The English Country Squire as Depicted in English Prose Fiction from 1740 to 1800 [Reprint 2016 ed.] 9781512818758

Table of contents :
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Contents
Chapter I. Historical Background
Chapter II. Definition
Chapter III. The Squire’s Background
Chapter IV. Leisure Occupations
Chapter V. Manners, Customs and Opinions
Chapter VI. The Squire in Politics
Chapter VII. The Squire as a Magistrate
Chapter VIII . The Squire Viewed by His Fellows
Chapter IX. Conclusions
Bibliography
Index

Citation preview

T H E ENGLISH C O U N T R Y AS D E P I C T E D IN ENGLISH F I C T I O N FROM

1740 T O

SQUIRE PROSE 1800

A DISSERTATION IN PRESENTED TO THE FACULTY UNIVERSITY

ENGLISH OF T H E GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE

OF P E N N S Y L V A N I A

OF THE REQUIREMENTS

IN PARTIAL

FULFILLMENT

FOR T H E DECREE

OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

KENNETH CHESTER SLAGLE

PHILADELPHIA 1938

Copyright, 1938 BY

KENNETH

CHESTER

SLAGLE

TO

M AUDE LOIS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This study had its inception in the teaching and conversation of Professor Cornelius Weygandt and owes its completion to the advice and guidance of Professor John Cooper Mendenhall. Professor William Charvat, of New York University, gave valuable criticism, as did other friends and colleagues. In the pursuit of the required information, special thanks are due Miss Edith Hartwell for her help in making available material from the Singer Memorial Collection of the University of Pennsylvania Library; Miss Angela Marke of the Library Company of Philadelphia; and Miss Lois A. Reed of the Bryn Mawr College Library.

INTRODUCTION Thackeray has said: "Out of the fictitious book I get the expression of the life, of the time, of the manners, of the merriment, of the dress, the pleasures, the laughter, the ridicules of society—the old times live again, and I travel in the old country of England. Can the heaviest historian do more for me?" 1 In what historiographer's pages does the Great Plague of London live as vividly as in Defoe's Journal of the Plague Year? Where are the febrile graces of the metropolitan social set more alive than in Coventry's Potnpey the Little or Fanny Burney's Evelina? No single novel can be used alone as the basis for a survey of a class of society and any attempt to do so would of necessity result in an absurd and biased picture. From a group of novels, however, chosen both from the "classic" and the popular examples of that type of writing, a picture of the day may be drawn that will be reasonably accurate. By collating facts and views found in individual works, extremes of prejudice and variances of custom, manners, and ideas will tend to fail into a pattern from which the normal picture will emerge. The novel of manners, regardless of the extravagance of its plot or characterization, must have a comparatively firm foundation of fact or it becomes ridiculous even to the most infatuated of readers. The hero may dare any number of perils, he may singlehanded rescue the princess from the wicked duke, but save in the nursery tale or the pulp-wood magazines, he is theoretically limited to the weapons, thoughts, food, dress, and language of contemporary life. It will be the purpose of this study to take the eighteenth century English country squire and see how certain novels of the period have depicted his manners, thoughts, customs, and position in society. It is hoped that by comparing the squire of fiction and the squire of fact it will be possible to gain a clearer comprehension of the contemporary composition and posi1

Thackeray, William Makepeace, The English Humorists, p. 113.

vii

Vlll

Introduction

tion of the most important social group of the eighteenth century. The period considered begins with Samuel Richardson's Pamela, 1740, and extends to the close of the century. The choice of the group of novels, numbering one hundred and twenty-odd, was determined by several considerations. In the first place, of course, the difficulty of procuring many of the items listed in bibliographies and the specialized nature of most attempts at eighteenth century novel bibliography made the exact acceptance of any list impossible. The bibliographies in the Cambridge History of English Literature were found most helpful, since Dr. Singer's bibliography is highly specialized and Mr. Baker's incomplete and inaccurate. Through fortunate proximity to such collections as the Singer Memorial Collection at the University of Pennsylvania and the Library Company of Philadelphia, among others, it was possible to build a rather comprehensive list of titles. The object has been to read a group of books which would represent a cross section of eighteenth century English fiction. The masters of the form have been included. The minor writers are represented by books as well known as Chrysal; or, The Adventures of a Guinea, and as little known as The Stage Coach.

C O N T E N T S CHAPTER

PAGE

I.

HISTORICAL

II.

DEFINITION

11

THE

25

III.

IV.

V.

VI.

VII.

VIII.

IX.

BACKGROUND

SQUIRE'S BACKGROUND

A.

EDUCATION

1

25

B.

TRAVEL

28

C.

H O U S E AND GARDENS

31

D.

INCOME

40

LEISURE

OCCUPATIONS

49

A.

CULTURAL

49

B.

SPORTS

53

M A N N E R S , CUSTOMS, AND O P I N I O N S

65

A.

ON

M A N N E R S AND MARRIAGE

65

B.

ON

FAMILY HONOR

71

C.

ON

MORALITY

76

D.

ON

RELIGION

84

E.

ON

FOREIGNERS

90

THE

S Q U I R E IN POLITICS

95

T H E S Q U I R E AS A M A G I S T R A T E

109

THE

123

S Q U I R E V I E W E D BY H I S F E L L O W S

CONCLUSIONS

138

BIBLIOGRAPHY

141

INDEX

146 IX

CHAPTER SECTION

A.

I

HISTORICAL

SKETCH

If the question were asked, W h a t is England's greatest single contribution to the world ? the harvest of answers it produced would naturally be as antagonistic as that of Jason's planting. A f t e r the turmoil of dispute was over probably a fair majority of those who answered would agree that it was the idea of the gentleman. H e and his kind, usually—though not always—from the ranks of the squirearchy, always with its traditions and point of view, have helped govern England and her possessions and have fought her battles on sea and land for centuries. Professor Wilhelm Dibelius, who may be considered an objective commentator, states in his recent book, England, Its Character and Genius, 1930: "All England's other achievements pale by the side of this. It developed the idea of the gentleman more thoroughly and consistently than other nations have done, and by this gave an ethical idea of great—though certainly not unique—value to the world." 1 Centuries of transmutation have made what Veblen in his Theory of the Leisure-Class, calls the "leisure-class" in England unlike any similar group in other national cultures. A s F r a n z Schauwecker expresses i t : " H e is a f o r m of mankind that has been built up with pains, carefully balanced and absorbed, and by the scrupulous amassing and ordering of all available material he counts f o r something more than his own content. W e have not yet anything of equal value to set against him, unless you count the flabby conception of the ' H e r r , ' whose incarnations are so deficient that they constantly run to extremes." 2 T h e difference between the English lower gentry, the country squires, and analogous social groups on the continent was even more strongly marked in the eighteenth century. A m o n g the higher gentry of town and court, there was some similarity. T h e 1 1

Dibelius, Wilhelm, England, Its Schauwecker, Franz, The Fiery

Character and Genius, Way, p. 48.

1

p. 504.

2

Section A.

Historical

Sketch

English courtier took his manners, like his fashions, from Paris and Versailles. The English gentleman of ton had the same reverence for French servants and styles which led officers of the smart Russian and German guard regiments, just prior to 1914, to import English body-servants, grooms, and horses. When the English squire is compared with his class equals on the continent, the result is startling. Unlike the French, Italian, or German petty nobility, the squirearchy was not a povertystricken and pridebound caste dependent upon a prince's favors. In his British History in the Nineteenth Century, Trevelyan contrasts the English country gentry to the French nobility. The latter were a caste, refusing to intermarry with the bourgeoisie or to place their younger sons in trade. They were almost entirely uninterested in central or local governmental administration, which was left to state officials. The French gentry, for the most part, did not favor their country estates as places of residence, but viewed them merely as sources of revenue for life in Paris or Versailles. The English gentry, on the other hand, were not a caste. They intermarried with the middle class and younger sons frequently entered trade. England was not a bureaucracy but was ruled largely by the country gentry who were actually overburdened with the mass of administrative affairs which they assumed or which fell to their governance. Most of the squirearchy preferred country life and took an ardent part in the improvement of their estates. From the accession of Henry V I I in 1485 to the deposing of James II in 1688, the squirearchy played an increasingly important part, as individuals and as a class, in English history and politics. The century and a half from the "Glorious Revolution" to the Reform Bills of 1832 saw them probably more powerful than any other lay class in the history of Europe. To sketch very briefly the earlier history of the squirearchy it is not necessary to become involved with either the theory of Mr. Kemble, that the English Manor, the squire's estate or little world, developed from the Anglo-Saxon Mark; or the theory of Mr. Seebohm, that it developed from the villa of the Roman occupation.

Section A.

Historical

Sketch

3

A f t e r the N o r m a n Conquest, the holdings of the defeated thanes or b.lafords were, for the most part, seized by Duke William as rewards f o r his followers. The process of Norman feudalization rather naturally tended to exalt the position of the lord of the manor and to depress that of the tenant.* F o r his part, the lord already had sufficient powers of his own. Among the customs and services which he derived f r o m the personal subjection of the tenantry w e r e : exaction of merchet, a fine levied on a villain at his daughter's marriage; chevage, a poll tax on those in the manor bounds who had neither house nor land or those who had left the manor to seek work or follow a c r a f t ; heriot, a death tax by which the lord seized the best head of cattle, horse, or personal chattel upon a tenant's death ;f relief, one year's rent on the tenant's taking up a holding; talliage, the amercing of the tenant in the manor court; the compelled grinding of manor grain in manor mills; and the regulation of the sale of bread and beer. In addition to these rights, the lord demanded a render of service and rent and exacted an oath of fealty. H i s highest privilege, however, was the holding of a manor c o u r t ; and this power, though frequently enlarged and rearranged, the squire continued to hold in toto until 1888 and in part until today in his almost hereditary office of Justice of the Peace. T h e period f r o m the N o r m a n Conquest to the accession of Henry V I I was one of growing stagnation in rural England. The unsettled political conditions for long periods of time, the almost impassable state of the roads for much of the year, the lack of money, and a dearth of outside demand for agricultural products led to the formation of virtually independent economic *It must be remembered, however, that the lord of the manor or squire was not the holder of undefined powers. The demesne land lay in strips along with that of the tenantry and was subject to similar tillage. In the manor court, the lord, or more generally his steward, was a recorder of dooms rather than a judge; and there are numerous instances of the tenant jurors' censuring the lord and even laying fines upon him for infractions of local laws. See Hone, Nathaniel J., The Manor and Manorial Records, pp. 15-16. tThis right remained in principle until the Copyhold Bill of 1857, and Lord Cranworth quoted two attempts to enforce it: in the case of Smolensko—Sir T. C. Bunbury's famous race horse—and the Pitt diamond, in the earlier years of the nineteenth century.

4

Section A.

Historical

Sketch

manor-states. On most of the manors, the small land owners and tenants lived in the protection of the manorial lord without knowing or caring about the world outside. A f t e r the decimation of the great feudal families in the Lancastrian and Yorkist wars and the advent of the Tudors, the country gentry became increasingly important. They furnished the majority of the membership of the House of Commons; they served the throne as officers in the A r m y and Navy in time of w a r ; and it was f r o m their ranks that the Justices of the Peace were appointed. T h e office of the Justice of the Peace was not new, but H e n r y V I I ' s reorganization of it made it more nearly what it came to be in the eighteenth century. A s early as the reign of E d w a r d I, an officer called custos pacis was ordered elected by the Sheriff and community of each county. It was f r o m the ranks of the squirearchy that these officers were naturally chosen. Under Edward II and Edward I I I the powers of the custodian of the peace widened. In 1360 the office of Justice of the Peace was definitely formed under the pressure of the violence and disorder engendered by England's war with France, the lawlessness of the great lords and their liveried retainers, and the breakdown of local control through the disintegration of the manorial court system. The Crown ordered t h a t : " I n every county of England shall be assigned for the keeping of the peace, one lord and with him three or four of the most worthy in the county, with some learned in the law, and they shall have power to restrain the offenders, rioters, and all other barators, and to pursue, arrest, take and chastise them according to their trespass or offence. . . ." 3 A long argument ensued as to whether Justices of the Peace should be elected or appointed. In the end, the Crown f u r t h e r strengthened its position by decreeing their appointment. H e n r y VI ordered that the Justices of the Peace were to be named anew each year and to be chosen f r o m those men having lands or tenements of two hundred pounds a year income value. The control of agriculture began at this period to pass f r o m the hands of the manors and municipalities to Parliament and ' Beard, Charles Austin, The Office of the Justice p. 41.

of the Peace in

England,

Section A.

Historical

Sketch

5

was by them given over to the Justices of the Peace. The latter came to enforce in part the "Statutes of Labourers" and to have charge of the regulation of wages. They were charged with adjusting profits and commerce. In the field of criminal law, they had the duty of putting down counterfeiting, enforcing the regulations concerning livery, and suppressing Lollardism. Under the Tudor sovereigns, whose system of government rested upon the social control exercised by the country magistrates, new duties and powers were given to the Justices of the Peace. County administration was consolidated under these officers, who were made responsible for the entire local administration. They could examine and punish sheriffs, under-sheriffs, and shire clerks for negligence or maladministration. With Henry V H ' s reign, they assumed the position of a board of local control or county commission. As such, they had in their charge the construction and maintenance of the forts, highways, bridges, jails, houses of correction, county buildings, and public houses in their respective districts. T h e parochial system also came under their management in their control of the poor and vagrant classes and the administration of the poor laws. They were in command in the realm of trade and labor regulation. They combatted combinations of laborers and enforced the law which stated that certain persons having a yearly income of less than forty shillings were to be required, when requested, to engage in trade or industry. Even domestic service was in their sphere of control. Servants might not be discharged or leave their positions before the end of their term unless their cause was allowed by the Justice of the Peace. Then, too, a servant might not leave his parish without their permission. Control of the police was also within their authority. The laws which are frequently invoked in the eighteenth century novel against gypsies and vagrants, were administered by the Justice of the Peace, as were the laws regarding hunting and unlawful games. After the separation of the English Church from the Church of Rome, the Squire-Justice of the Peace and the Parson stood side by side. Payment of tithes was at least as strictly enforced as before, and church officers had the right of help

6

Section

A.

Historical

Sketch

from the Justices of the Peace in execution of church law. The country magistrates became more and more the direct local representatives of the Crown. The church laws of England changed with the changes in the state religion. Under Henry V I I I and Edward VI, the Justices were engaged in rooting out papist practices and encouraging the establishment of the Church of England. Mary's reign saw an exact reversal of effort and Elizabeth's accession saw the circle completed. The relation between the Crown and the Justices was remarkably close through the connecting link of the Privy Council. The county Justices were the primary local functionaries of the Privy Council, and from the lists which Professor Beard quotes in his The Office of the Justice of the Peace in England, the Council seems to have had a fairly intimate and accurate acquaintance with the rank and file of the office. Attempts were made to select the Justices in as discriminating a fashion as possible and to detach them from any complicating local ties by forbidding the Lord Lieutenant of the shire to suggest the nomination of any of his servants or retainers. Elizabeth's Privy Council demanded that the Justices take a religious oath, and any who refused were removed from office. There are even instances on record of Justices being removed because of the recusancy of their wives, because of too close friendship with known recusants, or because of the complaint of their bishops that they failed to attend church. For approximately two hundred years under the Tudor and Stuart systems of government, the Crown attempted to make the Justices of the Peace the servants of royal bureaucracy devoted to the partizan projects of the Crown's plan of rule. The attempt ended with the deposition of James II in 1688 and thence forward they were nominally under the control of Parliament. But, although in principle the magistracy were controlled by the legislative body, in the everyday administration of their office they were practically independent, a fact which both Fielding and Smollett were to attack bitterly. In the eighteenth century, their powers and functions touched upon almost every phase of country life. They administered justice, as a group or as individuals, at Quarter or Petty Sessions or in their own houses. Besides their

Section A.

Historical Sketch

7

judicial tasks, they had heavy administrative obligations which included the maintenance of prisons and bridges, the licensing of public houses, the administering of the Poor Law, and the levying of the county rates. From 1689 to 1832, indeed, they were the real rulers of England. The Industrial Revolution with its creation of a new class whose claims to power were based on money-wealth rather than land-wealth, caused political control gradually to pass from the squire to the capitalist. This change was finally made permanent by the R e f o r m Bills of the latter year, but even to this day the squire exercises a strong influence on both foreign and domestic policy. Historians of later periods have been at wide variance in their evaluation of the squire and his contribution to England. He has been excoriated by one group, adulated by another. The two writers who have perhaps flayed the squires with the greatest spleen are Lord Macaulay and William Connor Sydney. In the first volume of his History of England, Macaulay a f t e r gracefully exempting the "country members and chairmen of quarter sessions" of his own day, 1848, draws a lamentable picture of the late seventeenth century squire. Since living conditions and methods of communication changed little f r o m that time until late in the eighteenth century, his picture, if true, must admittedly have been as true of the first half of the eighteenth century as it was of the last years of the seventeenth. Lord Macaulay tries the squire at the bar of Victorian social justice and finds him guilty of poverty, provincialism, lack of education, being chiefly occupied with the care of his own estate, "unrefined sensuality," lack of taste, and numerous and bitter animosities. In order to arrive at an accurate historical estimate, Macaulay's judgments must be evaluated in the light of his personal whims and prejudices. It is obvious that he had some deep rooted grievance against the squires individually and collectively. H a r s h and unreasonable as his attack seems, a little study of the man and his historical purpose brings comprehension. T h e historian hated the squirearchy because they were for the most part Tories. Many of their number had given Macaulay's hero, William I I I , only nominal loyalty, or less. In practice, he hated the agrarian-Tory

8

Section

A.

Historical

Sketch

group who had so long fought off the encroachments of the industrialist-Whigs. Even when the Tories had been crushed by the R e f o r m Bills, they had recovered with dangerous swiftness and attacked the Whiggish skeleton in the closet, child labor and long working hours in the great industrial centers. Small wonder then that prejudice and interest impelled Macaulay to castigate the country gentry. Even without these reasons, a philippic including such divergent charges against the squire as that • he was poor, he was chiefly occupied with the cares of his own estate, and he was an unrefined sensualist, would tend to render Macaulay's judgment suspect even though his historical abilities were still unchallenged. William Connor Sydney, 1891, also attacks the country gentry with considerable venom. T h e acknowledged basis of his material is the essay collection which appeared in the middle years of the eighteenth century under the title of The Connoisseur.* H e says, in p a r t : "Adopting the language of a writer in the 'Connoisseur' it may be said without any exaggeration that the majority of the squires were as mere vegetables which grew up and rotted on the same spot of g r o u n d ; except a few, perhaps, that were transplanted into Parliament. Their whole life was hurried away in scampering a f t e r foxes, leaping five-bar gates, trampling upon the f a r m ers' corn, and swilling October. T h e career of one was the career of a hundred. First he dawdled away a couple of years at one of the universities, which he generally left without taking a degree, and with but little addition to his previous scanty stores of knowledge beyond perhaps a few recipes for brewing punch and an intimate acquaintance with the deep mysteries of ombre, lansquenet, and loo. Entering into possession of his estate, he hunted the fox five days in each week, and generally appeared in public habited in a plain drab or plush coat ornamented with large silver buttons, breeches, a jockey cap and top-boots." 1 *The Connoisseur was a literary collection edited by Mr. George Colman and Mr. Bonnel Thornton. The papers, which resembled the Spectator Papers, began in 1754 and ran to 140 numbers and had among their contributors The Earl of Cork, Rev. John Duncombe and William Cowper. 1 Sydney, William Connor, England and the English in the Eighteenth Century, v. 2, pp. 219-220.

Section A.

9

Historical Sketch

All such criticism, when lifted out of the complete work, presents a strongly unfavorable picture. It must be remembered, however, that these same authors denounced other groups with equal heartiness. M r . Town in The Connoisseur is usually even more severe with the follies of the courtier and the citizen than he is with the squire. Mr. Sydney is as displeased with the eighteenth century gentleman of fashion and clergyman as he is with the country gentleman. The opposite extreme in attitude toward the squire is presented by the Rev. M r . Ditchfield. In his eyes, the squire was a paragon of virtue, courtesy, honor, and wisdom. It does not take many pages of any of his books on old England to discover that he is a worshipper of the long ago. The men he describes are ideal figures, seen through the roseate haze of a romantic yesterday. In English Country Life in the Eighteenth Century, Miss Bayne-Powell presents a less florid, although still highly laudatory, portrait of the country gentleman. She says: " W h e n the squire of the parish was a magistrate his power over the people was very g r e a t ; and even when he had not been put upon the bench he exercised a very wide paternal influence. That there were some boorish and cruel men and a few rapacious scoundrels cannot be denied; but in many if not in most parishes the squire tried to do his duty as he saw it. H e protected his people against overseers and other oppressors, gave generally in time of need with an open hand, and recognized that he had a duty towards the men whom he employed, and the people who lived upon his land."- It is within the bounds of probability that Miss BaynePowell is also viewing one of the main groups in her study as favorably as possible; but a similar charge can scarcely be brought against historians of such recognized position as Trevelyan, Lunt, and Traill. Trevelyan says of the squires: " I n such a society [that of the eighteenth century] the members of the upper class were singularly fortunate in their lot. A position of such complete social and political supremacy as theirs, so little challenged, and so 1 Bayne-Powell, Rosamond, Century, pp. 66-67.

English

Country

Life

in the

Eighteenth

10

Section

A.

Historical

Sketch

clearly identified in history and in popular opinion with the liberties of their country, has never been seen in any other a g e or land." 3 W . E . L u n t in his History of England states of t h e m : Most influential was the class of gentlemen, often designated as the gentry or as country squires. . . . In the first half of the century they lived on their estates finding pleasure in the improvement of the beautiful and comfortable manor houses which were their homes, in the management of their lands, in the patriarchal oversight of their tenants. . . . Though country squires were sometimes boors, many of them were men of culture who possessed good libraries which they used with enjoyment and appreciation. . . . Politically the sQuires were the most influential class in the nation. . . . During the reign of James I, they acquired control of the house of commons; in the civil struggle they produced the leaders; after the restoration they furnished the bulk of the members of parliament and of the officials and advisers of the king; and after the revolution of 1688 they became the governing class.' O f the squirearchy, Traill s a y s : It is a mistake to dwell too much upon the rude manner of life of the rural gentry, their illiterateness, and their prejudices. If they were half boors, they were also half nobles by birth and officials by training. By custom and by practical monopoly which their position gave them, they held in their hands the higher commissions in the army, navy, militia, magistracy, and higher church places. They had a large share of the numerous and all too well-paid public offices. Political life, for all the corruption at the center, was locally both vigorous and sound.5 T h e w e i g h t of opinion w o u l d seem then to be toward an estimation w h i c h m a k e s the squire a highly important and valued member of the social organization. W e shall find in an e x a m i n a tion of eighteenth century novels that the same exaggeration toward g o o d and evil occurs in the evaluation of individuals and their place and work. * Trevelyan, George Macaulay, English History in the Nineteenth p. 19. 4 Lunt, W. E., History of England, p. 531. 5 Traill, H . D., Social England, v. 4, p. 474.

Century,

CHAPTER

II

DEFINITION

T o the average reader, squire, probably suggests a burly and florid old man crying "yoicks" to his hounds or damning the eyes of a servant for being tardy with the ale. A somewhat smaller group, remembering the medieval stories of their youth, may have a second picture of a knight's attendant. It is f r o m the manner in which squire is employed in the eighteenth century novel that a definition valid for this study must come. T h e term is used most frequently in an exact or traditional sense in ref e r r i n g to a private gentleman of coat armor. T h e son or younger brother of a baronet, as well as the principal, untitled landowner of a parish, would be called squire. Throughout the entire period f r o m Fielding to Harriet Lee, this meaning is most commonly given the word. T h e novelists write of Squire Allworthy and Squire W e s t e r n in Tom Jones, 1749; Squire Busby in The History of Fanny Seymour, 1757; Squire Shandy in Tristram Shandy, 1759-67; Squire Ellesmere in The Banished Man, 1794; and Squire Pembroke in The Canterbury Tales, 1797-98. Sir Launcelot before he inherits his father's title and estates is Squire Launcelot in The Adventures of Sir Launcelot Greaves, 1762. Rich, the nephew and heir of Sir Walter, in The Life and Adventures of Joe Thompson, 1750, is spoken of as Squire Rich. M r . James E d w a r d s writes to M r . Robert Altam, Esq., to express regrets " O n the death of your honour's late uncle, Squire Altam." 1 T h e list might be extended by references f r o m many more novels of the day. T h e use of squire was not limited in the writings of these novelists to this exact meaning. As the century progressed, they broadened its scope more and more in using it as a courtesy title f o r gentleman. Smollett uses it both in its traditional and popu1

Minifie, Susannah, Coombe Wood, v. 1, p. 48.

11

12

Definition

lar senses. In Peregrine Pickle, 1751, the hero's father has some right to the title by virtue of his becoming a large rural landowner ; although he has, like his father, been in trade. Both his sons, however, are dignified by the term. It is only occasionally that an author makes the exact distinction between the titular gradations as Bage does in Mount Henneth, 1781, when he speaks of the elder brother as John Cheslyn, Esq., and the younger as Henry Cheslyn, Gent. Mrs. Johnson, in The Gamesters, 1786, has one of her characters say: " ' D o you know,' says she, in a low voice, 'Yonder is the great Creole, 'squire Sloper?'" 2 of a man who is definitely not of the country gentry. In the same book, Captain Ferguson always refers to this colonial as 'Squire Sloper. Morgan, that "tivel in garnet," who had married and cheated his way from poverty to opulence, is regularly spoken of as Squire Morgan, in Ellen, Countess Howel, 1794. Richard Cumberland uses it in a similar sense in Henry, 1795, when he says of his hero, an unknown foundling: "Henry, alas! was but a shabby squire in point of apparel." 3 The modish world, as represented in the novel, also used the term ironically, often adding the adjectives mere or booby, in referring to a member of the country gentry, especially if a slurring allusion to his lack of polish was intended. In The Letters from Felicia to Charlotte, 1744, Countess Charlotte habitually uses squire when referring to a country gentleman as opposed to beau for a gentleman of London. "A booby squire, with a head resembling a stone-ball over a gate-post" 4 is the realistic phrase Francis Coventry employs in describing one of his characters. Charlotte Smith, in Desmond, 1792, marks the attitude of the courtier, when she has her hero say of Colonel Scarsdale: he " 'looked at me as if he at once contemned me as a rural Squire, . . .' " 5 The growing informality of manners of which Addison speaks in his essay, "Manners in City and Country," number one hundred and nineteen of the Spectator Papers, came true. Dress, ' Johnson, Mrs. A., The Gamesters, v. 2, p. 142. ' Cumberland, Richard, Henry, p. 577. • Coventry, Francis, The History of Pornpey the Little, * Smith, Charlotte, Desmond, v. 2, p. 178.

p. 109.

Definition

13

manners, and speech continued to tend toward a "negligent elegance." The novels clearly indicate this increasing laxity. The reductio ad absurdum is finally reached in the jargonists and affected slovens of Fanny Burney's Cecelia, 1782, and Camilla, 1796. Even as early as the middle of the century, squire has lost much of its traditional significance in the novels dealing with the society of ton and come to mean about the same thing as Mister. Mr. Talbot becomes "the squire" in Alicia Montague, \767, though there is no reference to his possessing country estates or manners. In another section of this novel, Miss Ormond writes of "squire Thornton" without seeming to imply any country background. In the minds of certain novelists at least, the word seems to lose its old value towards the latter part of the century. Charles Johnstone says in The Reverie, 1762, in a usage which is unique, " 'The death of his father put Mr. Sugarcane (for he must no longer be called by the familiar title of squire) into possession of such an immense fortune, . . .' " 8 At the end of the period, 1794, Thomas Holcroft speaks of Squire Mowbray, and in order to make clear his meaning, adds, "the lord of the manor in which lay the village where my grandfather lived."7 Squire and Mister are used synonymously by members of the lower classes, especially country folk and servants, in all these novels. Tom Jones is spoken of as Squire Jones. Peregrine's brother Gam is "the young squire." The gardener in The Female Quixote, 1752, says he never saw his helper talking "to anyone who looked like a squire." 8 The waiter in Celestina, 1791, calls Mr. Vavasour, who is of London, 'Squire Vavasour. T o Winifred Jenkins, of Humphrey Clinker, 1771, there is no distinction between Mr. Barton, courtier, and Matthew Bramble, lord of the manor, both are called squire in her letters to Brambleton Hall. When in the course of The Gamesters, 1786, Wilmot is arrested, the bailiff says: " W e have a writ against your honour, at the suit of one, 'Squire W o r d ; " although Word was a London money-lender. The phrase "my young squire" is used by another "Johnstone, Charles, The Reverie, v. 1, p. 48. * Holcroft, Thomas, The Adventures of Hugh Trevor, v. 1, p. 28. "Lennox, Mrs. Charlotte, The Female Quixote, v. 1, p. 28.

14

Definition

London money-lender in Mrs. Eliza Haywood's The Invisible Spy, 1755, when speaking of one of his clients, who is indubitably a cit. Herbert Lawrence notes the country usage in The Contemplative Man, 1771, when he says: "Many of these [the neighbors] came out of Friendship, but more out of Curiosity to see the young 'Squire, as they called him, . . ."• There is frequent use of squire with humorous intent. Mrs. Haywood in The Invisible Spy, 1755, has Aristus ask his wife Cleora what she would have done had she been affronted by any Bucks or Bloods during an unescorted walk in the park. She replies: " 'Why I would have set my arms akimbo, and look'd as fierce as they:—those sort of 'squires are never bold but to the fearful.' " 10 In Humphrey Clinker, 1771, Jerry Melford often writes of Bramble as "the squire" in a tone of friendly familiarity; and Bramble in good natured raillery speaks of Melford as "Squire Jerry" in a letter about the interrupted duel between Jerry and William. Mackenzie's Man of the World, 1773, gives a similar instance of the playful use of the word in: "They had been but a few minutes in the room this second night, when a gentleman entered, whom the company saluted with the appelation of squire." 11 It is probable that a more minute inquiry into the novelists' uses of the term squire would discover considerable material of etymological interest. During the eighteenth century, as may be seen by the references given above, squire was developing new connotations out of its original meaning, the principal untitled landowner of a parish. Although its validity as a title for these men was never lost; there was, nevertheless, built up around it a strong implied meaning. The evidence of the term's use by rural folk as a courtesy title for Mister and its later use in humor or contempt by both town and country gentry point to a rustic connotation. From being merely the principal landowner's title, the term comes to mean one who either in flattery or irony is considered to resemble a squire. The rapid progress of transportation during the last half of the eighteenth century and the • Lawrence, Herbert, The Contemplative Man, v. 2, p. 2. u Haywood, Mrs. Eliza, The Invisible Spy, v. 2, p. 75. u Mackenzie, Henry, The Man of the World, v. 1, p. 376.

Definition

15

first half of the nineteenth reduced the differences of manner and custom between town and country. As the two groups came to understand each other better such terms as booby squire, mere squire, and the like, shed their derisive adjectives and meaning and approached more nearly the word's original idea. It is useless to spend much time in an endeavour to establish from the novel the subtle differences which separated country baronet from squire, and squire from gentleman farmer. An occasional novel attempts to set the bounds of the squirearchy. For example, in The Old Manor House, 1793, an elderly nobleman makes a point at his formal dinners, of "receiving only the nobility of the county and the baronets (whom he considered as forming an order that made a very proper barrier between the peerage and the squirality)." 12 Again, there is the instance of the baronet mentioned in Lydia, 1755, who wished to marry the widowed Countess Flimsy, so that he might "increase his interest in the county, and lord it over the squires." 13 Such distinctions, however, are arbitrary and atypical. Baronets, who pass all or most of their time on their country estates, are usually ipso facto squires. The "good" squire of the eighteenth century, whose deeds or precepts are most frequently brought forward as a model by later writers, is the Spectator's Sir Roger de Coverley. Then too, Macaulay and his Whiggish and radical successors would not relish being refused the right to produce Sir John Bangham and Sir Harry Hariot as examples of the ignorant, boorish "landed interest." The point of view of individual novels varies. In one the author may have the squirearchy include certain members of both the titled class and the gentlemen farmers. Another novel may establish the bounds of the squire's class with careful regard to historical tradition. The last analysis must, therefore, depend upon the novel under consideration. In addition to considering the definition of the word squire as applied to an individual, some attention must be given the composition of the social group of which he was a member. One "Smith, Charlotte, The Old Manor House, v. 1, p. 43. " Shebbeare, John, Lydia, p. 177.

16

Definition

of the most persistent fictions of the eighteenth century novel is the antiquity of the county families. This pretense is not confined to that century alone; a great many English novels of the nineteenth and present centuries give their characters pedigrees whose length equals that assigned to great houses by medieval heralds. The Rev. Mr. Ditchfield points out, in The Old English Country Squire, that the adjective old, so often applied to the families of the gentry, is, for the most part, a comparative term. He quotes from Mrs. Hicks-Beach's A Cotswold Family and Atkyn's history of Gloucestershire to show how the gentry in one county have disappeared. When Atkyn's book was published in 1712, there were three hundred families in the county with coats of arms. By the time Mrs. Hicks-Beach's book appeared in 1909, only twenty-eight of these were in total or partial possession of their estates. "The hold of these twentyeight on the land is visibly weakening, and those who seem to be securely seated are so, either because they have married heiresses, or because the property was, in the first instance, so large that the diminishing processes of time have not yet completed their work, . . ," 14 The Rev. Mr. Ditchfield says that there is only one family in the county, the Cliffords of Frampton-on-Severn, who have held their lands since the Conquest. The same impermanence seems to be true of other sections of England; and, by his avowedly conservative estimate, in the three centuries which he considers, at least "ninety percent of the owners of the land have disappeared from their ancestral acres, and their places know them no more."" No such gloomy picture was presented by the novelists of the eighteenth century. Although there are many instances of estates lost through wars and dissipation, most of the country squires are supplied with long purses and longer pedigrees by the generous inhabitants of Grub Street. The most lengthy family tree, which it must be admitted is treated in the light of comedy, is that of Shebbeare's Squire Gam. His pedigree: "being but short, began only with Adam; whereas there were many Families in " Ditchfield, Rev. Peter H., The Old English " Ditchfield, Rev. Peter H „ The Old English

Country Squire, p. 5. Country Squire, p. 5.

Definition

17

North Wales more ancient than that, and yet this Parchment cut into Scraps like a Taylor's Measure, or as Dido did the Bull's Hide, would have surrounded the Town of Shrewsbury." 19 Shebbeare's humorous attack on long pedigrees is also found in the next oldest of the lineages he mentions. In Lydia, 1755, the author describes one of his West of England characters: Sir Simon Trueblood, baronet, of the Lands End, a gentleman of sixty, hale, and of a good constitution, whose purple countenance spoke him of pricely dye, had buckled on his sword, and was arrived at Oldcastle Hill to make love to this maiden of ancient family. Happily Sir Simon could trace his pedigree from the British race, and prove that neither Saxons, Danes, or Normans, had ever penetrated to his mansion-seat, or mixed their base blood with his family."

In the majority of instances, however, humor is not the author's intention. Squire Davis, in Bage's Barham Downs, 1784, traces his ancestry back to the days of Alfred. The Conquest is the starting point for many pedigrees. Both Dorinda and Simon marked the rise of their families from that date in The History of Miss Fanny Seymour, 1757. Charlotte Smith's Desmond, 1792, has Squire Bethel, whose estates have been in his family since the Conquest. In one novel, The Sisters, 1754, a petty squire traces his family line to the Conqueror himself. Mr. Sanson says: " ' I believe there are few of our nobility, my children, better descended than you, as you may have often heard me say— Let me see—William the Conqueror's daughter's husband's nephew—stay—fetch me the pedigree, Lucy.' " 1 8 In Edward Long's The Anti-Gallican, 1757, Squire Cobham's lineage goes back to Henry I ; Chestrum's mother's family to Richard I in Bage's Man as He Is Not, 1796; and Paradyne's family to Henry II in Bage's Man as He Is, 1792. It is not often that a pedigree includes specific historic ancestors. Two notable exceptions a r e : Mr. Pembroke from Harriet Lee's The Canterbury Tales, 1797, who is described as a descendant of the great house of Pembroke, and Kelly's Louisa Mildmay. Of the latter's ancestry, the author says: M Shebbeare, John, Matrimony, v. 1, pp. 187-88. " Shebbeare, John, Lydia, p. 224. u Dodd, Dr. William, The Sisters, p. 9.

18

Definition

"As to her family, it is not more ancient than respectable. She reckons among her ancestors on the father's side, the great Sir Philip Sidney; and her mother is descended from a branch of the immortal Hampden, who so resolutely opposed the infamous oppressions of that rapacious tyrant Charles the First." 19 This is a unique instance, in this list of novels, of the proud inclusion of a Roundhead in a family tree. Use is frequently made of the Civil War, 1642-49, to establish a family's loyalty and antiquity. The Willoughby, Rayland, and Marchmont families had suffered heavy losses in the King's behalf ; and, in the case of the latter two, the family mansions had stood siege by parliamentary forces. The simple phrases "of an ancient family" or "of a good family" are more usual in describing a character's antecedents. While it is usual for the novelists to think of the squire as the descendant of an old and established family, they were aware of conditions which altered that fact. As old family estates were dissipated by extravagance or were lost by their owner's inability to survive the changing economic conditions of the century, manors with their hall-houses fell into new hands. At times the change was merely from one county family to another, but frequently it was to a man whose traditions and manners were foreign to his new estates. The "made" squires, to use a term given these newcomers by several of the novelists of the period, generally were motivated by the same underlying desire, to improve their social position by the acquisition of country estates. Of these "made" squires, the smallest number and those most readily accepted by the county was that of the occasional yeoman or tenant farmer. As methods of agriculture became more scientific, a few of the more resourceful members of these groups were able to rise above their original economic station and force their way into the squirearchy. Longford is an estate-steward and Strictland, a yeoman, who rise in the social scale in Clara Reeve's The School for Widows, 1791. Holcroft's Anna St. Ives, 1792, tells of the Henleys' promotion to gentility. Anna St. Ives writes in a letter: "Abimelech is " Kelly, Hugh, The History

of Louisa Mildmay,

p. 7.

