Christmas Eve at Somersby, and possibly at the end of the year 1833. If
so, throughout the year he had been at ease, until the blow came--he had
"slept and woke with pain," and then he almost wished he might never more
hear the Christmas bells.
But a calmer spirit seems to come over him: as he listens to the Christmas
peals rung at four neighbouring[23] churches, and the sound soothes him
with tender associations:
"But they my troubled spirit rule,
For they controll'd me when a boy;
They bring me sorrow touch'd with joy,
The merry, merry bells of Yule."
Yule is Christmas, a jubilee which brings glad tidings of great joy to all
people.