No. 27.] SHARPE'S London Magazine: A JOURNAL OF ENTERTAINMENT AND INSTRUCTION MAY 2, 1846. [PRICE 1d. GLIMPSES OF VILLAGE LIFE. KATHARINE PENFOLD. and his pretty daughter. The old man so full of anccdote; so sprightly in his wit; so copious, and withal so justly discriminating, in his criticisms upon our literaA MOST intricate lane is Bower Lane, branching out ture, with whose riches Katharine's reading has famiinto a multitude of bridleways, and (so to speak) lane-liarized him; so shrewd, and often times so happy, in his lets, leading to isolated farms, cavernous gravel pits, and reedy pools, a rugged tortuous lane winding through orchard grounds, and hop gardens, and slopes of pasture land, now dipping into sombre hollows roofed by the meeting boughs of overhanging trees, now climbing to the top of pleasant knolls, from which you catch a glimpse of glistening waters creeping through the valley at your feet, and then piercing the very centre of the Farleigh woods, and leading you among the richest sylvan scenes, so wild, so seemingly remote from every sound of human life, that one almost looks to meet within its leafy precincts the fauns and nymphs and hamadryads of antique song. judgment of individual character a judgment built upon no better basis than the inflexions of the voice; so cheerful in the deprivation of his sight; so enthusiastic in his passion for "solemn sounds, sweet airs," and "old, old songs, the native music of the hills;" and so eager and thankful a listener to the comments of others upon the fine arts-painting and statuary more especially-and the beauty of the visible world, to him, alas! "banned and barred, forbidden fare." And Katesilver-tongued and soft-eyed Kate,-Kate with the lyric voice and cunning hand,-where should we look to find so pleasant a companion for the winter fire-side, or the summer ramble, as the fair daughter of our blind old organist? Yet Katharine Penfold, with all her manifest and manifold attractions and accomplishments, is a confirmed and steadfast spinster. Offers she has had by the dozen, and, unexceptionable as many of them have been, she has uniformly met them with a courteous "She has no wish for change-no thought of abandoning her pleasant home-no room for other love within her heart than that she cherishes towards her father," and, blushing as she diffidently stammers forth her thanks, our village beauty, by the very sooth and gentle character of her denial, invariably augments the passion she has unwittingly inspired. Nothing, it seems, can win her from her celibate, or tempt her to exchange the arduous duties of her daily life, for the ease and competence which the prosperous circumstances of some of her suitors would certainly ensure her. He would be a proud and happy man who should confer his name on Katharine Penfold, for he would be, indeed, but prompt denial. Midway between the woods and L, niched in a lordly group of elms, that, sweeping in a semicircle round the rear, form a glorious framework for the cottage and its sloping plot of garden-ground, stands Bower Court, the fragmentary relic of a noble house. Fragmentary indeed it is, as though the architect had been a "snapper up of unconsidered trifles," gathering from the wreck of a majestical old mansion a picturesque and motley salvage; now laying hands upon a portion of the cloistered colonnade, and now appropriating entire a very jewel of a porch, nor scrupling for a moment to avail himself of quaint old gable ends, carved window frames, fantastic coigns, and such other waifs and strays as fell within his reach. And, when he had combined all these, and when "boon nature" had beneficently hung a tapestry of shining ivy-leaves above the jutting porch, and gentle hands had trained some flowering parasites to weave a lavish net-work for the southern front; and when the summer sunshine shone upon its walls, and birds were carolling in the elms behind, and bees were humming in and out of the garden flowers, and "the murmur of a hidden brook," stealing along beneath dense hedge-rows, made happy music to the ear, you may believe that, to the eyes of such poor book-worms as ourselves, the Court appeared the very hermitage a literary eremite would, and, during all the pleasant summer months, at choose to wear away his summer hours in. Swallows delight to make it their abode, and never do we pass it by but these exquisite lines recur to mind: "The temple-haunting martlet does approve, By his loved mansionry, that the heaven's breath "Most richly blest In the calm meekness of her woman's breast, Weaving from each some link for home's dear charities." Twice in the week Kate's homeward path lies through church, and tarries there till nightfall, filling that old the coming on of twilight, her father meets her at the and echoing pile with the throbbing music of the solemn organ, improvising voluntaries, weaving together fragments of masses, requiems, and symphonies, or revelling in