Definition

19

come up to town. I am obliged very respectfully to call him Mr. Henley when Sir Arthur hears me, in compliance to his feelings: and he has hinted tliat hereafter, when his name is written, it must be tagged with an esquire." 20 Earlier in the same book, when two characters talk of young Henley, one speaks of him as a gentleman. The second asks, " 'The son of a gardener a gentleman ?' " H e is answered: " 'Yes, sir. To be sure sir, among thorough bred quality, though perhaps he may be better than the best of them all.' " 2 1 Matthew Bramble was expressing the sentiments of the country gentry as well as noting the increase of a new social group when he wrote in disgust to his friend Dr. Lewis o f : "Clerks and factors from the East Indies, loaded with the spoil of plundered provinces; planters, negro-drivers; and hucksters, from our American plantations, enriched they know not how; agents, commissioners, and contractors, who have fattened, in two successive wars, on the blood of the nation; usurers, brokers, and jobbers of every kind; men of low birth and no breeding, have found themselves suddenly translated into a state of affluence unknown to former ages; . . ."**

This second group, rich in goods but socially unrecognized, desired the established position which only country estates could give. They had little difficulty, particularly as the century advanced, in acquiring the houses of broken country gentry. They were not uniformly successful, however, in gaining the respect and position they craved. Mr. Sugarcane, in Mrs. Haywood's The Invisible Spy, 1755, owed his wealth to his father's efforts in the West Indies and returned to England to become a squire. While the author gives no specific evidence that he met with an ardent welcome, the impression is conveyed that he was accepted by the surrounding gentry. The colonial turned squire in Charles Johnstone's The Adventures of John Juniper, Esq., 1781, was cordially received. A young woman telling Juniper of the newcomer says:

" Holcroft, Thomas, Anna St. Ives, v. 3, p. 81. 11 Holcroft, Thomas, Anna St. Ives, v. 3, p. 81. ** Smollett, Tobias, Humphrey Clinker, p. 53.

20

Definition

"I had lived in this happy state, till I was entering into my eighteenth year, without ever having known one cloudy day, when the lord of the manor, in which our town stands, sold his estate to a person, who as we were informed, had acquired immense wealth in the East Indies. "As the late squire had never resided on his estate, nor paid any regard to the interest or welfare of his tenants, they naturally formed hopes of advantage from the change; especially as the purchaser fitted up the castle with the greatest splendor and declared his purpose of making it the place of his residence. Accordingly on his arrival all the neighbours paid him their compliments of congratulation and welcome, which he received in a manner that seemed to confirm their most sanguine hopes; not only returning their visits with politeness, but also inviting them and their families to a grand entertainment and ball at the castle.""*

A returned Anglo-Indian in Mrs. Smith's The Banished Man, 1794, is one of the "made" squires who aroused feelings of dissatisfaction in Lady Ellesmere. Robert Blatchford, a character in Cumberland's Henry, 1795, is represented as of Jamaican origin. His tyranny in the island had earned him the name of "Bloody Bob Blatchford" and his subsequent actions in England confirmed his right to the title. The author carefully states that Blatchford was disliked by the neighboring gentry and owed his place on the commission of the peace to his zeal in politics. The majority of the new squires in the field of fiction came from the more successful and socially ambitious members of the merchant class. Peregrine Pickle's father, in Smollett's Peregrine Pickle, 1751, was a London merchant before his withdrawal to the country, although in his case he was led to his decision by his inability to cope with business as his father had done. The Fortunate Villager, 1757, gives an account of another merchant turned gentleman: "My father was a Tenant to a Person who was extremely rich, and who wanted nothing but a good Descent to give him Pretensions to Nobility. This Man (I mean my Father's Landlord) had got all his wealth by Business, had married his Sons into two noble Families, one of whom was called to the Bar, and the other was Colonel of a Regiment of the Irish "Johnstone, Charles, The Adventures 19-20.

of John

Juniper,

Esq., v. 2, pp.

Definition

21

Establishment. Both Father and Sons lived in a magnificent Manner: They had taken upon themselves the Titles of Esquires; and I believe thought no more of the Obscurity of their original, which was as it were buried in the Heap of Riches in their Possession."2*

Sometimes the wife's social ambition was the deciding factor which led to the assumption of squiredom. Mrs. Crab, in H e r bert Lawrence's The Contemplative Man, 1771, had the problem of persuading her husband to the change. She had to proceed with caution "as she knew he was not very ambitious of being stiled a Gentleman, and that he would not easily be induced to quit a very lucrative business, merely f o r the Honour of being called John Crab, Esq; . . In the end, she was successful and Squire Crab soon absorbed the outward marks, at least, of his new station. A passage regarding the making of a squire in M r s Eliza H a y wood's The Invisible Spy, 1755, r e a d s : " ' T h e new steward and the crier came to a proper understanding over a hearty bottle, of which they were both remarkably f o n d ; and the latter bargained to sell his friends, and resign his crier's place, in consideration of being made an esquire, and getting a salary to support him suitably in his new dignity.' " 2 t Some difficulty arises in understanding exactly what is meant by "in consideration of being made an esquire." The point may be that the crier was to be given social recognition by the lord of the manor, since there seems to be no idea that he was receiving an estate f r o m which he could take his title. Bellamy, the hero of Potter's The Virtuous Villagers, 1784, is an instance of a rich merchant's openly asserting his claim to gentility by reason of the land he is able to buy. His daughter writes to a f r i e n d : " ' M y father's villa is a manorhouse; and, as he has purchased the whole manor, he is the lord of it.' " 2T Bellamy, himself, says to his new tenants: "Thus it is, and thus I am afraid it ever will be, that the fortunes of our nobility are squandered away; and that their palaces come to be occupied by " The Fortunate Villager, v. 1, pp. 5-6. " Lawrence, Herbert, The Contemplative Man, v. 1, p. 99. "Haywood, Mrs. Eliza, The Invisible Spy, v. 1, p. 56. 17 Potter, John, The Virtuous Villagers, v. 1, p. 6.

22

Definition

the sons of commerce, retiring from the fatigues of business with splendid fortunes, obtained by industry and prudence."**

Potter includes among the parts of his aim in this novel, as set forth in his preface, "to point out the social obligations." The Virtuous Villagers gives ample proof of Potter's aim and also, quite without the author's intention, of Samuel Johnson's statement regarding "opulent traders retired from business," "they have lost the civility of tradesmen, without acquiring the manners of gentlemen." 2 ' Bellamy is a stock characterization of the "good man" so devoid of humor and human frailty as to make the villains of the story sympathetic figures. The novel tends rather strongly, however, to contradict Miss Bayne-Powell's statement, in English Country Life in the Eighteenth Century, "the status of the tradesman certainly declined, and by the close of the century, he had sunk low indeed in the social scale." 30 As a matter of fact, judging from the accounts in the novels of the time, the number of prosperous tradesmen who were rising into the squirearchy as "made" squires was increasing. Robert Bage, in James Wallace, 1788, describes Justice Gamidge as a London trader, who having made a fortune, has moved to the country and become a squire and justice of the peace. The author places so much stress on Gamidge's ignorance and stupidity that it is difficult to understand how his fortune was gained. In Man as He Is Not, 1792, Bage tells his readers that Sir Phillip Chestrum's father had been a cit, who, with a fortune of two hundred and fifty thousand pounds, had retired to the country where he was made sheriff and baronet. There are two "made" squires in Charlotte Smith's The Banished Man, 1794. One is the Indian nabob already mentioned, the other: "Mr. Nodes, whose money was obtained by making buttons, had the impertinence to buy land near the old family seat of the Ellesmere's of Eddisbury-hall, where he impudently built a better house than Eddisbury-hall itself; placed a bust of Franklin in his vestibule (a vestibule in the house of a mechanic!) " P o t t e r , John, The Virtuous Villagers, v. 1, pp. 12-13. " Boswell, James, Life of Johnson, v. 1, p. 360. Bayne-Powell, Miss Rosamond, English Country Life in the Century, p. 160.

Eighteenth

Definition

23

had Ludlow, among his books, quoted Milton to his companions, and d r a n k to the rights of man." 3 1 Miss Tompkins says in her recent book, The Popular Novel in England: " M r s . Smith, . . . stood on the fringe of the revolutionary circle, and, without being 'philosophic,' was liberal in her sympathies." 3 2 The Banished Man represents the second phase in her liberalism, one of disillusionment. Not only is the French Revolution treated less favorably than in Desmond, 1792, but gentility and good family gain in importance. Mrs. Bennett, more interested in creating a highly moralistic and rhetorical picture than in exact observation of life, sets her social tone less clearly in Ellen, Countess Howel, 1794. On one side she presents Lord Howel and Ellen's father as shallow and easily led; on the other, Squire Morgan as a thorough rascal. Mrs. Bennett traces his rise : John Morgan, the rich 'squire, who, as Catherine described him, bought every body's estates, and lived in a corner of his own house, feared by many, respected by few, and loved by none, left his native village, Code Gwyn, an indigent adventurer; his father, a dissolute pauper of the Parish, got the Rector, who had taken some pains in having his son taught reading and writing, to recommend him to a person of respectable connexions, of that country in London. Martin, the paternal name of the now 'Squire, was fortunately engaged by Mr. Morgan as under porter, where he ingratiated himself first into the good opinion of his master, a plain fair meaning man, who raised him from his menial servant to his principle trust in business, and next into the heart of his only child.™

H e was able to marry old Morgan's daughter and succeed him in business. Upon the merchant's death, Martin inherited his fortune and took the Morgan name. A f t e r some years, he returned to Code Gwyn and still f u r t h e r increased his fortune by lending money to his neighbors. The typical squire emerges from the chaos of the novelists' use of the term as a country landowner, his heir, or immediate kinsman. H e is usually represented as a private gentleman of good " Smith, Charlotte, The Banished Man, v. 3, pp. 261-62. "Tompkins, J. M. S., The Popular Novel in England 1770-1800, 301, n. 1. " Bennett, Mrs. Agnes Maria, Ellen, Countess Howel, p. 223.

p.

24

Definition

family, whose social position is dependent in a large measure upon his estate and birth. The squire of established gentility has inherited his lands or the means of obtaining them from landowning forbears. The novelists are not unaware, however, of the slow disintegration of the squirearchy under the pressure of the new money-wealth. The incursions of capitalism are discovered in the less commonly found "made" squire. H e is generally shown as of insecure social position, unlike the established country gentry, his lands have been purchased with money made in trade or the service of others. The troubled days of the French Revolution and their effect upon England are felt in the treatment almost all authors of that period accord the squirearchy. In one novel, the author may insist that gentility is to be found only in the ranks of established families; another author may insist with equal ardor that it is only from the inner nobleness of the common man that gentility can spring.

CHAPTER THE

SQUIRE'S

SECTION A.

III

BACKGROUND

EDUCATION

T h e novelists usually present the squire-hero as a young man in his early twenties. Sometimes he is already in possession of his estates as in the case of Launcelot Greaves in The Adventures of Sir Launcelot Greaves, 1762, and Wildgoose in The Spiritual Quixote, 1772. At other times the hero does not achieve financial independence until the close of the novel, a device commonly used in complicating the love interest in the story. It is not often that the squire-hero is represented as an older man as in The AntiGalican, 1757. Rather frequently the book begins with the hero's birth and tells of his boyhood and education in the opening chapters before moving to the serious business of getting him married. Macaulay and Sydney both make a point of the squire's lack of education and culture. While there can be little doubt as to the partial truth of the charge, Miss Bayne-Powell presents a view which is more in accord with the evidence of the novels of the day, when she w r i t e s : In education, as in other things, the eighteenth century was a century of contrasts. There were country gentlemen, who could hardly read, and there were scholars, like Porson and Bentley. Defoe describes the squire as almost illiterate and declares that nothing on his estate was neglected except the heir. Defoe, as we know, often wrote with exaggeration and bitterness; and he could not have known the class, which he condemns, with any intimacy. Education depended upon means and opportunity.1

Generally speaking, f r o m the standpoint of the novelist of the period, educational standards among the country gentry were improving; and, it must be remembered, even the most prejudiced social historians admit that such class improvement did take place. 1 Bayne-Powell, Century, p. 181.

Rosamond,

English

25

Country

Life

in the

Eighteenth

26

The Squire's

Background

Most of the fictional squires have fair, and many, excellent educational opportunities. The first of these is home instruction, consisting of training by the father or resident tutor, or attendance on a neighboring clergyman or day school. Sometimes home instruction is ridiculed. In Alicia Montague, 1767, Mr. T h o m a s Montague, an eccentric because of his too great regard f o r his son's welfare, undertakes their training himself. Mrs. Marshall says of h i m : The care of the young gentlemen's education he took entirely on himself, having no notion, he said, of getting his boys whipt to scarecrows, by sending them to school ; or giving them a tutor to cram their heads with learning, which he saw no other use for, but to plague the nation with quirks and quibbles. H e took great pleasure, when giving Humphrey his lessons, in stroking his yellow locks, and often, in the pride of his heart, said, he hoped in a few years, to loose him to spell with the parson of the parish."

T h e result is the almost total neglect of the younger son, George, who runs wild. At the age of fifteen, he becomes conscious of his own ignorance and is tutored in English, writing, and arithmetic by M r . Legrand, a neighboring gentleman. T h e elder son fares little better. H e grows up spoiled and wilful, marries his cook, and has a son who is an illiterate booby. In The Adventures of a Bank-Note, 1771, the old Berkshire squire instructs his son, Jacky, by having him read and explain the Bible. T h e old gentleman is described as : "what the learned call a fine old Grecian ; he has learning enough to lead him wrong, though f a r short of enough to set him right ; but what he wants in judgment, he makes up in what the ill-natured world calls obstinacy, but he stiles it firmness : . . ." 3 T h e lessons, with the son's remarkable comments on his reading, are ludicrous. Occasionally, as in the case of M r . Darking's family in Sarah Fielding's History of Ophelia, 1760, home training is no training at all. T o m Jones and Blifil are instructed at home ; and Tom, in spite of his tutor's malice, is credited with considerable progress. At the age of eight, Jerry

'Marshall, Mrs. Jane, Alicia Montague, pp. 1-2. 'Bridges, Thomas, The Adventures of a Bank-Note,

p. 124.

The Squire's

Background

27

Buck is put u n d e r the instruction of D r . Tickletext in J o h n Slade's The Adventures of Jerry Buck, 1754 ( ?). Schooling u n d e r a neighboring clergyman is more common. Bentley, along with "a son to the justice of the q u o r u m , " in the Miss Minifies' Family Pictures, 1764, is educated by a neighboring divine. A n interesting side light is found in The Canterbury Tales, 1797-98, on the feelings which were aroused in the breast of a clergyman w h o had to take the squire's son at a low tuition and be satisfied with the glory. P o w i s tells of his schooling and r e m a r k s of his tutor, " 'the excellent man was obliged to receive the compliments of his neighbors on the honor of being intrusted with the y o u n g squire." N o account which mentions the clerical t u t o r would be complete, of course, without reference to S a n d f o r d and M e r t o n ' s pedagogue, who happily is an ideal figure. T h e novelists of the eighteenth century usually hold the neighboring g r a m m a r schools u p to scorn, either because of their p a n d e r i n g to the more socially prominent students as in The Adventures of Hugh Trevor, 1794-1797, by T h o m a s H o l c r o f t , or because of their inefficiency and cruelty as in The Life and Adventures of Joe Thompson, 1750, by E d w a r d Kimber. T h e p r e p a r a t o r y school, as an accepted educational a d j u n c t f o r boys of the squirearchy, is largely a nineteenth century institution. T h e great public schools were, of course, in existence and had a surprisingly large n u m b e r of students when the difficulties of travel are recalled. In the novels of this period, there are r e f e r ences to Eton, St. Paul's, Wells in Somersetshire, W e s t m i n s t e r , and Winchester. Of these, more than half the characters a r e represented as going to E t o n . N o references to H a r r o w or R u g b y were f o u n d . In his diatribe on the squire, Sydney says, "first he dawdled away a couple of years at the university." If the novels of the period are more t h a n an indication of merely fashionable p r e f e r ence in schools, then he might have gone f u r t h e r and have named O x f o r d as the university. It is impossible to assign definite reasons f o r t h i s ; but a conjectural linking of the traditional T o r y 'Lee, Harriet, The Canterbury Tales: "The Clergyman's Tale—Henry," v. 3, p. 60.

28

The Squire's

Background

sympathy of Oxford and the same persuasion of the country gentry seems practicable. About one-fifth of the books have characters with university schooling; and, of those for whom a definite university is named, almost ninety percent are Oxonians.* How much the squire profited by his time at the university is difficult to estimate. It is probably safe to state, however, that Sydney's charge, that all the squire brought back from his schooling were new recipes for punch and a knowledge of ombre and loo, is an exaggeration. SECTION B.

TRAVEL

His days at the university over, it became increasingly the custom for the young squire to spend a varying length of time in travel on the continent. The idea of completing an education in this manner was not new, and by the eighteenth century it had become an established practice. R. S. Lambert writes in the recent book, Grand Tour: "The oafish and ignorant young English squire, setting forth two centuries ago in the company of his sly clerical mentor, knew that he had at least a twelvemonth in which to wear off the rough edges and acquire the expected veneer of cosmopolitan manners." 5 Mona Wilson outlines the journey in the same volume: "In the eighteenth century the ordinary Grand Tour on which young gentlemen of wealth and fashion were despatched on leaving the university meant the circuit of France, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, and the Low Countries, . . ."6 European travel is frequently mentioned in the present group of novels. The custom of making the grand tour had its critics and defenders. Those who oppose the idea point to the affectation and immorality engendered by foreign society. Felicia describes her cousin, who has just returned home: H e swore very

fluently,

and endeavoured t o divert us with a

lation of several of his adventures in France and Italy. • I n the twenty-eight instances of at Oxford, two at Cambridge, five versity—Mrs. Lennox in Henrietta, student at Leyden. ' Lambert, R. S., ed.. Grand Tour, ' Lambert, R. S., ed., Grand Tour,

recapitu-

M y cousin had

university training, there are: twenty unnamed, and one at a foreign uni1750, makes her heroine's brother a p. 12. p. 17.

The Squire's

29

Backgroutid

so much less of the gentleman in his behaviour, as he had more affectation ; and indeed he had acquired nothing in his travels that I could discover, but a low kind of knowledge, that he had better have been without, a greater stock of vanity and folly, and a knack of impertinently introducing a little French. And that his conversation might want nothing to render it disagreeable, he swore twice as much as his companion : for he had scarcely sat down, when taking a glass of wine he cried, with a ridiculous, affected grin—' 'Sblood, Madam, you see that I have lost rien by my travels, and som damme, a vôtres service—Ha, ha, ha !—Why lookee, that is as much as to say, My service to ye.'7

Frances Brooke seconds Collyer's opposition to foreign travel. In about 1777, old Squire Montague says, to explain why his son has never travelled : ' As to foreign travel, I am in this respect a little singular ; but I am not ashamed of being singular in the right. "I do not wish him to wear out his heart, poison his principles, and ruin his constitution by despicable connexions with French opera girls, or Italian courtezans. "Still less do I wish him to run the effeminate circle of frivolité and ton at Paris ; or to pore over rusty coins, and study vertu at Rome. "A young antiquarian is every way a solecism."8

It must be noted that Squire Montague himself points out that he is singular in his attitude, and evidence from other novels supports this. Mr. Sayers from Memoirs of Miss Sidney Bidulph, 1761, is proof of the fact that not even foreign travel can change the truth of the adage regarding silk purses and sows' ears. The majority of opinion is, however, in favor of foreign travel and almost every character with pretensions to polish has spent some time abroad. Richardson states in Pamela, 1740, that Squire B— had travelled in France, Italy, and the Low Countries. In Clarissa, 1747^8, Lovelace is given the reputation of being widely travelled, for when Mr. Henry decides to send his ward on a foreign tour, it is Lovelace who is consulted. Later in the same book, Lovelace meets Mr. James Harlowe, "a booby squire," and advises that he be sent abroad for polish. Sir Charles Grandison, 1 Collyer, Mrs. Mary, Letters from Felicia to Charlotte, " Brooke, Frances, The Excursion, v. 2, pp. 178-79.

p. 139.

30

The Squire's

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1754, has many travelled characters. The hero has visited Europe, Asia, and Africa. He had, in fact, spent eight years away from England, being allowed by his father eight hundred, and later one thousand, pounds a year for his expenses. Besides Sir Charles, who is hardly a typical squire, there are references to the travels of Sir Hargrave Pollexfen, Mr. Lorimer, Mr. Greville, and Mr. Beauchamp. Harriet Byron speaks quite casually of the "thousands of Englishmen who travel." 9 It is interesting to note that the travelling squire's reputation for wealth and credulity seems to have made the character a valuable disguise for sharpers. The reader will remember, for example, how Ferdinand, Count Fathom, was duped by an English gambler in Paris, who pretended to be a raw country squire newly come over from England. Smollett's Peregrine Pickle goes abroad and returns with more self assurance and polish. The practice of sending a clergyman as companion and teacher was fairly general. Most of Richardson's characters have such a mentor; and, in Kidgell's The Card, 1755, when Mr. Archibald Evelyn is sent to make the grand tour, he is accompanied by Mr. Molesworth, his tutor. In The Invisible Spy, 1755, Mrs. Haywood says: Adario, for so I shall call the son, having finish'd his studies to the satisfaction of all those who had the charge of instructing him in order to complete the fine gentleman, was sent to Europe, under the care of a discreet and experienced governor.10

Clyamon, another character in the same book, spends three years at the university and then makes a tour of France, Italy, Sweden, and several parts of Germany. Frances Brooke, in The History of Lady Julia Mandeville, 1763, states that both Mr. Mandeville and Mr. Mordaunt had travelled on the continent. Sometimes the grand tour was a means of breaking off or forgetting an unfortunate love affair. The hero of Bage's Man as He Is, 1792, hurried plans for his trip in order to escape a match in London, while young Squire Moreton, in James Wallace, 1788, is sent abroad against his will. Charlotte Lennox, describing how Mr. Harley was sent to the continent to cure a •Richardson, Samuel, Sir Charles Grandison, v. 1, p. 234. 10 Haywood, Mrs. Eliza, The Invisible Spy, v. 1, p. 358.

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31

disappointed love, has one of her characters say: "Your uncle continued on the continent three years longer, visiting most of the European courts; and being furnished with remittances to make a large expence, he amused himself so effectually that he returned to England perfectly cured of his passion; . . , " u The travel for pleasure element in the novels of this group grows less towards the close of the century, perhaps as a result of the confusion born of the French Revolution. Squire Falkland, 1794, it is true, is spoken of as having shown himself in a most brilliant manner to be a man of gallantry and virtue during the course of his travels. 12 Charlotte Smith's characters, however, travel abroad f o r the most part only as military duty, the force of love, or financial necessity direct. S E C T I O N C.

H O U S E AND GARDENS

Having been educated to whatever degree his own abilities and the ideas of his family and class demanded, having made the grand tour, the squire returned home. Even when he was sufficiently wealthy and cosmopolitan to keep a house in town, it was his country seat that was really home. The words manorhouse or hall-house arouse f r o m remembrance of books or pictures visions of spacious Elizabethan wood and plaster, or warm brick Georgian, houses surrounded by their parks and gardens. Some of them have little other claim to merit than their age and the fact of their having sheltered generations of owners; but many bear witness to the good taste of their builders and generations of proud care. Dr. Botsford tells how "The genius of Sir Christopher Wren, among others, made this possible by building attractive houses for men whose incomes were as low as two hundred pounds a year." 13 W h e n the squire built his manor house "he built surely and well. H e built for his sons and grandsons. H e lighted what Ruskin calls the sixth Lamp of Architecture, the Lamp of Memory, and considered it an evil sign of a people for houses to be built to last for a generation only." 14 When he ceases 11

Lennox, Mrs. Charlotte, Euphemia, v. 1, p. 230. Godwin, William, Caleb Williams, p. 19. " Botsford, J. B., English Society in the Eighteenth Century, p. 257. " Ditchfield, Rev. Peter H., The Old English Country Squire, p. 119. u

32

The Squire's

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to care for his house and to leave it for long stays in London or a watering place, the evening of the individual and his class is approaching. The earlier novels of this group do not give so much information regarding the houses of the squirearchy as do those of the later period. Richardson's Squire B— has two handsome country residences; but beyond passing comment the author does not give them the fullness of description which he does to Sir Charles Grandison's Grandison Hall. Fielding is content to describe Squire Allworthy's home as a handsome Gothic house, by which a reference to its antiquity rather than its architecture is probably meant. Rosamond Bayne-Powell believes Allworthy's house to be Fielding's description of "such a house as he was born in, and where he lived in the intervals between Haymarket and Bow Street." 15 Mrs. Sarah Scott says of Mr. Morgan's country seat in Millenium Hall, 1764: "The house was large and old, the furniture not much less ancient, the situation dreary, . . ," 18 It must be remembered, however, that Mrs. Morgan had not been like Barkus and hence the description may be subject to some prejudices. Susannah Minifie shows the effect of an old manor house on a young person of ton in Coombe Wood. Lord Blank's affairs had become so badly involved that he finally took the advice of his man of business and, to retrench, rented Altam Hall from the young squire's steward while Squire Altam was travelling abroad. Lady Lucy Blank describes the place in a letter to her friend, the Honorable Mrs. Bramble, in London: "If I go into the drawing-room there I am stared in the face by grandfather and grandmother Altam: the last old figure in a most ridiculous dress, with long pinners, and a faint-like look, hangs opposite the door, . . . "The next couple of dismaloes who succeeded to the honours of this respectable house (an appellation given to it by a very great fool) are drawn in one place, and crammed into the same canvas as their daughter, whom the painter has thought proper, I make no doubt, for his own interest, to flatter most egregiously; but I must carry you through the house.

" Bayne-Powell, Rosamond, English Country Life Century, p. 34. " Scott, Mrs. Sarah, Millenium Hall, pp. 103-04.

in the

Eighteenth

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33

"The hall is as large as a church, and as disagreeable; the eating parlour a mere strip; the library full of ill-looking books; but, as we never read, the room is useless to us, unless to throw into it our trunks and portmanteaus. " T h e other apartments, except a breakfast and musick room, are what I call dark closets; but you shall have the whole, so pray follow me to the bed-chambers: but now I have brought you to them, I have nothing to exhibit but mementoes of stupidity—worked beds, worked chairs, worked stools, and worked curtains . .

When Squire Altam returns and discovers the manner in which the house is being abused, he sends his lordship packing with an abruptness which would have offended anyone less used to brusquerie. Charlotte Smith's phrase, "an old-fashioned but magnificent family seat," from Emtneline, 1788, is a convention of the eighteenth century novel implying the wealth and antiquity of the owner's family. In Clara Reeve's The School for Widows, 1791, Strictland's father, whose rise to the squirearchy has already been noted, bought the hall-house and its furnishings unchanged from motives of parsimony and a desire to be accepted as a squire. His wife says of it: " W e went into the hall, which is, indeed, too large for the house. It is decorated with stag's heads, huntinghorns, and other emblems of the chace." 18 The ancient country houses seem to have interested Charlotte Smith, since she gives minute descriptions of those belonging to most of her squires. Raylands Hall, in The Old Manor House, 1793, was built around the remains of Rayland castle and its furnishings are principally from the past. The author pictures the suite of parlors used by old Mrs. Rayland as "large, dark, and gloomy; old wainscot, in small pannels; with old high-baked [iic] chairs and tables, to match the rest of the furniture. "The third was, indeed, a large and well-proportioned room, and handsomely furnished in a suitable style. The chairs were covered with a rich damask silk, with stuffed backs and bottoms; the window-curtains the same, and both fringed with a silk fringe of the same colour; a very large looking-glass, in a Japan frame, ornamented with a gold foliage; the tables of the same; on " Minifie, Susannah, Coombe Wood, v. 1, p. 38f. " Reeve, Clara, The School for Widows, v. 3, p. 166.

34

The Squire's

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each side the great table, two high stands for candles, of the same japanned work." 1 ' Having brought the book to a happy close with Orlando, at last, in possession of his bride and his estate, Mrs. Smith explains carefully, "Orlando did not spoil the look of venerable antiquity of Raylands Hall." 2 0 The effect of a nabob's moving into the country is shown in The Banished Man, 1794. Darnly Park, a mansion near Eddisbury-Hall, has been purchased by a returned magnate of the East India Company, who furnished it in the latest mode. Charlotte Smith says of Lady Maynard, mistress of Eddisbury-Hall: When she looked at the high-backed old fashion chairs, so long in use in Sir Maynard's family; the carpet, which had been very handsome five and thirty years ago; the damask curtains, faded and changed, and beds that were then thought superb, but were now quite old-fashioned, she was half sorry that there must be a continual comparison between the antiquities of Eddisbury-hall, and the modern beauties of Darnly Park; and almost regretted the bust of Franklin, and the prints of Priestley, and of Price; who could not, in point of respectability be compared with all the noble personages who had borne for three centuries the name of Ellesmere, and of whom many were not represented among the ornaments of Eddisbury; and from within the gilt timber of the massy frames that encompassed them, beheld with majestic gravity, or simpered with soft amenity, 'As in the days of their Queen Anne'— on the ponderous moveables, or rather immovables, that seemed co-eval with themselves."

It must be noted, however, that despite the twinge occasioned by the wealth of new furnishings nearby, Lady Maynard's viewpoint is that of the squirearchy. Eddisbury-Hall may not be a la mode, but it is respectable, and its furnishings show the established character of its inhabitants. Manstock House, described in Richard Cumberland's Henry, 1795, is "the ancient seat of that respectable family, which through many generations had preserved it in its original character without alteration or derangement: the same venerable avenues, the same walled gardens and formal parterres, held their stations around it; " Smith, Mrs. Charlotte, The Old Manor House, v. 2, p. 118. " Smith, Mrs. Charlotte, The Old Manor House, v. 2, p. 344. n Smith, Mrs. Charlotte, The Banished Man, v. 3, pp. 263-64.

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35

its turrets were untouched, its windows had not felt the hand of modern art," 22 Sir Roger is a baronet; but is rather an example of the great squire than the noble, from his living in the country the year round, his place on the commission of the peace, and his old-fashioned manner of life. His interests are primarily those of his county and, it will be remembered, he disliked politics and the life at court. The picture of the house as Henry sees it shows the effect of the Gothic romance on a story that is admittedly in the manner of Tom Jones : Scenes, that he had only read of in description, were now present to his view; everything within the house perfectly corresponded with the style and character of the exterior; walls built for perpetuity, rooms calculated for feudal hospitality, and space wantonly lavished without regard to economy or convenience, bespoke the rude magnificence of the founder; the very servants seemed, in age and habit, of another ccntury. The hall was hung round with banners and trophies of various sorts, both of war and of the chase: over an immense span of fire-place was displayed the family shield, containing a vast number of bearings properly illuminated, and arranged according to the rules of heraldry, and at the upper end the portrait of an old man at full length in a black habit, with the ensigns of the garter.23

Marchmont Hall gives Charlotte Smith an opportunity to show another mansion like Raylands Hall. Here, however, the house has, like its former owners, fallen upon evil times. The author contrasts the modern display of the house of the heroine's father with the ruinous splendor of the hero's former manor house. Sympathy is aroused for the hero in his return, a fugitive from the sheriff's officers, and his farewell to his ancestral home. The house which had stood siege for King Charles and had been for centuries the center for village justice and benevolence is to be torn down and its materials sold for road work and farm buildings. Mrs. Smith does not rehabilitate its splendors as she does the heroine's ancestral home in the earlier novel, Emmeline. England has been for centuries a land of gardeners and gardens. Macaulay sneers at the squire for the way in which "the litter of the farmyard gathered under his bedchamber windows. Cab" Cumberland, Richard, Henry, p. 606. " Cumberland, Richard, Henry, p. 607.

36

The Squire's

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bages and gooseberry bushes g r e w close to his hall door." B o t h the Rev. Mr. Ditchfield and M i s s B a y n e - P o w e l l take an opposite view, speaking of the beauties of m a n y of the country-house gardens ; and f r o m Richardson to H o l c r o f t , the novels have n u m e r o u s references to gardens. A reasonable interest in the surroundings of the hall and an appreciation of the beauties of nature argued good taste and sensibility by the novelists' standards of measurement. Pamela compares Mr. B — ' s g a r d e n s : " T h i s garden is m u c h better cultivated than the Lincolnshire o n e ; but that is larger, and has nobler walks in it; and yet there is a pretty canal in this, and a fountain and cascade." 2 4 T h e gardens at Grandison Hall are described in great detail, but cannot be said to be typical of the average country estate. Manly*s gardens, in Letters from Felicia to Charlotte, 1744, present a pleasing picture even in neglect: Behind the main building is a garden of considerable extent; which, even in this season of the year, has its beauties. To take no notice of the parterre, which lies next the house, the hedges, which are on each side the principal walks, are formed of evergreens, resembling walls, adorned, at proper distances, with pilasters, which, with eternal verdure, branch into all the decorations of architecture. In the midst of each walk, along an opening, on either hand, the eye is carried through a number of triumphal arches, composed of the same leafy materials, and which, leading to the extremity of the garden, are bounded by several fine alcoves, the paintings of which, though injured by time, have a very agreeable effect. In some of the squares composed by these walks, are fish-ponds, in others groves of fruit-trees, and in others knots of flowers of various forms, which, in the season of these fragrant ornaments, must, I fancy, be vastly delightful. In the middle of the garden, where all the principal avenues meet, upon a pretty high ascent, is a summer-house, the windows of which, as well as the walls, are so covered with evergreens, that the faint obscured light spreads a gloom perfectly soothing; while the clusters of thinning berries half covered with snow, hanging against the glass, with frosted leaves of intermingled silver and green, seem to give the lye to the season, and to join in one view Christmas and Autumn. At the entrance is a guard of giants, with their massy clubs resting on the ground. 'Tis true, they themselves appear in some disorder, for want of pruning; their heads and bodies * Richardson, Samuel, Pamela, p. 499.

The Squire's

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are covered with a number of luxuriant branches, and even their

37 fingers

are g r o w n near half a yard beyond the just proportion that ought to be allowed thtm. 25

E d w a r d L o n g writes of Squire Cobham's garden in the Gallican, 1757:

Anti-

T h e whole space of Ground it occupied, consisted of about an Acre and half. It was chiefly laid out in Walks, and so crouded with Oak, Elm, Fir, and Apple-Trees of our own native Growth, that there was scarce Room sufficient for a small Bed well planted with Cabbage, Potatoes, and Horseradish. Here were no Green nor Hot-Houses for Exotics; even the balmy Nectarine, the lucious Apricot, and grateful Nonpariel, (unhappy in their names) were forbidden to wave their spreading Branches, and diffuse the Luxuriance of their autumnal Treasures. A grand Walk extended through the whole length of the Garden.36

H e r e surely, cabbages do not grow close to the hall-door. Both Rivers and Emily are ardent gardeners in The History of Emily Montague, 1769. Rivers on his return f r o m Canada to his estate writes to a f r i e n d : " I have already projected a million of improvements ; have taught new streams to flow, planted ideal groves, and walked, fancy-led, in shades of my own raising."- 7 In another letter, he says of his bride-to-be: "Emily is to superintend the dairy and g a r d e n ; she has a pretty passion for flowers, . . ." 2S Mrs. Lennox in Euphemia, 1790, tells of Mr. Greville who, too, had "a very fine flower garden," which "it was part of his business every morning to dress." Charlotte Smith is not greatly interested in gardening although in Desmond, 1792, she chronicles the restoration of the manor house "garden with its rows of trimmed evergreens . . . to the state they were in the old Squire's time." Susannah Minifie demonstrates the insolent stupidity of Lord Blank's family by their lack of appreciation of the Altam gardens in Coombe Wood, 1783. Lady Lucy, in a letter to the Honorable Mrs. Bramble, writes:

* Collyer, Mrs. Mary, Letters from " Long, Edward, The Anti-Gallican, " B r o o k e , Frances, The History of " Brooke, Frances, The History of

Felicia to Charlotte, pp. 98-99. p. 76. Emily Montague, v. 3, p. 175. Emily Montague, v. 3, p. 207.

