Then it was settled that the name of Lady Frances should be put down on the list of bridesmaids, but put down in a doubtful manner,--as is done with other things of great importance.
A few days after Lord Hampstead"s arrival a very great dinner-party was given at the Castle, at which all the county round was invited.
Castle Hautboy is situated near Pooly Bridge, just in the county of Westmoreland, on an eminence, giving it a grand prospect over Ulleswater, which is generally considered to be one of the c.u.mberland Lakes. Therefore the gentry from the two counties were invited as far round as Penrith, Shap, Bampton, and Patterdale. The Earl"s property in that neighbourhood was scattered about through the two counties, and was looked after by a steward, or manager, who lived himself at Penrith, and was supposed to be very efficacious in such duties. His name was Crocker; and not only was he invited to the dinner, but also his son, who happened at the time to be enjoying the month"s holiday which was allowed to him by the authorities of the office in London to which he was attached.
The reader may remember that a smart young man of this name sat at the same desk with George Roden at the General Post Office. Young Crocker was specially delighted with the honour done him on this occasion. He not only knew that his fellow clerk"s friend, Lord Hampstead, was at the Castle, and his sister, Lady Frances, with him; but he also knew that George Roden was engaged to marry that n.o.ble lady! Had he heard this before he left London, he would probably have endeavoured to make some atonement for his insolence to Roden; for he was in truth filled with a strong admiration for the man who had before him the possibility of such high prospects. But the news had only reached him since he had been in the North. Now he thought that he might possibly find an opportunity of making known to Lord Hampstead his intimacy with Roden, and of possibly saying a word--just uttering a hint--as to that future event.
It was long before he could find himself near enough to Lord Hampstead to address him. He had even refused to return home with his father, who did not like being very late on the road, saying that he had got a lift into town in another conveyance. This he did, with the prospect of having to walk six miles into Penrith in his dress boots, solely with the object of saying a few words to Roden"s friend. At last he was successful.
"We have had what I call an extremely pleasant evening, my lord." It was thus he commenced; and Hampstead, whose practice it was to be specially graceful to any one whom he chanced to meet but did not think to be a gentleman, replied very courteously that the evening had been pleasant.
"Quite a thing to remember," continued Crocker.
"Perhaps one remembers the unpleasant things the longest," said Hampstead, laughing.
"Oh, no, my lord, not that. I always forget the unpleasant. That"s what I call philosophy." Then he broke away into the subject that was near his heart. "I wish our friend Roden had been here, my lord."
"Is he a friend of yours?"
"Oh dear, yes;--most intimate. We sit in the same room at the Post Office. And at the same desk,--as thick as thieves, as the saying is.
We often have a crack about your lordship."
"I have a great esteem for George Roden. He and I are really friends.
I know no one for whom I have a higher regard." This he said with an earnest voice, thinking himself bound to express his friendship more loudly than he would have done had the friend been in his own rank of life.
"That"s just what I feel. Roden is a man that will rise."
"I hope so."
"He"ll be sure to get something good before long. They"ll make him a Surveyor, or Chief Clerk, or something of that kind. I"ll back him to have 500 a year before any man in the office. There"ll be a shindy about it, of course. There always is a shindy when a fellow is put up out of his turn. But he needn"t care for that. They can laugh as win.
Eh, my lord!"
"He would be the last to wish an injustice to be done for his own good."
"We"ve got to take that as it comes, my lord. I won"t say but what I should like to go up at once to a senior cla.s.s over other men"s heads. There isn"t a chance of that, because I"m independent, and the seniors don"t like me. Old Jerningham is always down upon me just for that reason. You ask Roden, and he"ll tell you the same thing,--my lord." Then came a momentary break in the conversation, and Lord Hampstead was seizing advantage of it to escape. But Crocker, who had taken enough wine to be bold, saw the attempt, and intercepted it. He was desirous of letting the lord know all that he knew. "Roden is a happy dog, my lord."
