Parsons

“ A sonnet of Wordsworth is a difficult thing to illustrate, but Mr. Parsons’ ripe taste has shown him the way. Then there are lovely morsels from his hand associated with the drawings of his friend Mr. Abbey—head-pieces, tailpieces, vignettes, charming combinations of flower and foliage, decorative clusters of all sorts of pleasant rural emblems. If he has an inexhaustible feeling for the country in general, his love of the myriad English flowers is perhaps the fondest part of it. ”

“ Mrs. Parsons paused in indecision; then with an air of perfect candor addressed the impatient inspector.
“Of course you will respect my confidence,” she began. Mitchell nodded. “There is a certain man in Washington who has gained a welcome in the most exclusive homes,” she paused. “I believe him to be an adventurer.”
“Come, Mrs. Parsons, that is not being very explicit,” remonstrated Mitchell. “To whom are you alluding?”
“A man calling himself Edward Rodgers.” ”

“ Parsons is our head-porter, and perhaps he is the sublimest of them all. Freshmen raise their squares to him, and Oriental students can rarely bring themselves to enter the porter's lodge during their first term without previously removing their shoes. Few except fourth-year men have the temerity to address him as "Parsons" to his face; it seems such an awful thing to do, like keeping a chapel in bedroom slippers or walking arm-in-arm with a Blue. ”

“ Kent. Parsons, who originated, took good care to countenance these reports; and, in answer to numerous inquiries, said his house was every night, and had been for two years—in fact ever since the death of Fanny, troubled by a loud knocking at the doors and in the walls. Having thus prepared the ignorant and credulous neighbours to believe or exaggerate for themselves what he had told them, he sent for a gentleman of a higher class in life, to come and witness these extraordinary occurrences. ”

“ Mrs. Parsons’ surprise at the question was manifest. “You know he is not one of my favorites. He bored me to death in San Francisco; he is so intense—” she shrugged her shoulders. “I saw his wife this morning.” ”

“ The steward, Parsons, was there. Marjorie Garth pulled her sleeve down.
"Don't keep Daddy waiting!" she warned, and added: "You shall dress my arm afterwards!"
I said "Oh, rather!" or something equally idiotic and followed the steward out. As I passed the girl, she leant forward and whispered;
"Mind you stand up to him!"
As we crossed the blinding sunshine of the deck and went down a companion-way Parsons confided to me that the owner was at breakfast. My heart sank rather. It is poor tactics to ask a man for favours before noon. ”

“ Parsons around from her hysterical fright to a feeling of resentment.
“Pray, let us not have any trouble of the kind. We have had enough trouble to worry us. Let us proceed to learn whether we might not find a way [Pg 33] to gain proof against the men who have done this.”
“I quite agree with you, Mrs. Parsons. If there are such things as clues which will help us fasten this on the men who did it, let’s try to find the clues.” Frank was keeping his cool demeanor. ”

“ In the morning I lay on my bed reading the adventures of D'Artagnan and the rest, until Mr. Parsons was pleased to unlock my door and let me out of the bedroom, when I made no complaint of his conduct in turning the key. Having had breakfast, although every meal in that house was repulsive, and I felt as if the food would choke me, and almost wished it might, we set out as usual, and before we had gone far, Mr. Parsons stopped at a tobacconist's shop, and, giving me a half-crown, told me to buy a threepenny packet of cigarettes. ”

“ Parsons’ delicate beauty enhanced by a perfectly fitting modish gown, and Charles Craige, standing tall and straight beside her, his iron-grey hair and ruddy complexion adding distinction to his appearance.
“The world and his wife are here this afternoon, Cecilia,” he said. “Your tea is an unqualified success. And every one is lingering,” glancing down the room. “That is a sure sign that they are enjoying themselves.”
“Except Major Wallace.” Mrs. Parsons drew [Pg 37] his attention to a man worming his way between the groups of people. ”

“ Parsons should go first, in military attire, accompanied from the Low Countries by a good youth who passed as his man George; and that if Parsons got safely to Dover, he was to send for Campion and the faithful little soul Ralph Emerson. An English gentleman “living over seas for his conscience,” brought Fr. Parsons his fine disguise: nothing less than a Captain’s uniform of buff leather, with gold lace, big boots, sword, hat, plume, and all. Campion, when he had gone, sat down to write to the General of the Society about him, with his inevitably pictorial touch. ”

