Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1896-06-12
MISCELLANY.
JOHN HORsLBIGH, KNIGHT,
By Thomas Hardy.

In the earliest and mustiest volume
of the Havenpool marriage registers,
said the thin faced gentleman, this en-
try may still be read by any ono curious
enough to decipher the grabbed hand
writing of the date. took a copy of it
when l was last there. and it runs thus
Che had opened his pockotbook, and now
read aloud the extract, afterward
handing round the book to us, wherein
we saw Transcribed the following):
Mast John Horseleigh, Knight, of the p'ys-
she of Clyffton maryd to Edith the wyffe
late off John Stocker III 'chawntc of Havenpool
the xiii daic Of December be pvylcgge gevyn
by our sup me heidi of the chyrche of Ingelonde
Kynge Henry the With 1859.
Now, if you turn to the long and
elaborate pedigree of the ancient family
of the Horseleighs of Clyfton Horseleigh,
you will find no mention whatever of
this alliance, Notwithstanding the priv
ilege given by the sovereign and head of
the church, the said Sir John being
therein chronicled as marrying, mt a
, date apparently earlier than the above,
the daughter and heiress of Richard
Phelipson of Montislope, in Neither
Wessex, lady who outlived him, of
which marriage there were issue two
-, daughters and a son, who succeeded
him in his estates. How are we to ac-
count for these, us it would seem con-
temporaneous wives? A strange local
tradition only can help us, and this can
be briefly told.
One evening in the autumn of the
year 1910 or 1911 young sailor, whose
Christian name was Roger, but whose
surname is not known, landed at his
native place of Havenpool, on the south
Wessex coast, after a voyage in the
Newfoundland trade, then newly sprung
into existence. He returned in the ship
Primrose with a cargo Of "trayne oyle
brought home from the New Founde
Lande, " to quote from the town records
of the date. During his absence of two
summers and a winter, which made up
the term of a Newfoundland "spell, :"
many unlocked for changes had occurred
within the quiet little seaport, some of
which closely affected Roger the sailor.
AT the time of his departure his only
sister, Edith, had become the bride of one
Stocker, a respectable townsman, and
part owner of the brig in which Roger
had sailed, and it was to the house of
this couple, his only relatives, that the
young man directed his steps. On try
ing the door in Quay street he found it
locked, and then observed that the win
dows were boarded up. Inquiring of
bystander, he learned for the first time
of the death Of his brother-in law,
though that event had taken place near
ly Is months before.
"And my sister Edith?" asked Roger.
"She's married again, as they do
say, and hath been so these IL months.
don't vouch for the truth OF, though
if she isn't she ought to be. "
Rogers face grew dark. He was a
man with considerable reserve of
strong passion, and he asked his in
formant what he meant by speaking
this
The man explained that shortly after
the young woman's bereavement a
stranger had come to the port. He had
seen her moping on the quay, had been
attracted by her youth and loneliness,
and in an extraordinarily brief wooing
had completely fascinated her-had car
ried her off, and as was reported had
married her. Though he had come by
water, he was supposed to live no very
great distance off by land. They were
last heard of at Oozewood, in Upper
Wessex, at the house of one Wall, tim
Der merchant, where, he believed, she
still had a lodging, though her husband,
if he were lawfully that much, was but
an occasional visitor to the place.
1.-THE stranger" asked Roger. Ibid
you see him? What manner of man was
hep
81 liked him not, said the other.
"He seemed Of that kind that hath
something to conceal, and as he walked
with her he ever and anon turned his
head and gazed behind him, as if he
much feared an unwelcome pursuer.
But faith, " continued he, sit may have
been the mans anxiety only. Yet did ]
not like him. "
"Was he older than my sister," Rog-
er asked.
AYE, much older, from dozen to q
score of years older. A man of some pc.
sitiOn, may be, playing an amorous
game for the pleasure of the hour Who
knoweth but that he have a wife al
ready? Many have done the thing here
abouts of late. "
Having paid visit to the graves OF
his relatives, the sailor next day went
along the straight road, which, then 9
lane, now a highway, conducted to the
curious little inland town named by the
Havenpool man. 1t is unnecessary tC
describe Oozewood in the South Avon
1t has a railway at the present day, but
30 years of steam traffic past its pre-
Oincts have hardly modified its origina
features. Surrounded by sort of fresh
water lagoon, dividing it from meadows
and cOppice, its ancient thatch and tim
Der houses have barely made way ever
in the front street for the ubiquitous
modern brick and slate. 1t neither in
creases nor diminishes in size. 1t il
difficult to say what the inhabitants fine
to do, for, though trades in woodward
are still carried ON, there cannot bC
enough of this class of work nowadays
to maintain all the housebolders, the
forests around having been so greatly
thinned and curtailed. At the time o.
this tradition the forests were dense, an
tificers in wood abounded, and the tim
her trade was brisk Every house in the
fpNun without aN,aptf,,, &c COL