The Withered Arm: The Withered Arms (Penguin Little Black Classics)

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She hastily repudiated any such wish, all the more from a curious creeping feeling that the condemned wretch's destiny was becoming interwoven with her own; and having engaged a room for the night, sat down to think. We learn that Gertrude cares for her husband and his opinions of her, and we know she is also hurt and upset because she cries. Later...

Mrs Lodge pushed up her sleeve and disclosed the place, which was a few inches above the wrist. As soon as Rhoda Brook saw it, she could hardly preserve her composure. There was nothing of the nature of a wound, but the arm at that point had a shrivelled look, and the outline of the four fingers appeared more distinct than at the former Moreover, she fancied that they were imprinted in precisely the relative position of her clutch upon the arm in the trance; the first linger towards Gertrude's wrist, and the fourth towards her elbow. Mrs Lodge was by this time close to the door - not in her silk, as Rhoda had dreamt of in the bed-chamber, but in a morning hat, and gown of common light material, which became her better than silk. On her arm she carried a basket. They crept up the hill in the twilight and entered the cottage. It was built of mud-walls, the surface of which had been washed by many rains into channels and depressions that left none of the original flat face visible, while here and there in the thatch above a rafter showed like a bone protruding through the skin. Now the LSWR had the opportunity to enter Cornwall, and to connect with its isolated Bodmin and Wadebridge line. A North Cornwall Railway company, supported by the LSWR, was formed to develop the northern part of the Cornish peninsula; its line was to leave the Holsworthy line (which was later extended to become the Okehampton to Bude Line) at Halwill and continue through Launceston to Wadebridge. The prospectus of the North Cornwall company indicated that a further extension of 24 miles (39km) would be required to bring the railway from Wadebridge to the county town of Truro. If she's dark or fair, and if she's tall - as tall as I. And if she seems like a woman who has ever worked for a living, or one that has been always well off, and has never done anything, and shows marks of the lady on her, as I expect she do.'

She was now five-and-twenty; but she seemed older. 'Six 'years of marriage, and only a few months of love,' she sometimes whispered to herself. And then she thought of the apparent cause, and said, with a tragic glance at her withering limb, 'If I could only be again as I was when he first saw me!' There are few more fascinating lines than the one which leads to North Cornwall from Okehampton" [2] says T.W.E. Roche in his popular tribute to the network of railway lines operated by the London and South Western Railway (LSWR) in North and West Devon and North Cornwall. She did not reply, but turned her sad, soft glance upon him in such heart-swollen reproach that he looked sorry for his words, and added, 'I only meant it for your good, you know, Gertrude.' She named to him some of the hundred medicaments and counterspells which she had adopted from time to time. He shook his head. I see I have come to the right house,' said she, glancing at the lad, and smiling. 'But I was not sure till you opened the door.'

The bridge east of St Kew Highway which carried the line over the A39 road. This section of the road has been bypassed to avoid the low bridge

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her voice was so indescribably sweet, her glance so winning, her smile so tender, so unlike that of Rhoda's midnight visitant, that the latter could hardly believe the evidence of her senses. Roche, TWE (1977). The withered arm; reminiscences of the Southern lines west of Exeter (newed.). Forge books. p.47. She had reached home after her day's milking at the outlying dairy, and was washing cabbage at the doorway in the declining light. 'Hold up the net a moment,' she said, without preface, as the boy came up.

But she's very pretty - very. In fact, she's lovely.' The youthful freshness of the yeoman's wife had evidently made an impression even on the somewhat hard nature of the boy. Ah! I thought so. Well, what's the matter about that? 'Tis no use to come here about the knot - folks do come continually, but I tell 'em one knot is as merciful as another if ye keep it under the ear. Is the unfortunate man a relation; or, I should say, perhaps' (looking at her dress) 'a person who's been in your employ?' The Melancholy Hussar" (5 December 1973, BBC2), adapted by Ken Taylor, directed by Mike Newell, and starring Ben Cross. The thin population meant that little intermediate traffic was generated, and a passenger service of four or five daily trains was operated almost throughout the life of the line. Tender engines were preferred on the line, the Adams Jubilee class being dominant at first, supplanted by the T9 class 4-4-0 being dominant in the Edwardian era. Until the mid-1940s the weight restriction over Meldon Viaduct and the short turntable at Padstow prevented anything larger than the Southern Railway mixed traffic 2-6-0 types from working over the line. However, after the turntable was replaced, the Bulleid Light Pacific locomotives were able to use the line. [4] On summer Saturdays in the 1950s, some trains loaded to ten coaches, and in that era the Standard 2-6-4T class came into use on the line. [11]

