FOR two months our young couple had enjoyed each other with ardent and
increasing affection, though not without attempts to interrupt their
happiness.--These sprang from Mrs. and Miss Sourkrout whose inventions,
not being so fertile as their dispositions were malignant, had confined
their exertions to anonymous letters, too frivolous in contrivance,
and absurd in execution to produce any effect. From some circumstances
Mr. and Mrs. Hamilton were able to trace them to the rightful authors;
but without deigning to resent malice so very inefficient.--About
this time a letter arrived from the laird of Etterick, in which he
announced his intention of visiting his brother.--His expectations
from the co-heiresses had, it seems, though he had tried both, proved
as fallacious as his hopes from any of his former undertakings. He
was now meditating to try his fortune among the English ladies, who,
he hoped, would be more sensible to his merits than the misses of his
own country. In a few weeks he arrived at Brotherton; and was greatly
pleased with his reception at the vicarage. He soon contracted a very
high admiration for the worthy clergyman, not so much on account of his
abilities, learning, virtue, and piety, as for his skill in rearing
cattle; and declared, that he had gained so much knowledge of green
crops, during the time he passed in Yorkshire, as would much more
than indemnify the expences of his excursion. Though he spent much
of his time with Mr. Wentbridge, when superintending his husbandry,
and still more with the hind, yet the evenings were passed in the
parlour, and he frequently heard mention made of the machinations of
Miss Sourkrout. As the state of her finances did not happen to be
brought on the carpet, her name excited little attention. But as the
season advanced the evenings grew long and fine, the laird, tiring of
domestic society, found out a neighbouring public house, wherein he was
introduced to an amicable company, consisting of the parish clerk, the
barber, the exciseman, the lawyer, and some others, who, though the
chief subject of their conversation was the state of public affairs,
would sometimes descend to more private considerations. In one of these
conferences the attorney, who had that day returned from Doncaster,
informed the company that he had the honour of spending the evening
in the house of an alderman, that there he had met with a young lady
of a capital fortune, who had treated him with great complacency. “I
do believe,” said he, with a self-approving nod, “that if I had not
been married I might----hem.” The laird, aroused by this intelligence,
inquired what the amount of the lady’s property was, and how it was
disposed of, learned from the communicative lawyer the account he had
heard from the alderman’s lady, that there was twelve thousand pounds
burdened, indeed, with a dowager. The next day the laird, though not
much addicted to balls or assemblies, proposed to his brother and
sister-in-law to go to the first meeting of that sort which should be
held at Doncaster, “wishing,” he said, “to have a view of the Yorkshire
lasses.”--They readily agreed to his proposal, and about a week after
repaired to the festive scene. Thinking an auxiliary might be useful,
in carrying on his enterprize, he had bethought himself of applying to
the attorney, and opened his mind so much to the satisfaction of that
learned gentleman, that he declared he should want no assistance in his
power. The lawyer, early in the day appointed for the ball, rode to
Doncaster, and making a visit to the alderman’s lady, informed her, by
way of news, that there was to be a Scotch gentleman of _four_ thousand
a year in the assembly room that evening, the elder brother of parson
Wentbridge’s son-in-law; that he had heard much of Miss Sourkrout, and
had been making many enquiries about her temper and dispositions. Mrs.
Alderman regarding a dowager mayoress as a very high lady, and having
attained the pinnacle of dignity at which she herself aspired, was
desirous of gratifying the mother and daughter, and hastily conveyed to
them this intelligence.
