Part 4 (1/2)

”That is to say, you wish to lean on my arm, and yet to walk your oay? That can hardly be, Frank;--however, I suppose you mean to obey my directions, so far as they do not cross your own humour?”

I was about to speak--”Silence, if you please,” he continued ”Supposing this to be the case, you will instantly set out for the north of England, to pay your uncle a visit, and see the state of his fa his sons (he has six, I believe) one who, I understand, is most worthy to fill the place I intended for you in the counting-house But soements may be necessary, and for these your presence may be requisite You shall have farther instructions at Osbaldistone Hall, where you will please to re will be ready for your departure to-”

With these words my father left the apartment

”What does all this mean, Mr Owen?” said I to my sympathetic friend, whose countenance wore a cast of the deepest dejection

”You have ruined yourself, Mr Frank, that's all When your father talks in that quiet detere in him than in a fitted account”

And so it proved; for the next , at five o'clock, I found ood horse, and with fifty guineas in , as it would see in the adoption of a successor to ht I knew, eventually in his fortune also

CHAPTER THIRD

The slack sail shi+fts from side to side, The boat, untrimm'd, admits the tide, Borne down, adrift, at random tost, The oar breaks short, the rudder's lost Gay's Fables

I have tagged with rhyme and blank verse the subdivisions of this important narrative, in order to seduce your continued attention by powers of co lines refer to an unfortunate navigator, who daringly unloosed froe, and thrust it off into the full tide of a navigable river No schoolboy, who, betwixt frolic and defiance, has executed a similar rash atte current, in a situation , without a compass, on the ocean of human life There had been such unexpected ease in the manner in which est which binds society together, and suffered me to depart as a sort of outcast froely lessened the confidence in my own personal accomplishments, which had hitherto sustained me Prince Prettyman, now a prince, and now a fisher's son, had not a radation We are so apt, in our engrossing egotism, to consider all those accessories which are drawn around us by prosperity, as pertaining and belonging to our own persons, that the discovery of our unimportance, when left to our own proper resources, beco As the hum of London died away on my ear, the distant peal of her steeples ain,” erst heard by her future Lord Mayor; and when I looked back fronificence, I felt as if I were leaving behind me comfort, opulence, the charms of society, and all the pleasures of cultivated life

But the die was cast It was, indeed, by no racious compliance with my father's wishes would have reinstated me in the situation which I had lost On the contrary, firht rather have been disgusted than conciliated by my tardy and coe in commerce My constitutional obstinacy caure I shouldof foura month's serious deliberation Hope, too, that never forsakes the young and hardy, lent her lustre to my future prospects My father could not be serious in the sentence of foris-faly pronounced It must be but a trial of my disposition, which, endured with patience and steadiness on my part, would raise me in his estimation, and lead to an amicable accommodation of the point in dispute between us I even settled in my own mind how far I would concede to him, and on what articles of our supposed treaty I wouldto hts of filiation, paying the easy penalty of some ostensible compliances to atone for my past rebellion

In the meanwhile, I was lord ofof independence which the youthful boso h by no means amply replenished, was in a situation to supply all the wants and wishes of a traveller I had been accustomed, while at Bourdeaux, to act as , and active, and the buoyancy of my spirits soon surmounted the melancholy reflections hich lad to have journeyed upon a line of road better calculated to afford reasonable objects of curiosity, or acountry, to the traveller But the north road was then, and perhaps still is, singularly deficient in these respects; nor do I believe you can travel so far through Britain in any other direction without e the attention Mymy assumed confidence, were not always of an unchequered nature The Muse too,--the very coquette who had led me into this wilderness,--like others of her sex, deserted me in my utmost need, and I should have been reduced to rather an uncomfortable state of dulness, had it not been for the occasional conversation of strangers who chanced to pass the same way But the characters who description Country parsons, jogging ho fro to collect as due to their oing down into the country upon the recruiting service, were, at this period, the persons by whom the turnpikes and tapsters were kept in exercise Our speech, therefore, was of tithes and creeds, of beeves and grain, of commodities wet and dry, and the solvency of the retail dealers, occasionally varied by the description of a siege, or battle, in Flanders, which, perhaps, the narrator only gavetheme, filled up every vacancy; and the nahwayars' Opera heroes, were familiar in our mouths as household words At such tales, like children closing their circle round the fire when the ghost story draws to its climax, the riders drew near to each other, looked before and behind the of their pistols, and vowed to stand by each other in case of danger; an engagement which, like other offensive and defensive alliances, solided out of remembrance when there was an appearance of actual peril

