This
accident has given rise to not a few feuds, Ufford being a large
county, with pottery, and ribbons, and watches going on in the
farther confines; whereas Rufford is small and thoroughly
agricultural. The men at the top of Bullock's Hill are therefore
disposed to think themselves better than their fellow-townsfolks,
though they are small in number and not specially thriving in their
circumstances.
At every interval of ten years, when the census is taken, the
population of Dillsborough is always found to have fallen off in
some slight degree. For a few months after the publication of the
figures a slight tinge of melancholy comes upon the town. The
landlord of the Bush Inn, who is really an enterprising man in his
way and who has looked about in every direction for new sources of
business, becomes taciturn for a while and forgets to smile upon
comers; Mr. Ribbs, the butcher, tells his wife that it is out of
the question that she and the children should take that
long-talked-of journey to the sea-coast; and Mr. Gregory Masters,
the well-known old-established attorney of Dillsborough, whispers
to some confidential friend that he might as well take down his
plate and shut up his house. But in a month or two all that is
forgotten, and new hopes spring up even in Dillsborough; Mr.
Runciman at the Bush is putting up new stables for hunting-horses,
that being the special trade for which he now finds that there is
an opening; Mrs.
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