Covert

“ One gentleman alone has lately raised, at his own expense, for our sole use, a series of coverts, which was the only thing required, as both sides of Tweed, Berwickshire, 103 and Northumberland are as fine country as can be desired, and, unfortunately for us, as good scenting as any in the kingdom. ”

“ A large, round wooden cover, like an immense umbrella, serving as a shade for the criminal in the stocks, or for a platform for one in the pillory to stand on, or for a shelter from sun or rain to the inhabitants who meet on business in front of the court-house, the place generally used as a sort of exchange in the small towns in this country. ”

“ But here on the stream of the Concord, where we have all the while been bodily, Nature, who is superior to all styles and ages, is now, with pensive face, composing her poem Autumn, with which no work of man will bear to be compared. ”

“ Fountains and wells, ever since the scriptural days, have been noted gossiping places in hot climates; and at the well in question there is a kind of perpetual club kept up during the livelong day, by the invalids, old women, and other curious do-nothing folk of the fortress, who sit here on the stone benches, under an awning spread over the well to shelter the toll-gatherer from the sun, and dawdle over the gossip of the fortress, and question every water-carrier that arrives about the news of the city, and make long comments on every thing they hear and see. ”

“ THE FORGE IN THE VALLEY
He lay where he could see her working at the forge. As she worked she sang:
“When God was making the world, (Swift is the wind and white is the fire) The feet of his people danced the stars; There was laughter and swinging bells, And clanging iron and breaking breath, The hammers of heaven making the hills, The vales on the anvil of God. (Wild is the fire and low is the wind.) ”

“ Well, sir, he turned then in the dark and started back for Coverack to cry the dismal tidings—though well knowing ship and crew to be past any hope, and as he turned the wind lifted him and tossed him forward 'like a ball,' as he'd been saying, and homeward along the foreshore. As you know, 'tis ugly work, even by daylight, picking your way among the stones there, and my father was prettily knocked about at first in the dark. But by this 'twas nearer seven than six o'clock, and the day spreading. By the time he reached North Corner, a man could see to read print ”

“ We found ourselves at once on an apparently boundless plain, without a tree or a fence, or, with one or two exceptions, a house in sight. Instead of fences, the earth was sometimes thrown up into a slight ridge. ”

“ The word gard, which in the Celtic, Teutonic, Slavonic, and other tongues has the meaning of protection or defence, must, I think, have something of the same meaning in river-names. Or it may perhaps rather [161] be that of boundary, for the two senses run very much into each other.
In the Gael. sgia, Welsh ysgw, guard, protection, and in the Welsh ysgi, separation or division, we have two senses, of which the latter may be more suitable for the following. ”

“ But, perhaps, the most frequent mode of capture is surprize, the outposts are unguarded, the centinels are asleep; a reconnoitring party, which has approached the fortress without any thoughts of a capture, is invited by this obvious carelessness to make the attempt, and carries the castle before any alarm is given. Let my youthful readers of the softer sex attend to these admonitions: let them not trust too much to their own strength: their surest strength is the caution of conscious weakness. ”

“ Beneath the fluttering of the ornamented fence, beneath the softness of the warm coverlet, beneath the rustling of the cloth coverlet, thine arms white as rope of paper-mulberry bark softly patting my breast soft as the melting snow, and patting each other interlaced, stretching out and pillowing ourselves on each otber's arms-true jewel-arms, and with outstretched legs, will we sleep. ”

“ Here is the partition at my ear down in the deep on the lee side. Are we ever coming up again together? I think not; the partition and I are so long about it that I really do believe we have overdone it this time. Heavens, what a scoop! What a deep scoop, what a hollow scoop, what a long scoop! Will it ever end, and can we bear the heavy mass of water we have taken on board, and which has let loose all the table furniture in the officers’ mess, and has beaten open the door of the little passage between the purser and me, and is swashing about, even there and even here? ”

