|COVETON--well known to ancient coupled who took their first honeymoons
half a century ago--is one of those old-fashioned sea-side places that
resolutely refuse to be “improved,” and the denizens of which affect to
speak of Brighton as Brighthelmstone, and to treat it as a rival
upon equal terms. It has two very pretty inns, but there is so little
competition between them, that there is a shrewd suspicion that they
are under the same management; a few more houses have been built, it is
true, within the last half century, but they are all constructed upon
that same principle of fancy architecture, adopted at Coveton from the
first, and which perhaps I may term the Lowther Arcadian. At least I am
sure that the models of all its dwelling-houses are to be found in that
respectable metropolitan emporium: weather indicators, built for
the accommodation of an unencumbered couple; churches for the
dressing-table, in the front elevation of which you hang your watch
before retiring to rest; villa residences, down whose chimneys you drop
halfpence (or half-crowns, if you are so minded), for the encouragement
of missionary enterprise; and gritty erections for all sorts of
ingenious purposes, but which to the Uninstructed suggest only the means
of lighting a cigarmatch. You have no idea, unless you have been to
Coveton, how odd is the effect of a real village to the construction
of which these Lowther Arcadian principles have been applied; where the
doctors, father and son, live in a Weather Indicator (only, of course,
about five hundred times as big), and the former keeps indoors when it
is wet, and the son goes out in all weathers; where a genuine clergyman
lives in a magnified money-box, and you look up involuntarily at the
upper windows, in the expectation of seeing _Help the Heathen_ running
in a neat scroll between the first and second floors; and where the
gritty church has a real clock in the very place where the hole was left
in the model. The whole place looks, in short, as though some clever
child had built it out of a box of fancy bricks, after the pattern
of what he had seen on nursery mantel-pieces, or suspended from
Christmas-trees.
Not only is the place old-fashioned in itself, and resolute to resist
innovation, but the modern conveniences, which some enthusiasts have
endeavoured to import thither, have suffered by the unnatural coalition.
A branch-railway, for instance, has been attached to this Sleepy Hollow
from a great trunk-line; but the only result is that the railway has
become demoralised, and ceased to perform its functions. It goes no
faster than the four-horse coach, which still continues to run between
Coveton and the nearest provincial town; it is very uncertain in
its times of arrival and departure, and prone to delay, for with
old-fashioned gallantry, its trains never fail to stop to pick up a
lady, if she does but wave her parasol, no matter whether there is
a station on the spot or not. As to the supply of luxuries, or even
necessaries, the railway has been a total failure, and there is just the
same difficulty in obtaining a sufficiency of food in Coveton as in the
good old times--immortalised in a wood-cut at the top of the bills
of the _Royal Marine Hotel_--when his Royal Highness the Duke of Kent
arrived there in a carriage-and-four with outriders, and left a famine
in the flattered hamlet behind him, after a residence of forty-eight
hours. The most artful London bargainer who should take lodgings in
Coveton, and attempt to do her own housekeeping, would infallibly fail
to procure sustenance for herself and family. Nobody but a native can be
certain, for instance, of securing a joint of meat. You have literally
to “get up early,” if your ambition extends to anything of that kind. By
9 o'clock A.M. the butcher's shop--the facsimile of those which are
sold in the Lowther Arcade for children to play at “going to market”
with--has disposed of its single sheep, which lies dismembered
and ticketed with the names of its several purchasers, thus: _Miss
Robinson's leg; Mrs Captain Cooper's shoulder; the Rev. Jones' kidneys;_
and so on. No sheep will be killed again till Saturday next. Beef is
only to be looked for once a fortnight. Veal is an accident not to be
counted upon at all. Game--you might just as well ask for Bird's-nest
soup; and all the fish that is ever caught at Coveton goes as direct as
the poor shambling dawdling railway can take it to the great metropolis.
If you stay at either of the hotels, you will not indeed be starved,
because one half of the above-mentioned sheep is always divided between
those two establishments; but you will not find any more variety.
They are principally patronised by newly-married couples, who are too
intoxicated with happiness to be very particular about their comfort.
There are secluded arbours dotted about the pretty gardens expressly for
the accommodation of this class of the community; and when a new
arrival does not walk about the place with its arm round its waist (I am
speaking of course of that mysterious duality which makes one out of two
people), it walks about, hand in hand, like grown-up children. Nobody
minds, in this little village, where honey-mooning is the normal state
of visitors, and discreet behaviour the exception. Coveton itself,
though on a small scale, is lovely, and naturally attracts these
unsophisticated couples as to another Eden; there are a hundred winding
walks--with rather abrupt turnings, however, which I have heard objected
to as bringing folks face to face unexpectedly upon other folks who
are already in that position--and seats provided at the local expense,
commanding most exquisite views of the sea at all times, and of the moon
when there happens to be one; and I do not doubt that as pleasant hours
have been spent at Coveton as at any other place of its age and size
within the four seas. I do not, however, recommend any middle-aged
person, who has lost his taste for the mere vanities of life, and is
particular about having cucumber with his salmon, to put up at either
the _Royal Marine Hotel_ at Coveton, or the other. They are both
perfectly clean, it is true, but cleanliness is not everything, or else
we should all go to prison, or endeavour to obtain situations from the
Trinity House as supernumeraries in Lighthouses. It is not pleasant
to have one's bed and board in _one_ (the mattresses of the R. H. M.
indeed, I think, are of cast iron); and when one does bring a bit of
fish with one from town, one does not like it to be boiled in saltpetre,
through a misunderstanding connected with cooling one's champagne with
the best substitute for ice.
