Peveril of the Peak

want of appet

be not scant of

PL

od, the lady was expected to enter deeply into the arrangement and provision of the whole affair; and from a little gallery, which communicated with her own private apartment, and looked down upon the kitchen, her shrill voice was to be heard, from time to time, like t

arce provided with adequate means to carry her hospitable purpose into effect. The tyrannical conduct of husbands, in such cases, is universal; and I scarce know

ious Maj

n at six

lady, and the discredit, perhap

, it is true, were well provided (which the neighbouring Presbyterians noted as a suspicious circumstance); and game was to be had for the shooting, upon the extensive heaths and hills of Derbyshire. But these were but the secondary parts of a banquet; and the house-steward and bailiff, Lady Peveril's only coadjutors and counsellors, could not agree how the butcher-meat - the most substantial part, or, as it were, the main body of t

quired the character of an intense and enthusiastic passion; and the singular and surprising change of fortune, by which his highest wishes were not only gratified, but far exceeded, occasioned for some time a kind of intoxication of loyal rapture which seemed to pervade the whole kingdom. Sir Geoffrey had seen Charles and his brothers, and had been received by the merry m

genorth for the sum necessary to carry her husband's commands into effect, and whilst she was bitterly regretting this departure from the strictness of her usual economy, the steward, who, by-the-bye, had not been

rrupted in the commencement of a letter to her neighbour on the unpleasant busin

with a triumphant flourish of the hand; "far better

id the lady, "or fetch some o

Do you not hear them bleat? A yoke of fat oxen, and half a score prime wethers. The Castle is victualled

the window, where she certainly beheld the oxen and sheep which had given ri

y came from a friend to help to furnish out your ladyship's entertainment; the man would not stay to drink - I am sorry h

worn it was not

r than the Castle should lose credit, I drank his health myself in double ale, thou

pose you should show your joy on such occasions, by drinking and swearing a

offrey, I would say. But I pray you, if I am not to drink and swear after my degree, how are men to know Peveril of the Peak's steward - and I may say butler too, since I have had the keys of the cellar ever since old Spigots was shot

e, proceeded to intimate to the steward that she would have the persons, whose names were

d, he muttered over in a tone of approbation - paused and pshawed at that of Bridgenorth - yet acquiesced, with the observation, "But he is a good neighbour, so it may pass for once." But when he read the name and surname of Nehemiah Solsgrace, the Presbyterian parson, Whitaker's pat

osed to be unfathomable, on

d their turn of the good weather. The sun is on our side of the hedge now

er, and on your master's absence, or you h

ward, notwithstanding his present state of elevation; but he no sooner saw that h

ds, but only that second draught of double ale. We have put a double stroke of malt to it, as your ladyship well knows, ever since the happy Restoration. To be sure I hate a fanatic as I do the cloven foot of Sa

nd Hall, from which it took its double name, at about an equal distance from both; so that, suppose a line drawn from the one manor-house to the other, to be the base of a triangle, the village would have occupied the salient angle. As the said village

emma arising from the want of provisions; and she esteemed herself happy when a visit from him, on the day precedin