Our VillageSketches of rural life. |
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1893 by Macmillan admiration Alderney amongst ANNE THACKERAY RITCHIE bank basket beautiful better bird blossoms blue bright called Charles Kemble charm colour comfort common coppice copse Copyright 1893 cottage cowslip-ball cowslips cuckoo Dash dear delicate delightful elms eyes fancy Farmer father feeling field flowers garden glowing green Hannah Bint happy Heading heart hedge hedgerows hill Jack Joe Kirby lady lamb lane leaves light live Lizzy Loddon river London look Mary Mitford Mary Russell Mitford master May's meadows Miss Mitford nature never nightingales oaks parish pheasant pleasant pleasure poor pretty primroses rich road rose round Saladin Sally says season seems Shaw Shaw common side smile spring summer Swallowfield sweet talk tall things Three Mile Cross to-day trees tufted turn village violets walk weather whilst wild wind woman wood writes young
Popular passages
Page 7 - Of all situations for a constant residence, that which appears to me most delightful is a little village far in the country ; a small neighbourhood, not of fine mansions finely peopled, but of cottages and cottage-like houses,
Page 140 - So many voluntaries, and so quick, That there was curiosity and cunning, Concord in discord, lines of differing method Meeting in one full centre of delight. The bird (ordain'd to be Music's first martyr) strove to imitate These several sounds : which when her warbling throat Fail'd in, for grief down dropt she on his lute And brake her heart.
Page 139 - I heard The sweetest and most ravishing contention That Art and Nature ever were at strife in. A sound of music touched mine ears, or rather Indeed entranced my soul. As I stole nearer, Invited by the melody...
Page 26 - ... of comfort and content; farther down, on the opposite side, the small white dwelling of the little mason ; then the limes and the ropewalk ; then the village street, peeping through the trees, whose clustering tops hide all but the chimneys, and various roofs of the houses, and here and there some angle of a wall: farther on, the elegant town of B , with its fine old churchtowers and spires...
Page xlii - Ye gentle birds, that perch aloof, And smooth your pinions on my roof, Preparing for departure hence Ere winter's angry threats commence ; Like you my soul would smooth her plume For longer flights beyond the tomb. " May God, by whom is seen and heard Departing man and wandering bird, In mercy mark us for His own And guide us to the land unknown ! " Thoughts soothing and tender came with those touching lines, and gayer images followed.
Page 14 - This should have been its destiny ; but fate has been unpropitious : it belongs to a plump, merry, bustling dame, with four fat, rosy, noisy children, the very essence of vulgarity and plenty. Then comes the village shop, like other village shops, multifarious as a bazaar ; a repository for bread, shoes, tea, cheese, tape, ribands, and bacon ; for everything, in short, except the one particular thing which you happen to want at the moment, and will be sure not to find.
Page 236 - Dwells the wood-sorrel, with its bright thin leaves Heart-shaped and triply folded, and its root Creeping like beaded coral ; whilst around Flourish the copse's pride, anemones, With rays like golden studs on ivory laid Most delicate ; but touch'd with purple clouds, Fit crown for April's fair but changeful brow.
Page 135 - When daisies pied and violets blue And lady-smocks all silver-white And cuckoo-buds of yellow hue Do paint the meadows with delight...
Page 139 - Whom art had never taught clefs, moods, or notes, Should vie with him for mastery, whose study Had busied many hours to perfect practice : To end the controversy, in a rapture Upon his instrument he plays so swiftly, So many voluntaries, and so quick, That there was curiosity and cunning, Concord in discord, lines of differing...
Page 139 - As I stole nearer, Invited by the melody, I saw This youth, this fair-faced youth, upon his lute, With strains of strange variety and harmony, Proclaiming as it seem'd, so bold a challenge To the clear choristers of the woods, the birds, That, as they flock'd about him, all stood silent, Wondering at what they heard.