Noster ludos, spectaverat una, Luserat in campo, Fortunae filius omnes.
--Horace.
I did not leave my room till the first dinner-bell had ceased a
sufficient time to allow me the pleasing hope that I should have but a
few moments to wait in the drawing-room, previous to the grand epoch
and ceremony of an European day. The manner most natural to me, is
one rather open and easy; but I pique myself peculiarly upon a certain
(though occasional) air, which keeps impertinence aloof; in fine, I am
by no means a person with whom others would lightly take a liberty,
or to whom they would readily offer or resent an affront. This day I
assumed a double quantum of dignity, in entering a room which I well
knew must be filled with my enemies; there were a few women round Lady
Chester, and as I always feel reassured by a sight of the dear sex, I
walked towards them.
Judge of my delight, when I discovered amongst the group, Lady Harriett
Garrett. It is true that I had no particular predilection for that lady,
but the sight of a negress I had seen before, I should have hailed
with rapture in so desolate and inhospitable a place. If my pleasure at
seeing Lady Harriett was great, her’s seemed equally so at receiving
my salutation. She asked me if I knew Lady Chester--and on my negative
reply, immediately introduced me to that personage. I now found myself
quite at home; my spirits rose, and I exerted every nerve to be as
charming as possible. In youth, to endeavour is to succeed.
I gave a most animated account of the canine battle, interspersed with
various sarcasms on the owners of the combatants, which were by no means
ill-received either by the marchioness or her companions; and, in fact,
when the dinner was announced, they all rose in a mirth, sufficiently
unrestrained to be any thing but patrician: for my part, I offered my
arm to Lady Harriett, and paid her as many compliments on crossing the
suite that led to the dining-room, as would have turned a much wiser
head than her ladyship’s.
The dinner went off agreeably enough, as long as the women stayed, but
the moment they quitted the room, I experienced exactly the same feeling
known unto a mother’s darling, left for the first time at that strange,
cold, comfortless place--ycleped a school.
I was not, however, in a mood to suffer my flowers of oratory to blush
unseen. Besides, it was absolutely necessary that I should make a better
impression upon my host. I leant, therefore, across the table, and
listened eagerly to the various conversations afloat: at last I
perceived, on the opposite side, Sir Lionel Garrett, a personage whom
I had not before even inquired after, or thought of. He was busily and
noisily employed in discussing the game-laws. Thank Heaven, thought I, I
shall be on firm ground there. The general interest of the subject,
and the loudness with which it was debated, soon drew all the scattered
conversation into one focus.
“What!” said Sir Lionel, in a high voice, to a modest, shrinking youth,
probably from Cambridge, who had supported the liberal side of the
question--“what! are our interests to be never consulted? Are we to
have our only amusement taken away from us? What do you imagine brings
country gentlemen to their seats? Do you not know, Sir, the vast
importance our residence at our country houses is to the nation? Destroy
the game laws, and you destroy our very existence as a people.”
‘Now,’ thought I, ‘it is my time.’ “Sir Lionel,” said I, speaking almost
from one end of the table to the other, “I perfectly agree with your
sentiments; I am entirely of opinion, first, that it is absolutely
necessary for the safety of the nation that game should be preserved;
secondly, that if you take away game you take away country gentlemen:
no two propositions can be clearer than these; but I do differ from you
with respect to the intended alterations. Let us put wholly out of the
question, the interests of the poor people, or of society at large:
those are minor matters, not worthy of a moment’s consideration; let us
only see how far our interests as sportsmen will be affected. I think
by a very few words I can clearly prove to you, that the proposed
alterations will make us much better off than we are at present.”
I then entered shortly, yet fully enough, into the nature of the laws as
they now stood, and as they were intended to be changed. I first
spoke of the two great disadvantages of the present system to
country gentlemen; viz. in the number of poachers, and the expense of
preserving. Observing that I was generally and attentively listened
to, I dwelt upon these two points with much pathetic energy; and having
paused till I had got Sir Lionel and one or two of his supporters to
confess that it would be highly desirable that these defects should, if
possible, be remedied, I proceeded to show how, and in what manner it
was possible. I argued, that to effect this possibility, was the exact
object of the alterations suggested; I anticipated the objections; I
answered them in the form of propositions, as clearly and concisely
stated as possible; and as I spoke with great civility and conciliation,
and put aside every appearance of care for any human being in the world
who was not possessed of a qualification, I perceived at the conclusion
of my harangue, that I had made a very favourable impression. That
evening completed my triumph: for Lady Chester and Lady Harriett made so
good a story of my adventure with the dogs, that the matter passed
off as a famous joke, and I was soon considered by the whole knot as
a devilish amusing, good-natured, sensible fellow. So true is it
that there is no situation which a little tact cannot turn to our own
account: manage yourself well, and you may manage all the world.
