CHAPTER IV.

Arcadian Fancies-Some Account of the Town and Family of Humdrum-the Earl of Fitzsham-Lord Plush-The Village of Drudgewell-Estimate of Rural Life-Facts from the "Morning Chronicle" - Remedies - Peasant Proprietorship-The Farmers of Switzerland-Flanders -Depreciation of the Standard of Comfort-Picture from Crabbe-from Wordsworth-The Peasant of Oxfordshire Human Interest of every Grade of Life Bishop Earles' Portrait of a Plain Country Fellow-Peasantry of Norfolk-Relative Education of the Peasantry -Cumberland-Influence of Mountain Scenery in the Formation of Character-Northumberland-Quotations from Dr. Gilley-Average Character of the English Peasantry.

Do you know the little town of HUMDRUM? Do you know the Right Honourable the Earl of Scamperdown, whose ancestral residence has been for many years at Humdrum? Well, Humdrum is not a place likely to become revolutionary, nor is his lordship likely to head a revolution. Humdrum was a place of importance in history; frequently it figures in the page of English story. In the archives of its old castles are many stories of royal personages who took shelter or received hospitality beneath its massive turrets. There is a room which is still called the Queen's Chamber, because old Queen Bess spent some few days there in one of her royal progresses. The Stuarts always had faith

ful friends in Humdrum, and in the noble family of Scamperdown. And although there were found there, during one sad period, some wicked Puritans, yet, how speedily were their non-conformist noses slit, their feet placed in the stocks, and their property confiscated. I will confess, that as I have stepped through the chambers of Humdrum Castle, a feeling of awe for the antiquity of the spot has crept over me. As I have passed down its stately corridors and long galleries, and looked at the pictures of the fair and faultless ladies of the illustrious house, and the noble, stern, and richly clad men to whom they had given birth, I am not certain that it was a very democratic feeling that crept over me; and then the politeness, the courtesy of the heads of the house, these have very frequently almost converted me from my radical propensities. Very well do I remember once waiting on his lordship, with a note of introduction in reference to some matters of business. A tall handsome man stepped out from the breakfast room to meet me, and introduced me to the countess: I was invited to a vacant place and instantly made to feel myself at home. The two or three persons near me all combined to set me perfectly at ease; and as soon as I had time to think at all,. I was astonished to find how much more easily I seemed to glide into the sympathies of this family, than into those of some of the wealthy manufacturers with whom I had on some occasions met. Around me in the room were several selected portraits of some men who had

spent their boyhood and youth there;-from that room had gone forth the men who had become bishops in the church, generals in the army, admirals in the navy, and chancellors on the bench. In my ignorance, I had imagined all lords to be ogres, with stars on their breasts, and all countesses to be sneering, scornful, stately beauties. That morning effected a great change. Listening with all deference to me, and inducing me to talk, before I left I had nearly made up my mind that it was possible for lords and ladies to be possessed of some humanity, and that generosity and gentleness might be found even among some of the members of the house of Humdrum. I was young then, and have learned to feel differently, and to prize innate humanity more. But I have often thought since, when I have heard some very loud in their vehement protestations of attachment to democracy, "Ah friend, I wonder how you would feel if the Earl of Humdrum asked you to breakfast!" The most note-worthy circumstance in the town of Humdrum, and in its castle and family too, is the spirit of nogoishness-all things continue as they were from the beginning; the castle stands, still overlooking the little feudal village, with the fields lying round it, but it seems as though it might not inappropriately be transferred to Sleepy Hollow." I have conceived, that the very air hangs heavy, woods and waters seem to lose their freedom; for certainly, however courteous his lordship may be to strangers, he tolerates no intrusion upon the modes and

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practices of the days of old. Things go on very happily; the people do not desire that they should be different; the tradesmen find it to their advantage to hold their tongues; indeed, they are bound over by their half-yearly and annual accounts, to keep the peace, to hold no strange doctrines, to say no unpleasant things, to read no books at all, or only books without souls, to read no newspapers unless it be the "Conservative Graball," or the "Independent Fudge." And thus, with all these precautions, things go on nearly as they ought to do.

Allied to the family of Humdrum is, “A gentleman and nobleman of the old school," the Earl of Fitzsham, retaining as much of the Squire Western about him as possible in such a day as ours. He still boasts of being on easy and friendly terms with all the people on his estates: that is, he looks on his villages as kennels, where he keeps his dogs, and prides himself on spending a good part of the year (in all about three months,) on his estates in the country. To do him all justice, he is not pompous in his equipage or furniture, save on great occasions, when he makes an extraordinary glitter; but he is proud of his blood and his birth, and has more regard for the poorest peer, whose ignoble blood

"Has crept through scoundrels ever since the flood,"

than for the richest railway king whose father was a draper or a barber. He has an instinctive abhorrence and jealousy of all trade, tradesmen,

manufacturers, or merchants; he looks on them askance, as if he thought them very suspicious characters, and somewhat unconstitutional. As to his religion, it is derived from the state, the only party he thinks that has any business to interfere with such matters; it never occurred to him to ask whether he had a faith or not: but, on the whole, it seems most generous in him to suppose, that he regards all religions as a great pretence and show. He hates me chanics' institutes, and the printing-press and newspapers almost as much, though he does sometimes subscribe for 200 or 300 copies of the "Fitzsham Advertiser," or the "Independent Fudge," when either has reported and re-edited his speech at the "Agricultural Show," or the "Annual Meeting of the Gentlemen of the Hunt." He was educated at Oxford, where he learned to "drink, tie cravats, and drive a tandem." He is a magistrate, and thinks it incumbent upon him to make especial example of poachers. He is now and then in the House, but thinks it a confounded bore;" never doubts for a moment that the country is in a most awful state, and believes we don't know the mischief that those railways are doing to the agricultural interests. He has sense enough to know, that at any rate they are downright levellers. The place where he lives has for ages borne the beautiful and appropriate name of Fitzsham! situated in the county of Dumdrudge. When his lordship is at home the banner is seen flying from the castle turret. Dumdrudge gives the name to his lordship's