Introduction
Lady Mary Mason inherited Orley Farm from her husband, Joseph Mason of Groby Park, Yorkshire, who was forty-five years her senior and had a son of his own. A bitter, damaging court-case ensued. The Will was upheld, but later on Mary privately admitted she had forged it, and she never forgave herself.
I MAY, perhaps be thought to owe an apology to my readers in that I have asked their sympathy for a woman who had so sinned as to have placed her beyond the general sympathy of the world at large.
But as I have told her story that sympathy has grown upon myself till I have learned to forgive her, and to feel that I too could have regarded her as a friend. Of her future life I will not venture to say anything. But no lesson is truer than that which teaches us to believe that God does temper the wind to the shorn lamb.*
To how many has it not seemed, at some one period of their lives, that all was over for them, and that to them in their afflictions there was nothing left but to die! And yet they have lived to laugh again, to feel that the air was warm and the earth fair, and that God in giving them ever-springing hope had given everything.
Abridged
* ‘God tempers the wind to the shorn lamb’ (i.e. God is especially gentle towards those who are very vulnerable) is a proverb originally from French, but popularised in the English language by Laurence Sterne (1713-1768) in his novel A Sentimental Journey (1768).
Précis
Trollope admits that his leading character, Lady Mary, is seriously flawed, and that some readers might feel she is not appropriate as a heroine. But he also believes that her story invites sympathy and forgiveness, and reminds us that God himself is gentle towards those who have come to repentance through suffering. (52 / 60 words)
Trollope admits that his leading character, Lady Mary, is seriously flawed, and that some readers might feel she is not appropriate as a heroine. But he also believes that her story invites sympathy and forgiveness, and reminds us that God himself is gentle towards those who have come to repentance through suffering.
Variations: 1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 55 words. 2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 45 words. 3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: besides, if, may, otherwise, ought, since, unless, whereas.
Archive
Word Games
Sevens Based on this passage
Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.
Variations: 1.expand your answer to exactly fourteen words. 2.expand your answer further, to exactly twenty-one words. 3.include one of the following words in your answer: if, but, despite, because, (al)though, unless.
Jigsaws Based on this passage
Express the ideas below in a single sentence, using different words as much as possible. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.
Spinners Find in Think and Speak
For each group of words, compose a sentence that uses all three. You can use any form of the word: for example, cat → cats, go → went, or quick → quickly, though neigh → neighbour is stretching it a bit.
This exercise uses words found in the accompanying passage.
1 General. Her. So.
2 One. Shear. Their.
3 Learn. Over. True.
Variations: 1. include direct and indirect speech 2. include one or more of these words: although, because, despite, either/or, if, unless, until, when, whether, which, who 3. use negatives (not, isn’t, neither/nor, never, nobody etc.)
Add Vowels Find in Think and Speak
Make words by adding vowels to each group of consonants below. You may add as many vowels as you like before, between or after the consonants, but you may not add any consonants or change the order of those you have been given. See if you can beat our target of common words.
rst (7+4)
airiest. eeriest. reset. rest. roast. roost. rust.
resat. resit. roseate. roust.
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