Page:Life of Daniel Dancer Esq..pdf/4

 there; indeed, in so neglected a state was the place for many years, that the house was entirely surrounded by trees, the fields choaked up with underwood, and the hedges of such an amazing height as wholly to exclude the prospect of mankind, and create a dreary gloom all around.

Dancer's house exhibited a complete picture of misery and desolation. Among other odd circumstances, a tree had actually pushed its top through the roof, and contributed not a little, by means of its branches, to shelter the wretched inhabitants from the inclemency of the weather.

Dancer had a sister, who lived with him till her death, and whose disposition exactly corresponded with his own. The fare of this saving couple was invariably the same. On a Sunday they boiled a sticking of beef, with fourteen hard dumplings which always lasted during the whole week; an arrangement which no consideration could scarcely induce them to alter, excepting through some circumstances like the following. Dancer accustomed himself to wander over the common in search of any stray locks of wool, cast-horse shoes, old iron, or pieces of paper, and even to collect the dung of sheep under the hedges. In one of these perambulations, he found a sheep which had died from natural disease; this prize he instantly threw over his shoulder and