Mr. Harrison’s Confessions is an 1851 extended story by Elizabeth Gaskell about a doctor in a small English country town, benefitting from familiarity with the work of a general practitioner in her family. Episodes from the story and other works were adapted into the 2007 television series based on her novel Cranford. Plot Upon completing his studies at Guy's Hospital, Frank Harrison is invited by Mr Morgan, an old friend of his father, to join Morgan's medical practice in the small country town of Duncombe. Impressed by being welcomed with enquiries about his welfare as soon as he arrives, Harrison soon learns that the main occupation of the town is gossip. Of this Mr Morgan had already availed himself in order to establish the status of his young partner, knowing that the smallest hints will be magnified with each telling. Under Mr Morgan's instruction, Harrison is advised on professional behaviour and how to blend into the town’s conservative lifestyle. When he rents a house, Mr Morgan arranges for Mrs Rose, the widow of a neighbouring surgeon, to come and act as housekeeper. But there are ups and downs during the course of the joint practice. Neither doctor is able to save the life of the vicar's little boy from dying of croup; but when the gardener John Brouncker injures his wrist and is threatened with amputation, Harrison stands up to Mr Morgan and insists on a treatment that saves Brouncker's arm. Although Harrison's reputation increases among most villagers as a result, during the course of the dispute he had made an enemy of Miss Horsman, the town's most interfering and malicious gossip. The turning point in Harrison's affairs begins when he is visited by his friend Jack Marshland, who lets out indiscreet details about his past and compounds the mischief by making it appear that Harrison is secretly in love with Caroline Tomkinson, a patient approaching middle age. At the same time Mrs Bullock, the attorney's wife, is trying to force her step-daughter Jemima on Harrison, while Mrs Rose misinterprets a conversation with him as a declaration of love. The growing rumours destroy Harrison's standing and he is denied entry to Mr Hutton the vicar's house, with whose daughter Sophy he is really in love. All these complications are brought to a swift and melodramatic end after Sophy is sent away from home and returns dangerously ill. Only Harrison's intervention