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The House by the Church-Yard

The House by the Church-Yard

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A Prologue - Being a dish of village chat

Word Count: 3938    |    Released on: 18/11/2017

ions have changed, some old phrases dropped out, and new ones come in; and snuff and hair-powder, and sacques and solitaires quite passed away - yet men and women were men and women all

old inn, just beyond the turnpike at the sweep of the road, leading over the buttressed bridge by the mill, was first to welcome the excursionist from Dublin, under the sign of the Phoenix. There, in the grand wainscoted back-parlour, with 'the great and good King William,' in his robe, garter, periwig, and sceptre presiding in the panel over the chimneypiece, and confronting the large projecting window, through which the river, and the daffodils, and th

Martin's Row to slip between its flank and the orchard that overtopped the river wall. Well! it is gone. I blame nobody. I suppose it was quite rotten, and that the rats would soon have thrown up their lease of it; and that it was taken down, in short, chiefly, as one of the players said of 'Old Drury,' to prevent the inconvenience of its coming down of itself. Still a peevish but h

many a lord lieutenant, in point, and gold lace, and thunder-cloud periwig, sate in awful isolation, and listened to orthodox and loyal sermons, and took French rappee; whence too, he stepped forth between the files of the guard of honour of the Royal Irish Artillery from the barrack over the wa

y a traditional tenure among the families and dignitaries of the town and vicinage (who are they now?), and sigh for the queer, old, clumsy reading-desk and pulpit, grown dearer from the long and hopeless separation; and wonder where the tables of the Ten Commandments

nd all that, I believe the earth, or rather that grim giant factory, which is now the grand feature and centre of Ch

nd regretfully forth, through their glassy eyes, upon the changed scene.

hood for its gaunt and crazy aspect and dim interior, whence the clapper kept time mysteriously to the drone of

e tree - that stalworth elm. It has not grown an inch these hundred years. It does not look a day older than it did fifty years ago, I can tell you. There he stands the same; and yet a stranger in the place of his birth, in a new order of things, joyless, busy, transformed Chapelizod, listening, as it seems

adventure - perhaps, on the whole, more pleasant to read about, and dream of, than they were to live in. Still their violence, follies, and hospitalities, softened by distance, and illuminated with a sort of barbaric splendour, have long presented to my fancy the glowing and e

urate of Chapelizod. On the second day of his, or rather my sojourn (I take leave to return to the first person), there was a notable funeral of an old lady. Her name was Darby, and her journey to her last home was very considerable, being made in a hearse, by easy stages, from her house of Lisnabane, in the county of Sligo, to the church-yard of Chapelizod. There was a great flat stone over th

e same liking for horrors which I am conscious of having possessed - I only know that I liked the churchyard, and deciphering

d coffin had lain, and good store of brown dust and grimy bones, and the yellow skull itself came tumbling about the sexton's feet. These fo

ez,' said young Tim Moran, who had picked up the cranium,

cried two or three neighbours, get

dher;' s

rs o' Moll Kelly

wars!' excla

o chance for his life a

putting his finger into a clean circu

hem two cracks

Oh, I see you're ri

em a wipe i

ist, turned it about this way and that, curiously. But though he was no chick

the year '90, as I often heerd, for sthri

still eyeing the skull. 'It could not be Counsellor Gallagher, that was kilt in the je

Misther

e bottom, down there, sound enough to stand on, as you see, wid a plank; an' he was buried in the year '93. Why

u're right, M

ger undher ground by thirty

ches, stepped reverently and lightly among the graves. The men raised their hats, and Mattocks jumped lightly into the grave again, whi

aw them gently replaced, as nearly as might be, in their old bed; and discouraging all idle curiosity or levity respecting them, with a solemn rebuke, which all respecte

rds the foot of the grave; 'such a wonderful skull has come up! It

his work, got out of the grave again, with a demure activity, and raising the brown relic with great reverence, out of regard for my good u

