The Nebuly Coat | Page 4

you what
Sir George considered the most pressing matter."
They moved into the transept, but the doctor managed to buttonhole
Westray for a moment en route.
"You will be bored to death," he said, "with this man's ignorance and
conceit. Don't pay the least attention to him, but there is one thing I
want to take the first opportunity of pressing on you. Whatever is done
or not done, however limited the funds may be, let us at least have a
sanitary floor. You must have all these stones up, and put a foot or two

of concrete under them. Can anything be more monstrous than that the
dead should be allowed to poison the living? There must be hundreds
of burials close under the floor, and look at the pools of water standing
about. Can anything, I say, be more insanitary?"
They were in the south transept, and the Rector had duly pointed out
the dilapidations of the roof, which, in truth, wanted but little showing.
"Some call this the Blandamer aisle," he said, "from a noble family of
that name who have for many years been buried here."
"Their vaults are, no doubt, in a most insanitary condition," interpolated
the doctor.
"These Blandamers ought to restore the whole place," the organist said
bitterly. "They would, if they had any sense of decency. They are as
rich as Croesus, and would miss pounds less than most people would
miss pennies. Not that I believe in any of this sanitary talk--things have
gone on well enough as they are; and if you go digging up the floors
you will only dig up pestilences. Keep the fabric together, make the
roofs water-tight, and spend a hundred or two on the organ. That is all
we want, and these Blandamers would do it, if they weren't
curmudgeons and skinflints."
"You will forgive me, Mr Sharnall," said the Rector, "if I remark that
an hereditary peerage is so important an institution, that we should be
very careful how we criticise any members of it. At the same time," he
went on, turning apologetically to Westray, "there is perhaps a
modicum of reason in our friend's remarks. I had hoped that Lord
Blandamer would have contributed handsomely to the restoration fund,
but he has not hitherto done so, though I dare say that his continued
absence abroad accounts for some delay. He only succeeded his
grandfather last year, and the late lord never showed much interest in
this place, and was indeed in many ways a very strange character. But
it's no use raking up these stories; the old man is gone, and we must
hope for better things from the young one."
"I don't know why you call him young," said the doctor. "He's young,

maybe, compared to his grandfather, who died at eighty-five; but he
must be forty, if he's a day."
"Oh, impossible; and yet I don't know. It was in my first year at
Cullerne that his father and mother were drowned. You remember that,
Mr Sharnall--when the Corisande upset in Pallion Bay?"
"Ay, I mind that well enough," struck in the clerk; "and I mind their
being married, becos' we wor ringing of the bells, when old Mason
Parmiter run into the church, and says: `Do'ant-'ee, boys--do'ant-'ee ring
'em any more. These yere old tower'll never stand it. I see him rock,' he
says, `and the dust a-running out of the cracks like rain.' So out we
come, and glad enough to stop it, too, because there wos a feast down
in the meadows by the London Road, and drinks and dancing, and we
wanted to be there. That were two-and-forty years ago come Lady Day,
and there was some shook their heads, and said we never ought to have
stopped the ring, for a broken peal broke life or happiness. But what
was we to do?"
"Did they strengthen the tower afterwards?" Westray asked. "Do you
find any excessive motion when the peal is rung now?"
"Lor' bless you, sir; them bells was never rung for thirty years afore
that, and wouldn't a been rung then, only Tom Leech, he says: `The
ropes is there, boys; let's have a ring out of these yere tower. He ain't
been rung for thirty year. None on us don't recollect the last time he
was rung, and if 'er were weak then, 'ers had plenty of time to get
strong again, and there'll be half a crown a man for ringing of a peal.'
So up we got to it, till old Parmiter come in to stop us. And you take
my word for it, they never have been rung since. There's only that rope
there"--and he pointed to a bell-rope that came down from the lantern
far above, and was fastened back