Where Duncliffe is the traveller's mark,
And cloty Stour's a-rolling dark.
More than once he looked back in the increasing obscurity of evening.
Against the sky was Shaston, dimly visible
On the grey-topp'd height
Of Paladore, as pale day wore
Away... [William Barnes.]
The new-lit lights from its windows burnt with a steady shine as if
watching him, one of which windows was his own. Above it he could
just discern the pinnacled tower of Trinity Church. The air down
here, tempered by the thick damp bed of tenacious clay, was not as it
had been above, but soft and relaxing, so that when he had walked a
mile or two he was obliged to wipe his face with his handkerchief.
Leaving Duncliffe Hill on the left he proceeded without hesitation
through the shade, as a man goes on, night or day, in a district over
which he has played as a boy. He had walked altogether about four
and a half miles
Where Stour receives her strength,
From six cleere fountains fed, [Drayton.]
when he crossed a tributary of the Stour, and reached Leddenton--a
little town of three or four thousand inhabitants--where he went
on to the boys' school, and knocked at the door of the master's
residence.
A boy pupil-teacher opened it, and to Phillotson's inquiry if Mr.
Gillingham was at home replied that he was, going at once off to his
own house, and leaving Phillotson to find his way in as he could. He
discovered his friend putting away some books from which he had been
giving evening lessons. The light of the paraffin lamp fell on
Phillotson's face--pale and wretched by contrast with his friend's,
who had a cool, practical look. They had been schoolmates in
boyhood, and fellow-students at Wintoncester Training College, many
years before this time.
"Glad to see you, Dick! But you don't look well? Nothing the
matter?"
Phillotson advanced without replying, and Gillingham closed the
cupboard and pulled up beside his visitor.
"Why you haven't been here--let me see--since you were married?
I called, you know, but you were out; and upon my word it is such a
climb after dark that I have been waiting till the days are longer
before lumpering up again. I am glad you didn't wait, however."
Though well-trained and even proficient masters, they occasionally
used a dialect-word of their boyhood to each other in private.
"I've come, George, to explain to you my reasons for taking a step
that I am about to take, so that you, at least, will understand my
motives if other people question them anywhen--as they may, indeed
certainly will... But anything is better than the present condition
of things. God forbid that you should ever have such an experience
as mine!"