As for Lord Chester, I soon won his heart by a few feats of
horsemanship, and a few extempore inventions respecting the sagacity of
dogs. Three days after my arrival we became inseparable; and I made such
good use of my time, that in two more, he spoke to me of his friendship
for Dawton, and his wish for a dukedom. These motives it was easy enough
to unite, and at last he promised me that his answer to my principal
should be as acquiescent as I could desire; the morning after this
promise commenced the great day at Newmarket.
Our whole party were of course bound to the race-ground, and with
great reluctance I was pressed into the service. We were not many miles
distant from the course, and Lord Chester mounted me on one of his
horses. Our shortest way lay through rather an intricate series of cross
roads: and as I was very little interested in the conversation of my
companions, I paid more attention to the scenery we passed, than is my
customary wont: for I study nature rather in men than fields, and find
no landscape afford such variety to the eye, and such subject to the
contemplation, as the inequalities of the human heart.
But there were to be fearful circumstances hereafter to stamp forcibly
upon my remembrance some traces of the scenery which now courted and
arrested my view. The chief characteristics of the country were broad,
dreary plains, diversified at times by dark plantations of fir and
larch; the road was rough and stony, and here and there a melancholy
rivulet, swelled by the first rains of spring, crossed our path, and
lost itself in the rank weeds of some inhospitable marsh.
About six miles from Chester Park, to the left of the road, stood an old
house with a new face; the brown, time-honoured bricks which composed
the fabric, were strongly contrasted by large Venetian windows newly
inserted in frames of the most ostentatious white. A smart, green
veranda, scarcely finished, ran along the low portico, and formed the
termination to two thin rows of meagre and dwarfish sycamores, which did
duty for an avenue, and were bounded, on the roadside, by a spruce white
gate, and a sprucer lodge, so moderate in its dimensions, that it would
scarcely have boiled a turnip: if a rat had got into it, he might have
run away with it. The ground was dug in various places, as if for the
purpose of further improvements, and here and there a sickly little tree
was carefully hurdled round, and seemed pining its puny heart out at the
confinement.
In spite of all these well-judged and well-thriving graces of art, there
was such a comfortless and desolate appearance about the place, that it
quite froze one to look at it; to be sure, a damp marsh on one side, and
the skeleton rafters and beams of an old stable on the other, backed by
a few dull and sulky-looking fir trees, might, in some measure, create,
or at least considerably add to, the indescribable cheerlessness of the
tout ensemble. While I was curiously surveying the various parts of this
northern “Delices,” and marvelling at the choice of two crows who
were slowly walking over the unwholesome ground, instead of making all
possible use of the black wings with which Providence had gifted them,
I perceived two men on horseback wind round from the back part of
the building and proceed in a brisk trot down the avenue. We had not
advanced many paces before they overtook us; the foremost of them turned
round as he passed me, and pulling up his horse abruptly, discovered to
my dismayed view, the features of Mr. Thornton. Nothing abashed by the
slightness of my bow, or the grave stares of my lordly companions, who
never forgot the dignity of their birth, in spite of the vulgarity of
their tastes, Thornton instantly and familiarly accosted me.
“Told you so, Mr. Pelham--silent sow, Sure I should have the pleasure of
seeing you, though you kept it so snug. Well, will you bet now? No!--Ah,
you’re a sly one. Staying here at that nice-looking house--belongs to
Dawson, an old friend of mine--shall be happy to introduce you!”
“Sir,” said I, abruptly, “you are too good. Permit me to request that
you will rejoin your friend Mr. Dawson.”
“Oh,” said the imperturbable Thornton, “it does not signify; he won’t be
affronted at my lagging a little. However,” (and here he caught my
eye, which was assuming a sternness that perhaps little pleased him,)
“however, as it gets late, and my mare is none of the best, I’ll wish
you good morning.” With these words Thornton put spurs to his horse and
trotted off.
“Who the devil have you got there, Pelham?” said Lord Chester.
“A person,” said I, “who picked me up at Paris, and insists on the right
of treasure trove to claim me in England. But will you let me ask, in my
turn, whom that cheerful mansion we have just left, belongs to?”
“To a Mr. Dawson, whose father was a gentleman farmer who bred horses,
a very respectable person, for I made one or two excellent bargains with
him. The son was always on the turf, and contracted the worst of its
habits. He bears but a very indifferent character, and will probably
become a complete blackleg. He married, a short time since, a woman of
some fortune, and I suppose it is her taste which has so altered and
modernized his house. Come, gentlemen, we are on even ground, shall we
trot?”
