152 A TERRIBLE CURSE CHAP. and anathematise you, Thomas Chaloner, &c., &c., &c., from the thresholds of the Holy Church. . . . and as fire is quenched by water, so let their light be quenched for evermore, unless they repent and make satisfaction for their crime. . . . May they be cursed wheresoever they are, whether in the house or in the field, in the highway or in the path, in the wood or in the water, in the market or in the church; may they be cursed in living or in dying, in eating and in drinking, in hungering and in thirsting, in fasting and in sleeping, in slumbering and in working, and in resting, in sweating and in blood-letting; may they be cursed in all the faculties of their bodies, inwardly and outwardly, may they be cursed in the hair of their ப VII STILL CURSING 153 head, and in their brain, in the crown of their head and in their temples, in their forehead and in their ears, in their eyebrows and in their cheeks, in their jawbones and in their nostrils. . ." Upon my word I weary of this anatomical category of organs, and will leave any one who lists to complete it for himself. Such was the curse launched from the holy stool of St. Peter at the audacious Englishman who dared to make alum. It did no particular harm to any one, and serves merely as an amusing relic of the savage spirit brought to the performance of their sacred duties by the successors of St. Peter. It is growing dark, and the long journey is nearly over. This long while my road has been dropping out of the hill country, and entering on that vast plain which, as I have said already, occupies the whole of central Yorkshire, and to me, remembering through what wild, undulating country I have come, the importance of the towns lying in the centre of this level strath becomes 154 THE RAIDING SCOTS CH. VII plain, as by a sudden flash, and I comprehend why the musters of knights and yeomen assembled to repel the Scots were gathered so often at Northallerton, and why the raiders passed so frequently by this level route into the heart of Yorkshire, avoiding as long as they might those hills on either hand through which the conduct of even light-armed troops must have been a matter of some difficulty, while an army encumbered with booty would fall an easy prey to any bold attack. NORTHALLERTON, CATTERICK, GRETA BRIDGE, AND BARNARD I OFTEN think that much abused person, the rapid traveller, might if he would make a telling answer to his critics. For how inaccurate, he might say loftily, is the impression gained of the 156 AN APOLOGIA CHAP. individuality of a people or the aspects of a country by those who only creep around it, devoting weeks of indolence to the study of a single district! For grant that in their gropings among minute and long forgotten things they have indeed found some of note and interest, that from the heap of motley rubbish they have raked together they can in truth extract some one or two pearls of price. Grant that their loitering is no excuse for idleness, that they have noted flowers I have missed, plucked fruits which I left hanging on the tree, heard songs of which I only caught the echo, and listened to the multitudinous murmuring of the sea which did but glance up green and azure at me as I hurried by. Let them rejoice in their knowledge of a single furrow; let them loiter down one hedgerow and believe it is the universe. I leap over it and go my way, out into the laughing world, over the green fields and away through the sunny country, noting how the shadows chase each other across the grass, with careless heart and eyes wide open, catching now a glimpse of hill country, and now a scrap of valley land, eating my early breakfast by the sea and munching my bread and cheese for lunch in a roadside tavern many a mile inland, till all my heart and body are a-throb with the joy of wandering and of rapid motion, and my fancy stimulated by the change of scene shows me in quick flashes how the joints and struts of the whole land are dovetailed in together, and what manner of beings it has brought forth to help on its destiny in the life of man. Heaven help me! I have blundered into an apologia, a thing I never dreamt of doing, and one which I abhor in others. But let it stand, for indeed if such a thing is ever excusable, it is to be forgiven in me at the present moment, when having come down out of the highlands upon the level plain which is the heart of Yorkshire, I look round to see what I have done on this one section of my journey, and what I have in mind to do upon the other. Here is the time to stand and think, to repent of acts of haste and carelessness, and resolve to commit no more. |