Mary Ann Sate, Imbecile, page 28
But he hisself is proud
Will not admit defeat
So he say grandly
I have said my last word on this
I more experience than any doctor
In these five Valleys
If you wish these good people
To waste their money
Then that is yr affair
So he strides away into the house
Master Blyth and Ambrose are left there
Standing together ockerdly
Their lanterns hanging close
The yeller light furred in the dark
Ambrose did no a ways like Master Blyth
But now he say evenly
What you said is right
I know tis
So I shall go now into Stroud
I think you must say Master Blyth
But what of the money
Among us we shall find it Ambrose says
Thank you thank you say Master Blyth
I only hope he will not throw you
Out yr bed
What care I say Ambrose
Speaks as he always does easy and calm
There are plenty of other places I can go
I only hope Master Blyth say
His voice tremble bad
I wonder if he might cry
I only hope tis not too late for the child
I hope so too say Ambrose
Fitting his cap to his head
But at least now we have done all we can
Nobody may do more
If the child is takd
It shall not be for want of a proper doctor
He stand still for a moment nod his head say
Thank you Master Blyth for yr help
So that was that and Ambrose went
I did wait up then
Much later heard Ambrose come back
With that Mr William Burrows
From the dispensary
Mr Harland Cottrell shut in this study
Say nothing of it
Master Blyth go in with that Mr Burrows
They do seem to know each other
Rather cordially
Which do not come as a surprise
For tis Mr Burrows
Who has lent Master Blyth
The books as is hid under the bed
Containing those images of bodies
Cut into pieces the skin off
You never saw such iniquity
Yet what then came to pass
The child last through the night
Wake the next day
The day after sit upright
Wanting bread
So you say that Ambrose and Master Blyth
Were provd by this right
Yet that is not the case perhaps
Who can know
That question not much interest me
What I want to know is something else
For I watch all close
Why Master Blyth now speak his mind
To his father when in many a long year
He never has
Now he starts where might it end
What well of anger lies there unplumbd
What might he become
So Christmas pass
We dip down into deep winter once again
Oh how many hours of joy
Did I pass with Lucetta
Sometimes together we read
The Romance of Robinson Crusoe
The Pilgrims Progress of Mr Bunyan
Some also of that Mrs Radcliffe
Theories about the liberation of women
Which interest me less than the stories
But Lucetta talks of all that long
Or sitting peaceful near the fire
Deep in the evenings
It were a lengthy winter
Easter well passd afore
We come up into spring
Hold face to the weak sun
Some mornings
So many without food that winter
The mills oft stoppd and then
They has no choice but to throw theysselfs
On the mercy of the parish
Yet Mr Birch Nazareth keep us well enough
And what care I
For I am with my friend
All the while I watch her with Master Blyth
They conduct theysselfs course v proper
Pass in the lane or stand near the pump
Sometimes find they have cause
To walk to White Hill at the same time
Backwards and forwards to chapel also
What I see most is how he change
That day he spoke up to his father
Were only the beginning
She was the cause of all
For that was her gift
I think she loosd his tongue
Deep wisdom has Lucetta
For she see what other never do
She does divine that goodness
Is not necessarily dressd up
In smiles and laughter
Badness not necessarily the dark and silent
Can be all the other way about
As she say when we first met
She is not distractd by the surfaces
Sees through to the goodness of the human heart
This a powerful thing to behold
A lesson in life all should see
How love can change a person
So soon you hardly recognize he
Soon Master Blyth held up his head
Look direct in the eye
Question what is said
It never was so afore
No longer hide books under the bed
Yet leave them out on the table
I take care not to look
For fear of what I may see
Yet even on that question
I am provd to be misguide so it seems
For I do ask Lucetta about those images
Is she not frightd for Master Blyths soul
Does she not fear he has been hoodwinkd
By those resurrection men as does steal bodies
Use the dead for unholy purposes
Yet Lucetta only laugh at me
Course she says Master Blyth is engagd
In many enquiry into questions
With that good Mr Burrows in Stroud
Examining many questions of anatomy
A science may not always be discovrd
Only through the theory
This is the future Mary Ann
You have no need to fear
So she say and so I try to believe
One day I see her with Master Blyth
She does take his hand I see her fingers
How they close on the place the flesh was torn
When he did fall that day
How can she touch him there
It troubles me to see it
As though someone had touchd
The scar on my lip
I feel I have seed something indecent
Yet still I watch them
For there was little else to watch
Mr Harland Cottrell takd up now
With the study of phrenology
Measuring all our heads
With many diverse instruments
Master Ned oft not home til late
Or not home at all
Stay with his friends in Stroud
That even more so since Lucetta did spurn he
Perhaps he feels some ockerdness
I do not know
He has takd a job with a bookseller
One Mr John Brisley in the town of Stroud
A man who is well knowd to be a radical
Much gainst his fathers wishes
Tis not a job fit for he
But what does Master Ned really do
I do not know
There is much gossip
Even in these Stroud Valleys now
There is political unions formd
With petitions and protests and speeches
The times are stirring
Everything is put out of joint
Many a calf is born with six legs I am told
Yet I never see one
Druids tis say do come in the church at Stroud
Preachers are abroad
Talk the end of the world is nigh
One comes and bangs a pan out in the yard
Sings a wailing song
Of how God will take us all soon
Nettie throws a ladle out the winder at he
I rather go onto the next world now
So she say
If the other choice
Is to listen to he gibberwoling
I find the days long
Oft no one at all but Nettie and me
My work gives me less pleasure
