Having often received an invitation from my friend
Sir Roger de Coverley to pass away a month with him in
the country, I last week accompanied him thither, and
am settled with him for some time at his country house,
where I intend to form several of my ensuing speculations. (75: 5)
Sir Roger, who is very well acquainted with my
humor, lets me rise and go to bed when I please, dine at
his own table or in my chamber, as I think fit, sit still
and say nothing without bidding me be merry. When
the gentlemen of the country come to see him, he only (10)
shows me at a distance. As I have been walking in his
fields I have observed them stealing a sight of me over
an hedge, and have heard the knight desiring them not
to let me see them, for that I hated to be stared at.
I am the more at ease in Sir Roger's family because it (15)
consists of sober and staid persons; for, as the knight is
the best master in the world, he seldom changes his servants;
and as he is beloved by all about him, his servants
never care for leaving him; by this means his domestics
are all in years, and grown old with their master. You
would take his _valet de chambre_ for his brother, his butler
is gray-headed, his groom is one of the gravest men that
I have ever seen, and his coachman has the looks of a
privy counsellor. You see the goodness of the master (76: 5)
even in the old house dog, and in a gray pad[35] that is
kept in the stable with great care and tenderness out of
regard to his past services, though he has been useless
for several years.
[35] An easy-riding horse.
I could not but observe with a great deal of pleasure (10)
the joy that appeared in the countenances of these
ancient domestics upon my friend's arrival at his country
seat. Some of them could not refrain from tears at the
sight of their old master; every one of them pressed forward
to do something for him, and seemed discouraged (15)
if they were not employed. At the same time the good
old knight, with a mixture of the father and the master
of the family, tempered the inquiries after his own affairs
with several kind questions relating to themselves. This
humanity and good nature engages everybody to him, so (20)
that when he is pleasant upon any of them, all his family
are in good humour, and none so much as the person
whom he diverts himself with; on the contrary, if he
coughs, or betrays any infirmity of old age, it is easy for
a stander-by to observe a secret concern in the looks of (25)
all of his servants.
My worthy friend has put me under the particular care
of his butler, who is a very prudent man, and, as well as
the rest of his fellow-servants, wonderfully desirous of
pleasing me, because they have often heard their master
talk of me as of his particular friend.
My chief companion, when Sir Roger is diverting himself
in the woods or the fields, is a very venerable man
who is ever with Sir Roger, and has lived at his house in
the nature[36] of a chaplain above thirty years. This gentleman
is a person of good sense and some learning, of a
very regular life and obliging conversation; he heartily
loves Sir Roger, and knows that he is very much in the (10)
old knight's esteem, so that he lives in the family rather
as a relation than a dependant.
[36] In the capacity of a chaplain.
I have observed in several of my papers, that my friend
Sir Roger, amidst all his good qualities, is something of
an humorist,[37] and that his virtues as well as imperfections (15)
are, as it were, tinged by a certain extravagance which
makes them particularly _his_, and distinguishes them from
those of other men. This cast of mind, as it is generally
very innocent in itself, so it renders his conversation
highly agreeable, and more delightful than the same (20)
degree of sense and virtue would appear in their common
and ordinary colours. As I was walking with him last
night, he asked me how I liked the good man whom I
have just now mentioned; and without staying for my
answer, told me that he was afraid of being insulted with (25)
Latin and Greek at _his_ own table, for which reason he
desired a particular friend of his at the university to find
him out a clergyman, rather of plain sense than much
learning, of a good aspect, a clear voice, a sociable temper,
and, if possible, a man that understood a little of
backgammon. "My friend," says Sir Roger, "found (78: 5)
me out this gentleman, who, besides the endowments
required of him, is, they tell me, a good scholar, though
he does not show it. I have given him the parsonage
of the parish, and, because I know his value, have settled
upon him a good annuity for life. If he outlives me, he (10)
shall find that he was higher in my esteem than perhaps
he thinks he is. He has now been with me thirty years,
and though he does not know I have taken notice of it,
has never in all that time asked anything of me for himself,
though he is every day soliciting me for something (15)
in behalf of one or other of my tenants, his parishioners.
There has not been a lawsuit in the parish since he has
lived among them: if any dispute arises they apply themselves
to him for the decision; if they do not acquiesce
in his judgment,--which I think never happened above (20)
once or twice at most,--they appeal to me. At his first
settling with me, I made him a present of all the good
sermons which have been printed in English, and only
begged of him that every Sunday he would pronounce
one of them in the pulpit. Accordingly he has digested (25)
them into such a series that they follow one another
naturally, and make a continued system of practical
divinity."
[37] The earlier and more proper sense of the word--a person of
pleasing eccentricity.
As Sir Roger was going on in his story, the gentleman
we were talking of came up to us; and upon the knight's
asking him who preached to-morrow (for it was Saturday
night), told us the Bishop of St. Asaph in the morning
and Dr. South in the afternoon. He then showed us his
list of preachers for the whole year, where I saw, with (79: 5)
a great deal of pleasure, Archbishop Tillotson, Bishop
Saunderson, Dr. Barrow, Dr. Calamy, with several living
authors who have published discourses of practical divinity.
I no sooner saw this venerable man in the pulpit
but I very much approved of my friend's insisting upon (10)
the qualifications of a good aspect and a clear voice; for
I was so charmed with the gracefulness of his figure and
delivery, as well as with the discourses he pronounced,
that I think I never passed any time more to my satisfaction.
A sermon repeated after this manner is like the (15)
composition of a poet in the mouth of a graceful actor.
I could heartily wish that more of our country clergy
would follow this example; and instead of wasting their
spirits in laborious compositions of their own, would endeavor
after a handsome elocution, and all those other (20)
talents that are proper to enforce what has been penned
by greater masters. This would not only be more easy
to themselves, but more edifying to the people. L.