The De Coverley Papers

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But that our society may not appear a set of humorists[29], unacquainted
with the gallantries and pleasures of the age, we have among us the
gallant Will Honeycomb, a gentleman who, according to his years, should
be in the decline of his life, but having ever been very careful of his
person, and always had a very easy fortune, time has made but a very
little impression, either by wrinkles on his forehead, or traces in his
brain. His person is well turned[30], of a good height. He is very ready
at that sort of discourse with which men usually entertain women. He has
all his life dressed very well, and remembers habits[31] as others do
men. He can smile when one speaks to him, and laughs easily. He knows the
history of every mode, and can inform you from which of the French ladies
our wives and daughters had this manner of curling their hair, that way
of placing their hoods, and whose vanity to show her foot made that part
of the dress so short in such a year. In a word, all his conversation and
knowledge have been in the female world: as other men of his age will
take notice to you what such a minister said upon such and such an
occasion, he will tell you when the Duke of Monmouth danced at court,
such a woman was then smitten, another was taken with him at the head of
his troop in the Park. In all these important relations, he has ever
about the same time received a kind glance or a blow of a fan from some
celebrated beauty, mother of the present Lord Such-a-one. This way of
talking of his very much enlivens the conversation among us of a more
sedate turn; and I find there is not one of the company, but myself, who
rarely speak at all, but speaks of him as of that sort of man who is
usually called a well-bred Fine Gentleman. To conclude his character,
where women are not concerned, he is an honest worthy man.

I cannot tell whether I am to account him whom I am next to speak of, as
one of our company; for he visits us but seldom, but, when he does, it
adds to every man else a new enjoyment of himself. He is a clergyman, a
very philosophic man, of general learning, great sanctity of life, and
the most exact good breeding. He has the misfortune to be of a very weak
constitution, and consequently cannot accept of such cares and business
as preferments in his function would oblige him to: he is therefore among
divines what a chamber-counsellor[32] is among lawyers. The probity of
his mind, and the integrity of his life, create him followers, as being
eloquent or loud advances others. He seldom introduces the subject he
speaks upon; but we are so far gone in years, that he observes when he is
among us, an earnestness to have him fall on some divine topic[33], which
he always treats with much authority, as one who has no interests in this
world, as one who is hastening to the object of all his wishes, and
conceives hope from his decays and infirmities. These are my ordinary
companions.

R.

FOOTNOTES:

[15] _Lord Rochester and Sir George Etherege._ Well-known leaders of
fashion and dissipation.

[16] _Bully Dawson._ A notorious swaggerer and sharper.

[17] _Dressed._ _I.e._, fashionably.

[18] _Quorum._ Panel of magistrates.

[19] _Game Act._ Laws dating from very early times and regulating the
licence to kill game.

[20] _Humoursome._ Capricious.

[21] _Aristotle and Longinus._ Aristotle's _Poetics_ and Longinus on the
_Sublime_ are classics of literary criticism.

[22] _Littleton or Coke._ Famous writers on law.

[23] _Demosthenes and Tully._ Demosthenes and M. Tullius Cicero, the
great orators of Athens and Rome respectively.

[24] _Wit._ Cleverness.

[25] _The Rose._ The Rose tavern was frequented by actors.

[26] _The world._ _I.e._, of public life.

[27] _Own vindication._ Self-assertion.

[28] _Civil._ Civilian.

[29] _Humorists._ Eccentrics.

[30] _Turned._ Shaped.

[31] _Habits._ Clothes; _i.e._, fashions.

[32] _Chamber-counsellor._ Barrister whose practice is confined to
consultations.

[33] _Divine topic._ Topic of divinity.

NO. 106. MONDAY, JULY 2

_Hinc tibi copia
Manabit ad plenum, benigno
Ruris honorum opulenta cornu._

HOR. _Od._ xvii. l. i. ver. 14.

Here to thee shall plenty flow,
And all her riches show.
To raise the honour of the quiet plain.

CREECH.

Having often received an invitation from my friend Sir Roger de Coverley
to pass away a month with him in the country, I last week accompanied him
thither, and am settled with him for some time at his country-house,
where I intend to form several of my ensuing speculations. Sir Roger, who
is very well acquainted with my humour[34], lets me rise and go to bed
when I please, dine at his own table or in my chamber as I think fit, sit
still and say nothing without bidding me be merry. When the gentlemen of
the country come to see him, he only shows me at a distance: as I have
been walking in his fields, I have observed them stealing a sight of me
over an hedge, and have heard the Knight desiring them not to let me see
them, for that I hated to be stared at.

