Ashford

“ In this manner, after a weary and not altogether refreshing journey, the three jaded, tightly-packed heroes came to a standstill at the door of Mountjoy House, where, one after the other, they slid sadly from their perches, and addressed themselves to the satisfying of Mrs Ashford’s natural curiosity, only hoping the interview would not be protracted, and so defer for long the supper to which they all eagerly looked forward. ”

“ Ashford, in amazement; then, as it flashed on him that it was his part to give leave, he added,—‘I did not know I was such a dog in the manger. I thought all the parish walked naturally in the park. I don’t know what else it is good for. ”

“ There wasn’t a gentleman in England who’d be such a friend to the woman who trusted him as he would be to her.
When they arrived at Ashford, she demanded, with a sudden air of command, which became her, he thought, mightily, and tickled his already high good humour to positive hilarity, that she should be brought to a sitting-room and partake of the meal in privacy while the post-chaise was being got ready.
“And,” quoth she, “let it be champagne, Sir Jasper, since”—she gave him a wide, taunting smile—“’tis to be made worth my while.” ”

“ Ah, well, these poor mountain peasants were not their neighbors, they were people to be looked at, laughed at, sneered at, and passed by on the other side; but I—these people are my people and their sorrow moveth me.
XLIV. THE ASHFORD DEMESNE—LORD ARDILAUN—LOUGH CORRIB. The Ashford demesne affords walks or drives for miles. Everything that woods and waters, nature and art can do to make Ashford delightful has been done. I got a companion, a pretty girl, a permit from some official who lived in a cottage at Cong, and set out by way of the Pigeon Hole to see at least part of the place. ”

“ As soon as Charles Leicester had recovered from the first shock of his brother’s death he determined to entrust his wife and child to the care of General Grant, while he started for England to break the distressing intelligence to his father. Lord Ashford was now becoming an old man, and although the profligate career of his eldest son had caused him the deepest anxiety and regret, he still regarded him with much affection ”

“ And he opened the window in his pyjamas and said, 'Who's there?'
There was the scraping sound of boots on the doorstep, as somebody down there stepped back.
'Is this the way to Ashford?' said the voice of a man.
'Ashford's thirteen miles off,' said Oswald. 'You get on to the Dover road.'
'I don't want to get on the Dover road,' said the voice; 'I've had enough of Dover.'
A thrill ran through every heart. We all told each other so afterwards.
'Well,' said Dicky, 'Ashford's thirteen miles——'
'Anybody but you in the house?' [Pg 50]
'Say we've got men and dogs and guns,' whispered Dora. ”

“ The Governor smiled. "You talk as if Ella had a political salon and distributed lettres de cachet! I'm glad she approves of Ashford; but if you think my wife makes my appointments for me—" He broke off with a laugh at the superfluity of such a protest.
Mrs. Nimick reddened. "One never knows how you will take the simplest thing. What harm is there in my saying that Ella approves of Mr. Ashford? ”

“ To the south it is cut off by a perhaps greater barrier; between it and the sea, stands the impassable mystery of Romney Marsh. In such a situation, before the railways revolutionised travel in England, how could Ashford have had any importance? Even the old road westward from Dover into Britain, the Pilgrims' Way to Stonehenge or Winchester passed it by, leaving it in the Weald to follow the escarpment of the Downs north or west. No Roman road served it, and indeed it was but a small and isolated place till the Middle Age began to revive and recreate Europe. ”

“ In the vicinity there are several neat houses, which are chiefly inhabited by wealthy people, who have retired from Birmingham. A short distance from hence Mary Ashford was found drowned on the 27th May, 1817.
About the fifth mile stone, the eye is gratified on the left with an extensive view over the country, which continually varies for a considerable distance, until a most beautiful and picturesque landscape presents itself; a white house belonging to a mill and an extensive sheet of water being in front, Barr-beacon in the back ground, and the woods in Sutton park on the right. ”

“ What I gathered after a bold and narrow cross-examination was, that the man, who enjoyed his right senses, wanted an answer to this question: “Are you for Ashford, sir?” Considering that I look as much an Englishman as blue eyes, a fair complexion, and a yellow, or auburn, or red, or tawny (take your choice; they all mean one colour) mustache can make a man ”

