Bracebridge Hall

The Busy Man

I visited him, the morning after my arrival, in his chamber, which is in

a remote corner of the mansion, as he says he likes to be to himself,

and out of the way. He has fitted it up in his own taste, so that it is

a perfect epitome of an old bachelor's notions of convenience and

arrangement. The furniture is made up of odd pieces from all parts of

the house, chosen on account of their suiting his notions, or fitting

some corner of his apartment; and he is very eloquent in praise of an

ancient elbow-chair, from which he takes occasion to digress into a

censure on modern chairs, as having degenerated from the dignity and

comfort of high-backed antiquity.

Adjoining to his room is a small cabinet, which he calls his study. Here

are some hanging shelves, of his own construction, on which are several

old works on hawking, hunting, and farriery, and a collection or two of

poems and songs of the reign of Elizabeth, which he studies out of

compliment to the squire; together with the Novelists' Magazine, the

Sporting Magazine, the Racing Calendar, a volume or two of the Newgate

Calendar, a book of peerage, and another of heraldry.

His sporting dresses hang on pegs in a small closet; and about the walls

of his apartment are hooks to hold his fishing-tackle, whips, spurs, and

a favourite fowling-piece, curiously wrought and inlaid, which he

inherits from his grandfather. He has also a couple of old single-keyed

flutes, and a fiddle, which he has repeatedly patched and mended

himself, affirming it to be a veritable Cremona: though I have never

heard him extract a single note from it that was not enough to make

one's blood run cold.

From this little nest his fiddle will often be heard, in the stillness

of mid-day, drowsily sawing some long-forgotten tune; for he prides

himself on having a choice collection of good old English music, and

will scarcely have anything to do with modern composers. The time,

however, at which his musical powers are of most use is now and then of

an evening, when he plays for the children to dance in the hall, and he

passes among them and the servants for a perfect Orpheus.

His chamber also bears evidence of his various avocations; there are

half copied sheets of music; designs for needlework; sketches of

landscapes, very indifferently executed; a camera lucida; a magic

lantern, for which he is endeavouring to paint glasses; in a word, it is

the cabinet of a man of many accomplishments, who knows a little of

everything, and does nothing well.

After I had spent some time in his apartment admiring the ingenuity of

his small inventions, he took me about the establishment, to visit the

stables, dog-kennel, and other dependencies, in which he appeared like a

general visiting the different quarters of his camp; as the squire

leaves the control of all these matters to him, when he is at the Hall.

He inquired into the state of the horses; examined their feet;

prescribed a drench for one, and bleeding for another; and then took me

to look at his own horse, on the merits of which he dwelt with great

prolixity, and which, I noticed, had the best stall in the stable.

After this I was taken to a new toy of his and the squire's, which he

termed the falconry, where there were several unhappy birds in durance,

completing their education. Among the number was a fine falcon, which

Master Simon had in especial training, and he told me that he would show

me, in a few days, some rare sport of the good old-fashioned kind. In

the course of our round, I noticed that the grooms, gamekeeper,

whippers-in, and other retainers, seemed all to be on somewhat of a

familiar footing with Master Simon, and fond of having a joke with him,

though it was evident they had great deference for his opinion in

matters relating to their functions.

There was one exception, however, in a testy old huntsman, as hot as a

pepper-corn; a meagre, wiry old fellow, in a threadbare velvet

jockey-cap, and a pair of leather breeches, that, from much wear, shone

as though they had been japanned. He was very contradictory and

pragmatical, and apt, as I thought, to differ from Master Simon now and

then out of mere captiousness. This was particularly the case with

respect to the treatment of the hawk, which the old man seemed to have

under his peculiar care, and, according to Master Simon, was in a fair

way to ruin; the latter had a vast deal to say about _casting_, and

_imping_, and _gleaming_, and _enseaming_, and giving the hawk the

_rangle_, which I saw was all heathen Greek to old Christy; but he

maintained his point notwithstanding, and seemed to hold all his

technical lore in utter disrespect.

I was surprised at the good humour with which Master Simon bore his

contradictions, till he explained the matter to me afterwards. Old

Christy is the most ancient servant in the place, having lived among

dogs and horses the greater part of a century, and been in the service

of Mr. Bracebridge's father. He knows the pedigree of every horse on the

place, and has bestrid the great-great-grandsires of most of them. He

can give a circumstantial detail of every fox-hunt for the last sixty or

seventy years, and has a history of every stag's head about the house,

and every hunting trophy nailed to the door of the dog-kennel.

All the present race have grown up under his eye, and humour him in his

old age. He once attended the squire to Oxford when he was a student

there, and enlightened the whole university with his hunting lore. All

this is enough to make the old man opinionated, since he finds, on all

these matters of first-rate importance, he knows more than the rest of

the world. Indeed, Master Simon had been his pupil, and acknowledges

that he derived his first knowledge in hunting from the instructions of

Christy; and I much question whether the old man does not still look

upon him as rather a greenhorn.

On our return homewards, as we were crossing the lawn in front of the

house, we heard the porter's bell ring at the lodge, and shortly

afterwards, a kind of cavalcade advanced slowly up the avenue. At sight

of it my companion paused, considered for a moment, and then, making a

sudden exclamation, hurried away to meet it. As it approached I

discovered a fair, fresh-looking elderly lady, dressed in an

old-fashioned riding-habit, with a broad-brimmed white beaver hat, such

as may be seen in Sir Joshua Reynolds' paintings. She rode a sleek white

pony, and was followed by a footman in rich livery, mounted on an

over-fed hunter. At a little distance in the rear came an ancient

cumbrous chariot, drawn by two very corpulent horses, driven by as

corpulent a coachman, beside whom sat a page dressed in a fanciful green

livery. Inside of the chariot was a starched prim personage, with a look

somewhat between a lady's companion and a lady's maid; and two pampered

curs that showed their ugly faces and barked out of each window.

There was a general turning out of the garrison to receive this new

comer. The squire assisted her to alight, and saluted her

affectionately; the fair Julia flew into her arms, and they embraced

with the romantic fervour of boarding-school friends. She was escorted

into the house by Julia's lover, towards whom she showed distinguished

favour; and a line of the old servants, who had collected in the hall,

bowed most profoundly as she passed.

I observed that Master Simon was most assiduous and devout in his

attentions upon this old lady. He walked by the side of her pony up the

avenue; and while she was receiving the salutations of the rest of the

family, he took occasion to notice the fat coachman, to pat the sleek

carriage-horses, and, above all, to say a civil word to my lady's

gentlewoman, the prim, sour-looking vestal in the chariot.

I had no more of his company for the rest of the morning. He was swept

off in the vortex that followed in the wake of this lady. Once indeed

he paused for a moment, as he was hurrying on some errand of the good

lady's, to let me know that this was Lady Lillycraft, a sister of the

squire's, of large fortune, which the captain would inherit, and that

her estate lay in one of the best sporting counties in all England.