"Happy, I hope, though not a dog," said Hampstead, trusting that he could retreat gracefully behind the joke.
"Ha, ha, ha! The dog only meant what a lucky fellow he is. I have heard him speak in raptures of what is in store for him."
"What!"
"There"s no happiness like married happiness; is there, my lord?"
"Upon my word, I can"t say. Good night to you."
"I hope you will come and see me and Roden at the office some of these days."
"Good night, good night!" Then the man did go. For a moment or two Lord Hampstead felt actually angry with his friend. Could it be that Roden should make so little of his sister"s name as to talk about her to the Post Office clerks,--to so mean a fellow as this! And yet the man certainly knew the fact of the existing engagement. Hampstead thought it impossible that it should have travelled beyond the limits of his own family. It was natural that Roden should have told his mother; but unnatural,--so Hampstead thought,--that his friend should have made his sister a subject of conversation to any one else. It was horrible to him that a stranger such as that should have spoken to him about his sister at all. But surely it was not possible that Roden should have sinned after that fashion. He soon resolved that it was not possible. But how grievous a thing it was that a girl"s name should be made so common in the mouths of men!
After that he sauntered into the smoking-room, where were congregated the young men who were staying in the house. "That"s a kind of thing that happens only once a year," said Hautboy, speaking to all the party; "but I cannot, for the life of me, see why it should happen at all."
"Your governor finds that it succeeds in the county," said one.
"He polishes off a whole heap at one go," said another.
"It does help to keep a party together," said a third.
"And enables a lot of people to talk of dining at Castle Hautboy without lying," said a fourth.
"But why should a lot of people be enabled to say that they"d dined here?" asked Hautboy. "I like to see my friends at dinner. What did you think about it, Hampstead?"
"It"s all according to Hampstead"s theories," said one.
"Only he"d have had the tinkers and the tailors too," said another.
"And wouldn"t have had the ladies and gentlemen," said a third.
"I would have had the tailors and tinkers," said Hampstead, "and I would have had the ladies and gentlemen, too, if I could have got them to meet the tailors and tinkers;--but I would not have had that young man who got me out into the hall just now."
"Why,--that was Crocker, the Post Office clerk," said Hautboy. "Why shouldn"t we have a Post Office clerk as well as some one else?
Nevertheless, Crocker is a sad cad." In the mean time Crocker was walking home to Penrith in his dress boots.
CHAPTER XIII.
THE BRAESIDE HARRIERS.
The Braeside Harriers can hardly be called a "crack" pack of hounds. Lord Hautboy had been right in saying that they were always scrambling through ravines, and that they hunted whatever they could find to hunt. Nevertheless, the men and the hounds were in earnest, and did accomplish a fair average of sport under difficult circ.u.mstances. No "Pegasus" or "Littlelegs," or "Pigskin," ever sent accounts of wondrous runs from c.u.mberland or Westmoreland to the sporting papers, in which the gentlemen who had asked the special Pigskin of the day to dinner were described as having been "in"
at some "glorious finish" on their well-known horses Banker or Buff,--the horses named being generally those which the gentlemen wished to sell. The names of gorses and brooks had not become historic, as have those of Ranksborough and Whissendine. Trains were not run to suit this or the other meet. Gentlemen did not get out of fast drags with pretty little ap.r.o.ns tied around their waists, like girls in a country house coming down to breakfast. Not many perhaps wore pink coats, and none pink tops. One horse would suffice for one day"s work. An old a.s.sistant huntsman in an old red coat, with one boy mounted on a ragged pony, served for an establishment. The whole thing was despicable in the eyes of men from the Quorn and Cottesmore. But there was some wonderful riding and much constant sport with the Braeside Harriers, and the country had given birth to certainly the best hunting song in the language;--
Do you ken John Peel with his coat so gay; Do you ken John Peel at the break of day; Do you ken John Peel when he"s far, far away With his hounds and his horn in the morning.
