As to exactly where it is, well, Mrs Gaskell lived for many years in Knutsford, and it may be that some of her Cranford stories are borrowed from her experiences there.
If they are, then good grief Knutsford is well named.
An old lady had an Alderney cow, which she looked upon as a daughter.
As an opening to a story, I'm not sure anything could be better. You can find the whole tale HERE. It starts on page six.
Illustration by Hugh Thomson.
And by the end of the story, the Alderney cow was jolly well worth looking at, too.
Word To Use Today: daughter. This word comes from the Old English dohtor and goes right back to the Sanskrit duhitá.
Oh! Why is there not a picture of the cow in a flannel waistcoat and drawers!
ReplyDeleteThat would have made my day!
Ah huh! I went on a wee search, and found this:
Flannel cow picture!
That's better! :)
Oh, and I love archive.org. It's at the top of my favourites list!
Thanks very much, Jingles. I shall have to check out that site, which is new to me.
DeleteI wondered at the lack of illustrations of the cow, and can only suppose the editors ruled against it, either because it was a little risque or because it gave away the punchline.
Editors are very odd, sometimes.