E-text prepared by Bethanne M. Simms, Sigal Alon, Mary Meehan,
and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
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BY
NEW YORK
THE A.D. PORTER CO.
PUBLISHERS
Chapter I. Seat-Sandal
Chapter II. The Sheep-Shearing
Chapter III. Julius Sandal
Chapter IV. Thus runs the World away
Chapter V. Charlotte
Chapter VI. The Day before Christmas
Chapter VII. Wooing and Wedding
Chapter VIII. The Enemy in the Household
Chapter IX. Esau
Chapter X. The New Squire
Chapter XI. Sandal And Sandal
"This happy breed of men, this little world."
"To know
That which before us lies in daily life
Is the prime wisdom."
"All that are lovers of virtue ... be quiet, and go a-angling."
There is a mountain called Seat-Sandal,between the Dunmail Raise and GrisedalePass; and those who have stood upon its summitknow that Grasmere vale and lake lie attheir feet, and that Windermere, Esthwaite, andConiston, with many arms of the sea, and agrand brotherhood of mountains, are all aroundthem. There is also an old gray manor-houseof the same name. It is some miles distantfrom the foot of the mountain, snugly shelteredin one of the loveliest valleys between Conistonand Torver. No one knows when the firststones of this house were laid. The Sandalswere in Sandal-Side when the white-handed,waxen-faced Edward was building WestminsterAbbey, and William the Norman was layingplans for the crown of England. Probably theycame with those Norsemen who a century earliermade the Isle of Man their headquarters,and from it, landing on the opposite coast ofCumberland, settled themselves among valleysand lakes and mountains of primeval beauty,which must have strongly reminded them oftheir native land.
For the prevailing names of this district areall of the Norwegian type, especially suchabounding suffixes and prefixes as seat from"set," a dwelling; dale from "dal," a valley; fellfrom "fjeld," a mountain; garth from "gard,"an enclosure; and thwaite, from "thveit," aclearing. It is certain, also, that, in spite ofmuch Anglo-Saxon admixture, the salt bloodof the roving Viking is still in the Cumberlanddalesman. Centuries of bucolic isolation havenot obliterated it. Every now and then the