“ The churchyard of Sutton Coldfield, Warwickshire, contains a gravestone bearing an inscription as follows:—
[Pg 138] As a warning to female virtue,
And a humble monument of female chastity,
This stone marks the grave of
Mary Ashford,
Who, in the 20th year of her age, having
Incautiously repaired to a scene of amusement,
Was brutally violated and murdered
On the 27th of May, 1817.
Lovely and chaste as the primrose pale,
Rifled of virgin sweetness by the gale,
Mary! the wretch who thee remorseless slew
Avenging wrath, who sleeps not, will pursue ”

“ Ashford is sixty-seven miles from London. The largest railway company in England, the terminus of which is not in London, is the North-Eastern; in mileage it ranks third, being only exceeded by the London and North-Western and the Great Western. Its locomotive shops are at York; those of the Caledonian Company are near Glasgow. The two railway companies of longest dimensions in Ireland, the Great Southern and Western and the Midland Great Western, have their workshops respectively at Inchicore and at Broadstone; both these places are suburbs of Dublin. ”

“ Those who are acquainted with the Old Inn at the entrance into Ashford will remember that the yard and stables are as conspicuous for size and commodiousness as the house, a black and white building, a little withdrawn from the street, is strikingly marked by the lack of those advantages. I believe that the huge concourse thither of cattle-drovers at the season of the great fairs is the cause of this; those persons lying close themselves but needing space for their beasts. ”

“ Occasionally you varied all this by fighting after school, at the end of Ashford Street, where the houses thinned out and a little sickly brook ran through a raw field. Then you and Eddie Parker or Tommy Nelligan or some other young “champeens” got together with a swarm of backers and hammered away at random till real blood flowed. You also got licked at home for fighting, licked with a black walnut ruler inlaid with stars made out of the original Charter Oak. Why history writers put that odious old tree into books you never could understand ”

“ I got out at Ashford, where I had to change. My destination was Appledore, and the connection on was crowded with people obviously bound, like myself, for the agricultural fête. It was a part of Kent to which I had never been, and when I got out at Appledore station I found I was in the flat Romney Marsh country which stretches inland from Dungeness. Houses are few and far between, except in the actual villages themselves—the whole stretch of land, of course, must once have been below sea-level—and the actual fête was being held in a large field on the outskirts of Appledore. ”

“ There is a beautiful valley not far from Kingsclere and Newbury, surrounded by lovely hills covered with woodland. In this valley in a quiet little village appropriately called Woodlands, formed about half a century ago out of the large parish of Kingsclere, there is a little hamlet named Ashford Hill, the modern church of St. Paul, Woodlands, pretty cottages with pleasant gardens, a village inn, and a dissenting chapel. The churchyard is full of graves, and a cemetery has been lately added. This pretty valley with its homes and church and chapel is a doomed valley. ”

“ The Ashfordians, though they looked shy upon us as a body, could, nevertheless, condescend to notice such of our young men as boasted a drop of noble blood, or were graced by the possession of some ancient name. ”

“ Through these pages one sees how travel broadened the young person's fund of experience, which in her favored case meant her fund of material, for unlike many writers, old enough to know better, little Miss Ashford was, by the virtue of a miraculous intuition, inspired to write, sometimes at least, of things that she actually knew about, rather than to deal exclusively with topics which other writers before her had professed to know about. ”

“ Miss Ashford's own preface, accompanying this volume, gives the chronological sequences of its contents. The first story of all, "A Short Story of Love and Marriage," she wrote when she was eight years old. "The True History of Leslie Woodcock" was written three years later, after "The Young Visiters" had been written. "Where Love Lies Deepest" trickled from the busy pen of the young person when she was twelve years old ”

