. James's Park, and watered them with his own hands.
Are they still growing? I have often asked myself; or have they
perished like the Stuart line and cause? Be this as it may, the
custom of wearing the oak is still dear to Shropshire lads, and at
Wenlock any lad "who will not mount the green" is considered fair
game for other little lads to pummel and cuff.
As I walked down Sheinton Street I noticed that three little boys
came out of a house together. Suddenly a little lad passed them
without the orthodox "tuft of green." With a wild whoop the little
lads gave chase. "Bash and bummel him," they called. "Have at 'un."
I hardly think they knew what they were making this onslaught on a
comrade for, but they would have vaguely told you, if they could,
that it was not what Etonians would call "good form" to appear at
Wenlock on the 29th of May without a "badge of green."
I stood and watched the chase. My little Roundhead was not caught. He
dodged his pursuers adroitly, and in the midst of the hunt the
school-bell sounded, so for a moment an armistice was declared.
Before I went in I visited my beds of anemone and ranunculi. What is
there of such enchanting brilliancy as the exquisite scarlet anemone,
the well-known wind flower of the Pyrenees, as I have heard it
called, with its dazzling scarlet blossoms? But my few clumps were
over. This lovely variety I have never known "a free grower," as
gardeners call it, in the North, but in Sussex and Hampshire it is
said to do well. The roots that I had out then were the exquisite
double sorts, and some of the large flowering single varieties.
Amongst my most beautiful named sorts I saw by the labels were--Rose
de Nice, a delicate satiny rose, Snowball, and Rose Mignon, which
last is of a splendid deep shade of pink. There were also Chapeau de
Cardinal, Fire King, and la Dame Blanche. How lovely they all were,
and how vividly they brought back to me the florists' shops at Nice,
Cannes, and Mentone. How well I remembered the big bunches in all
colours in their picturesque green jars of native pottery. But more
beautiful still was the recollection of the sheets of anemones as I
saw them in Sir Thomas Hanbury's beautiful garden of La Mortola. They
were principally single, and raised from seed by his gardener, I was
told. What a glory of colour they made with the cypress trees, ilexes
and orange groves as a background, mingling with daffodils and
cyclamen, whilst the air was laden with the scent of orange and
lemon-blossom.
I recalled the glory of these lovely visions. Even here in England a
few patches seemed to add greatly to the beauty and joy of a garden.
Then I stopped and picked a few sprays to copy in my curtain. Whilst
thus engaged, I was conscious that some one was approaching me. I
looked up, and saw my little girl's governess, Miss Weldon. By her
troubled face I knew that she had unpleasant news to communicate; in
fact, I was sure the unpleasant rock of Worry was ahead.
[Sidenote: BESS NAUGHTY]
I listened, and Bess's delinquencies were poured forth into my
unwilling ears. My little maid, it appeared, had bitten the nursery
maid, slapped her nurse, and had ended in a fit of rage by throwing
her lesson-books in her governess' face. She had flatly refused to do
any lessons to-day. In fact, I was told, she had declined "to study"
ever since the excitement of the recitals for the May dance; and Miss
Weldon declared that she did not approve of public performances, and
pursed up her lips severely.
I did not wait to hear any more for, to quote Burbidge, "the less of
a disagreeable you mind, the better for your supper," but I went
straight into the house. I went up the old newel stairs and found
Bess on the floor of the nursery. The whole room resounded with her
angry cries. "Horrid slug, stupid snail," and other words of
opprobrium I heard in quick reiteration. She kicked, screamed, and
vowed she hated everybody and everything, with a furious, scarlet
face. Even old Nana did not escape her abuse. There was nothing to be
done but to put Bess to bed, and tell her that there she must remain
till I could forgive her, and let her get up again.
"I hate you, mother!" she cried in a shower of tears. "When I'm rich
I'll buy a new mother." And as I closed the door an angry little
voice called out, "I'd sell you all for sixpence; you're all horrid,
horrid!"
I tried to seek peace with my crewels and my needle, and bethought
myself of the bunch of anemones which in haste I had thrown upon a
table in the chapel hall. But peace that day might not be mine. War,
black war, seemed to have set in in all parts of my demesne.
Célestine bounced in like a whirlwind of discord and fury.
[Sidenote: VOICES OF DISCORD]
"Cette odieuse femme! Cet animal empesté!" by which civil terms she
alluded to the old housekeeper, who had done something unpardonable;
"mais j'aurai ma place quand même." Then followed a string of
incoherent abuse. A second afterwards, Mrs. Langdale appeared, took
up the tale, and vindicated her honour and position. The two women
glared at each other like wild cats, and set to work to abuse each
other roundly, each in her own mother tongue. Célestine spoke in high
southern French, breathless, scarlet, her eyes burning like live
coals, whilst Mrs. Langdale screamed shrilly in angry Shropshire
tones. Our old housekeeper does not generally speak in her native
dialect, but in moments of excitement she takes to it as to her
native element. Her voice ran up like the women's of the west, and
she trembled with fury as she called forth judgments on foreigners,
"furies, and such like good-for-nothing losellers and vagrants."
So great was their indignation and so near did they approach each
other in passion, that I feared they must come to blows; but at last
they vanished, vowing vengeance, and filling the monks' passage with
cries of discord. The _causa belli_ was difficult to discover, but
there seemed to have been a disagreement over a towel, a bit of soap,
and some key of a cupboard. Anyway, what was wanting in wit, was
fully made up by wrath.
How eloquent, at least how voluble, two furious women of the lower
classes can be, like Shakespeare's women, in their flights of rage.
With us the power of vituperation is a power of the past. We control
ourselves and our anger smoulders in our hearts, but rarely flies
forth in a whirlwind of words.
At last I was left with Mouse, and alone we sat on, hoping only for
peace. How good life would be without its worries and its quarrels.
Mouse and I looked at each other. "My dog," I said, "you have one
great merit: you cannot speak."