Michael Fairless

The Gathering of Brother Hilarius (eBook, ePUB)

• Format: ePub

Produktbeschreibung

CHAPTER I
BLIND EYES IN THE FOREST

Hilarius stood at the Monastery gate, looking away down the smooth, well-kept road to the highway beyond.  It lay quiet and serene in the June sunshine, the white way to the outer world, and not even a dust cloud on the horizon promised the approach of the train of sumpter mules laden with meats for the bellies and cloth for the backs of the good Brethren within.  The Cellarer lacked wine, the drug stores in the farmery were running low; last, but not least, the Precentor had bespoken precious colours, rich gold, costly vellum, and on these the thoughts of Hilarius tarried with anxious expectation.

On his left lay the forest, home of his longing imaginings.  The Monastery wall crept up one side of it, and over the top the great trees peered and beckoned with their tossing, feathery branches.  Twice had Hilarius walked there, attending the Prior as he paced slowly and silently along the mossy ways, under the strong, springing pines; and the occasions were stored in his memory with the glories of St Benedict’s Day and Our Lady’s Festivals.  Away to the right, within the great enclosure, stretched the Monastery lands, fair to the eye, with orchard and fruitful field, teeming with glad, unhurried labour.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: CAIMAN
• Erscheinungstermin: 5. Juli 2019
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9789881830302
• Artikelnr.: 59130824

Autorenporträt

Margaret Fairless Barber was an English Christian author. Her book of meditations, The Roadmender (1902), became a beloved classic. Barber was born in Rastrick, Brighouse, West Riding of Yorkshire, as the youngest of three girls. Her elder sisters and mother, Maria Louisa, nee Musgrave (1831-1890), first schooled her at home. Barber was an avid reader, but when her father, solicitor and amateur archaeologist Fairless Barber, died in 1881, her mother couldn't cope and transferred her to relatives in Torquay, where she attended a local school. It was here that she distxtered a spinal problem that would have long-term consequences for her life. She lived with her mother in Bungay, Suffolk. Barber traveled to London in 1884 to train as a nurse in a children's hospital. She also traveled to Torquay to care for a relative and performed philanthropic work in London's East End. However, her health continued to deteriorate, including her vision, and she was in constant need of care. To the dismay of her relatives, she was practically "adopted" by the refined Dowson family, who raised her in their house. Unable to continue her humanitarian work, Barber began writing under the pseudonym "Michael Fairless," inspired by her childhood friend Michael McDonnell (1882-1956), who later became chief justice of the British Mandate of Palestine.