A Love Story, by a Bushman

A Love Story, by a Bushman

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Title: A Love Story
Author: A Bushman
Release Date: September, 2005 [EBook #8883] [Yes, we are more than
one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on August 20,
2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English

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STORY ***

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A Love Story
by
A Bushman.
Vol. I.
"My thoughts, like swallows, skim the main, And bear my spirit back
again Over the earth, and through the air, A wild bird and a wanderer."
1841.

To Lady Gipps This Work Is Respectfully Inscribed, By A Grateful
Friend.

Preface.

The author of these pages considered that a lengthened explanation
might be necessary to account for the present work.
He had therefore, at some length, detailed the motives that influenced
him in its composition. He had shown that as a solitary companionless
bushman, it had been a pleasure to him in his lone evenings
"To create, and in creating live A being more intense."
He had expatiated on the love he bears his adopted country, and had
stated that he was greatly influenced by the hope that although
"Sparta hath many a worthier son than he,"
this work might be the humble cornerstone to some enduring and
highly ornamented structure.
The author however fortunately remembered, that readers have but
little sympathy with the motives of authors; but expect that their works
should amuse or instruct them. He will therefore content himself, with
giving a quotation from one of those old authors, whose "well of
English undefined" shames our modern writers.

He intreats that the indulgence prayed for by the learned Cowell may
be accorded to his humble efforts.
"My true end is the advancement of knowledge, and therefore have I
published this poor work, not only to impart the good thereof, to those
young ones that want it, but also to draw from the learned, the supply
of my defects.
"Whosoever will charge these travails with many oversights, he shall
need no solemn pains to prove them.
"And upon the view taken of this book sithence the impression, I dare
assure them, that shall observe most faults therein, that I, by gleaning
after him, will gather as many omitted by him, as he shall shew
committed by me.
"What a man saith well is not, however, to be rejected, because he hath
some errors; reprehend who will, in God's name, that is, with sweetness,
and without reproach.
"So shall he reap hearty thanks at my hands, and thus more soundly
help in a few months, than I by tossing and tumbling my books at home,
could possibly have done in some years."

A Love Story

Chapter I.
The Family.

"It was a vast and venerable pile."
"Oh, may'st thou ever be as now thou art, Nor unbeseem the promise of
thy spring."
The mansion in which dwelt the Delmés was one of wide and extensive
range. Its centre slightly receded, leaving a wing on either side. Fluted
ledges, extending the whole length of the building, protruded above
each story. These were supported by quaint heads of satyr, martyr, or
laughing triton. The upper ledge, which concealed the roof from casual
observers, was of considerably greater projection. Placed above it, at
intervals, were balls of marble, which, once of pure white, had now

caught the time-worn hue of the edifice itself. At each corner of the
front and wings, the balls were surmounted by the family device--the
eagle with extended wing. One claw closed over the stone, and the bird
rode it proudly an' it had been the globe. The portico, of a pointed
Gothic, would have seemed heavy, had it not been lightened by glass
doors, the vivid colours of which were not of modern date. These
admitted to a capacious