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. Sir Roger, who
is very well acquainted with my humour[34], 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 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 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 grey-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 even in the old
house-dog, and in a grey 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.
I could not but observe, with a great deal of pleasure, the joy that
appeared in the countenance 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 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 that when he is pleasant
upon[36] 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 all his servants.
[Illustration: 'Every one of them press'd forward to do something for
him.']
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 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[37]: he heartily loves Sir Roger, and
knows that he is very much in the old Knight's esteem, so that he lives
in the family rather as a relation than a dependent.
I have observed in several of my papers, that my friend Sir Roger, amidst
all his good qualities, is something of an humorist[38]; and that his
virtues, as well as imperfections, 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 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 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 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 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 in behalf of one or other of my
tenants, his parishioners. There has not been a law-suit 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 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[39] them into such a series, that they
follow one another naturally, and make a continued system of practical
divinity.
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 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 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 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 endeavour after a handsome elocution[40], and all
those other 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.