Edgbaston

“ By combining their incomes, and by taking a house in the quiet country district of Tamfield, some fourteen miles from the great Midland city, they were still able to live with some approach to comfort. The change, however, was a bitter one to all—to Robert, who had to forego the luxuries dear to his artistic temperament, and to think of turning what had been merely an overruling hobby into a means of earning a living; and even more to Laura, who winced before the pity of her old friends, and found the lanes and fields of Tamfield intolerably dull after the life and bustle of Edgbaston. ”

“ In 1856 he resigned his charge at Worcester, in consequence of failing health, and retired to Edgbaston, Birmingham, so as to be near his friend, the Rev. John Angell James [q. v.] He died at his residence in Monument Lane, Edgbaston, on 20 May 1860. He was married and left issue. ”

“ Edgbaston is however becoming partly surrounded by manufacturing districts, specially to the S.W. where the growing districts of Selly Oak and Bourneville, with their ever-increasing factories, interpose between it and the country proper. On the E. side of the city the transition from town to country is well defined, but to the N.W. the exit from Birmingham conducts from one populous district to another. On that side Birmingham has joined hands with the Black Country, nearly the whole of the road to Dudley, 10 miles distant, having the character of a street. ”

“ With ladies on the School Board, lady Guardians, lady doctors, a special Women's Property Protection Act, &c., &c., it can hardly be said that our lady friends are much curtailed of their liberty. We know there are Ladies' Refreshment Rooms, Ladies' Restaurants, and Ladies' Associations for Useful Work and a good many other things, but we doubt if the dear creatures of to-day would ever dream of having such an institution as Ladies' Card Club, like that of their Edgbaston predecessors of a century back. ”

“ Some have fixed stations, while others take about with them portable apparatus which they can erect and get into working order in a wonderfully short time. Several troops in various parts of the country brought their apparatus to Birmingham, and stations were erected at Bingley Hall, at the Edgbaston Reservoir two miles away; at Perry Hall Park which is about four miles from the Hall, and at various other places in the neighbourhood. These were all in touch with one another and messages and orders were sent between these places by the Scout operators. ”

“ Edwy yawned as he replied, “Thank God it is over; I thought Odo was going to preach to me all day, and the incense almost stifled me; the one good thing is that it is done now, and all England—Kent, Sussex, Wessex, Essex, Northumbria, East Anglia, and Mercia —have all acknowledged me as their liege lord, the Basileus of Britain. What is done can’t be undone, and Dunstan may eat his leek now, and go to fight Satan again.” ”

“ I care not, Egwina, that he be king; but that he is wise, and tender, and so good. When he speaks, his words are unlying always, and men know that his word requires no oath to bind him. My heart bounds with pride when they call him ‘The Truth Teller.’ There have been many kings before him, but none so great as my father.”
“I wonder not at thy love,” said the gleemaiden. “Well doth he merit it. And Ethelfleda, as thou dost feel, so do all his people. Pride in his wisdom, and love for his tenderness, even to the beggar that hath left us. ”

“ But Alfred turned a deaf ear to their pleadings, and Edward was forced to the inactivity of a non-combatant. The forces left with high hopes. Listlessly the lad wandered about, unable to occupy himself. At last he sought Egwina’s side.
“I cannot content myself here,” he said, “while yonder the battle may rage. ’Tis custom for women and maidens to follow from afar, why not for youths also? Wilt thou go with me, Egwina, to watch the issue of the fray?”
“Gladly, Edward,” answered Egwina rising, “if thou wilt promise that thou wilt not rush into it.” ”

“ Gabbitt, and the young lady began to be seriously charmed with her false lord. This was carrying the jest farther, than Lady Geraldine had intended or foreseen; and her good-nature would probably have disposed her immediately to dissolve the enchantment, had she not been provoked by the interference of Lord Kilrush, and the affected sensibility of Miss Clementina Ormsby, who, to give me an exalted opinion of her delicacy, expostulated incessantly in favour of the deluded fair one. “But, my dear Lady Geraldine, I do assure you, it really hurts my feelings. ”