Such as the Braeside Harriers were, Lord Hampstead determined to make the experiment, and on a certain morning had himself driven to Cronelloe Thorn, a favourite meet halfway between Penrith and Keswick.
I hold that nothing is so likely to be permanently prejudicial to the interest of hunting in the British Isles as a certain flavour of tip-top fashion which has gradually enveloped it. There is a pretence of grandeur about that and, alas, about other sports also, which is, to my thinking, destructive of all sport itself. Men will not shoot unless game is made to appear before them in clouds. They will not fish unless the rivers be exquisite. To row is nothing unless you can be known as a national hero. Cricket requires appendages which are troublesome and costly, and by which the minds of economical fathers are astounded. To play a game of hockey in accordance with the times you must have a specially trained pony and a gaudy dress. Racquets have given place to tennis because tennis is costly. In all these cases the fashion of the game is much more cherished than the game itself. But in nothing is this feeling so predominant as in hunting.
For the management of a pack, as packs are managed now, a huntsman needs must be a great man himself, and three mounted subordinates are necessary, as at any rate for two of these servants a second horse is required. A hunt is nothing in the world unless it goes out four times a week at least. A run is nothing unless the pace be that of a steeplechase. Whether there be or be not a fox before the hounds is of little consequence to the great body of riders. A bold huntsman who can make a dash across country from one covert to another, and who can so train his hounds that they shall run as though game were before them, is supposed to have provided good sport. If a fox can be killed in covert afterwards so much the better for those who like to talk of their doings. Though the hounds brought no fox with them, it is of no matter. When a fox does run according to his nature he is reviled as a useless brute, because he will not go straight across country. But the worst of all is the attention given by men to things altogether outside the sport. Their coats and waistcoats, their boots and breeches, their little strings and pretty scarfs, their saddles and bridles, their dandy knick-knacks, and, above all, their flasks, are more to many men than aught else in the day"s proceedings. I have known girls who have thought that their first appearance in the ball-room, when all was fresh, unstained, and perfect from the milliner"s hand, was the one moment of rapture for the evening. I have sometimes felt the same of young sportsmen at a Leicestershire or Northamptonshire meet. It is not that they will not ride when the occasion comes. They are always ready enough to break their bones. There is no greater mistake than to suppose that dandyism is antagonistic to pluck. The fault is that men train themselves to care for nothing that is not as costly as unlimited expenditure can make it. Thus it comes about that the real love of sport is crushed under a desire for fashion. A man will be almost ashamed to confess that he hunts in Ess.e.x or Suss.e.x, because the proper thing is to go down to the Shires. Gra.s.s, no doubt, is better than ploughed land to ride upon; but, taking together the virtues and vices of all hunting counties, I doubt whether better sport is not to be found in what I will venture to call the haunts of the clodpoles, than among the palmy pastures of the well-breeched beauties of Leicestershire.
Braeside Harriers though they were, a strong taste for foxes had lately grown up in the minds of men and in the noses of hounds. Blank days they did not know, because a hare would serve the turn if the n.o.bler animal were not forthcoming; but ideas of preserving had sprung up; steps were taken to solace the minds of old women who had lost their geese; and the Braeside Harriers, though they had kept their name, were gradually losing their character. On this occasion the hounds were taken off to draw a covert instead of going to a so-ho, as regularly as though they were advertised among the fox-hounds in _The Times_. It was soon known that Lord Hampstead was Lord Hampstead, and he was welcomed by the field. What matter that he was a revolutionary Radical if he could ride to hounds? At any rate, he was the son of a Marquis, and was not left to that solitude which sometimes falls upon a man who appears suddenly as a stranger among strangers on a hunting morning. "I am glad to see you out, my lord,"
said Mr. Amblethwaite, the Master. "It isn"t often that we get recruits from Castle Hautboy."
"They think a good deal of shooting there."
"Yes; and they keep their horses in Northamptonshire. Lord Hautboy does his hunting there. The Earl, I think, never comes out now."