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Life continued much the same under the auspices of the Southern Railway, with on-going development of Padstow Harbour and some lengthening of passing loops to accommodate the ever longer holiday trains, which returned to the line in 1924, and which were the line’s lifeblood. Goods traffic was never that good, lots of variety but not in large quantities. There was slate from Delabole, fish from Padstow, rabbits from Camelford, Otterham and Tresmeer but the hoped-for agricultural traffic that had been anticipated and was so important on many another line never really materialised. This time she went alone, though she nearly got lost on the heath, and roamed a considerable distance out of her way. Trendle's house was reached' at last, however: he was not indoors, and instead of waiting at the cottage. she went to where his bent figure was pointed out to her at work a long way off. Trendle remembered her, and laying down the handful of furze-roots which he was gathering and throwing into a heap, he offered to accompany her in the homeward direction, as the distance was considerable and the days were short. So they walked together, his head bowed nearly to the earth, and his form of a colour with it. A similar use of the supernatural to build psychological effects is seen in “The Fiddler of the Reels.” The Fiddler is Wat or “Mop” Ollamoor, a veterinary surgeon whose pastime is playing the fiddle at inns, parties, and fairs. Although the men of the area do not care much for him, he seems to have an almost magical power over women when he plays. There is, in fact, something slightly satanic in his character; he “had never, in all likelihood, entered a church at all. All were devil’s tunes in his repertory.” One woman who is particularly affected by his playing is Car’line Aspent, who finds herself forced to dance whenever Mop Ollamoor plays, no matter what she is doing or thinks she desires. She is so caught up by the fiddler that she even detects his footsteps on the road by her house when he is on his way to visit another woman. Her passion is such that she finally rejects the marriage proposal of her former lover, Ned Hipcroft: “He could not play the fiddle so as to draw your soul out of your body like a spider’s thread, as Mop did, till you felt as limp as the withywind and yearned for something to cling to.” Wroe, David; Reeve, George (2008). An Illustrated History of the North Cornwall Railway (2nd (Reprinted, updated and considerably expanded)ed.). Clophill, Bedfordshire: Irwell Press. ISBN 978-1-903266-89-2.

She started just before the time of day mentioned between them, and half an hour's brisk walking brought her to the south-eastern extension of the Egdon tract of country, where the fir plantation was. A slight figure, cloaked and veiled; was already there. Rhoda recognized, almost with a shudder, that Mrs Lodge bore her left arm in a sling. I do - though I think the poor boy may have looked at us in the hope we might relieve him of his heavy load, rather than from curiosity.'

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An Imaginative Woman" (28 November 1973, BBC2), adapted by William Trevor, directed by Gavin Millar, and starring Claire Bloom. Camelford station in 1971 looking towards Launceston from the now-demolished road bridge. Photo by Roger Geach The former station building at Camelford station is now a private residence and former cycle museum The discussion waxed so warm that the purr of the milk streams became jerky, till a voice from another cow's belly cried with authority, 'Now then, what the Turk do it matter to us about Farmer Lodge's age, or Farmer Lodge's new mis'ess? I shall have to pay him nine pound a year for the rent of every one of these milchers, whatever his age or hers. Get on with your work, or 'twill be dark afore we have done. The evening is pinking in a'ready.' This speaker was the dairyman himself, by whom the milkmaids and men were employed. At Delabole the line skirts the slate quarry, and then descends to the Allen valley, diving briefly through Trelill Tunnel (333 yards, 304m), before returning to the Camel valley, crossing the river and joining the Bodmin and Wadebridge line into Wadebridge station.