the jubilant notes of some high-soaring anthem song, in which the quivering voice of Katharine blends with the organ's tremulous swell,-floats along the vibrating and dusky air,-startles the sleeping echoes,-murmurs high up among the massive rafters of the roof,rings audibly against the window panes-and, wandering outward through the porch, arrests the footsteps of the passer by, constraining him to pause and listen to the music of the blind old organist, and the carol, the clear exulting carol, of his daughter's voice. And, when the gathering darkness warns Katharine and her father to depart, it is a chance if there be not some young and loving loiterer in the aisle below, waiting to proffer, with an eager importunity, his services as an escort home. And, if the offer be accepted, what a heavenly beauty is there in that tranquil summer night, to the buoyant fancy of the happy escort! with what a rare consummate charm are even ordinary and familiar objects invested for the nonce! Think you that, to his ears, music was ever so divine as the sound of Katharine's voice mingling in the conversation which beguiles their walk? Think you that ever distance seemed so brief as that which intervenes between the village and the "Court?"-that ever walk appeared so long, so weariIn the whole range of our acquaintance, we do not some, as the subsequent solitary retracing of his steps? know of two such delightful associates as our organist | Think you that, to the eye of shipwrecked mariner, ever For many a year the Court enjoyed the reputation of a haunted house. Children would speak of it with 'bated breath; and elder folks, belated in their evening walk, would hurry past it with averted eyes, and tremble if they heard the ivy rustle round the porch. And haunted most assuredly it is, (though happily, in the popular belief, the sprites have long ago been laid to rest,) by a spirit delicate as Ariel, gentle as the "lady wedded to the Moor," and, more than this, imbued with all the carnest love and filial tenderness of a Cordelia. A warm eulogium, and yet not undeserved; as you yourself would honestly confess upon acquaintance with its object. Knowing her, you could not fail to love her; and, loving her, you would be sure to superadd a feeling almost reverential for her devoted affection to the blind old man, her father, who depends for his support in part on her exertions as a daily governess, in part upon the slender stipend he receives as organist at L star shone forth so brightly as shines the twinkling | FRANK FAIRLEGH; OR, SCENES FROM THE LIFE OF A PRIVATE PUPIL. precedent, and to expose my own degeneracy. But the truth must be told at all hazards. The only feeling I experienced, beyond a vague sense of loneliness and desolation, was one of great personal discomfort. It rained hard, so that a small stream of water, which descended from the roof of the coach as I entered it, had insinu ated itself between one of the flannel waistcoats which formed so important an item in the maternal valediction, and my skin, whence, endeavouring to carry out what a logician would call the "law of its being," by finding its own level, it placed me in the undesirable position of an involuntary disciple of the cold-water system taking a "sitz-bad." As to my thoughts, the reader shall have the full benefit of them, in the exact order in which they flitted through my brain. First came in a vague desire to render my position more comfortable, ending in a forlorn hope that intense and continued sitting might, by some undefined process of evaporation, cure the evil. This suggested a specuI HAVE, from time to time, amused a leisure hour by be my mother's feelings, could she be aware of the state lation, half pleasing and half painful, as to what would committing to paper the following recollections of my of things; the pleasure being the result of that mysboyish days. My reasons for doing so were briefly these. terious preternatural delight which a boy always takes It struck me, that, while volume after volume had been in every thing at all likely to injure his health, or endevoted to "C school-boy days," "college life," &c., the mysteries of that paradise of public-school-fearing danger his existence, and the pain arising from the knowmamas, a private tutor's, still remained unrevealed. ledge that there was now no one near me to care whether In hastening to avail myself of this (as far as I am aware) I was comfortable or not. Again, these speculations hitherto untried ground, I have had in view (in addition merged into a sort of dreamy wonder, as to why a queer to my professed design of amusing myself, and-may little old gentleman opposite (my sole fellow-traveller) I venture to hope it?