“ Again; by his third wife, named Edgiva, he had two sons, Edmund and Edred, each of whom reigned after Athelstan: two daughters, Eadburga, and Edgiva; Eadburga, a virgin, dedicated to Christ, lies buried at Winchester; Edgiva, a lady of incomparable beauty, was united, by her brother Athelstan, to Lewis, prince of Aquitaine. [5] Edward had brought up his daughters in such wise, that in childhood they gave their whole attention to literature, and afterwards employed themselves in the labours of the distaff and the needle, that thus they might chastely pass their virgin age. ”

“ Edwy, King of England, and Elgiva, his queen, gave a great feast at their royal palace in London, a month after the events recorded in our last chapter; and a numerous company had assembled to do honour to their hospitality. Yet the company was very different from that which had assembled round the same hospitable board in the days of King Edred. First, the Churchmen were conspicuous by their absence; and secondly, all the old grey-headed counsellors, who had been the pride and ornament of the reigns of Edmund and Edred, were not seen ”

“ In the first year of King Edmund the lady Edith presented her lord with his first-born son, to whom in baptism they gave the name Elfric, and a year later Alfred was born, and named after the great king. One daughter, named Edgitha, completed the fruits of their happy union, and in their simple fashion they strove to train their children in the fear of the Lord. ”

“ When Edwy heard of her death, he ceased to struggle for his right; he cared for nothing more. He grew paler and thinner day by day, his beauty faded, his thoughts turned heavenward, and he aspired to a better crown and kingdom. He died of a broken heart before he reached the age of twenty, having aimed for three years to govern well.
Edwy’s short reign was followed by that of his brother Edgar, who succeeded to the Anglo-Saxon throne in the year 959, and was an unprincipled and dissolute king. ”

“ He'll murder you if you encourage him any further. Get rid of him, Agatha, I implore you, before he does any mischief."
"Oh no, it isn't that. It is only that he is in terrible distress about something."
At this moment Edwy rose to his feet, and, approaching her, began to gesticulate violently and make loud guttural sounds. In vain Agatha tried to understand him. Finally, as if dimly aware that his cries and gestures conveyed no meaning to her, the idiot seized her by both arms and turned her in the direction from which he had just come. ”

“ There was an undertone in his voice which gave the bitter laugh with which he tried to hide it an intensity that made Bulchester look at him anxiously.
"You don't mean that you admire her so much as that?" he asked. Edmonson laughed again.
"My admiration of any woman will not injure my digestion. I believe you know my ideas on that subject. But such a figure for the head of one's table, and such golden accompaniments to her presentablity—all mine, you know, or to be mine, and here this young lordship steps in between. Lordship; indeed! he thinks himself no less than a duke by his airs. ”

“ We live just the same kind of life that we used to do at Edgeworthstown, and though we move amongst numbers are not moved by them, but feel independent of them for our daily amusement. All the Phantasmas I had conjured up to frighten myself, vanished after I had been here a week, for I found that they were but phantoms of my imagination, as you very truly told me. We live very near the Downs, where we have almost every day charming walks, and all the children go bounding about over hill and dale along with us. ”

“ I trust to your honour and discretion to speak to him in such terms as not to implicate me, to commit my delicacy, or to derogate from my dignity. We shall see then whether he loves me as I desire to be loved. If he does, he will free me, at once, from all difficulty with my friends, for he will speak en prince—and not speak in vain; if he loves me not, I need not tell you, sir, that you are equally free. My friends shall be convinced that I will never be the bride of any other man.”
After the explanation with the Lady Christina, Count Albert lost no time ”

“ Jerkily he began to back his horse out of the spring-hole, back—back—back through the intricate, overgrown pathway of flapping leaves and sharp, scratchy twigs.
"I am very sorry, Miss Edgarton, to have forced my presence on you so!" he murmured ironically.
"Oh, it isn't just you!" said little Eve Edgarton quite frankly. "It's all Father's friends." Almost threateningly as she spoke she jerked up her own horse's drizzling mouth and rode right at Barton as if to force him back even faster through the great snarl of underbrush. "I hate clever people!" ”