“ Mrs. Parsons picked up her scarf and rose. “Tell Anton that if any one calls this evening, I am at home.”
“Very good, Madam,” and James held back the portières for her as she left the room.
Mrs. Parsons did not return to the drawing room: instead she made her way to the “den” at the end of the hall, a pretty square room, which served as a lounge and library. Once there she paused by the telephone stand and laid her hand on the instrument. ”

“ To assist them in their labours a catholic association had been organised in England by George Gilbert, a young man of property, who had been converted by Father Parsons in Rome in 1579. At Rheims Dr. Goldwell was taken ill, and he was afterwards recalled by the pope. It was at this city that the rest of the party broke up, to find their way across to England by different routes. Campion, Parsons, and Emerson were to go by way of St. Omer, Calais, and Dover. Parsons crossed first, disguised as a captain returning from the Low Countries, and reached London without trouble. ”

“ Mrs. Parsons paused just in front of her. “Are you here alone—unchaperoned?”
“My cousin, Nina Potter, came last night to be with me—”
“Oh, I am relieved,” Mrs. Parsons purred out the words. “No one can afford to defy the conventions. If your cousin was not here, I would volunteer myself—”
“Thanks—excuse me, Mrs. Parsons—” The portières opened and closed behind her vanishing figure and Mrs. Parsons found herself alone in the library.
Raising her gold lorgnette Mrs. Parsons took a prolonged survey of the throne-shaped chair standing in its customary place behind the tea table. ”

“ These eight antique chairs, going at fifteen!—going! for the last time,—going!—gone! Sold to the gentleman in the corner behind the side-board, Theodore."
"They were certainly fine chairs, Mr. Grimes!" said Parsons shaking his head.
"So so!" said the Corn-chandler, sitting down heavily, "So so, Parsons!" and he turned to glare at Bellew, who, lying back in an easy chair with his legs upon another, puffed at his pipe, and regarded all things with a placid interest. ”

“ As a practitioner Parsons was careful and humane, and is described as ‘cheerful and decent in conversation.’ He was a flute-player and a good draughtsman. In 1769 Parsons prepared, on account of ill-health, to retire from his profession, and in June 1769 sold his books and fossils. He died at his house in Red Lion Square on 4 April 1770 (Gent. Mag. 1770, p. 190) , after a week's illness, in the sixty-sixth year of his age. ”

“ Parsons’ last word was actually strangled in his throat by the hangman’s noose. Seldom, if ever, have four men died more gamely and defiantly than the four who were strangled to-day.
When the word passed around, about 11 o’clock, that the final hour had indeed arrived, men’s faces grew pale and the hum of excitement passed through the crowd. They were quickly marshaled and marched down in a line to the gallows corridor. ”

“ PARSONS, Mrs. ELIZA (d. 1811) , novelist and dramatist, was the only daughter of a wine merchant of Plymouth named Phelp. At an early age she married Mr. Parsons, a turpentine merchant of Stonehouse, near Plymouth. In consequence of losses in business caused by the American war, Parsons moved to London, where, at a house near Bow Bridge, formerly known as the Bow China House, he built warehouses and workmen's dwellings, and for three years had every prospect of success. ”

“ I have heard a lot about him to-day; ran upon a man who was his head book-keeper and confidential man here in his heyday, and whom he robbed, as he has everybody else who has had anything to do with him. I was out looking up Parsons among the brokers’ offices. He has been a sort of fly-about these last years, into this, that, and every little pitiful scheme, to turn a dollar, and having a desk always in the office of the latest man he could interest in his projects, so he is about as hard to find as the proverbial needle in the hay-mow. ”

“ The first point is that this Handbook is not meant only for the extreme, still less is it meant to hound any parsons on to extravagances, or to provide a 'ritualistic' manifesto to swell the discordant noises which the newspapers are just now calling 'the crisis'. It would have been written, in the same way and at the same time, if the Philistine giant had never uplifted his head and shouted the warcry of persecution. The reason why The Parsons Handbook contains as much ceremonial as it does is because I have tried to make it suitable for all parsons. ”

“ Parsons lived for some time at Begbrooke, Frenchay, near Bristol. She was a deeply religious woman of decided views, and charitable to the poor. She was a great benefactor to the mission of Little Malvern. ”

