Julia And Her Romeo: A Chronicle Of Castle Barfield / From "Schwartz" by David Christie Murray

The narrative portrays a rural parish where two neighboring farming families perpetuate a long-standing feud that shapes local alliances, courtships, and parish life. A comic, localized reworking of a tragic romance is driven by a meddlesome charm-worker nicknamed the Dudley Devil, whose mixtures of superstition, fraud, and occasional practical skill entangle lovers and neighbors. The story sketches vivid village types—a sentimental older woman who dotes on children, rival patriarchs of equal standing, and persistent gossip—and examines how antiquated beliefs, social rivalry, and small-town rituals govern behavior while offering irony and pastoral observation.