Of all the fellohom I ever saw haunted by terrors of this nature, one poor man, hom I travelled a day and a half, afforded me most amusement He had upon his pillion a very shty portmanteau, about the safety of which he see it out of his own i the officious zeal of the waiters and ostlers, who offered their services to carry it into the house With the same precaution he laboured to conceal, not only the purpose of his journey, and his ultimate place of destination, but even the direction of each day's route Nothing embarrassed hi upwards or doards, or at what stage he intended to bait His place of rest for the night he scrutinised with thesolitude, and what he considered as bad neighbourhood; and at Grantha in the next roo, and a tarnished gold-laced waistcoat With all these cares on his e by his thews and sineas a er at defiance with asand well built; and, judging froold-laced hat and cockade, see to the military profession in one capacity or other His conversation also, though always sufficiently vulgar, was that of a bears which haunted his iination for a moment ceased to occupy his attention But every accidental association recalled them An open heath, a close plantation, were alike subjects of apprehension; and the whistle of a shepherd lad was instantly converted into the signal of a depredator Even the sight of a gibbet, if it assured him that one robber was safely disposed of by justice, never failed to reed

I should have wearied of this fellow's cohts Some of the marvellous stories, however, which he related, had in themselves a cast of interest, and another whimsical point of his peculiarities affordedhis tales, several of the unfortunate travellers who fell a the stranger, in whose company they trusted to find protection as well as a, protected thes, until at length, under pretext of showing a near path over a desolate common, he seduced his unsuspicious victilen, where, suddenly blowing his whistle, he asse-place, and displayed himself in his true colours--the captain, namely, of the band of robbers to whom his unwary fellow-travellers had forfeited their purses, and perhaps their lives Towards the conclusion of such a tale, and when ht hiress of his own narrative, I observed that he usually eyed lance of doubt and suspicion, as if the possibility occurred to hiht, at that very erous as that which his tale described And ever and anon, when such suggestions pressed theenious self-torh-road, looked before, behind, and around hiht or defence, as circuht require

The suspicion implied on such occasions seemed to me only momentary, and too ludicrous to be offensive There was, in fact, no particular reflection on h I was thus ht have all the external appearance of a gentlehway then taken place so fully as since that period, the profession of the polite and accomplished adventurer, who nicked you out of your money at White's, or bowled you out of it at Marylebone, was often united with that of the professed ruffian, who on Bagshot Heath, or Finchley Common, commanded his brother beau to stand and deliver There was also a touch of coarseness and hardness about the ree, been softened and shaded away It seems to me, on recollection, as if desperate men had less reluctance then than now to e their fortune The times were indeed past, when Anthony-a-Wood oodly in person, and of undisputed courage and honour, ere hanged without mercy at Oxford, merely because their distress had driven thehway We were still farther removed from the days of ”the mad Prince and Poins” And yet, from the number of unenclosed and extensive heaths in the vicinity of the metropolis, and from the less populous state of remote districts, both were frequented by that species of hwaymen, that may possibly beco like courtesy; and, like Gibbet in the Beaux Stratage the best behavedthemselves with all appropriate civility in the exercise of their vocation A young man, therefore, in nant at the mistake which confounded him with this worshi+pful class of depredators

Neither was I offended On the contrary, I found a to sleep, the suspicions ofas still farther to puzzle a brain which nature and apprehension had combined to render none of the clearest When my free conversation had lulled hi inquiry concerning the direction of his journey, or the nature of the business which occasioned it, to put his suspicions once more in arth and activity of our horses, took such a turn as follows:-- ”O sir,” said rant you; but allow --that ood roadster The trot, sir” (striking his Bucephalus with his spurs),--”the trot is the true pace for a hackney; and, e near a town, I should like to try that daisy-cutter of yours upon a piece of level road (barring canter) for a quart of claret at the next inn”

”Content, sir,” replied I; ”and here is a stretch of ground very favourable”

”Hem, ahem,” answerednever to blow es; one never knohat occasion he may have to put him to his mettle: and besides, sir, when I said I would hter than I”

”Very well; but I aht Pray, what h?”