'twas undoubtedly a murder; ay, indeed! He sustained t

just from behind my uncle, in a pensioner's cocked hat, leggings, and long old-world

r was hid under a black patch - and there was a deep red scar across his forehead, slanting from the patch that covered the extinguished orb. His face was purplish, the tinge deepening towards the lumpish top of his nose, on the s

ly, and touching his hat - for coming of a military stock him

eplied the man, reciprocating h

nterrogated the sexton, as one in auth

cried 'attention' to a raw recruit, without turning his head,

se skull that was, S

, you're a grave-digger, my fine fellow,' he continued, accosting the se

ong, my fine fellow, as yo

ok the skull from the sexton's hands; 'and I'll tell you mor

n?' said my uncle, who did not like t

remembered it like this morning - I could swear to it - when he laughed; ay, and that sharp corner to it - hang him,

enquired the curate, who could not understand th

- the Royal Irish Artille

pacity?' pursue

ered the mulber

me ago, I dare say,' said my un

was; but you see the sprig of shillelagh was too hard for him - ha, ha, ha!' and he gav

ng his hand hastily upon his arm, for the knock was h

Colonel-enSecond was General Chattesworth, and Colonel Stafford was Lieutenant–Colonel, and under him Major O'Neill; Captains, four - Cluffe, Devereux, Barton, and B

terposed my uncle, 'Fir

s,

does a Lieutenant

you see this old skull, Sir: well, 'twas a nine days' wonder, and the queerest business you ever heerd tell of. Why, Sir, the women was frightened out of

yes - the funeral has arrived; and for t

hurch, where he assumed his gown

mains re-deposited decently in their place; and then, having disrobed, I saw him look

way during the

' said my uncle, peerin

and we saw nothing of his cocked hat and red single-b

ndeed of anyone else there. So I returned, just as my uncle, having made the tea, shut down the lid of his silver tea-pot with a little smack; and with a kind but absent smile upon me, he took his book, sat down and

zly a memento, and of which in all human probability I never was to hear more, looked out dejectedly from the window, when, whom should I behold marching up the street, at slow time, towards th

ncle Charles, here

e, tripping in the carpet in his eager

un down, my boy, and

brought his left shoulder forward, thanked the curate, saluting soldier-fashion, with his hand to his hat, palm foremost. I've observed, indeed, than those grim old camp

d table by the fire, which, the evening being sharp, was pleasant; and the old fellow being seated, he brewed his nectar, to his heart's content; and as we

, with whose family I had the honour to be connected. And this journal, to me, with my queer cat-like affection for this old village, a perfect treasure - and the interminable bundles of letters, sorted and arranged so neatly, with little abstracts of their

tinted and saddened to my eye. My boyish imagination, perhaps, kindled all the more at the story, by reason of it being a good deal connected with the identical old house in which we three - my de

