The Project Gutenberg EBook of Krindlesyke, by Wilfrid Wilson Gibson

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Title: Krindlesyke

Author: Wilfrid Wilson Gibson

Release Date: July 3, 2006 [EBook #18743]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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* * * * *

KRINDLESYKE

BY WILFRID GIBSON

* * * * *

Macmillan And Co., Limited
St. Martin's Street, London
1922

Copyright
Printed in Great Britain

To

CATHERINE and LASCELLES ABERCROMBIE

NOTE

On the occasion of an obscure dramatic presentation, an early and
rudimentary draft of Book I. was published in 1910. It has since
been entirely re-written. Book II., written 1919-22, has not been
printed hitherto. Though the work was not conceived with a view to
stage-production, the author reserves the acting rights.

It may be added that, while "Krindlesyke" is not in dialect, it has been
flavoured with a sprinkling of local words; but as these are, for the
most part, words expressive of emotion, rather than words conveying
information, the sense of them should be easily gathered even by the
south-country reader.

W. G.

PRELUDE

Four bleak stone walls, an eaveless, bleak stone roof,
Like a squared block of native crag, it stands,
Hunched, on skirlnaked, windy fells, aloof:
Yet, was it built by patient human hands:
Hands, that have long been dust, chiselled each stone,
And bedded it secure; and from the square
Squat chimneystack, hither and thither blown,
The reek of human fires still floats in air,
And perishes, as life on life burns through.
Squareset and stark to every blast that blows,
It bears the brunt of time, withstands anew
Wildfires of tempest and league-scouring sn