”My p-p-port--”O very little--a feather--just a few shi+rts and stockings”

”I should think it heavier, from its appearance I'll hold you the quart of claret it ht”

”You're mistaken, sir, I assure you--quiteoff to the side of the road, as was his wont on these alar to venture the wine; or, I will bet you ten pieces to five, that I carry your portain”

This proposal raised ed from the natural copper hue which it had acquired from many a comfortable cup of claret or sack, into a palish brassy tint, and his teeth chattered with apprehension at the unveiled audacity of my proposal, which seemed to place the barefaced plunderer before him in full atrocity As he faltered for an answer, I relieved hi a steeple, which now became visible, and an observation that ere now so near the village as to run no risk from interruption on the road At this his countenance cleared up: but I easily perceived that it was long ere he forgot a proposal which seeht with suspicion as that which I had now hazarded I trouble you with this detail of the man's disposition, and the manner in which I practised upon it, because, however trivial in themselves, these particulars were attended by an important influence on future incidents which will occur in this narrative At the time, this person's conduct only inspired me with contempt, and confirmed me in an opinion which I already entertained, that of all the propensities which teach mankind to tor, busy, painful, and pitiable

CHAPTER FOURTH

The Scots are poor, cries surly English pride True is the charge; nor by themselves denied Are they not, then, in strictest reason clear, Who wisely come to mend their fortunes here? Churchill

There was, in the days of which I write, an old-fashi+oned custolish road, which I suspect is now obsolete, or practised only by the vulgar Journeys of length being es, it was usual always to ht attend divine service, and his horse have the benefit of the day of rest, the institution of which is as humane to our brute labourers as profitable to ourselves A counterpart to this decent practice, and a relish hospitality, was, that the landlord of a principal inn laid aside his character of a publican on the seventh day, and invited the guests who chanced to be within his walls to take a part of his fa This invitation was usually couished rank did not induce theation; and the proposal of a bottle of wine after dinner, to drink the landlord's health, was the only recompense ever offered or accepted

I was born a citizen of the world, and e of ed; I had, besides, no pretensions to sequester nity, and therefore seldom failed to accept of the Sunday's hospitality of mine host, whether of the Garter, Lion, or Bear The honest publican, dilated into additional consequence by a sense of his own iuests on whom it was his ordinary duty to attend, was in hienial orbit, other planets of inferior consequence perforuished worthies of the town or village, the apothecary, the attorney, even the curate himself, did not disdain to partake of this hebdouests, asse different professions, fore, manners, and sentiments, a curious contrast to each other, not indifferent to those who desired to possess a knowledge of mankind in its varieties

It was on such a day, and such an occasion, that race the board of the ruddy-faced host of the Black Bear, in the town of Darlington, and bishopric of Durhaetic tone, that there was a Scotch gentleentleman?” saidon gentlemen of the pad, as they were then terentleentle, ye h they ha' narra shi+rt to back; but this is a decentish hallion--a canny North Briton as e'er cross'd Berwick Bridge--I trow he's a dealer in cattle”

”Let us have his co to ave vent to the tenor of his own reflections ”I respect the Scotch, sir; I love and honour the nation for their sense of morality Men talk of their filth and their poverty: but cos, as the poet saith I have been credibly assured, sir, by men on who in Scotland as a highway robbery”

”That's because they have nothing to lose,” saidwit

”No, no, landlord,” answered a strong deep voice behind hiers and supervisors, that you have sent down benorth the Tweed, have taen up the trade of thievery over the heads of the native professors”

The introduction of gaugers, supervisors, and exareat coh a natural consequence of the Union

”Well said, Mr Campbell,” answered the landlord; ”I did not think thoud'st been sae near us, mon But thou kens I'o markets in the south?”

”Even in the ordinar,” replied Mr Caht and sold”

”But wise men and fools both eat their dinner,” answered our jolly entertainer; ”and here a cory erly whetted his knife, assumed his seat of empire at the head of the board, and loaded the plates of his sundry guests with his good cheer