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"The garden, for those who like such foolish things, is well enough: I should never think a moment about it, if the Colonel did not rave in its praises every time he turns his head to the windows; besides, he gives himself monstrous airs because the dogs roll on the flowers, and scratch the earth. I think it very diverting, it amuses me exceedingly."2* The taste of the age for picturesque gardens is noticed in several novels. There is mention, too, of the grotesque results often achieved by the followers of that arch-vandal, Capability Brown. Shebbeare's description of Sir William Worthy's garden is undoubtedly seriously intended. Nothing was ever more elegantly plann'd than his whole F a r m : You wandered from Variety to Variety; Buildings of small Expence, and much Fancy; Groves inspiring different Tempers of the Mind, from the lucid Summits that wake the Mind to Gaiety, to the Dark-brown or Clair Obscure of Trees crouding their branches together in the Vale. . . . On a Rock, which overlooked a River, high, steep, and craggy, stood a Temple dedicated to Honour. The Ascent was difficult which led to it, but the View was delightful when you were arrived at the top, with this Motto, Dulce, et decorum est pro Patria mori. Within were the Busts of Sir Thomas More, Epaminotidas, and Socrates. There was, besides this, another dedicated to Conjugal Felicity, in which Sir William had caused to be painted, in one Piece, the Pourtraits of himself and Wife sacrificing at the Altar of Venus; Hymen being the P r i e s t ; the Loves, in the persons of their Children, holding Offerings, and smiling round; and Venus herself, in the Skies, pointing to the Date of their Nuptial Day, with great Expression of Pleasure.®0

Holcroft's Anna St. Ives, 1792, on the other hand, presents a totally different treatment of the picturesque garden. Sir Arthur St. Ives is ruining himself by tasteless profusion in landscape gardening. His letter to his steward shows with unpleasant clarity the ravages occasioned by Capability Brown and his followers: "And yet, Aby, after having done all this [the improving], comes to me Sir Alexander Evergreen, and very freely tells me that we have spoiled ** Minifie, Susannah, Coombe Wood, v. 1, p. 38. "Shebbeare, John, Matrimony, v. 2, p. 154f.

The Squire's

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39

Wenbourne-Hill, buried ourselves in gloom and darkness, and shut out the finest prospects in all England 1 Formerly the hall could be seen by travellers from the road, and we ourselves had the village church in view, all of which we have now planted out of sight! Very true: but, instead of the parish steeple, have we not steeples of our own in every direction? and, instead of the road, with the Gloucestershire hills and lessening clouds in perspective, have we not the cedar quincunx? . . . "It is in vain to tell him that we are now all within ourselves; that everybody is surprised to see how snug we are; and that nobody can suspect so many temples, and groves, and terraces, and ascents, and descents, and clumps, and shrubbery, and vistas, and glades, and dells, and canals, and statues, and rocks, and ruins are in existence, till they are in the very midst of them. And then! oh how I enjoyed their admiration I Nothing is so great a pleasure to me as to bring a gentleman of taste, who knows how to be struck with what he sees, and set him down in the middle of one of my gravel walks! For all the world allows, Abimelech, that our grave! walks at Wenbourne-Hill are some of the broadest, the straightest and finest of the kingdom."*1 Smollett attacks the same style of garden in his picture of Mr. Maynard's estate in Humphrey Clinker, 1771. In this instance, however, the damage is seen from the point of view of valuable farm land ruined for cultivation and yet, because of its inappropriateness, incapable of giving beauty to the landscape. Many additional novels might be cited in which references occur to walking in the garden, lovers' meeting there, the display of the gardens to visitors, and the like. Beyond proving in general, however, that gardens as pleasances existed and were a source of pride, they offer little new information as to their composition or their owner's taste. Beyond the basic purpose of being simply an integral piece of background, the squire's gardens like his house, serve another end in these novels. In both cases, well cared for surroundings point to an established position in the neighborhood. The authors' use of the antiquity of both as a sign of "good family" is common. The influence of Rousseau and the natural-school make interest in gardening a mark of sensibility. The novelists again record in even so minute a detail "the expression of the life, of the times, of the manners," of the eighteenth century country squire. 11

Holcroft, Thomas, Anna St. Ives, v. 1, pp. 53-54.

40

The Squire's S E C T I O N D.

Background INCOME

From the novelists' accounts of the young squire's education, travels, and home surroundings there naturally arises the problem of the squirearchy's financial situation which would make such expenditures possible. The question of the squire's income is complicated by a number of factors. In the first place, the eighteenth century saw a great increase in the national wealth of England. Except for the Jacobite risings of 1715 and 1745, which made a rather small impression on the country as a whole, the century passed with little or no serious threat of foreign invasion until the Napoleonic era. Agricultural prices rose and the prosperity of the land-owners rose with them. Traill in his Social England states that in 1688 the squire's average annual income was four hundred and fifty pounds. Macaulay in his attack on the squirearchy speaks of their income as being only about onefourth of what it was in the nineteenth century. Traill, Trevelyan, and other authorities agree that the income of the country gentry rose during the eighteenth century and an average income of from eight hundred to one thousand pounds may perhaps be a safe estimate for the period under discussion. The novelists, in setting the financial situations of their characters, stick fairly close to actual incomes found recorded in documents of the day. The squire's income was, of course, primarily from his lands, although many of the more thrifty had money in the public funds as well. Several instances are found of characters, who, though carefully named gentlemen, have incomes of two hundred pounds or less. These men fall into the class of the squirelings, a mixed group who were rising from or decaying into the ranks of the gentleman farmers. In The Spiritual Quixote, 1772, Graves' Squire Wildgoose, who is of an ancient family next in importance to the parish lord of the manor, has only between three and four hundred a year. There are a number of incomes of five hundred pounds. Mr. Sweetwood has "a small patrimony, not exceeding five hundred a year" in Shebbeare's Lydia, 1755. Colonel Rivers and Emily, in Frances Brooke's The History of Emily Montague, 1769, live comfortably on his five hundred pounds a year before she becomes an heiress.

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41

Another of M r s . Brooke's characters, Colonel Dormer, in The Excursion, 1777, has an annual income of five hundred pounds. In Sir Charles Grandison, Shirley Manor, the estate of Harriet's grandmother, has a yearly value of five hundred pounds. Squire Lee in Mrs. Smythies' The Stage Coach, 1753, "was in the commission for the peace, in the county of Bucks, and had six hundred a year." O n e of Smollett's characters in Roderick Random, "had, besides his landed estate, which was worth seven hundred pounds per annum, six or seven thousand pounds at interest." 3 2 In Frances Brooke's The History of Lady Julia Mandeville, 1763, Mandeville's father has an income of the same figure; and the Miss Minifies give the hero of Family Pictures, 1764, "a clear unencumbered patrimony of seven hundred pounds per annum." 3 ' The ideas of the novelists differ regarding financial competence. T h e last two mentioned novels regard seven hundred pounds as a good estate; but Mrs. Eliza Haywood says of Mr. Woodland in The History of Miss Betsy Thoughtless, 1751, " 'his estate at present, indeed is no more than eight hundred pounds a year, but he has great expectations f r o m a rich uncle: . . .' " 3 4 Shebbeare feels it necessary to apologize for an even larger sum when he writes in Matrimony, 1754: "the Estate, indeed, is not very large, being no more than a Thousand a year." 3 5 Mr. Murrels f r o m Mrs. Smythies' The Stage Coach, 1753, "was possessed of an hereditary estate of 1000 £ a year." Anything over a thousand pounds a year was rightly regarded as a very good estate. In Juliet Greville, 1774, H e n r y Brooke gives one of his characters, Mr. Sternhold, fourteen hundred pounds. Francis Coventry creates a country squire, M r . Chace, who "possesses an estate of fifteen hundred pounds a - y e a r ; which was sufficient to furnish him with a variety of horses, riding-frocks, boots, and coachwhips. H i s great ambition was to be deemed a knowing fellow; for which purpose he appeared always in the morning in a Newmarket frock, decorated with a great number of green, red, or blue capes. H e wore a short bob wig, neat buck's-skin breeches,

"Smollett, Tobias, Roderick Random, p. 21. "Minifie, Susannah and Margaret, Family Pictures, v. 1, p. 2. u Haywood, Mrs. Eliza, The History of Miss Betsy Thoughtless, "Shebbeare, John, Matrimony, v. 1, pp. 140-41.

p. 309.

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white silk stockings, and carried a cane in his hand. He kept a phaeton, and four bay cattle; a stable of hunters, and a pack of hounds in the country. The reputation of being a coachman . . . he esteemed the greatest character in life. . . . Newmarket had not a more active spirit; where he was frequently his own jockey. . . . Though he was a little man, and not very healthy in his constitution, he desired to be thought capable of the greatest fatigue. . . . He had likewise an ambition to be esteemed a consummate debauchee. . . ."3S One of Shebbeare's characters from Matrimony, 1754, was, however, more thrifty for "He had an Estate of Fifteen hundred Pounds a Year without owing a Shilling, and indeed some Thousands in ready Money." 37 Sidney Bidulph's husband has fifteen hundred a year before his unfortunate lawsuit. Clara Reeve draws a squire, Mr. Strictland in The School for Widows, 1791, whose family have but lately risen from the class of substantial farmers. By the time of his marriage, however, he has "fifteen hundred a-year and several thousands in the funds." There are more affluent squires of two thousand pounds annual income. Squire Montague, in Mrs. Marshall's Alicia Montague, 1767, possesses that amount. In The Contemplative Man, 1771, Captain Gorget says of Kit Crab's fortune: "Two thousand Pounds a Year will surely enable a Man to live like a Gentleman in North Wales, provided he is not ambitious of serving his Country (as they call it) in Parliament." 38 Robert Bage's Mount Henneth, 1781, has Mr. John Cheslyn, "a Devonshire gentleman, possessed of two thousand pounds a-year." Another of Bage's squires, Mr. Havelley Thurl in James Wallace, 1788, has a similar estate. He, too, was careful in money matters; and, when his bride-to-be demands a twelve hundred pound a year settlement in place of the three hundred pounds he has offered, he decides to look further. A third character of Bage's, this time in Man as He Is Not, 1796, has two thousand pounds, a figure which the author seems to regard as befitting a substantial country gentleman. He is, however, even more generous with another squire in Mount Henneth, 1781, and gives him an additional thousand. " Coventry, Francis, The History of Pompey the Little, pp. 122-123. " Shebbeare, John, Matrimony, v. 1, p. 227. " Lawrence, Herbert, The Contemplative Man, v. 2, p. 83.

The Squire's

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43

Squire Williams, in Mrs. Parsons' The History of Miss Meredith, 1790, has two thousand a year. Several of the novelists give their squires opulent estates. It must be remembered that the recording of a social picture is incidental to the purpose of these authors. Their primary aim is to amuse and to teach morality. It must also be remembered that the novels were the reading matter of the middle class almost by intention and the idea of great wealth and established family position tended to make them more acceptable to their reading public. It is not strange then, that large incomes are more common in fiction than in fact. Charlotte Smith has an example of the great squire in the person of M r . Melton. Summing up that gentleman's fortune, she says: He possesses, in the counties of Gloucester and Worcester between four and five thousand pounds a year, besides a borough, for which he brings two members into the House of Commons: H e is, though not heir to an Irish barony, yet within two of it; and the persons between him and this honour are old—and, though married, childless. He has in his gift church-preferment to the annual value of seven or eight hundred pounds.*"

Mr. Trelawney, "a gentleman f r o m the West of England," has eight thousand pounds a year in Emmeline, 1788. In Desmond, 1792, she portrays another of this group. M r . Bethel, having twelve or thirteen thousand a year, was the richest squire in his county. Such incomes were, of course, unusual both in fiction and actuality. Occasionally wealth is allotted on such a liberal scale as to be unconvincing. Peregrine Pickle, having dissipated his estate f r o m Trunion, providentially inherits the family fortune of eighty thousand pounds. Robert Bage, in Bar ham Downs, 1784, has a country justice of the peace, "James Whitaker, Esq., a mortal rich gentleman, worth a hundred thousand pounds, . . . " Mrs. Parsons gives her heroine, in The History of Miss Meredith, 1790, a dowry of fifty thousand pounds and expectations of an additional fifteen hundred a year at her father's death. " Smith, Charlotte, The Banished Man, v. 3, pp. 255-256.

The Squire's

44

Background

The ordinary novel pays scant attention to the squire's financial position beyond stating that it was of a certain amount. The writers of the period have caught with considerable exactness the relative unimportance of money in the life scheme of the country gentry. For them, there always had been sufficient, or almost sufficient money. Not so much, it is true, as the merchants or city knights of London or the returning nabobs were said to possess; but the average squire looked without envy on fortunes which had to be won and held by.a residence in the city or in the fever-riddled factories of India. The principal source of the squire's income was from the rents and produce of his estate. It is not surprising therefore that he was vitally interested in agriculture. In an age which saw the transition from the medieval to the modern in methods of cultivation and stock-raising, the landed gentry took a predominant part. Hasbach points out that the improvement in agriculture had to come from the squirearchy since the yeomen and tenants "in many cases possessed neither the intelligence nor capital necessary to enable them to adopt the new methods of husbandry." 40 The agricultural revolution was brought about by the large land owners. The rapid development of manufacturing during the last half of the eighteenth century created markets for farm products beyond the dreams of the most sanguine squire. The new demand was met by increased production. To accomplish this, uncultivated land and open-field farms were enclosed, wastes were reclaimed, commons were partitioned, farms became larger and leases longer, a class of capitalistic landlords and farmers became necessary, and husbandry became scientific. The more progressive landowners, who followed the lead of agricultural reformers like Lord Townshend, saw the annual incomes of their farms grow ever larger. Traill reports that in thirty years one farm's income grew from one hundred and eighty to eight hundred pounds, another from eighteen to two hundred and forty pounds. Rises of almost equal magnitude were the rule rather than the exception. What Jethro Tull, Viscount Townshend, and others did for agriculture ; cattle breeders like Bakewell did for stock farming. Traill 40

Hasbach, Dr. W., The English Agricultural

Labourer,

pp. 103-04.

The Squire's

Background

45

lists the comparative weights of cattle sold in the Smithfield market in 1710 and in 1795: the average weight of beeves increased from three hundred and seventy to eight hundred pounds, calves from fifty to a hundred and forty-eight, sheep from twentyeight to eighty, lambs from eighteen to fifty.41 T h e same methods that brought a bewildering flood of gold into the hands of the landowner and large farmer, brought about the destruction of the commoner, small farmer, and yeoman. As the processes of farming changed, these classes, unable, and sometimes unwilling, to adapt themselves to the new, lost their holdings, saw the need of their services lessen, and were driven from the land into manufacturing life or remained as mere laborers. The novelists are not greatly interested in agriculture. The fact is not surprising when the urban outlook and interests of most of them are considered. Even so, the scattered references make clear that the squirearchy was expected to be interested in husbandry. Mrs. Lennox, in Henrietta, 1750, speaks of a " 'country gentleman, who managed a large farm of his own.' " 42 In Emily Montague, 1769, Rivers writes to a friend: "I shall keep some land in my own hands, and f a r m ; which will enable me to have a post chaise for Emily, and my mother, who will be a good deal with u s ; and a constant decent table for a friend." 4 3 Mrs. Griffiths has her hero, in A Series of Genuine Letters between Henry and Frances, 1770, regale his betrothed with the news: "I shall, by the End of this Week, have finished the earliest and largest Sowing of any Man in this County. Sixty-three Acres of Corn, exactly One-third of my Demesne, unploughed when you was here, and all limed, at eighty Barrels to an Acre." 44 In another letter, he says: "I am just returned from performing my usual Ambarvalia in the Morning; and have roused all my Labourers to Work, except those who are ill: whom I have visited, and assisted both with Advice and Money. Some41 Traill, H. D„ Social England, v. V, p. 304. " Lennox, Mrs. Charlotte, Henrietta, p. 24. ** Brooke, Frances, Emily Montague, v. 3, p. 207. 44 Griffiths, Mrs. Elizabeth, A Series of Genuine Letters and Frances, v. 1, p. 169.

between

Henry

46

The Squire's

Background

times, when I take these Rounds, I mend a Fence, drive Cattle out of their Gardens, and do many such little benevolent Offices; which a r e extremely pleasing in the Exercise, and flatter my Mind too, as if I was a Sort of Guardian Angel, assisting unseen, and watching over those that slept."4*

Wilson, a character from Humphrey Clinker, turns squire a f t e r his retirement from the navy and by following scientific methods manages his estate successfully. Richard Graves has two characters who are interested in farming their own land in The Spiritual Quixote, 1772. Mr. Rivers turns farmer and is fortunate. Of the other, Wildgoose is told: "This manor, . . . was purchased by our 'squire's father, a great counsellor in London, who died before he had taken possession of it. The young squire, being fond of the country, came and settled here about two years ago. He took a small part of the estate into his own hands, for his amusement, and having a few acres in tillage, used to ride out most days in the harvesttime, to view his reapers at their work."**

Thomas Cogan, in John Buncle, Jr., Gent., 1776, describes a squire and his w i f e : " M r . B— takes great delight in his garden, which is sufficiently ample, in good order, and well stocked with a rich variety of fruits and vegetables. T h e lady of the mansion superintends the poultry and dairy. From these sources it is that they supply an hospitable, and even splendid table for the welcome guests."" Beggared by gambling and the villainy of his brother, Wilmot, a character from The Gamesters, 1786, is urged by Bishop C. to live at Brenckley-Hill, one of his former estates, now in the bishop's hands: "It is winter.—No matter. Domestic converse, the theoretic part of husbandry, the gun, the dog will fill the time, and spring shall find my friend not unemployed, not unentertained." 4 8 Clara Reeve says of Mr. Strictland in The School for Widows, 1791: " H e kept a large farm in his own hands, and cultivated his lands to good account. He studied agriculture, and made improvements in it

" Griffiths, Mrs. Elizabeth, A Series of Genuine Letters between and Frances, v. 1, p. 63. " Graves, Richard, The Spiritual Quixote, v. 2, pp. 255-56. ** Cogan, Thomas, John Buncle, Jr., Gent., p. 74. 48 Johnson, Mrs. A., The Gamesters, v. 2, p. 64.

Henry

The Squire's

Background

47

beyond any of the farmers who surrounded him. They ridiculed him; but, like the Athenian miser of old, he clapped himself, while others hissed him." 48 " M r . Elford cultivated a small estate of his own," in Holcroft's The Adventures of Hugh Trevor, 1794-97. Besides these and similar examples, there are references of a more abstract nature to husbandry. In Emily Montague, 1769, Frances Brooke has Rivers write of farming in Canada: "you see them just turn the turf once lightly over, and, without manuring the ground, or even breaking the clods of earth, throw in the seed in the same careless manner, and leave the event to chance, without troubling themselves further till it is fit to reap." 50 Squire Bramble is interested in the state of agriculture in Scotland during his visit. One character in Marchmont, 1796, complains of her brother's interest in the land: "My brother! . . . Lord, do you know that we vote him quite a quiz! He is so altered you would not know him—and leads such a miserable life! Always mope, mope, mope, in the country, talking about gardening and planting, and wearing one really quite to a thread." 5 1 The movement to modernize farming by enclosure* and by enlarging farms does not meet with universal approval even in the novel. In The History of Lady Julia Mandeville, 1763, Mandcvillc attacks Lord T.'s consolidation of the farms on his estate and paints a gloomy picture of the results. Clara Reeve, in The School for Widows, 1791, has Mr. Strictland opposing consolidation and enclosure. Mortlake, in Cumberland's Arundel, 1789, praises the hero's estate: " ' b u t what enraptured me most was to find it was not inanimate nature, not simply groves, lawns, or river, I was to feed my sight with, but a prospect warm and alive with human habitation, farms and cottages interspersed; a scene glowing with rural happiness, a landscape for the heart no less than for the eye.' " 52 A farmer, in Mackenzie's Man of Feel" Reeve, Clara, The School for Widows, v. 2, p. 103. M Brooke, Frances, Emily Montague, v. 2, p. 203. 51 Smith, Charlotte, Marchmont, v. 3, p. 40. M Cumberland, Richard, Arundel, v. 2, pp. 58-59. •Enclosure went on rapidly during the century. Miss Bayne-Powell states that "Between 1700 and 1801 1,631 enclosure bills were passed by Parliament dealing with 3,473,214 acres."—English Country Life in the Eighteenth Century, p. 12.

48

The Squire's

Background

tng, 1771, blames his misfortunes on his landlord's new ideas. H e says: " 'that farm had been possessed by my father, grandfather, and great-grandfather, which last was that very man's ancestor, who is now lord of the manor. I thought I managed it, as they had done, with prudence; I paid my rent regularly as it became due, and had always as much behind as gave bread to me and my children. But my last lease was out soon a f t e r you left that part of the country; and the squire, who had lately got a Londonattorney for his steward, would not renew it, because, he said, he did not chuse to have any f a r m under 300 £ a-year value on his estate; but offered to give me the preference on the same terms with another, if I chose to take the one he had marked out, of which mine was a part.' " " Interest in scientific farming is occasionally a subject for jest. Squire Thurl questions Sir Antony concerning the growing of turnips abroad, much to that exquisite's disgust. Charlotte Smith, in Etnmeline, 1789, ridicules the fads of scientific farming: " M r . Stafford, ever in pursuit of some wild scheme, was now gone for a few days into another county, to make himself acquainted with the process of manuring land with old wigs . . . a mode of agriculture on which Mr. Headly had lately written a treatise so convincing, that Mr. Stafford was determined to adopt it on his own farm as soon as a sufficient number of wigs could be procured for the purpose." 54 There is also the character f r o m Bage's James Wallace, 1788, who almost loses his life by his experiments with the grandiose idea of stimulating growing crops by electric shocks. It must be noted that the individuals so ridiculed are admittedly eccentric and that such jesting does not seem to represent a general antipathy toward scientific farming but merely toward its more extravagant followers. " Mackenzie, Henry, The Man of Feeling, pp. 149-50. 51 Smith, Charlotte, Emmeline, v. 2, p. 21.

C H A P T E R IV L E I S U R E O C C U P A T I O N S OF T H E

SECTION A.

SQUIRE

CULTURAL

It is a common error in writing or speaking of the eighteenth century country gentry to consider them as essentially ignorant boors or as scholarly courtiers. This exaggeration occurs as a result of the novelists' tendency to create stock characters as Fielding's Squire Western or Richardson's Squire B—. There are, nevertheless, a middle group whose leisure occupations must approximate those of the real country gentry. Bad taste in choosing and caring for objects of art was a source of humor to the eighteenth century novelist, as it is to the writers of the present day. In Joseph Andrews, Fielding tells of one country squire who, determined that his ancestors should be a la mode, had tye-periwigs painted on his Van Dyke family portraits. Such barbarism meets with well-merited scorn and deserves to rank with the fig leaf activities of the late Austrian dictator and the burnishing or painting of bronzes by agencies nearer home. Sydney gibes at the squire's portrait gallery: "with paintings of the ancestors of the family—those of the sterner sex figuring as shepherds holding crooks, &c. in their hands, in full dress and full-bottomed perukes. The women were depicted in the ridiculous guise of shepherdesses habited in high heads and flowing head-dresses." 1 The exact point of the historian's satire is a little hard to determine. In the first place, the evidence of art galleries and printed collections of eighteenth century portraits tends to disprove his implication that the squire was commonly painted as a shepherd. In the second place, the questioning of the subject's costume is too broad for individual class criticism. The portrait conventions of the day must be kept in mind, and ridiculous as squires in Arcady may seem, they can scarcely have been 1 Sydney, William Connor, England Century, v. 2, p. 221.

49

and the English

in the

Eighteenth

50

Leisure Occupations of the Squire

less at home there than members of the court circle or the fat wives of city grocers. The squire's taste for art grew as foreign travel increased with the century. It was not long before he vied with the more wealthy noble in his collection of "objets d'art et vertu" and his deception by foreign dealers. Smollett's Squire Bramble was interested in art and comments on it in his travels. Mrs. Sheridan has an art discussion in The Memoirs of Miss Sidney Bidulph, 1761, between Mr. Sayers and Mr. Faulkland showing the difference between real and pretended taste. Thomas Cogan represents the grasping squire as perhaps spending the fifteen shillings which he ground from a tenant only to "frame a picture for his dining-room." 2 Squire Manly's "extensive picture gallery" is spoken of in The Stage Coach, 1753, and most of the hall-houses have portrait galleries, although the emphasis is placed more upon the genealogical than the artistic pretensions of the owners. More frequent references are found to music. Squire Western delighted in hearing Sophia at her harpsichord play his favorites: "Old Sir Simon the King," "St. George he was for England," and "Bobbing Joan." Drinking catches and hunting songs remained the complements of every convivial gathering. Some few of the country gentry are represented as skilled musicians. Mrs. Haywood's Betsy Thoughtless, 1751, endows Mr. Trueworth with a fine voice and states that he had studied with the best masters while in Italy. Williams in Mrs. Parsons' The History of Miss Meredith, 1790, plays the fiddle. The flute attracts several characters, particularly John Buncle from Amory's novel, who found it an admirable aid in promoting matrimony. When they were afforded the opportunity, the country gentry were fond of attending the theatre, and journeys to London usually include visits to the playhouses. Travelling companies were a welcome break in the round of country life even when they were as poor as represented in Lydia or Camilla. Mrs. Sheridan uses a play given by travelling actors to reveal to her heroine the infidelity of her husband. In describing the affair, she says: "The play had been bespoke by some of the principal 'Cogan, Thomas, John Buncle, Jr., Gent., p. 107.

Leisure

Occupations

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Squire

51

ladies of the neighbourhood, who had used all their influence for the performance, so that the house was as full as it could hold. T h e audience consisting chiefly of fashionable people." 3 Amateur theatricals in country houses are not, however, common in novels of this group. The production of The Beaux Stratagem in Humphrey Clinker, 1771, is the only instance of the sort noted, although masquerades and impromptu mummings are fairly common. There is a wide difference in the opinions of later social writers regarding the squire's interest in books. Sydney sneers at the manor house library of : "Baker's Chronicle, Fox's Book of Martyrs, GlanvU on Apparitions, The Complete Justice, and one or two treatises bearing on the subject of farriery." 4 Miss BaynePowell points out that there were notable exceptions: " H e n r y Purefoy who was of the lesser gentry, and by no means rich, had a library of three hundred and seventy-six books, and a man of great wealth like Coke of Holkham would fill his house with books, pictures and statuary." 5 The novelists include a great deal of material concerning the reading and libraries of the country gentry and probably tend to exaggerate the squire's literary tastes. Squire B— in Pamela, 1740, has a well-chosen library. The squire in Joseph Andrews, o w n e d : the Bible, The Whole Duty of Man, Thomas a Kempis, and Baker's Chronicle. Rivers is said to have had "a small but excellent library of books" in Mrs. Brooke's Emily Montague, 1769. In The Spiritual Quixote, 1772, Graves describes Mr. Townsend as a very bookish man who neglects his estate to build up his book and antique collections. Cooper, in The Exemplary Mother, 1769, has the Villars' bookshelves include Fielding and Richardson. Mrs. Smythies has a passage in The Stage Coach, 1753, on literary taste which is amusing and very revealing as to contemporary literary opinion. Charlotte Smith makes the heroine's discovery of the unfortunate young squire's scattered books the basis of a moving scene in Marchmont, 1796. * Sheridan, Mrs. Frances, Memoirs of Miss Sidney Bidulph, p. 68. ' Sydney, William Connor, England and the English in the Eighteenth Century, v. 2, p. 221. " Bayne-Powell, Rosamond, English Country Life in the Eighteenth Century, pp. 181-82.

52

Leisure Occupations of the Squire

The first reference noted to the circulating library, other than in a watering place such as Bath, comes late in the century. A young woman in Marchmont, is described: "Linda, who was one of those common characters which are formed by a very moderate understanding, cultivated only by such reading as a country circulating library can supply, or such society as is to be found in country towns."* A large number of the squires have some acquaintance with the classics, and Latin tags and references are common. Pamela's Mr. B— and Mr. Williams talk of "some scholastic subjects." Booth in Amelia, is said to have been versed in the Latin classics, and Mr. Walden engages in a spirited defense of the humanities against Harriet Byron and Sir Hargrave in Sir Charles Grandison. Mr. Berrisfort from John Buncle, Esq., 1756-66, is called by the author "a man of letters and breeding;" while Mr. Sweetwood, Lady Flimsy's second husband, in Shebbeare's Lydia, 1755, "was bred a scholar." Smollett has numerous cultured men among his squires, particularly in Humphrey Clinker. Godwin's Squire Falkland was not only highly cultured but wrote literary sketches, of which the author says: "All of them bore powerful marks of a profound and elegant mind, well stored with literature, and possessed of an uncommon share of activity and discrimination." 7 The eighteenth century novels abound with quotations from Shakespeare, Otway, Dryden, Milton, Congreve—whom Fielding's Booth "quoted spontaneously"—Addison and Steele, Fielding, Richardson, Pope, and many others. It would be as fallacious to assume that the literary atmosphere given country life by the authors of Letters from Felicia to Charlotte or Lydia was common, as to believe that all the country gentry were Squire Westerns or Sir John Banghams. Most country houses seem to have contained certain books: Baker's Chronicle, The Complete Justice, and works on agriculture and farriery, as the commonly regarded standard works of reference among the squirearchy. The women of the family supplemented their own collections of novels by the use of circulating libraries, • S m i t h , Charlotte, Marchmont, v. 1, p. 39. 7 Godwin, William, Caleb Williams, p. 5.

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Squire

53

w h e n such were accessible, and by e x c h a n g i n g books with their acquaintances. Reading, while it had changed in becoming lighter in tone f r o m that of the Jacobean period, was still a part of the lives of most of the country gentry both of the novel and reality. SECTION B.

SPORTS

T h e eighteenth century country squire had all the interest in sport which is today associated with the English speaking nations, and athletic activity of various kinds w a s common. W h i l e hunting is the pastime most generally associated with country gentlemen, they had other sporting interests as well. T w o extracts will serve to epitomize these as they are found in the eighteenth century novel. Herbert Lawrence, in The Contemplative Man, 1771, lists the sports and games which one of his characters e n j o y e d : The Captain had been, in his youthful Days, very active, and much addicted to the violent Kind of Exercises. He was a good Cricket Player— excelled at the Game of Fives, and at Tennis few were able to hold a Racket against him. But after he had the misfortune to become a Cripple, he was obliged to content himself with the more sedentary Amusements, such as Picket, Drafts, Chess, and even the royal game of the Goose. However, his principal Recreation at the proper Times of the Year was Fishing. He had studied it as a Science. There was not a Man in that or the next County to it who understood Angling in all its Branches better than himself. He made artificial Flies so like the real ones, that many Thousands, were dreadfully taken in by it. Fishing was a Diversion that suited mighty well with Mr. Crab's pensive Disposition. He had been the Captain's Pupil ever since he left Oxford, and had by this Time acquired a good deal of Skill in the management of the Rod and Line. Mr. Heartwell, . . . often attended them . . . upon these Occasions, and the Ladies too, Mrs. Garland and Sophia, were frequently of the Party, when they went no further than the Trout-Stream at the Bottom of the Garden." Mr. Montague, in Frances Brooke's The Excursion, 1777, w a s master of an even longer list of athletic accomplishments: Active and light as air, Mr. Montague danced, fenced, walked, rode, played cricket, & shot flying, better than any man, of whatever rank, in the 8

Lawrence, Herbert, The Contemplative

Man, v. 2, p. 177.

54

Leisure Occupations of the Squire

next seven counties: nor was he quite untaught in the less gentleman-like exercises of quarterstaff, boxing, and wrestling; exercises which the good old man insisted, by multiplying the means of defence, were calculated to increase courage, a consideration of no small importance*

Scattered references to other sports also occur. Robert Bage, in his Mount Henneth, 1781, speaks of a bathing pool at Henneth Castle. Boating and yachting are mentioned in Arundel, 1789. The hero writes: "As you are a brother Westminster and a waterman of course, I shall send down a four-oared cutter from our friend Roberts to navigate the silver Medway, and I promise myself many parties with you upon this delicious river: I have it in meditation to get my uncle John to purchase me a sailing yacht, when he comes home, . . ." 10 Active participation in racing, usually requiring a longer purse than the squire's, occurs in The Adventures of a Guinea, 1760-65. The squire's preoccupation with hunting is responsible, strangely enough, for two widely divergent treatments of his personality in the novel. As a huntsman chasing the fox or shooting his coverts, the squire is a popular figure in song and story. The same man "protecting" his game becomes either a whimsical figure of f u n or a cruel tyrant. It is in the more sympathetic role of hunter that the squire is most commonly found during the first threequarters of the century. Fox hunting had almost displaced stag hunting in England during the eighteenth century. Hunting no longer consisted, however, in merely sitting on horscback and watching the hounds course the game. The agricultural system of enclosures made the country side a huntsman's paradise, with ditches and hedges enough to satisfy the most hardy thruster. The squire with his friends and servants now took a breakneck way across the country ; the gentry on their horses, the servants usually on foot with their long jumping poles which made the vaulting of hedges and ditches convenient, and far safer than taking them mounted. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, a number of the more famous hunts were founded. Lord Althorp's hunt at 'Brooke, Mrs. Frances, The Excursion, v. 1, pp. 101-02. 10 Cumberland, Richard, Arundel, v. 2, p. 39.

Leisure

Occupations

of the

55

Squire

Pytchley set the standard for the whole country. So great was its reputation that many Midland squires shut up their houses during the hunting season and removed to Pytchley the better to enjoy its perfection. A s the efficiency of the group pack was demonstrated, the smaller squires came to depend less and less on their private packs. T h e squire is in most cases a devotee of fox hunting. Contemporary accounts make much of his absorption in the sport. The Spectator tells how when the years had forbidden that mighty fox hunter. Sir Roger de Coverley, his favorite sport, he still coursed a hare with pleasure. F o x hunting has frequent mention in the eighteenth century novel. The earliest reference occurs in Letters from Feli-cia to Charlotte, 1744. Mellisont's heroics amuse Felicia and she banteringly forbids him to see he r again till like a knight of old, he has brought her " 'the heads of those savage monsters that infest the woods, the trophies of thy prowess and renown.'" The heroine continues her description by saying that an hour later, "stepping into the room where I had left him upon the floor, I found my doughty knight strutting about with an old rusty helmet on his head, and in his hand a pike, which served for a spear, upon which was fixed the head of a fox, which he had luckily run down the day before. When stamping his foot, his trusty squire entered with the stuffed skins of several badgers, and other beasts of prey, the spoils of his hall; . . . " "

No reader will forget Squire Western's breaking off his pursuit of Sophia to take part in a chase which he saw passing the road. It was a fox hunt that endangered Parson Adams in Joseph Andrews. Mrs. Lennox talks of hunting in The Female Quixote, 1752. Simon, a character in The History of Fanny Seytnour, 1757, was a fox hunter. Sarah Fielding says of one of the figures in The History of Ophelia, 1760, his "intellects were a little troubled by too hard drinking, in celebration of a fox-chase, in which he had been engaged that day; . . ." 1 2 Family Pictures, 1764, by the Miss Minifies, has a description of a huntsman reliving the day's run: 11 13

Collyer, Mrs. Mary, Letters from Felicia The History of Fanny Seymour, p. 73.

to Charlotte,

p. 47.

56

Leisure

Occupations

of the

Squire

Daniel . . . began to enter into a detail of the excellent sport he had had that morning. He now started the hare a second time, and followed her through all her doublings with wonderful skill and dexterity. At length the artful puss, continued he, threw him out for a considerable time, from which dilemma he was happily relieved by jowler, regained the scent, and he ran her down most gloriously with the whole pack in full cry. When he came to her death, a savage ardour sparkled in his eyes, and the cries of the poor tortured animal but furnished hini with witticisms." Sir John Bangham, f r o m The Contemplative Man, 1771, is as interested in f o x hunting as his prototype Squire W e s t e r n . W h e n Squire Burdock, in Humphrey Clinker, g r o w s too fat to hunt, he still keeps his pack and has his huntsman relate the day's adventures to him in the evening. It would seem that Smollett's knowle d g e of hunting was not f o u n d e d on personal experience, since running a pack of hounds daily, as the book describes, would be very unusual. The Excursion, 1777, by Frances Brooke, contains a comparison between hunting in the good old days and the eighteenth century: As his father had the best pack of hounds in the neighbourhood, and was himself a keen sportsman, he had early inspired him with the ambition of being in at the death: and though hunting was not his favorite amusement, yet in these degenerate days, when the robust race of hardy Nimrods are dwindled to 'Puny insects shivering at a breeze—' he might very well pass for an excellent fox-hunter. By the way, it might not be amiss at present, to encourage the race of squires, in order to keep up that of men." In Charlotte Smith's Emmeline, 1788, Adeline W e s t h a v e n tells of her g r o w i n g estrangement f r o m T r e l a w n y , her husband: " S o m e t i m e s he was gone on tours to distant counties to attend races or hunts, to which he b e l o n g e d ; . . ," 15 Mrs. Bennett, in her Ellen, Countess Howel, 1794, describes life in H o w e l Castle: " M o n d a y , during the season, the huntsmen, with a fine pack of dogs, were in the field, and usually collected a large c o m p a n y of " Minifie, Susannah and Margaret, Family Pictures, v. 1, pp. 128-29. "Brooke, Mrs. Frances, The Excursion, pp. 101-102. Smith, Charlotte, Emmeline, v. 2, p. 59.

