Part 109 (2/2)
”Yours, sincerely, Laconic.”
”Excellent, upon my word,” said Sparkle; ”here are two men of honour determined upon meeting, running away from each other even before the preliminaries are arranged.”
”There is novelty in it at least,” said Tom, ”though I am by no means astonished at the end of it; for I before observed, I do not think either of them over fond of powder. Laconic pretended that nothing would satisfy him but fighting immediately, provided Bl.u.s.ter was to be found: any person to whom bis character was not known would have expected some spilling of blood before this time. But it is now plain that this bl.u.s.tering was the effect of the wine, and the man's cooler judgment has extinguished the flame of his irritability.”
”I think,” said Tallyho, ”it would be well to advise them to meet half-seas over, and draw a cork together by way of settling their differences.”
”Curse their differences,” replied Dashall, ”I'll have nothing more to do with them: upon the whole, I am glad now that I could not meet with Bl.u.s.ter, or I should have looked like a fool between the two; and as it is, I am not much pleased with the adventure, particularly as it must necessarily delay me, and I hate the idea of travelling alone. I should very much have liked to start with you; but as Laconic has made me fully acquainted with his affairs, in case he should fall in the intended duel, I must even comply with the contents of his note; though, if he had not actually departed, you may rest a.s.sured I would have nothing to do with him or his concerns.”
~~417~~~ ”Come, come,” cried Sparkle, ”grumbling is of no use now; and as the circ.u.mstances are not made public, the duellists will escape being laughed at. There is no harm done--we must be upon the alert--we shortly bid adieu to London, and shall not be so well pleased to leave you behind; but remember you promise to follow as quickly as possible.--Now, how shall we dispose of the remainder of the time?”
”Zounds,” replied Tom, ”all my plans are deranged by this foolish affair of Laconic's, and I can hardly tell which way to move.--However, I shall not devote myself to his affairs to-day; therefore I am at your service; and as time is but short with us, let us make good use of it. The tragedy of the duel having ended most comically, I am prepared for any thing farcical; therefore say the word, and I am your man for a toddle, east, west, north, or south.”
Upon this intimation, our friends sallied forth upon a sort of Quixotic excursion in search of adventures, for neither could make up his mind as to the precise place of their destination, when the first object that attracted their particular notice was a large printed bill, announcing to the public, ”That the sale at Fonthill Abbey, advertised for the 8th of October, would not take place, in consequence of the property being disposed of by private contract.”{1}
1 The following appeared in the daily prints relating to this valuable property:--
”FONTHILL ABBEY. ”The sale at this splendid mansion is not to take place, the estate having been sold by private contract; the purchaser is said to be Mr. Farquhar, a rich East India merchant, who is reported to have given 330,000L.
for the property. It is stated that every article in the Abbey goes with it, with the exception of the family plate and pictures, and a very few favourite rarities. Possession is to be taken immediately. The sale of the whole estate is an event for which the people of the place seem to have been totally unprepared. They were led to believe, from the beginning, that nothing was to be sold but the mere luxuries of the place; but as to the Abbey, they universally a.s.serted, in the strongest manner, as if they had good reason to be convinced of the thing, that Mr. Beck-ford would as soon part with his life as with a residence which he prized so dearly. Now, however, that they have heard from the steward, that the estate has been sold, and that he has received notice to quit his office in a fortnight, they begin to feel that they have lost an excellent landlord. Mr.
Beckford has taken a house in town, in the New Road, where he means chiefly to reside in future. Every body is aware that the chief part of that princely income, which enabled him to raise this expensive edifice from the foundation, was derived from his paternal estates in the West Indies. Such was the wealth which those estates at one time pro-duced, that it obtained for his grandfather the distinction of being considered the richest subject in Europe. For the last ten years they have declined very materially, and several of them have been entirely lost through a defect that has been discovered in the t.i.tle. The original purchaser obtained these in the way of mort-gage, and having foreclosed them in an untechnical manner, advantage has been taken of the informality by the heirs of the mortgagors, and Mr. Beckford has been dispossessed. The defence of his t.i.tle, and the other consequences, involved him in losses and vast expenses; besides which, the revenue from his unquestionable estates in those islands has declined to less than one-tenth of what it formerly was. Mr. Farquhar, the gentleman who is reported to have purchased Fouthill Abbey, is the princ.i.p.al partner and proprietor of Whitbread's brew-house, and is likewise at the head of the first mercantile house in the City, for the management of all agency concerns, connected with India.”
~~418~~~ ”Thousands of people,” says Dashall, ”who had been flocking to that neighbourhood, intending to obtain a view of the premises, will, by this event, be disappointed. Several of my friends have paid a visit to it, and describe it as a most princely mansion.”
”And pray,” inquired Sparkle, ”what is the cause of its being sold at all 1 It has always been reported that Mr. Beckford was a man of very extensive property.”
