The Withered Arm: The Withered Arms (Penguin Little Black Classics)

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The 1938 Bradshaw's Railway Guide [13] shows five down and six up trains a day (Monday to Friday) on the line, plus a first up train from Launceston to Halwill and a last up train from Padstow to Launceston, and a last down train from Halwill to Launceston. All the trains called at all stations with the exception of the Atlantic Coast Express, the 11:00 from Waterloo, which ran non-stop Exeter St Davids to Halwill, then Launceston, Otterham, Camelford, Delabole, Port Isaac Road and Wadebridge, arriving in Padstow at 4:24 after a 260-mile (420km) journey. The train conveyed a restaurant car throughout. The Saturday service was similar, although congestion earlier in the journey meant a slightly slower journey. There was no Sunday service. The Fiddler of the Reels” is set in a time of great change for England in general and Wessex in particular. The events in the story take place during the year of the first world fair, the Great Exposition of 1851. There is a strong contrast between this homage to the industrial revolution and the more mystic and communal affairs of a small, obscure village. The coming of the railroad to that village is just one sign of the disappearance of a way of life which had lasted for centuries. It is because of these changes which were rapidly transforming Hardy’s country during his lifetime that many of his short stories and tales are set in the past. Damned if you won't poison yourself with these apothecary messes and witch mixtures some time or other,' said her husband, when his eye chanced to fall upon the multitudinous array. Initially, in 1888, the collection contained five stories, all previously published in periodicals.... The Withered Arm and Other Stories is a collection of short fiction by English poet and novelist Thomas Hardy. It consists of works produced between 1874 and 1888, each of which takes place in a fictional region of Britain called “Wessex.” The stories involve local folklore, superstition, and myth to build brief, yet complex character sketches of the unique people who live in Wessex. In making these characterizations, Hardy invokes a variety of genres, from ghost story to suspense.

The Great Western Railway (GWR) already had a station at Launceston, opened in 1865, and the North Cornwall Railway station was built adjacent to it. At Wadebridge, the line joined with the Bodmin and Wadebridge line; the original station had been expanded when the GWR line from Bodmin was opened in 1888. Wroe, David; Reeve, George (2008). An Illustrated History of the North Cornwall Railway (2nd (Reprinted, updated and considerably expanded)ed.). Clophill, Bedfordshire: Irwell Press. ISBN 978-1-903266-89-2. Teach the core principles of the GCSE English Paper 1 Exam with this handy set of Fiction Extracts for KS4, each of which is designed to be similar to those on actual GCSE papers. Perfect for revising both the GCSE English Paper 1 Exam and the features of Fiction Extracts for KS4, the questions on the worksheets relate to key comprehension, structure and language. Our Fiction Extracts for KS4 include: Mrs Lodge pushed up her sleeve and disclosed the place, which was a few inches above the wrist. As soon as Rhoda Brook saw it, she could hardly preserve her composure. There was nothing of the nature of a wound, but the arm at that point had a shrivelled look, and the outline of the four fingers appeared more distinct than at the former Moreover, she fancied that they were imprinted in precisely the relative position of her clutch upon the arm in the trance; the first linger towards Gertrude's wrist, and the fourth towards her elbow.Y he de decir que regresar a Hardy fue como volver a casa. Me maravilla su narración. Las descripciones de la naturaleza son tan nítidas que puedes sentir la brisa, el olor a hierba fresca, a tierra, el sudor penetrante de los animales. Así como también se palpa la misma naturaleza humana: la tristeza, el miedo, el rencor. Es delicioso leerlo. Tis sold by the inch afterwards,' the man continued. 'I could get you a bit, miss, for nothing, if you'd like?' The subject was no more alluded to during the long and dreary walk home. But in some way or other a story was whispered about the many-dairied lowland that winter that Mrs Lodge's gradual loss of the use of her left arm was owing to her being 'overlooked' by Rhoda Brook. The latter kept her own counsel about the incubus, but her face grew sadder and thinner; and in the spring she and her boy disappeared from the neighbourhood of Holmstoke. She did nothing for months, and patiently bore her disfigurement as before. But her woman's nature, craving for renewed love, through the medium of renewed beauty (she was but twenty-five), was ever stimulating her to try what, at any rate, could hardly do her any harm. 'What came by a spell will go by a spell surely,' she would say. Whenever her imagination pictured the act she shrank in terror from the possibility of it: then the words of the conjuror, 'It will turn your blood', were seen to be capable of a scientific no less than ghastly interpretation; the mastering desire returned;. and urged her on again.