15

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plain country 'squires, for whose entertainment there was a public dinner; . . ." 1 8 Hugh Trevor says: "my father, . . . whenever he could find time, and often indeed when he could not, loved to follow the fox hounds, and hunt with his landlord, the Squire himself."" John Moore, in his Edward, 1796, says: "Carnaby attended the Colonel to his bedchamber, who asked how he intended to spend the time next day before dinner? Carnaby answered, that 'he usually went a coursing with a couple of greyhounds; . . " 1 8 Mrs. Helme, The Farmer of Inglewood Forest, 1796, says of one of her characters: "Mrs. Delmer has been confined to the country with her spouse, whose greatest pleasure had consisted in hunting and drinking." Popular as the fox-chase had become, allusions to other and older types of hunting are found. There is even one character, Wellair, in Eliza Haywood's The History of Miss Betsy Thoughtless, 1751, whose sister-in-law complains: "'though a very good husband in the main, is a great sportsman, takes rather too much delight in his hawks and hounds, and gives his wife but little of his company in the day; . . .' " 1 9 This is the only reference to hawking so popular in the preceding centuries. A deer hunt is mentioned in Peregrine Pickle, 1751. Moor-cock shooting and a stag hunt are spoken of in Thomas Amory's The Life and Opinions of John Dunclc, Esq., 1756-66. Richard Graves has a stag hunt in The Spiritual Quixote, 1772. Although Squire Wildgoose often walked out with a greyhound or spaniel and gun, he was not greatly interested in coursing or shooting. Sandford and Morton, 1783-89, tells of Squire Chase's coursing a hare. A party of Warwickshire gentlemen, in Harriet Lee's Canterbury Tales, 1797-98, propose going into North Wales to shoot game. Opinions differ in the novels as to the propriety of ladies in the hunting field. Amory allows them in the stag hunt described in John Buncle, Esq., 1756. The Miss Minifies say, in Family Pictures, 1764: "in some places it is not unusual for ladies themselves, to follow a pack of hounds the whole day, and receive as " Bennett, Mrs. Agnes Maria, Ellen, Countess Howel, p. 62. 17 Holcroft, Thomas, The Adventures of Hugh Trevor, v. 1, pp. 36-37. 18 Moore, John, Edward, v. 2, p. 50. "Haywood, Mrs. Eliza, The History of Miss Betsy Thoughtless, p. 151.

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much delight from it as any gentleman of t h e n all." 20 In Euphemia, 1790, Mrs. Lennox has a dispute on the desirability of ladies hunting, Sir John says: "I do not think hunting a proper sport for ladies; it spoils their complexion, gives them masculine manners, and hardens their tempers. A woman who, like Miss Sandford, leaps every five-bar gate, is ready to join the huntsman's hollow, and would grieve if she is not in at the death, may make a jolly companion over a flask of wine, but must not expect to inspire a delicate passion. . . ." "Ah, Sir," replied Mr. Harley, "it you have seen the young, the noble, the beautiful Louisa join the chace, under the conduct of a fond father, and affectionate brothers, you would confess, that female delicacy may be preserved even in that habit; and that exercise, by the elegance and propriety of her dress, she loses none of the tender graces of her sex and years."-"1

T h e author seems to agree with Mr. Harley, since she gives him the better of the argument. Dogs are, of course, very important to a group as interested in hunting as are the squirearchy. Sarah Fielding's satire, in The History of Ophelia, 1760, is probably not greatly exaggerated when the heroine says: " A very considerable part of the company yet remains unmentioned; though perhaps, were the men to direct, I might have given them the precedency. These were the squires' faithful companions, their dogs, who followed them into the room, . . ," 22 The same book has an altercation between a country squire and his sister. W h e n the lady attempts to advise him, he says: "Steer your family: see if you are pilot enough to guide that in it's proper course! . . . However trifling you may think the command of my dog-kennel, I would not trust you with the government of it though I had not so valuable a bitch as Mopsey, who deserves the care of the greatest men in the nation." 3

The authors of the eighteenth century novel are as liberal with fine hunting packs as they are with long pedigrees. T h e phrase "had 20

Minifie, Susannah and Margaret, Family Pictures, v. 1, p. 130. Lennox, Mrs. Charlotte, Euphemia, v. 2, p. 116. a Fielding, Sarah, The History of Ophelia, p. 80. " Fielding, Sarah, The History of Ophelia, p. 77. 21

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59

Squire

the best pack of hounds in the neighbourhood," found in Frances Brooke's The Excursion, 1777, is as common as "of an ancient family" or "of a good estate." Robert Bage has a character, in Man as He Is Not, 1796, say: " 'My valiant father . . . had a pack of excellent h a r r i e r s ; his springing spaniels were staunch; his greyhounds the fleetest in Devonshire; . . .' " 2 4 Rayland Hall, in Charlotte Smith's The Old Manor House, 1793, could formerly boast of having the best pack of fox-hounds in three counties. In The Adventures of Hugh Trevor, 1794, young Squire Hector "had the best pack of f o x dogs in the county; hunters that would beat the world; setters as steady as a rifle barrel g u n ; and coursers that would take the wind in their teeth; . . ." 2S Some idea of the importance of the squire's hunting pack may be gained f r o m Shebbeare's Lydia, 1755, when Sir Timothy Laughloud, in proposing to Lady Flimsy, offers magnificently : "I will settle four thousand a year upon you, as good land as ever crdw flew over, and all your own fortune to boot, nay, more, I will part with my fox-hounds! Zounds, it is a brave offer, wherefore I would have you consider of it; . . . '"*

Notice that his giving up his hounds is greater proof of his love in his own eyes than the princely marriage settlement which he offers. T h e novelists make use of hunting for two main purposes in eighteenth century fiction. T h e first is undoubtedly the matter of fact reproduction of the actual tastes of the country gentry. H u n t ing was the m a j o r sporting interest of the squirearchy and as such plays an important part in depicting their manner of life. In the second place, hunting is used to emphasize the manly character of many of the heroes. If the author places stress on the hero's abilities in the hunting field, he is able to have his character then be humane toward his inferiors and gallant toward the ladies without danger of a suspicion of effeminacy. T h e situation is also found in curiously reverse fashion toward the close of the century. Refinement of manners then demands that, though the squire of fiction be a good huntsman (to ensure his virility of " Bage, Robert, Man as He Is Not, a Holcroft, Thomas, The Adventures " Shebbeare, John, Lydia, p. 173.

p. 3. of Hugh

Trevor,

v. 2, p. 187.

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character) he be not greatly interested in the sport (to emphasize his sensibilities and culture). T h e laws f o r the protection of game had their beginnings early in Plantagenet days. A s time went on, while the barbaric old penalties of hand-maiming and the like f o r the illicit hunting of the king's deer were abolished, the laws protecting the squire's preserves became more stringent. T h e game laws became a part of the bitter struggle between land-wealth and money-wealth if Mathieson's theory, that they were "a series of statutes intended to increase the importance of the squirearchy and to secure it against the predominance of Personal wealth," 2 7 is correct. An early nineteenth century parliamentary debate explained them as an inducement for gentlemen to reside on their country estates by assuring the gratification of their sporting instincts. In either case the game laws presented a vexatious problem which did much to render the class unpopular in several quarters. The right of hunting was practically confined to the members of the squirearchy by the law which limited hunting privileges to landowners of one hundred pounds annual land income. A s long as game laws were stringent, poaching was a serious problem. T h e eighteenth century saw the struggle to suppress illicit hunting become increasingly acute, although it never reached the early nineteenth century level, when f r o m 1827 to 1830, oneseventh of all criminal committals in England were based on game law infractions. T h e eighteenth century Justice of the Peace was deeply concerned at the rise of this offence and even the Rev. M r . Ditchfield says: " B u t poaching was a crime he could not countenance. It was the seven deadly sins rolled into one." 28 The troubled social conditions at the close of the century cast their shadow on the attitude of the novelists toward the game laws. Squires who rigidly enforced the law forbidding dogs and guns to their tenantry are naturally the object of anger and obloquy. It is f r o m petty tyranny of this sort and disregard of the farmer's crops and fences that the principal charge of cruelty is laid upon the squirearchy. H e n r y Fielding says of a squire in Joseph 21 a

Mathieson, William Law, England in Transition, p. 144. Ditchfield, Rev. Peter H „ The Old English Country Squire,

p. 10.

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Andrews, he "had killed all the dogs and taken away all the guns in the neighbourhood; and not only that, but he trampled down hedges and rode over corn and gardens with no more regard than if they were the highway.' - 2 9 Gam Pickle, in Peregrine Pickle, "was odious to the poor people, for having killed their dogs and broken their enclosures." 3 0 In Sandford and Merton, 1783-89, H a r r y Sandford says: " ' S q u i r e Chase rides among the people's corn, and breaks down their hedges, and shoots their poultry, and kills their dogs, . . .' " 3 1 Tom Jones has considerable material on poaching. Both Squire Allworthy and Squire W e s t e r n have trouble with Black George. It must be noted that even Allworthy regards T o m and George's breaking into a neighbor's preserves as a serious offence. Squire W e s t e r n takes legal action against George when the latter's depredations affect him. Sarah Fielding, in The History of Ophelia, 1760, ridicules the lengths to which the country gentry went in protecting their game. She tells how M r . Darking was called to London "by a law-suit, in which he was engaged with a gentleman who had hunted and killed a hare in his manor." 3 2 Bramble, in Humphrey Clinker, is one of the few squires who is able to overlook poaching, as is evidenced by his treatment of Higgins. Mackenzie is bitter upon the rigors of the game laws. In The Man of the World, 1773, he says of a tenant, being prosecuted by Sir Thomas Sindal: "his crime was g r e a t : no less than that of having set a gin in his garden, for some cats that used to prey on a single brood of chickens, his only property; which gin had, one night, wickedly and maliciously hanged a hare, which the baronet's game-keeper next morning discovered in it." 33 T h e author f u r t h e r contrasts the generosity and meanness of the squire: There was not a gentleman's servant in the country, who did not talk of the knight's munificence in the articles of vails; and a park-keeper was thought a happy man, whom his master sent with a haunch of venison to Sir Thomas. Once a year too he feasted his tenants, and indeed the whole neighborhood, on the large lawn in front of his house, where the strong beer ran cascade-wise from the mouth of a leading Triton. " Fielding, Henry, Joseph Andrews, p. 177. "Smollett, Tobias, Peregrine Pickle, v. 1, p. 184. Day, Thomas, Sandford and Merton, p. 10. " Fielding, Sarah, The History of Ophelia, p. 78. " Mackenzie, Henry, The Man of the W or Id, v. 2, p. 179.

11

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But there were objects of compassion, whose relief would not have figured in the eye of the public, on whom he was not so remarkable for bestowing his liberality. The beggars, he complained, were perpetually stealing his fruit, and destroying his shrubbery; he therefore kept a wolf-dog to give them their answer at the gate; and some poor families in the village on his estate had been brought to beggary by prosecutions for poaching, an offence which every country-gentleman is bound, in honour, to punish with the utmost severity of the law; and cannot therefore, without a breach of that honour, alleviate by a weak and ill-judged exercise of benevolence."4

A poaching fray is mentioned in Robert Bage's Barham Downs, 1784, in which the growing enmity between poacher and preserver is demonstrated. Here the keepers fire on the poachers, the first incident of the kind noted in the novels of this group. In The Virtuous Villagers, 1784, Potter has Sir Harry Hariot, who is made remarkable for his boorish arrogance, exclaim: "Why, they tell me, you allow all your tenants to kill as much game as they like and we sha'n't have a hare or a partridge in the country if you suffer this. You must support the game-laws with strict severity, Master Bellamy, or you're no gentleman; for every gentleman is bound to support them, because they have the authority of parliament. O, I play the very devil with poachers whenever I catch them."86

Squire Havelley's sister describes his attitude in James 1788:

Wallace,

Before they had gone much farther in consultation, two gentlemen farmers came in to complain of certain infractions of the game laws, which my brother considers as the Magna-charta of country gentlemen. His anger was now turned into a more important channel: they set in to sound solid drinking, and the evening ended with great festivity."

Holcroft makes use of two sinister figures of speech from poaching in Anna St. Ives, 1792, when he has a character write: "I am caught, Fairfax, spring guns and man traps have been set for me. . . Another excerpt from the same book expresses Sir Arthur's admiration for the exercise of the game laws abroad: " Mackenzie, Henry, The Man of the World, v. 2, pp. 174-75. 35 Potter, John, The Virtuous Villagers, v. 2, pp. 20-21. " Bage, Robert, James Wallace, p. 442. 51 Holcroft, Thomas, Anna St. Ives, v. 2, p. 76.

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"I was mentioning the game, Aby. The game laws here [in France] are as plenty as rabbits in a warren, partridges as tame as our dove-house pigeons, and pheasants that seem as if they should come and feed out of your hand. For no scoundrel poacher dare molest them. If he did, I am not certain whether the lord of the manor could not hang him up instantly without judge or Jury. . . . "But for the game laws, as I was saying, Aby, they are excellently enforced ; and your poor rascals here are kept in very proper subjection. They are held to the grindstone, as I may say. And so they ought to be. . . ."»

One of the methods employed by Squire Tyrell, in Caleb Williams, 1794, to ruin Farmer Hawkins, was the arrest of the farmer's son on a false charge of poaching. Richard Cumberland's Henry, 1795, has a sailor, nicknamed Bowsev, who is a poacher between voyages. Cumberland's attitude toward poaching more closely resembles Fielding's than it does Holcroft's or Bage's. Bowsey is no downtrodden villager but a thorough-going rascal who was born to be hanged. By the time of Mrs. Lennox' Sir George Warrington, 1797, the bad days of the class struggle have come to England. Sir George, a political Quixote, is led by the ideas of the new freedom to join a group of discontented countrymen who are going to force a neighboring landowner to meet their demands. On their way, "'they perceived at a distance three men guarding another, whose hands were tied in a way that implied his villainy. When they met, Sir George's party demanded the cause of his captivity, and were told by one of the constables, 'he was a famous poacher who had been convicted on Mr. Saville's manor, and was now going to gaol.' ' W h a t ! ' cried the foremost, 'suffer a man to go to gaol for taking a hare or a pheasant! No no, we are liberty and equality men, and will rescue him from your tyranny.' " 39 The mob attacks the constables, ties them up, and determines "to give Saville a lesson." They march to his house and threaten to burn it unless he comes out to them. In the melee, Warrington is wounded and is cured of his injury and political delusions at the same time.

" Holcroft, Thomas, Anna St. Ives, v. 1, pp. 174-75. "Lennox, Mrs. Charlotte, Sir George Warrington, v. 3, p. 32f.

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Not all poaching was the work of the squire's tenantry. In The Contemplative Man, 1771, Herbert Lawrence describes a quarrel between squire and parson: "the Parson who was a Sportsman and a very good Shot, used to go out Coursing with a Couple of Greyhounds, a springing Spaniel and a Gun. So that what the Dogs could not catch he killed himself. "Sir John reckon'd this mode of proceeding downright Poaching, and for that reason ordered his Dogs to be shot. In Return for that Kindness, the Parson put Sir John into the Spiritual Court for living in Adultery with one of his Tenant's Wives. And in this Manner did they continue to Persecute each other, for many successive Years." 40 Occasionally, as in The Old Manor House, 1793, the "made" squire and his friends fail to respect protected ground and bitter quarrels ensue. The jealousy with which the squire guarded his hunting privileges tended frequently to render him unpopular both with his tenantry and with newcomers to the neighborhood whose wealth or social position should have made them his supporters. 40

Lawrence, Herbert, The Contemplative

Man, v. 1, pp. 95-96.

CHAPTER

V

T H E M A N N E R S , CUSTOMS, AND O P I N I O N S OF T H E SECTION A.

SQUIREARCHY

ON MANNERS AND MARRIAGE

While a background for "the expression of the life, of the time, of the manner" of the eighteenth century country gentry is developed from the novelists' portrayals of the squire's education, financial situation, leisure occupations, and the like; it remains merely background without something deeper. Only from some idea of what the squire thought, how he reacted to the manners and mores of his own day, can an adequate evaluation of the life of the time be gained. The novelists of the period are interested in the thoughts and feelings of their characters concerning problems of morals and polite conduct. It is unnecessary to stress the importance of custom and manners in the eighteenth century. Good or bad, they regimented the lives of society with dictatorial exactness. City and country manners differed more widely superficially than they did basically. The courtier was naturally more pliant in ideas and address than the country squire. City manners followed new whims with greater closeness than did those of the country. Addison writes, in the one hundred and nineteenth number of The Spectator Papers, July 17, 1711 : The fashionable world are grown free and easy; our manners sit more loose upon us. Nothing is so modish as an agreeable negligence.

In a

word, good-breeding shows itself most where to an ordinary eye it appears the least. If after this we look on the people of the mode in the country we find in them the manners of the last age.

They have no sooner fetched themselves

up to the fashion of the polite world, but the town has dropped thetn, and are nearer to the first state of nature than to those refinements which formerly reigned in the court, and still prevail in the country. One may now know a man that never conversed in the world by his excess of good-breeding. A polite country squire shall make you as many bows in half an hour as would serve a courtier for a week.

There is infinitely more to do about

65

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Manners,

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place and precedency in a meeting of justices' wives than in an assembly of duchesses. 1

This slowness in adopting city manners continued to exist until well into the following century. Essentially, however, it was the country version of city manners which was accepted as the English form of good behaviour. Country hospitality also differed from that of the town. Social life in London was rather similar to that of the present day with its tea-drinking, dances, dinners, and card and theatre parties. In the country, the squirearchy varied the social tedium by long visits to friends and relatives. Shorter calls of congratulation or condolence were the common successors to good fortune, death, or illness in a country family. Lady Loveit, from Mrs. Eliza Haywood's The History of Miss Betsy Thoughtless, 1751, describes her honeymoon in the country, " 'It took up six weeks . . . to receive the visits which every day crouded upon us from all parts of the country.' " 2 Charlotte Smith, in her Emmeline, 1788, has a character speak of country visiting: "And having laughed and wondered once at the uncouth figures and obsolete notions of Mr. Trelawny's Cornish cousins, who hastened, in their best clothes, to congratulate him, from places whose barbarous names I could not pronounce . . . and having twice entertained the voters of two boroughs which belonged to the family, . . .' " 3 In Edward Long's The Anti-Gallican, 1757, the author says: Mr. Cobham, soon after their Arrival, betook himself to Tripartite's where Miss Kitty Gaylove received him very politely and informed him her Uncle was then assisting at a Commission held about forty Miles distance, but, she believed, would return in three or four Days at the farthest; and in the mean Time, she hoped Mr. Cobham would treat her with no Ceremony, but make use of her Uncle's House as his own. Mr. Cobham replied, that, as his W i f e and Daughter were absent from Home, he found himself very much disposed to accept her kind Invitation, on this Proviso, that he might be allowed to bring with him a worthy Officer and Friend of his. T o this Miss Kitty had no Objection, and the Gentlemen paid their Visits 1

Addison, Joseph, The Sir Roger de Coverley Papers, p. 162. ' H a y w o o d , Mrs. Eliza, The History of Miss Betsy Thoughtless, ' Smith, Charlotte, Emmeline, v. 2, p. 55.

p. 276.

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very regularly once a Day, till Tripartite's Return; which I doubt not, but the Majority of my polite Readers ( w h o think their Affection sufficiently exprest, if they visit a Friend and Neighbour once a Twelve-month), will be apt to smile at, . .

While a Squire Cobham used little ceremony in his visiting, there is evidence that some of the country gentry still had vestiges of the stiff manners of which Cowper and Addison complained. A character f r o m Mrs. Griffith's A Series of Genuine Letters between Henry and Frances, 1770, says: " I thought it a Solecism in good Breeding to pay you a Visit, en passant, as Country Gentlemen call it, making an Inn of one's House." 5 And again, in Robert Bage's Mount Henneth, 1781, the author tells how a gentleman newly come to the country paid a neighboring gentleman the first visit "which, according to the country etiquette, was paying him a compliment." 8 Family Pictures, 1764, by the Miss Minifies, has several r e f e r ences to country manners in regard to eighteenth century entertainment. Even the villainous Daniel takes the opportunity of celebrating his elder brother's marriage by a dinner party. The whole fraternity of the neighbouring fox-hunters were an entertainment provided suitable to the keen appetites of body. There certainly was a very considerable consumption poultry, wines &c. insomuch, that none of the good company in a capacity or disposition of separating that night. 1

invited, and that worthy of venison, were either

In fairness to both brothers, it must be remarked that although Daniel was celebrating a marriage which might well mean the end of his hopes of inheriting the family estate a f t e r his brother's death; the cost of the dinner was being borne by the absent bridegroom. Another passage comments on the eighteenth century custom 4

Long, Edward, The Anti-Gallican, p. 180. * Griffith, Mrs. Elizabeth, A Series of Genuine Letters between and Frattces, v. 1, p. 28. •Bage, Robert, Mount Henneth, p. 125. 7 Minifie, Susannah and Margaret, Family Pictures, v. 1, p. 121.

Henry

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whereby even private servants expected to be tipped* by their master's guests: "Bentley-hall was not upon the footing of an inn, nor at the departure of a guest was the court-yard crowded with insolent domesticks, to pick the pockets of that man, who had, in return for his company, received the gratuity of a bed or a dinner." 8 In any consideration of the manners, customs, and opinions of an age, marriage must have an important place. T h e average novel of the century has considerable material on the institution and the novelists treat it from many and varied angles. It would be futile to pretend that money did not have an important part in deciding the squire's choice of a wife. There can be little doubt, on the other hand, that the fictional squires as a class were less mercenary than were the nobles. T h e rickety peer in search of a wealthy bride is a stock figure in the dramas and novels of the day. The entire picture of match-making and marriage is singularly unpleasant. From the parents' point of view, the basic considerations in practically every proposed union are financial or family advancement. Even when both parties are wealthy and well-born, the emphasis is placed upon the excellence of these features rather than upon mutual attractions or compatibility. T h e kindest of parents generally strive to bring about marriages in the belief that a union of materialistic interests will outlast mere love. Squire Western is no exception to the rule. He, "though he was a country squire in his diversions, was perfectly a man of the world in whatever regarded his fortune; had the most violent affection for his only daughter, and had often signified, in his cups, the pleasure he proposed in seeing her married to one of the richest men in the county." 9 Tom Jones, not the most clear thinking of individuals, recognized the state of affairs, for the author •About 1760, Dr. William King, principal of St. Mary Hall, Oxford, wrote: "How much are foreigners astonished, when they observe that a man cannot dine at any house in England, not even with his father or his brother, or any other of his nearest relations, or most intimate friends and companions, unless he pay for his dinner! But how can they behold without indignation or contempt a man of quality standing by his guests while they are distributing money to a double row of his servants."—King, Dr. William, Anecdotes of His Own Times, p. 50. 8 Minifie, Susannah and Margaret, Family Pictures, v. 1, pp. 119-120. 'Fielding, Henry, Tom Jones, v. 1, p. 196.

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says cf him: " H e well knew that fortune was generally the principal, :f not the sole consideration, which operates on the best of parents in these matters: for friendship makes us warmly espouse the interest of others; but it is very cold to the gratification of their passions." 10 Later, Western states his views regarding Sophia and lcve: " 'If she marries the man I would ha' her, she may love whom she pleases, I shan't trouble my head about that.' " " The cynicism of this speech sounds rather more like a direct expression of the author than of Western. S q u r e Thoughtless reflects the feeling of the age when he tells Betsy of Mr. Trueworth's proposal: "he has a much larger estate than ; our fortune could expect, unencumbered with debts, mortgages or poor relations; his family is ancient, and, by his mother's side lonourable; . . ." 12 Sally Standish was subject to about the same barter as a horse when Squire Smaliwood and Squire Stancish came to terms in Matrimony, 1754. A parent's desire to mite his daughter's money to a title, despite her objections, is brought out in Barham Downs, 1784. W h e n friends oppose the mate! as one that will make the girl unhappy, Squire Whittaker cries "Makt her miserable! Fiddle faddle! How should he make her miserable? She'll have everything she wants; ride in her own coach and six, and take jlace of every baronet's lady in the kingdom.'""

Squiie Moody, in The Stage Coach, 1753, is even more outspoken: "You have seen my dwelling, which with nigh four hundred a year that lies al in a hedge, I purpose to leave to my daughter at my decease, that is, if she will be dutiful, and marry he I have fixt upon for her; there's a matte* of £200 a year in land, that his uncle left him, that borders upon my eitate, and 'tis a pity they should not be joined; that indeed, is the main eason that I am so hot upon Mr. Timothy; for it would be convenient And hen, for matter of the parties liking one another, that's neither here nor tlere, if they should happen to differ after they are married, their estates will a»ree, and a fat sorrow is better than a lean one."14 M

Fe!ding, Henry, Tom Jones, v. 1, p. 197. Felding, Henry, Tom Jones, v. 1, p. 2SS. Pay wood, Mrs. Eliza, The History of Miss Betsy u iage, Robert, Barham Downs, p. 272. " Snythies, Mrs., The Stage Coach, v. 2, p. 95. 11 u

Thoughtless,

p. 36.

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Marriages were planned between families from the earliest infancy of their children. Mrs. Haywood uses the idea of such a match in at least two of her books. In The Inisisible Spy, 1755, she says, "Cleora had from her very infancy been promised in marriage to the son of a neighbouring gentleman, . . Jenny and Jemmy Jessamy, too, had been regarded as betrothed from the cradle. The hero and heroine of Frances Brooke's Lady Julia Mandeville, 1763, are matched in the same manner. An occasional parent allows his children to choose as they please. Even when such a parent retains the right of veto, however, this stand is regarded as quixotic. As a result of parental ideas of financially proper alliances and their own right of supervising their children's marriages, runaway matches are common stock-in-trade in the novels of the century and elopements to Gretna Green are frequent. In spite of the romantic use of parents' thwarting love, forcing marriages and elopements, and generally interfering in the lives of their children, The Marriage Act of 1753* was widely considered as crank legislation and as such was attacked by Shebbeare in Matrimony, 1754. Needless to say, marriage founded o a m e r e pride and financial aggrandizement was often-a failure. Scarcely a novel is to be found in which there is not an example of marital unhappiness. Sometimes adversity, as in the case of the Arnolds in The Metnoirs of Miss Sidney Bidulph, 1761, or children, as in the case of the Strictlands in The School for Widows, 1791, brings eventual peace. More often, however, only death can dissolve unhappy 13

Haywood, Mrs. Eliza, The Invisible S/ry, v. 2, p. 44. • W h i c h Lord Hardwicke succeeded in having passed by parliament in that year. "His Act provided that with the exception of Jewish and Quaker marriages, no marriage should be valid in England which was not celebrated by a priest in orders, and according to the Anglican liturgy, that the ceremony could not be performed unless the banns had been published for three successive Sundays in the parish church, or unless a license had been procured, and that these licenses in the case of minors should be conditional upon the consent of parents or guardians. The special license by which alone the marriage could be celebrated in any other place than the parish church, could only be issued by the Archbishop, and cost a considerable sum. All marriages which did not conform to these provisions were null, and all who celebrated them were liable to transportation. (26 George II, c. 33.)" See Lecky, William Edward Hartpole, A History of England in the Eighteenth Century, v. 1, p. 533.

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unions and allow the f a i t h f u l lovers to marry. T h e authors of this g r o u p clearly regard the providential death of a husband or wife in a class with the discovery of paternity and unexpected inheritance as an essential and legitimate mechanism for producing the expected happy ending. In the novels of those writers who more closely approach reality, an ill-made match is simply a burden to be endured with what share of fortitude the couple possess. S E C T I O N B.

ON F A M I L Y

HONOR

A s may be expected f r o m his eagerness to make financially and socially suitable marriages for his children, the squire has an intense family pride. H e is proud of his ancestry and of his own position in society. J o h n Moore, in Edward, 1796, brings out the effect of an individual's distinguished forebears on the man and his acquaintances. Moore says: The family of Mr. Waller was one of the most ancient in the county, and had been distinguished for men of a generous and hospitable character; he himself was considered as prouder than most of his ancestors, merely because he was reserved; for his opinion of his own personal qualities was inferior to that of others, and likewise inferior to their real value.—Such a man could not justly be called proud."

Mrs. Bennett presents the feeling of the squirearchy as regards the obligations which good breeding entail in Agnes de Courci, 1789. Betsy upbraids Mrs. Arnold's lack of manners and pretentions to gentility with the w o r d s : " ' W h a t signifies your telling me of your father, and uncles, and the rest of the 'squires of your family if you discredit your birth, by ill treating a young lady, who is under the protection of your roof ?' " 17 Because of his family pride, the study of heraldry was still of interest to the country squire. Framed coats of arms are f r e quently mentioned decorations in the older manor houses. T h e squire who pores over his genealogy is usually the butt of ironic humor. A long pedigree is a valuable adjunct to gentility, but absorption in it is a sign of eccentricity. This feeling is more com" Moore, John, Edward, v. 2, p. 107. " Bennett, Mrs. Agnes Maria, Agnes de Courci, v. 2, p. 22.

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mon toward the close of the century. In Mount Henneth, 1781, Bage describes Mr. Stanley, heir to Sir Richard Stanley: " H e is a gentleman of infinite heraldry; and, like other learned folk, ill brooks a censure or a scarcasm on his favorite science." 18 D r . Dodd's The Sisters, 1754, shows M r . Sanson's proud study of his family tree in bitter contrast to his poverty. The reverence which Mrs. Rayland accords her pedigree is satirized in The Old Manor House, 1793. In addition to pride of birth, the squire was jealously proud of the honor and name of his house. M r . B—, in Pamela, had a pride which would have fitted well the traditional hidalgo. It will be remembered how in stating his sentiments toward the heroine, he w r o t e : "Consider the pride of my condition. I cannot endure the thought of marriage, even with a person of equal or superior degree to myself and have declined several proposals of that kind." 1 9 Squire Bramble's sense of honor was particularly nice. Jerry Melford says of i t : "the squire is one of those who will sacrifice both life and fortune, rather than leave what they conceive to be the least speck or blemish upon their honor and reputation." 2 0 There is one illustration of this in his y o u t h f u l duel with a horse guard's officer in L o n d o n ; and another in the private war which, in the course of his travels, he seemed destined to wage against Lord Oxmington. T h e squires were proud of their ancestral acres and the sale of land was looked upon as a serious mistake by all right minded members of the class. T h e country gentleman in Mount Henneth, 1781, refuses to sell his land, saying, "it is an old family estate." Mr. Bethel of Desmond, 1792, who wasted over half his estate, mourns his lost acres: "Nabobs and rich citizens became the royalties in the same county, which estates—estates that had been in my their names to barons by recent nobility."21

ostentatious possessors of manors and were once mine; and some of my family since the conquest, now lent purchase, and dignified mushroom

" B a g e , Robert, Mount Henneth, p. 168. " Richardson, Samuel, Pamela, p. 233. 20 Smollett, Tobias, Humphrey Clinker, pp. 373-74. a Smith, Charlotte, Desmond, v. 1, pp. 36-7.

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T h e squirearchy experienced repugnance at the sight of family lands in the hands of men whom they considered unworthy, and expression of their emotions on that score is common. The quotation from The Virtuous Villagers, 1794, already given,* is a rare instance of this sentiment's being ridiculed in the light of the new ideas of social philosophy. T h e squirearchy tended to treat these newcomers with scant cordiality until they had proved themselves worthy of their purchased position. T h e squire's pride in the honor of his house was frequently open to injury by affronts to the women folk of his family or by their indiscretions. Shebbeare makes a point of the wrath of the Gams and Lloyds, when Captain Stem seduces Biddy Lloyd by an illegal marriage in Matrimony, 1754. The author's sympathies are with Squire Gam despite the humorous description of his equipment: he collected together the A r m o u r and A r m s of his Family, consisting

first

of t w o old Jack-boots of his Great Grandfather, and the second of t w o old Matchlock

P i s t o l s and a Basket-hilted S w o r d , with which Sir David had

fought so nobly in the Field of A g i n c o u r t ; and which like Scepter, had descended to his H a n d

Agamemnon's

through a Line of itchy

Ancestors,

all Gentlemen. T h e 'Squire w a s in the F l o w e r of his Youth, being T w e n t y - s i x , and of great Valour.

H e therefore mounted behind his t w o Pistols stuck into that

H o w s i n g which his Great Grandfather had used when he w a s H i g h Sheriff for the County of Merioneth, on w h a t is called a H o r s e in that Country, and may be taken for a Mastiff in t h i s ; his Basket-hilt being by his Side and his new-laced H a t cocked manfully, for the Vindication of his Cousin Lloyd.

Behind him followed his M a n Griffith

Biddy

. . . the 'Squire determining

to make the Captain to do Justice to his Cousin Biddy

Lloyd

by honourable

Marriage, or to lay him at his Feet. 2 5

Another picture of the Welsh squires' testy family pride, here complicated by politics, is found in Lydia, 1755. Young Squire Price and W h i n n y Lewis wished to m a r r y ; but his father was an ardent Tory, hers an equally ardent Whig. W h e n the news of the young people's love affair was k n o w n : " 'Old Squire Lewis tid * See above, p. 21. " Shebbeare, John, Matrimony,

v. 1, p. 186.

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sware the he woult kill his taughter, if she tid keep company with young Squire Price. Ant old Squire Price tid swear that if young Squire Price tid marry W h i n n y Lewis when he whas of age, he would kill him, if there was nefer a rogue more in the worlt.' " 2 3 Nevertheless, the lovers eloped. W h i n n y ' s father discovered their flight and, with a friend, made ready to follow. "Whell then, the squires tid mount their horses, ant their servants with pistols, ant kuns, ant hangers, to pursue young Squire Price and Miss Whinny. And they tid fow fengeance, ant teath, ant testruction upon young Squire Price, when they tid catch hur tead or alife.""

Many instances of the settlement by duel of insults to person or reputation occur in the novels of the day. T h e attitude of the country gentlemen toward duelling was largely colored by the sentiments of the century. While affairs of honor were not so common in the country as in the city, they have their place in a large number of the novels considered. Many authors dislike the practice in principle; but, when their model characters do not fight, some thoroughly manly excuse is given. Richardson's irritatingly perfect Sir Charles Grandison refuses to duel. His mastery of the sword is, however, as impeccable as his morals and he merely disarms his opponents as a preface to a sermon, probably more painful than a sword thrust. F r a n k Henley, the hero in Holcroft's Anna St. Ives, 1792, takes a blow without fighting but shortly vindicates his honor by saving his antagonist's life. Following the Spectator's lead, the novelists who really wished to discountenance duelling used sarcasm. Shebbeare makes use of the shrewd provincialism of the squire in his quarrel scene between the Earl of Juvenile and Sir Laughloud. "Have a care, Sir Timothy," says the earl, with a smile, pretending great coolness, "or I shall call you to an account." "Me to an account! at me for a fortnight.

Zounds, I will shoot at you, and you shall shoot What, does your lordship think I am afraid of you?

a Shebbeare, John, Lydia, "Shebbeare, John, Lydia,

p. 48. p. 48.

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A s to your swords, I know nothing of them, but as to a blunderbuss in a saw-pit, have at your whenever you please," replied the baronet.20

Robert Bage uses the same device in James Wallace, 1788. Sir Anthony challenges Squire Havelley to fight with pistols or small swords, but upon the squire's deciding on fowling pieces, the encounter is avoided. Occasionally a duel does not take place because of the cowardice of one party. Smollett has one such incident in Humphrey Clinker; while Captain Stem, in Matrimony, 1754, has himself arrested by his junior officers to avoid meeting Squire Gam. O n the other hand, Elkerton, in Charlotte Smith's Emmeline, 1788, makes such ostentatious display of his preparations that the peace officers arrive in time to save him. Duels are accepted, more or less, as a matter of course in some novels. A duel is the culmination of Richardson's Clarissa, for all the author's strictures against the code in Sir Charles Grandison. Mrs. Frances Brooke, in Lady Julia Mandeville, 1763, makes a duel the basis of the novel's tragic close. Fielding and Smollett have numerous encounters, some humorous, some serious in intention, in which squires figure. There is a serious affair of honor in Cumberland's Arundel, 1789. Mr. T r u e w o r t h crosses swords with Mr. Staple in the course of Miss Betsy Thoughtless, 1751. Louisa Mildmay, 1767, has two duels; one is treated as reprehensible, the other as retributory. W h e n Colonel Mildmay is brought home wounded a f t e r his unsuccessful encounter with his sister's seducer, their f a t h e r : "instead of exclaiming, as the generality of fathers would have done on such an occasion, and censuring the rashness of his son, he took hold of my master's hand, kissed it with an air of inconceivable satisfaction, and praised him for the attention which he had shewn to the honour of his family: the only regret he testified, was at hearing that the person who had injured his honour, was not hurt in the engagement; 'For had he fallen,' said my old master, 'that would have been a great satisfaction.' ""

T h e elder Mildmay is indeed a Roman parent, discovering his wife in tears over her son's grave condition: "Shebbeare, John, Lydia, p. 172. " K e l l y , Hugh, The History of Louisa

Mildmay,

p. 40.

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" W h a t d o you cry for, my dear?" said he to your venerable m o t h e r ; "If the villain, w h o has brought all this affliction upon our heads is not yet sacrificed, be satisfied that justice shall have

a gallant

boy

still

living,

who

overtake him in the end; for I shall

pursue

him

with

unceasing

vengeance till he has washed a w a y the disgrace of our family in his blood. O h ! had the inhospitable monster but fallen today, h o w light should I have made of m y son's m i s f o r t u n e !

But he shall yet feel m e : by the great God

of heaven and earth he shall!

A n d so, my dear, be pacified."* 1

In fact, the novelists toward the close of the century seemed to have less moral scruples about the duel than those of an earlier date.* Charlotte Smith in The Old Manor House, 1793, and Marchmont, 1796, gives a readiness to duel as an example of the hero's high birth and pride, although in neither book do encounters actually take place. In The Banished Man, 1794, the young emigre-hero and Squire Brymore fight, and the latter's wound is viewed as retribution for his insult to the heroine. Bethel, in Desmond, 1792, also defends his honor. Although Bage later pokes f u n at duelling in James Wallace, 1788; Osmond, the hero of Barham Doums, 1784, not only wishes to fight Lord W i n t e r bottom, but shoots Captain Wycherley, his lordship's bully, when the latter attacks him. Other examples might be cited of actual encounters in the novels examined, and many more are merely referred to in the histories of the characters; but the reasons and results are the same: virtue and honor are attacked and the guilty a r e punished. In Lady Julia Mandeville, the duel was the result of an unhappy error and is scarcely valid as showing right and wrong. Among the others, save in the somewhat equivocal duel between Louisa Mildmay's seducer and her brother, there seems to be no instance in these novels in which the guilty do not meet with punishment. SECTION' C.

