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    248 a woman's p ei\ t >

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  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

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    40o The Chester And Hereford Railway Pas...

    varied pleasure . _Presently a turning in the road brings the bridge in sightand the sound of water gurgling roughly amidst a stony

    , bed is very audible . Once upon the bridge , a very ancient and massive fabric of red sandstone , the stranger stays , and leaning on

    a low weather-beaten buttress , which is covered by a thick garniture of greenest ivyhe surveys the river up and down . Now as

    , it winds round little islands of shining gravel or sedgy weeds , now as it lies in deep and quiet pools within the shadows of very olden

    trees , now . where it glides gently across pebbly shallows , now where it surges wildly amidst the boulder stones of ancient

    rocks , till in either distance it is lost to view amidst the greenness of sunny meadows and the shadows of bosky woodland . It is a

    very lovely scene . One painted by a Higher Master than mortal man .

    As he moves on and sees that the road before him becomes presently a village street of scattered houses , he is attracted by the

    size and beauty of an old-fashioned garden , which stretches to the left of the river side he is approaching . A cottage facing the road ,

    and near it , stands in the garden , and when the stranger has crossed the bridge and reached the gate of entrancehe sees a little fore

    , court , paved with small pebbles , lying still and cool in the sweet shadows of the afternoon . It is daintily clean and trim , pots of

    plants in luxuriant bloom stand about . The door is open , and the shining casements are green with plants within , without with

    jasmine and other shrubs . Looking nearer he sees that the door opens into a small room used as a shop , for there is some semblance

    of a counter , and in the windows such things as packets of writing paper , bottles of ink , pens , cotton , and needles , with one or two

    small canisters of tea . It is in fact a little country shop of a superior kind , the packets of paper , pens , and all else seem excellent

    in their way , and they are prettily set amidst the bloom of geraniumsthe pendant bells of fuschia and campanula . But what

    attracts , him most is a little girl seated on a stool beside the door . She is , as it seems , between eight and nine years' old , and she is

    learning some lesson out of a school-book lying in her lap . It is a lesson bher going over and over it again very earnestlyso that

    not lifting y her eyes she does not see the looker-on , though the , sleek cat tucked up on the door step beside her , watches him attentively

    with pricked up ears . Just at this moment a clock within the house strikes , and some

    one opening a door , says gently" Dearyput by your book now , and come and set the tea-things ;

    Auntie will , want her tea . " She hears and obeys at once . For rising , leaving her book on

    the stool , she casts one glance at the stranger and then goes in , the cat following her with meek docility . She is by no means what

    might be called a handsome child , but her face wears an expression

    of gentleness and great sensibility , and her very large blue eyes , as

    248 A Woman's P Ei\ T >

    248 a woman ' s p ei \ >

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), June 1, 1858, page 248, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01061858/page/32/