“ Of all the men in Europe, Parsons was the man Burleigh, Walsingham, and Salisbury most feared. He died in 1610. A really impartial Life of Parsons, if possible, by a learned lawyer and politician, is a desideratum. In some of his political ideas this Jesuit was a progressive born prematurely — “a man before his time.” For he believed thoroughly in the sovereignty of the People, and in the desirableness of universal education. In this latter respect he resembled “that good lady, Mary Ward,” the daughter of Marmaduke Ward, and niece of Thomas Ward (ex hypothesi) . ”

“ Parsons, Robert, English Jesuit, born in Somersetshire, educated at Oxford and a Fellow of Balliol College; he became a convert to Roman Catholicism and entered the Society of Jesus in 1575; conceived the idea of reclaiming England from her Protestant apostasy, and embarked on the enterprise in 1580, but found it too hot for him, and had to escape to the Continent; after this he busied himself partly in intrigues to force England into submission and partly in organising seminaries abroad for English Roman Catholics, and became head of one at Rome, where he died ”

“ Parsons, telling him that she should be better able to reply in a little while; but Armine, knowing that he must not speak, and afraid of betraying the cause of his unhappiness and of the delay, was afraid to stir out of reach of the others lest Miss Parsons should begin an inquiry.
The Vicar of Woodside was, in fact, as some people mischievously called her, the Reverend Petronella Parsons. Whether she wrote her brother’s sermons was a disputed question. She certainly did other things in his name which she had better have let alone. ”

“ For many years Parsons lived in Red Lion Square, London, and was intimate with Folkes, Mead, Stukeley, and many fellows of the Royal and Antiquarian Societies. He was also a friend of Dr. Matthew Maty [q. v.] , who drew up an account of his writings on medicine and natural history, printed in Nichols's ‘Literary Anecdotes’ (v. 474) . He was elected F.R.S. on 7 May 1741, and was assistant foreign secretary of the society about 1750. He was also F.S.A., and a member of the Spalding Society and of the Society of Arts. ”

“ PARSONS (or Persons) , ROBERT (1546–1610) , English Jesuit and political agitator, son of a blacksmith, was born at Nether Stowey, Somerset, on the 24th of June 1546. The vicar of the parish gave him instruction and procured his entrance in 1563 as an exhibitioner to Balliol College, Oxford. ”

“ Parsons and Ben in love with each other; they are such opposite natures. But, dear,” turning troubled eyes toward him, “you say Mrs. Parsons and Leigh were good friends—there’s something I must tell you. Just vague suspicions,” she hesitated. “I cannot bear to be disloyal—to harbor suspicions against a man I have called my friend, but—” she took from her pocket a piece of mauve-colored paper—“I lunched with Leigh to-day at the Shoreham and our waiter slipped this paper into his hand. ”

“ Parsons, after they came North to a parish, only lived a short time to enjoy the comfort of an Eastern home. When the yellow fever raged so in the Mississippi Valley, in 1878, and volunteers [204] came forward with all the splendid generosity of this part of the world, Colonel Parsons did not wait a second call from his conscience to enter the fever-scourged Memphis, and there he ended a martyr life: not only ready to go because in his Master's service, but because the best of his life, and one for whom he continually sorrowed, awaited him beyond the confines of eternity. ”

“ Parsons is a brick, but she’s a serious brick, and it’s hard lines on the old Buddy to be taken seriously night and day. It needs a vast intellect to be vivacious with the insane, but it’s drefful interesting when you’ve learned the knack. ”

“ Parsons was Winston’s fellow-employee at the Ministry of Truth. He was a fattish but active man of paralysing stupidity, a mass of imbecile enthusiasms --one of those completelyunquestioning, devoted drudges on whom, more even than on the Thought Police, the stability of the Party depended. ”

“ As it fell out, he soon spurred back after Parsons to tell him of a letter that moment received. It was from a gentleman named Yate, then a prisoner for his religion, earnestly begging Campion to visit Lyford Grange in Berkshire, the gentleman’s own estate, hard by, where his [128] wife and mother still were, together with Edward Yate, and part of a proscribed community of English Brigittine nuns, driven back into England by troubles in the Low Countries. Fr. Parsons, knowing the house to be a conspicuous one, and already supplied with chaplains, was unwilling to grant the permission. ”