But about the Christmas of that fifteenth year, a second great
change came over Marner's life, and his history became blent in a
singular manner with the life of his neighbours.
CHAPTER THREE
THE greatest man in Raveloe was Squire Cass, who lived in the large
red house, with the handsome flight of stone steps in front and the
high stables behind it, nearly opposite the church. He was only one
among several landed parishioners, but he alone was honoured with
the title of squire; for though Mr Osgood's family was also understood
to be of timeless origin- the Raveloe imagination having never
ventured back to that fearful blank when there were no Osgoods- still,
he merely owned the farm he occupied; whereas Squire Cass had a tenant
or two, who complained of the game to him quite as if he had been a
lord.
It was still that glorious war-time which was felt to be a peculiar
favour of Providence towards the landed interest, and the fall of
prices had not yet come to carry the race of small squires and
yeomen down that road to ruin for which extravagant habits and bad
husbandry were plentifully anointing their wheels. I am speaking now
in relation to Raveloe and the parishes that resembled it; for our
old-fashioned country life had many different aspects, as all life
must have when it is spread over a various surface, and breathed on
variously by multitudinous currents, from the winds of heaven to the
thoughts of men, which are for ever moving and crossing each other,
with incalculable results.
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