Both madam and miss were arouzed. A triumph over the daughter of
Wentbridge, who was the wife of a younger brother of the squire, was
not the least consideration with either. No beauty that mantua-makers
or milliners could bestow on so short a notice was spared. When the
company met, the laird having learned which was Miss Sourkrout, after
taking something of a circuit round the room, came to miss, and very
respectfully requested the honour of her being his partner in a country
dance, when they should begin. Miss most graciously complied, and,
though fond of exhibiting herself in a minuet, forbore for the present
that gratification. He, meanwhile, entered into conversation with
both miss and her mother. He soon took a great fancy to the sagacity
of the old lady, and the ingenuity of the young one. At length, the
time for their dance arrived, and a couple exhibited themselves, which
attracted the eyes of the company more than any that appeared that
evening.--The gentleman extremely lank, with high cheek-bones, a lean
visage, the solemn seriousness of aspect which so often distinguishes
our northern countrymen, opposed the lady, squab, fat, and blowsy,
flirting and simpering; he with narrow shoulders, and a flat chest; she
with back broad and brawny, chest large, deep, and capacious. The swain
moved in the attitude of a trotting dromedary, so useful to Arabs; the
nymph like a quadruped which, though little relished by Jews, is not
without value among Christians, and if we may believe Fielding, had
even occupied the chief care of a christian pastor[1]. As both had
laboured extremely hard, they were very happy when the rules of the
assembly suffered them to have rest. The mother most politely thanked
the laird for his attention to Grizzle, to which he answered, after
much consideration, that he thought it the duty of a gentleman to be
polite to ladies: that was a maxim that, he said, had been very early
impressed upon him by his worthy grand-mother, to whom, he observed, he
was chiefly indebted for his education; having, while his brother went
to school, been brought up under the old lady’s own eye. Mrs. Sourkrout
proposed, as they appeared heated with dancing, to take to a rubber,
saying, “she doubted not that a gentleman of his appearance could play
at whist.” “O yes,” replied he, “that was one of my grand-mama’s chief
lessons; from the time I was twelve year old, till I was past twenty,
we spent almost every evening in that pastime, and while my mother
lived, and my sisters were at home, we long after kept in the same
course: but since I am an orphan and lonesome, I send for my foreman,
and take a hit at backgammon. But I should like a rubber very much.”
A party was accordingly formed. Mr. Hamilton and the fair nymph were
partners. Their opponents had won a double, were nine to four of the
second, and had turned up the king; three tricks were gained before the
laird and his partner had got one. Miss Sourkrout, the dealer, with
the king guarded, had two aces, from which she reasonably entertained
sanguine hopes of a bumper. Miss having the queen, knave of trumps,
and a long suit; after taking a trick, shewed a suit; with profound
skill discontinued it, to play through the honour; at the second round
drove the king prisoner into the hands of her partner’s victorious
ace. Her right-hand adversary’s ten fell by the same fatal blow, the
laird’s nine and eight exhausted all the enemy’s trumps, and left his
three lord of the board. Now did the comprehensive wisdom of the laird,
having before its view every trick, return his partner’s suit; the lady
made two more, one only remained the destined victim of the corps de
reserve, and thus secured the victory. A single hand determined the
next game in favour of the laird and miss. Mr. Hamilton considered
the rubber as won by miss’s dexterity, which raised her very high in
his estimation. He with much gravity remarked, “that it was a very
providential circumstance, that she thought of playing through the
honour.”
The major and his lady observed their brother’s attention to Miss
Sourkrout, but thinking it accidental, regarded it with unconcern. The
next morning the laird went to pay the lady a visit, and was very
graciously received.
A few days after, taking an opportunity of being alone with the major,
he turned the discourse upon Miss Sourkrout, with a very particular
detail of her cash and moveables, according to the information which
he had received from his acquaintance the attorney. The major strongly
dissuaded his brother from attempting any such connection; but as in
his dissuasives he said nothing to the disparagement of her fortune, he
made little impression.
The laird visited and revisited the fair object of his pursuit, and as
she and her mamma had taken care to be well informed concerning his
circumstances, he was received with kindness, manifesting itself the
more openly at every succeeding interview. A few weeks concluded the
negotiation, and after a decent sacrifice to coyness and decorum, the
esquire was blessed with all the happiness that the lawful possession
of miss’s charms, such as they were, could bestow. The senior and
junior relations of mayoral dignity soon after set out with the esquire
for the house of Etterick.
Major Hamilton, meanwhile, after having spent the destined time in
Yorkshire, rejoined his regiment, then quartered at Berwick and
adjacent towns.--The remainder of the summer and the following winter
he and his lady passed in the county of Northumberland. The time now
approaching, that was to render her a mother, Eliza anxiously wished
to repair to the vicarage. The major, procuring a short leave of
absence, accompanied her thither, and soon after (March 22d, 1765,)
she presented him with a son and heir. In due time the infant was
christened by a neighbouring clergyman, whilst his grand-father, being
sponsor, gave to him his own name of William. Mrs. Hamilton having
resolved not to delegate to another the duty which she found herself
able to discharge, it was agreed that the vicarage should continue
to be her chief residence, while she suckled little William; and as
the regiment was now removed to York, that the major should spend,
at Brotherton, all the time that he could spare from professional
duty. As these visits, depending in some degree on contingences, were
neither fixed as to time, nor certain as to duration, they enhanced
the impassioned affection with which the husband and wife regarded
each other, and their little boy. Whilst the mother, in the father’s
absence, traced his beloved features in the son, she could not help
reflecting, that the cause of their frequent separation was the
performance of duties that might tear them much farther and longer
asunder; carrying her fancy to events not improbable, she often dwelt
with anxious tenderness on the likelihood there was that Hamilton might
be ordered abroad. Peace, it was true, did not at present seem about
to be soon broken, but discontents already manifested themselves in
America, and might become more serious; should troops be requisite to
support the authority of government, no regiment, she thought, was
more likely to be selected than that of which her adored husband was a
member.--These considerations tinged the love of Eliza with a pensive
softness, that rendered her more peculiarly interesting. Her father,
who divined the cause of her uneasiness, assured her, that should any
circumstance call his esteemed and valued son-in-law to a distant
land, William should be his care, and that no pains or expence, which
an income, though moderate not scanty, could afford, should be wanting
to give him an education becoming a gentleman and a scholar. The
forebodings of Mrs. Hamilton for several years proved unfounded. After
William was of sufficient age and strength to allow her absence, she
accompanied her husband to the regimental quarters, which, though they
frequently shifted, were never farther removed than Liverpool, Chester,
Shrewsbury, or some other town within a hundred miles of her father and
her son.