ON

MORALITY

The eighteenth century saw the English country gentry in the strongest financial and social position in their existence. In the " K e l l y , H u g h , The History of Louisa Mildmay, p. 42. • W h i l e it is dangerous to hazard a theory concerning this, may not this increased emphasis on the gentleman's w a y of settling disputes be a natural result of the rising tide of social unrest at home and on the continent? It would seem to be a form of protest against ideas which w o u l d level class •distinctions.

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proud fabric of their order there existed, however, the signs of its end. Curiously enough it was the squirearchy's acceptance of the manners, customs, and opinions of the century which led to their decline. This arose as a result of several conditions which, as the century progressed, were to contribute largely to the eventual destruction of the class. T h e new commercial wealth of the nation sent increasing numbers of merchants in search of rural establishments. T h e would-be squires and prodigal nabobs introduced city standards of living with which the more modest fortunes of the squires could not compete. Living costs rose and the old squirearchy began to decline. The first to go were the squirelings. Xever securely established, the luxurious standards which the townsman brought into the country and the temptation to sell their small estates, gradually removed them or reduced them to the ranks of tenant farmers. W h e n methods of transportation and communication lessened the distance between town and country, then too, the squirearchy suffered. As early as 1669, Samuel Pepys notices "that the old rule was, that a family might remain fifty miles f r o m London one hundred years, one hundred miles f r o m London two hundred years, and so farther or nearer London more or less years." 2 8 The capital was strong poison to the county families. Instead of an occasional journey to the city which his ancestors had made, the eighteenth century squire spent long periods there and, on his return, took many of the expensive vices of the town back with him. Extravagance and gaming were two of the largest contributors to the squire's ruin. In the country, his purse had been bottomless and in town he spent in the same manner. The result, at best, was an impaired estate which could be recovered only by a rich marriage or years of nursing. Betsy Thoughtless' father was led into deep water by no greater sin than a dislike of business. H e was content to allow his man of affairs to handle everything, until decreased revenues and heavy lawyers' bills drove him to attend to his own affairs. T h e squire's w i f e frequently is blamed for his economic ills. Smollett has a bitter passage in which such a situation is dea

Pepys, Samuel, Diary, v. 4, p. 171.

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scribed. Mr. Baynard, a wealthy country gentleman, had the misfortune to marry a city heiress with twenty thousand pounds. Now, W i t h a taste capable of the most refined enjoyment, a heart glowing with all the warmth of friendship and humanity, and a disposition strongly turned to the more rational pleasure of a retired and country life, he is hurried about in a perpetual tumult amidst a mob of beings pleased with rattles, baubles, and gewgaws, so devoid of sense and distinction, that even the most acute philosopher would find it a very hard task to discover for what wise purpose of Providence they were created.2"

The author exposes Baynard to every shame and every folly until his wife's death frees him from them if not from his infatuation. In James Wallace, 1788, one character wastes and gambles away his estate until, when reduced to two hundred pounds a year, he has to retire to France to escape his creditors. Squire Trelawny, from Charlotte Smith's Emmeline, 1788, ruins himself so completely by extravagance and gaming that, all the unentailed portion of his estate gone and his life interest in the remainder sold, he ends his days on the grudging charity of his friends. Sometimes foreign travel brought disaster. Kidgell speaks, in The Card, 1755, of the death in Turin of Charles Embden, Esq., heir to the Embdens of Lincolnshire, "having himself determined a miserable Course of Extravagance through the Assistance of Despair and Violence." 30 At times it was merely ignorance as to how far an income would go. In The School for Widows, 1791, Clara Reeve says of one squire: "Reginald was already involved in trouble.

H e had set out upon too large

a scale: he kept a pack of hounds, a large stud of horses; he loved hunting, shooting, and drinking; he outran his fortune, . .

It was gambling, however that was the quickest and surest way to ruin. There can be no necessity for reviewing the mania for gambling which existed in eighteenth century England. While there are numerous instances of casual wagers and of betting on " Smollett, Tobias, Humphrey Clinker, p. 376(. " Kidgell, John, The Card, v. 2, p. 2. ™ Reeve, Clara, The School for Widows, v. 2, p. 198.

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billiards, as for example the game described in Peregrine Pickle, where seventeen hundred pounds depends upon one shot; nevertheless, cards and racing remain the usual mode of play. Almost no author dared attack gaming except to say that it should not be for high stakes and only with men of established gentility. The hero of the novel usually gambles, although he may feel with Jemmy Jessamy: H e could not think, without a mixture of pity and contempt, on those who, neglecting the accounts of their estates, and trusting all to their stewards and bailiffs, boasted how well they were versed in Mr. Hoyle's calculation in the cutting of a pack of cards, and swear five pieces an hour was too small pay for the instructions of so learned a doctor in the great, mysterious, and most polite science of gaming."

From the same book, the heroine comments: "You must know . . . that a lady who is a distant relation of mine, took me with her one evening to the rout of a person of condition: there was a prodigious deal of company, three large rooms made into one, and no less than fourteen tables set out for different sorts of gaming.""

Gambling on the races and the trickery practiced by owners and riders is frequently noticed. Charles Johnstone describes a jockey's deceiving the handicapper by means of a lead cap in The Adventures of a Guinea, 1760-65. Peregrine Pickle has wagers of as much as three thousand pounds on a single race with heavy losses to the hero. As Sarah Scott remarks in Millenium Hall, 1767: " 'Few fortunes are sufficient to stand a double expence. The husband must attend the gaming-table and horse races; the wife must have a profusion of ornaments for her person, and cards for her entertainment. The care of the estate and family are left in the hands of servants, who, in imitation of their masters and mistresses, will have their pleasures, and these must be supplied out of the fortunes of those they serve.' " 34 The experience of a character from John Moore's Edward, 1796, was the experience of many: " Haywood, Mrs. Eliza, The History of Jenny and Jcmnty " Haywood, Mrs. Eliza, The History of Jenny and Jemmy ** Scott, Mrs. Sarah, Millenium Hall, pp. 145-46.

Jessamy, Jessamy,

p. 38. p. 33.

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"Mr. Shuffle was originally fond of hunting and country amusements, lived a good deal on his estate in the country, and shewed no taste for gaming beyond a moderate bet on a cricket match; but being elected a member of a club, where he was often witness to very deep play, and tempted with the ease and expedition with which he saw money acquired by some of his acquaintance, he felt a desire of imitating them; the consequence of which was, his losing a sum which distressed him to pay; this he determined to recover, and then to quit gaming for ever.

He began the attempt, I have

been told, with caution, but being laughed at for refusing deep bets, where he was assured the chance was in his favour, and seeing those who accepted them admired for their spirit, he caught more courage, increased in spirit every night, and at length had spirit enough to lose his whole fortune.

Of

late, I understand, he has been more lucky, and is now somewhat raised in point of circumstance, but greatly sunk in that of reputation."®

Many a squire, like Mrs. Lennox' Mr. Lumley of Euphemia, 1790, "played high, and always with ill success." Few country gentlemen could be extricated f r o m their ruin, as Clerimont was, in The Invisible Spy, 1755, by the cleverness of his fiancee. A still smaller number could pay their debts of honor as easily as Mrs. Haywood's Liberia in The History of Jenny and Jemmy Jessamy. Money and more money must be found. T h e unhappy wife in Mrs. Johnson's The Gamesters, 1786, exclaims in a letter to her sister: "Does this look well, Louisa? The humane landlord, whose heart glowed with pleasure to see his tenants unburthened, cheerful, happy,—now reduced to use threats to force the payment of money as soon as due.—And for what ? T o satisfy debts of honour.—Vile perversion !—Gamblers must riot on spoils of industrious indigents." 3 6 Unless their own good sense or an exceedingly rich marriage came to their aid, as it did to Mr. Everard Grandison in Sir Charles Grandison, the end was the destruction of yet another county family, exile to the continent, enlistment in the army or the East India Company, or death. Another vice, heavy drinking, is regarded as reprehensible by most authors; but exactly what constituted heavy drinking is somewhat doubtful. Macaulay points with scorn at the sodden 55

Moore, John, Edward, v. 1, p. 242. "Johnson, Mrs. A., The Gamesters, v. 1, p. 83.

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country gentry, and the authors of The Connoisseur decry the prevalence of drunkenness in country and town. It is interesting to note that Macaulay's own period has been stigmatized by later social historians f o r the growth of gin drinking among the lower classes. T h e squire imbibed largely of ale, wine, and punch— according to the novels; but the use of straight spirits was not common until the following century. Pamela evinces no surprise when Squire B— and his friends drink two bottles of claret apiece a f t e r dinner. In The Memoirs of Miss Sidney Bidulph, 1761, Mrs. Arnold writes to a f r i e n d : Mr. Arnold came not home till very late; he complains that he is got into a knot of acquaintance that like the bottle too well; but I am sure his natural sobriety is such, that it will not be in the power of example to lpad him into intemperance: though I am vexed he has fallen into such acquaintance, because I know drinking is disagreeable to him: yet a country gentleman must sometimes give a little to it, to avoid the character of being singular. 17

Actual drunkenness is usually viewed as disgraceful. Fielding sneers at W e s t e r n ' s habitual evening excesses, although when Tom drinks too heavily in his joy over Squire Allworthy's recovery f r o m illness, he is not blamed overmuch. T h e same author, in Amelia, speaks of the drunkenness at a wedding. Not only did Amelia's father drink too heavily, which the author calls unusual, but the majority of the guests followed his example. Squire Bumpkin in Smollett's Roderick Random, Mr. Morgan in Sarah Scott's Millenium Hall, 1767, Squire Havelley Thurl in Robert Bage's James Wallace, 1788, Trelawny in Charlotte Smith's Emmeline, 1788, the neighboring gentry in Richard Cumberland's Henry, 1795, and many other characters present pictures of drunkenness among the country gentry and the author's disgust at it. A n amusing note is struck in a countryman's complacent remark in Richard Graves' The Spiritual Quixote, 1772: "I may be as happy as 'Squire Pelican himself, though we brew nothing but small-beer: for though the 'squire can afford to get drunk every day in the week, yet he is laid up with the gout half the year."38 " Sheridan, Mrs. Frances, The Memoirs "Graves, Richard, The Spiritual Quixote,

of Miss Sidney v. 2, p. 114.

Bidulph,

p. 66.

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The squire's opinions concerning morality are but vaguely defined in most of the eighteenth century novels. The authors frequently emphasize the moral intention of their works, but that morality is rarely stated in particular terms. London was regarded with a suspicion which was justified, although, perhaps, not for the squire's reasons. Mention has been made of the financial and moral damage caused by the contact between town and country. Dr. Dodd describes in Mr. Jaison of The Sisters, 1754, a typical, conservative country gentleman and his reaction to the capital. Family affairs had demanded his presence there, otherwise he should never have taken such a plaguy troublesome, tedious journey, to such a diabolical detested place as this same London; the seat of folly, the metropolis of iniquity, the nest of horrors and villains, the sink of corruption, and the den of plunderers, homicides, and barbarians ! "

In the next passage, Dr. Dodd says: "there was scarce an object which presented itself that did not raise his indignation and anger; for he was a true country gentleman, and detested all the follies of the town though he judged many things in it necessary." 40 The country squire had firm ideas concerning the value of morality, at least in others. At the same time, the class was disposed to regard the lapses of youth with greater charity than those of age. The question of morals was, of course, seen in the light of the period. Illegitimate children were no great stigma to the father, particularly if he were unmarried at the time of their birth. Richardson's Mr. B — has an affair with Miss Godfrey before his marriage to Pamela. His illegitimate child is put to school and Pamela not only meets her but proposes to take her into the B — home. Tom Jones, the natural son of Bridget Allworthy, is acknowledged by his uncle as his nephew and heir and wins the hand of Sophia. Cumberland, in Henry, 1795, follows Fielding's lead and makes his hero illegitimate. Here, the fact is regarded as romantic and serves to render Henry more interesting. Humphrey Clinker is discovered to be Squire Bramble's illegitimate son and provision is made for him in Dodd, Dr. William, The Sisters, p. 144. " Dodd, Dr. William, The Sisters, p. 145. w

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Bramble's family. Smollett sets forth in this book the spirit of the d a y : a young man may have his pleasures but if he is a gentleman he must be prepared to pay for them. Instances of illegitimacy are frequent and many other references might be given to show the rather casual acceptance of such birth. But if he allowed himself certain youthful moral laxity, the squire was a firm believer in the double standard. He could sympathize with the comment of the country justice of the peace who said of Ophelia: "That's a pretty lass, faith, . . . and looks good-natured and merry.

I love

a hoddy girl hugely, that will make one laugh, and laugh with one, and share a pot of good October when a man has no better company: such a wench is worth fighting for— . .

T h e country gentleman expected the conduct of his own womenfolk, however, to be faultless. T h e mere mention, in Angelina, 1796, of his daughter as an actress drives Sir E d w a r d into a frenzy. H e exclaims: "my daughter an actress I why I'd cut her legs off, if I thought she wished to disgrace herself by such an idea. Turn stage player! Zounds—Sir Clifford—I don't understand you. My daughter is a gentleman's daughter, and no mummer! What do you take her for? a fly-by-night; a mushroom; scampering, face-making vagabond." 42

Several authors make a point of the fact that ladies of doubtful reputation are as warmly received by society in town as they a r e treated coldly in the country. Frances Brooke tells of one such case in The Excursion, 1777. Lady Hardy, the widow of a baronet, had served a fifteen year apprenticeship as his mistress before he married her. T h e country gentry refused to associate with her. In anger, she goes to London. There, since she has money, a carriage and footmen, plays loo for gold, and gives dinners ; she is well received. Clara Reeve, in The Two Mentors, 1783, gleefully describes how Lady Belmour, a fashionable London panderess, goes into the country and is highly insulted be" Fielding, Sarah, The History of Ophelia, p. 73. " Robinson, Mrs. Mary, Angelina, v. 2, p. 79.

84

Manners,

Customs and Opinions

of the

Squirearchy

cause "the saucy small gentry of the county would neither visit nor receive her and her friends."4® Many characters deplore the large number of prostitutes, but few have any plan or even any exact desire to aid them. Sir Charles Grandison proposes Protestant nunneries, and Squire Meredith puts such a plan into practice in The History of Miss Meredith, 1790. An occasional character, like Mackenzie's man of feeling, attempts to aid individual members of the group. The London style of feminine dress proves shocking to the country ladies in The Invisible Spy, 1755. Mr. Jaison of Dodd's The Sisters, 1754, also finds fault with the dress of the London belles: T h e ladies indecency in their dress struck him exceedingly; particularly the immense rotundity of some hoops which he met, and the dapper conciseness of the silken coats, well contrived to display the beauties of the leg and foot;

better

worthy eyes.

concealed, than

too lavishly

displayed

to

vulgar

and

un-

H e was no less offended at the disproportionate littleness of

their h a t s ; and could not help remarking the smallness of that concentrick circle to the circle of the hoop, observing the ladies were certainly unskilled in mathematics; but the enormous length of ribband hanging dangling down, with the smart cock of the hat was matter of more mirth than indignation to h i m : "Since," said he, "these women a r e certainly stage-dancers,

and

come abroad to make one laugh, and to entice one to the play-houses, just as your tumblers in puppet-shows go about country towns in their fools coats."

H e could not be persuaded the ladies whom he saw so adorned w e r e

ladies of character and modesty." SECTION D.

ON

RELIGION

The squire has frequently been charged with religious prejudice against many whom the city world regarded more tolerantly. The charge is not unfounded and the expression of the squire's opinion gives vitality to many otherwise lifeless figures. Although certain of the country gentry were devout and long-suffering Catholics, the greater part were Church of England. They viewed the Church of Rome as a menace to the nation, second only to " R e e v e , Clara, The Two Mentors, v. 1, p. 61. M Dodd, D r . William, The Sisters, p. 146.

Manners, France.

Customs

and

Opinions

of the

Squirearchy

85

A n occasional m o r e liberated m e m b e r of the class might

a g r e e w i t h L u c i u s w h e n he

says:

" W i t h this view do I look upon my native country, the seat of liberty, and her sister's earthly throne.

In this view let us regard the whole world.

T h e honest T u r k shall be my friend ; the sober, faithful Chinese, that lays the divine Confucius to his h e a r t ; and the Indian of either world, blest with simple innocence and native truth, shall be my brothers.

Wherever

I find a man who loves his God. and loves mankind, I will hug him to my breast."* 3 M r . B r a m b l e , o f Humphrey

Clinker,

also has s o m e doubt regard-

i n g all he h a s h e a r d c o n c e r n i n g the R o m a n peril, a s is e v i d e n c e d b y h i s a p p r o b a t i o n of

Barton's s e n t i m e n t : " ' T h e liberty of

the

p r e s s ' is a t e r m o f g r e a t e f f i c a c y ; a n d , l i k e t h a t of 'the P r o t e s t a n t religion,' has o f t e n s e r v e d the p u r p o s e s of sedition."4" Letters

from

Felicia

to Charlotte,

i o n of p a p i s t s w a s m o r e c o m m o n .

A g a i n , in

1744, Dorothea's father's opinT h e old squire

related many family broils that happened on the score of religion and politicks; complained of the disturbance he had met with f r o m priests; that they had spoiled the best woman in the world, and robbed him of his daughter by persuading the saucy baggage to run away from him. F r o m thence he digressed to popish tyranny, to massacres, and the tortures of inquisitions; talked in favor of charity with the rage of a b i g o t ; reproached the papists for the want of i t ; and, with all the intemperate heat and enthusiasm of party, swore that, if he had the power, he would not leave one of the bloody-minded monsters alive." I n Life's

Progress

Through

the

Passions,

w o o d takes her hero to a F r e n c h convent.

1748, Mrs. Eliza

Hay-

She says:

H e had never been in a monastery before, and had a notion that all the nuns, especially the abbesses, were ill-natured old w o m e n : he was theref o r e so much

surprised

at the sight of this lady, that he

had

scarce

power to return the politeness she treated him w i t h . "

45

Collyer, Mrs. Mary, Letters front Felicia to Charlotte, p. 158. " Smollett, Tobias, Humphrey Clinker, p. 138. " C o l l y e r , M r s . M a r y , Letters from Felicia to Charlotte, p. 1S6. " Haywood, Mrs. Eliza, Life's Progress Through the Passions, p. 67.

86

Manners,

Customs

and Opinions

of the

Squirearchy

His surprise is probably no greater than that of the average country gentleman would have been. Religion and politics were closely allied in the mind of the eighteenth century squire. Quakers, Methodists, Presbyterians, and Jews are equally the target of the squire's spleen. T h e Quaker, when treated kindly, as the steward in Barham Downs, 1784, is still credited with being a master of shrewd practice. Treated more unkindly, he is made a canting hypocrite given, as in Matrimony, 1754, to f r a u d in business, and, as in The Adventures of a Bank-Note, 1771, to sly immorality. Methodists are anathematized because of the social insignificance of their followers and their emotional display. Only one squire, Wildgoose in The Spiritual Quixote, 1772, is of their number, and his Methodism involves him and his servant in endless ridiculous adventures. Even his decision to become a member of the group comes not f r o m spiritual conviction but from a trifling difference with the vicar. T h e prejudice against Presbyterians was founded on the old alliance, in the squire's mind, between Whiggery and non-conformity. T h e part they had taken in the Civil W a r added to the unpopularity of Scots during much of the century, and Presbyterianism and Scotland were commonly regarded as synonymous. In The Stage Coach, 1753, Squire Moody says: " ' I never could abide your Presbyterians, because I understood from Sir Richard Baker, they were always against the landed interest.' " 4 9 Sometimes, as in The Banished Man, 1794, dislike of the sect existed without being really comprehended. Charlotte Smith says of the lady of the m a n o r : She bore the most perfect good-will to the generality of her neighbours, except always the rich Presbyterian, whom she hated as much as it was in her nature to hate anyone; though why she was to hate him, except that he was rich, and an upstart of yesterday, she never understood. 50

Jew-baiting was still a popular pastime. T h e r e are none of the ancient prejudices against the race that are not discovered. The " Smythies, Mrs., The Stage Coach, v. 2, pp. 19-20. " S m i t h , Charlotte, The Banished Man, v. 2, pp. 111-12.

Manners,

Customs

and Opinions

uf the Squirearchy

87

Adventures of a Guinea, 1760-65, has an instance of attempted ritual murder, and references to the Jew's desire to seduce Aryan women are found in David Simple, 1744, and The Sisters, 1754, among other novels. The Jew's money lending activities and denial of Christ are the sources of the greatest antipathy. Again Squire Jaison's views are those of his class: But there was yet something that gave him more disturbance than all before related, and that was the sight of a man with a Jew-like appearance. O h , his gall rose ever to the height on the beholding such, and he could freely have told them, as he said, a little of his mind. "Anti-Christian hereticks, that have not the form of godliness; cormorants ready to devour us, to eat up our lands, our lives, our properties, our everything!" Nor did he ever touch upon the subject without an exact and long detail of their sufferings in the siege of Jerusalem. "See their r e w a r d for that," would the old patriot say, "for crucifying the King oi H e a \ e n ! See there what blessed r e w a r d s attended t h e m ! see there what choice glories and honours persued t h e m ! see there how they were respected and r e m u n e r a t e d ! Oh, 'tis a fine glorious prospect! But, I hope, there will be no such prospect for us. I would advise a return to this Jerusalem, not a making of England the land of Canaan. W e have no milk and honey to s p a r e ; nay, if once they come in tribes amongst us, we shall have no more milk and honey for ourselves. A w a y with them to C a n a a n ; let them build again their old city; the Romans won't hurt them again—and w h o would not assist this poor unhappy people?""

These instances of the country gentry's dislike of creeds other than their o w n might lead to the supposition that the squirearchy were good churchmen. The actual case, borne out by the evidence of social history and the novel, is far different. It would be wrong to imagine that there were not many people who were devout followers of the church. The religion of the majority, however, except in moments of stress, was confined to the feeling that conformity was useful for others and formal acceptance of the creed was sufficient for themselves. Their relations with the clergy varied. In the novels of Richardson, the squirearchy are usually represented as led by the spiritual advice of their chaplains or the village rector. Fielding's novels, particularly Joseph 51

Dodd, D r . William, The Sisters,

p. 144f.

88

Manners,

Customs

and Opinions

of the

Squirearchy

Andrews, present an opposite view. Parson Adams meets with frequent indignity, not in spite of his calling but often because of it. Goldsmith's vicar is at first treated by the neighboring squire with surface respect, but his cloth is no deterrent to the latter's ultimate villainy. Collyer's divine: who is one of the most facetious gentlemen upon earth, told us abundance of agreeable stories, with so much humor that he frequently set the whole company in a laugh; nor could Amelia and I forbear joining in the general mirth. We insensibly returned to ourselves; and, before dinner, were able to bear a part in the conversation. The reverend divine filled his pipe, had a tankard of old October to himself, and, by his wit and good temper, let us see that he did not think an innocent mirth at all inconsistent with the strictest piety.5"

is valued more for his good-fellowship than his religion, since reference to it seems an afterthought. The average clergyman, on the other hand, was too often regarded as a mere boon companion or an expensive and troublesome encumbrance. The passage just quoted illustrates one phase of the boon companion. A cruder example of the cleric in this light is found in The Virtuous Villagers, 1784. Sir H a r r y a degenerate Squire Western, invites his new neighbor to visit him, saying: "I can give you some of the best Stingo of any mail in the county. Your vicar, who died this morning, used to praise my Stingo. O, I have made him precious merry with it. Well, he was a jolly fellow, poor soul, and loved good eating and drinking; and preached deadly short sermons; and sang a deadly good song; and told a deadly good story. O, he'd a budget full of deadly good songs and merry stories; and was a devilish clever fellow to set the table to a roar a whole day together."*1

T h e parson in a number of novels is degraded to the butt of the more boorish squire's humor. Fielding gives an example of this in Joseph Andrews. Parson Adams, after being set upon by the squire's dogs, is subjected to rough verbal and physical horseplay in the squire's house. Sarah Fielding's The History M M

Collyer, Mrs. Mary, Letters from Felicia to Charlotte, Potter, John, The Virtuous Villagers, v. 2, p. 29.

p. 92.

Manners,

Customs

and Opinions

of the Squirearchy

89

of Ophelia, 1760, has a scene in which the half-drunken fox hunters, by their evident intention to "roast" him, force the parson to leave the dining room with the ladies. A number of books contain instances of what the Rev. Mr. Ditchfield calls "the squarson," a cleric who is more squire than priest. Charlotte Smith defines them succinctly in Marchmont, 1796, a s : "what are not improperly termed Squiriferous Parsons, young men in orders, who shoot, hunt, attend races and cricket matches, and 'but on Sunday hear no bells.' Unpleasant as is such contemptuous familiarity, there are numerous other cases of antipathy and open war between manse and hall. T h e vicar of Wakefield complains: " T h e Squire would sometimes fall asleep in the most pathetic parts of my sermon, or his lady return my wife's civilities at church with a mutilated curtsey." 5 5 Herbert Lawrence says of one squire : Within his own District he was as despotic as the Grand Seignoir, for he had no Gentlemen to contend with, except the Parson of the Parish, with whom he lived in a State of perpetual Warfare. There were two Causes of Animosity constantly subsisting between Sir John and the Parson. In the first Place, Sir John, having no Notion of Religion, looked upon all the Clergy as so many Drones, that live by the Labours of other People, without contributing any Thing to the Stock, anel therefore he would never pay the Tithes 'till the Law obliged him to it.M

T h e second ground for grievance was the parson's hunting. T h e difficulties which sometimes arose between parson and squire because of the former's hunting have been noted in the section devoted to the chase. The Adventures of Hugh Trevor, 1794-97, which is quite anti-clerical, describes a similar feud. H o l c r o f t explains: The squire had succeeded to his estate and manor by the death of a very distant relation, and by this relation the rector had been presented to his living: he therefore considered himself as under no obligation to the Squire; while the latter on the contrary, the advowson being parcel and part of the manor, held the manor and himself as owner of the manor, to be the actual donor. 51 " S m i t h , Charlotte, Marchmont, v. 1, p. 92. 55 Goldsmith, Oliver, The Vicar of Wakefield, p. 179. " Lawrence, Herbert, The Contemplative Man, pp. 95-96. " H o l c r o f t , Thomas, The Adventures of Hugh Trevor, v. 1, p. 136.

90

Manners,

Customs

and Opinions

of the

Squirearchy

In this book, tithes were a point of contention. counts one episode:

The hero re-

My g r a n d f a t h e r having announced his intention of demanding a commutation of nearly double the sum, or of being paid his tythes in kind—first his tythes de jure, and next his tythes by c u s t o m ; enumerating them all and e a c h ; corn, hay, hops and h e m p ; fruit, roots, seeds and w e e d s ; wool, milk, chickens, ducklings, and goslings, or e g g s ; corn rakings and pond d r a w i n g s ; not forgetting agistment

and subbois, or sylva

caedua;

with many m o r e of

the sweets of our prolific mother earth, which I would enumerate if 1 did but recollect them, and for which men so often have been and still a r e impleaded in Court Christian—these particulars, I say, being recapitulated and set forth in terrible a r r a y , by the rector, excited in the whole parish so much dread of the rapacious vulture, who was coming with such a swoop upon them, that high and low, young and old, rich and poor, all began t o tremble. T h e Squire was the only man, at first, who durst bid defiance to the general ravager.

T h e rector's deviation from his original agreement threw

him into a rage, and he panted for an opportunity of shewing the contempt in which he held my g r a n d f a t h e r and his t h r e a t s . "

T h e squire's barns were infested by numerous large N o r w a y rats, of which the ratcatcher took a great number alive. T h e squire conceived the plan of delivering these to the rectory as a tithe. The rats were accordingly loosed in the rectory and a spirited combat ensued. The squire and his servants were beaten forth by the outraged parson, H u g h and the manse servants. T h e prank resulted in a costly and involved lawsuit between squire and vicar. SECTION

E.

ON

FOREIGNERS

During the course of the eighteenth century, the influence of the continent and, in particular, France on England increased. J. B. Botsford in English Society in the Eighteenth Century shows how, as the century advanced, an ever greater interest in foreign culture was felt in almost every walk of life. Here, again, the squirearchy tended toward conservatism. Their political and social viewpoint made them more immune to French 68

Holcroft, Thomas, The Adventures

of Hugh

Trevor,

v. 1, p. 139f.

Manners,

Customs

and Opinions

if 'Jie Squirearchy

91

fripperies than the townsman. Young squires returning f r o m the " t o u r " came home affected snobs who despised everything English, or more John Bull than ever. T h e well-balanced man returned still an Englishman, but an Englishman whose mental and cultural horizons had broadened. Except in such characters as Mr. Faulkland in The Memoirs of Miss Sidney Bidulph, 1761, Ellesmere in The Banished Man, 1794, and a few others, the happy mean is not found. Mention has been made of characters like Felicia's cousin, M r . Savers, and Sir Anthony Thurl, who addled their small stock of wits with the attempted graces of the petit maitre. T h e opposite extreme is more common. T h e English traveller, impervious to foreign customs and contemptuous of foreign thought, became the accepted figure of the Englishman abroad. Squire Melton, in The Banished Man, 1794, is the epitome of this class. The French hero discovers Melton and Ellesmere in their disabled carriage: H e who appeared the eldest of them (in every strong term which the English language so copiously affords) cursed all foreign postillions, posthorses, and post-masters. H e swore, that on the whole continent there was not one of any sort of these worth a damn; and that a man had better g o to the devil at once, than put himself in the way of having anything to do with such hellish cattle, and such infernal scoundrels . . . "I was persuaded to try the tour, as it is called, which it seems a man of fortune is e x a c t e d to make. But I pique myself upon returning to England as entirely British as I set out: and unless my mind alters strangely, I shall live and die a thorough Englishman." 3 "

Judging by his reaction to the Europe of the French Revolution, the squire kept his prejudices. Ellesmere talks of the French struggle for freedom, and Melton says: "A fine hand to be sure they have made of their liberty! . , . What the devil had they to do to think of being free? run every country in Europe.

I suppose they will now over-

For my part I cannot love them, nor never

did."

Smith, Charlotte, The Banished

Man, v. 2, p. 8f.

92

Manners.

Customs

and

Opinions

of the

Squirearchy

"But it does not appear, my friend," rejoined F.llesmere, "that please you better." " O h ! damn them—squeaking, fiddling, " O r G e r m a n s ? " added Ellesmere. "Humph!

Italians

scraping, perfidious rascals."

Yes, they are a little better.

I think they have a little more

of Englishmen about them." " O r Spaniards, or P o r t u g u e s e ? " "Oh curse t h e m ; I hate them though I know very little of them. T h e y a r e fellows one knows hardly anything about." " O r Russians, or Swedes, or Danes, or Dutchmen?" "Dutchmen! Hah! the most cheating, money-getting, narrow-souled, bargain-driving scoundrels! No, damme, a Dutchman is worse." " W o r s e than a F r e n c h m a n ? " cried Ellesmere. " N o , nothing can be w o r s e ; but I think they are almost as bad."" 0 T h e central

figure

of

The

Anti-Gallican,

1 7 5 7 , is d e s c r i b e d b y

the author: — O n e would have concluded f r o m the general T e n o r of his Conduct, f r o m the Simplicity of his Manners, friendly Disposition, Benevolence, that a H e a r t so humanized

and

unlimited

to every tender Feeling, could

never be tainted with any Degree of R a n c o u r ; yet certain it is, he most inveterately hated the whole Nation of Frenchmen.

So far f r o m endeav-

ouring to conceal his Antipathy, he gloried in it, confest it with the highest Exultation, and drew upon himself by this Means, the undeserved Derision and Odium of all his Neighbours, especially the Ladies, . . A little later, t h e s q u i r e s a y s : " 'It is n o t s u f f i c i e n t , . . . that w e despise the F o p p e r i e s of our p r o f e s t E n e m y , w e should

consider

t h e m a s a B o d y o f P e o p l e , w h o m , b o t h in a r e l i g i o u s a n d p o l i t i c a l View,

w e are born to abhor a n d to dred.' "62

He

regards

the

E n g l i s h national antipathy t o w a r d France as a u n i f y i n g

element

a n d d e c l a r e s : " ' F o r it is t h i s p o l i t i c a l F e a r a n d A v e r s i o n

wherein

our S a f e t y consists.

If a n y N a t i o n b e d a n g e r o u s t o a n o t h e r b y t h e

n e a r n e s s of its s i t u a t i o n , b y i t s c o m p a r a t i v e S t r e n g t h a n d

Riches,

b y t h e C o n s t i t u t i o n o f its G o v e r n m e n t , by its F o r m o f

Religion,

t h e h e r e d i t a r y A m b i t i o n o f its P r i n c e s , t h e H u m o u r a n d

Disposi-

w Smith, Charlotte, The Banished Man, v. 2, pp. 18-19. " Long, E d w a r d , The Anti-Gallican, p. 8. ™ Long, E d w a r d , The Anti-Gallican, p. 9.

Manners, tion

of

its

Customs

and

Inhabitants,

such

Opinions a

of the Squirearchy

Nation

cannot

raise

too

93 many-

J e a l o u s i e s in t h e M i n d s of t h o s e w h o h a v e t h e M i s f o r t u n e t o b e its N e i g h b o u r s , a n d w h o , f o r s o m e h u n d r e d s o f Y e a r s , h a v e b e e n s u f f e r e r s by it.' " 6 3 M r . J a i s o n of The and things

Sisters,

1754, feels the same dread of

France

French.

The ridiculous aping of foreign fashions caused him to lament and forbode great miseries to England romantick notion, that

f r o m thence, and

a f t e r we

have

to remark

imported

all the

that it was no follies with

the

language of France, we shall then be ready to import their laws also, and to submit to their g o v e r n m e n t ; which he pronounced with a hearty—"God f o r b i d ! " and a severe sarcasm on that nation which he always greatly disliked, and the language of which he would never suffer his son, by his consent, to learn; esteeming it, as he used to say, R o b e r t B a g e ' s S q u i r e H a v e l l e y , in James

proyiwstiratory."* Wallace,

1788, is dis-

g u s t e d t o find t h a t h e h a s l o s t a b e t b y h i s t i t l e d c o u s i n ' s had h i s c l o t h e s m a d e in P a r i s .

having

T h e squire complains:

"Then, by George, I've lost my money, that's all, and I thought myself as sure as s u r e ; for, says I, cousin Antony is an Englishman, and do you think he would go to c a r r y his ready money to the Moonseers, when there's so many honest tradesmen at home that would be glad on't ?

It's natural to

love one's country."™ T h e beauties of the continent are criticized by M r . W i l l i a m s in The

History

of Miss

Meredith,

1790.

T h e y o u n g squire, w h o has

j u s t r e t u r n e d f r o m t h e g r a n d t o u r , is q u e s t i o n e d r e g a r d i n g f o r e i g n ladies.

He

replies:

"I have seen very beautiful women abroad, but they a r e all too conscious of their beauty, and want that amiable delicacy, that lovely sensibility, so conspicuous in the English ladies.

Y o u must admire them, as you would

a fine picture; but your admiration stops at the f a c e ; their conversation is trifling; their manners Coquetish; and their virtues generally assumed, or over-balanced by their levities." 06 Long, E d w a r d , The Anti-Gollican, p. 10. Dodd, Dr. William, The Sisters, p. 144f. Bage, Robert, James Wallace, p. 435. 06 Parsons, Mrs., The History of Miss Meredith, 04 M

p. 6.

94

Manners,

Customs and Opinions

of the

Squirearchy

The basis of the squirearchy's prejudice seems to arise from the manners, morals, religion, and politics of foreign lands. As the threat of French aid to a restoration of the House of Stuart grew less strong and the dangers of Catholicism diminished, the extravagance of foreign fashions and the traditional artificiality, insincerity, and immorality of foreigners took their place in the squire's mind as ground for dislike. The French Revolution and Napoleon renewed the threat of invasion and the century closes with France more hated and feared than before.

CHAPTER

VI

T H E S Q U I R E I N POLITICS

The picture of the squire so far set forth by the eighteenth century novelists has been confined to his personal life. W h a t do the novels of the day afford in the way of information concerning his public life? Traill, Lunt, Trevelyan, and other historians have been quoted as to the importance of the position of the country gentry in politics and in the administration of the nation's laws in the county courts. It is usual to think of the country gentleman as a justice or member of parliament. Actually he was also found in other pursuits. Many of the squirearchical estates were entailed, which meant that independent provision had to be made f o r younger sons. The squire might buy them places in the army, or train them for the law or the church. T o some extent, individual preference and family tradition played a part in the choice of career. The Rayland family, in The Old Manor House, 1793, had a strong military tradition. The exploits of Sir Orlando against Monmouth and Sir Hildebrand under Marlborough make easily understandable Orlando's acceptance of the commission which was procured for him. Young Squire Mandeville was torn between parliament and the army in The History of Lady Julia Mandeville, 1763. His father was a colonel of militia and had held a commission in the regular army. More often, however, the choice of military life is not influenced by tradition but by considerations of probable ability, advancement, and ease of entrance. Mr. Francis Thoughtless, a squire's younger brother, takes his share of his father's personal estate and decides to buy a commission "either in the Guards, or in a marching-regiment," 1 Squire Montague, in Alicia Montague, 1767, buys a "lieutenancy for George in colonel ' H a y w o o d , M r s . Eliza, The

History

95

of Miss

Betty

Thoughtless,

p. 54.

