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Excerpt from The Banishment of Jessop Blythe: A Novel
They were a company of English rope-makers. For two hundred years they and their ancestors had been tenants under the Dukes of Devonshire. In this current year of grace the toilers occupy the building in which their fore fathers worked, and on the same easy terms. They pay no rent, nor ever did. Yet they possess the most wonder ful house of labour in the world. It is the entrance to what is known to topography as the Devil's Hole; but if ever building gave special evidence of the Divine hand it is to be seen in the great cavern of the High Peak of Derbyshire. It has a dome and a nave that dwarf St. Peter's and St Paul's. The ropers' drum and wheels and ¿ying yarn make a music of their own. It is as if the men and women gave tunes to the cordage which they spin. The strings of the industrial harp are many and various. Once in a way a woman's voice rises above the buzz of the rotating yarn, and the chorus breaks the monotony of the daily toil. This is generally a jubilate in which the younger voices ¿ing out the refrain with open throats Happy Land! Happy Land. What e'er my fate in life may be; Still again, still again, my heart shall cling to Thee I.
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