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1 A Prologue - Being a dish of village chat2 The Rector's Night-Walk to His Church3 Chapter 2 The Nameless Coffin4 Chapter 3 Mr. Mervyn in His Inn5 Chapter 4 The Fair-Green of Palmerstown6 Chapter 5 How the Royal Irish Artillery Entertained Some of t7 Chapter 6 In which the Minstrelsy Proceeds8 Chapter 7 Showing How Two Gentlemen May Misunderstand One Ano9 Chapter 8 Relating How Doctor Toole and Captain Devereux Went10 Chapter 9 How a Squire was Found for the Knight of the Rueful11 Chaptear 10 The Dead Secret, Showing How the Fireworker Prove12 Chapter 11 Some Talk About the Haunted House - Being, as I 13 Chapter 12 Some Odd Facts About the Tiled House - Being an 14 Chapter 13 In which the Rector Visits the Tiled House, and Do15 Chaptear 14 Relating How Puddock Purged O'flaherty's Head16 Chaptear 15 Sculapius to the Rescue17 Chapter 16 The Ordeal by Battle18 Chapter 17 Lieutenant Puddock Receives an Invitation and a Ra19 Chapter 18 Relating How the Gentlemen Sat Over Their Claret, 20 Chapter 19 In which the Gentlemen Follow the Ladies21 Chapter 20 In which Mr. Dangerfield Visits the Church of Chap22 Chapter 21 Relating Among Other Things How Doctor Toole Walke23 Chapter 22 Telling How Mr. Mervyn Fared at Belmont, and of a 24 Chapter 23 Which Concerns the Grand Dinner at the King's Ho25 Chapter 24 In which Two Young Persons Understand One Another 26 Chaptear 25 In which the Sun Sets, and the Merry-Making is Ke27 Chapter 26 Relating How the Band of the Royal Irish Artillery28 Chapter 27 Concerning the Troubles and the Shapes that Began 29 Chapter 28 In which Mr. Irons Recounts Some Old Recollections30 Chapter 29 Showing How Poor Mrs. Macnamara was Troubled and H31 Chapter 30 Concerning a Certain Woman in Black32 Chapter 31 Being a Short History of the Great Battle of Belmo33 Chapter 32 Narrating How Lieutenant Puddock and Captain Dever34 Chapter 33 In which Captain Devereux's Fiddle Plays a Prelu35 Chapter 34 In which Lilias Hears a Stave of an Old Song and T36 Chaptear 35 In which Aunt Becky and Doctor Toole, in Full Blo37 Chapter 36 Narrating How Miss Lilias Visited Belmont, and Saw38 Chapter 37 Showing How Some of the Feuds in Chapelizod Waxed 39 Chapter 38 Dreams and Troubles, and a Dark Look-Out40 Chapter 39 Telling How Lilias Walsingham Found Two Ladies Awa41 Chapter 40 Of a Messenger from Chapelizod Vault who Waited in42 Chaptear 41 In which the Rector Comes Home, and Lily Speaks H43 Chapter 42 In which Dr. Sturk Tries this Way and that for a R44 Chapter 43 Showing How Charles Nutter's Blow Descended, and45 Chapter 44 Relating How, in the Watches of the Night, a Visio46 Chapter 45 Concerning a Little Rehearsal in Captain Cluffe'47 Chapter 46 The Closet Scene, with the Part of Polonius Omitte48 Chapter 47 In which Pale Hecate Visits the Mills, and Charles49 Chapter 48 Swans on the Water50 Chapter 49 Swans in the Water51 Chapter 50 Treating of Some Confusion, in Consequence, in the52 Chapter 51 How Charles Nutter's Tea, Pipe, and Tobacco-Box 53 Chapter 52 Concerning a Rouleau of Guineas and the Crack of a54 Chapter 53 Relating After what Fashion Dr. Sturk Came Home55 Chapter 54 In which Miss Magnolia Macnamara and Dr. Toole, in56 Chapter 55 In which Dr. Toole, in Full Costume, Stands Upon t57 Chapter 56 Doctor Walsingham and the Chapelizod Christians Me58 Chapter 57 In which Dr. Toole and Mr. Lowe Make a Visit at th59 Chapter 58 In which One of Little Bopeep's Sheep Comes Home60 Chapter 59 Telling How a Coach Drew up at the Elms, and Two F61 Chapter 60 Being a Chapter of Hoops, Feathers, and Brilliants62 Chapter 61 In which the Ghosts of a by-Gone Sin Keep Tryst63 Chapter 62 Of a Solemn Resolution which Captain Devereux Regi64 Chapter 63 In which a Liberty is Taken with Mr. Nutter's Na65 Chapter 64 Being a Night Scene, in which Miss Gertrude Chatte66 Chapter 65 Relating Some Awful News that Reached the Village,67 Chapter 66 Of a Certain Tempest that Arose and Shook the Capt68 Chapter 67 In which a Certain Troubled Spirit Walks69 Chapter 68 How an Evening Passes at the Elms, and Dr. Toole M70 Chapter 69 Concerning a Second Hurricane that Raged in Captai71 Chapter 70 In which an Unexpected Visitor is Seen. In the Ced72 Chapter 71 In which Mr. Irons's Narrative Reaches Merton Mo73 Chaptear 72 In which the Apparition of Mr. Irons is Swallowed74 Chapter 73 Concerning a Certain Gentleman, with a Black Patch75 Chapter 74 In which Doctor Toole, in His Boots, Visits Mr. Ga76 Chapter 75 How a Gentleman Paid a Visit at the Brass Castle, 77 Chapter 76 Relating How the Castle was Taken, and How Mistres78 Chapter 77 In which Irish Melody Prevails79 Chapter 7880 Chapter 79 Showing How Little Lily's Life Began to Change i81 Chapter 8082 Chapter 81 In which Mr. Dangerfield Receives a Visitor, and M83 Chapter 8284 Chapter 8385 Chapter 84 In which Christiana Goes Over; and Dan Loftus Come86 Chapter 8587 Chapter 8688 Chapter 8789 Chapter 88 In which Mr. Moore the Barber Arrives, and the Med90 Chapter 8991 Chapter 9092 Chapter 9193 Chapter 92 The Wher-Wolf94 Chapter 93 In which Doctor Toole and Dirty Davy Confer in the95 Chapter 94 What Doctor Sturk Brought to Mind, and All that Do96 Chapter 95 In which Doctor Pell Declines a Fee, and Doctor St97 Chapter 96 About the Rightful Mrs. Nutter of the Mills, and H98 Chapter 97 In which Obediah Arrives99 Chapter 98 In which Charles Archer Puts Himself Upon the Coun100 Chapter 99 The Story Ends