This was the first time I had heard the Scottish accent, or, indeed, that I had familiarly met with an individual of the ancient nation by whom it was spoken Yet, froination My father, as is well known to you, was of an ancient fa the aforesaid dinner, not very many miles distant The quarrel betwixt him and his relatives was such, that he scarcely ever , and held as the most contemptible species of vanity, the weakness which is comuished as William Osbaldistone, the first, at least one of the first, e; and to have proved him the lineal representative of William the Conqueror would have far less flattered his vanity than the hu the bulls, bears, and brokers of Stock-alley He wished, no doubt, that I should reht insure a correspondence between ns, as will happen occasionally to the wisest, were, in so whom his pride would never have supposed of importance adequate to influence them in any way His nurse, an old Northumbrian woman, attached to him from his infancy, was the only person connected with his native province for whoard; and when fortune dawned upon him, one of the first uses which he ive Mabel Rickets a place of residence within his household After the death ofall those tender attentions which infancy exacts from female affection, devolved on old Mabel Interdicted by her lades, and dales of her beloved Northumberland, she poured herself forth to my infant ear in descriptions of the scenes of her youth, and long narratives of the events which tradition declared to have passed ast theraver, but less animated instructors Even yet, itated by the palsy of age, and shaded by a close cap, as white as the driven snow,--her face wrinkled, but still retaining the healthy tinge which it had acquired in rural labour--I think I see her look around on the brick walls and narrow street which presented theh the favourite old ditty, which I then preferred, and--why should I not tell the truth?--which I still prefer to all the opera airs ever minted by the capricious brain of an Italian Mus D-- Oh, the oak, the ash, and the bonny ivy tree, They flourish best at hoends of Mabel, the Scottish nation was ever freshly remembered, with all the embittered declamation of which the narrator was capable The inhabitants of the opposite frontier served in her narratives to fill up the parts which ogres and giants with seven-leagued boots occupy in the ordinary nursery tales And how could it be otherwise? Was it not the Black Douglas who sleith his own hand the heir of the Osbaldistone family the day after he took possession of his estate, surprising hi a feast suited to the occasion? Was it not Wat the Devil, who drove all the year-old hogs off the braes of Lanthorn-side, in the very recent days of randfather's father? And had we notto old Mabel's version of history, far s? Did not Sir Henry Osbaldistone, fifth baron of the naton, as Achilles did his Chryseis and Briseis of old, and detain her in his fortress against all the power of her friends, supported by the hty Scottish chiefs of warlike fame? And had not our swords shone foreland was victorious over her rival? All our family renoas acquired--all our family misfortunes were occasioned--by the northern wars

War my childhood, as a race hostile by nature to the more southern inhabitants of this realm; and this view of the e which ed in so oak-woods, the property of Highland proprietors, and alleged, that he found theains, and extort earnest of the purchase- on their side with the terements The Scottishas a sort of middle-men on these occasions, were also suspected bysecured, by one means or other, ht to have accrued In short, if Mabel complained of the Scottish arainst the arts of these h without any fixed purpose of doing so, they impressed my youthful mind with a sincere aversion to the northern inhabitants of Britain, as a people bloodthirsty in ti truce, interested, selfish, avaricious, and tricky in the business of peaceful life, and having few good qualities, unless there should be accounted such, a ferocity which resee in martial affairs, and a sort of wily craft which supplied the place of wisdom in the ordinary coy, for those who entertained such prejudices, I uilty of silish, whoant epicures Such seeds of national dislike remained between the two countries, the natural consequences of their existence as separate and rival states We have seen recently the breath of a deue blow these sparks into a teuished in its own ashes

This seems to have been written about the time of Wilkes and Liberty

It was, then, with an impression of dislike, that I contemplated the first Scotchman I chanced to meet in society There was much about him that coincided with my previous conceptions He had the hard features and athletic forether with the national intonation and slow pedanticfrom a desire to avoid peculiarities of idiom or dialect I could also observe the caution and shrewdness of his country in many of the observations which he made, and the anshich he returned But I was not prepared for the air of easy self-possession and superiority hich he seemed to predominate over the company into which he was thrown, as it were by accident His dress was as coarse as it could be, being still decent; and, at a tireat expense was lavished upon the wardrobe, even of the loho pretended to the character of gentleman, this indicated mediocrity of circumstances, if not poverty His conversation intinified professional pursuit And yet, under these disadvantages, he seemed, as a matter of course, to treat the rest of the co politeness which iined, superiority over those towards whoave his opinion on any point, it ith that easy tone of confidence used by those superior to their society in rank or information, as if what he said could not be doubted, and was not to be questioned Mine host and his Sunday guests, after an effort or two to support their consequence by noise and bold averradually under the authority of Mr Campbell, who thus fairly possessed himself of the lead in the conversation I was teround with hie of the world, extended as it was by my residence abroad, and in the stores hich a tolerable education had possessed my mind In the latter respect he offered no competition, and it was easy to see that his natural powers had never been cultivated by education But I found him much better acquainted than I was myself with the present state of France, the character of the Duke of Orleans, who had just succeeded to the regency of that kingdom, and that of the statesmen by whom he was surrounded; and his shrewd, caustic, and somewhat satirical remarks, were those of a man who had been a close observer of the affairs of that country