Popular Tales ... Illustrated by ... C. Hammond. With an introduction by Anne Thackeray Ritchie

Introduction

BY ANNE THACKERAY RITCHIE ILontion MACMILLAN AND CO. AND NEW YORK i895 All rights reserved

INTRODUCTION.

We all of us sometimes want literature not only for ourselves, but for simpler souls, for sick and sorry people, for quiet folks laid by and wanting distraction, for village libraries, for children and servants. Few books would seem more suited to such needs than some of the shorter and simpler tales by Miss Edgeworth. The stories are interesting and suggestive; they take one out of morbid preoccupations into fresh air, — into the fields and cottage gardens. One can almost see the apple-trees growing, the flowers in bloom, the crops waving in plenty, the sleek cattle grazing or driven by the farmer. It is a world where everything happens delightfully pat and neatly pro portioned. So much virtue, so much reward ; so much work, so many plums. It is a world where the minor qualities certainly carry the day, and the greater emotions modestly take the inferior places.

Love plays a small part ; economy, propriety, diligence are the dictators of this com fortable universe ; a certain amount of broken legs, bad debts, and ill-humoured agents are the chief problems the inhabitants have to solve. There is the hangman, to be sure, in the background, but he is taken as a matter of course. The limits of such experience may seem narrow to grown-up people, but they are admirable for children. ' Children like facts. They like short, vivid sentences that tell the story. As they listen intently, so do they read. POPULAR TALES Every word has its value for them. It has been a real surprise to the writer of this essay, on re-reading some of those scenes of scenery and adventure, which she had not looked at for years, to find that details which she had imagined spread over much space and print, are all contained in a few sentences.' I have ventured to quote from an essay written some years ago, but the passage seems to me no less true now than it did then ; and if we take, for instance, the description of Lame Jervas, and his escape from the mine where he has spent his life, and where the miners have plotted his death, we feel that the story almost rises to poetry in its truth, simplicity, and directness.

Is not truth the very soul of poetry ? Jervas's master had helped him to get away, and leads him out in the night. The morning clouds begin to clear as Jervas stands waiting for the waggon in which he is to escape. He sadly watches his one friend walking away across the fields, and the waggon slowly moves on. Then the sun rises. Lame Jervas, to whom the rising sun is a spectacle wholly surprising, starts up, exclaiming in wonder and admiration. The waggoner bursts into a loud laugh. ' Lud-a-mercy,' says he, 'to hear 'un and look at 'un, a body would think the oaf had never seen the sun rise afore.' This was true enough, and the boy remembers that he is not yet out of danger of discovery, and is silent. Mr. Hardy himself never wrote a more striking sketch than the history of Lame Jervas's escape from the mine in his waggon.

One feels as one reads on that the greater writers, however different in their aims and methods, reach now and then to a common country beyond our horizons. They carry us along with them in their flight; they leave us on Pisgah. For a moment we breathe a serener atmosphere, we look afar, and then suddenly the revelation is gone ! In the case

INTRODUCTION.

of Lame Jervas, one scrambles down hill in company with a tiresome Indian Rajah and a jealous lecturer, and finds one self miles away from heavenly summits with Jervas's peep show, exhibiting little stuffed men rolling wheelbarrows, which I cannot help thinking Mr. Edgeworth must have suggested. Popular Tales was published in 1812; indeed much of Miss Edgeworth's best work was done in the first dozen years of the century. In these stories one finds many traces of the daily life at Edgeworthstown — of the master of the house and his various interests, the intelligent manufacturers, the experiments in mechanics, the sketches of peasant life; all reflect in their various ways the interests of the cheerful, animated family and its many friends. As it has been said, the Darwins, the Wedgwoods, the Hollands were all in warm and constant relations with the Edge worths.

The intimacy between the Edgeworth family and the Strutts of Derby was one which continued for many years, with ever-increasing cordiality and sympathy on either side ; and of this friendship one certainly finds many traces. When Mr. and Mrs. Edgeworth and Miss Edgeworth visited Derby they stayed some time with Mr. Strutt and his family, and went over his mills, which interested them immensely. Mr. Strutt and Mr. Edgeworth both had a taste for mechanics, but besides corresponding upon such subjects as centrifugal force and axles and cylinders, they also kept each other informed of the family events, happy and sad : the marriages, the love-makings, the illnesses. A letter from Ireland to Derby in those days cost is. 8d. No wonder people used large sheets and wrote their lines close together.