Before William had reached the second year of his age she had brought
him a brother, and soon after he attained his third she produced
another boy. Young William by this time was a strong, active, sprightly
little fellow, and the chief favourite of his grand-father, who looked
on him as a kind of phenomenon, and though only in his fourth year,
began to teach him the first rudiments of literature.
Having about a year before risen to be lieutenant-colonel of his
regiment, Hamilton had so closely attended to the troops that he
procured a leave of absence for six months, which he, with his
lady, spent with the vicar, and in vigilantly watching the opening
understanding and heart of their eldest son; and from the acuteness of
his remarks, quickness and retentiveness of his memory, and readiness
of his ingenuity, together with the affectionate kindness of his
disposition, all seen through the exaggerating medium of parental
partiality, regarded him as a surprizing instance of intelligence
and goodness. Affection, however, did not so much blind discernment
as to prevent them from discovering that his temper was irritable
and fiery, that under the impulse of anger he would very readily do
mischief, though he soon repented; and they strongly represented to
the vicar this defect in the child, and he promised his efforts to its
correction. Hamilton now rejoined his regiment, which was ordered to
the south of England, and did not for the two following years after
find leisure to revisit his son. William, during this interval, made
quick proficiency under his grand-father; at six years old began his
accidence, and at seven had made no small progress in Corderius.
Besides the old vicar he had another preceptor, who as anxiously
superintended the efforts of his bodily strength, as his grand-father
his mental improvement. This was sergeant Maxwell, who instructed him
in boxing and cricket, as he had himself learned them in his youth,
from Hampshire and Sussex men, when quartered in the south of England;
and also procured him the instructions of young villagers, eminent
for the Yorkshire wrestling, and especially for cross buttocks. Under
his various tutors William made such advances that he had few matches
of his own age, at either grammatical or gymnastical exercises. About
this time the vicar’s eldest son, after having held a fellowship at
Cambridge for several years, was presented to a living in his native
country, near twenty miles from his father’s house. Having, during his
residence at the university, been accustomed to tuition, he proposed
to add to his income by establishing an academy. The vicar highly
approved of this plan, proposed to send his young grandson as a scholar
to the new seminary. His son-in-law and daughter, who were now at the
vicarage, were greatly delighted with this scheme, as they saw their
boy, with many excellent qualities, required much stricter and steadier
discipline than was administered by his grandfather’s indulgence.
The colonel’s regiment being speedily to embark for Ireland, it was
at his instance determined that young Hamilton should be immediately
sent to school. The second son of colonel Hamilton had died an infant,
the third was, at the earnest entreaty of the vicar, left to replace
William. The youngest child, a daughter, accompanied her parents.
Mrs. Hamilton, with extreme reluctance, parted from her two boys;
yet convinced that their respective situation was the fittest that
could be chosen for their several ages, bore it with fortitude. She
was now less uneasy on her husband’s account, than during the first
appearance of American discontent.--The conciliatory policy with which
the administration of lord North had commenced, had already, in a
great measure, quieted disturbances, and it was hoped that measures so
agreeable to the mildness of his character would be uniformly adhered
to, and produce a total cessation of dissatisfaction. From these
expectations, so gratifying to loyal and patriotic politicians, Mrs.
Hamilton drew an inference conducive to private happiness, that the
colonel would not be ordered to America. Cherishing these hopes, she
with the less regret took leave of her father and children, whom, as
the distance was comparatively inconsiderable, she hoped ere long to
have in her arms.