However, Mr Ralph Derrick, who patronised this particular establishment,
found, for his part, nothing to complain of, except that its half-pints
of brandy were exceptionally small; he therefore ordered a second after
his dinner, and inquired of the waiter who brought it where Jacob Forest
lived, and which was the nearest way of getting to his cottage.
“Jacob Forest, sir; yes, sir. You don't mean _William Forest_, perhaps,
sir?” answered the waiter, gently whisking his napkin like a horse's
tail, and with an air of patronage in his tone, as though he would say:
“I am very well aware you have made a mistake, so I do not hesitate to
own it.”
“No, I don't mean William Forest, nor yet Nebuchadneser Forest, nor
Beelzebub Forest, if those names happen to run in the family,” rejoined
Derrick impatiently. “I mean simply Jacob Forest.”
“Beg pardon, sir, I'm sure, sir. But such an exceedingly old person, and
so seldom inquired after; whereas, you see, William, he's a boat or two
to let; and if you are anything in the shell or fossil line, he's quite
an authority.--Mr Jacob's cottage, sir? Well, sir, the fact is, he has
not lived in what you call a cottage for a long time. He has had a snug
little house of his own, ever since my Lady Lisgard----But you know all
about that story, I dare say, sir?”
“Yes, yes,” answered Derrick drily; for the very name of Lisgard had
grown distasteful to him, and particularly in connection with
his intended wife. “I know that Jacob's daughter has a very kind
mistress--very; in fact, that she will never part with such a treasure
of a waiting-maid, if she can help it. But let us get on to the house,
if you please, for I want to call there to-night, and it is even now
growing rather dark.”
“Yes, sir; it is, sir. I am sorry that the dinner was so unavoidably
delayed. The last train and the last coach having come in, we did not
expect any more gentry this afternoon, or would have made preparation.
But the fact is, sir, there is no hurry with respect to Mr Forest. You
will find him abed now, and you will find him no more than that two
hours hence, for poor old Jacob is bed-_ridden_. Very cheerful though, I
hear, and would like a chat and a glass of grog with any gentleman
like yourself, no matter what time it was; and if you will permit me to
advise, you will wait till the moon is up; for the path across the Cove
is not easy to find after dusk; and then there's the churchyard, which,
somehow, one always dislikes--at least I know _I_ do--to pass through
latish, unless one can see one's way pretty well; and after that,
there's a bit of a spinney before you get to the old man's house;
so although you can see it at top of the hill yonder from this
window--there it is, the white house with a thatched roof--you may judge
that it is a good long step.”
“I see,” said Derrick nodding. “Then I shall light my pipe, and stroll
down to the sea-shore until the moon rises, if you're sure that the old
man will see me at so late an hour.”
“I am quite sure, sir; it will please him above all things, for he
complains he gets no sleep of nights, to speak of. You will go down to
the Cove, of course; that's what all our gentry does when there is a
moon; and I shall sit up for you till you come back--although our hour
for closing _is_ eleven, sir, sharp.”
“Thank you, my man,” said Derrick, “do so;” and lighting his pipe, he
strolled down thoughtfully towards the shore.
It was dark enough in the wooded Cove, although the trees were as yet
but scantily clothed in their spring garments; but ever and anon, at a
turn of the winding path, he came to some open spot artistically left
there, where the darkling Sea lay stretched before him, waiting for her
tiring-maid the Moon to clasp her jewels on. Even thus unadorned, she
shewed divinely fair as her bosom rose and fell unstirred by passion,
for the winds had lulled since sundown, and her gentle breath came up
to him in even beats. How different must she have looked from hence,
thought he, upon that night of storm which he had expected to be his
last. The gale was taking them inshore, when the vessel sprung her leak;
and doubtless many a fellow-passenger of his had reached this coast,
perchance this very Cove, although not with life. O treacherous sea! you
that can smile and smile, and break into ten thousand smiles, and make
such dainty music on the pebbly shore, who can believe how cruel
your wrath can be, that has not seen you tear man's floating home to
fragments, and whelm him with his dear ones in your gaping depths? Ralph
shuddered, and passed his hand across his brow, as though to erase some
terrible thought within it. The silent sky, crossed by those swift and
secret messengers the clouds, has doubtless a lesson for man's heart,
which it would be well if he would more often study; but even Mr Ruskin,
the great Self-elected Authority upon the subject, must acknowledge that
there are physical difficulties at the outset of this particular system
of spiritual education. Setting aside the fact, that it is only eagles
which can gaze upon the sun with undazzled eyes, the human vertebra is
not fitted for any prolonged investigation of the firmament; and if
one lies on one's back--I don't know whether I am singular in this
apprehension, but I am always afraid of some heavenly body slipping
out of space, and dropping upon one while in that exposed position. But
everybody can look upon the sea (from the vantage-ground at least of the
solid earth), and that is the next best page of nature to the sky.