From this correspondence we find that Mr. Edgeworth, among other things, was one of the first originators of the tunnel across the Menai Straits ; he had modified X POPULAR TALES some of the plans which had been shown him. ' I would put the parts together in a dock on shore,' says he, ' with gates opening into the river ; and it might be balanced and ballasted with sand.' Miss Edgeworth subsequently wrote that her father had given up his intention of competing for the passage across the Menai Straits, and had come down to a spire forty feet high ! In September 1813 Miss Edgeworth is asking Mr. Strutt to look through an account of Spinning Jennies written by her for the sequel of Harry and Lucy. Mr. Strutt kindly agrees, and in the second letter Miss Edgeworth says, ' I am not certain that you would like to have it supposed that Mr. Belper is meant for you or any of your family.' It is curious to notice in all this correspondence the difficulties authors had to undergo in those days in their efforts to forward their Manuscripts ; these travel round from one Member of Parliament to another, rejected by some and delayed by others.

A mere note, as we have seen, cost is. 8d. Mr. Strutt having criticised the MS., Miss Edgeworth says, ' I would not write to you, my dear friend, till I could offer you certain proof that I had paid all due deference to your opinioa I set to work, and in the course of that week re-wrote the whole, but I have never been able to obtain a means of conveying the MS. to you.' There is a very early letter from Mr. Edgeworth inviting Mr. Strutt to Ireland. ' Few Englishmen are acquainted with the inhabitants of this country, and very few of the Irish gentry are acquainted with their inferiors. Do me the favour and the justice,' he says, ' to visit Edgeworthstown, where I can show you the real character of the people.' People complain that there is an element of matter-of-fact in most of Miss Edgeworth's writing, combined with much of intuition and cleverness. But in some of her Irish stories, —

INTRODUCTION.

in Castle Rackrent, for instance, — it seems as if there was something far beyond cleverness ; the spirit of a nation breathes in some of its pages. The Popular Tales are less romantic, but they are delightful and characteristic, and give a vivid picture of the times. They are not confined only to Irish stories ; among others, The Lottery Ticket brings us to London, where we hear of Mr. Belton's ' country-house near Paddington,' and of the good little boy who refuses to taste alcohol, and who is taken to see the wild beasts at Exeter 'Change. There is a curious description of the scenes at a lottery-office, of the disappointed footman pouring forth a volley of oaths, declaring that he should be in gaol before night, to which the unfeeling official only answers, ' I can't help it, sir, I can't help it.' Another man is carried out in a dead faint when his number is passed over. ' You are going without your change,' cried the clerk to the hero, who, touched by compassion, was following those who were carrying out the senseless man.

When he gets into the street he sees the poor creature sitting on a step supported by the hackney-coachman, who holds vinegar to his nose. Such Hogarthian scenes as these prepare us for even grimmer realities, such as the execution of Leonard Ludgate, which is casually mentioned in the story called Out of Debt. His life might have been spared, so Miss Edgeworth points out, had his wife not ran up a milliner's account, and taken a forged bank-note out of her husband's desk to pay for it. 'The plate would doubtless have been retouched had not this bill been prematurely circulated by Mrs. Ludgate.' ' Many applications were made to obtain a pardon for Leonard Ludgate, but the executive power preserved that firmness which has not ever been relaxed,' says the authoress sternly ; and no doubt Mrs. Ludgate the widow, if she ever POPULAR TALES married again, would have learnt to avoid driving her husband to forgery to pay for her superabundant millinery.

Rosanna was always a favourite with the present writer. It deals with gentler scenes. It is a story something like The Absentee, with a simple fragrance of country things, and quiet events, which charm one as one reads. Per haps readers with a certain admixture of Irish blood in their veins may be more naturally dazzled and interested by tales of thrift, assiduity, and moderation, than others to whom such qualities come more easily, and as a birthright. There are two sorts of content, says Miss Edgeworth ; one is connected with exertion, the other with habits of indolence. Steady Farmer Gray, who is always up so early, who repairs his fences, who is so punctual with his rent, is a pleasant contrast to Simon O'Dougherty, who replies to his wife's remonstrances, 'The saints above must take care of you now, Ally, for I'm fairly tired out, and I must go a hunting with my friend Sir Hyacinth to recruit my spirits.' Needless to say the contented Simon finds his horse so lame that it can scarcely walk.

He immediately gives away a valuable field for a hunter, which the agent offers in exchange, and upon which Simon rides off delightedly. Farmer Gray prospers after some vicissitudes, and the story concludes with a real letter, which he is said to have written in his own name to Mr. Edgeworth, with many excellent sentiments, such as 'Thrice happy are they who in affluence try to amend the morals of mankind,' and more remarks of a similar nature. One likes the farmer's doings better than his copy-book philosophy. The Manufacturers and The Will and The Contrast are all stories delineating the different fates of the diligent and lazy. To-morrow tells its own story. ' Oh, this detestable To-morrow : a thing always

INTRODUCTION.

expected, yet never found,' is the motto quoted from Dr. Johnson. ' This story,' she says in a letter to Miss Sneyd, ' on the evils of procrastination, a subject recommended by Dr. Beaufort, was written in '99, and first called By and By.' One word must be said for The Limerick Gloves, with its pretty love-making ; the story of Phœbe Hill, who is hurt with her Irish adorer O'Neill, who gives her the gloves, for saying he expects she will put them on immediately. She does not know, so the author tells us, that ' to expect ' in Ireland is the same as ' to hope ' in England. CONTENTS Lame Jervas ...... 3 The Will ....... 59 The Limerick Gloves . . . . .107 Out of Debt out of Danger .... 137 The Lottery . . . . . .171 Rosanna . . . . . .' . 207 Murad the Unlucky ..... 259 The Manufacturers ..... 295 The Contrast . . ■ ■ • .335 The Grateful Negro . . . . .419 To-morrow ......

