Mansfield, talked about a fancy ball at which he had been
present the evening before, and of other matters grave and gay. It was
very informal; we sat at the table, or stood with our backs to the fire;
policemen came and went; witnesses were sworn on the greasiest copy of
the Gospels I ever saw, polluted by hundreds and thousands of perjured
kisses; and for hours the prisoners were kept standing at the foot of the
table, interested to the full extent of their capacity, while all others
were indifferent. At the close of the case, the police officers and
witnesses applied to me about their expenses.
Yesterday I took a walk with my wife and two children to Bebbington
Church. A beautifully sunny morning. My wife and U. attended church, J.
and I continued our walk. When we were at a little distance from the
church, the bells suddenly chimed out with a most cheerful sound, and
sunny as the morning. It is a pity we have no chimes of bells, to give
the churchward summons, at home. People were standing about the ancient
church-porch and among the tombstones. In the course of our walk, we
passed many old thatched cottages, built of stone, and with what looked
like a cow-house or pigsty at one end, making part of the cottage; also
an old stone farm-house, which may have been a residence of gentility in
its day. We passed, too, a small Methodist chapel, making one of a row
of low brick edifices.
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