Bernard Capes

Name: At a Winter's Fire — William Tyrwhitt's "Copy"
Author: Bernard Capes

At a Winter's Fire — William Tyrwhitt's "Copy" (1899)

Summary

“At a Winter's Fire — William Tyrwhitt's "Copy"”, published in 1899, is a work by Bernard Capes. It explores elements such as William Tyrwhitt, King's Cobb and the High Street.

Quotes from At a Winter's Fire — William Tyrwhitt's "Copy" (Bernard Capes)

Bernard Capes, At a Winter's Fire — William Tyrwhitt's "Copy" (1899)

“ We took an irresponsible, smiling pleasure in noting these advantages—particularly after lunch; and sometimes, where an old house was empty, we would go over it, and stare at beams and chimney-pieces and hear the haunted tale of its fortunes, with a faint half-memory in our breasts of that one-time bugbear we had known as "copy." But though more than once a flaccid instinct would move us to have out our pencils, we would only end by bunging our foolish mouths with them, as if they were cigarettes, and then vaguely wondering at them for that, being pencils, they would not draw. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Bernard Capes, At a Winter's Fire — William Tyrwhitt's "Copy" (1899)

“ William Tyrwhitt came, and I met him at the station, six or seven miles away. He was all strained and springless, like a broken child's toy—"not like that William who, with lance in rest, shot through the lists in Fleet Street." A disputative galley-puller could have triumphed over him morally; a child physically.
The drive in the inn brake, by undulating roads and scented valleys, shamed his cheek to a little flush of self-assertion.
"I will sleep under the vines," he said, "and the grapes shall drop into my mouth."
"Beware," I answered, "lest in King's Cobb your repose should be everlasting. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Bernard Capes, At a Winter's Fire — William Tyrwhitt's "Copy" (1899)

“ We alighted at the crown of the High Street, purposing to descend on foot the remaining distance to the shore.
"Behold," I exclaimed, "how the gulls float in the shimmer, like ashes tossed aloft by the white draught of a fire! Behold these ancient buildings nodding to the everlasting lullaby of the bay waters! The cliffs are black with the heat apoplexy; the lobster is drawn scarlet to the surface. You shall be like an addled egg put into an incubator." ”

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Source: Wikisource

Bernard Capes, At a Winter's Fire — William Tyrwhitt's "Copy" (1899)

“ How did this come to me in a moment—or, rather, what was that dream buzzing in my brain of 'proof' and 'copy' and all the tame stagnation of a long delirium of order? I had nothing in common with the latter. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Bernard Capes, At a Winter's Fire — William Tyrwhitt's "Copy" (1899)

“ I said. "I am feeling creepy."
"Pooh!" said William Tyrwhitt; "I could take up my abode here with a feather bed."
We descended, nevertheless. Arrived at the ground floor, "I am going to the back," said William.
I followed him—a little reluctantly, I confess. Gloom and shadow had fallen upon the town, and this old deserted hulk of an abode was ghostly to a degree. There was no film of dust on its every shelf or sill that did not seem to me to bear the impress of some phantom finger feeling its way along. A glint of stealthy eyes would look from dark uncertain corners ”

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Source: Wikisource

Bernard Capes, At a Winter's Fire — William Tyrwhitt's "Copy" (1899)

“ To renew the past in such a fixture, to work oneself up to the old glow of flight and action, and then, while one stamped and rocked maniacally, to feel the refusal of so much as a timber to respond to one's fervour of animation! ”

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Source: Wikisource

Bernard Capes, At a Winter's Fire — William Tyrwhitt's "Copy" (1899)

“ Yet, for all its enervating atmosphere, King's Cobb has its fine traditions of a sturdy independence, and a slashing history withal; and its aspect is as picturesque as that of an opera bouffe fishing-harbour. Then, too, its High Street, as well as its meandering rivulets of low streets, is rich in buildings, venerable and antique. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Bernard Capes, At a Winter's Fire — William Tyrwhitt's "Copy" (1899)

“ You are very welcome to the run of my poor abode."
"Yours?" I murmured in confusion. "We owe you a thousand apologies."
"Not at all," he said, addressing all his courtesy to William. Me, since my rejection of his beaker, he took pains to ignore.
"Not at all," he said. "Your intrusion was quite natural under the circumstances. I take a pleasure in being your cicerone. This cabin (he waved his hand pompously) —a fancy of mine, sir, a fancy of mine. The actual material of the latest of my commands brought hither and adapted to the exigencies of shore life. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Bernard Capes, At a Winter's Fire — William Tyrwhitt's "Copy" (1899)

“ The strong, the helpless, the coarse and the beautiful—all you have killed and mutilated in your wanton devilry—they are on your heels like a pack of spectre-hounds, and sooner or later they will have you in their cold arms and hale you down to the secret places of terror. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Bernard Capes, At a Winter's Fire — William Tyrwhitt's "Copy" (1899)

“ It enables me to live eternally in the past—a most satisfying illusion. Come to-night and have a pipe and a glass with me."
I thought William Tyrwhitt mad.
"I will come, by all means," he said.
The stranger bowed us out of the room.
"That is right," he exclaimed. "You will find me here. Good-bye for the present."
As we plunged like dazed men into the street, now grown sunny, I turned on my friend.
"William," I said, "did you happen to look back as we left the cabin?" ”

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Source: Wikisource

Bernard Capes, At a Winter's Fire — William Tyrwhitt's "Copy" (1899)

“ And here, too, we came suddenly upon an eccentricity of out-building that wrought upon our souls with wonder. For, penetrating to the rear through what might have been a cloak-closet or butler's pantry, we found a supplementary wing, or rather tail of rooms, loosely knocked together, to proceed from the back, forming a sort of skilling to the main building. These rooms led direct into one another, and, consisting of little more than timber and plaster, were in a woeful state of dilapidation. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Bernard Capes, At a Winter's Fire — William Tyrwhitt's "Copy" (1899)

“ In some telepathic way—influenced by these past-dated surroundings—dropped into the very den of this Procrustes of the seas, I was there to re-enact the fearful scene that had found its climax in the brain of my ancestor.
"I rushed to the window, thence back to within a yard of the glowering buccaneer, before whom I stood, with tost arms, wild and menacing.
"'They follow you!' I screamed. 'Passive, relentless, and deadly, they follow in your wake and will not be denied. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Bernard Capes, At a Winter's Fire — William Tyrwhitt's "Copy" (1899)

“ I was for a few days, about the end of a particular July, lodged in that little old seaboard town of Dorset that is called King's Cobb. Thither there came to me one morning a letter from William Tyrwhitt, the polemical journalist (a queer fish, like the cuttle, with an ink-bag for the confusion of enemies) , complaining that he was fagged and used up, and desiring me to say that nowhere could complete rest be obtained as in King's Cobb. ”

Bernard Capes

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