For the situation of this house worse than evr
What pleasure is there
To polish a board to shining
When the board is deeply crackd
Falling away into the earth below
How can I clean a winder that is brokd
Or get mould off the walls
When they do run water
Perhaps tis a cause of this malcontent
That I begin to dream many stories
Make worlds inside my head
This I have always done
With highwaymen and pirates and goblins
Such tales as come
From ballads and pamphlets
But now the worlds in my head
Are inhabitd by some who live real
Soon they do become more fact
Than the world I inhabit
In these worlds are always my dear Lucetta
With her Master Blyth they is marrid
How I think of them is live in a house
Like the ones new built just outside Stroud
In that house are no crackd boards
Or mould or buckets catching water
There you polish a board and it shines fine
In that house is blossoming happiness
She become a Monitor in a school
No longer the nastry toil of the mills
Yet where am I in this dream
That is what is troublesome
Always I think myself there with them
I am hird as a maid there
Or perhaps we both become Monitors
Maybe it could be so since I read now
As well as any
Have read many many books
For that at least I may evr do
In that little house of my mind
Lucetta and I sit together in the evenings
As we do now
Reading the word of the Lord
Or perhaps the sermons of Jeremy Taylor
We do both much enjoy
These dreams are my girt pleasure
But behind them lies a worry
What if the dream should come to pass
I am not part of it
Soon I am sure twill happen
Lucetta will marry
Even though she says she no a ways will
Has no interest to
Then she will go away
That I cannot even think
Yet sometimes lying abed next to Nettie
Unable to sleep
I find myself weeping with fear of it
Then one evening come when I am tird
My cakers swolld for several days
I have womens aches sawing inside
Lucetta sitting with her sewing
Talking merrily of her old life in Oxford
How she should like to see that place again
Or perhaps go to visit her sisters
All of a sudden I am engulfd in fears
Start to weep like a child
Oh I am ashamd
Yet Lucetta takes me in her arms much concernd
Mary Ann Mary Ann what ails you
So ovrcome am I
I cannot stop myself from speaking
Oh Lucetta I am afeard you will leave me
Lucetta shake her head Hold my hand
Oh I remember how soft was her touch
How her warmth did fill my whole body
She say to me
Mary Ann You must know I love you dear
You are a sister to me
We shall never be partd
Do you not know that is true
I sat for a long time with her
My head rest gainst her shoulder
The rustle and creak of the wind in the chimbley
Nettie snoring somewhere atop the stairs
I felt then such peace
The next day even more
For Lucetta gave me a lock of her hair
She had twistd it neat in a plait
Made a tiny basket for it
From pieces of straw
After that I was happy
Oh so happy
For though soon she might marry Master Blyth
Yet I had no need to fear
For the love of sisters
Is not changd by marriage
Or even by the distance of mile
The love of sisters abear all she say
And this the truth
For so do I love her deep even now
The spring then bustle in
And the situation in the country
Become perilous
Tis said two hundred thousand
Are massd at Birmingham
Though Mr Thomas Attwood
Does call for peace and calm
He does also say
These men cannot be held back much longer
In Stroud members of the gentry
Have been cruelly set upon and robbd
All must lock up every barn byre shed
Diverse chains stold one night
From Mr Fluck at Pitchcombe Mill
Even at Hammonds cross the Valley
They have a bee hive wickdly takd
Fish from many ponds have gone
Mr Harland Cottrell come into the kitchen
Was a soft evening the light hazy
Bellow at us all as is now his way
Many have tried to tell he is deaf
Must get hisself an ear trumpet
Yet he seems not to hear
Which is perhaps not surprising
Ambrose is there as well
Also Lucetta and Mr Birch Nazareth
For tis being said now the way forward
Is for all as have any money in a bank
To take it out now without delay
For only a crash in the financials
Will bring the Government to sense
The cry everywhere is Stop The Duke Go For Gold
And Mr Harland Cottrell
Having considerd long his conscience
In quiet communion with his God
Does feel action such as this
Is indeed need for the safety of this
Our noble country of England
We all nod seriously and thank he
For this his support of a just and worthy cause
May do much for the welfare of the common man
But after he has gone is some levity
For as Ambrose say
Oh yes certainly
If Mr Harland Cottrell takes his vast fortune
Out of the bank in Stroud
Surely this will bring that Government
Quaking and quivering down on bend knee
This be a far girter cause of national concern
Than two hundred thousand in Birmingham
Nettie and Mr Birch Nazareth snort laughter
Yet not too loud for they may be heard
Soon Ambrose making us laugh all the more
By pretending to be Mr Harland Cottrell
Wagging hard his finger and his nose
Shaking his head v solemn
We should not have laughd so
Particular as the conditions continue grave
With many new constables being sworn in
Yet still we never thought that danger
Should come in our own lives
I remember it well an eve twas
The skye then colourless and low
So all the depth shade the Valleys
Seem flat and draind
The air strangely warm and still
As I step out to breathe the air
What should I see but Ambrose
A coming up the lane from Cally Well
Pulling with he a horse labouring
To carry a body slung cross he
So I run down yet Ambrose shout me back
Go and fetch Mr Harland Cottrell
Nettie now at the back door also see
She call Mr Harland Cottrell
Who what mercy is at home
So also Master Blyth
Immediately they set to get Master Ned down
For so we see tis he
Mr Harland Cottrell praying again and again
The mercy of God
Master Ned say I try to stop they
He was attackd I tried to stop they
They set upon him say he
For he has much money in his bag
I tried to stop them so
So the story does emerge
How one of the men of Biddle and Bishop
Who is taking money back to Stroud
Has been beaten about
