The village, too, renewed itself with the new almshouses and church.
There were old houses rebuilt and fresh ones reared, and all are ours,
except the Why Not? which still remains the Duchy Inn. And that was let
again, and men left the Choughs at Ringstave and came back to their old
haunt, and any shipwrecked or travel-worn sailor found board and welcome
within its doors.
And of the Mohune Hospital--for that was what the alms-houses were now
called--Master Glennie was first warden, with fair rooms and a full
library, and Master Ratsey head of the Bedesmen. There they spent happier
days, till they were gathered in the fullness of their years; and sleep
on the sunny side of the church, within sound of the sea, by that great
buttress where I once found Master Ratsey listening with his ear to
ground. And close beside them lies Elzevir Block, most faithful and most
loved by me, with a text on his tombstone: 'Greater love hath no man than
this, that a man lay down his life for his friend,' and some of Mr.
Glennie's verses.
And of ourselves let me speak last. The Manor House is a stately home
again, with trim lawns and terraced balustrades, where we can sit and
see the thin blue smoke hang above the village on summer evenings. And
in the Manor woods my wife and I have seen a little Grace and a little
John and little Elzevir, our firstborn, play; and now our daughter is
grown up, fair to us as the polished corners of the Temple, and our sons
are gone out to serve King George on sea and land.
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