You cannot imagine what pleasure I have in seeing your hand-writing,
after such a long cessation on your side of our correspondence--Yet,
Heaven knows, I have often seen your hand-writing with disgust--I mean,
when it appeared in abbreviations of apothecary’s Latin--I like your
hint of making interest for the reversion of the collector’s place, for
Mr Lismahago, who is much pleased with the scheme, and presents you
with his compliments and best thanks for thinking so kindly of his
concerns--The man seems to mend, upon further acquaintance. That harsh
reserve, which formed a disagreeable husk about his character, begins to
peel off in the course of our communication--I have great hopes that
he and Tabby will be as happily paired as any two draught animals in
the kingdom; and I make no doubt but that he will prove a valuable
acquisition to our little society, in the article of conversation, by
the fire-side in winter.
Your objection to my passing this season of the year at such a distance
from home, would have more weight if I did not find myself perfectly at
my ease where I am; and my health so much improved, that I am disposed
to bid defiance to gout and rheumatism--I begin to think I have put
myself on the superannuated list too soon, and absurdly sought
for health in the retreats of laziness--I am persuaded that all
valetudinarians are too sedentary, too regular, and too cautious--We
should sometimes increase the motion of the machine, to unclog the
wheels of life; and now and then take a plunge amidst the waves of
excess, in order to caseharden the constitution. I have even found a
change of company as necessary as a change of air, to promote a vigorous
circulation of the spirits, which is the very essence and criterion of
good health.
Since my last, I have been performing the duties of friendship, that
required a great deal of exercise, from which I hope to derive some
benefit--Understanding, by the greatest accident in the world, that
Mr Baynard’s wife was dangerously ill of a pleuritic fever, I borrowed
Dennison’s post-chaise, and went across the country to his habitation,
attended only by Loyd (quondam Clinker) on horseback.--As the distance
is not above thirty miles, I arrived about four in the afternoon, and
meeting the physician at the door, was informed that his patient had
just expired.--I was instantly seized with a violent emotion, but it
was not grief.--The family being in confusion, I ran up stairs into
the chamber, where, indeed, they were all assembled.--The aunt stood
wringing her hands in a kind of stupefaction of sorrow, but my friend
acted all the extravagancies of affliction--He held the body in his
arms, and poured forth such a lamentation, that one would have thought
he had lost the most amiable consort and valuable companion upon earth.
Affection may certainly exist independent of esteem; nay, the same
object may be lovely in one respect, and detestable in another--The mind
has a surprising faculty of accommodating, and even attaching itself,
in such a manner, by dint of use, to things that are in their own nature
disagreeable, and even pernicious, that it cannot bear to be delivered
from them without reluctance and regret. Baynard was so absorbed in his
delirium, that he did not perceive me when I entered, and desired one of
the women to conduct the aunt into her own chamber.--At the same time I
begged the tutor to withdraw the boy, who stood gaping in a corner,
very little affected with the distress of the scene.--These steps being
taken, I waited till the first violence of my friend’s transport was
abated, then disengaged him gently from the melancholy object, and led
him by the hand into another apartment; though he struggled so hard,
that I was obliged to have recourse to the assistance of his valet de
chambre--In a few minutes, however, he recollected himself, and folding
me in his arms, ‘This (cried he), is a friendly office, indeed!--I know
not how you came hither; but, I think, Heaven sent you to prevent my
going distracted--O Matthew! I have lost my dear Harriet!--my poor,
gentle, tender creature, that loved me with such warmth and purity of
affection--my constant companion of twenty years! She’s gone--she’s gone
for ever!--Heaven and earth! where is she?--Death shall not part us!’
So saying, he started up, and could hardly be with-held from returning
to the scene we had quitted--You will perceive it would have been very
absurd for me to argue with a man that talked so madly.--On all such
occasions, the first torrent of passion must be allowed to subside
gradually.--I endeavoured to beguile his attention by starting little
hints and insinuating other objects of discourse imperceptibly; and
being exceedingly pleased in my own mind at this event, I exerted
myself with such an extraordinary flow of spirits as was attended with
success.--In a few hours, he was calm enough to hear reason, and even to
own that Heaven could not have interposed more effectually to rescue
him from disgrace and ruin.--That he might not, however, relapse into
weaknesses for want of company, I passed the night in his chamber, in a
little tent bed brought thither on purpose; and well it was I took
this precaution, for he started up in bed several times, and would have
played the fool, if I had not been present.
