Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1901-01-03
BY THE LYCH GATE
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

'HEhE is valley amidst the YORK
shire hills known as Coverdale.
from whose slopes, long years ago,
came pious Miles, who translated the
Bible, and who was called by the sim
pie folk Miles, OF Coverdale, after the
place of his birth.
Very calm and very peaceful the lit
tie dale lies under the shadow of the
great hills, whose SUBMITS are purple
in the sweet summertide with their
royal mantle OF fragrant heather, and
where the curlew and the golden plo-
ver's cry alone breaks the gentle still
ness that rests over the little world
beyond the haunts Of restless activity
and hurrying life.
There is no railway in quiet Cover
dale, no town to which the country
folk may wend their way, no shops save
the wonderful village emporium, where
everything in a very small way may be
obtained, but where few fashions come
to startle the gayer minded OF the
maidens, or strange new devices in
neclties TO dazzle the vision Of the
country lads.
To peep into the world necessitates
a journey under the shelter Of the lone
hillsides, along bonny lanes, en-
twined with pink and creamy tinted
honeysuckle, and green with waving
ferns; past the quaint inn, whose sign
is famous but long ago race horse,
called in the canny Yorkshire tongue
tn Lady Bah, and, finally, across the
moor into horse-loying Midlothian,
where are people and shops, and many
inns with curiously painted sign posts
the Black Swan. and its brother, the
White Swan, and many others, too.
But down in Coverdale there is a
beautiful old church, set like jewel
in its surrounding OF stately trees
and blossoming hedges, with the quiet
Rreenness OF Gods acre lying stretched
about IL, and the singing of nature ;
choristers in the sweet air around
a place OF peacefulness and repose,
where earth's burdens may fall from
one for little space, and Heavens ben
ison light softly on such Of its children
as stay to pray and think awhile.
There is quaint lyeh-gate at the en-
trance TO the holy spot, carved halt
ing place OF oak. set tenderly by soms
good man OF the dalespeople-a squire
OF the olden days, who loved his home
and his neighbors, and his God full
well. think. and sought to beautify
the church in which he and his had
worshiped so long.
And down the fair avenue OF trees
within the precincts and past the quiet
church the remains OF what was once
the proud abbey of Coverdale, where
the monks said masses and cultivated
their garden. and tended the souls and
bodies of the poor and needy in the
dale.
II is a beautiful spot in a beautiful
countryside. and so thought man
who viewed it lovingly. and pointed
out all its changeful lights and shad-
ews. all its pretty peeps of field and
river, TO his wife.
They had only been married little
while. few short weeks, and had elect
ed 10 spend their honeymoon in some OF
the quaint corners of England-hence
their iourneying thither TO this seques-
tered nook among the hills and the far
stretched moorlands in their yelling OF
regal purple. The man loved IL al
ready. with the artist love which sees
the beautiful so quickly and feels il so
strongly; ana the woman-well, she sa"
the beauties, too. but she was growing
a little weary of pretty sights, and she
was very pretty and spoilt herself, and
perhaps a little jealous Of admiration
wasted. which might have been divert
ed homeward.
SO she stood by the quaint relics OF
the abbots and mailed knights at Cover
ham. where two quaint forms guard
doorway, as perchance their originals
guarded some stronghold in the old
fighting days long gone, and her white
gown fell over the gray stones and
cleaned against the red and orange
nasturtiums in the garden which sur
rounds the old walls and arches, and
she wondered If her husband had near
II finished his sketch, and whether
they would stay at hiddleham for a
day or two, or go on further to Wens-
leydale2
81 am rather tired Of admiring
places," she said TO herself, little i'm
natiently. "And, then, ! never can re-
member who lived in the castles and
abbeys. How uncomfortable they
must have beenl"
And then-for she was only very
Young bride, too-she felt sorry for
having been impatient. even in her
thoughts. toward her husband, and
she turned to speak to him with an
even sweeter smile than usual on her
uretty lips. For her husband was
genius in his way. a thinker and an
author, and everyone had envied her
when she married him, in spite OF her
wealth.
Ali there was a pitiful ring IN the
st,rv-poor and nameless. but clever
beating himself TO pieces in his eager