Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1897-03-18
A CURIOUS COUPLE.

you would never find it, except by ac-
cident. Indeed, it stands apart in some
fields, absolutely concealed in hol-
low, and is only approached on one
side by footpath (Which in the winter
is usually under water), on another by
n cart track of the rudest and toughest
descriptions When you do arrive there,
The first object to strike you is the
church.
There is something pleasing, some
thing grateful to the eye in this gray,
plain, disprorortioncd little structure.
1t seems to fit into its surroundings
admirably; the farmyard, the cottages,
the brook flowing just below (they
call it "the river" there, where every
thing is on so reduced a scale), the ever
present geese and sheep and cattle,
and the perfect seclusion of surround
ing pastures. Nothing but green which
aver way you look. No houses Except
the quaint little cluster round the
church), no distant view; everything
shut in by the slopes which skirt the
valley; u complete environment of
everlasting fields.
l have seen many churchyards. This
one, lying begirt on all sides by the
farm homestead, tiny, indifferently kept,
shaded by many expresses and weeping
ash, where scarcely once d year, per-
maps, is the slumhering soil disturbed
for a new grave, and where everything
speaks Ct dreamy >restfulness, this
ahurchySrd of R-is the spotin which
| myself would soonest choose to lie.
One | knew who now reposes there
u former rector; the kindest, heartiest,
tenderest, most beloved OF pastors.
Those who have since died in R
have all wished to be laid near him.
And now around him sleeps g. little
cluster Of his horny-handed friends. y
happy family. The whole chucchyard
is peaceful. But in that especial corner
the pcaccfulness seems always most
profound.
It was this rector's nephew and sue
cessor-for Il has been family llv-
ing any time this two centuries past
to whom l am indebted for the follow
ing story. He often strolled out with
me when l went to paint, and, while
smoking innumerablc pipes, told me
many interesting local yarns. This one,
however, the facts of which had late
ly come under his own experience, quite
overtopped all the others in striking
tess and popularity. Here it is, sub
stantially in my informant's words;
"Ycu sec that cottage over theTeY
he said, pointing 10 dismantled howell
in the corner of the field where l had
pitched my canvas.
I nodded
az most remarkable history is at
tached 70 It," he went on. Not a
legend, but a fact. Of this, l can as
sure you, because myself had hand
in finding it out. Itcenters round a GER
tain couple who lived thcre-the most
extraordinary old folk that ever came
across. l should like you to have seeI-
them. think You would have admitted
them to be the ugliest pair in Eng
land, as they certainly were the most
close and unfreud!Y. During the 1e
Years that they lived in that cottage,
they never once asked q neighbor in
side"
"Umph! Hermits, indeed" I OBJ
served.
absolute hcrmits. There was, how
oyer some slight excuse for their es.
chewing all outside company. Each SUI
fered from a severe physical infirmity.
The woman was nearly stone deaf; the
man was dumb. When they first game
here-lS years ago now, l think-Iny
uncle, who, as you know, was then rec
tor. tried to find out what he could
about them. He only learned little,
and that little was nothing cut Of the
way. 1t transpired that the man was
an ex-sailor OF the royal navy, who had
lost his speech after severe attack Of
yellow fever IN the West Indies. lie
was now entitled to pension, which
he drew half yearly, and which my
uncle only knew about BY the fact that
the old fellow had 10 come to him peri
odically to get his papers signed. The
woman was his sister, so she gave the
neighbors to understand, and so also
might have been inferred from aeertain
family likeness which was noticeable
between them. She was a most ill-fa-
vored bag; shrivelled, unkcmpt, and
dirty beyond description. Although
she then must have been nearer 70 than
60, her long, touzled hair was still as
black as a coal, and hung in hideous
untidiness about her hawk like face,
which, with its dark eyes, and its booked
rroboscis, was most uncommonly forbid-
ding. The poor people ali pronounced
her witch; and, for that reason, gave
rcr wide berth. Probably the woman
purposc|y encouraged the idea. FcT
her great aim and object was, evidently,
TO b8icft alone,
"Aitbough her brothers. PENSION,
next, and the next; but he did not turn
up. At length, after waiting q week,
felt sure that he must bc i'll, and went
over to the shanty to inquire.
81 hammered Mt the door. Nobody
answered. l hammered louder and
louder, with the same result. In the
end, as a last resort, 7 tried 1t, To my
surprise, IL was unfastened. pushed
it open and went in.
81 cannot tell you what my feelings
were as l entered that miserable sly
s no,v dismal, forlorn, and withal
filthy hovel has surely never been in
habited by human beings. There was
scarcely any furniture. The walls were
black and covered with cohwebs, and
simply alive with creeping insects; and
the floor-well, 1 won't attempt to de-
scribe 1t. think you could cutthe at,
nosphere with a knife, so thick and
foul it was; and fctid, oh, insufferably
fctid. It nearly poisoned me, and my
first impulse was to beat a hasty re-
treat into the open. But low moan
from the corner attracted me. Hooked;
and there I saw sight at once loath'
some and pitiable.
"Crouching against the wall, pron the