United States or Oman ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
But I have heard of things in Taunton, and even nearer to you in Dulverton, and even nigher still upon Exmoor; things which are of the pillory kind, and even more of the gallows. I see that you know naught of them. Nevertheless, it will not be long before all England hears of them.
Its quaintness is quite unpicturesque, and it is generally unworthy of its situation. It is, however, deservedly beloved of the angler and the huntsman. It possesses one of the best trout streams in the W. of England, and its proximity to Exmoor, the haunt of the red deer, makes it an excellent centre for the chase. But the rod and the hounds are merely adventitious attractions to Dulverton.
Well, it may be six months ago, or it may be seven, at any rate a good while before that cursed frost began, the mere name of which sends a shiver down every bone of my body, when I was riding one afternoon from Dulverton to Watchett' 'Dulverton to Watchett! I cried. 'Now what does that remind me of? I am sure, I remember something
And truly, the Dulverton people said that he was the richest man in their town, and could buy up half the county armigers; 'ay, and if it came to that, they would like to see any man, at Bampton, or at Wivelscombe, and you might say almost Taunton, who could put down golden Jacobus and Carolus against him. Nearly half of their charge was for Uncle Reuben, and he knew how to make the most of it.
After a while I knocked again, for my horse was becoming hungry; and a good while after that again, a voice came through the key-hole, "Who is that wishes to enter?" "The boy who was at the pump," said I, "when the carriage broke down at Dulverton. The boy that lives at oh ah; and some day you would come seek for him." "Oh, yes, I remember certainly. My leetle boy, with the fair white skin.
But the Quantock hills are very lovely, with their rich valleys lying close among them, and their outlying moorlands running off towards Dulverton and the borders of Devonshire moorlands which are not flat, like Salisbury Plain, but are broken into ravines and deep watercourses and rugged dells hither and thither; where old oaks are standing, in which life seems to have dwindled down to the last spark; but the last spark is still there, and the old oaks give forth their scanty leaves from year to year.
And having left Squire Faggus and Annie much sooner than had been intended, I had plenty of time before me, and too much, ere a prospect of dinner. Therefore I struck to the right, across the hills, for Dulverton. Pretty Ruth was in the main street of the town, with a basket in her hand, going home from the market. 'Why, Cousin Ruth, you are grown, I exclaimed; 'I do believe you are, Ruth.
But the roads were soft and very deep, and the sloughs were out in places; and the heavy coach broke down in the axle, and needed mending at Dulverton; and so they lost three hours or more, and would have been wiser to sleep there. But her ladyship would not hear of it; she must be home that night, she said, and her husband would be waiting.
Whether they believed the folly about the black box, and all that stuff, is not for me to say; only one thing I know, they pretended to do so, and persuaded the ignorant rustics. Taunton, Bridgwater, Minehead, and Dulverton took the lead of the other towns in utterance of their discontent, and threats of what they meant to do if ever a Papist dared to climb the Protestant throne of England.
The rights of the invention were to be acquired for a matter of eighteen hundred francs, and the apparatus for a few thousand more. The Duchess of Dulverton was rich, as the world counted wealth; she nursed the hope, of being one day rich at her own computation.
Word Of The Day