CHAPTER I 



Early Days and Antecedents Curiosities of Kilvington The 

 Drink Habit How the Church was run The wonderful 

 new Rector What he thought of me Death of the Prince 

 Consort 



A FEW brief personal details may be necessary, 

 though they are not interesting. Iwas born at 

 Kilvington, near Thirsk, on 3Oth April 1851. My 

 father, the late John Pick Allison, was the son, by a second 

 marriage, of William Allison of Foxbury, in the north of 

 Yorkshire, who was born so long ago as 1766. I never saw 

 my grandfather, but he must have been a courageous man, 

 for he was fifty-two when he married my grandmother, 

 who was a maiden lady of forty-three. She was a Miss 

 Pick, of the family whose name is familiar in connection 

 with early turf records. My father was the only child of 

 this marriage, but there was a considerable family by the 

 first marriage of my grandfather. These, as the manner 

 is, regarded the second marriage unfavourably, and my 

 father and his mother had a bad time of it when the old 

 man died. 



It would be needless to dilate on this point, but I have 

 come across a letter written to my father by the Rev. Mr 

 Heslop, of Forcett, near Richmond, on 6th December 1853, 

 in reference to the death of his uncle, Henry Allison, of 

 Foxgrove, and this not only illuminates the position, but 

 is of considerable general interest as a sample of old-time 

 correspondence. 



That Mr Heslop was an old man at the time of the letter 

 is obvious from the handwriting and from the constant 

 employment of capitals for all the nouns that he uses. 

 His thoughts and style are almost of the eighteenth 

 century, but he was clearly a staunch champion of my 

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