The Sun.
London, England, 1863-11-04 00:00:00

GOSLINGFORD.

Goslingford is a thorough old English country town,
and, in the days of which I speak, though these are not
very remote, had not been invaded even by a railway. It
consists of four streets, at right angles, somewhat narrow,
but very picturesque; the colouring, old, dusky, and mel-
lowed, and the tall chimneys and overhanging upper stories
throwing, in the summer sunshine, those shadows, broad
and deep, so dear to the heart of the aceomplished gentle •
man who writes the " Stones of Venice." A broad river,
bearing a little—a very little—traffic on its bosom, steals
lazily by, past the little town, and through green meadows,
mostly flat, onwards to the sea. Cattle repose in these
meadows, amid cowslips and buttercups, and under the
shade of tall elms and wide spread oaks ; and low hills, not
robed, however, in "the azure hue" of distance, but
chequered with the unmistakeable yellow and green
of corn fields or turnip fields, gird in the pleasant
vale, which has many a' counterpart in rural England.
Thus, though a pretty and an interesting old town, it
is a very everyday one—being, in fact, in architec-
ture and situation, the very commonest type of
an English uncommercial town. The people, too,
are the very kind of people who reside in such towns, even
in these days of rapid and constant communication of every
place with every place else, when everybody is becoming,
outwardly at least, so like everybody else, that national and
local distinctions, and even individual character, seem in
danger of being obliterated by the modern monotony of re-
finement and cultivation. Bat as yet, at Goslingford, most
people still dined at three o'clock, and went out to tea par-
ties at six ; and it was, by many persons, thought very fine
and foolish of the Smiths, when they gave a dinner party
at the irrational hour of half-past six, at which the wine
was handed round by Thomas, indoors man-servant, and
Sarah, housemaid, instead of being put on the table, that
the guests might drink with each other in the old friendly
way, when "people were not too fine to enjoy themselves."
The tide of public feeling, that is, the feeling of the
polite world of Goslingford, for a time rose decidedly on
the Brown side.

" Old Mr. Brown," said Miss Clara Welby, to her friend
Miss Harriet Richards, " would never have permitted such
new-fangled nonsense. But people now-a-days must all
be finer and wiser than their fathers. Perhaps next time
the meat will be all carved at the side table."

The " mighty war" of the Browns and the
Smiths is, for the most part, a very tams
affair. It rises in interest, however, when the heir
of the Smiths becomes the suitor for the only
daughter of the Browns—Hannah. This Hannah
is a quiet undemonstrative girl, endowed wita
strong feelings and animated with very high
principles, as is conspicuously manifested in two
most important incidents of her career. We
must admit, however, that we have perused
her story at a disadvantage, her name continually
producing upon us the same uncomfortable
sensation as a jarring chord in a melody.
We have no fault to find with " Hannah,"
neither do we object to " Brown," but
the combination, the fatal combination,
" Hannah Brown," has continually recalled to mind
the horrible tragedy of Grecnaere, a tragedy in
which, it will be remembered, one Hannah Brown
was the victim ! We hope that other readers may
not be haunted by the same unfortunate reminis-
cences, for Hannah herself is a dear,goodgirl,worthy
only of suggesting pleasant associations. As the
best exemplification of her peculiar character, so
humble, so loving, but so determined ; and, as
giving a glimpse also of the different individualities
of young Smith and old Brown, we will give a
scene aptly named—