Next day he was in a condition to talk of business, and vested me with
full authority over his household, which I began to exercise without
loss of time, tho’ not before he knew and approved of the scheme I
had projected for his advantage.--He would have quitted the house
immediately; but this retreat I opposed.--Far from encouraging a
temporary disgust, which might degenerate into an habitual aversion,
I resolved, if possible, to attach him more than ever to his Houshold
Gods.--I gave directions for the funeral to be as private as was
consistant with decency; I wrote to London, that an inventory and
estimate might be made of the furniture and effects in his town-house,
and gave notice to the landlord, that Mr Baynard should quit the
premises at Lady-day; I set a person at work to take account of every
thing in the country-house, including horses, carriages, and harness; I
settled the young gentleman at a boarding-school, kept by a clergyman in
the neighbourhood, and thither he went without reluctance, as soon as
he knew that he was to be troubled no more with his tutor, whom we
dismissed. The aunt continued very sullen, and never appeared at
table, though Mr Baynard payed his respects to her every day in her
own chamber; there also she held conferences with the waiting-women and
other servants of the family: but, the moment her niece was interred,
she went away in a post-chaise prepared for that purpose: she did not
leave the house, however, without giving Mr Baynard to understand, that
the wardrobe of her niece was the perquisite of her woman; accordingly
that worthless drab received all the clothes, laces, and linen of her
deceased mistress, to the value of five hundred pounds, at a moderate
computation.
The next step I took was to disband that legion of supernumerary
domestics, who had preyed so long upon the vitals of my friend:, a
parcel of idle drones, so intolerably insolent, that they even treated
their own master with the most contemptuous neglect. They had been
generally hired by his wife, according to the recommendation of her
woman, and these were the only patrons to whom they payed the least
deference. I had therefore uncommon satisfaction in clearing the house
of these vermin. The woman of the deceased, and a chambermaid, a valet
de chambre, a butler, a French cook, a master gardener, two footmen and
a coachman, I payed off, and turned out of the house immediately, paying
to each a month’s wages in lieu of warning. Those whom I retained,
consisted of the female cook, who had been assistant to the Frenchman,
a house maid, an old lacquey, a postilion, and under-gardener. Thus I
removed at once a huge mountain of expence and care from the shoulders
of my friend, who could hardly believe the evidence of his own senses,
when he found himself so suddenly and so effectually relieved. His
heart, however, was still subject to vibrations of tenderness,
which returned at certain intervals, extorting sighs, and tears, and
exclamations of grief and impatience: but these fits grew every day
less violent and less frequent, ‘till at length his reason obtained a
complete victory over the infirmities of his nature.
Upon an accurate enquiry into the state of his affairs, I find his debts
amount to twenty thousand pounds, for eighteen thousand pounds of which
sum his estate is mortgaged; and as he pays five per cent. interest, and
some of his farms are unoccupied, he does not receive above two hundred
pounds a year clear from his lands, over and above the interest of
his wife’s fortune, which produced eight hundred pounds annually. For
lightening this heavy burthen, I devised the following expedient. His
wife’s jewels, together with his superfluous plate and furniture in both
houses, his horses and carriages, which are already advertised to be
sold by auction, will, according to the estimate, produce two thousand
five hundred pounds in ready money, with which the debt will be
immediately reduced to eighteen thousand pounds--I have undertaken to
find him ten thousand pounds at four per cent. by which means he will
save one hundred a-year in the article of interest, and perhaps we shall
be able to borrow the other eight thousand on the same terms. According
to his own scheme of a country life, he says he can live comfortably for
three hundred pounds a-year; but, as he has a son to educate, we will
allow him five hundred; then there will be an accumulating fund of seven
hundred a-year, principal and interest, to pay off the incumbrance;
and, I think, we may modestly add three hundred, on the presumption
of new-leasing and improving the vacant farms: so that, in a couple of
years, I suppose there will be above a thousand a-year appropriated to
liquidate a debt of sixteen thousand.
We forthwith began to class and set apart the articles designed for
sale, under the direction of an upholder from London; and, that nobody
in the house might be idle, commenced our reformation without doors,
as well as within. With Baynard’s good leave, I ordered the gardener to
turn the rivulet into its old channel, to refresh the fainting Naiads,
who had so long languished among mouldring roots, withered leaves, and
dry pebbles--The shrubbery is condemned to extirpation; and the
pleasure ground will be restored to its original use of corn-field and
pasture--Orders are given for rebuilding the walls of the garden at the
back of the house, and for planting clumps of firs, intermingled with
beech and chestnut, at the east end, which is now quite exposed to the
surly blasts that come from that quarter. All these works being actually
begun, and the house and auction left to the care and management of a
reputable attorney, I brought Baynard along with me in the chaise, and
made him acquainted with Dennison, whose goodness of heart would not
fail to engage his esteem and affection.--He is indeed charmed with our
society in general, and declares that he never saw the theory of true
pleasure reduced to practice before. I really believe it would not be an
easy task to find such a number of individuals assembled under one roof,
more happy than we are at present.