“ I have a decided penchant for forges, especially rural ones, placed in some quaint quiet spot—a dingle, for example, which is a poetical place, or at a meeting of four roads, which is still more so; for how many a superstition—and superstition is the soul of poetry—is connected with these cross roads! I love to light upon such a one, especially after night-fall, as everything about a forge tells to most advantage at night ”

“ The war correspondent sees the faces of the men as they march towards the Valley of the Shadow, sees the steadiness of eye and mouth, hears the cheery jest. He sees them advance into the Valley without flinching. ”

“ They seem all to be just startled from their sleep by the sound you made when you unloosed the brazen clasps, and opened the curiously-carved oaken covers, that turn on hinges, like the great gates of a city. ”

“ An undercurrent of speculation had been flowing through his mind as to where he should overtake the fugitives.
"They will have arrived almost at the edge of the great forest and I will let them enter," he said to himself. ”

“ We shiver at the thought that there, under the cover-stones, beneath the turf, below thick layers of soil, are only blanched bones scattered through that dark which makes us tremble with the notion that it is in some strange fashion our enemy. ”

“ Otherwise I could not imagine a reason why he had not thrown back the cover and leaped out—unless some one had held him in, of course. This was impossible. No other human being had been in the room when we appeared, and no method of passing through those barred windows or locked doors was possible to conjecture. ”

“ T. L. Mitchell, `Three Expeditions,' vol. ii. p. 4:
"There can be little doubt that the corrobboree is the medium through which the delights of poetry and the drama are enjoyed in a limited degree, even by these primitive savages of New Holland."
1844. Mrs. Meredith. `Notes and Sketches of New South Wales,' p. 91:
"Great preparations were made, as for a grand corrobory, or festival, the men divesting themselves of even the portions of clothing commonly worn, and painting their naked black bodies in a hideous manner with pipe-clay. ”

“ Around the field was a wide border of infinitesimal hats and pale faces, rising in tiers, and beyond this border fences, hoardings, chimneys, furnaces, gasometers, telegraph-poles, houses, and dead trees. And here and there, perched in strange perilous places, even high up towards the sombre sky, were more human beings clinging. ”

“ Not a soul was there in charge, and the sole living occupants were a flock of wild cormorants which, startled at the entrance of the intruders, rose on wing, and took a rapid flight towards the south. ”

“ The forms of the mountains are rounded, and there are no bold crags; but it is scooped out into valleys that descend rapidly to the sea and to little bays; and these scoopings afford shelter from winter winds and cold, facing the sun, and walled in from every blast. ”

“ Take heed, then, by the lesson, and beware of judging of the nature of either men or grapes by their looks. Meantime, let us continue our survey of the country. No fences or ditches you see—the ground is too precious to be lost in such vanities—only, you observe from time to time a rudely carved stake stuck in the ground, and indicating the limits of properties. ”

“ Thy fair retreat on yellow Tyber's shore,
Whilst other inmates revel in thy home
And claim thy piles of wealth; thine own no more
He who relents not, dooms thee soon to tread
The shore whence none return—the country of the dead. ”

“ The rumors came into the fertile uplands where stately cities rose above blue lakes and rivers: the rumors marched along the broad white roads thronged with ox-wains, with lowing herds, with rich merchants, knights in steel, archers and priests. ”

“ Behold the fugitives collecting once more beneath the lantern. They pass and pass again; they come and go, often meeting front to front. He who is in the greatest hurry walks over the back of the other, who lets him have his way without any protest but a movement of the body. ”

“ The threat is soon forgotten; the shadow soon passes, and our sable boy continues to roll in the dust, or play in the mud, as bests suits him, and in the veriest freedom. If he feels uncomfortable, from mud or from dust, the coast is clear ”

“ Nevertheless, as meseemeth that no name is given to any town or mountain or river causeless, but that men are moved to name all steads for a remembrance of deeds that have been done and tidings that have befallen, or some one cause, even so might it well be with the Sundering Flood, and whereas also I wot something of that cause I shall now presently show you the same. ”