-my readers also,) the following went on grunting like a pig, at intervals of about a objects:-in the first place, to enlighten the aforesaid minute, though he was wide awake all the time; and mamas as to the nature of the bed of roses to which whether a small tuft of hair, on a mole at the tip of his they are so anxious to transplant their darlings, and nose, could have anything to do with it. At this point, to show some of the trials and temptations to which a my meditations were interrupted by the old gentleman lad, hitherto shielded from evil by all the hallowing himself, who, after a louder grunt than usual, gave vent influences of home, may (despite the best intentions on to his feelings in the following speech, which was partly the part of his tutor) be exposed; and, secondly, to addressed to me and partly a soliloquy. “Umph! prove to the "young gentlemen" themselves, how, by a going to school, my boy, eh?" then, in a lower tone, little firmness and decision of character, and a sensible "wonder why I called him my boy, when he's no such and manly adherence to the religious principles in which thing: just like me; umph!" I replied by informing they have been brought up, they may, without forfeiting him that I was not exactly going to school, (I was the regard of their companions, do good in their gene-just fifteen, and the word "school" sounded derogaration, and lay the foundation of the character which it should be their aim to support through life; viz. that of Christians and Gentlemen. How far I may have succeeded in accomplishing these objects, it is not for me to decide. CHAPTER I. "Never forget, under any circumstances, to think and act like a gentleman, and don't exceed your allow: ance," said my father. "Mind you read your Bible, and remember what I have told you about wearing flannel waistcoats," cried my mother. And with their united "God bless you, my boy!" still ringing in my ears, I found myself inside the stage coach, on my way to London. Now, I am well aware that the correct thing for a boy in my situation (i.e. leaving home for the first time) would be to fall back on my seat, and into a reverie, during which, utterly lost to all external impressions, I should entertain the thoughts and feelings of a wellinformed man of thirty; the same thoughts and feelings being clothed in the semi-poetic prose of a fashionable novel writer. Deeply, therefore, am I grieved at being forced both to set at nought so laudable an established tory to my dignity;) but that, having been, up to the present time, educated at home by my father, I was now on my way to complete my studies under the care of a private tutor, who only received six pupils, a very different thing from a school, as I took the liberty of insinuating. Umph! different thing? You will cost more, learn less, and fancy yourself a man when you're a little boy; that's the only difference I can see :" then came the aside,-"Snubbing the poor child, when he's too low already; just like me; umph!" After which he relapsed into a silence which continued uninterrupted until we reached London, save once, while we were changing horses, when he produced a flask with a silver top, and, taking a sip himself, asked me if I drank brandy. On my shaking my head, with a smile caused by what appeared to me the utter wildness and desperation of the notion, he muttered, "Umph! of course he doesn't; how should he?just like me." In due course of time we reached the Old Bell Inn, Holborn, where the coach stopped, and where my trunk and myself were to be handed over to the tender mercies of the coachman of the "Rocket," a fast coach, (I speak of the slow old days when railroads were unknown,) which then ran to Helmstone, the watering-place where my future tutor, the Rev. Doctor Mildman, resided. My first impressions of London are scarcely worth recording, for the simple reason that they consisted solely of intense and unmitigated surprise at everything and everybody I saw and heard; which may be more readily believed when I mention the fact, that my preconceived notions of the metropolis led me to imagine, that perhaps it might be twice the size of the town nearest to my father's house, in short, almost as large as Grosvenor Square. Here I parted company with my fellow-traveller, who took leave of me thus-"Umph! well, good bye; be a good boy-good man, you'd like me to say, I suppose; man indeed! umph! don't forget what your parents told you;" then adding, "Of course he will, what's the use of telling him not just like me;"- he dived into the recesses of a hackney coach, and disappeared. Nothing worthy of note occurred during my journey to Helmstone, where we arrived at about half-past four in the afternoon. My feelings of surprise and admiration were destined once more to be excited on this (to me) memorable day, as, in my way from the coach-office to Langdale Terrace, where Doctor Mildman resided, I beheld, for the first time, that most stupendous work of God, the mighty Ocean; which, alike in its wild resist less freedom, and its miraculous obedience to the command, "Thus far shalt thou come, and no further," bears at once the plainest print of its Almighty Creator's