Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Oysters.
matters relating to wind , tide , sailing , & c . But now our business begins , and we haul away at the dredges . I take a haul as a stranger , and find it quite difficult enough to lift a full dredge over the side of the boat , as every roll makes me think I am
going over the very low bulwarks . The conglomeration of Oysters , stones , shells , sea weed , & o , is emptied out of each dredge on to the deck , and the dredge is then thrown in again , all hands are busy culling out Natives , the proper size for London
market , which about occupies them until it is time to haul the dredge again . We continue tacking up and down over the grounds for about an hour and a half , when we have caught the requisite quantity for our boat . These are placed in what
, ashore , - would be called bushel baskets , but afloat are called prickles . Our skiff , which has been at our stern all the time , is now brought into requisition again , and the prickles of Oysters are placed in it , and Jack and Bill then row off with them
to the market boat which is lying on the ground to take them in ; and when the other boats have all discharged their Oysters into her , she immediately sails for Billingsgate with her very expensive load . Each Oyster being worth nearly twopence it is very much like currying a cargo of the
old copper coinage . Jack and Bill come on board again , and we make for our slip , where we Jeave the yaw ] , and come ashore in the skiff , all of us ( i f I may j udge by m 3 self ) with good appetites : I hope the reader will have one as good the next time he sits down to an Oyster lunch or supper . R .
The Autobiography Of An Old Church Window.
THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AN OLD CHURCH WINDOW .
I HAVE heard of old people being put into a mill and ground young . I can't say that J - ever saw any one on whom the operation had been performed , and I used to think it was only idle talk . I begin , however , to think it may be true . At all events the
operation has been performed on me . And , if on au old window , why not on an old man or an old woman' { But I am to write my autobiography ; and I must begin at the beginning . Here I have been , in the east wall of Westhorpe
Church for more than 500 years I "What changes I have seen , to say nothing of those I have undergone . Westhorpe was a place when I first knew it . The hall was a hall then , and inhabited bhall people too . Such doings ;
y kuig lits in armour , and ladies dressed in a fashion the ladies of the present day vainly try to imitate . And then the retainers , and the hawks , and the hounds , and the horses !
Every now and then there was a tournament at the hall ; and then it was a sig ht to see the armed knights ride by on their richly caparisoned steeds , and the ladies richly dressed and mounted , hastening to the sig ht . It was also worth while to see the bold yeomen with their bows
and arrows contending for the smiles of the village-born maidens , just as the knights contended for the favour of the high-born damsels , with ssvord and spear . And then , the church was a sight to see ! On Sundaysand festival daysthere were
, , the gorgeously attired jjriests , with their music , and their lights , and their incense , and their processions , and their crosses , and their banners . Things are changed ¦ now . People , say it is for the better , and no doubt it is ; for surety people are more
likely to benefit by joining in a quiet , intelligible service , and hearing the word preached faithfully , than by a theatrical spectacle . But then , I , as a window , am all e 3 es ; and as a show , and a scene of wonder , the old rites certainly had many charms .
I don't remember all the inhabitants that have seen the light of heaven through me . But I do remember one fair creature , who for some years used to worship here . Hers was a face to gaze upon , one seldom surpassed . This was Mary Tudor . She
was the daughter of a king of England , and had been married to a king of France ; but her husband had died , and the youngwidowed queen had been married to one of England ' s noblef , Charles Brandon , Duke of Suffolk , to whose home at Westhorpe
she had been brought , and with whom she lived for some years . Here she died : but here she was not buried : and I remember seeing the solemn gorgeous procession pass by on its way to her interment at Bury St . Edmund . And then the Priests here sang masses for the repose of her soul till my bones ached with the vibration .
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Oysters.
matters relating to wind , tide , sailing , & c . But now our business begins , and we haul away at the dredges . I take a haul as a stranger , and find it quite difficult enough to lift a full dredge over the side of the boat , as every roll makes me think I am
going over the very low bulwarks . The conglomeration of Oysters , stones , shells , sea weed , & o , is emptied out of each dredge on to the deck , and the dredge is then thrown in again , all hands are busy culling out Natives , the proper size for London
market , which about occupies them until it is time to haul the dredge again . We continue tacking up and down over the grounds for about an hour and a half , when we have caught the requisite quantity for our boat . These are placed in what
, ashore , - would be called bushel baskets , but afloat are called prickles . Our skiff , which has been at our stern all the time , is now brought into requisition again , and the prickles of Oysters are placed in it , and Jack and Bill then row off with them
to the market boat which is lying on the ground to take them in ; and when the other boats have all discharged their Oysters into her , she immediately sails for Billingsgate with her very expensive load . Each Oyster being worth nearly twopence it is very much like currying a cargo of the
old copper coinage . Jack and Bill come on board again , and we make for our slip , where we Jeave the yaw ] , and come ashore in the skiff , all of us ( i f I may j udge by m 3 self ) with good appetites : I hope the reader will have one as good the next time he sits down to an Oyster lunch or supper . R .
The Autobiography Of An Old Church Window.
THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AN OLD CHURCH WINDOW .
I HAVE heard of old people being put into a mill and ground young . I can't say that J - ever saw any one on whom the operation had been performed , and I used to think it was only idle talk . I begin , however , to think it may be true . At all events the
operation has been performed on me . And , if on au old window , why not on an old man or an old woman' { But I am to write my autobiography ; and I must begin at the beginning . Here I have been , in the east wall of Westhorpe
Church for more than 500 years I "What changes I have seen , to say nothing of those I have undergone . Westhorpe was a place when I first knew it . The hall was a hall then , and inhabited bhall people too . Such doings ;
y kuig lits in armour , and ladies dressed in a fashion the ladies of the present day vainly try to imitate . And then the retainers , and the hawks , and the hounds , and the horses !
Every now and then there was a tournament at the hall ; and then it was a sig ht to see the armed knights ride by on their richly caparisoned steeds , and the ladies richly dressed and mounted , hastening to the sig ht . It was also worth while to see the bold yeomen with their bows
and arrows contending for the smiles of the village-born maidens , just as the knights contended for the favour of the high-born damsels , with ssvord and spear . And then , the church was a sight to see ! On Sundaysand festival daysthere were
, , the gorgeously attired jjriests , with their music , and their lights , and their incense , and their processions , and their crosses , and their banners . Things are changed ¦ now . People , say it is for the better , and no doubt it is ; for surety people are more
likely to benefit by joining in a quiet , intelligible service , and hearing the word preached faithfully , than by a theatrical spectacle . But then , I , as a window , am all e 3 es ; and as a show , and a scene of wonder , the old rites certainly had many charms .
I don't remember all the inhabitants that have seen the light of heaven through me . But I do remember one fair creature , who for some years used to worship here . Hers was a face to gaze upon , one seldom surpassed . This was Mary Tudor . She
was the daughter of a king of England , and had been married to a king of France ; but her husband had died , and the youngwidowed queen had been married to one of England ' s noblef , Charles Brandon , Duke of Suffolk , to whose home at Westhorpe
she had been brought , and with whom she lived for some years . Here she died : but here she was not buried : and I remember seeing the solemn gorgeous procession pass by on its way to her interment at Bury St . Edmund . And then the Priests here sang masses for the repose of her soul till my bones ached with the vibration .