The Washington weekly post. (Washington, D.C.) 1878-1916, 1900-01-16
MERIEL STANLEY, POACHER
By GRANT ALLEN

eEHerEr. MDFU 1 k4lfth OF Aife Effl 10 MflEn
asa and her own temperament must In
.naJy hurry her That Ehapeiy brown
-lk straight and firm as column, II al
FL. lE.Cate FOR a rope. Yet a rope IL {
all D. or I am no true prophet.
When ! say that Meriel is a natural wo-
-~sr mean what | say. for good and for
f.. See her leaning her elbows on the
.s-s that leads from Sir Walters copse
'r or 90 the heather-clad moorland-a /
.sg .tb- figure With keen, brown face, Z
..eer. pistfII eyes, and wealth OF black
lair ast peepng from beneath her pink /
.rf-Rhlts suubonEet-a bronzed woman
- the people. QuiveTing with suppressed I
motion 90 the tips OF the fingers-and T
... can guess al once thc salient points /.
l,he- character. Hers IS the imprisoned I
,s~Uf-ameut, embodied IN a sound and 4
,fgyr5us frame: take her as a specimen Of 4
me natural woman. a savage still al
heart. bat a savage or the best type, capa- /
de ~ great love. great revenge, great de- 4
ra.lu. Ereat self-sacriace, great crimes. I
great repcntaHces. but not OF anything 4
--ssa az small OF commonplace.
The savage has ia him. an the germ, all !
that the best and worst among civilized 4
ven have developed eparately-eXcept one I
,-irg- consistency. He can rise TO splen- 4
gE heights Of generosity and sink 10 vile J
lrfEs 0f cruelty and shame, but ali is 4
rrrutaTy: what he cannot compass Is .
..ta.ueI action or sustained feeling. He .
ia creature Of moral impulses, for good ,
% bad. The passing mood, the passing 4
emotion sway him. And Meriel is like .
that She can love; she can late; but she /
cannot &c steadily or persistently any
thing
To spite OF her strange name she is not /
q gypsy. Al least not consciously. Much .
gypsy blood turks unknown IN the wild 1
region u Dorset. where the Stanlcys live; I
and Merei has associated with gypsies /
and p0dC lyTs from her childhood upward. /
She can even 'patter ROmany' a little, /
though only as an outsider; but her peo- /
Die have long been settled in this district, I
and if ever they were members Of the I
stanley clan. have forgotten ii long ago |
a aIl save their surname. As 10 her fan I
fast.c Christian name, Meriel, that came 4
tU h-r from an aunt, who Inherited il IN I
turn from FIVE generations Of female an
,.sl0rs Meriel was cnristened by that 4
name though the clergyman who baptized .
her rirI hard 10 mOderniZe and vulgaTize
IL into NurieI; but her mother stood up
s0u'ly against such new-fangled nom I
sense Twas always Meriel with the /
Stainless and the Tibbalds." she said, with 4
true pride Of race, ever since l heard tell .
Of en-. my maaid shall be Meriel passon .
will il OF passOn mill it." And Meriel she .
was from that day onward.
II may surprise you 10 learn that Meriel /
vas ever Christened at all; for when she .
was d BARN, the nearest church TO Grey 4
down wss at Upton Parva, seven long .
miles of across the moor as the> crow 1
lilies, and the people of Greydown in those ,
days rocked little in most ways of .
churches and parsons. They were a bar /
tarous folk up here, CUR" MeriePs father I
said 10 me one day. In a rare burst OF /
lJquaciousness. for he is a silent man: Il /
don't suppose you'd a found a more bar
barious folk anywheres in England, go /
t5rty year back, than the Greydown peo-
le." And he was quite right The hill 4
Itself stands mainly in Dorset; but 1t lies /
40 the upper end of three river valleys,
ana at the junction Of three shires; so fo-
ages il was the refuge OF all the gypsies,
The hOrse-COpeTs. the sheep-stealers. the
poachers, the misc ellaneous riff-raf and
outlaws Of the neighborhood. Nowadays, /
their descendants for the most part are |
honestly occupied in broom making ana /
basket-weaving; but they do not take !
readily TO steady labor, preferring to be |
free and to be their own masters-a nat |
Ural taste which / will confess / share |
with them. Nevertheless, even in their !
worst days of barbarism, the Greydown- |
ers always christened their children in |
church, and were married by parson; not
that they attached much religious impor~
lance to the rite in either case; but they
liked the importance of it; that was the
regular authorized way of doing things,
and they would wish the settled folk
down yonJer at Upton to know that the
GreydOwners We're every bit as good
Christians any day as they were. Be
cause YOU are a broomsquire, that is no
valid reason why you shouldn't behave
lae other civilized gentefolk.
Then you really were chTistened Me-
ril~' | said 10 her once, interrogatively.
And she answered, half-laughing, Yes;
was christened all right, EUR: but / don't
suppose it took" And / think she was
light; for a verier pagan than Meriel
Stanley it would be hard to light upon. |
As girl, she grew up on this high, wild |
mo5rland, running about shoeless and |
s,otknsless among the gorse and heather, /
ana trapping leverets. and browning her /
shapely legs with padding in the ponds |
alter nevis and tadpoles. To this day, |
She can tickle trout against any man in /
b0rsetshiTe. Her fathers cottage lay 1
emong tail bracken in valley or bottom /
Just below the gibbet-that gibbet on 4
which the murderers of the warfaring wo- 1
nan were hung in chains a hundred years |
ago. and which long remained a terror 1
ana warning 10 evil-doers, the sole sym
1'l OF civilization, repressive civilization.
A These lonely uplands You can tell the
"l,aer from others about by the climbing
i'A roses and by the great stacks Of dry /
heather piled outside the door. and wait
Ns 10 be made up into farmhouse brooms,
slch as are used for rough work in yards
ana stables Before Meriel was ten years
'" She knew as much about jays ana
"rasels and hawks and foxes as Sir wal
'7T gameEeeDer. she could show you the
H'',urd brown eggs OF the night-jar, lying
C'se on the bare ground without nest or
'"'-,eF' She could ind the wren's callow
'o-As and the baby stoats in the copse;
r"r Had observed at what age the soft |
r.."r hcagehogs begin to get their prick
hardened and where the woodcock |
l-'.rH "-th their long, straight bills after
- .s ans worms in the soft, spongy moss
'' pSt,-IOgged hOllOWs. At eighteen, |
l.' Wa tau and beautiful, with wild, I'M
.--pt hair; lair long and black and
90 and wiry. without a suspicion OF
49,. h H. recalling perhaps the remote
IL O.'od OF her gypsy ancestors, once
vi 'He Punjaub. a handSOmer girl OF
way ward peasant type / have seldom
4, ,'.. I.'t me Try 10 describe her.
o., ~ mead Is shapeiy and well poised
-, ga, sHo4.ders-a trait which you will
10 10 almost always accompanies the i'm
.-ss.gHe4 character Her neck Is erect.
r'... a-' carries herself proudly. The pose
J,.-.'s me al times Of the portraits OF
ga and, indeed, .hoGsh II may sound
Ia w. compare this Wild English moor
10, SUI with the proud. sardOnic Tuscan
G can recognize IN essence Il certain
e. -N''y OF type between the two. Her
q. are dark and Shy, bur with sudden