By Amy Walton
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This is another story by Amy Walton about life in the English
countryside towards the end of the nineteenth century. It is a
sequel to "The Hawthorns", except that, for some reason, the
name has become "Hawthorne".
On the whole the principal dramatis personae, the Hawthorne
household, are unchanged. The additions are Miss Barnicroft, an
eccentric old lady from the village; Kettles, an impoverished
child from Nearminster, the cathedral city close by; Dr Budge,
a learned old man in the village, who takes on the grounding of
one of the boys in Latin; Mrs Margetts, who had spent her life
in the Hawthorne family's employment as a children's nurse; the
Dean of the Cathedral and his family, particularly Sabine, who
is the same age as Pennie; and Dr Budge's pet Jackdaw.
There is no reason why a child of today should not read this
story and profit by it. They will perhaps be surprised to find
how much more civilised life was a hundred years ago and more,
than it is today. NH
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