”That appears to be a little mysterious, and report, who is always a busy fellow on extraordinary occasions, has not been idle: by some it is stated, that Mr. Beckford suffered great and irreparable losses in his West India property, and that there are in the Abbey at this moment executions to the amount of eighty thousand pounds; that the view of the effects has taken place entirely under the control of the sheriffs: by others it is a.s.serted that no such embarra.s.sment exists. However, be that as it may, the public have been highly gratified for some time past in being permitted to view the estate and the valuable curiosities it contains; and the produce of the admission tickets, which has probably netted twenty thousand pounds, goes to the liquidation of the debts.”
~~419~~~ ”And an excellent plan for raising the wind too,” said Tallyho; ”the example, I suppose, has been taken from Wanstead House.”
”Most likely,” was the reply; ”but if it is true that the disposal of the property is occasioned by the embarra.s.sment of its owner, it cannot but excite painful and melancholy reflections on the tenure by which men hold the goods of this life. Those who were acquainted with Mr.
Beckford's circ.u.mstances some years ago, thought him so secured in the enjoyment of a princely income, that he was absolutely out of the reach of ill fortune, being at one time in the actual receipt of one hundred thousand pounds a year. It cannot be said of him that he has wasted his inheritance at the gaming-table. The palace which he raised on a barren mountain, the greater part of those vast plantations which surround it, the collection of books, and of rare specimens of art, and the superb furniture, which gives such peculiar dignity and splendour to the interior of his residence, speak at once the immensity of his means, and attest the propriety and gracefulness of their application.”
”We ought to have taken a trip there to have seen this earthly paradise,” rejoined Tallyho; ”but now I suppose it is all over.”
”Certainly,” was the reply; ”and it is a circ.u.mstance for which the people in the neighbourhood appear to have been totally unprepared. They were led to believe, from the beginning, that the mere luxuries of the place were to be sold, and the public announcement of this had the effect of filling the county of Wilts with pleasure-hunters from all quarters. He was fortunate who, for some time past, could find a vacant chair within twenty miles of Fonthill: the solitude of a private apartment was a luxury which few could hope for; and an old friend of mine informs me, in one of his letters, that, coming from London, travellers first met their troubles about Salisbury, The languages of France, of Holland, and of Germany, the peculiarities (in tongue) of Scotland and Ireland, the broad dialect of Somersets.h.i.+re, the tinckling accent of Wales, and the more polished tones of metropolitan residents, were all, at the same moment, to be heard clas.h.i.+ng and contending. There were bells ringing, and chamber-maids screaming--horses prancing, and post-boys swearing--wheels clattering, and waiters jostling--guests threatening, and hubbub and confusion the orders of the day:--and all this to see something which half of them, when they got there, if they were so fortunate, could not obtain a sight of. So that, perhaps, we have been quite as well off in remaining at home.”
~~420~~~ ”That was spoken like a philosopher,” said Sparkle, dryly.--”But pray, who is to be the future possessor of this fine estate?”
”A Mr. Farquhar, who, according to the best information I have obtained, is a man of an extraordinary character, and has given 330,000L. for it as it stands, with every article in the Abbey except the family plate and pictures, and a few very favourite rarities. Some interesting particulars of the purchaser have recently been made known; from which it appears, that he is a native of Aberdeen, and went out early in life to India, where he was employed in the medical department. Chemical research was his favourite pursuit: there was some defect in the manner of manufacturing gunpowder, and Mr. Farquhar was selected to give his a.s.sistance. By degrees, he obtained the management of the concern, and finally he became the sole contractor to the government. In this way wealth and distinction rapidly poured in upon him. After some years of labour, he returned to England with half a million of money; and it is somewhat curious that a man possessed of so much money upon his arrival at Gravesend, should, merely to save the expense of coach-hire, walk up to London; which, however, it appears he did, when his first visit, very naturally, was to his banker. Without waiting for refreshment or alteration of attire, full of dust and dirt, with clothes not worth a guinea, he presented himself at the counter, and asked for Mr. Coutts.
The clerks, not much prepossessed in his favour by his appearance, disregarded his application; and he was suffered to remain in the cash-office under the idea of his being some poor pet.i.tioner, until Mr.
Coutts, pa.s.sing through it, recognized his Indian customer, the man whom he expected to see with all the pomp of a nabob. Mr. Farquhar requested to have five pounds; which having received, he took his departure. This anecdote strongly marks the character and habits of the man. He soon afterwards settled in Upper Baker-street, where his house was to be distinguished by its dingy appearance, uncleaned windows, and general neglect. An old woman was his sole attendant; and his apartment, to which a brush or broom was never applied, was kept sacred from her care.
His neighbours were not acquainted with his character; and there have been instances of some of them offering him money as an object of charity.”
~~421~~~ ”An admirable tenant for such a place as Fonthill, truly,”
observed Sparkle.--”Why, what the devil will he do with it now he has got it?”
”Perhaps,” said Dashall, ”I ought to refer you to the man himself for an answer to such a question, for I am at a loss to guess; he is now sixty-five years of age, and still in single blessedness.”
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