Of these I but
remember tall old Miss Wintletop, most entertaining of rustic old
maids, with her nice lace and thick satin, and her small, kindly round
face--pretty, I dare say, in other days, and now frosty, but kindly--who
told us such delightful old stories of the county in her father's and
grandfather's time; who knew the lineage of every family in it, and could
recount all its duels and elopements; give us illustrative snatches from
old election squibs, and lines from epitaphs, and tell exactly where all
the old-world highway robberies had been committed: how it fared with the
chief delinquents after the assizes; and, above all, where, and of what
sort, the goblins and elves of the county had made themselves seen, from
the phantom post-boy, who every third night crossed Windale Moor, by the
old coach-road, to the fat old ghost, in mulberry velvet, who showed his
great face, crutch, and ruffles, by moonlight, at the bow window of the old
court-house that was taken down in 1803.
You cannot imagine what agreeable evenings we passed in this society,
or how rapidly my good Cousin Milly improved in it.
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