“ Between the military cordon and the partition, in the neighbourhood of what he vaguely guessed to be the crowd, there was a lurid flash in the dark cloud, and a peal of thunder followed, which was obviously going too far. ”

“ A long-drawn, wailing, dirge-like cry proceeds from one inclosure. Looking in we see a company of women, seated in rows beside a tent, crooning and keening with a strangely weird inflection; and peering further, we are soon able to discover the cause. ”

“ The proprietors of land on the banks of rivers spent the nights in boats moored in the middle of the stream, and in every house and castle throughout the land men remained armed as if against instant attack. ”

“ What do you call that thing?—the coverlet—the counterpane—isn't it? Well, it shouldn't be white, and cold, and cheerless like that; it should be a deep crimson satin—and there should be pretty things at the head of the bed—loops and bows of ribbon—my goodness, what is Mrs. Hobson about!—a young lady's room shouldn't be like a cell in a prison! ”

“ The bottom lands to which I have referred as so pregnant with danger during conflagrations on the prairies, can scarcely be called such, as they extend for leagues, and are not to the eye sensibly lower than the greater portion of the surrounding plain ”

“ He will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering (the covering of the face) with which all people are covered (hood-winked or blind-folded) so that they cannot see their way nor go about their work, and by reason of which they wander endlessly. ”

“ The things that had been strapped on my back naturally remained with me—map, binoculars, compass, botanising paraphernalia, rations for two days—that sort of thing. So I was not worried. I prowled about, experienced agreeable shivers by looking up at the mountain which had dumped me down into this valley, and finally, after eating, I started northeast by compass. ”

“ The opposite or southern flank, being protected from the dashing and weathering of rain and wind, is a mass of rounded soil-clad hills, or sloping slabs of rock, earth-veiled, and growing tussocks of grass. ”

“ Like a shield embossed with silver, round and vast the landscape lay.
At my feet the city slumbered. From its chimneys, here and there,
Wreaths of snow-white smoke, ascending, vanished, ghost-like, into air. ”

“ There, prostrate and indiscriminately huddled together, they gradually recovered from the effects of that terrible confinement, where 547 human beings were, without a breath of fresh air, kept for above two hours crushed together in a space only about three feet in height, and with a superficial extent not equal to that of their bodies, unless in a sitting position! ”

“ Securing Covering at Night.—If a delicate child has a habit of kicking the clothes off at night and so contracting chills, it is a good plan to sew a large button to each corner of the coverlet and attach a long tape loop to each corner of the bed. ”

“ To do this you must mend the hedges well so that there shall be a clear boundary line, and you can say, "Trespassers, beware!" Do not yield an inch to the enemy, but make the wall all the higher, the more he seeks to enter. ”

“ But what could one do in the midst of a thick fog, and on a road bordered by ravines? How could one distinguish friends from foes in the deep gloom? Astonished and disconcerted, I stopped my horse; then, at the risk of breaking my neck in the darkness, I galloped to the front of the convoy ”

“ Some of the houses have fallen down,—from sheer [Pg 29] weariness it seems,—while others are shored up at the sides with beams. The fallen houses look like corpses, the others like cripples leaning upon crutches. ”

“ Some of the men had thought about running away, but they were wisely afraid of taking to the strange forest with no station or settlement on the coast. But with plenty of wood our condensers filled casks as fast as they were emptied. ”

“ I thought that they commonly uttered it as they flew. I hear this note for a few days only in the spring, as they go through Concord, and in the fall see them again going southward, but then they are mute. ”

“ On the other were deep crevices, sufficient to contain a number of men; thus forming a natural fortress which might be held by a small party against greatly superior odds, while here and there shrubs jutted out from the hollows in which soil, in the course of ages, had been deposited. ”

“ And even so, in the lives of us all, there is a Cape of Storms, the which to pass safely is delightful fortune, and on which to be wrecked is the common fate. For it often happens that this Corner Dangerous holds a woman's face. ”