OCR Text |
Show MMawaakoaafniwaaMMMaaMHiMwnMHHawMMli ( East Lynne Is Sold ty Village Made Famous by Mrs. Henry Wood's Popular Novel Under Hammer WBMnHMHaaMttNMWMVMMOMIMmMMnaWaMMIiMOaOTiVW (Special Correspondenco.) EaBt Lynno that la to say, tho village vil-lage which, under that name, Is tho Bcono of Mra. Henry Wood'a novel, "Enst Lynno" Is being Bold. The wbolo village la to go to tbo highest biddor nnd whoever buys in tho cb-tnto cb-tnto will find himself possessor of nn English pariah complete. Tboro Is tbo village, manor farms, pasture landn nnd orchards. On the map of England East Lynne figures na an obacuro but very ancient WorcoatorBhlro village under tho name Abbcrton. It is Abberton, however, how-ever, which contains tho hall in which Lndy iBabel bad her youthful homo, whoro 8ho roturnod as tho brldo ol Archibald Carlylc, whom Bho quitted lu nJlt of pique, only to roturn ngaln, dlBgulsed na Mme. Vino, to nurao her Rick child and then Co paas away nftor bnvlng confessed her folly and received re-ceived her husbnnd'H forgiveness. Fow popular novola, perhapa, bavo contained more glaring literary faults than "EaBt Lynno," but few have vvr equaled It In popularity. Mrs. Henry Wood wroto "East Lynno" In 1861, when It flrat nppearod in COlburn's New Monthly. Aa Boon as it was completed It wna issued in book form. It wont through edition after edition In Qrcnt Britain, wag pirated vigorously vigor-ously In America and translated Into ovory known language, Including Par-aco Par-aco and Hlndoostanl. Ono of tho librarians in Madrid, years after, told tho author's aon that tho moat popular pop-ular book on tho BbolvcB was "EaBt Lynne." For forty years It has as a play bad n successful -run on the atngo, Numoroua voralona of It wero p rod u cod between 18G1 and 1890, but from none of them did the nuthor profit a cont. "Ea8t Lynno'1 hns mado moro than $1,000,000 for othera, nnd only fnmo for Its nutTfor. Tho story Is, from tho modern point of vlow, dofectlvo lu nlmost everything every-thing which mnkcs a novel n work of nrt, but It ennuot bo said to lack incident in-cident or Interest. Half of Us popularity pop-ularity nt tho tlmo of Its publication was undoubtedly duo to tho reaction thou setting In against Inano nnd Impossible Im-possible goodness. Protest Analnst Usual Hero, It was a protost ngalnst tho conventional conven-tional horo, and on the stngo it was ono of tho earliest of modern "prob-lom" "prob-lom" plays, before "problem" plnya were1 recognized nnd labeled. It requires re-quires groat good will to tbo author to bollovo that tho berolno could roturn ro-turn to hor husband's house and ro-mnln ro-mnln there without tho husband Boeing Boe-ing through tbo transparent disguise of a pair of blue goggles. Modern criticism Is npt to eharnqterlzo Lndy Isabel as a very silly woman and her husband ns n very dense specimen of manhood. Whllo Mrs. Henry Wood was not skillful In charnoter drawing, she Is said to havd bad In mind a lormor owner of Abberton Hall wbon sbo drow Mr. Cnrlyla. This gentloman restored the old church and was generally gen-erally nd ml rod In the neighborhood for his uulfornt kindness nnd gonor-jbfiity. gonor-jbfiity. Abberton is the modern spoiling of th lSbrltou of the Domesday book, and it goes back to Savon tlmos, whan Its owner were the abbots of Por-shore. Por-shore. In the reign of Edward I. the name was changed to Albroton. and tn laS4 all the manorial rights nnd patronage of the parish wero granted to Thomas and Franc is Sholdon by Uaary VIII Until late in the olgh-iemh olgh-iemh century the Sholdocs bold tho mawor, but then the estate passed into tho haada of P. taslet, who rop-reoented rop-reoented the borough of Worcostor la parllamant for some years. Historic Parish Church. Tho parish ohurc,hof Abborlon pos-S08S03 pos-S08S03 nuiuy points of great historic Interest. It 13 believed to have been a chnpclry as early as tbo twelfth cen tury and Is dedlcnted to St Edburga tho saintly daughter of tho Saxon King, EdwardtheJJlder. From early childhood Edburga manifested man-ifested deep religious feelings and tbeso culminated In bor assuming tho voll of a nun in Inter years. It is told of her that when ono dny hor klngl father offered her glittering Jowolt-nnd Jowolt-nnd gold in ono hand and a book ol tbo gospels nnd a challco In tbo other sbo cbosa tbo latter. It was inevitable inevit-able that such n pious woman should have miracles associated with her name and many aro reported to have been wrought In romote times around her shrino nt Pershoro. Tho present church building is not tbo ono in which Edburga worshiped. There bavo been two restorations but somo portions of the windows of tbo old church still remain and there in a Normnn font which is well preserv ed, although credibly reported to bo 800 years old. Tomba Dating from 1CG9. There aro many magnificent tombs of tho Sheldon family, both at Abberton Abber-ton church and at Beoly. Thoso at Abberton date from 1659 and aro under un-der tho western tower of tho church. Tho register of tho church is also full of curious antiquarian interest, for it goes back to 1661 and has been carefully care-fully kept by a succession of rectors. Tho manor hall of Abberton is situated situ-ated within easy dlstanco of Birmingham. Birming-ham. It stands on an eminence surrounded sur-rounded by flno forcat trccB nnd commanding com-manding viows of tbo Malvern hills. Tho ball Is a commodious building nnd tho most Interesting relic of its early days is n stone and brick Elizabethan Eliza-bethan chimney, with tho dato 1019 carved on it. Flnvel Monor, which is also situated situ-ated In tbo pnrlsh, was onco tho prop-orty prop-orty of Guy do Beauchamp, carl of Warwick, who, however, lost It in ono of tbo social and political upheavals 1 '1SJ1S Parish Church, Abberton. of his time. At tho dissolution of tbo motuyUorlos all tho lands fell Into tbo hands of Henry VIII., who parted with thorn to tbo Sbeldons, and It was In this way that that old family came into in-to possession of tho ontlro parish. |