
#Kingdom rush forsaken valley full#
The elegant young lady, as she had a full right to be called if she cared for the definition, arrested all the local attention when she emerged into the summer-evening light with that diadem-and-sceptre bearing - many people for reasons of heredity discovering such graces only in those whose vestibules are lined with ancestral mail, forgetting that a bear may be taught to dance. Latterly she had brought the girl to England to live under her roof as daughter and companion, the condition attached being that Ethelberta was never openly to recognize her relations, for reasons which will hereafter appear. She took by the hand the forlorn Ethelberta - who seemed rather a detached bride than a widow - and finished her education by placing her for two or three years in a boarding-school at Bonn. These calamities were a sufficient reason to Lady Petherwin for pardoning all concerned. He, a minor like herself, died from a chill caught during the wedding tour, and a few weeks later was followed into the grave by Sir Ralph Petherwin, his unforgiving father, who had bequeathed his wealth to his wife absolutely. She became teacher in a school, was praised by examiners, admired by gentlemen, not admired by gentlewomen, was touched up with accomplishments by masters who were coaxed into painstaking by her many graces, and, entering a mansion as governess to the daughter thereof, was stealthily married by the son.

She was the daughter of a gentleman who lived in a large house not his own, and began life as a baby christened Ethelberta after an infant of title who does not come into the story at all, having merely furnished Ethelberta’s mother with a subject of contemplation. By her look and carriage she appeared to belong to that gentle order of society which has no worldly sorrow except when its jewellery gets stolen but, as a fact not generally known, her claim to distinction was rather one of brains than of blood. Petherwin stepped from the door of an old and well-appointed inn in a Wessex town to take a country walk. Chickerel as beings who come within the scope of a congenial regard. Such a reversal of the social foreground has, perhaps, since grown more welcome, and readers even of the finer crusted kind may now be disposed to pardon a writer for presenting the sons and daughters of Mr. Moreover, in its choice of medium, and line of perspective, it undertook a delicate task: to excite interest in a drama - if such a dignified word may be used in the connection - wherein servants were as important as, or more important than, their masters wherein the drawing-room was sketched in many cases from the point of view of the servants’ hall. On its first appearance the novel suffered, perhaps deservedly, for what was involved in these intentions - for its quality of unexpectedness in particular - that unforgivable sin in the critic’s sight - the immediate precursor of ‘Ethelberta’ having been a purely rural tale. The characters themselves, however, were meant to be consistent and human. A high degree of probability was not attempted in the arrangement of the incidents, and there was expected of the reader a certain lightness of mood, which should inform him with a good-natured willingness to accept the production in the spirit in which it was offered.

This somewhat frivolous narrative was produced as an interlude between stories of a more sober design, and it was given the sub-title of a comedy to indicate - though not quite accurately - the aim of the performance. Enckworth (Continued) - The Anglebury HighwayĤ7. Knollsea - The Road Thence – EnckworthĤ6. Sandbourne - A Lonely Heath - The ‘Red Lion’ - The HighwayĤ5. The Railway - The Sea - The Shore BeyondĤ4. The Doncastles’ Residence, And Outside The SameĤ3. The Hotel (Continued), And The Quay In FrontĤ2. The Hôtel Beau Séjour And Spots Near Itģ5. Knollsea - A Lofty Down - A Ruined Castleģ4. The Royal Academy - The Farnfield EstateĢ9. Ethelberta’s House (Continued) - The British MuseumĢ5. A Street - Neigh’s Rooms - Christopher’s RoomsĢ4. The Neighbourhood Of The Hall - The Road HomeĢ1. Near Sandbourne - London Streets - Ethelberta’sĢ0. The Lodge (Continued) - The Copse Behindġ8. Sandbourne And Its Neighbourhood - Some London Streetsġ3. A Lady’s Drawing-Rooms - Ethelberta’s Dressing-Roomġ1. Christopher’s Lodgings - The Grounds About Rookingtonĩ. The Dining-Room Of A Town House - The Butler’s PantryĨ. Sandbourne Pier - Road To Wyndway - Ball-Room In Wyndway Houseħ.

Christopher’s House - Sandbourne Town - Sandbourne MoorĤ. A Street In Anglebury - A Heath Near It - Inside The ‘Red Lion’ InnĢ. This online edition was created and published by Global Grey on the 9th February 2023.ġ.
