This name recurs in the story of Penallt – including “the Miscellany” – so frequently that it is difficult to believe that one man could possibly be so active. But the following contemporary news item in the Monmouthshire Beacon justifies his almost legendary reputation. It is quoted in “Home Words” – the Penallt parish magazine of the time – for March 1891.
A paragraph in the Beacon, under the heading “An example of Perseverance,” referring to one of our own parishioners, Rushton England, deserves notice in our columns. It relates how that after serving 7 years apprenticeship at the Beacon Office, Rushton has been retained as one of the staff of that paper. During the seven years it relates how this persevering apprentice at the age of 14 walked daily to and from the office, for the first four years from Mitchel Troy Common and during the last three from Penalt, computing the distance traversed in this period through all kinds of weather at upwards of 12,000 miles, and the number of stiles vaulted at 16,000. It also notes his readiness to do errands for the country folk and carry parcels of all kinds, comprising boots and shoes, slippers, laces, drapery, grocery, newspapers, letters, meat, pills, needles, pins, thimbles and harness.
We can bear witness to his usefulness in conveying the Penalt Magazine to its destination, and the editors of that Magazine sorely miss him now that he has taken up his abode permanently at Monmouth. Rushton has also acted as bell-ringer and organ-blower at the Church, as Treasurer for the Reading Room, as reporter of district news for the Beacon, besides carrying on his own studies as a shorthand writer in his spare time in the evenings. We can also testify to his absolute integrity of character, and heartily wish him a brilliant and successful career”.
[from: Penallt Revisited]