hand, while it affords a strong and convincing proof of His omnipotence. On knocking at the door of Doctor Mildman's house, (if the truth must be told, it was with a trembling hand I did so,) it was opened by a man-servant, whose singularly plain features were characterised by an expression alternating between extreme civility and an intense appreciation of the ludicrous. On mentioning my name, and asking if Doctor Mildman was at home, he replied, "Yes, sir, master's in, sir; so you're Mr. Fairlegh, sir, our new young gent., sir?" (here the ludicrous expression predominated ;) "hope you'll be comfortable, sir," (here he nearly burst into a laugh;) "show you into master's study, sir, directly," (here he became preternaturally grave again ;) and opening the study door, ushered me into the presence of the dreaded tutor. On my entrance, Doctor Mildman (for such I presumed a middle-aged gentleman, the sole tenant of the apartment, to be) rose from a library table, at which he had been seated, and, shaking me kindly by the hand, inquired after the health of my father and mother, what sort of journey I had had, and sundry other particulars of the like nature, evidently with the good-humoured design of putting me a little more at my ease; for I have no doubt the trepidation I was well aware of feeling inwardly, at finding myself tête-à-tête with a real live tutor, was written in very legible characters on my countenance. Doctor Mildman, whose appearance I studied with an anxious eye, was a gentlemanly looking man of five-and-forty, or thereabouts, with a high bald forehead, and good features, the prevailing expression of which, naturally mild and benevolent, was at times chequered by that look which all schoolmasters are sure sooner or later to acquire a look which seems to say, "Now, sir, do you intend to mind me, or do you not?" Had it not been for this, and for an appearance of irresolution about the mouth, he would have been a decidedly fine-looking mian. While I was making these observations, he informed me that I had arrived just in time for dinner, and that the servant should show me to my sleeping apartment, whence, when I had sacrificed to the Graces, (as he was pleased to call dressing,) I was to descend to the drawing room, and be introduced to Mrs. Mildman and my future companions. My sleeping room, which was rather a small garret than otherwise, was furnished, as it appeared to me, with more regard to economy than to the comfort of its inmate. At one end stood a small four-post bedstead, which, owing to some mysterious cause, chose to hold its ncar fore-leg up in the air, and slightly advanced, thereby impressing the beholder with the idea that it was about to trot into the middle of the room. On an unpainted deal table stood a looking-glass, which, from a habit it had of altering and embellishing the face of any one who consulted it, must evidently have possessed great natural humour: an ancient wash-hand-stand, supporting a basin and towel, and a dissipated looking chair, completed the catalogue. Whilst I am engaged in preparing for the alarming ordeal I am so soon to undergo, allow me to present a slight sketch of myself, both mental and bodily, to the reader; and, as mind ought to take precedence of matter, I will attempt, as far as I am able after the lapse of time which has taken place, to paint my character in true colours, "neither extenuating nor setting down aught in malice." I was, then, as the phrase goes, "a very well-behaved young gentleman;" that is, I had a great respect for all properly constituted authorities, and an extreme regard for the proprieties of life; was very particular about my shoes being clean, and my hat nicely brushed; always saying "Thank you," when a servant handed me a plate, and, "May I trouble you?" when I asked for a bit of bread. In short, I bade fair in time to become a thorough old bachelor; one of those unhappy mortals whose lives are alike a burthen to themselves and others,-men who, by magnifying the minor household miseries into events of importance, are uneasy and suspicious about things from the wash having been properly aired, and become low and anxious as the dreaded time approaches when clean sheets are inevitable! My ideas of a private tutor being derived chiefly from "Sandford and Merton," and "Evenings at Home," were rather wide of the mark, leading me to expect that Dr. Mildman would impart instruction to us during long rambles over green fields, and in the form of moral allegories, to which we should listen with respectful attention and affectionate esteem. With regard to my outward man, or rather boy, I should have been obliged to have confined myself to such particulars as I could remember, namely, that I was tall for my age, but slightly built, and so thin, as often to provoke the application of such epithets as "hop-pole," "thread-paper," &c. ; had it not been that, in turning over some papers, a few days since, I