The vestibule of the castle (used as a temporary parsonage)
is a low stable; above it the kitchen, in which are two
little beds joining to each other. The curate and his wife
lay in one, and Margery the maid in the other. I lay in the
parlour between two beds to keep me from being frozen to
death, for as we keep open house the winds enter from every
quarter, and are apt to sweep into bed to me.

Elsdon was once a market town as some say, and a city
according to others; but as the annals of the parish were
lost several centuries ago, it is impossible to determine
what age it was either the one or the other.

There are not the least traces of the former grandeur to be
found, whence some antiquaries are apt to believe that it
lost both its trade and charter at the Deluge.

... There is a very good understanding between the parties
[he is speaking of the Churchmen and Presbyterians who lived
in the parish], for they not only intermarry with one
another, but frequently do penance together in a white
sheet, with a white wand, barefoot, and in the coldest
season of the year. I have not finished the description for
fear of bringing on a fit of the ague. Indeed, the ideas of
sensation are sufficient to starve a man to death, without
having recourse to those of reflection.

If I was not assured by the best authority on earth that the
world is to be destroyed by fire, I should conclude that the
day of destruction is at hand, but brought on by means of an