The poor old gentleman often
looked back from his cart at the church spires of Barkington.
"From seventeen till now, almost fourscore,
There lived he, but now lived there no more.
At seventeen many their fortunes seek;
But at fourscore it is too old a week."
Arrived at his village, he had to sell his donkey and trust to his
crutch. And so Infirmity crept about begging leave to cure Disease--with
what success may be inferred from this: Miss Phillips, a lady-like girl
of eighteen, was taken up by Farmer Giles before Squire Langton for
stealing turnips out of a field: the farmer was hard, and his losses in
Hardie's Bank had made him bitter hard; so the poor girl's excuse, that
she could not let her father starve, had no effect on him: to jail she
should go.*
*I find, however, that Squire Langton resolutely refused to commit Miss
Phillips. The real reason, I suspect, was, that he had a respect for the
Gospel, and not much for the law, except those invaluable clauses which
restrain poaching. The reason he gave was: "Turnips be hanged! If she
hadn't eaten them, the fly would.
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