96

The Squire

in

Politics

regiment," 2 and settles on him a hundred a year. Mrs. Charlotte Lennox, in Euphemia, 1790, gives her heroine's husband a place in the army while he waits f o r his wealthy uncle to die. Y o u n g Ellesmere, a character from The Banished Man, 1794, is provided by his father with a military commission. T h e East India Company also furnishes places for a number of the younger sons either in its military or commercial establishments. In Family Pictures, 1764, the Miss Minifies have Taylor, the J. P., obtain "an honourable appointment f o r his son under the East-India company at Madras." 3 T o m Sutton, of Mount Henneth, 1781, designs to go to India as a lieutenant in the Company's service, till he is rescued by the Cheslyns. Instances of naval careers are not so common. An outstanding example is found in Mrs. Johnson's The Gamesters, 1786: Ferguson's eager propensity to the seas intirely subverted his father's intensions, which were, to have given him a college education.

But in vain

did his friends remonstrate; in vain was the chastisement of his tutor repeated, . . . he at last ran away, and took refuge in the ship he afterwards commanded. 4

T h e early days of Smollett's naval characters, like T r u n i o n and the officers in Roderick Random, are not treated in detail. Roderick's place is, of course, a medical post and not in the hierarchy. In view of the before mentioned fact, that approximately half the church livings in England were at the appointment of the squirearchy, it is not surprising to find many younger sons entering the church. They do not play so important a part in the novels of this group as they do a little later in the early nineteenth century. It is, however, in the commission of the peace and in politics that the country gentleman is most often found. In the eighteenth century the squirearchy was supreme in the field of political endeavour. Since the possession of a large landed estate was a basic requirement of nobility, only the upper brackets of the ' Marshall, Mrs. Jane, Alicia Montague, p. 6. * Minifie, Susannah and Margaret, Family Pictures, 'Johnson, Mrs. A., The Gamesters, v. 1, p. 27.

v. 1, p. 3.

The Squire in Politics

97

country gentry were eligible f o r membership in the House of Lords in the days before the creation of whiskey, mining, and shipping peers. The Property Qualification Act of 1711, passed by the Tory party, made it necessary for a prospective country member of the House of Commons to have a yearly land income of six hundred pounds, and a city member three hundred pounds. This act remained in force well into the nineteenth century and kept parliamentary power firmly in the squires' hands. The system of "Pocket Boroughs" and "Xursed Boroughs" was an additional hold on parliamentary control. It has been estimated that in 1780, the majority in the House of Commons was elected by only six thousand voters, practically all of whom were more or less dependent on the squirearchy. 5 Political life, whether W h i g or Tory, was woefully corrupt in the higher reaches of the organization. The rank and file locally were, however, vigorous and honest. Traill states that only by means of this vigor and soundness were the Habeas Corpus Act and the Revolution of 1688 made possible. Mention has been made of the predominant part played by the country gentry in politics. The novels abound in scenes depicting the member of parliament and political discussion. In a century infamous for the venality of its legislative and governmental bodies, fictional characterizations tend rather naturally toward the exaggerated good or evil. T h e eighteenth century saw the English political scene divided between the W h i g s and the Tories. It is not within the province of this survey to examine the course of politics to any degree, but rather to examine the effect on the squire and his reactions as set forth in these novels. T h e country gentry were not often Whigs, but there is mention of squires of whiggish persuasion. Sir Oliver H a r d y , in Shebbeare's Matrimony, 1754, is a W h i g and is designated as a "Yellow man," a reference to a scurrilous Tory anecdote. T h e same author's Lydia, 1755, has the Welsh lieutenant's interpolated story of Squires Price and Lewis. T h e latter is described by the lieutenant as "a tammed whig" and is made the butt of the story. 5

Adams, George Burton, Constitutional

History

of

England.

98

The Mr.

Cobham,

ardent W h i g .

hero

Squire

of

The

in

Politics

Anti-Gallican,

1757,

was

a

most

A ludicrous expedition to capture the Y o u n g

t e n d e r d u r i n g t h e r e v o l t o f ' 4 5 a l m o s t c o s t C o b h a m his l i f e .

PreLater,

p r e p a r a t i o n s to resist a n i m a g i n a r y invasion of P r i n c e C h a r l e s led t o C o b h a m ' s being suspected of Jacobite plotting and the near loss of his estate.

Both young Williams' grandfather and a neighbor-

i n g c o u n t r y g e n t l e m a n a r e d e s c r i b e d a s W h i g s in The Miss

Fanny

Seymour,

S a r a h F i e l d i n g , i n h e r History length of Giles.

History

of

1757.

a conversation

of

Ophelia,

between her

1760, writes at s o m e

heroine and

Mrs.

Martha

T h e l a t t e r is s o r a b i d a W h i g t h a t she w i s h e s a r e t u r n

the republic of Cromwell's

to

day:

she was making me the confidante of her political sentiments, by an enquiry after the new pamphlets that had been

lately

beginning published:

for that the nation was now in such imminent danger of losing it's liberty, that she could not help being very desirous to persue all the schemes proposed toward redressing the grievances we laboured under; adding, that an additional inducement was the hope that some of them might convince her sister into how many

errors

she was led by her attachment to a mon-

archical government, which entirely blinded her to all the blessings of a republick.

" M i s s , would you believe," continued this female politician, " t h a t

she is so strangely prejudiced, as to detest the character of the great, but glorious Oliver Cromwell, and will not allow there is any tolerable reason, or, indeed, anything but impious blasphemies, in the admirable books written to prove that killing a tyrant is no murder?

She grieves, with all the

solemnity of affliction, every Thirtieth of January, and is as inconsolable as if the person she most loves was just expired.

Then, Miss, she is pro-

portionately elated on the fatal day wherein the glorious thread of Cromwell's life was c u t ; and, old and asthmatical as you see her, sings and dances

like a distracted

thing;

nor has complaisance

enough to me

to

conceal the least part of her joy, though she knows my soul is then overwhelmed with sorrow.

Never believe me, Miss, if her room is not hung

round with the pictures, in her phrase, of the blessed m a r t y r s ; and yet really, in other things, sister Giles is a good sort of woman S m o l l e t t , f o r all h i s o w n s t r o n g T o r y s e n t i m e n t s , r i d i c u l e s b o t h parties

in The

Adventures

' Fielding, Sarah, The

History

of

Sir

Launcelot

of Ophelia,

p. 76f.

Greaves.

He

tells

The Squire in

99

Politics

of the political campaign, between Sir Valentine Quickset, the Tory, and Mr. Isaac Vanderpelft, the Whig, which Launcelot encounters on his journey. Both candidates deafen their partisans with bombast and make thorough fools of themselves. In Humphrey Clinker, Bramble's politics are indefinite, although his sympathies incline toward the Tories as is evidenced by his ideas on "the Protestant religion" as a cover for sedition. Robert Bage makes Mr. James Paradyne a W h i g in Man as He Is, 1792. T h e country gentleman is, in keeping with reality, usually represented as a Tory. In Tom Jones, Fielding's Squire W e s t e r n is an ardent opponent of Whiggery and his speech to his sister : " 'I am a true Englishman, and not of your H a n o v e r breed, that have eat up the nation.' " 7 hints at Jacobite sentiment. Lydia, 1755, has a Tory in : The squire, though a justice of the peace, and had taken the oaths of allegiance to the king upon the throne, had still a small inclination remaining for the Stuarts; and the exciseman was a most staunch whig, for the same reason that there are so many in England: on account

of

a

certain salary of fifty pounds a year hand-paid him by his majesty. 8

Later in the same novel, there is mention of young Squire Price, who, like his father "whas a creat tory." Smollett ridicules Sir Valentine Quickset's Toryism in The Adventures of Sir Launcelot Greaves, as he does the Whiggery of Sir Valentine's rival, Mr. Vanderpelft. The baronet's speech, which reached Sir Launcelot Greaves' ears in f r a g m e n t a r y f o r m , is probably very like the average village harangue: "Liberty and the landed interest;" "no u p s t a r t s ; " "possess an estate of vive thousand clear;" " I value not the ministry;" "a loyal . . . son of the c h u r c h ; " " I hate all vorreigners, and vorreign measures." 9 There is also an interesting description of the T o r y campaigners: "a cavalcade of persons well mounted and distinguished by blue cockades. They were generally attired like jockies, with goldlaced hats and buckskin breeches, and one of them bore a standard 7

Fielding, Henry, Tom JOMS, v. 1, p. 318. Shebbeare, John, Lydia, p. 27. ' Smollett, Tobias, The Adventures of Sir Launcelot 8

Greaves,

p. 75.

100

The Squire

in

Politics

of blue silk, inscribed in white letters, Liberty and the Landed Interest." 1 0 Charlotte Smith tells, in The Banished Man, 1794, how Sir Maynard Ellesmere made his dinner guests "drink Eternal Confusion to all Dissenters, Roundheads, and Sans Cullottes." 1 1 T h e early novels of this group make little use of Jacobite material. In several of those published during the middle years of the century, the authors resort to euphemisms, current in good society of the day, in referring to the Stuarts and speak of "the gentleman of Saint-Germain," "the disturber of Britain's peace," "an abdicated Monarch," and the like. Fielding introduces the revolt of '45 into Tom Jones as a factor in the complication of the plot, but does not represent it as particularly important. The History of Fanny Seymour, 1757, says of young Williams : "while he was living servilely dependent upon his Father-in-Law, a Rebellion, in Favour of the Son of an abdicated Monarch, broke out in Scotland . . . he joined in the Insurrection, under the Earl of Derwentvjater, and behaved in the Capacity of a Volunteer Soldier irreproachably." 1 2 Edward Long, in his The Anti-Gallican, 1757, has the wife of that staunch Whig, Squire Cobham, tell of a political quarrel: "Mr. Cobham, Christmas

some Years ago, invited several of his N e i g h b o u r s to a

Feast, and Tripartite

some time with great

amongst the rest.—The Glass had circulated

Freedom,

when

Mr.

Tripartite,

heated with the fiery F u m e s of S t i n g o and October,

whose

Brain

oil a sudden

Politics, w h i c h Topic he pursued with great Vociferation.

was

started

A t last,

My

Husband thought proper to reprimand him for his ungenerous A b u s e of his Majesty K i n g George,

by whose gracious Permission he at that very T i m e

held a considerable Place.

Tripartite

defended his A r g u m e n t

with equal

W a r m t h , and the Majority of the Company sided with him, for the Jest's s a k e ; finding therefore his cause so well supported, he proceeded to such a H e i g h t of Insolence, as to drink the Pretender's H e a l t h on his and the rest of his Party followed the scandalous E x a m p l e .

Knees,

Y o u r Father,

at sight of this, could not restrain the Impetuosity of his P a s s i o n ; animated with that G l o w to Zeal, which had been ever a ruling 10 Smollett, Tobias, The Adventures of Sir Launcelot " Smith, Charlotte, The Banished Man, v. 2, p. 105. u The History of Fanny Seymour, p. 158.

Greaves,

but,

Principle

p. 75f.

The Squire

in

101

Politics

with him, he discharged a Bottle at his Antagonist's Head, who retaliated the Compliment, and a general F r a y ensued, in which poor Tripartite

lost

his right Eye, by a terrible Blow f r o m a Glass Decanter." 1 3

By the time of Mrs. Bennett's Agnes de Courci, 1789, danger of a Stuart restoration is past and Jacobitism begins to assume a romantic aspect. One character, Moncrass, "was of a noble Scotch family who traced their ancestry to the female branch of the house of Stuart." 14 Moncrass' father and two brothers died in the '45, and his mother and youngest brother lost their lives in escaping King George's troops. Moncrass himself had been an officer in the service of the King of Portugal. Charlotte Smith's Marchmont, 1796, has the same romanticizing of allegiance to the Stuart cause. The Marchmonts were firm Jacobites. The author writes : The next heir, the g r a n d f a t h e r of Marchmont, would have acted wisely, had he remained a quiet spectator of the attempts that were made in the year 1715 to reestablish the banished family; but his zeal was so unguarded, that a considerable part of his own and his wife's fortune was hardly sufficient to save him f r o m the consequences of his open adherence to the "good old cause." But not the less bigoted to principle, in pursuance of which he could not act but at the risk of his whole fortune, he educated his children in the same ideas lie himself entertained; and thirty years a f t e r w a r d s , in 1745, the family was reckoned so decidedly Jacobite, that their horses were seized at that period by the neighbouring Deputv-Lieutenant—and the same precaution was used in regard to him as with the Catholic gentlemen in the neighbourhood. 1 5

The Civil W a r in the preceding century has rather minor importance in these novels. The occasional references are usually given to show the age of the family concerned. T o have been ruined by the struggle between king and parliament—as were the Mandeville family in Frances Brooke's The History of Lady Julia Mandeville, 1763; the Willoughbys in Charlotte Smith's 13

Long, E d w a r d , The Anti-Gallican, p. 95f. Bennett, Mrs. Agnes Maria, Agnes de Courci, " Smith, Charlotte, Marchmont, v. 2, pp. 24-25. 14

v. 1, p. 7.

102

The Squire

in

Politics

Celestina, 1791; and the Marchmonts in her Marchmont, 1796— points to established family importance. Charlotte Smith also uses the device of having had her hero's ancestral home besieged by the forces of parliament for the same purpose in The Old Manor House, 1793, and Marchmont. A considerable number of the characters in the novels under consideration have at some time been members of parliament or have stood for the office. T h e fact is quite clearly brought out that a seat in the House of Commons was a normal step in the career of the wealthier and more ambitious country gentry. M r . B—, in Pamela, is mentioned as a m e m b e r ; and Peregrine, in Peregrine Pickle, determines to stand for the office. Mrs. Eliza Haywood describes, in her The History of Miss Betsy Thoughtless, 1751, how her hero comes to enter politics: "One of

the members

of

his

county

having

vacated

his

seat

by

ac-

cepting employment, Mr. Trueworth was prevailed upon, by a great number of gentlemen and freeholders, to oppose his being rechosen by setting up for candidate himself.

The election was to come on in a few days after

our departure; and we have since heard that he succeeded in his attempt.""'

Iii The Inznsible Spy, 1755, the same author says: " ' t h e r e was a numerous meeting at the Rose about a fortnight ago, and 'Squire Wellwood of the Green was put in nomination,—his family has been settled for a long time at ******, he lives for the most part in the country,—does a great deal of good among the poor, and is mainly beloved.' " 1T In Sir Charles Grandison, Richardson has Harriet tell how at her marriage dinner to the t e n a n t r y : " T h e men, who are most of them free-holders, wished to the Lord for a new election, and that he [Sir Charles] would come 'among them'." 1 8 She adds they wished this not because of the shortcomings of the present incumbent but because of Sir Charles' evident worth. T h e freeholders are surprised that Sir Charles is not already in parliament until they learn of the recency of his return to England. "Haywood, Mrs. Eliza, The History of Miss Betsy Thoughtless, '"Haywood, Mrs. Eliza, The Invisible S[>y, v. 4, pp. 70-71. "Richardson, Samuel, Sir Charles Grandison, v. 4, p. 194.

p. 277.

The Squire

in

103

Politics

A quarrel, in The Adventures of Sir Lauticelot Greaves, between Squire Darnell and Sir Everard Greaves as to who should represent the district led to each holding the office alternately. In Humphrey Clinker, Smollett mentions Bramble's experiences as an M. P. The Earl of Belmont asks Mandeville to stand for knight of the shire in The History of Lady Julia Mandeville, 1763. It is interesting to note that although Mandeville's age is given as twenty-three, no emphasis is placed upon this as unusual. A character in Charles Johnstone's The Adventures of John Juniper, Esq., 1781, describes the circumstances which bring about one political contest: " T h e town, in which my father lives, is a b o r o u g h ; where he has such interest, that he is this very year mayor of the corporation. age and

infirmities of

making a vacancy

Sir

John

ll'onhland,

in parliament expected

the

present

T h e great

representative,

speedily, Mr. Mushroom,

our

new squire, declared himself a candidate, on his first coming to live at the castle, in opposition to Sir John's eldest son, a young gentleman, whose character recommends him still more than the connections and interest of his family, though the town has been most worthily represented by it for several successive g e n e r a t i o n s . " "

Richard Cumberland relates in his Arundel, 1789, the intention of Sir Francis "to bring him [Arundel] into Parliament upon the vacancy in his borough."-' 0 Cumberland tells at greater length of county politics in Henry, 1795. Manstock, the good squire of the novel, has been frequently asked to be a candidate for parliament. W h e n his friends solicited him to stand forth as county member, telling him that all parties would join in electing him, his constant answer was, that he thanked them for their good opinion, but his utmost ambition was to live amongst them, fulfilling, to the best of his capacity, the duties of an acting magistrate,

and a plain country

gentleman;

in which station

he

humbly conceived he should serve them better, and approve himself a more useful member of the community, than by attending upon parliament, for which he modestly, and perhaps truly, asserted that he had no talents." " J o h n s t o n e , Charles, The Adventures of John Juniper, Cumberland, Richard, Arundel, v. 1, p. 203. Cumberland, Richard, Henry, p. 607.

30

21

Esq., v. 2, p. 26.

104

The Squire

in Politics

Now, however, the recent death of their parliamentary representative induces the neighboring gentry to again request Manstock, the choice of both parties, to accept the office. Mr. Clavpole urges Manstock to alter his decision, since: " 'The monstrous excesses and gross enormities of a contested election are seriously to be deplored, and every worthy means for preventing them have my hearty concurrence ; . . .' " " Harriet Lee. in her Canterbury Tales, 1797-98, makes Mr. Pembroke a country member as part of her picture of a quiet, well-bred country gentleman. It is natural in a political order in which the social position was almost as important as the worth of the member of parliament, that the squire was not always a satisfactory representative of his county's interests. Some reason f o r the venality of members of parliament is to be found in the explanation of a character in Mrs. Haywood's The Invisible Spy, 1755 : "I then told him, that I believed the bulk of the People owed the grievances they complained of greatly to the luxury of their Representatives,

who

having impair'd their estates in the modish excesses of the times, found themselves under a necessity of entering into measures which otherwise they would never have comply'd

with." 3

Acceptance of bribes in the open form of money payments or the concealed shape of governmental positions is frequent. In The Banished Man, 1794, Charlotte Smith has Ellesmere's elder brother enter politics with the idea "of aggrandizing and enriching his house, by some of those comfortable sinecures which make up to so many noble families for the prodigality or unrequited zeal of their ancestors, . . ," 24 Although Ellesmere was disappointed in his hopes, he remained "the most loyal of countrygentlemen." The age-old difference between politicians before and a f t e r election finds expression in Mr. Goodacre's words in The Invisible Spy: " 'Now as to our borough,—no man could make finer speeches to us, or pretend he had our interest more at heart, than 'Squire Earnly, before he was chosen, yet he no sooner got into 23

Cumberland, Richard, Henry, p. 629. " H a y w o o d , Mrs. Eliza, The Invisible Spy, v. 2, p. 311. *• Smith, Charlotte, The Banished Man, v. 2, p. 98.

The Squire

in

Politics

105

the house than he shew'd he did not care a straw for us,—laughed at all our petitions and remonstrances, and I am told, made a merit of it to the Ministry.' " 2 5 The purchase and sale of boroughs is accepted quite as a matter of course. The villainous Blifil, in Fielding's Tom Jones, is described at the close of the book as saving two-thirds of his allowance to buy a seat in parliament. Charlotte Smith has Squire Bethel, a character in Desmond, 1792, say: "the following year, instead of selling, at a general election, the two seats for a borough which belonged to me, I filled one myself, . . ." 2 8 Charles Johnstone makes a point, in his Chrysal; or, The Adventures of a Guinea, 1760-65, of a gentleman's surprise upon asking Pitt whom he wishes returned to parliament for his borough, to have the latter express a desire for an honest expression of the people's opinion. It must be admitted, of course, that the passage has the exaggeration of an avowed satirist; but it represents, none the less, something of the spirit of the age. The electorate were wooed with promises and gifts. In The Invisible Spy, 1755, when Clyamon is about to stand for parliament, Avario instructs him: "it

is highly

necessary

you should begin to

make

your

interest;—you

are already known to the greatest part of the gentry, and I am pretty sure that they will all be for you to a man; --but you must cultivate an acquaintance

with the

Freeholders,—ride

about among them,—invite

some

of the most leading men home,—treat them handsomely,—and make little presents to their wives and daughters, of snuff-boxes, rings, necklaces, and such toys, to please their fancies,—I will get a friend of mine to purchase a cargoe of them to take down, and will write to my steward to furnish you with what money you shall have occasion for."'"7

It was the freeholders mentioned in the preceding quotation, who made the elections expensive. The country interest could usually be won by fair words from the candidate and his friends or by promises by governmental sinecures, but the freeholders had come to expect favors of greater currency. The tallow merchant " Haywood, Mrs. Eliza, The Invisible Spy, v. 4, p. 69. 20 Smith, Charlotte, Desmond, v. 1, p. 42. " Haywood, Mrs. Eliza, The Invisible Spy, v. 2, pp. 305-06.

106

The Squire

in The Gamesters,

in

Politics

1786, complains when he fails to be r e w a r d e d :

"I was oblig'd to go to the Dover election; for I have got a snug little freehold there; so as I thought 'twou'd cost nothing, takes my Sail along with me;—and behould Mr. T. lost his election,—never paid a farden of the expences; and poor Sail and I was fain to come up in the waggon."*

Charles Johnstone's The Adventures of John Juniper, Esq., 1781, recounts the difficulties which beset a " m a d e " squire in his stand for parliament. Squire Mushroom tells John J u n i p e r : "It seems, these damned scoundrels of voters will not be satisfied with stuffing their hungry guts, without they get money also, which is a cursed affair.

Not that I want the stuff!

I have more than would be sufficient

to buy their bodies and souls, as well as their votes.

The difficulty is how

to give it, so as not to be within the l a w ; there being many of them forsooth, whose consciences are so squeamish, as to keck at the bribery oath, unless the thing is wrapped up so neatly, as they think will cheat the devil. Those dunces of mine have been puzzling about it all the morning to no purpose." 31

Several references occur to the heavy expenses of parliamentary campaigning. The Contemplative Man, 1771, by H e r b e r t L a w rence, has an account of the ruinous expenditures of one country gentleman in attempting to gain a seat in the House of C o m m o n s : " 'Squire Williams, a Gentleman who did once possess a considerable Estate in that Neighbourhood, but he had redue'd it to a third P a r t of it's original Value by making a fruitless Opposition to the Knight of the Shire for the County at three successive general Elections.' " 3 0 Later in the same book, the author writes: " I t was lucky for the Daughters that Mr. Williams died six Months before the Expiration of the Parliament, because he fully intended to stand again for the County at the next general Election, which would have cost eight or ten, Thousand Pounds." 3 1 T w o country gentlemen in Robert Bage's Mount Henncth, 1781, quarrelled over a piece of land and as a result "Opposed each 28

Johnson, Mrs. A., The Gamesters, v. 1, pp. 24-25. Johnstone, Charles, The Adventures oj John Juniper, Esq., 147-48. Lawrence, Herbert, The Contemplative Man, v. 1, p. 61. a Lawrence, Herbert, The Contemplative Man, v. 1, p. 61.

v. 2, pp.

The Squire in

107

Politics

other at the ensuing election, at the expense of twenty thousand pounds a-piece, . . ." 3= The eighteenth century English voter is, however, often presented in a more favorable light. History bears out the opinion of the Earl of Belmont, a character from Frances Brooke's The History of Lady Julia Mandeviile, 1763: " ' I have always regarded the independent country gentlemen as the strength and glory of this kingdom, and the best supports of our excellent constitution, . . .' " 3 3 In Henry, 1795, at the close of the century, Cumberland has Mr. Claypole say: " 'The assent or dissent of an honest and right-judging country gentleman will never be a matter of indifference.' " " T h e freeholders, too, are not mere political puppets. The "great m a n " of the neighborhood may bribe and coerce, but native honesty, and stubbo r nress, has to be taken into account. In Shamela, 1741, Mrs. Jewkes Shamela writes concerning Squire Booby's quarrel with Parson Williams: "You may do your will, says I, so long as he hath a vote for Pallamant-Men, the Squire dares do nothing to offend him. . . ." 35 Hawkins, the unfortunate victim in Caleb Williams, 1794, refuses his vote to a neighboring squire. Tyrell comes to his rescue, but, when Hawkins also refuses to vote as Tyrell directs, he is again subjected to persecution. John Shebbeare, in Lydia, 1755, tells how one of his characters won an election: Accordingly, the day before the election, the earl, attended by every gentleman of estate in the county, came to the city of E x e t e r , whither every man of forty shillings a year had travelled: many, fifty miles o n foot, to v o t e for Lord P r o b i t ; except the f o l l o w i n g : Sir W i l l i a m Whipstitch, Sir T i m othy Venal their candidate, and their dependents, the custom-house officers, excisemen,

Presbyterians,

Quakers,

Independents,

Anabaptists,

and

teachers, receivers of the land-tax, and a few others of the same

their stamp.

T h e s e finding how infinitely superior the friends of the earl w e r e to their's ; and k n o w i n g that, though getting an election by scoundrels m a y be counteM

Bage, Robert, Mount Henneth,

33

Brooke, Frances, The History of Lady Cumberland, Richard, Henry, p. 630. Fielding, H e n r y ( ? ) , Shamela, p. 30.

M 35

p. 125. Julia

Mandeville,

pp. 32-33.

108

The Squire

in

Politics

nanced by success, that losing it in such company is no small ignominy; relinquished the design, and gave this noble lord no trouble on the day of the poll.""

T h e country gentlemen in Mount Henneth, 1781 : "had an aversion to sinecure-men, and still greater to broken gamesters." Sir Howell Henneth attempted to stand for parliament in the face of their disapproval, and "he was thrown out by a great majority. T h e boroughs shewed still greater contempt for the candidates he supported." 3 7 In spite of the novelists' tendency to exaggerate the purity or infamy of the political careers of their characters, the squire emerges fairly well as an honorable and well-meaning politician. A cross section of his life in politics reveals along with the corruption and inequality of political rule, the sound, wholesome core of country political life and the fact that here was a group of men genuinely interested in the welfare of their nation. m Shebbeare, John, Lydia, p. 269. " Bage, Robert, Mount Henneth, p. 135.

CHAPTER

VII

T H E SQUIRE AS A MAGISTRATE

In addition to furnishing most of the members of the H o u s e of Commons, the squirearchy supplied the majority of the Justices of the Peace. T h e average country justice was a landed gentleman who both gave distinction to his office and derived honor from it. There are said to have been at the beginning of the eighteenth century some "3,000 magistrates in England and Wales. For the most part they were men of wealth and good family, although there were exceptions :"*1 These justices were the direct link between the government and the people, and the idea of their importance can scarcely be exaggerated. T h e country justices undertook their labors from mixed motives; the first was a feeling of civic duty, to this must, however, probably in many cases, be added that of personal social and political aggrandizement—since they received no salary save in Westminster and Middlesex. Speaking of their work in the mid-eighteenth century, in his British History in the Nineteenth Century, G. M. Trevelyan says: A t t h e time George I I I came to the throne, t h e justices w h o did most of the w o r k of rural districts w e r e substantial squires, too rich t o be c o r r u p t or mean, too proud to truckle to Government, a n x i o u s t o stand well with their neighbors, but filled with all the prejudices as well as the m e r i t s of their class—fierce to the point of cruelty against p o a c h e r s and a r m e d with such a combination of powers t h a t the occasional t y r a n t a m o n g t h e m became ail i r r e m o v a b l e c u r s e to the countryside. E n g l a n d g r e a t service.

Nevertheless

O n the whole,

they

rendered

it was a m i s f o r t u n e that w h e n

the

I n d u s t r i a l Revolution began to set classes in bitter opposition t o one a n o t h e r , justice, administration and influence were entirely in the h a n d s of one of t h e interested parties. 2 * I n some sections so many of the g e n t r y were excluded f r o m h o l d i n g office because of their Catholic or Jacobite sympathies, t h a t t r a d e s m e n and y e o m e n had to be admitted to the bench. 1 B a y n e - P o w e l l , Rosamond, English Country Life in the Eighteenth Century, p. 62. ' T r e v e l y a n , G e o r g e Macaulay, British History in the Nineteenth Century, p. 23.

109

110

The Squire as a

Magistrate

The amount of real law that the ordinary squire knew is open to question. Law training was regarded as valuable for the heir of an estate as well as for his younger brother. The young squire would not be likely ever to practice but he would be aided by a legal education in the management of his property and, of course, to a great degree in the exercise of his office if he were a member of the commission for the peace. Squire Launcelot, in Smollett's The Adventures of Sir Launcelot Greaves, is an example of the practice. Law students continue to be commonly regarded as roistering blades, more interested in the pleasures of the town than in reading law.* References are frequent in these novels to magistrates. Fielding has many justices in his works, most of whom fare badly at his hands. The author's experiences as a Middlesex justice and those of his brother brought him into the closest contact with the vagaries of the law. If Sydney and Miss Bayne-Powell are to be trusted in their evidence, as well as the descriptions in many of these novels, London magistrates were among the most venal and incompetent in the kingdom, and it may well be that from association with these men, Fielding formed his opinions of the justice of the peace. Joseph Andrews has three instances of the ignorance and bias of the country magistrates. The lady of the stage coach, who tells the "History of Leonora," says in the course of her story : "It seems, it is usual for the young gentlemen of the bar to repair to these sessions, not so much for the sake of profit as to show their parts and learn the law of the justices of the peace; for which purpose one of the wisest and gravest of all the justices is appointed speaker, or chairman, as they modestly call it, and lie reads them a lecture, and instructs them in the true knowledge of the law." "You are here guilty of a little mistake," says Adams, "which, if you please, I will correct: I have attended at one of these quarter-sessions,

•Long, in The Anti-Gallican, 1757, makes Will Dupe an exception, however, for he says: "Will Dupe . . . was born to a Fortune of Five hundred Pounds per Annum. About his three and twentieth Year he took up his Residence in the Temple, and, contrary to the Custom of most of the other Students in that Nursery of learned Lawyers, he actually applied himself to Coke upon Littleton."—Long, Edward, The Anti-Gallican, p. 23.

The Squire as a

Magistrate

111

where I observed the counsel taught the justices, instead of learning anything of them."*

Later in the novel a justice holds an examination of Adams and Fanny. The parson is treated with ridicule and contempt until he is recognized by one of the company, who informs the magistrate of his identity. Thereupon his honor exclaims: "if he is a gentleman, and you are sure he is innocent, I don't desire to commit him, not I : I will commit the woman by herself, and take your bail for the gentleman; look in the book, clerk, and see how it is to take bail— . . . I know how to behave myself to gentlemen as well as another. Nobody can say I have committed a gentleman since I have been in the Commission."'

Still later in the book, Joseph and Fanny are about to be sent to Prison for trespass and cutting a twig on the property of James Scout. The magistrate's evident ignorance and his readiness to oblige first Lady Booby and then Squire Booby make him a despicable figure. In Tom Jones, both Allworthy and Western are members of the commission for the peace. The former, because of his dual position as a "good" squire and a justice, is treated in a somewhat indefinite fashion. He is shown as kind to Tom's supposed mother when she is brought before him; but, on the other hand, he rescinds Partridge's annuity and ruins him. The villagers, at first regard his action toward Partridge as justice but later declare that the squire was harsh. When Molly Seagrim comes before him and refuses to name the father of her unborn baby, Allworthy sentences her to Bridewell. Fielding says: "A lawyer may perhaps think Mr. Allworthy exceeded his authority a little in this instance. . . . However, as his intentions were truly upright, he ought to be excused in foro conscientiae; since so many arbitrary acts are daily committed by magistrates who have not this excuse to plead for themselves." 6 Upon Tom's acknowledging that he is the father of the child, however, the justice is persuaded to recall * Fielding, Henry, Joseph Andrews, p. 75. 'Fielding, Henry, Joseph Andrezvs, p. 111. "Fielding, Henry, Tom Jones, v. 1, p. 167.

112

The Squire as a

Magistrate

his warrant. Considered as a whole, it may be said that when the magistrate is to the fore, Allworthy is inclined to be harsh; when the squire is foremost, he is merciful and kind. Western is treated less gently. Fielding sneers at his stupidity and prejudice: But luckily the clerk had a qualification, which no clerk to a justice of peace ought ever to be without, namely, some understanding in the law of this realm.

H e therefore whispered in the ear of the justice that he

would exceed his authority by committing the girl to Bridewell, as there had been no attempt to break the peace; "for I am afraid, sir," said he, "you cannot legally commit any one t o Bridewell only for ill-breeding." In the matters of high importance, particularly in cases relating t o the game, the justice was not always attentive to these admonitions of

his

c l e r k ; for, indeed, in executing the laws under that head, many justices of peace suppose they have large discretionary power, by virtue of which, under the notion of searching for and taking away engines for the destruction of the game, they often commit trespasses, and sometimes felony, at their pleasure. But this offence was not quite of so high a nature, nor so d a n g e r o u s to the society.

Here, therefore, the justice behaved with some attention to

the advice of his c l e r k ; for, in fact, he had already had t w o informations exhibited against him in the King's Bench, and had no curiosity to t r y a third."

Smollett draws an unpleasant wretch in the person of Justice Gobble in The Adventures of Sir Launcelot Greaves. Motivated by pride and revenge, urged on by his wife, as insolently uneducated and stupid as he, Gobble is the ruin of the common people under his authority. Toward the gentry, however, he takes a far more servile course. Smollett says: "Mr. Gobble can defy the whole world to prove that he ever said an uncivil word, or did a rude thing to a gentleman, knowing him to be a person of fortune . . . as to your poor gentry and riff-raff, he has . . . behaved like a magistrate, and treated them with the rigger [JUT] of authority."7 Another justice, whom Sir Launcelot meets in his travels, "had been a pettifogger, and was a sycophant to a noble" Fielding, Henry, Tom Jones, v. 1, p. 342. ~ Smollett, Tobias, The Adz'entures of Sir Launcelot

Greaves,

p. 92f.

The Squire as a

Magistrate

113

man who had a post at court." A f t e r first taking a menacing tone toward Sir Launcelot, the justice discovers the plaintiff to be a gentleman of fashion and fortune and speedily compromises the action. In Humphrey Clinker, Smollett describes Justice F r o g more as "sleek and corpulent, solemn and shallow. . . ." 8 W h e n Mrs. Herner has her adventure with the stranger in an inn, in Sarah Fielding's The History of Ophelia, 1760, the offender is found to be a magistrate. The landlady comes to her aid and "soon rescued the timorous virgin, telling the gentleman with a very sonorous voice, that she wondered he, who was a justice of the peace and quorum, should so disturb a quiet family: for her part, she would not suffer such normous behavior in her house, not even by his honour's worship."9 Mrs. Griffith's A Series of Genuine Letters between Henry and Frances, 1770, affords a sidelight on the attitude toward quartersessions. O n two different occasions, Henry writes Frances while he is attending meetings of the bench. H e says in the first of these: "I am heartily fatigued with our Assizes, where we had a great deal of Hanging, Wrangling, and Duelling, with other Amusements of that k i n d ; . . ." 10 The second letter strikes a grimmer n o t e : " O u r Assizes ended this Day, by the Execution of all the Condemned ; . . , " n Herbert Lawrence has several justices in The Contemplative Man, 1771. John Crab recounts an affray with a London chairman. The latter blocked the squire's way and was ordered to stand aside. " 'Hey, says the Fellow, you are in a H u r r y , I warrant you—who the devil are you? W h y , says I, I am John Crab, E s q . ; of North Wales; and I expect to be a Justice of the Peace when I get into the Country again. I thought this would have frightened the D o g ; . . .' " 1 2 Although the news did not have the anticipated effect on the chair-man, Crab succeeded in his expectation and became a magistrate as did his son, Kit Crab, a f t e r him. 8 Smollett, Tobias, Humphrey Clinker, p. 390. * Fielding, S a r a h , The History of Ophelia, p. 72. u Griffith, M r s . Elizabeth, A Series of Genuine Letters between and Frances, v. 1, p. 133. u Griffith, M r s . Elizabeth, A Series of Genuine Letters between and Frances, v. 2, p. 9. " L a w r e n c e , H e r b e r t , The Contemplative Man, v. 1, pp. 228-29.

Henry Henry

114

The Squire as a

Magistrate

Kit's uncle, Sir John Bangham, was not, however, so honored. Lawrence explains the reason : It must appear a little extraordinary that a Man of Sir John's

estate in

the County was not in the Commission of the Peace, if it had not been hinted before that he was not properly qualified for one of the Quorum. But tho' the King could not in Conscience make Sir John

a Justice, because

he could not write his own name legibly, which is the sine qua non of Justiciary Business, yet he made himself a Constable upon all Occasions, for he never wanted the Assistance of a Peace Officer to take a Delinquent into Custody. 11

Passing mention is made in the same book to another justice, who commits to prison the highwayman, guilty of robbing Mr. Brooklime. Many of the justices in these novels are unworthy of their office. In some cases their guilt lies in an inhuman enforcement of the laws, particularly those regarding game. Too often, however, their faults are those of injustice founded on insolent prejudice and ignorance. The lack of sympathy toward the magistracy on the part of some novelists may arise from several causes. A few writers, like Fielding, may have been led to their views by convictions of social injustice. Among this group, it may be safe to include Smollett and Bage. With others, the justice was more likely an accepted figure of ridicule and scorn. The magistrate with his "wise saws and modern instances" and his power over the goods and liberty of his fellows has been a favorite target for the world's uncomfortable ill-humor from Bdelycleon of Aristophanes' The Wasps through Shakespeare's Justice Shallow to the Gamidges, Gobbles, and Frogmores of the eighteenth century novelists. It is a common and easily made error to place too much reliance upon exaggerated pictures like these as depicting a group. Social historians of radical tendencies pounce upon such caricatures and expose the entire order whom they supposedly represent to the scorn and derision of later times. Not only are these depictions atypical of the rural magistracy in general but examples of similar " L a w r e n c e , Herbert, The

Contemplative

Man, v. 2, p. 191.