“ I [x] am mindful of the distinction because of the reason I have just stated and because also in a way of speaking it qualifies me for some sort of literary kinship with Sir James M. Barrie.
Even so I do not aspire to the presumptuous hope that any one may say "Well, I see this man Cobb is doing for Miss Ashford's second book what Barrie did for her first one." I have no such ambition. A minnow always errs when he undertakes to swim in the company of a whale. If he tries to swim alongside he is unnoticed; if he swims in the wake he is swamped. ”

“ Winston, who moved to Kenelham "where only about two people were hung a year" is in my opinion worthy to be rated with the deathless and ever-to-be glorious Mr. Salteena. Miss Ashford says she was shocked when her brothers on hearing the trial scene read (pages 150, 151, 152) laughed at what she had conceived to be a tragic and dramatic passage in the action of her tale. Later, no doubt, she has come to realize how dangerous a thing it is for one to acquire, either intentfully or otherwise, the reputation of being a humorist ”

“ The sumshious room was packed with men of a noble nature dressed like the earl in satin knickerboccers etc and with ladies of every hue with long trains and jewels by the dozen. You could hardly moove in the gay throng. Dukes were as nought as there were a good lot of princes and Arch Dukes as it was a very superier levie indeed. The earl and Mr Salteena struggled through the crowd till they came to a platform draped with white velvit. Here on a golden chair was seated the prince of Wales in a lovely ermine cloak and a small but costly crown. ”

“ Next morning while imbibing his morning tea beneath his pink silken quilt Bernard decided he must marry Ethel with no more delay. I love the girl he said to himself and she must be mine but I somehow feel I can not propose in London it would not be seemly in the city of London. We must go for a day in the country and when surrounded by the gay twittering of the birds and the smell of the cows I will lay my suit at her feet and he waved his arm wildly at the gay thought. ”

“ They all went out by a private door and found themselves in a smaller but gorgous room. The Prince tapped on the table and instantly two menials in red tunics appeared. Bring three glasses of champaigne commanded the prince and some ices he added majestikally. The goods appeared as if by majic and the prince drew out a cigar case and passed it round.
One grows weary of Court Life he remarked.
Ah yes agreed the earl.
It upsets me said the prince lapping up his strawberry ice all I want is peace and quiut and a little fun and here I am tied down to this life he said taking off his crown being royal has many painfull drawbacks. ”

“ A half dozen, bare-headed and ragged Chinese were splashing out from shore toward the yacht, shouting as they advanced, their thin, naked arms waving, their distorted yellow faces gleaming in the vivid sunlight. ”

“ Bernard heaved a sigh and his eyes flashed as he beheld her and Ethel thorght to herself what a fine type of manhood he reprisented with his nice thin legs in pale broun trousers and well fitting spats and a red rose in his button hole and rarther a sporting cap which gave him a great air with its quaint check and little flaps to pull down if necesarry. Off they started the envy of all the waiters. ”

“ The skipper held unerringly to his course.
Countless palm-fringed islands, with their shining strips of white beach, began to spring up magically, like dark-blue clouds floating between turquoise sky and water. Flocks of sea gulls and pelicans, on the trail of fish schools, swarmed into view at intervals, filling the air with discordant cries. An occasional porpoise, its body glistening in the sun, disported playfully off the bows of the yacht. ”

“ Dawn came across the sky with all its splendor of rose and gold and pearl. The near-by shore became a fairyland of rainbow color that hovered mysteriously between sky and water. Myriad birds appeared on every side—screaming gulls, whistling snipe, and silent, grotesque pelicans. ”

“ Let us now bask under the spreading trees said Bernard in a passiunate tone.
Oh yes lets said Ethel and she opened her dainty parasole and sank down upon the long green grass. She closed her eyes but she was far from asleep. ”

“ Outside they parted and Johnson took the first train for Margate and whilst waiting at the station a telegram was brought to him by dirty old Nan.
Tearing it open he found it was from Mayfield saying Mr. Earlsdown was dying and he was wanted at once.
"Oh lor!" ejaculated the butler making a rush for the ticket office. Johnson did not arrive at Mayfield till 4.0 o'clock, then he instantly made his way to Mr. Earlsdown's bedroom.
All the servants in the household were standing round the bed and on it lay the unconscious figure of Mr. Earlsdown. ”