I am the more at ease in Sir Roger's family, because it consists of sober
and staid persons; for, as the Knight is the best master in the world, he
seldom changes his servants; and as he is beloved by all about him, his
servants never care for leaving him; by this means his domestics are all
in years, and grown old with their master. You would take his _valet de
chambre_ for his brother, his butler is grey-headed, his groom is one of
the gravest men that I have ever seen, and his coachman has the looks of
a privy counsellor. You see the goodness of the master even in the old
house-dog, and in a grey pad[35] that is kept in the stable with great
care and tenderness out of regard to his past services, though he has
been useless for several years.

I could not but observe, with a great deal of pleasure, the joy that
appeared in the countenance of these ancient domestics upon my friend's
arrival at his country seat. Some of them could not refrain from tears at
the sight of their old master; every one of them pressed forward to do
something for him, and seemed discouraged if they were not employed. At
the same time the good old Knight, with a mixture of the father and the
master of the family, tempered the inquiries after his own affairs with
several kind questions relating to themselves. This humanity and
good-nature engages everybody to him, so that when he is pleasant
upon[36] any of them, all his family are in good humour, and none so much
as the person whom he diverts himself with: on the contrary, if he
coughs, or betrays any infirmity of old age, it is easy for a stander-by
to observe a secret concern in the looks of all his servants.

[Illustration: 'Every one of them press'd forward to do something for
him.']

My worthy friend has put me under the particular care of his butler, who
is a very prudent man, and, as well as the rest of his fellow-servants,
wonderfully desirous of pleasing me, because they have often heard their
master talk of me as of his particular friend.

My chief companion, when Sir Roger is diverting himself in the woods or
the fields, is a very venerable man who is ever with Sir Roger, and has
lived at his house in the nature of a chaplain above thirty years. This
gentleman is a person of good sense and some learning, of a very regular
life, and obliging conversation[37]: he heartily loves Sir Roger, and
knows that he is very much in the old Knight's esteem, so that he lives
in the family rather as a relation than a dependent.

I have observed in several of my papers, that my friend Sir Roger, amidst
all his good qualities, is something of an humorist[38]; and that his
virtues, as well as imperfections, are, as it were, tinged by a certain
extravagance, which makes them particularly _his_, and distinguishes them
from those of other men. This cast of mind, as it is generally very
innocent in itself, so it renders his conversation highly agreeable, and
more delightful than the same degree of sense and virtue would appear in
their common and ordinary colours. As I was walking with him last night,
he asked me how I liked the good man whom I have just now mentioned? And
without staying for my answer, told me, that he was afraid of being
insulted with Latin and Greek at his own table; for which reason he
desired a particular friend of his at the University to find him out a
clergyman rather of plain sense than much learning, of a good aspect, a
clear voice, a sociable temper, and, if possible, a man that understood a
little of backgammon. My friend, says Sir Roger, found me out this
gentleman, who, besides the endowments required of him, is, they tell me,
a good scholar, though he does not show it: I have given him the
parsonage of the parish; and because I know his value, have settled upon
him a good annuity for life. If he outlives me, he shall find that he was
higher in my esteem than perhaps he thinks he is. He has now been with me
thirty years; and though he does not know I have taken notice of it, has
never in all that time asked anything of me for himself, though he is
every day soliciting me for something in behalf of one or other of my
tenants, his parishioners. There has not been a law-suit in the parish
since he has lived among them: if any dispute arises they apply
themselves to him for the decision; if they do not acquiesce in his
judgment, which I think never happened above once or twice at most, they
appeal to me. At his first settling with me, I made him a present of all
the good sermons which have been printed in English, and only begged of
him that every Sunday he would pronounce one of them in the pulpit.
Accordingly, he has digested[39] them into such a series, that they
follow one another naturally, and make a continued system of practical
divinity.