stumbled on a water-colour sketch of myself, which I well remember being taken by a young artist in the neighbourhood, just before I left home, in the hope of consoling my mother for my departure. It represented a lad about fifteen, in a picturesque attitude, feeding a pony out of a very elegant little basket, with what appeared to be white currants, though I have every reason to believe they were meant for oats. The aforesaid youth rejoiced in an open shirt collar and black ribbon à la Byron, curling hair of a dark chestnut colour, regular features, a high forehead, complexion like a girl's, very pink and white, and a pair of large blue eyes, engaged in regarding the white currant oats with intense surprise, as well indeed they might. Whether this young gentleman bore more resemblance to me, than the currants did to oats, I am, of course, unable to judge; but, as the portrait represented a very handsome boy, I hope none of my readers will be rude enough to doubt that it was a striking likeness. I now proceeded to render myself thoroughly wretched, by attempting to extricate the articles necessary for a change of dress from the very bottom of my trunk, where, according to the nature of such things, they had hidden themselves; grammars, lexicons, and other like "Amenities of Literature," being the things that came to hand most readily. Scarcely had I contrived to discover a wearable suit, when I was informed that dinner was on the table; so, hastily tumbling into my clothes, and giving a final peep at the facetious looking-glass, the result of which was my twisting the bow of my Byron tie under my left car, in the belief that I was thereby putting it straight, I rushed down stairs, just in time to see the back of the last pupil disappear through the door, and beheld the interior of the "pupil's room," dining-room door. "Better late than never, Fairlegh; which, for the benefit of such of my readers as may Mrs. Mildman, this is Fairlegh; he can sit by you, Cole-never have seen the like, I will now endeavour shortly man;- For what we are going to receive,' &c.;-Thomas, to describe. the carving knife." Such was the address with which The parlour devoted to the pupil's use was of a good my tutor greeted my entrance, and, during its progress, size, and nearly square, and, like the cabin of a certain I popped into a seat indicated by a sort of half wink "ould Irish gentleman," appeared to be fitted up with from Thomas, resisting by a powerful act of self-control "nothing at all for show." In three of the corners a sudden impulse which seized me, to rush out of the stood small tables covered with books and writing room, and do something between going to sea and materials, for the use of Dr. Mildman and the two taking prussic acid; not quite either, but partaking of senior pupils; in the fourth was a book-case. The centre the nature of both. "Take soup, Fairlegh?" said Dr. of the room was occupied by a large square table, the Mildman. "Thank you, sir, if you please." "A plea- common property of the other pupils; while a carpet, sant journey had you?" inquired Mrs. Mildman. "Not "a little the worse for wear," and sundry veteran chairs, any, I am much obliged to you," I replied, thinking of rather crazy from the treatment to which many generathe fish. This produced a total silence, during which tions of pupils had subjected them, (a chair being the the pupils exchanged glances, and Thomas concealed an favourite projectile in the event of a shindy,) completed illicit smile behind the bread basket. "Does your the catalogue. Mr. Richard Cumberland, the senior father," began Dr. Mildman in a very grave and deli- pupil, was lounging in an easy attitude on one side berate manner, "does your father shoot?"-" Boiled of the fireplace; on the other stood, bolt upright, a lad mutton, my dear." I replied, that he had given it up rather older than myself, with a long unmeaning face, of late years, as the fatigue was too much for him. "Oh! and a set of arms and legs which appeared not to belong I was very fond of carrying a gun,-pepper,-when I was to one another. This worthy, as I soon learned, re-a spoon-at Oxford, I could hit a-mashed potatoesponded to the name of Nathaniel Mullins, and usually bird as well as most men; yes, I was very sorry to give served as the butt of the party, in the absence of newer up my double barrel-ale, Thomas!" "You came inside, or worthier game. Exactly in front of the fire, with his I believe?" questioned Mrs. Mildman, a lady possessing coat tails under his arms, and his legs extended like a a shadowy outline, indistinct features faintly charac- pair of compasses, was stationed Mr. George Lawless, terised by an indefinite expression, long ringlets of an who, after being expelled from one of the upper forms almost impossible shade of whity-brown, and a com- at Eton, for some heroic exploit, which the head master plexion and general appearance only to be described could not be persuaded