The discussion waxed so warm that the purr of the milk streams became jerky, till a voice from another cow's belly cried with authority, 'Now then, what the Turk do it matter to us about Farmer Lodge's age, or Farmer Lodge's new mis'ess? I shall have to pay him nine pound a year for the rent of every one of these milchers, whatever his age or hers. Get on with your work, or 'twill be dark afore we have done. The evening is pinking in a'ready.' This speaker was the dairyman himself, by whom the milkmaids and men were employed. Throughout its existence the North Cornwall line had operated against the odds, its long line serving sparsely populated and relatively unproductive terrain. As the costs of unproductive railway operation came into focus following the Beeching Report, the line had only its romantic appeal to offer, with even the highly seasonal summer holiday traffic falling away in the face of road transport and more attractive destinations. It closed on 3 October 1966, the Wadebridge to Padstow section continuing to be served by Bodmin trains until it too closed on 28 January 1967. [11] After closure [ edit ] Mrs Lodge was by this time close to the door - not in her silk, as Rhoda had dreamt of in the bed-chamber, but in a morning hat, and gown of common light material, which became her better than silk. On her arm she carried a basket. a b Reade, Lewis (1984). Branch Line Memories Volume 3 Southern. St Day: Atlantic. ISBN 0-906899-10-9. On 7th September 1964 they withdrew the goods services from Okehampton, Wadebridge and Padstow and re-opened the Lifton-Launceston line for goods traffic only. On January 1st 1965 the last steam train ran on the line being replaced by diesel railcars which by this time were running a maximum of 4 trips a day and with no services running whatsoever on Sunday’s. On February 28th 1966 the goods services were withdrawn again with the line to Lifton being lifted. This was the precursor to the North Cornwall line being closed completely on October 3rd 1966.

Casterbridge, the county-town, was a dozen or fifteen miles off; and though in those days, when men were executed for horse-stealing, arson, and burglary, an assize seldom passed without a hanging, it was not likely that she could get access to the body of the criminal' unaided. And the fear of her husband's anger made her reluctant to breathe a word of Trendle's suggestion to him or to anybody about him. Also in 1943 an ’emergency’ spur ( above) was added at Launceston enabling a connection between the two lines. This spur was used for munitions trains during the remainder of the war, but would prove to be of use after the war to transfer traffic. After ‘D-Day’ in 1944 saw the line being used to transport ‘P.O.W.’s with many disembarking at Launceston for the Pennygillam P.O.W. camp. On Friday afternoon one of the men brought it round. She was dressed, and before going down looked at her shrivelled arm. 'Ah!' she said to it, 'if it had not been for you this terrible ordeal would have been saved me!' No - of a bluish turn, and her mouth is very nice and red; and when she smiles, her teeth show white.' And so the milkwoman's mind was chained anew to the subject by a horrid sort of spell as she returned home. The sense of having been guilty of an act of malignity increased, affect as she might to ridicule her superstition. In her secret heart Rhoda did not altogether object to a slight diminution of her successor's beauty, by whatever means it had come about; but she did not wish to inflict upon her physical pain. For though this pretty young woman had rendered impossible any reparation which Lodge might have made Rhoda for his past conduct, everything like resentment at the unconscious usurpation had quite passed away from the elder's mind.

She hastily repudiated any such wish, all the more from a curious creeping feeling that the condemned wretch's destiny was becoming interwoven with her own; and having engaged a room for the night, sat down to think. Through the medium of nominally independent local companies, the LSWR had reached Lidford (now spelt Lydford) in Devon in 1874, giving it access to Plymouth over the South Devon Railway, and in 1879 it built a branch from Meldon Junction, west of Okehampton, to Holsworthy in north west Devon.a b St John Thomas, David, ed. (1966). Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain; Volume 1: the West Country (3rded.). Newton Abbot: David & Charles.