This ebook was transcribed by Les Bowler
THE
BLACK DIAMOND
by
FRANCIS BRETT YOUNG
LONDON ANDGLASGOW
COLLINS’ CLEAR-TYPE PRESS
First Impression | February, 1921 |
Second ,, | March, 1921 |
Third ,, | March, 1922 |
Fourth ,, | April, 1922 |
Fifth ,, | May, 1922 |
Sixth ,, | September, 1922 |
Manufactured in GreatBritain
p. iiiTO
M. Compton Mackenzie
GRATEFULLY : AFFECTIONATELY
p. 1TheFirst Chapter
Abner Fellows was born in the frontbedroom of Number Eleven Hackett’s Cottages, a four-roomedhouse of old brickwork that stood in the middle of a row oftwenty-one, set diagonally across a patch of waste land on theoutskirts of Halesby. The terrace was fifty years old, andlooked older, for the smoke and coal dust of the neighbouringpits had corroded the surface of the bricks, while the‘crowning in’ of the earth’s crust above thegigantic burrowings of the Great Mawne Colliery had loosened themortar between them and even produced a series of long cracksthat clove the house-walls from top to bottom like conventionalforked lightning. One of these lines of cleavage split theface of Number Eleven and ran through the middle of a plasterplaque on which the pious owner of the cottages had carved thewords:—
ISAIAH HACKETT:
GLORY BE TO GOD, 1839.
This plaque, together with the metal medallion of a fireinsurance corporation and two iron bosses connected with thesystem of stays by which Mr Hackett’s descendants had triedto save their property from collapsing, made the Fellows’shouse the most decorative feature of the row, and gave Abner afeeling of enviable distinction in his childhood long before heknew what they meant.
His father, John Fellows, like the rest of the tenants, was aminer. He had chosen to live in Hackett’s Cottagesbecause they lay nearer to the colliery than any other buildingsin Halesby and were within a reasonable distance of thecross-roads where stood his favourite public-house, the LyttletonArms. Hackett’s Cottages, in fact, hung poised, as itwere, between two magnetic poles: the pit where the money wasearned and the pub where it was spent. To remain there p. 2contented wouldhave implied a nice equilibrium, had it not been that eastward ofthe cross-roads and the Lyttleton Arms ran the Stourton Road,with houses on both sides of it, and amongst them the LordNelson, the Greyhound, and the Royal Oak. Next to the RoyalOak came the entrance of the Mawne United football ground, ands