I must tell you, however, in confidence, I suspect Tabby of
tergiversation.--I have been so long accustomed to that original, that
I know all the caprices of her heart, and can often perceive her designs
while they are yet in embrio--She attached herself to Lismahago for no
other reason but that she despaired of making a more agreeable conquest.
At present, if I am not much mistaken in my observation, she would
gladly convert the widowhood of Baynard to her own advantage.--Since
he arrived, she has behaved very coldly to the captain, and strove to
fasten on the other’s heart, with the hooks of overstrained civility.
These must be the instinctive efforts of her constitution, rather than
the effects of any deliberate design; for matters are carried to such a
length with the lieutenant, that she could not retract with any regard
to conscience or reputation. Besides, she will meet with nothing but
indifference or aversion on the side of Baynard, who has too much sense
to think of such a partner at any time, and too much delicacy to admit a
thought of any such connexion at the present juncture--Meanwhile, I have
prevailed upon her to let him have four thousand pounds at four per cent
towards paying off his mortage. Young Dennison has agreed that
Liddy’s fortune shall be appropriated to the same purpose, on the same
terms.--His father will sell out three thousand pounds stock for his
accommodation.--Farmer Bland has, at the desire of Wilson, undertaken
for two thousand; and I must make an effort to advance what further will
be required to take my friend out of the hands of the Philistines. He
is so pleased with the improvements made on his estate, which is all
cultivated like a garden, that he has entered himself as a pupil in
farming to Mr Dennison, and resolved to attach himself wholly to the
practice of husbandry.
Every thing is now prepared for our double wedding. The
marriage-articles for both couples are drawn and executed; and the
ceremony only waits until the parties shall have been resident in the
parish the term prescribed by law. Young Dennison betrays some symptoms
of impatience; but, Lismahago bears this necessary delay with the temper
of a philosopher.--You must know, the captain does not stand altogether
on the foundation of personal merit. Besides his half-pay, amounting to
two and forty pounds a year, this indefatigable oeconomist has amassed
eight hundred pounds, which he has secured in the funds. This sum arises
partly from his pay’s running up while he remained among the Indians;
partly from what he received as a consideration for the difference
between his full appointment and the half-pay, to which he is now
restricted; and partly from the profits of a little traffick he drove in
peltry, during his sachemship among the Miamis.
Liddy’s fears and perplexities have been much assuaged by the company
of one Miss Willis, who had been her intimate companion at the
boarding-school. Her parents had been earnestly sollicited to allow her
making this friendly visit on such an extraordinary occasion; and two
days ago she arrived with her mother, who did not chuse that she should
come without a proper gouvernante. The young lady is very sprightly,
handsome, and agreeable, and the mother a mighty good sort of a woman;
so that their coming adds considerably to our enjoyment. But we shall
have a third couple yoked in the matrimonial chain. Mr Clinker Loyd has
made humble remonstrance through the canal of my nephew, setting forth
the sincere love and affection mutually subsisting between him and Mrs
Winifred Jenkins, and praying my consent to their coming together for
life. I would have wished that Mr Clinker had kept out of this scrape;
but as the nymph’s happiness is at stake, and she has already some
fits in the way of despondence, I, in order to prevent any tragical
catastrophe, have given him leave to play the fool, in imitation of
his betters; and I suppose we shall in time have a whole litter of his
progeny at Brambleton-hall. The fellow is stout and lusty, very sober
and conscientious; and the wench seems to be as great an enthusiast in
love as in religion.
I wish you would think of employing him some other way, that the
parish may not be overstocked--you know he has been bred a farrier,
consequently belongs to the faculty; and as he is very docile, I make
no doubt but, with your good instruction, he may be, in a little time,
qualified to act as a Welch apothecary. Tabby, who never did a favour
with a good grace, has consented, with great reluctance, to this match.
Perhaps it hurts her pride, as she now considers Clinker in the light of
a relation; but, I believe, her objections are of a more selfish nature.
She declares she cannot think of retaining the wife of Matthew Loyd in
the character of a servant; and she foresees, that on such an occasion
the woman will expect some gratification for her past services. As for
Clinker, exclusive of other considerations, he is so trusty, brave,
affectionate, and alert, and I owe him such personal obligations, that
he merits more than all the indulgence that can possibly be shewn him,
by
Yours, MATT. BRAMBLE Oct. 26.
To Sir WATKIN PHILLIPS, Bart. at Oxon.