THE POOR CLARE

by Elizabeth Gaskell




CHAPTER I.



December 12th, 1747.--My life has been strangely bound up with
extraordinary incidents, some of which occurred before I had any
connection with the principal actors in them, or indeed, before I
even knew of their existence. I suppose, most old men are, like me,
more given to looking back upon their own career with a kind of fond
interest and affectionate remembrance, than to watching the events--
though these may have far more interest for the multitude--
immediately passing before their eyes. If this should be the case
with the generality of old people, how much more so with me! . . . If
I am to enter upon that strange story connected with poor Lucy, I
must begin a long way back. I myself only came to the knowledge of
her family history after I knew her; but, to make the tale clear to
any one else, I must arrange events in the order in which they
occurred--not that in which I became acquainted with them.

There is a great old hall in the north-east of Lancashire, in a part
they called the Trough of Bolland, adjoining that other district
named Craven. Starkey Manor-house is rather like a number of rooms
clustered round a gray, massive, old keep than a regularly-built