the first. The present Earl De Guest, brother
of that Lady Fanny who ran away with Major Dale, was
an unmarried nobleman, who devoted himself chiefly
to the breeding of cattle. And as he bred very
good cattle, taking infinite satisfaction in the employment,
devoting all his energies thereto, and abstaining
from all prominently evil courses, it should be acknowledged
that he was not a bad member of society. He was
a thorough-going old Tory, whose proxy was always in
the hand of the leader of his party; and who seldom
himself went near the metropolis, unless called thither
by some occasion of cattle-showing. He was a
short, stumpy man, with red cheeks and a round face;
who was usually to be seen till dinner-time dressed
in a very old shooting coat, with breeches, gaiters,
and very thick shoes. He lived generally out
of doors, and was almost as great in the preserving
of game as in the breeding of oxen. He knew every
acre of his own estate, and every tree upon it, as
thoroughly as a lady knows the ornaments in her drawing-room.
There was no gap in a fence of which he did not remember
the exact bearings, no path hither or thither as to
which he could not tell the why and the wherefore.
He had been in his earlier years a poor man as regarded
his income,—very poor, seeing that he was
an earl. But he was not at present by any means
an impoverished man, having been taught a lesson by
the miseries of his father and grandfather, and having
learned to live within his means. Now, as he
was going down the vale of years, men said that he
was becoming rich, and that he had ready money to
spend,—a position in which no Lord De Guest
had found himself for many generations back.
His father and grandfather had been known as spendthrifts;
and now men said that this earl was a miser.
There was not much of nobility in his appearance;
but they greatly mistook Lord De Guest who conceived
that on that account his pride of place was not dear
to his soul. His peerage dated back to the time
of King John, and there were but three lords in England
whose patents had been conferred before his own.
He knew what privileges were due to him on behalf
of his blood, and was not disposed to abate one jot
of them. He was not loud in demanding them.
As he went through the world he sent no trumpeters
to the right or left, proclaiming that the Earl De
Guest was coming. When he spread his board for
his friends, which he did but on rare occasions, he
entertained them simply with a mild, tedious, old-fashioned
courtesy. We may say that, if properly treated,
the earl never walked over anybody. But he could,
if ill-treated, be grandly indignant; and if attacked,
could hold his own against all the world. He
knew himself to be every inch an earl, pottering about
after his oxen with his muddy gaiters and red cheeks,
as much as though he were glittering with stars in
courtly royal ceremonies among his peers at Westminster,—ay,
more an earl than any of those who use their nobility
for pageant purposes. Woe be to him who should
mistake that old coat for a badge of rural degradation!
Now and again some unlucky wight did make such a mistake,
and had to do his penance very uncomfortably.