Excerpt from The Solitary Farm The young minister and the elderly. Skipper dis cussed the subject oi marriage in a shabby antique room of small size, which had the appearance of hav ing been used to more aristocratic company. The 'dark-oak panelled walls, the grotesquely-carved ceil ing-beams, the Dutch-tiled fire-place, with its ungainly brass dogs, and the deep slanting embrasure of the lozenge-paned casement, suggested Georgian beaux and belles dancing buckram minutes, or at least hard riding country squires plotting Jacobite restoration. But these happenings were in the long-ago, but this stately Essex manor-house had declined woefully from its high estate, and now Sheltered a rough and ready mariner, who camped, rather than dwelt, under its roof. Captain Huxham, seated on the broad, low win dow-sill, thrust his hands into the pockets of his brass buttoned pea-jacket, and swung his short, sturdy legs. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.