The Squire

as a

Magistrate

115

contemporary attacks are to be found leveled at many other orders. The government, whether W h i g or Tory, is the subject of vigorous abuse, as is seen in the novels of Haywood, Shebbeare, and others. Clergymen are often pictured unpleasantly and clerics of higher rank are almost invariably the target of calumny. Bage attacks individual justices in his novels but preserves considerable respect for the institution. H e relates, in Mount Henneth, 1781, one case in which a starving sailor is sentenced to be whipped for the crime of taking a few turnips f r o m a farmer's field. Henry Cheslyn upbraids the justice f o r his severity and John Cheslyn rebukes his younger brother f o r his unseemly language toward a member of the commission of the peace. H e then asks, as a favor between gentlemen, that the sailor be released and his wish is granted. In James Wallace, 1788, the hero serves for a time as clerk to Justice Gamidge. This magistrate, like Squire Gobble, is more influenced by his wife than the law, and is in difficulty with the King's Bench as a result of several decisions. The trial scene in Man as He Is Not, 1792, is another example of Bage's support of the magistracy at the expense of one of its members. Dr. Blick, J. P., attempts to browbeat Hermsprong when the latter is being tried on the charge of having incited a riot. M r . Saxby, another magistrate, reproves Blick, and Hermsprong is triumphantly acquitted. Charlotte Smith's Desmond, 1792, has a justice in the character of the hero's uncle. This gentleman prided himself on always doing more, and that more better, than his fellows. Mrs. Smith says of him: His house and gardens are the best in the country—his men do more work—his crops are more luxuriant—and so fond is he of being the most active and most important, that I have heard him boast of having, in his judicial capacity for the county of Somerset, committed, in the course of one year, more prisoners to the county jail, than any three of his brethren of the bench.14

"Bloody Bob Blatchford," in Cumberland's Henry, 1795, "was a justice of peace, and dealt so rigidly with those that came under " Smith, Charlotte, Desmond,

v. 3, pp. 173-74.

116

The Squire

as a

Magistrate

his hands, that all the parish and neighbourhood round stood in fear and terror of him." 1 5 Throughout the book, Blatchford is the hero's inveterate enemy. When H e n r y is forced into a fight in the village, the justice has him arrested and placed in the stocks in spite of the obvious fact of his being the injured party. Later, upon H e n r y ' s standing trial for his life on the charge of having killed Bowsey, Blatchford practically assumes H e n r y ' s guilt in the face of the evidence to the contrary. In view of such attacks against the rural magistracy, it may be well to examine, very briefly, the city justice as he is depicted in these novels, with an idea of determining whether he is also charged with the same faults. The errors most generally imputed to the country justice have been his ignorance of the law, irascibility, and deference to the gentry. H e is seldom, however, accused of bribery. T h e city magistrate, on the other hand, is taxed with all the faults of his country fellows and with accepting bribes as well. T h e country justice was almost always a wealthy man of an honored family, who not only did not need to touch "dirty" money but whose pride forbade dishonesty. T h e city magistrate frequently had his fortune to make and was bound by no such niceness of honor. Miss Bayne-Powell says: T h e custom of the time allowed the justice to reimburse himself trouble and expenditure of time by taking for himself

for his

certain small fees.

T h e y w e r e so small that a respectable stipend could only be assured by numerous convictions and very often by the most unblushing acceptance of bribes.

Fielding's predecessor at B o w Street had made a thousand a year

by his office, "the dirtiest money on earth," good H e n r y Fielding called it. T h e s e "trading justices" were, chiefly, if not entirely, to be found in the towns,

and m o r e particularly

in London.

. . . T h e country

magistrates

for the most part disdained bribes; the best of them indeed refused to take the small fees w h i c h the law allowed them. " T h e magistrate," one of them observed, "should not only refrain f r o m taking any money.

H e should be above the possibility of such a suspicion." 1 "

Smollett in Roderick Random portrays an arrogant and threatening city magistrate, who will listen to no defense and is agreeu Cumberland, Richard, Henry, p. 522. " B a y n e - P o w e l l , Rosamond, English Country Century, pp. 63-64.

Life

in

the

Eighteenth

The Squire

as a

Magistrate

117

able to those appearing b e f o r e him only a f t e r he has been bribed. T h e same author describes Bramble's surprise and disgust, in Humphrey Clinker, w h e n he discovers that the s l o w n e s s in deciding H u m p h r e y ' s case is because the justice has received no g i f t . If Fielding castigated the rural magistrate in Tom Jones and Joseph Andrews his lash is equally heavy upon their city colleagues in Amelia. In the second chapter, he s a y s : Mr. Thrasher, however, the justice before whom the prisoners abovementioned were now brought, had some few imperfections in his magistratical capacity. I own, I have sometimes been inclined to think, that this office of a justice of peace requires some knowledge of the law: for this simple reason; because every case which comes before him, he is to judge and act according to law. Again, as these laws are contained in a great variety of books; the statutes which relate to the office of a justice of peace, making themselves at least two large volumes in folio; and that part of his jurisdiction which is founded on common law being dispersed in above a hundred volumes, I cannot conceive how this knowledge should be acquired without reading; and certain it is, Mr. Thrasher never read one syllable of the matter. This, perhaps, was a defect: but this was not all; for where mere ignorance is to decide a point between two litigants, it will always be an even chance whether it decides right or wrong: but sorry I am to say, right was often in a much worse situation than this, and wrong hath often had five hundred to one on his side before that magistrate; who, if he was ignorant of the laws of England, was yet well versed in the laws of nature. He perfectly well understood that fundamental principle so strongly laid down in the institutes of the learned Rochefoucault; by which the duty of self love is so strongly enforced and every man is taught to consider himself as the center of gravity, and to attract all things thither. To speak the truth plainly, the justice was never indifferent in a cause, but where he could get nothing on either side." F i e l d i n g g o e s o n by citing the cases which T h r a s h e r decides to prove his point; and adds to the ferocity and ignorance of his rural justices, the petty venality of the city magistrate. T h e Bristol justice, w h o aids Lord F l i m s y in his attempt o n Lydia's honor in Shebbeare's Lydia, 1755, is treated with all the v e n o m of which the author is capable. Shebbeare w r i t e s : " Fielding, Henry, Amelia, v. 1, p. 12f.

118

The Squire as a

Magistrate

Now this gentleman as a magistrate, deserves some little notice, and a more particular description, than men of inferior rank. This man, to his immortal honour, is not only descended in common with all the sons of Adam from the dust, but his family has been particularly distinguished with the work of regeneration, and twice risen from that dirty original; a thing to be gloried in by all who are fond of returning to primitive ways, and ancient manners. And as it has been remarked by those who have studied the creation and progress of mankind, that men were as large in body in the first ages, or rather more so than at present; yet that the excellency of their souls was unequal to the size of their bodies; human inventions, superior wisdom, and mental perfection succeeding long after. So in like manner has it happened in this regenerate breed. Their bodies are enormous, and their souls very disproportionate, as in the original of things. By these means, in this man it looks a mouse in St. Paul's church, little life in much brute matter; a shilling in a sack, little value and much emptiness; a needle in a bundle of hay, that is scarce possible to be found in a week's searching, and then not worth the labour."

Further similar instances of brutality, ignorance, and judicial corruption might be given, but those already mentioned strike the note of the whole. It may be gathered, then, that the city justice met with about the same degree of abuse as did he of the country. To believe that the country justice is usually depicted as a Justice Gobble or Gamidge is far from the facts of the case. There are many references to members of the commission who are worthy of the respect which they receive. Mrs. Eliza Haywood has a passage in The History of Jemmy and Jenny Jessamy, 1753, describing a good J. P. She says: "They soon arrived at the house of a gentleman in the commission of the peace, who happened to be a person of great worth and honour." 19 On the following page, she writes: "all the little formalities of his affair being over, [Lovegrove's attempt at a duel with Celandine] and settled to the satisfaction of the gentleman before whom they were, he threw off the magistrate, and assumed a character more natural to him, that " Shebbeare, John, Lydia, p. 121. 19 Haywood, Mrs. Eliza, The History

oj Jemmy and Jenny Jessamy, p. 84.

The Squire as a Magistrate

119

of a man perfectly well-bred and complaisant: . . ," 20 It must be noted that Mrs. Haywood uses the phrase "who happened to be" in the first passage as though she were doubtful concerning the average justice. She also conveys a slur in the second quotation which might mean that as a magistrate, the gentleman was ill-bred. The impression of the complete passage, however, makes it seem more likely that, in spite of possible lurking satire, she has reference to certain dignity and formality which the gentleman had in his public capacity. Mrs. Fitzgerald, a character in Mrs. Frances Brooke's Emily Montague, 1769, speaks of the manner in which she and her husband will grow old: "we shall take our afternoon's nap vis d zns in two arm chairs by the fire-side, he a grave country justice, and I his worship's good sort of wife, the Lady Bountiful of the parish." 21 From Herbert Lawrence's The Contemplative Man, 1771, comes a highly favorable view of the rural J. P. The following conversation takes place between Justice Kit Crab and his uncle. The latter, having haled a man before the bench for cutting a stick f rom a hedgerow begins : "I have brought you a customer, which is more than you deserve—If it was not for me you would not make out three Warrants in the Year—I am as good a Spaniel to you—I spring all the Game, and you have all the Sport. Upon my Word, Sir John, says Mr. Crab, it is no entertainment to me, and I am surprised you should bring anybody before me for a Misdemeanor, when you yourself, by your own Confession have just been committing a violent Breach of the Peace." 23

Crab discharges the man at once, much to Sir John's chagrin. Richard Graves, in his The Spiritual Quixote, 1772, tells how "Mr. Aldworth . . . an opulent country gentleman, and a very worthy magistrate," holds court in a summer-house in a corner of his garden, "where the 'squire used to take a sober glass with a particular friend, or distribute justice amongst his neighbors 20

Haywood, Mrs. Eliza, The History of Jemmy and Jenny Jessamy, Brooke, Mrs. Frances, Emily Montague, v. 4, p. 156. 23 Lawrence, Herbert, The Contemplative Man, v. 2, p. 192. 21

p. 85.

120

The Squire

as a

Magistrate

with equal wisdom and impartiality; 'And sometimes counsel take, and sometimes wine.' " 2S T h e author has another magistrate in the book in the person of M r . Newland. H e did not study law at the university or the Temple but was educated under an eminent attorney in the country. Newland holds to the exact letter of the law and is anxious to show the importance of his position and authority. While neither justice is treated in an u n f a v o r able m a n n e r ; the author is clearly contrasting new and old justices and seems to convey the idea that caution and mercy are equally necessary in addition to a knowledge of law. H e sums up his opinion of Aldworth by saying: " T h e justice, who was a sensible man, and endeavoured, as much as possible, to restore and preserve the peace amongst his neighbors, . . ." 2< Mr. Grenville, in H u g h Brooke's Juliet Gremnlle, 1774, is an idealized magistrate, whose efforts are always toward justice and the protection of the oppressed. H e is capable of proper severity, however, as in the case of Mrs. Sternhold and her maids. These latter attempt to make Mrs. Sternhold's step-son appear guilty of the murder of his father. Mr. Grenville recounts his action: "1 then commanded Mrs. Sternhold, and her confederate maids, to be taken into strict custody; and, calling for pen and paper, I wrote their mittimus, and with a severe accent ordered them instantly to jail." 25 Another idealization of the country justice occurs in Samuel Jackson Pratt's Utopian Shenstone Green, 1779. T h e hero, who is a "man of sentiment" beside whom Mackenzie's character seems unfeeling, says: "I was one of his majesty's justices, and it seems, the peace, which it was my office to guard, had been broken by a wench who had been so improvident to follow the impulses of nature before they were sanctified by law.

Wretch (said the constable who was dragging her before m e ) , how

dare you bring your burthens on this parish? stable) what is that to thee?

Wretch (said I to the con-

So I gently chid the mother, and kissed the

child.""

"Graves, Richard, The Spiritual Quixote, v. 2, pp. 100-01. " Graves, Richard, The Spiritual Quixote, v. 2, p. 178. 25 Brooke, Hugh, Juliet Grenville, v. 1, p. 86. "Pratt, Samuel Jackson, Shenstone Green, v. 1, p. 6.

The Squire as a

Magistrate

121

Charles Johnstone has a justice who is more believable in The Adventures of John Juniper, Esq., 1781. Juniper plagues his Scot tutor, Dr. Bocardo, with his tricks until the unfortunate pedant believes that he has been bewitched. Full of superstitious terror, he goes to a neighboring justice and demands a warrant for the witch's arrest. " T h e magistrate, who happened somehow to be a man of sense, heard him to the end of his tale without interruption; when clapping his hands to his sides as if to hinder their bursting with laughter, he asked him as soon as he had the power to speak, whether he was a fool himself or took him for one, to come on such an errand." 2 7 It will be noted that again a good justice is spoken of as though he were an exception. Johnstone was, of course, an avowed satirist, and in this novel most of the characters have a way of being either knaves or fools. Perhaps the mere fact that in such company a good magistrate occurs is proof of his more than average existence. Although Cumberland frequeritly follows Fielding in spirit and in plot construction, his presentation of the country justice is very different f r o m that of his master. In Arundel, 1789, Cumberland w r i t e s : A notable wise justice of the peace, whom I know in our county, used to compose squabbles between his neighbours by telling the parties at a word, that if they could not settle their differences on the spot, to betake themselves to the ring in his court-yard, and fight it fairly out; but if they were willing to agree, let them go down cellar and shake hands over a tankard.™

T h e character Manstock in Henry, 1795, is a stock presentation of the " g o o d " magistrate. Manstock's humanity and justice are contrasted to the injustice and tyranny of Justice Blatchford. Dr. Dodd in his novel. The Sisters, 1754, describes Justice Geldon, "a magistrate whose diligence and integrity does honour as well as service to his c o u n t r y : . . ," 29 Probably Robert Bage's description in Man as He Is, 1796, "Johnstone, Charles, The Adventures of John Juniper, Cumberland, Richard, Arundel, v. 1, p. 159. Dodd, Dr. William, The Sisters, p. 125.

28

Esq., v. 1, p. 169.

122

The Squire as a Magistrate

comes as close to a type representation of the average English rural magistrate as it is possible to do. Bage says: "Mr. James Paradyne was a plain country gentleman, and an honest, though not perhaps very sagacious, justice of the peace." 30 " Bage, Robert, Man as He Is, v. 1, p. 5.

CHAPTER

THE

VIII

S Q U I R E V I E W E D BY H I S

FELLOWS

The various pursuits and activities of the squirearchy as set forth in the novel of the eighteenth century have been examined. They have been shown at school, abroad, at home, in the hunting field, in Parliament, and on the bench. There remains one major consideration still untouched. How were the squires as a class, considered by the novelists in the light of the opinions of their social equals and inferiors? The novelists of the day make frequent use of type figures, certain stock characters who occur again and again. The orphan heroine, the vulgar and wealthy citizen, the choleric father, the benign uncle, the place- or dowry-hunting courtier, the gamester, the man-hungry widow or spinster, the foundling or obscure hero, among others, are given varying degrees of reality by the pens of the period. Among the frequently used characters are the boorish squire and the good squire. The classic example and prototype of the former is Fielding's mid-century conception of Squire Western in Tom Jones. So clearly had Fielding drawn him that today whenever the eighteenth century squire is mentioned, his is the image evoked. Bluff, hearty, untutored, coarse in language, uncouth in manner, he takes his brawling, awkward way through Tom Jones. Most of his crudeness is not repulsive. Beneath his violent exterior there is a good deal of kindness and humanity. If he offered Tom beer, when the hero was bedridden by his broken arm, or wound his hunting horn under Tom's window, or always entered the room with the "view halloo," it was done to cheer his friend and not to shatter his nerves. Macaulay had noted the coarse language and colloquial diction of the country squire, seemingly forgetting Walpole, who is said to have talked "bawdy" when at a loss for conversation. Western is excellent proof of this. When Tom had the audacity to ask for Sophia's hand, Western 123

124

The Squire

Viewed

by His

Fellows

bespattered the t r u t h with abundance of that language which passes between country gentlemen who embrace opposite sides of the question; with frequent applications to him to salute that part which is generally introduced into all controversies that arise a m o n g the lower orders of

the

English

gentry at horse-races, cock-matches, and other public places. 1

It must not be imagined, however, that the boorish squire made his initial appearance in Fielding's works. In 1740, Richardson's Pamela tells of three gentlemen who seem not to have been on the same high level of manners as Mr. B—, when she says: "Three mad rakes they seemed to be, as I looked through the window, setting up a hunting note, as soon as they came to the gate, they made the court-yard echo again; and smacking their whips in concert." 2 Collyer, too, has a set of country bumpkins who can rival Squire Western in coarseness and boorishness. The reader of Letters from Felicia to Charlotte, 1744, will remember how, when the newly married Lucius and Mellisont with their ladies returned from a ride, they found a party of the country gentry waiting to pay their respects: the coach no sooner drove up to the door, than the revel-rout ceased; and the coach-door being opened, Lucius leaped out, and, presenting his hand, helped me to alight, in spite of half a dozen young rakes, who rudely endeavoured to push before him, and all of them seemed desirous of doing me this honour.

I w a s next oblidged to suffer a disagreeable salute f r o m

e a c h ; which the last, being already half drunk, rendered, if possible, more distasteful, by belching in my f a c e : but it was a ceremony I was forced to submit to, and good manners made me disguise my reluctance; . . . Mellisont, having set his foot on the ground, was surrounded by two or three of the most f o r w a r d ; one of which shaking him by the hand, cried— " D a m n ye, ye strong-back'd dog, I wish you j o y ! " Nor were the compliments of the others much more polite; they wondered w h e r e the devil he had been, but could never dream that he had been coaching.

Amelia having,

after my example, gone through the nauseous ceremonial, we all went in t o g e t h e r : but, as we were passing t h r o u g h the hall, I observed one of the most disagreeable wretches I ever beheld; a tall, lean, raw, lank, ugly fellow,

' F i e l d i n g , Henry, Tom Jones, v. 1, pp. 285-86. Richardson, Samuel, Pamela, p. 64.

2

The Squire Viewed by His Fellows

125

with a long face and hollow eyes, dressed in a green frock and laced waistcoat ; who, swinging his arms, ran to Mellisont, and giving him a lusty blow on the shoulder, and at the same time seizing fast hold of a button, cried—"Is that grave son of a bitch he?" nodding at Lucius; and then added he—"Zoons !

I have a good mind to make him a cuckhold—damn me if I

have not !"3

It must be kept in mind, however, that Mellisont was anxious that Felicia's father not consider these ruffians as typical squires, for he hastily says: "but you must not form an idea of our country gentry from these; many of whom would be ashamed of being seen in their company, as I assure you I am.

There are amongst us men of sense, agreeable companions, and

here and there is scattered a man of humanity."'

The greatest booby of the lot: "a youth of about eighteen, who seemed, by his ignorance and his dialect, never to have been twenty miles from home," speaks in a broad country dialect: " ' h e weant let us be witty; I'll be curst if ever I were so witty in aw my life. The women should not be sheamfac'd; it is time that was o'er, or the devil's in't. I ha' said more behauf my own mother at worn, and shu loff'd as thof shu would ha' be—.' " 5 Ignorance and boorishness appear time and time again. The author of The History of Miss Fanny Seymour, 1757, strikes at the cause of much of this trouble in describing one such boorish squire: "Simon was the eldest Son of a rich Family, who, in Consequence of his being Heir to a very large Estate, and of a heavy, dull Disposition, did not think proper to take any Pains to cultivate his Mind, but remained at Home, heedless of every Accomplishment that throws a Luster upon opulent Circumstances." 8 As the century advances, some such explanation becomes increasingly necessary. Occasionally, as in Mrs. Marshall's Alicia Montague, 1767, though the father is somewhat cultured, the son is not. Perhaps the fact that Squire Humphrey Montague had mar' Collyer, Mary, Letters from Felicia to Charlotte, pp. 95-96. Collyer, Mary, Letters from Felicia to Charlotte, p. 96. 5 Collyer, Mary, Letters from Felicia to Charlotte, p. 97. ' The History of Miss Fanny Seymour, p. 1. 4

126

The Squire Viewed by His

Fellows

ried his cook would account for the fact that their son speaks with a barbarous dialect. "Young Hopeful's" language when he says: " 'feather, she mayn't fancy me, thoff she be not a bit proud neither; yet I's always affeared to speak to her.' " T is very different from the formal phrases of his father. Sir John Bangham, from The Contemplative Man, 1771, is strongly in the tradition of Squire Western. Here, boorish ignorance is treated with a gusto and humor almost worthy of Fielding. How many readers must have viewed with wonder and delight Bangham's answer to Kit's letter protesting Sir John's pursuit of Sophia. dear nefu i Have gust raccaved A letter from yew wich i caint ritely Understand norr John nather the puss yew menshion I found Up on my manner but if yew Rund her to ground furst she is yewrs And yew ma digger out whensomever yew plees i shent hender yew so no more at presant from Yewr Loving unkel dyana as got too puppes John Bangham1 bi ould banter

By the time of John Potter's Sir Harry Hariot, 1784, the boorish squire's character is marked by an important change in philosophical treatment. Now, he is viewed in the light of the new ideas of social justice. The squire's rudeness, ignorance, and boorishness are made to serve as signs of a dying order. His boastful rant: "I'm Sir Harry Hariot of Hariot Hall, a near neighbor of yours Master Bellamy, born a baronet and bred a baronet, with one of the best estates in the county of W—. I've been high-sheriff, and parliament-man. I keep the best pack of hounds, and the best hunters in the kingdom, and will leap a hedge, gate, or stile, and wade a river in pursuit of a stag, with any man in the country. O, it's a fine thing to be born a gentleman. You was bred to trade, I understand, Master Bellamy. Odds bodikins, it's a pity the lord of such a manor as yours had not been bred a gentleman. I Marshall, Mrs. Jane, Alicia Montague, p. 21. " Lawrence, Herbert, The Contemplative Man, v. 2, pp. 74-75. 7

The Squire Viewed by His

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127

hate the name of trade; though for the matter of that, my mother's father was a tradesman.

My father, you must know, had run his estate out at

the elbows, and so married a calico printer's daughter of Putney,

with a

devilish good fortune, which set all to rights.""

serves to display the worthy merchant turned squire in a favorable light, since the latter is made the real gentleman of the two. The novel serves, also, to illustrate Potter's thesis that the gentry must be recruited anew from the ranks of the successful merchant class to continue its existence. Squire Havelley, in Bage's James Wallace, 1788, toward the end of the period, is a shrewder, more worldly Squire Western. Havelley's boorishness is accounted for by his sister's explanation, "his education has been too rustic for the age." 10 As a comic character and a convenient peg on which to hang Bage's own sentiments concerning the titled fop, personified in Sir Anthony, Havelley serves a two-fold purpose. The good squire in the eighteenth century novel is but a variant of the stock character "the good man." He rarely has the vitality of his counterpart, the boor, and often is a transparent excuse for the author's homilies. The first example of the type noted in this list of novels is the old squire in Letters from Felicia to Charlotte, 1744. Tn many ways, he is reminiscent of Sir Roger de Coverley, although his whimsy is less emphasized. Felicia describes him: "The old gentleman, who expected us, met us with his pipe in his mouth, and, in an agreeable friendly manner, paid us the compliments of his house before we arrived at it; and then conducted us home, smoaking all the way at the coach-door.

A s soon as we entered his house, his unreserved be-

haviour rendered his company very diverting.

H e enlivened the conversa-

tion with abundance of merry stories, which his humorous and pleasant manner rendered vastly diverting." 11

As in the case of the boorish squire, Fielding epitomizes the good squire in Allworthy. It has been stated that Squire All" Potter, John, The Virtuous Villagers, v. 2, pp. 14-15. 10 Bage, Robert, James Wallace, p. 414. " Collyer, Mary, Letters from Felicia to Charlotte, p. 9.

128

The Squire Viewed by His

Fellows

worthy is a portrait of Mr. Ralph Allen of Prior Park, near Bath. Be that as it may, Squire Allworthy is of the same genre as Sir Roger de Coverley, though with more good sense and less eccentricity. Allworthy, who had "an agreeable person, a sound constitution, a solid understanding, and a benevolent heart," 11 has still enough of mortal error in his makeup to make him seem a real being. Several instances of the good squire are to be found in Shebbeare's Matrimony, 1754. One is described: In the Parish adjoining is a Gentleman of an ancient Family, and strict Honour, whose name is Trueman; the Estate indeed, is not very large, being no more than a Thousand a Year; at the same Time this Gentleman having a numerous Family, which he has educated well, and living with Hospitality, though without Profusion, which a generous Heart can with difficulty avoid, he has saved but little Money for his Family."

Shebbeare tends to the use of type figures in the persons of his characters, often balancing the virtues and vices with the ingenuousness of the morality plays. The old rogue, Lord Wormeaton, and his son, that rascally weakling, are countered by Squire Trueman and Sir Oliver Hardy. The last named is an example of the great squire. Although a man of title, he is obviously of the squirearchy and furnishes proof for Macaulay's charge of provincialism, since he had not been to London for forty years. Of Sir Oliver, Shebbeare says: " H e was neither ill-natured nor tyrannic, he treated his Friends freely, and damn'd the French every Day: though being situated on the Coast of Torbay, he never missed buying great Quantities of run Claret and Coniac Brandy whenever he could." 14 This admixture of fraility occurs in many of the characterizations and helps to give a modicum of vitality to otherwise stock figures. Sterlin is Shebbeare's model squire: He exerted no Tyranny over his Tenants by ill-timed Exaction of his Rents, nor prohibited those, whose Estates did not amount to a Qualificau Fielding, Henry, Tom Jones, v. 1, p. 4. "Shebbeare, John, Matrimony, v. 1, pp. 140-41. " Shebbeare, John, Matrimony, v. 1, p. 227.

The Squire Viewed by His

Fellows

129

tion, from killing a Hare, Pheasant, or Partridge, wherever they pleased: H e was chearful in the Company of Farmers, his Inferiors, and yet preserved the Superiority of his Birth and Fortune: With Men of

Family

and Estate he was equal to the highest, in Behaviour and Politeness: H e prevented all Law-suits amongst his

Neighbours,

detested the Race

of

Country Attornies, and lived in strict Friendship with the Clergyman of his Parish, paying great Regard to the Duties of his Religion.

N o Parish

was so happy as his; of such U s e it is, that the Great should give Example to the lower Order of People; and such happy Influence is the Consequence of it."

Shebbeare's Lydia, 1755, also contains the same balancing of good and evil. The cowardly naval officer and Lord Flimsy, who is an even more repulsive portrayal of the Lord Wormeaton school, are the evil elements, while Lord Liberal and Mr. Sweetgood are the virtuous. Sweetgood is another in the line of the good squires; but his character is so vaguely drawn that he gives little illusion of life, except, perhaps, in the scene at the masquerade and that in which he disguises himself as a Jew-pedlar. The Miss Minifies present their version of the good squire in the person of Mr. Bentley from Family Pictures, 1764: " H e possessed a clear unencumbered patrimony of seven hundred pounds per annum, which he distributed with unequalled generosity. To the widow he was a sure friend, to the orphans a protector, a redresser of injuries, a discountenancer of vice, a patronizer of modest merit, and a terror to the oppressor." 1 9 Squire Bentley is a highly conventional figure and serves to illustrate the model man and husband as visualized by the authors. He even welcomes the news of the birth of a daughter, and "contrary to the generality of country esquires, set as much value upon his little daughter, as the tenderest parent could possibly do." I T In Humphrey Clinker, Dennison, who was "well advanced in years, but hale, robust, and florid, with an ingenuous countenance, expressive of good sense and humanity." 1 8 is another of the good squires; while Matt Bramble, also f r o m the same novel, may 11

Shebbeare, John, Matrimony, v. 2, p. 168-69. " Minifie, Susannah and Margaret, Family Pictures, v. 1, p. 2. "Minifie, Susannah and Margaret, Family Pictures, v. 1, p. 170. 18 Smollett, Tobias, Humphrey Clinker, p. 415.

130

The Squire Viewed by His Fell cms

share with Fielding's Squire Allworthy the claim of being the finest of the good squires. Bramble is the more human of the two. " H e affects misanthropy, in order to conceal the sensibility of a heart which is tender even to a degree of weakness." 18 His irascible kindness and modest philanthropy insure him a position among the ranks of literature's well-loved characters. Mr. Aldworth of Richard Graves' The Spiritual Quixote, 1772, is drawn after the pattern of Fielding's Squire Allworthy. Graves' character has the usual attributes of generosity, hospitality, kindness and justice, and as a justice of the peace, he is honest and upright. Robert Bage, exponent of the "rights of man" and social equality, nevertheless presents two squires who are among the finest of the ancient stock. There is the Devonshire squire in Mount Henneth, 1781, who is "of the old English character; fond of hospitality; inoffensive without weakness; just without severity." 20 In Man as He Is, 1792, Bage draws one of the most sympathetic portraits of the class. Mr. James Paradyne describes himself: "Look at me George;—I am

fifty-eight

next birth-day;—I can rise with

the sun and hunt him down;—ay, and afterwards drink down the moon, my boy, as the song says, if I get among the right sort.—Never had the head-ache in my life.—Good luck to keep out of matrimony.—Never rack'd a tenant, George,—no occasion—never went to court.

In certain respects, Sir Robert in Hugh Kelly's Louisa Mildmay, 1767, is of the roll of the good squires. Charlotte Smith's hero in Desmond, 1792, combines the new ideas of social justice with the traditional virtues of the good squire. The Banished Man, 1794, by the same author, has another example of the figure, Sir Maynard, whose character is also modified by the new social consciousness. He is described: Sir Maynard was a good neighbour, and affected popularity.

His table

was more hospitable than his fortune could with prudence allow; and he made a very respectable figure as chairman of the sessions, and foreman "Smollett, Tobias, Humphrey Clinker, p. 42. Bage, Robert, Mount Henneth, p. 116. 21 Bage, Robert, Man as He Is, p. 33.

20

The Squire

Viewed by His

Fellozvs

131

of the grand jury. H e was a good master, and his servants grew old in his service ; and as a husband and a father, he had through life acquitted himself well.25

The last of the good squires in point of time is Falkland in Caleb Williams, 1794, by William Godwin. Here, the full impact of the new social theories is felt. The squire is depicted as "kind, gracious, attentive, humane." H e is f a r more cultured than any of his predecessors. In his earlier development, he is in every way admirable; yet, he is of the old order and has within him the canker of his destruction, the hidebound pride of his class. Tyrell's blow publically given sweeps away his philosophy and reason. Once avenged, Falkland's reputation must be preserved. Innocent men may die for him and Caleb Williams may be hounded through the land, but the family name must remain unsullied before the world. Godwin pounds at the point with vehemence although the reader tends to be rather callous concerning the fate to which Williams' inhumanly persistent curiosity brings him. The relationship between squire and tenantry presents a variety of phases. The squire had his opinion of his dependents, and they, theirs of him. Each had ideas concerning their relationship and obligations. A few landowners may believe with Sir H a r r y Hariot of The Virtuous Villagers, 1784: "What are tenants but slaves, bound to work for their superiors? You'll never be a gentleman, Master Bellamy, while you entertain such plebian notions. Why, man, you have made your tenants as blith as birds, and they're all jumping about like a set of morris-dancers. Why, they'll all get rich, and set up for gentlemen soon. O 'tis a burning shame to make gentlemen of beggars, Master Bellamy."2®

Squire Tyrell, in Caleb Wiiliams, 1794, in another such petty despot. One of his tenants, Hawkins, refuses to allow his son to risk moral ruin by entering the squire's service. Tyrell is infuriated by the rebuff and beggars the farmer in revenge.

a

Smith, Charlotte, The Banished Man, v. 2, p. 99. Potter, John, The Virtuous Villagers, v. 2, pp. 18-19.

132

The Squire

Viewed

by His

Fellows

T h e greater number of the landed gentry, however, have a rather higher sense of their responsibility toward their tenants. It is important as Fielding points out in Joseph Andrews that the squire live on his land to provide employment for the people of the parish and to spend a portion of his rents where they are collected. Lord Belmont is influenced by like considerations in The History of Lady Julia Mandeville, 1763. H e recounts the effects of his decision: "When I first came to Belmont, having been some years abroad, I found my tenants poor and dejected, scarce able to gain a hard penurious living; the neighbouring gentlemen spending two-thirds of the year in London, and the town which was the market for my estate filled only with people in trade, who could scarce live by each other. I struck at the root of this evil, and by living almost altogether in the country myself, brought the whole neighbourhood to do the same. I promoted every kind of diversion, which soon filled my town with gentlemen's families, which raised the markets, and of consequence the value of my estate: my tenants grew rich at the same rents which before they were unable to pay; population increased, my villages were full of inhabitants, and all around me was gay and flourishing."*' Charles Johnstone tells, in The Reverie,

1762, of the wish of the

tenants of an estate to change squires, since: "Before the estate came into the possession of the present lord, they had been accustomed to have their landlord live among them, and hold his courts and receive suit and service in this manor. But this lord, having many better houses to live in, had removed his habitation, and of course discontinued those ceremonies; so that they lost all that parade of grandeur in which their pride had taken such pleasure."25 Mackenzie, in The Man of the World, 1773, portrays an ideal squire and his relations with his tenants. H a v i n g inherited an estate: " 'The n e w proprietor took a singular method of improving its value. H e lowered the rents, which had been raised to an e x travagant height, and recalled the ancient tenants of the manor, most of w h o m had been driven f r o m the unfriendly soil, to m a k e * Brooke, Frances, The History of Lady Julia Mandeville, pp. 43-44. "Johnstone, Charles, The Reverie, v. 1, p. 59.

The Squire Viewed by His

Fellows

133

room for desperate adventurers, who undertook for rents they could never be able to pay.' " 26 After such news, it is easy to understand Squire Bolton's description: " 'The rest of the day was spent in all the genuine festivity of happy spirits. I had enlarged a room adjoining to the hall, by striking down a partition at one end; and closed the entertainment with a dance, which I led up myself with the rosy-cheeked daughter of one of my principal tenants.' " 27 Bellamy, the central figure in The Virtuous Villagers, 1784, follows a similar plan of fixing rents within the reach of his tenants and insuring his own future by insuring theirs. Just as some squires were hard, some tenants were quick to take advantage of their landlord, given the opportunity. Collyer tells, in Letters from Felicia to Charlotte, 1744, how the heroine's father suggests that the hero go out and "learn the characters and manners of his tenants, and even of the poor, residing on his estate; that he ought particularly to enquire into their circumstances ; and that as his interest was closely connected with theirs, to endeavour to serve them to the utmost of his power." 28 Taking the advice, Lucius "set out soon after it was light, dressed but meanly, and with only one servant out of livery, . . ." His experiences prove the value of the plan. One tenant, not recognizing Lucius, tells him: "Yo mun know, master, that I ha' got a new lonlord; I doant know who he is, but they say he has married one of your London ladies, who they say, has a mort o' money: besides, they say, he is one o' those good-natured foo's, look'e, that wull do ony mon a service that axes him, thof he never sead him aw his born days: and besides, I believe the grey mare is the better horse; for he is meety fond of his lady, never stirs from whome, and never gets drunk."20

This farmer had taken advantage of the good nature and supposed inexperience of the new squire by cutting and selling a stand of timber, contrary to his lease. To this picture, the author contrasts

" Mackenzie, Henry, The Man of the World, v. 2, p. 224. " Mackenzie, Henry, The Man of the World, v. 2, p. 228. 28 Collyer, Mrs. Mary, Letters from Felicia to Charlotte, p. 105. " Collyer, Mrs. Mary, Letters from Felicia to Charlotte, p. 105.

134

The Squire

Viewed

by His

Fellcrivs

that of another tenant w h o is in arrears in his rent and, t h o u g h L u c i u s u r g e s him to e x p l a i n the situation to his landlord, s a y s : "No, no, . . . I could sooner dee than do it. I could never speak freely to such a rich mon. I am not used to such company. Besides, it would signify nothing. It is a miserable life to be all'as in feir.""> Charles J o h n s t o n e has a p a s s a g e w h i c h s h o w s that attacking "economic royalists" w a s a s s u m e d to be g o o d politics e v e n in the eighteenth century.

In The Reverie,

1762, a cobbler, tired of his

u n s u c c e s s f u l pursuit of his trade, turns politician.