We proceeded but a few yards before we were again stopped by a
precipitous ascent, and as Lord Chester was then earnestly engaged in
praising his horse to one of the cavalcade, I had time to remark the
spot. At the foot of the hill we were about slowly to ascend, was a
broad, uninclosed patch of waste land; a heron, flapping its enormous
wings as it rose, directed my attention to a pool overgrown with rushes,
and half-sheltered on one side by a decayed tree, which, if one might
judge from the breadth and hollowness of its trunk, had been a refuge
to the wild bird, and a shelter to the wild cattle, at a time when such
were the only intruders upon its hospitality; and when the country, for
miles and leagues round, was honoured by as little of man’s care and
cultivation as was at present the rank waste which still nourished its
gnarled and venerable roots. There was something remarkably singular and
grotesque in the shape and sinuosity of its naked and spectral branches:
two of exceeding length stretched themselves forth, in the very
semblance of arms held out in the attitude of supplication; and the bend
of the trunk over the desolate pond, the form of the hoary and blasted
summit, and the hollow trunk, half riven asunder in the shape of limbs,
seemed to favour the gigantic deception. You might have imagined it an
antediluvian transformation, or a daughter of the Titan race, preserving
in her metamorphosis her attitude of entreaty to the merciless Olympian.
This was the only tree visible; for a turn of the road and the
unevenness of the ground, completely veiled the house we had passed,
and the few low firs and sycamores which made its only plantations. The
sullen pool--its ghost-like guardian--the dreary heath around, the rude
features of the country beyond, and the apparent absence of all human
habitation, conspired to make a scene of the most dispiriting and
striking desolation. I know not how to account for it, but as I gazed
around in silence, the whole place appeared to grow over my mind, as one
which I had seen, though dimly and drearily, before; and a nameless and
unaccountable presentiment of fear and evil sunk like ice into my heart.
We ascended the hill, and the rest of the road being of a kind better
adapted to expedition, we mended our pace and soon arrived at the goal
of our journey.
The race-ground had its customary compliment of knaves and fools--the
dupers and the duped. Poor Lady Chester, who had proceeded to the ground
by the high road (for the way we had chosen was inaccessible to those
who ride in chariots, and whose charioteers are set up in high places,)
was driving to and fro, the very picture of cold and discomfort; and the
few solitary carriages which honoured the course, looked as miserable
as if they were witnessing the funeral of their owner’s persons, rather
than the peril of their characters and purses.
As we rode along to the betting-post, Sir John Tyrrell passed us: Lord
Chester accosted him familiarly, and the baronet joined us. He had been
an old votary of the turf in his younger days, and he still preserved
all his ancient predilection in its favour.
It seemed that Chester had not met him for many years, and after a short
and characteristic conversation of “God bless me, how long since I
saw you!--d--d good horse you’re on--you look thin--admirable
condition--what have you been doing?--grand action--a’n’t we behind
hand?--famous fore-hand--recollect old Queensberry?--hot in the
mouth--gone to the devil--what are the odds?” Lord Chester asked Tyrrell
to go home with us. The invitation was readily accepted.
“With impotence of will We wheel, tho’ ghastly shadows interpose Round
us, and round each other.”--Shelley.
Now, then, arose the noise, the clatter, the swearing, the lying, the
perjury, the cheating, the crowd, the bustle, the hurry, the rush, the
heat, the ardour, the impatience, the hope, the terror, the rapture, the
agony of the race. Directly the first heat was over, one asked me one
thing, one bellowed another; I fled to Lord Chester, he did not heed me.
I took refuge with the marchioness; she was as sullen as an east wind
could make her. Lady Harriett would talk of nothing but the horses: Sir
Lionel would not talk at all. I was in the lowest pit of despondency,
and the devils that kept me there were as blue as Lady Chester’s nose.
Silent, sad, sorrowful, and sulky, I rode away from the crowd, and
moralized on its vicious propensities. One grows marvellously honest
when the species of cheating before us is not suited to one’s self.
Fortunately, my better angel reminded me, that about the distance of
three miles from the course lived an old college friend, blessed, since
we had met, with a parsonage and a wife. I knew his tastes too well to
imagine that any allurement of an equestrian nature could have seduced
him from the ease of his library and the dignity of his books; and
hoping, therefore, that I should find him at home, I turned my horse’s
head in an opposite direction, and rejoiced at the idea of my escape,
bade adieu to the course.
As I cantered across the far end of the heath, my horse started from an
object upon the ground; it was a man wrapped from head to foot in a
long horseman’s cloak, and so well guarded as to the face, from the
raw inclemency of the day, that I could not catch even a glimpse of the
features, through the hat and neck-shawl which concealed them. The
head was turned, with apparent anxiety, towards the distant throng; and
imagining the man belonging to the lower orders, with whom I am always
familiar, I addressed to him, en passant, some trifling remark on the
event of the race. He made no answer. There was something about him
which induced me to look back several moments after I had left
him behind. He had not moved an atom. There is such a certain
uncomfortableness always occasioned to the mind by stillness and mystery
united, that even the disguising garb, and motionless silence of the
man, innocent as I thought they must have been, impressed themselves
disagreeably on my meditations as I rode briskly on.
It is my maxim never to be unpleasantly employed, even in thought, if
I can help it; accordingly, I changed the course of my reflection, and
amused myself with wondering how matrimony and clerical dignity sat on
the indolent shoulders of my old acquaintance.