Stories for Our Girls, by Friendly Writers (Ed. by M.E. Townsend). [2 Issues of Ser.2, No.9,10].

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1878. Excerpt: ... THE THREE COTTAGES. PART I. The Mesne was a pleasant tract of land on the borders of a royal forest. It was richly decked with gorse, and heather, and fern. A few stately oak-trees and beeches bordered one side of it, and the branches of the silver-stemmed birch danced on the breeze, which was ever to be met there, even when the atmosphere elsewhere was dull and heavy. On the other sides the Mesne was bounded by the green enclosures of the forest, intersected by paths of rapid descent, which led to the mines and collieries of the district and to the cottages of the men who lived and laboured by day and by night in the pits and works. These habitations--mostly of a poor and miserable description--thickly studded the sloping banks; and the populous outlying district, which needed, but did not possess, a church and a pastor to itself, cost many an hour of toil and heartache to Mr. Leslie, the good Vicar of East W. The better class of the people, the native foresters, obeyed certain laws and enjoyed certain privileges, both of which were tolerably well defined; but these were constantly broken and infringed by intruders, termed 'foreigners' and 'squatters, ' who made their way into the district for the purpose of leading lawless lives, running up hovels for which they paid no rent, and turning out the few sheep they brought with them, or a donkey or two, or a pony, to find their own living in the forest. The days were past when the forest glades abounded with deer, offering to many wild spirits an unresisted temptation to make them their prey. Since their destruction the gentlemen who preserved game or possessed deer-parks in the neighbourhood, found themselves more annoyed than formerly by the stealthy visits, and sometimes fierce assaults, of poachers, capab..