Читать книгу Cherry & Violet: A Tale of the Great Plague онлайн

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Our first Floor was let to a very learned and excellent Man, though a very singular one, the Reverend Nathanael Blower, who had been Curate of St. Magnus till the Form of Religion changed. Then he was hard put to it, where to lay his Head without fleeing the Country or getting into Trouble; for the Independents were mighty intolerant; and he whom we used to think it a great Honour to get a passing Word and a Smile from, was now thankful to take up his Rest among us. Holy Writ tells us that some have entertained Angels unawares: if we entertained an Angel, it was not unawares, though he was a very eccentric and untidy one. He said he would have called my Mother the good Shunammite if it had not been a Shame to provoke Comparison between himself and the Prophet Elijah. Indeed his was somewhat like the “Chamber on the Wall,” for the Back-room in which he slept was a Lean-to that stuck against the main Wall like a Swallow’s Nest, and hung perilously over the foaming River, trembling at every half-ebb Tide; but Use inures us to Everything, and he said he slept as well in his Nest as a Sailor in his Hammock. As to his Sitting-chamber, it was soon a perfect Pig-sty (if Pigs ever had Books) of Papers, Parchments, Books, Pamphlets, old Shoes, Hats and Coats, Medicines, Cordials, Snuff-boxes, Pipes, Walking-sticks, and Everything that is untidy. After a Time he began to think whether he might not, by a conscientious Conformity, be a Working-bee rather than a Drone in the Hive; and, having some Acquaintance with Master John Howe, the Whitehall Preacher, who was known to be forward in assisting the Royalists and Episcopalians in Distress, if they were but Men of Merit, he went and took his Advice on the Subject before he presented himself before the Triers, that is to say, those who tried the ejected Ministers whether they might be allowed to officiate again in Public or not. Along with him went Doctor Fuller, so well known by his wise and witty Books; who was generally upon the merry Pin, for as pious a Man as he was. He, presenting himself before Master Howe, said,