As Sir Roger was going on in his story, the gentleman we were talking of
came up to us; and upon the Knight's asking him who preached to-morrow
(for it was Saturday night,) told us, the Bishop of St. Asaph in the
morning, and Dr. South in the afternoon. He then showed us his list of
preachers for the whole year, where I saw with a great deal of pleasure
Archbishop Tillotson, Bishop Saunderson, Dr. Barrow, Dr. Calamy, with
several living authors who have published discourses of practical
divinity. I no sooner saw this venerable man in the pulpit, but I very
much approved of my friend's insisting upon the qualifications of a good
aspect and a clear voice; for I was so charmed with the gracefulness of
his figure and delivery, as well as with the discourses he pronounced,
that I think I never passed any time more to my satisfaction. A sermon
repeated after this manner, is like the composition of a poet in the
mouth of a graceful actor.

I could heartily wish that more of our country clergy would follow this
example; and, instead of wasting their spirits in laborious compositions
of their own, would endeavour after a handsome elocution[40], and all
those other talents that are proper to enforce what has been penned by
greater masters. This would not only be more easy to themselves, but more
edifying to the people.

L.

FOOTNOTES:

[34] _Humour._ Disposition.

[35] _Pad._ Easy-paced horse.

[36] _Is pleasant upon._ Jokes with; chaffs.

[37] _Conversation._ Manner of conducting oneself in intercourse.
Compare note on p. 40.

[38] _Humorist._ Whimsical person.

[39] _Digested._ Arranged.

[40] _Handsome elocution._ Good style of delivery.

NO. 107. TUESDAY, JULY 3

_Aesopo ingentem statuam posuere Attici,
Servumque collocarunt aeterna in basi,
Patere honoris scirent ut cunctis viam._

PHAEDR. _Epilog._ l. 2.

The Athenians erected a large statue to AEsop, and placed him,
though a slave, on a lasting pedestal; to show, that the way to
honour lies open indifferently to all.

The reception, manner of attendance, undisturbed freedom and quiet, which
I meet with here in the country, has confirmed me in the opinion I always
had, that the general corruption of manners in servants is owing to the
conduct of masters. The aspect of every one in the family[41] carries so
much satisfaction, that it appears he knows the happy lot which has
befallen him in being a member of it. There is one particular which I
have seldom seen but at Sir Roger's; it is usual in all other places,
that servants fly from the parts of the house through which their master
is passing; on the contrary, here they industriously[42] place themselves
in his way; and it is on both sides, as it were, understood as a visit
when the servants appear without calling. This proceeds from the humane
and equal temper of the man of the house, who also perfectly well knows
how to enjoy a great estate, with such economy as ever to be much
beforehand[43]. This makes his own mind untroubled, and consequently
unapt to vent peevish expressions, or give passionate or inconsistent
orders to those about him. Thus respect and love go together; and a
certain cheerfulness in performance of their duty is the particular
distinction of the lower part of this family. When a servant is called
before his master, he does not come with an expectation to hear himself
rated for some trivial fault, threatened to be stripped[44] or used with
any other unbecoming language, which mean masters often give to worthy
servants; but it is often to know what road he took, that he came so
readily back according to order; whether he passed by such a ground; if
the old man who rents it is in good health; or whether he gave Sir
Roger's love to him, or the like.

A man who preserves a respect, founded on his benevolence to his
dependents, lives rather like a prince than a master in his family; his
orders are received as favours, rather than duties; and the distinction
of approaching him is part of the reward for executing what is commanded
by him.

There is another circumstance in which my friend excels in his
management, which is the manner of rewarding his servants: he has ever
been of opinion, that giving his cast clothes to be worn by valets has a
very ill effect upon little minds, and creates a silly sense of equality
between the parties, in persons affected only with outward things. I have
heard him often pleasant on this occasion[45], and describe a young
gentleman abusing his man in that coat, which a month or two before was
the most pleasing distinction he was conscious of in himself. He would
turn his discourse still more pleasantly upon the ladies' bounties of
this kind; and I have heard him say he knew a fine woman, who distributed
rewards and punishments in giving becoming or unbecoming dresses to her
maids.

But my good friend is above these little instances of good-will, in
bestowing only trifles on his servants; a good servant to him is sure of
having it in his choice very soon of being no servant at all. As I
before observed, he is so good an husband[46], and knows so thoroughly
that the skill of the purse is the cardinal virtue of this life: I say,
he knows so well that frugality is the support of generosity, that he can
often spare a large fine[47] when a tenement falls, and give that
settlement to a good servant, who has a mind to go into the world, or
make a stranger pay the fine to that servant, for his more comfortable
maintenance, if he stays in his service.

