East Anglia by James Ewing Ritchie — Read

Reydon Hall -- The clergy -- Pakefield -- Social life in a village.

As I write I have lying before me a little book called 'Hugh Latimer; or, The School-boy's Friendship,' by Miss Strickland, author of the 'Little Prisoner,' 'Charles Grant,' 'Prejudice and Principle,' 'The Little Quaker. ' It bears the imprint -- 'London: Printed for A. R. Newman and Co., Leadenhall Street. ' On a blank page inside I find the following: 'James Ewing Ritchie, with his friend Susanna's affectionate regards. ' Susanna was a sister of Miss Agnes Strickland, the authoress, and was as much a writer as herself. The Stricklands were a remarkable family, living about four or five miles from Wrentham, on the road leading from Wangford to Southwold, at an old-fashioned residence called Reydon Hall. They had, I fancy, seen better days, and were none the worse for that. The Stricklands came over with William the Conqueror. One of them was the first to land, and hence the name. A good deal of blue blood flowed in their veins. Kate -- to my eyes the fairest of the lot -- was named Katherine Parr, to denote that she was a descendant of one of the wives of the too-much-married Henry VIII., and in the old-fashioned drawing-room of Reydon Hall I heard not a little -- they all talked at once -- of what to me was strange and rare. Mr. Strickland had deceased some years, and the widow and the daughters kept up what little state they could; and I well remember the feeling of surprise with which I first entered their capacious drawing-room -- a room the size of which it had never entered into my head to conceive of. It is to the credit of these Misses Strickland that they did not vegetate in that old house, but held a fair position in the world of letters. Miss Strickland herself chiefly resided in town.