THE FIEND'S FIELD. 81
THE FIEND'S FIELD.
A LEGEND OF THE WREKIN.
“This desert soil
Wants not her hidden lustre;
Nor want we skill, or art, from whence to raise Magnificence. “MILTON.
A WILD tract of country is that which lies round about, and, in fact, forms the Wrekin; and well did the little dreary, desolate, and isolated hamlet of Wrekinswold merit its appellation. The few scattered cottages of which it consisted, stood on ground whose gradual swell assumed in some places the appearance of hills, but which are absurdly misnamed, when magnified, in school “geography-books, “into “mountains. “These hills, like many others, were, as well as the country for miles around them, at the period of which we write, a vast expanse of sterile, treeless heath, generally uncultivated; but were attempted to be turned into arable land, ill repaying the labours of the agriculturist, and far too arid to be converted into pasturage. The inhabitants of Wrekinswold were, consequently, a poor and idle race; and, hand in hand with their poverty and idleness, went ignorance and superstition.
Amongst the proprietors and cultivators of land, residing in the vicinity of Wrekinswold, was a man named Howison, who had, it was supposed, amassed a considerable fortune, by successful experiments upon the unpromising district in which stood his habitation. But Howison possessed another treasure-a lovely and beloved daughter, for whom he had toiled incessantly, and who, it was well known, was destined to inherit the fruits of his labours. This motive had undoubtedly, at first, stimulated the fortunate farmer to those bold agricultural speculations, in which the risk was exceedingly great, but the success, if achieved, splendid; yet, after awhile, losing sight of his original incentive to exertion, the love of lucre, for itself only, took complete possession of his soul, and he became a hardhearted, selfish, and penurious man. The poor have generally, except where they happen to be personally concerned, a great idea that divine retribution will almost immediately overtake the evil-doer; and the neighbours of Howison, who had readily attributed his uncommon prosperity to the peculiar favour of heaven, upon this lamentable change in his disposition, expected nothing less than to witness some terrible manifestation of its wrath; shall we add that their “wish was father to the thought. “At length their evil anticipations were destined to be gratified; and not one, but many successive bad seasons caused the farmer's crops to fail, and his cattle to be seized with an infectious disease. Howison was impoverished, but not ruined; and, whilst his avaricious heart was filled with grief, to find that he had lost the fruits of many years '
L
toil, a sudden and happy thought struck him, that his daughter should, at any rate, become the rich lady he had always designed her to be; the only difficulty was how to effect it.
At Wrekinswold resided a young fellow, styled Tony Ryecroft, of whom nobody knew any thing but that he was a very disorderly personage, considered himself a gentleman, dressed like a lounging, slatternly country squire suffered his neighbours to understand that he was as wealthy as idle; ( and far from ordinary was his idleness ) but whence came he and his money, or the means whereby he made it, was a mystery-for that make it he must, seemed evident to the boors of Wrekinswold, who could not believe that upon vice and idleness heaven showered blessings hardly obtained by the frugal, virtuous, and industrious. So some fancied that he must be engaged in the smuggling trade; others, more wisely, considering the inland situation of Shropshire, imagined him a shareholder in a mine, or generalissimo of a company of highwaymen; some, again, pronounced him to be “a limb of the law, “and others “a limb of Satan, “a distinction, be it however observed, without a difference in the apprehension of wiser people than the inhabitants of Wrekinswold.
Tony Ryecroft was an old and ardent admirer of Kate Howison; but the poor girl, by no means captivated with his ruffianly demeanour, slovenly attire, lax principles, and the mystery attached to his birth, connexions, and mode of life, had not only received his addresses with the contumely they merited, but had obtained her father's sanction to a union with her long and well-beloved Walter Burton-that is, as soon as gold should be added to the good and gentle gifts which nature had lavished on him. Howison, with his affairs in an unprosperous condition, now only became anxious to get his daughter off hand as quickly as possible, and recollecting that Tony Ryecroft was a husband for her at any time, ( and, as he had always protested, at any price, ) he scrupled not to declare null and void all stipulations and promises between himself, his daughter, and poor Walter; vowing that he would disinherit her if she did not immediately consent to accept the hand of Ryecroft. In vain Kate wept, pleaded, reasoned, and remonstrated; her father ( as fathers frequently are ) was inexorable. Poor Kate! to her such severity was new; and sad was the lesson she had now to learn, that adversity could steel the heart of a hitherto fond parent, though an irreligious man, against a faithful and loving child.
