`At Kingsbere-sub-Greenhill: rows and rows of you in your vaults, with your effigies under Purbeck-marble canopies.'
`And where be our family mansions and estates?'
`You haven't any.'
`Oh? No lands neither?'
`None; though you once had 'em in abundance, as I said, for your family consisted of numerous branches.In this county there was a seat of yours at Kingsbere, and another at Sherton, and another at Milipond, and another at Lullstead, and another at Wellbridge.'
`And shall we ever come into our own again?'
`Ah - that I can't tell!'
`And what had I better do about it, sir?' asked Durbeyfield, after a pause.
`Oh - nothing, nothing; except chasten yourself with the thought of "how are the mighty fallen".It is a fact of some interest to the local historian and genealogist, nothing more.There are several families among the cottagers of this county of almost equal lustre.Good night.'
`But you'll turn back and have a quart of beer wi' me on the strength o't, Pa'son Tringham? There's a very pretty brew in tap at The Pure Drop - though, to be sure, not so good as at Rolliver's.'
`No, thank you - not this evening, Durbeyfield.You've had enough already.'
Concluding thus the parson rode on his way, with doubts as to his discretion in retailing this curious bit of lore.
When he was gone Durbeyfield walked a few steps in a profound reverie, and then sat down upon the grassy bank by the roadside, depositing his basket before him.In a few minutes a youth appeared in the distance, walking in the same direction as that which had been pursued by Durbeyfield.The latter, on seeing him, held up his hand, and the lad quickened his pace and came near.
`Boy, take up that basket! I want'ee to go on an errand for me.'
The lath-like stripling frowned.'Who be you, then, John Durbeyfield, to order me about and call me "boy"? You know my name as well as I know yours!'
`Do you, do you? That's the secret - that's the secret! Now obey my orders, and take the message I'm going to charge 'ee wi'....Well, Fred, I don't mind telling you that the secret is that I'm one of a noble race - it has been just found out by me this present afternoon P.M.' And as he made the announcement, Durbeyfield, declining from his sitting position, luxuriously stretched himself out upon the bank among the daisies.
The lad stood before Durbeyfield, and contemplated his length from crown to toe.
`Sir John d'Urberville - that's who I am,' continued the prostrate man.
'That is if knights were baronets - which they be.'Tis recorded in history all about me.Dost know of such a place, lad, as Kingsbere-sub-Greenhill?'
`Ees.I've been there to Greenhill Fair.'
`Well, under the church of that city there lie--'
`'Tisn't a city, the place I mean; leastwise 'twaddn' when I was there--'twas a little one-eyed, blinking sort o' place.'
`Never you mind the place, boy, that's not the question before us.Under the church of that there parish lie my ancestors - hundreds of 'em - in coats of mail and Jewels, in gr't lead coffins weighing tons and tons.
There's not a man in the county o' South-Wes*** that's got grander and nobler skillentons in his family than I.'
`Oh?'
`Now take up that basket, and goo on to Marlott, and when you've come to The Pure Drop Inn, tell 'em to send a horse and carriage to me immediately, to carry me hwome.And in the bottom o' the carriage they be to put a noggin o' rum in a small bottle, and chalk it up to my account.And when you've done that goo on to my house with the basket, and tell my wife to put away that washing, because she needn't finish it, and wait till I come hwome, as I've news to tell her.'
As the lad stood in a dubious attitude, Durbeyfield put his hand in his pocket, and produced a shilling, one of the chronically few that he possessed.
`Here's for your labour, lad.'
This made a difference in the young man's estimate of the position.
`Yes, Sir John.Thank 'ee.Anything else I can do for 'ee, Sir John?'
`Tell 'em at hwome that I should like for supper, - well, lamb's fry if they can get it; and if they can't, black-pot; and if they can't get that, well, chitterlings will do.'
`Yes, Sir John.'
The boy took up the basket, and as he set out the notes of a brass band were heard from the direction of the village.
`What's that?' said Durbeyfield.`Not on account o' I?'
`'Tis the women's club-walking, Sir John.Why, your dater is one o'
the members.'
`To be sure - I'd quite forgot it in my thoughts of greater things!
Well, vamp on to Marlott, will ye, and order that carriage, and maybe I'll drive round and inspect the club.'
The lad departed, and Durbeyfield lay waiting on the grass and daisies in the evening sun.Not a soul passed that way for a long while, and the faint notes of the band were the only human sounds audible within the rim of blue hills.
Chapter 2 The village of Marlott lay amid the north-eastern undulations of the beautiful Vale of Blakemore or Blackmoor aforesaid, an engirdled and secluded region, for the most part untrodden as yet by tourist or landscape-painter, though within a four hours' journey from London.
It is a vale whose acquaintance is best made by viewing it from the summits of the hills that surround it - except perhaps during the droughts of summer.An unguided ramble into its recesses in bad weather is apt to engender dissatisfaction with its narrow, tortuous, and miry ways.
