Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1906 edition. Excerpt: ... chapter I little church was very full that evening. A People came from a long distance to attend the services which were held in Curayl old church on alternate Sundays during the summer months. This, partly because the walk was pleasant, and partly because it was only a few times in the year that service was held in the old church now that both pastor and flock had been gone southwards to Gainsford some hundred years or more. The high pews were all full that night, and chairs had even been placed in the narrow aisle--a somewhat uncomfortable arrangement, for the chairs were a heterogeneous collection, and the nagged floor was very uneven. The bell stopped; even the latest comer had found a place. The harmonium, all the music the place afforded now, sounded wheezily, only half drowning the rustle and movement of the congregation. The sunlight still streamed in through the lower windows on the rough stonework of the walls and the Gothic arches, but the east end was already dim, and the dusty old banners, relics of t e family of Curayl, looked like great flapping bats away in the roof..3 Mr. Clifford, the temporary rector of Ashly, was late. He was a stranger, and only had the parish of Ashly during a month's holiday; he had nothing at all to do with Gainsford, it was solely to oblige the rector of that place that he had undertaken to preach at Curayl. The old church was a long way from everywhere--far from Gainsford, to which parish it now belonged, but farther still from Ashly. It is possible that Mr. Clifford, not knowing the place, did not realize the distance he had to go and so set out late. On this account perhaps his lateness was excusable, but it was none the less surprising, for it was said he was a High Churchman, and so..."