to view in its proper light, was by the term "washed out." Yes, all the way ma'am." sent to vegetate for a year or two at Dr. Mildman's, ere "Did you not dislike it very much? it creases one's he proceeded to one of the universities. This gentleman gown so, unless it is a merino, or mousseline-de-laine, was of rather a short thick-set figure, with a large head, but one can't always wear them, you know." Not and an expression of countenance resembling that of a being in the least prepared with an answer suitable bull when the animal " means mischief," and was supto this, I merely made what I intended to be an affir- posed by his friends to be more thoroughly "wide mative grunt, in doing which a crumb of bread chose awake" than any one of his years in the three kingto go the wrong way, producing thereby a violent fit of doms. The quartette was completed by Mr. Frederick coughing, in the agonies of which I seized and drank Coleman, a small lad, with a round merry face, who was off Dr. Mildman's tumbler of ale, mistaking it for my perched on the back of a chair, with his feet resting own. The effect of this, my crowning gaucherie, was to on the hob, and his person so disposed as effectually to call forth a languid smile on the countenance of the screen every ray of fire from Nathaniel Mullins. "You senior pupil, a tall young man, with dark hair, and are not cold, Fairlegh? Don't let me keep the fire from a rather forbidding expression of face, which struggled you," said Lawless, without, however, showing the slightonly too successfully with an attempt to look exceed- est intention of moving. "Not very, thank you." "Oh! ingly amiable; which smile was repeated with variations quite right-glad to hear it; it's Mildman's wish that, by all the others. "Thomas, a clean glass," said Dr. during the first half, no pupil should come on the hearthMildman; but Thomas had evaporated suddenly, leaving | rug. I made a point of conscience of it myself when no clue to his whereabouts, unless sundry faint sounds I first came. The Spartans, you know, never allowed of suppressed laughter outside the door, indicating, as their little boys to do so, and even the Athenians, a I fancied, his extreme appreciation of my unfortunate much more luxurious people, always had their pinafores mistake, proceeded from him. It is, I believe, a gene- made of asbestos, or some such fire-proof stuff. You rally received axiom, that all mortal affairs must sooner are well read in Walker's History of Greece, I hope?" or later come to an end; at all events the dinner I have I replied, that I was afraid I was not. Never read been describing did not form an exception to the rule. Hookeyus Magnus?' Your father ought to be ashamed In due time Mrs. Mildman disappeared, after which of himself for neglecting you so. You are aware, I supDr. Mildman addressed a remark or two about Greek pose, that the Greeks had a different sort of fire to what tragedy to the tall pupil, which led to a dissertation on we burn now-a-days? You've heard of Greek fire?" I the merits of a gentleman named Prometheus, who, it answered that I had, but did not exactly understand seemed, was bound in some peculiar way, but whether what it meant. "Not know that, either? disgraceful! this referred to his apprenticeship to some trade did Well, it was a kind of way they had of flaring up in not appear. This lasted about ten minutes, at the expi- those times, a sort of light of other days,' which enaration of which the senior pupil "grinned horribly a bled them to give their friends a warm reception; so ghastly smile" at the others, who instantly rose, and much so, indeed, that their friends found it too warm conveyed themselves out of the room with such rapidity, sometimes, and latterly they usually reserved it for that I, being quite unprepared for such a proceeding, sat their enemies. Mind you remember all this, for it is for a moment in silent amazement, and then, becoming one of the first things old Sam will be sure to ask you." suddenly alive to a sense of my situation, rushed fran- Did my ears deceive me? Could he have called the tiely after them. My speed was checked somewhat tutor, the dreaded tutor, "old Sam?" I trembled as I stood abruptly by a door at the end of the passage being-plain, unhonoured "Sam," as though he had spoken violently slammed in my face, for which polite attention of a footman? The room turned round with me. I was indebted to the philanthropy of the hindmost pupil, who thereby imposed upon me the agreeable task of feeling in the dark for a door-handle in an unknown locality. After fumbling for some time, in a state of the greatest bewilderment, I at length opened the Alas! 66 for Sandford and Merton, and affectionate and respectful esteem! "But how's this?" continued Lawless, we have forgotten to introduce you in form to your companions, and to enter your name in the books of the establishment; why, Cumberland, what were you think |