There is something in its monotonous expanse which strikes most of us,
especially when we watch it alone and at night, with mysterious, and
perhaps religious awe. At all events, it reminds us, if there he any
materials for reflection within us, of the brevity of our span of life,
and of the littleness of its aims; a visible Eternity seeming to lie
before us, in the presence of which we are humbled. Under ordinary
circumstances, it was not likely that Derrick should experience these
feelings, for sea-faring folks, in spite of what has been written
of those who do their business in great waters, are least of all men
subject to such influences: but not only, as we have heard him tell Lady
Lisgard, did the sea at all times shew to him like one great grave, ever
since it had engulfed his Lucy, but upon this occasion he was regarding
it at the very spot, or near it, where the catastrophe had occurred.
Thus, though the moon had risen by this time, and bathed the deep, as
all things else on which it shone, in unutterable calm, Ralph's mental
vision beheld waves mountains high, and one fair fragile form, now
lifted on their foaming tops, now buried in their raging depths, but
always dead and drowned.
“Sorry to disturb you, sir, but will you favour me with half a pipeful
of baccy?” inquired a cheerful voice at his elbow. “Seeing you was
alone, and without your young woman--which is rare in these parts,”
continued the stranger, evidently one of the fishing community of the
place, for notwithstanding the fineness of the night, he was attired in
water-proof overalls--“I made bold, fellow-smokers being always ready to
help one another in that way, if in no other.--Thank you, sir. That will
save me going to the inn to-night, a visit my missis don't approve of.”
“Is _that_ the inn?” inquired Derrick, pointing to a little low-roofed
cottage just at the entrance to the Cove, and only raised a few feet
above high-water mark.
“No, sir; that's my own little place, William Forest, at your service.
If you happen to be in want of a boat, or one as can shew you where
to find the fossils and such like, I can do that as well as any man in
Coveton, let him be who he will.”
“Then you are old Jacob Forest's nephew, I suppose, for he had no son,
and only one daughter, had he?”
“Just so, sir; my cousin Mary. A precious lucky woman she is. It was
through her I came to have the cottage, for my uncle made it over to me
when he moved to the grand house on the hill yonder, as my Lady Lisgard
gave to him. God bless her Ladyship, and good Sir Robert too, though
he's gone to heaven by this time, and don't want none of our wishes.”
“Yes, yes,” answered Derrick with irritation; “you Coveton folks can
talk of nothing but these Lisgards. Now, just dismiss them from your
mind while you answer a question I am going to ask you. You are old
enough to remember that terrible storm which took place here in the
September of '32, are you not?”
“Yes, sir, yes. And none of us that saw it is ever likely to forget it.
That was the very time when old Sir Robert”----
“Damn Sir Robert!” interrupted Ralph with energy. “If you would only be
so kind as to forget that respectable baronet, and all belonging to him,
while you answer me a simple question, I shall be greatly obliged to
you. Forgive me, mate--but my temper is not so good as my tobacco. Pray,
take another pipeful. Now, after that same storm in which the _North
Star_--that was the name of the ship, was it not?--was lost yonder, were
there many bodies washed ashore about here?”
“Dead uns, you mean, sir, of course?” answered the man hesitatingly.
“Well, yes, there was. I should think, taking them all together, for
they came in, some of them, weeks afterwards, I should think there was a
dozen or more; many of them lashed to spars, poor things. But it was no
use.”
“And where were these unfortunate creatures put to?” inquired Derrick
after a pause.
“They were all buried in the churchyard yonder, sir. Sir Robert
Lisgard--but there, I forgot: you may read some of their names--those
at least as was identified--upon the tombstones. It was a sad sight them
burials. Strangers, and very poor folks mostly, coming from miles and
miles away to see their dead, who had but left home a few days before
for a New World, indeed, as they call it, but little thinking as it was
for _that_. You should hear Uncle Jacob talk of it.”
“Ah, sad, indeed,” echoed Derrick, rising from his seat. “I am glad to
have met _you_, mate; good-night, and thank you.”
“Thank you, sir; I never tasted better baccy.”
Derrick waited until his companion had descended to the very bottom of
the Cove; waited until he saw the cottage door open and shut--a mere
streak of light and shadow--and then followed on his steps; but having
reached the foot of the ravine, he took the winding path that led up its
opposite side towards the church and Jacob Forest's high-built dwelling.