“ Edred soon died, and left the kingdom to his little brother Edwy, a lad of fifteen, who soon married Elgiva, a young lady of good family, and took his wife's mother home to live with them. On the day of his coronation he had given a party, and the gentlemen, including Odo, Archbishop of Canterbury, and Dunstan, the monk, were still sitting over their wine, when Edwy slipped out to join the ladies. ”

“ How fine the night is! Dost thou remember how chill and drear was the awful night that the Northmen fell upon us at Chippenham? How fair thou didst look that night when, child though thou wert, thou didst stand up in the hall and sing. Fair thou wert, Egwina, but not so fair as now. Thou mindest me of a fawn with thy shyness and grace. Tell me, hast thou kept the charm I gave thee?”
“Yes, Edward.” Egwina drew the chain from under the folds of her tunic. “See! The amulet is as thou didst fasten it.” ”

“ This is unbearable.
“My lords and counsellors, have you not a word to say for me?”
“Alas!” said Athelwold, “it is all too true; but give up Elgiva now, and all will be well!”
“It will be at least the beginning of reformation,” said Odo.
“And the end, I suppose,” said Edwy, “will be that I shall shave my head like a monk, banquet sumptuously upon herbs and water, spend three-fourths of the day singing psalms through my nose, wear a hair shirt, look as starved as a weasel, and at last, after sundry combats with the devil, pinch his nose, and go off to heaven in all the odour of sanctity. ”

“ There was one only who knew what the message would probably be —Redwald; and he had kept the secret purposely from the king.
The doors opened, and an usher brought in a messenger who had only been allowed a moment to change a dusty dress, ere he broke into the presence of royalty.
“Speak,” said Edwy, as the messenger bowed before him, and kissed his hand.
“My lord and king—” and the messenger glanced at Elgiva.
“Let him speak, Edwy, my lord. Are we not one? What you can bear, your wife must bear also.” ”

“ The glory of Edba and of Hed is darkened, and our bodies, reverenced throughout the ages, shall crumble to dust, and be scattered through the world by every varying wind. A woman hath wrought great things for the Walled City. A woman shall pluck down even that which she hath set up. Speak, O my brothers! What price shall the stranger pay?”
Then a low, wrathful murmur filled that ancient Hall, to which I, still gloating over my treasure, my ruby without price, listened without fear. ”

“ We have little more to add to our tale; the remainder is matter of history. The real fate of the unhappy Elgiva is not known, for the legend which represents her as suffering a violent death at the hands of the partisans of Edgar or Odo rests upon no solid foundation, but is repugnant to actual facts of history. Let us hope that she found the only real consolation in that religion she had hitherto, unhappily, despised, but which may perhaps have come to her aid in adversity.
The unhappy Edwy sank from bad to worse. When Elgiva was gone he seemed to have nothing to live for ”

“ This could not be Elgiva, for she was not divorced till the rebellion was over; and even the sad tale that she was seized by the officers of Odo, and branded to disfigure her beauty, rests on no good authority. In spite of the reluctance with which men relinquish a touching tragedy, the calumny should be banished from the pages of historians; and it is painful to see it repeated, as if of undoubted authenticity, in a recent popular history for children by one of the greatest of modern novelists.
Edwy’s character has cost the writer much thought. ”

“ But if Colonel Baxter leaned toward the old fashions in his furnishing of a home, his methods in training a daughter were modern to an extreme. Auntie Gibbs declared it was without "rhyme or reason." "Letting a girl do as she pleases isn't bringing up at all. That child should have a strong hand to guide her. Every child should. And me, who could do it, ain't allowed no say-so."
"Well, Bet's all right, isn't she?" replied Uncle Nat to his wife's complaints. "She's a wise little thing and never goes far wrong." Uncle Nat had been gardener on the estate before Bet was born. ”

“ No volunteers joined the little army, although a royal proclamation had promised lands from the territories of the rebels to each successful combatant in the cause of Edwy and Elgiva.
The fear of the Church hung on all, the conviction that the law of both Church and State had been broken by the young king; the universal belief in the sanctity of Dunstan, and in the true patriotism of Odo whom they called “the good;” the thoughtless misgovernment since the wiser counsellors had dispersed—all these things weakened the hearts of the followers of Edwy. ”