Yonge, Charlotte Mary, 1823-1901 / 2008-07-17 00:00:00

EBOOK, CHANTRY HOUSE ***


Credit

Transcribed from the 1905 Macmillan and Co. edition by David Price,
email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk


CHANTRY HOUSE


CHAPTER I--A NURSERY PROSE

'And if it be the heart of man
Which our existence measures,
Far longer is our childhood's span
Than that of manly pleasures.
'For long each month and year is then,
Their thoughts and days extending,
But months and years pass swift with men
To time's last goal descending.'
ISAAC WILLIAMS.
The united force of the younger generation has been brought upon me
to record, with the aid of diaries and letters, the circumstances
connected with Chantry House and my two dear elder brothers. Once
this could not have been done without more pain than I could brook,
but the lapse of time heals wounds, brings compensations, and, when
the heart has ceased from aching and yearning, makes the memory of
what once filled it a treasure to be brought forward with joy and
thankfulness. Nor would it be well that some of those mentioned in
the coming narrative should be wholly forgotten, and their place
know them no more.
To explain all, I must go back to a time long before the morning
when my father astonished us all by exclaiming, 'Poor old James
Winslow! So Chantry House is came to us after all!' Previous to
that event I do not think we were aware of the existence of that
place, far less of its being a possible inheritance, for my parents
would never have permitted themselves or their family to be
unsettled by the notion of doubtful contingencies.
Read more


Parts: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20