I often walk along the
grassy flood-bank for a mile or two, to the tiny decayed village of
Mepal, with a little ancient church, where an old courtier lies, an
Englishman, but with property near Lisbon, who was a gentleman-in-
waiting to James II. in his French exile, retired invalided, and
spent the rest of his days "between Portugal and Byall Fen"--an odd
pair of localities to be so conjoined!
And what of the life that it is possible to live in my sequestered
grange? I suppose there is not a quieter region in the whole of
England. There are but two or three squires and a few clergy in the
Isle, but the villages are large and prosperous; the people
eminently friendly, shrewd and independent, with homely names for
the most part, but with a sprinkling both of Saxon appellations,
like Cutlack, which is Guthlac a little changed, and Norman names,
like Camps, inherited perhaps from some invalided soldier who made
his home there after the great fight. There is but little
communication with the outer world; on market-days a few trains
dawdle along the valley from Ely to St.
Pages:
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28