A man of honour and generosity considers it would be miserable to himself
to have no will but that of another, though it were of the best person
breathing, and for that reason goes on as fast as he is able to put his
servants into independent livelihoods. The greatest part of Sir Roger's
estate is tenanted by persons who have served himself or his ancestors.
It was to me extremely pleasant to observe the visitants from several
parts to welcome his arrival in the country; and all the difference that
I could take notice of between the late servants who came to see him, and
those who stayed in the family, was, that these latter were looked upon
as finer gentlemen and better courtiers.

This manumission[48] and placing them in a way of livelihood, I look upon
as only what is due to a good servant, which encouragement will make his
successor be as diligent, as humble, and as ready as he was. There is
something wonderful in the narrowness of those minds, which can be
pleased, and be barren of bounty to those who please them.

One might, on this occasion, recount the sense that great persons in all
ages have had of the merit of their dependents, and the heroic services
which men have done their masters in the extremity of their fortunes; and
shown, to their undone[49] patrons, that fortune was all the
difference[50] between them; but as I design this my speculation only as
a gentle admonition to thankless masters, I shall not go out of the
occurrences of common life, but assert it as a general observation, that
I never saw but in Sir Roger's family, and one or two more, good servants
treated as they ought to be. Sir Roger's kindness extends to their
children's children, and this very morning he sent his coachman's
grandson to prentice. I shall conclude this paper with an account of a
picture in his gallery, where there are many which will deserve my future
observation.

At the very upper end of this handsome structure I saw the portraiture of
two young men standing in a river, the one naked, the other in a livery.
The person supported seemed half dead, but still so much alive as to show
in his face exquisite joy and love towards the other. I thought the
fainting figure resembled my friend Sir Roger; and looking at the butler,
who stood by me, for an account of it, he informed me that the person in
the livery was a servant of Sir Roger's, who stood on the shore while
his master was swimming, and observing him taken with some sudden
illness, and sink under water, jumped in and saved him. He told me Sir
Roger took off the dress[51] he was in as soon as he came home, and by a
great bounty at that time, followed by his favour ever since, had made
him master of that pretty seat which we saw at a distance as we came to
this house. I remembered indeed Sir Roger said there lived a very worthy
gentleman, to whom he was highly obliged, without mentioning anything
further. Upon my looking a little dissatisfied at some part of the
picture, my attendant informed me that it was against Sir Roger's will,
and at the earnest request of the gentleman himself, that he was drawn in
the habit[52] in which he had saved his master.

R.

FOOTNOTES:

[41] _Family._ Family in its original Latin meaning of _household_.

[42] _Industriously._ On purpose.

[43] _With such economy ... beforehand._ With such thrift as always to
be well within his income.

[44] _Stripped._ Discharged.

[45] _Pleasant on this occasion._ Joking on this topic.

[46] _So good an husband._ So thrifty a man.

[47] _Fine._ Premium paid by new tenant to landlord.

[48] _Manumission._ Release from service.

[49] _Undone._ Ruined.

[50] _All the difference._ The only difference.

[51] _Took off the dress._ Dress = livery: _i.e._, would not allow him
to remain a servant.

[52] _Habit._ Dress.

NO. 108. WEDNESDAY, JULY 4

_Gratis anhelans, multa agenda nihil agens._

PHAEDR. _Fab._ v. 1. 2.

Out of breath to no purpose, and very busy about nothing.

As I was yesterday morning walking with Sir Roger before his house, a
country fellow brought him a huge fish, which, he told him, Mr. William
Wimble had caught that very morning; and that he presented it, with his
service to him, and intended to come and dine with him. At the same time
he delivered a letter which my friend read to me as soon as the messenger
left him.

SIR ROGER,

I desire you to accept of a jack[53], which is the best I have
caught this season. I intend to come and stay with you a week, and
see how the perch bite in the Black River. I observed with some
concern, the last time I saw you upon the bowling-green, that your
whip wanted a lash to it; I will bring half a dozen with me that I
twisted last week, which I hope will serve you all the time you are
in the country. I have not been out of the saddle for six days last
past, having been at Eton with Sir John's eldest son. He takes to
his learning hugely. I am, Sir,

Your humble servant,
WILL WIMBLE.

