Julia and Her Romeo: A Chronicle of Castle Barfield

Julia And Her Romeo: A
Chronicle Of Castle
by David
Christie Murray

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Julia And Her Romeo: A Chronicle
Of Castle
Barfield, by David Christie Murray This eBook is for the use of anyone
anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You
may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project
Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
www.gutenberg.org
Title: Julia And Her Romeo: A Chronicle Of Castle Barfield From
"Schwartz" by David Christie Murray
Author: David Christie Murray
Release Date: August 8, 2007 [EBook #22274]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JULIA
AND HER ROMEO ***

Produced by David Widger

JULIA AND HER ROMEO: A CHRONICLE OF CASTLE
BARFIELD
By David Christie Murray
Author Of 'Aunt Rachel,' 'The Weaker Vessel,' Etc.

I
In the year eighteen hundred and twenty, and for many years before and
after, Abel Reddy farmed his own land at Perry Hall End, on the
western boundaries of Castle Barfield. He lived at Perry Hall, a
ripe-coloured old tenement of Elizabethan design, which crowned a
gentle eminence and looked out picturesquely on all sides from
amongst its neighbouring trees. It had a sturdier aspect in its age than it
could have worn when younger, for its strength had the sign-manual of
time upon it, and even its hoary lichens looked as much like a prophecy
as a record.
A mile away, but also within the boundaries of Castle Barfield parish,
there stood another house upon another eminence: a house of older date
than Perry Hall, though of less pleasing and picturesque an air. The
long low building was of a darkish stone, and had been altered and
added to so often that it had at last arrived at a complex ugliness which
was not altogether displeasing. The materials for its structure had all
been drawn at different periods from the same stone quarry, and the
chequered look of new bits and old bits had a hint of the chess-board.
Here Samson Mountain dwelt on his own land in the midst of his own
people.
The Mountain Farm, as it was called, and had been called time out of
mind, was separated from the Perry Hall Farm by a very shallow and
narrow brook. The two houses were built as far apart from each other
as they could be, whilst remaining in their own boundaries, as if the
builder of the later one had determined to set as great a distance as he

could between his neighbour and himself. And as a matter of fact the
Reddys and the Mountains were a sort of Capulets and Montagues, and
had hated each other for generations. Samson and Abel kept up the
ancient grudge in all its ancient force. They were of the same age
within a week or two, had studied at the same school, and had fought
there; had at one time courted the same girl, had sat within sight of
each other Sunday after Sunday and year after year in the parish church,
had each buried father and mother in the parish churchyard, and in the
mind of each the thought of the other rankled like a sore.
The manner of their surrendering their common courtship was
characteristic of their common hatred. Somewhere about the beginning
of this century a certain Miss Jenny Rusker, of Castle Barfield, was
surrounded by quite a swarm of lovers. She was pretty, she was
well-to-do, for her time and station, she was accomplished--playing the
harp (execrably), working samplers in silk and wool with great
diligence and exactitude, and having read a prodigious number of plays,
poems, and romances. What this lady's heart forged that her mouth did
vent, but no pretty young woman ever looked or sounded foolish to the
eyes or ears of her lovers. Mountain and Eeddy were among her
solicitors. She liked them both, and had not quite made up her mind as
to which, if either of them, she would choose, when suddenly the
knowledge of the other's occasional presence in her sitting-room made
the house odious to each, and they surrendered the chase almost at the
same hour. Miss Jenny satisfied herself with a cousin of her own,
married without changing her name, had children, was passably happy,
as the world goes, and lived to be a profoundly sentimental but
inveterate widow. Mountain and Eeddy married girls they would not
otherwise have chosen, and were passably happy also, except when the
sore of ancient hatred was inflamed by a chance meeting on the corn
exchange or an accidental passage of the eyes at church. They had no
better authority for hating each other than that their fathers had hated
each other before them.