Mr. Poskitt's Nightcaps

(1911)

Stories of a Yorkshire Farmer

Re-told by J. S. Fletcher

Introduction:

Everyone who has had the pleasure of Mr. Poskitt's
acquaintance knows that that estimable
Yorkshireman is not only the cheeriest of hosts,
but the best of companions. Those of us who
have known the Poskitt High Tea (a much more
enjoyable meal than a late dinner) know what
follows the consumption of Mrs. Poskitt's
tender chickens and her home-fed hams. The
parlour fire is stirred into a blaze; the hearth is
swept clean; the curtains are drawn; the
decanters, the cigars, and the quaint old leaden
tobacco-box appear beneath the shaded lamp,
and Mr. Poskitt bids his guests to cheer up,
to help themselves, and to feel heartily
welcome. And when those guests have their
glasses at their elbows, their cigars and pipes
between their lips, and their legs stretched in
comfort, Mr. Poskitt has his story to tell. Few
men know the countryside and its people, with
their joys, their sorrows, their humours better
than he; few people there can surely be who
would not enjoy hearing him tell of the big and
little dramas of life which he has watched, with
a shrewd and sympathetic eye, during his
seventy years of work and play, of cloud and
sunshine. In some of these Nightcap stories
(so termed by their hearers because Mr. Poskitt
insists on telling them as preparatory to his own
early retirement, which is never later than ten
o'clock) he is sometimes humorous and sometimes
tragic. I trust the re-telling of them may
give some pleasure to folk who must imagine
for themselves the cheery glow of Mr. Poskitt's
hearth.

J. S. FLETCHER.

London, May, 1910.

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