H e is able to

talk his f e l l o w s into electing h i m village c r i e r : "Intoxicated with this success, he immediately enlarged his plan, and ventured to attack the steward of the manor, for having (as he alleged) encroached upon the common, and extorted exhorbitant fees in the course of his office. Nor did he shew greater respect to the lord himself, but had the assurance to charge him directly with countenancing his steward's oppressions, and designing to destroy the court-rolls and turn all the tenants out of their farms; . . H e attempts to m a n e u v e r the lord of the m a n o r into a c o r n e r : "There had been a sum of money raised by the court-leet some time before, to defray the charge of repairing the manor-house, there having been more levied than was necessary for the occasion. "As it had been the custom of this manor to give money to the lord himself on these occasions to lay out as he thought proper, he had always appropriated any surplus that remained to his own use, without thinking himself accountable to the court-leet for it: but now the crier, who, by his place of clerk of the kitchen, had an opportunity of looking into all the lord's accounts, finding that the sum was pretty considerable, proposed to the court-leet to lay it out, in discharging the bills of some poor tradesmen which had been left unpaid on a former occasion, and to whom the whole manor had passed their words; and to this effect he drew up an address to the lord."" T h e squire, h o w e v e r , w a s a m a t c h f o r his a d v e r s a r y ; a n d : " Collyer, Mrs. Mary, Letters front Felicia to Charlotte, p. 105. " Johnstone, Charles, The Reverie, v. 1, p. 36 "Johnstone, Charles, The Reverie, v. 1, p. 54.

The Squire

Viewed

by His

135

Fellows

"Though this was a direct attack upon the lord, and in a most tender point, there was something so plausible in the proposal, that he did not chuse absolutely to reject it. However, not to give up too much, or establish a precedent for such attempts for the future, he gave general orders to the court-leet, to pay off those tradesmen with that money as of his own free motion, and without taking any notice of the application which it had made him to that purpose." T h e passage is doubly interesting as one of the rare references to the

functionings

of

the

court-leet,

already

an

almost

dead

institution. In general, according to the novelists, the tenantry admired and respected the lord of the manor. Susannah Minifie tells in Coombe Wood, 1783, of the j o y of the villagers at the return of the y o u n g squire: "The villagers were all alive to see again one of the Altam family; he has rejoiced the hearts of the poor by his beneficence; and the hearts of the other class are truly rejoiced, from a principle of love and reverence which they always bore yourself and your dear father." 34 In the same novel, the village innkeeper is asked whether he can supply a bed f o r one of the squire's friends. A certain amount of the warmth in his response may be ascribed, perhaps, to his calling; but his reply s h o w s the affection felt for the Altam f a m i l y : "A bed, an please your honour! es! that I can, and a warm one to, thof I can't say it is fit for gentlefolks; but if I was a lord, and had a bed of cloth of gold, I should hardly think it good enough for anybody, who used to be so much in and out at the Squire's." 35 Mrs. Bennett's Agnes de Courci, 1789, contains the eulogy of a y o u n g squire. Distracted by the discovery that he has married his sister, E d w a r d H a r l e y d r o w n s h i m s e l f . T h e family plan to bury him secretly, but the villagers hear of it and their m e m ories of his kindness o v e r w e i g h the manner of his death. They join the funeral cortege and m o u r n his p a s s i n g : "Johnstone, Charles, The Reverie, v. 1, p. 54. 54 Minifie, Susannah, Coombe Wood, v. 2, p. 56. "Minifie, Susannah, Coombe Wood, v. 1, p. 82.

136

The Squire Viewed by His Fcllcnvs

The friend of the poor, of mankind was no more. "He never strained on [distrained] a tenant in all his days, said a rough looking farmer, I shall never have so good a landlord. "My own son, cried a decent elderly woman, was not dearer to me. "How respectful was he to the aged, said an old veteran, who is an officer on half pay. "And how good to the sick, joined a pallid looking husbandman. "How charitable to the poor was echoed by them all. "And said a pretty damsel modestly advancing, her face covered with tears, how tender hearted to poor maidens, these were the gloves he gave me at Patty Luca's burial, I little thought I should wear them at his own. ". . . another had remarked how blooming Madam Agnes and the good squire looked, when they went to pay master Thrifty his rent, for farmer Clod's sick widow.""

Honors won by the squire's family were shared vicariously by the tenantry. Cumberland describes, in Arundel, 1788, the celebration at Arundel-House at the news of the victory gained by the ship under Arundel's command: "down at once fell spades, houghs, and pickaxes, away flew the whole bevy at a w o r d ; in the same moment out burst the hive from the house-door, carpenters, bricklayers, and laborers; the bells began their peal, six in number, and to my great joy very musical; the people shouted in chorus, Long live the brave Captain A r u n d e l ! And all the noble family, cried the old gardener.' " 8T Another celebration takes place in The Virtuous Villagers, 1784, when Bellamy's kindness to his tenants is repaid by feasting and dancing. The squire sometimes forfeits the respect of his dependents by his unworthy conduct. Blatchford, in Cumberland's Henry, 1795, who is not a true squire but a newcomer, turns Daw and Goody May out of their cottage for aiding the hero. The squire's tenants hear of his act and gibbet him in effigy amidst an outpouring of abuse. Goldsmith says of one farmer in The Vicar of Wakefield, who had aroused the anger of his squire: "Williams owed his landlord no rent, and little regarded his indignation." 38 Mention has been made of the affection of the country folk in " Bennett, Mrs. Agnes, Agnes de Courci, p. 252f. " Cumberland, Richard, Arundel, v. 2, p. 60f. " Goldsmith, Oliver, The Vicar of Wakefield, p. 258.

The Squire

Viewed

by His

Fellows

137

Coombe Wood, 1783, f o r the A l t a m family. T h i s w a s not mere adoration of rank as may be seen by their contempt for Lord Blank and his c r e w . Lady L u c y whines to her friend in L o n d o n : "If title and rank cease to command respect and attention, the Lord have mercy upon us ; but, thank my stars, this kind of ignorance and depravity can only subsist in the country : in town, if we have not a guinea in our pockets, and two executions in our house, we still preserve our consequence ; and I vow, the very bailiffs who attended us last winter had more attention and respect about them than in any creature I have seen in this corner of the desert."" " Minifie, Susannah, Coombe Wood, v. 1, p. 101.

CHAPTER

IX

CONCLUSIONS

T h e squire, as he appears in novels of the eighteenth century, is seen f r o m three points of view. T h e first of these presents the squire as a survival of an earlier period, an embodiment of the "good old days." It comes somewhat as a shock to find some writers of the eighteenth century considering the squires, as a class, effeminate and inept when compared with their forebears of the preceding century. An occasional man is then drawn to illustrate the heroic virtues, and sometimes vices, of squiredom's golden age—the seventeenth century. Included in this group are such figures as Matthew Bramble from Smollett's Humphrey Clinker, Aldworth f r o m Graves' The Spiritual Quixote, and Paradyne from Bage's Man as He Is. Characters developed f r o m this point of view are generally portrayed as elderly men. There is in their presentation considerable sentimental tenderness and veneration. By a second group, the squire is used as a symbol in the turmoil of increasing social consciousness, born of the political and social unrest in England and on the continent. T h e squirearchy, because of their part in government and their established position in society, were quite naturally conservative in opinion. T h e followers of Paine and his school of thought saw the squire as a relic of the bad old days and denounced him with noisy f u r y . H e is shown as morally and emotionally unstable, unintelligent, reactionary, striving to stem or divert the natural course of progress. Considerable stress is placed upon the fact that he owes his position, wealth, and power not to his own abilities or labors but to the mere chance of his birth. Godwin's Caleb Williams makes clear that it is the class and not the individual which is at fault. Tyrell is a typical example of the "boorish" squire and his brutal stupidity and arrogance are drawn after the established manner. Falkland, on the other hand, is a gentleman of culture and intelligence from whom much might be expected. H i s weakness

138

Conclusions

139

is made the weakness of his order, overweening pride and moral cowardice. Bage's James Wallace also attacks two very different types of squires. Justice Gamidge is a " m a d e " squire and as such might be expected to be f r e e f r o m the evils of the squirearchy. H e displays, however, pride, ignorance, and a callow disregard for the rights of others that is in the worst traditions of "the petty tyrant." Squire Havelley Thurl, while he is seen as a rather ridiculous relic of an older and more boorish day, is drawn a f t e r a rather sympathetic fashion and displays certain wholesome ideas and virtues. In the case of some writers, the attack is to the same point but f r o m a different motive. Many novelists who were less concerned with social r e f o r m than Godwin or Bage were prejudiced against the squires f o r more personal reasons. T h e country gentry were a proud lot and were so sure of their hereditary position and the respect and deference of the rest of mankind that they made numerous enemies. T h e capitalist class and city gentry smarted under the contempt, or what was even more painful, the calm disregard of the country gentleman. It is hard to determine how much credence may be placed upon attempts to read personal opinions into the novelists' portrayal of the squires. The much discussed influence of Fielding's experiences during his brief career in the country and their effect upon his pictures of the country gentry is an example of this interesting but unproven point. In Potter's The Virtuous Villagers it is possible to trace a definite writing up of the retired merchant turned country gentleman and a writing down of the stupid, improvident, pride-bound squirearchy, a fact which probably did not injure its sale in commercial centers. It is hoped that the picture as set forth by the preceding chapters makes it obvious that the third treatment is more nearly valid. T h e great majority of the novels' depictions of the squire show him as neither saint nor devil. H e appears simply as an ordinary man, who, by virtue of his birth, possessions, and aptitude, governs his parish and aids in governing his country. H e is shown as the descendant of an established county family. H e has an income of about one thousand pounds a year f r o m the estate on which he

140

Conclusions

usually resides. He has received a fair preliminary education and has spent from two to three years at the university. He has travelled abroad. His wife has been selected from among the daughters of the neighboring gentry with due regard to the size of her dowry. The squire is an ardent sportsman, particularly as a fox hunter. He is interested in improvements in agriculture and stock-breeding. As a magistrate he is comparatively fair and impartial except in cases involving infringement of the game laws, when he is inclined to harshness. His career in politics is marked by a struggle between his strong Tory sympathies and his honest desire to work for the nation's best interests. A firm believer in the Church of England in principle, his own religion is a comfortable formality in practice. His mind is apt to move a bit slowly and he is suspicious of untried theorizing. Charitable to his dependents, stubbornly honest in the light of his day, and faithful to the principles of his kind, the squire represents an important aspect of what Dibelius has called England's major contribution to the world—the idea of the gentleman. The novel of the eighteenth century is greatly enriched by the squires who cross its pages. Whatever his part, father, hero, villain, he brings a liveliness to many an otherwise stodgy story. His characteristics, while they lend themselves to exaggerated pictures of his good and bad qualities, make for a vividness and reality which is often lacking in other characters. It would be possible to write at length on any one of the phases of his portrayal and link it with definite historical actualities. Even in a survey as general as the present study, the basic historical fidelity of the fictional squire has revealed itself in practically every instance. The eighteenth century novel delineates "the expression of the life, of the time, of the manners . . . of the old country of England" with a clarity at once so true and so penetrating, that the future social historian will do well to include a wide selection of the novels of the period along with more formal historical studies.

BIBLIOGRAPHY I.

GENERAL

REFERENCES

Adams, George Burton, Constitutional History of England, N. Y., Holt [1925]. Addison, Joseph, and Steele, Richard, The Sir Roger de Coverley Papers, N. Y„ Ambrose, N. D. Airlie, Mabell Frances Elizabeth, In Whig Society 1773-1818, London, H o d d e r Stoughton, 1921. The Annual Register, London, Printed for J. Dodsley, etc., 1758-1800. Ashley, Percy, Local and Central Government, London, Murray, 1906. Ashton, John, Social Life in the Reign of Queen Anne, London, Chatto and Windus, 1897. Baker, Ernest A., The History of the English Novel, London, Witherby, N. D. [1934], Bayne-Powell, Rosamond, English Country Life in the Eighteenth Century, London, Murray, N. D. [1935], Beard, Charles Austin, The Office of the Justice of the Peace in England, N. Y., Columbia University Press, 1904. Boswell, James, The Life of Samuel Johnson, N. Y., Crowell, N. D. Botsford, J. B., English Society in the Eighteenth Century, N. Y., Macmillan, 1924. Boutmy, Emile, The English People, N. Y., Putnam, 1904. The Cambridge History of English Literature, Cambridge, The University Press, 1932. The Connoisseur, Boston, Little, Brown, 1856. Davies, Maude F., Life in an English Village, London, Unwin, 1909. Dibelius, Professor Wilhelm, England, N. Y., H a r p e r , 1930. Ditchfield, Rev. Peter H., Country Polk—A Pleasant Company, London, Methuen [1924]. Ditchfield, Rev. Peter H., The Old English Country Squire, London, Methuen, N. D. Foakes-Jackson, Frederich J., Social Life in England 1750-1850, N. Y., MacMillan, 1916. Gamier, Russell M., Annals of the British Peasantry, London, Sonnenschein, 1895. Gras, N o r m a n Scott and Ethel, The Economic and Social History of an English Village, Cambridge, H a r v a r d University Press, 1930. Hasbach, Dr. W., The English Agricultural Labourer, London, King, 1908. Holzman, James M., The Nabobs in England 1760-1785, N. Y., 1926. Hone, Nathaniel J., The Manor and Manorial Records, London, Methuen, N . D.

141

142

Bibliography

Lambert, R. S., ed., Grand Tour, N. Y„ Dutton, N. D. Lecky, William Edward Hartpole, A History of England in the Eighteenth Century, N. Y., Appleton, 1883-90. Lipson, Ephraim, The Economic History of England, London, Black, 1937. Vol. I. Lunt, W . E., History of England, N. Y„ Harper, 1928. Macaulay, Thomas Babington, The History of England from the Accession of James II, N. Y., Crowell, N. D. Mathieson, William Law, England in Transition, 1789-1832, London, Longmans, Green, 1920. Nichols, John, Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century, London, 1812-1815. Pepys, Samuel, Diary and Correspondence of Samuel Pepys, F.R.S., N. Y., Bigelow, Brown, N. D. Richardson, Albert Edward, Georgian England, N. V., Scribners, 1931. Roscoe, Edward Stanley, The English Scene in the Eighteenth Century, N. Y„ 1912. Schauwecker, Franz, The Fiery Way, N. Y., Dutton, N. D. Singer, Godfrey Frank, The Epistolary Novel, Philadelphia, 1933. Sydney, William Connor, England and the English in the Eighteenth Century, Edinburgh, Grant, N. D. Thackeray, William Makepeace, The English Humorists, N. Y., Macmillan, 1910. Tompkins, J. M. S., The Popular Novel in England 1770-1800, London, Constable, 1932. The Torrington Diaries, C. Bruyn Andrews, ed., London, Eyre and Spottiswood, 1934-1938. Traill, H. D., Social England, N. Y„ Putnam, 1894. Trevelyan, George Macaulay, England under Queen Anne, London, Longmans, 1930-1934. Trevelyan, George Macaulay, English History in the Nineteenth Century, London, Longmans, Green, 1922. Turberville, A. S., English Men and Manners in the Eighteenth Century, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1926. Turberville, A. S., Johnson's England, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1933. Vehlen, Thorwald, Theory of the Leisure Class, N. Y., Macmillan, 1899. Verney, Margaret Maria, The Verney Letters, London, Benn, 1930. Vinogradoff, Dr. P., The Growth of the Manor, London, Sonnenschein, 1905. Wyndham, Maure Mary, Chronicles of the Eighteenth Century, Boston, Houghton-Mifflin, N. D. Woodforde, Rev. James, Diary of a Country Parson, John Beresford, ed., London, Oxford University Press, 1924-1934. II.

NOVELS

T h e editions cited are those used in this study. Amory, Thomas, Life of John Bunde, Esq., London, Routledge, 1904.

Bibliography

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Argentum; or The Adventures of a Shilling, London, Nichols, 1794. Bage, Robert, Barham Downs, London, Hurst, Robinson, 1824. Bage, Robert, Hermsprong ; or, Man as He Is Not, London, Rivington, 1820. Bage, Robert, James Wallace, London, Hurst, Robinson, 1824. Bage, Robert, Man as He Is, Dublin, Byrne, 1793. Bage, Robert, Mount Henneth, London, Hurst, Robinson, 1824. Bennett, Mrs. Agnes Maria, Agnes de Courci, Dublin, Burnet, 1789. Bennett, Mrs. Agnes Maria, Ellen, Countess of Castle Howel, London, Lane, 1794. Bonhote, Mrs. "Elizabeth, The Parental Monitor, Boston, Cotton, N. D. Bridges, Thomas, The Adventures of a Bank-Note, Dublin, Saunders, 1771. Brooke, Mrs. Frances, The Excursion, Dublin, Price, 1777. Brooke, Mrs. Frances, The History of Emily Montague, London, J. Dodsley, 1769. Brooke, Mrs. Frances, The History of Lady Julia Mandeville, London, Rivington, 1820. Brooke, Henry, The Fool of Quality, London, Routledge, 1906. Brooke, H c n r j , Juliet GrevUle, Philadelphia, Sparhawk, Dur.lop, 1774. Burney, Fanny, Camille, Philadelphia, Ormrod, Conrad, 1797. Burney, Fanny, Cecelia, London, Rivington, 1820. Burney, Fanny, Evelina, London, Dent, N. D. Cogan, Thomas, John Buncle, Jr., Gentleman, London, Johnson, 1778. Collyer, Mrs. Mary, Letters from Felicia to Charlotte, London, Harrison, 1788. Cooper, Maria Susanna, The Exemplary Mother, London, Becket, 1784. Coventry, Francis, The History of Pompey the Little, London, Rivington, 1820. Cumberland, Richard, Arundel, London, Dilly, 1789. Cumberland, Richard, Henry, London, Hurst, Robinson, 1824. Day, Thomas, Sandford and Merton, Philadelphia, Lippincott, 1868. Dodd, Rev. William, The Sisters, London, Harrison, 1791. Fielding, Henry, Amelia, London, Hutchison, N. D. Fielding, Henry, Joseph Andrews, London, Dent, 1935. Fielding, Henry ( ? ) , Shamela, Cambridge, Fraser, 1930. Fielding, Henry, Tom Jones, New York, Collier, N. D. Fielding, Sarah, David Simple, London, Millar, 1744. Fielding, Sarah, The History of the Countess of Dellwyn, London, Millar, 1759. Fielding, Sarah, The History of Ophelia, London, Harrison, 1785. The Fortunate Villager, London, Noble, N.D. Godwin, William, Caleb Williams, London, Coltura, Bentley, 1831. Goldsmith, Oliver, The Vicar of Wakefield, London, Rivington, 1820. Graves, Richard, The Spiritual Quixote, London, Rivington, 1820. Griffith, Mrs. Elizabeth, The Delicate Distress, Dublin, Walker, 1775.

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Griffith, Mrs. Elizabeth, A Series of Genuine Letters between Henry and Frances, London, N. Pub. 1770. Haywood, Mrs. Eliza, The History of Miss Betsy Thoughtless, London, Harrison, 1784. Haywood, Mrs. Eliza, The History of Jemmy and Jenny Jessamy, London, Harrison, 178S. Haywood, Mrs. Eliza, The Invisible Spy, London, Gardner, 1755. Haywood, Mrs. Eliza, Life's Progress through the Passions, London, Gardner, 1748. Helme, Mrs. Elizabeth, The Farmer of Inglewood Forest, London, Lane, 1796. The History of Fanny Seymour, Dublin, M'Culloh, 1757. Holcroft, Thomas, The Adventures of Hugh Trevor, London, Shepperson, Reynolds, 1794. Holcroft, Thomas, Anna St. Ives, Dublin, Byrne, 1792. Inchbald, Elizabeth, Nature and Art, London, Rivington, 1820. Jenner, Charles, Letters from Altamont in the Capital to His Friends in the Country, London, Becket, DeHondt, 1767. Johnson, Mrs. A. M., The Gamesters, London, Steel, 1786. Johnstone, Charles, Chrysal; or. The Adventures of a Guinea, London, Routledge, N. D. Johnstone, Charles, A History of John Juniper, Esq., London, Baldwin, 1781. 1781. Johnstone, Charles, The Reverie, Dublin, Chamberlaine, 1776. Kelly, Hugh, Louisa MUdmay, London, Harrison, 1792. Kidgell, John, The Card, London, for the Maker, 1755. Kimber, Edward, The Life and Adventures of Joe Thompson, London, Harrison, 1783. Lawrence, Herbert, The Contemplative Man, London, Whiston, 1771. Lee, Harriet, The Canterbury Tales, New York, Hurd, Houghton, 1865. Lennox, Mrs. Charlotte, Euphemia, London, Cadell, 1790. Lennox, Mrs. Charlotte, The Female Quixote, London, Rivington, 1820. Lennox, Mrs. Charlotte, Henrietta, London, Harrison, 1787. Lennox, Mrs. Charles, The History of Sir George Warrington, London, Bell, 1797. Long, Edward, The Anti-Gallican, London, Lownds, 1757. Mackenzie, Henry, The Man of Feeling, London, Scholartis Press, 1928. Mackenzie, Henry, The Man of the World, Edinburgh, Ballantyne, 1808. Marshall, Mrs. Jane, The History of Alicia Montague, Dublin, Murphy, 1767. Minifie, Susannah, Coombe Wood, London, Baldwin, 1783. Minifie, Susannah and Margaret, Family Pictures, London, Nicholl, 1764. Minifie, Susannah and Margaret, The Picture, Dublin, Smith, 1766. Moore, John, Edward, Dublin, Wogan, 1797. Parsons, Mrs. Eliza, The History of Miss Meredith, Dublin, Jones, 1791.

Bibliography

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Potter, John, The Virtuous Villagers, N. P., Cass, 1784. Pratt, Samuel Jackson, Shenstone-Creen, London, Baldwin, 1779. Reeve, Clara, The School for Widows, London, Hookham, 1791. Reeve, Clara, The Two Mentors, Dublin, Price, 1783. Richardson, Samuel, The History of Clarissa Harlowe, N. Y., Holt, N. D. Richardson, Samuel, Pamela, N. Y., Century, 1905. Richardson, Samuel, Sir Charles Grandison, London, Sotheran, 1883. Robinson, Mrs. Mary, Angelina, London, Hookham, 1796. Scott, Mrs. Sarah, A Description of Millenium Hall, London, Newbery, 1767. Shebbeare, John, Lydia, London, Harrison, 1786. Shebbeare, John, Matrimony, London, Lowndes, 1766. Sheridan, Frances, Memoirs of Miss Sidney Bidulph, London, H a r r i s o n , 1786. Shebbeare, John, Lydia, London, Harrison, 1786. Smith, Charlotte, The Banished Man, London, Cadell, 1795. Smith, Charlotte, Celestina, Dublin, Cross, 1791. Smith, Charlotte, Desmond, London, Robinson, 1792. Smith, Charlotte, Emmeline, Philadelphia, Conrad, 1802. Smith, Charlotte, Marchmont, Dublin, Wogan, 1797. Smith, Charlotte, Montalbert, Dublin, Wogan, 1795. Smith, Charlotte, The Old Manor House, London, Rivington, 1820. Smollett, Tobias, The Adventures of Sir Launcelot Greaves, London, Routledge, 1890. Smollett, Tobias, Ferdinand, Count Fathom, London, Routledge, 1890. Smollett, Tobias, Humphrey Clinker, N. Y., Hurst, N.D. Smollett, Tobias, Peregrine Pickle, London, Walker, 1815. Smollett, Tobias, Roderick Random, London, Dent, N. D. Smythies, Mrs., The Stage Coach, Berwick, 1789.

INDEX Adams, George Burton, 97. Addison, Joseph, 52, 67. The Spectator Papers, 12, 15, 55, 65. The Adventures of a Bank-Note, 26, 86. The Adz'eniures of Hugh Trevor, 13, 27, 46, 57, 89. The Adventures of Jerry Buck, 27. The Adventures of Sir Launcelot Greaves, 11, 25, 98, 103, 110, 112. Agnes de Courci, 71, 101, 136. Amelia, 52, 81, 117. Amory, Thomas, John Buncle, Esq., 52. Angelina, 83. Anna St. Ives, 18, 19, 38, 62, 74. The Anti-Gallican, 17, 25, 37, 66, 92, 97, 100, 110. Aristophanes, 114. Arundel, 47, 54, 75, 103, 121, 136. Atkyns' History of Gloucestershire, 16. Bage, Robert, 63, 114, 139. Barham Downs, 17, 43, 62, 69, 76, 86. James Wallace, 22, 30, 42, 48, 62, 75, 76, 78, 81, 93, 115, 127, 139. Man as He Is, 17, 30, 99, 121, 130, 138 Man as He Is Not, 17, 22, 42, 59, 115. Mount Henneth, 12, 42, 54, 67, 72, 96, 106, 108, 115, 130. Baker, Ernest A., viii. Baker's Chronicle, 51. The Banished Man, 11, 20, 22, 23, 34, 43, 76, 86, 91, 96, 100, 104, 130. Barham Downs, 17, 43, 62, 69, 76, 86. Bayne- Powell, Rosamund, 9, 22, 25, 32, 36, 47, 51, 109, 116. Beard, Charles Austin, 4, 6. Bennett, Agnes Maria, Agnes de Courci, 71, 101, 136. Ellen, Countess Howel, 12, 23, 56. The Bible, 51.

Boswell, James, 22. Botsford, J. B„ 31, 90. Bridges, Thomas, The Adventures of a

Bank-Note,

26, 86.

Brooke, Frances, The History of Emily Montague, 45, 47, 51, 119. The Excursion, 29, 41, 53, 56, 59, 83. The History of Lady Julia Mandeville, 30, 37, 40, 41, 70, 75, 76, 95, 101, 103, 107, 132. Brooke, Henry, Juliet Greville, 41, 120. Burney, Fanny, Camilla, 13, 50. Cecelia, 13. Evelina, vii. Caleb Williams, 31, 52, 63, 107, 131, 138. The Cambridge History of English Literature, viii. Camilla, 13, 50. The Canterbury Tales, 11, 17, 27, 57, 104. The Card, 30, 78. Cecelia, 13. Celestina, 102. Chrysal; or, The Adventures of a Guinea, viii, 54, 79, 87, 105. Clarissa, 29, 75. Cogan, Thomas, John Buncle, Jr., Gentleman, 46, 50. Collyer, Mary, Letters from Felicia to Charlotte, 12, 29, 36, 52, 85, 124, 127. 133. Combe Wood, 11, 32, 37, 135, 137. The Complete Justice, 51. Congreve, William, 52. The Connoisseur, 8, 81. The Contemplative Man, 14, 21, 42, 53, 56, 64, 89, 106, 113, 119, 126. Cooper, Maria Susanna, The Exemplary Mother, 51. Coventry, Francis, Pompey the Little, vii, 12, 41. Cowper, William, 67.

146

14 7

Index Cumberland, Richard, Arundel, 47, 54, 75, 103, 121, 136. Henry, 12, 19, 34, 63, 81, 82, 103, 107, 115, 121, 136. David Simple, 87. Day, Thomas, Sandford and Merlon, 61. Defoe, Daniel, 25. A Journal of the Plague Year, vii. A Description of Millenium Hall, 32, 79, 81. Desmond, 12, 17, 23, 37, 43, 72, 76, 105, 115, 130. Dibelius, P r o f e s s o r Wilhelm, 1, 140. Ditchfield, Rev. P e t e r H., 9, 16, 31, 35, 60, 89. Dodd, William, The Sisters, 17, 72, 82, 84, 87, 93, 121. Drydon, John, 52. Edward, 57, 71, 79. Ellen, Countess Howel, 12, 23, 56. Emtneline, 33, 35, 43, 48, 56, 66, 75, 78. Eufthemia, 31, 37, 58, 80, 96. Evelina, vii. The Excursion, 29, 41, 53, 56, 59, 83. The Exemplary Mother, 51. Family Pictures, 27, 41, 56, 57, 67, 68, 96, 129. The Farmer of Inglewood Forest, 57. The Female Quixote, 13, 55. Ferdinand, Count Fathom, 30. Fielding, H e n r y , 6, 11, 32, 49, 52, 63, 75, 114, 121, 139. Amelia, 52, 81, 117. Joseph Andrews, 49, 51, 55, 61, 88, 110, 117, 132. Shamela, 107. Tom Jones, 11, 35, 50, 55, 61, 68, 81, 82, 99, 100, 105, 111, 112, 117, 123, 127, 130. Fielding, Sarah, David Simple, 87. The History of Ophelia, 26, 55, 58, 61, 83, 89, 98, 113. F o x ' s Book of Martyrs, 51. The

Gamesters, 12, 13, 46, 80, 96, 106. Glanvil on Apparitions, 51. Godwin, William, 139.

Caleb Williams, 31, 52, 63, 107, 131, 138. Goldsmith, Oliver, The Vicar of Wakefield, 88, 89, 136. Graves, Richard, The Spiritual Quixote, 25, 40, 46, 51, 57, 81, 86, 119, 130, 138. Griffiths, Elizabeth, A Series of Genuine Letters betiueen Henry and Frances, 45, 67, 113. Hasbach, D r . W „ 44. Haywood, Eliza, 115. The History of Jemmy and Jenny Jessamy, 79, 80, 118. The History of Miss Betsy Thoughtless, 41, 50, 57, 66, 69, 75, 77, 102. The Invisible Spy, 14, 19, 21, 30, 70, 102, 104, 105. Life's Progress through the Passions, 85. Helme, Elizabeth, The Farmer of Inglewood Forest, 57. Henrietta, 45. Henry, 12, 19, 34, 63, 81, 82, 103, 107, 115, 121, 136. The History of Alicia Montague, 13, 26, 42, 125. The History of Emily Montague, 45, 47, 51, 119. The History of Fanny Seymour, 11, 17, 55, 97, 100, 125. The History of Jemmy and Jenny Jessamy, 79, 80, 118. A History of John Juniper, Esq., 19, 102, 106, 121. The History of Lady Julia Mandeville, 30, 37, 40, 41, 47, 70, 75, 76, 95, 101, 103, 107, 132. The History of Miss Betsy Thoughtless, 41, 50, 57, 66, 69, 75, 77,

102.

The

History of Miss Meredith, 43, 50, 84, 93. The History of Ophelia, 26, 55, 58, 61, 83, 89, 98, 113. The History of Sir George Warrington, 63. Hicks-Beach, Sylvia, 16. H o l c r o f t , Thomas, 36, 63. The Adventures of Hugh Trevor, 13, 27, 46, 57, 59, 89.

148

Index

Anna St. Ives, 18, 19, 38, 62, 74. Hone, Nathaniel, 3. Humphrey Clinker, 13, 14, 19, 39, 45, 50, 51, 52, 61, 72, 78, 82, 85, 99, 103, 113, 117, 129, 138. The Invisible Spy, 14, 19, 21, 30, 70, 80, 102, 104, 105. James Wallace, 22, 30, 42, 48, 62, 75, 76, 78, 81, 93, 115, 127, 139. John Buncle, Esq., 52, 57. John Buncle, Jr., Gentleman, 46, 50. Johnson, A. M., The Gamesters, 12, 13, 46, 80, 96, 106.

Johnson, Samuel, 22. Johnstone, Charles, The Adventures of John Jumper, 19, 102, 106, 121. Chrysal; or, the Adventures of a Guinea, viii, 54, 79, 87, 105. The Reverie, 13, 132, 134. Joseph Andrews, 49, 51, 55, 61, 88, 110, 117, 132. Juliet Greville, 41, 120. Kelly, Hugh, The History of Louisa 18, 75, 130. Kidgell, John, The Card, 30, 78. Kimber, Edward, The Adventures of Joe 11, 27. King, William, 68.

Mildmay,

Thompson,

Lambert, R. S„ 28. Lawrence, Herbert, The Contemplative Man, 14, 21, 42, 53, 64, 89, 106, 113, 119, 126. Lee, Harriet, The Canterbury Tales, 11, 17, 27, 57, 104. Lennox, Charlotte, Euphemia, 31, 37, 58, 80, 96. The Female Quixote, 13, 55. Henrietta, 45. The History of Sir George Warrington, 63. Letters from Felicia to Charlotte, 12, 29, 36, 52, 54, 85, 124, 127, 133. Life's Progress through the Passions, 85. Long, Edward, The Anti-Gallican, 17, 25, 37, 66, 92, 97, 100, 110.

Louisa Mildmay. 18, 75, 130. Lunt, W. E„ 10, 95. Lydia, 15, 17, 40, 50, 52, 59, 73, 75, 97, 99, 107, 117, 129. Macaulay, Thomas Babington, 7, 8, 15, 25, 35, 40, 80, 123, 128. Mackenzie, Henry, The Man of Feeling, 47. The Man of the World, 14, 61, 132. Man as He Is, 17, 30, 99, 121, 130, 138. Man as He Is Not, 17, 22, 42, 59, /115. The Man of Feeling, 47. The Man of the World, 14, 61, 132. Marchmont, 47, 51, 52, 76, 89, 101, 102.

Marshall, Jane, The Historv of Alicia Montague, 13, 26, 42. 125. Mathieson, William Law, 60. Matrimony, 17, 38, 41, 42, 69, 70, 73, 75, 86, 97, 128. 7 he Memoirs of Miss Sidney Bidulph, 29, 51, 70, 81, 91. Milton, John, 23, 52. Minifie, Susannah, Combe Wood. 11, 32, 37, 135, 137. Minifie. Susannah and Margaret, Family Pictures, 27, 41, 56, 57, 67, 68, 96, 129. Moore, John, Edzivrd, 57, 71, 79. Mount Hcnneth, 12, 42, 54, 67, 72, 96, 106, 108, 115, 130. The

Old Manor House, 64, 76, 95, 102. Otway, Thomas, 52.

15, 33, 59,

Paine, Thomas, 138. Pamela, vii, 29, 32, 36, 51, 52, 72, 81, 82, 102, 124. Parsons, Eliza, The Historv of Miss Meredith, 43, 50, 84," 93. Pepys, Samuel, 77. Pcreqrine Pickle, 12, 20, 30, 43, 57, 61, 79, 102. Pompcy the Little, vii, 12, 41. Pope, Alexander, 52. Potter, John, The J/irtuous Villagers, 21, 62, 73» 88, 126, 131, 133, 136, 139.

149

Index 1'ratt, Samuel Jackson, Shenstonc Green, 120. Reeve, Clara, The School for Widows, 18, 42, 46, 47, 70, 78. The Tii'O Mentors, 83. The Reverie, 13, 132, 134. Richardson, Samuel, 36, 49, 52, Clarissa, 29, 75. Pamela, vii, 29, 32, 36, 51, 52, 81, 82, 102, 124. Sir Charles Grandison, 30, 41, 74, 80. 84, 102. Robinson, Mary, Angelina, 83. Roderick Random, 41, 81, 116. Rousseau, Jean Jacques, 39. Ruskin, John, 31.

33,

Desmond, 12, 17, 23, 37, 43, 72, 76, 105, 115, 130. Emmeline. 33, 35, 43, 48, 56, 66, 75, 78. Marchmont, 47, 51, 52, 76, 89, 101,

87. 72, 52,

Sandford and Merton, 61. Schauwecker, Frar.z, The School for Widows, 18, 33, 42, 46, 47, 78. Scott, S a r a h , A Description of Millenium Hall, 32, 79, 81. A Series of Genuine Letters between Henry and Francis, 45, 67. 113. Shakespeare, William, 52, 114. Sham-ela, 107. Shebbeare, John, 115. Lvdia, 15, 17, 40, 50, 52, 59, 73, "75. 97, 99, 107, 117, 129. Matrim-onv, 17, 38, 41, 42, 69, 70, 73, 75, 86, 97, 128. Shcnstone Green, 120. Sheridan, Frances, The Memoirs of Miss Sidney Bidulph, 29, 51, 70, 81, 91. S i n g e r , Godfrey, viii. Sir Charles Grandison, 30, 41, 52, 74, 80, 102. The Sisters, 17, 72, 82, 84, 87, 93, 121. Slade, John, The Adventures of Jerry Buck, 27. S m i t h , Charlotte, 31, 35. The Banished Man. 11, 20, 22, 23, 34, 43, 76, 86, 91, 96, 100, 104, 130. Celestina, 102.

102.

The Old Manor House, 15, 33, 59, 64. 76, 95, 102. Smollett, Tobias, 6, 75, 83, 96, 114. The Adi'entures of Sir Launcelot Greaves, 11, 25, 98, 103, 110, 112. Ferdinand, Count Fathom, 30. Humphrey Clinker, 13, 14, 19, 39, 45, 50, 51, 52, 61, 72, 75, 78, 82. 85, 99, 103, 113, 117, 129, 138. Peregrine Pickle, 12, 20, 30, 43, 57, 61, 79, 102. Roderick Random, 41, 81, 116. Smythies, Mrs. The Stage Coach, viii, 41, 50, 51, 69, 86. The Spiritual Quixote, 25. 40, 46, 51, 57, 81, 86, 119, 130, 138. The Spectator Papers, 12, 15, 55, 65. The Stage Coach, vii, 41, 50, 51, 69, 86. Steele. Richard, 52. Sterne, Lawrence, Tristram Shandy, 11. Sydney, William Connor, 7, 8, 25, 27, 49, 51. Thackeray, William Makepeace, vii. T h o m a s ä Kempis, 51. Tom Jones, 11, 35, 50, 55, 61, 68, 81, 82, 99, 100, 105, 111, 112, 117, 123, 127, 130. Tompkins, I. M. S., 23. Traill, H . D., 10, 40, 44, 95, 97. Trevelyan, George Macaulay, 2, 10, 40, 95, 109. Tristram Shandy, 11. The Two Mentors, 83. Veblen, Thorwald, 1. The Vicar of Wakefield, 88, 89, 136. The Virtuous Villagers, 21, 62, 73, 88, 126, 131, 133, 136, 139. The Whole Duty of Man, Wilson, Mona, 28.

51.