This extraordinary letter, and message that accompanied it, made me very
curious to know the character and quality of the gentleman who sent them;
which I found to be as follows. Will Wimble is younger brother to a
baronet, and descended of the ancient family of the Wimbles. He is now
between forty and fifty; but, being bred to no business and born to no
estate, he generally lives with his elder brother as superintendent of
his game. He hunts a pack of dogs better than any man in the country, and
is very famous for finding out a hare. He is extremely well-versed in all
the little handicrafts of an idle man: he makes a May-fly to a miracle;
and furnishes the whole country[54] with angle-rods. As he is a
good-natured officious[55] fellow, and very much esteemed upon account of
his family, he is a welcome guest at every house, and keeps up a good
correspondence[56] among all the gentlemen about him. He carries a
tulip-root in his pocket from one to another, or exchanges a puppy
between a couple of friends that live perhaps in the opposite sides of
the county. Will is a particular favourite of all the young heirs, whom
he frequently obliges with a net that he has weaved, or a setting dog
that he has made[57] himself: he now and then presents a pair of garters
of his own knitting to their mothers or sisters; and raises a great deal
of mirth among them, by inquiring as often as he meets them _how they
wear_? These gentleman-like manufactures and obliging little humours make
Will the darling of the country.

Sir Roger was proceeding in the character of him, when we saw him make up
to us with two or three hazel-twigs in his hand, that he had cut in Sir
Roger's woods, as he came through them in his way to the house. I was
very much pleased to observe on one side the hearty and sincere welcome
with which Sir Roger received him, and on the other, the secret joy which
his guest discovered[58] at sight of the good old Knight. After the first
salutes were over, Will desired Sir Roger to lend him one of his servants
to carry a set of shuttlecocks he had with him in a little box to a lady
that lived about a mile off, to whom it seems he had promised such a
present for above this half-year. Sir Roger's back was no sooner turned,
but honest Will began to tell me of a large cock pheasant that he had
sprung in one of the neighbouring woods, with two or three other
adventures of the same nature. Odd and uncommon characters are the game
that I look for, and most delight in; for which reason I was as much
pleased with the novelty of the person that talked to me, as he could be
for his life with the springing of a pheasant, and therefore listened to
him with more than ordinary attention.

In the midst of his discourse the bell rung to dinner, where the
gentleman I have been speaking of had the pleasure of seeing the huge
jack, he had caught, served up for the first dish in a most sumptuous
manner. Upon our sitting down to it he gave us a long account how he had
hooked it, played with it, foiled[59] it, and at length drew it out upon
the bank, with several other particulars that lasted all the first
course. A dish of wild-fowl that came afterwards furnished conversation
for the rest of the dinner, which concluded with a late invention of
Will's for improving the quail-pipe[60].

Upon withdrawing into my room after dinner, I was secretly touched with
compassion towards the honest gentleman that had dined with us; and could
not but consider with a great deal of concern, how so good an heart and
such busy hands were wholly employed in trifles; that so much humanity
should be so little beneficial to others, and so much industry so little
advantageous to himself. The same temper of mind and application to
affairs, might have recommended him to the public esteem, and have raised
his fortune in another station of life. What good to his country or
himself might not a trader or merchant have done with such useful though
ordinary qualifications?

Will Wimble's is the case of many a younger brother of a great family,
who had rather see their children starve like gentlemen, than thrive in a
trade or profession that is beneath their quality. This humour[61] fills
several parts of Europe with pride and beggary. It is the happiness of a
trading nation, like ours, that the younger sons, though incapable of any
liberal art or profession, may be placed in such a way of life, as may
perhaps enable them to vie with the best of their family: accordingly we
find several citizens that were launched into the world with narrow
fortunes, rising by an honest industry to greater estates than those of
their elder brothers. It is not improbable but Will was formerly tried at
divinity, law, or physic; and that, finding his genius did not lie that
way, his parents gave him up at length to his own inventions; but
certainly, however improper he might have been for studies of a higher
nature, he was perfectly well turned[62] for the occupations of trade and
commerce. As I think this is a point which cannot be too much
inculcated, I shall desire my reader to compare what I have here written
with what I have said in my twenty-first speculation.

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