Mrs. Rickards was a pretty creature, her husband was plain, her daughter
was plainer, but when one looked at them, in the magic of the moment,
they all looked alike,—happy and good. One forgot that beauty existed
elsewhere, save as an art.
They were of course constant guests at the hall. Miss Rickards herself
painted, baked, and glazed every window in Stowlangtoft Church.
The Rev. Mr. Mozley, well-known as belonging to the Tractarian
reformation, was an intimate friend of the Rickards and Wilsons. He was
one of three or four who wrote the leaders for the _Times_. His account
of the duty, told only in confidence to private friends, was that he and
his colleagues attended at the office every night at twelve o’clock,
one day excepted; and that a committee was there, at the same hour,
to discuss the subjects of the articles for the day following, and to
determine the line to be taken. Then a subject thus selected was handed
to each of the writers who were in waiting, in separate rooms.
On one occasion when Mr. Mozley was staying at the hall, a _Times_
commissioner was present at the dinner. He was the bearer of
introductions to the various landowners; his mission was to obtain
information on subjects connected with the land. He was not what one
calls refined, and he spoke with great freedom on the affairs of the
journal, not knowing that Mr. Mozley was connected with the _Times_, but
who was greatly amused at this gentleman’s pretended knowledge about the
most secret details of the paper.
I was myself of the party, and, knowing the situation, was equally
amused, with the rest of the company.
It occurs to me that the commissioner was named Foster. He was sent
about the country at the time of the incendiary fires. The circumstance
brings to my mind a character living at Ashfield, near Stowlangtoft—Lord
Thurlow, grandson of the great chancellor. He was a very shy man, and
at the same time very able, being a good chemist. He conversed well, but
with diffidence; the researches of Liebig, then fresh, made a strong
impression on his mind, and I was able to draw him out, being equally
interested in them myself. He had a fire-engine, and whenever a fire
broke out, he mounted his engine and took the direction of the flames.
I am chary of introducing the names and places of men who lived only for
themselves. There are families without any link between them and the
world at large who fill up certain gaps, but when they die they seem to
have been even of less use than they were. These are not only in the
majority, but they constitute the bulk of the social class.
I must not omit the name of Henry Oakes, the Suffolk banker, who,
though not a public man himself, gave his son to the Parliament as a
Conservative member. He lived at Nowton Court, the residence of his
father before him.
Henry Oakes was of a generous, confiding character in proportion to his
means. His son, the borough member, inherited a kindly disposition not
only from him, but from his truly amiable mother, the daughter of a
bishop; and she, like her husband, was well beloved.
The charming daughter of the house was married to the son of Sir Henry
Blake, whose title she now shares, if, as I trust, she still lives.
I have not yet spoken of the Mills family of Great Saxham Hall, which I
do now out of pure affection. They were connections of mine by marriage,
as were also the Carrighans of the adjoining parish of Barrow. Mr. Mills
and Mrs. Carrighan were brother and sister. The Rev. Arthur Carrighan had
the rectory; it was in the presentation of St. John’s College, and was
once held by Dr. Francis, the noted translator of Horace, and father of
Sir Philip Francis, the reputed author of the “Junius Letters.”
Carrighan was a student and Fellow of St. John’s, under the name of
Gosli—a name adopted by his father as a Sligo man, he reversing the
syllables. The history of this singular proceeding is associated with a
duel in which Mr. Carrighan, the father, was led to believe he had killed
his opponent. He thereupon changed his name, and in an unhappy state of
mind wandered over the Continent for twenty years more or less; when, one
day, he met the very man whom he supposed had received a death-blow at
his hands. On this important discovery he restored his true name to his
family.
Carrighan had many charms, but it will suffice to say he was a gentleman
and a scholar, which includes all that is good besides. Sir Thomas
Watson, his fellow-collegian, was his attached friend; I received
the hearty thanks of that great physician for my attention to Arthur
Carrighan in his last illness.
When one has been long on the Continent, he no sooner reaches Dover
than every woman looks beautiful. How would it have been with him if
the first one whom his eyes fell upon had been Mrs. Mills? She had
a daughter, Susan, as lovely as herself, who married Mr. Skrine, a
considerable Somersetshire squire, whose estates are within a ride of
Bath. Susan Mills had a most engaging expression. A neighbouring squire,
in his simple way, said, “One can’t help falling in love with her, she
holds her head on one side, so pretty!”
I took Mr. Borrow, who was my guest, to Saxham Hall with me to dinner
once, but it was the black eyes of another daughter that played their
conjuring trick on him. Long afterwards, his inquiries after the black
eyes were unfailing. Saxham adjoins Ickworth, and Lord Bristol always
found it a very pleasant place of call, on account of the charm which
surrounded the family.