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PACE "Well, cousin Lucy, what say you now? Shall I bespeak a bonnet for you, hey ? " ' . . . Frontispiece I looked up towards my murderer, expecting the stroke >3 I stood fixed to the spot ' 34 ' The generous young prince presented to me that violet-coloured diamond which I brought for him ' . . . 53 ' Goodenough laid down his knife and fork ; and, sticking his arms akimbo, laughed contemptuously ' . 63 76 ' Leaning pensively on the counter ' "Well, cousin Lucy, what say you now? Shall I bespeak a bonnet for you, hey ? " ' . 95 ' " Ay — look, here he comes, with two bits of rags in his hand. — Now for it ! " ' ioi 108 ' " I'm ready, papa," replied Phœbe ; and down she came' ' She laid the gloves perfectly smooth, and strewed over them the leaves of a rose *....'■ n8 The solemnity of our verger gave way to laughter ' 131 ' Phœbe appeared the next day, at Mr. Marshal's, in the Limerick gloves . 135 ' The surprise and consternation which appeared in Mr. Ludgate's countenance convinced the lady that her interference was highly disagreeable '...•■ POPULAR TALES TAGE ' The sight of the bank-notes, the pressure of immediate distress, conspired to tempt Ludgate ' . 15S '"For this — for this! you vain, you ugly creature, you have brought your husband to the gallows !

" ' . 166 ' " A prize ! a prize, Dolly ! " cried he, as soon as he had breath to speak ' ...... 179 ' " Don't turn away from me, husband ! Who in the world loves you so well as I do ? " ' . 191 ' " Oh ! laud ! laud ! that I should live to see all this ! ' '95 '"What is it, Maurice?'" 201 " The button is off ihe neck of this greatcoat of mine, and how will I keep it on ? " ' 210 " I'm sure, Ally, I shall be content 23° '"Rose, I hope, is not disappointed about this ball; are you, my little Rose ? " ' 234 To congratulate them, as he said, upon his own carelessness' 256 ' Provoked beyond measure at my obstinacy, as she called it, she left the house '..... 264 ' My vase, in a few instants, burst asunder ' 2S2 ' He pretended he had not the right key, and could not unlock the chest ' 290 It was torn in a deplorable manner ' 3oi He rudely plucked the skirt from her grasp, and rushed out of the house ' 309 " May I believe my eyes ?

William ! Is it you ? " 320 "I am to thank you, Mr. Germaine, for the many obliging things you have said of me this last hour ! " ' 327 ' The scornful lady walked off to a looking-glass 341 ' " I can consider nothing but my poor brother," said Patty. The lock of the door turned quickly in her hand ' . 363 It is a thousand pities, Mrs. Cheviott, you can't see what a fine book we have got, full of bank-notes ! " ' LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE ' Frank pulled off the badge-coat, as he called it' . .416 " Buy both of us. You shall not repent of it " ' . . 423 ' It caught on a nail in the lid, and was torn ' . . . 436 ' The sorceress clapped her hands ' . . . . 439 ' At the moment when my birth was announced to him, he had his finger upon the name Basil' .... 444 ' " Cannot you marry him without my consent ?" ' . -47' ' He followed me, and stood by me while I rummaged in drawers and boxes full of papers ' . . . . . 477 ' " No, my dear, don't ring," said I ; "for the men are both out'"

Preface

Some author says that a good book needs no apology ; and, as a preface is usually an apology, a book enters into the world with a better grace without one. I, however, appeal to those readers who are not gluttons, but epicures, in literature, whether they do not wish to see the bill of fare ? I appeal to monthly critics, whether a preface that gives a view of the pretensions of the writer is not a good thing ? The author may overvalue his subject, and very naturally may overrate the manner in which it is treated ; but still he will explain his views, and facilitate the useful and necessary art which the French call reading with the thumb. We call this hunting a book, a term certainly invented by a sportsman. I leave the reader to choose which he pleases, whilst I lay before him the contents and design of these volumes.

Burke supposes that there are eighty thousand readers in Great Britain, nearly one hundredth part of its inhabitants ! Out of these we may calculate that ten thousand are nobility, clergy, or gentlemen of the learned professions. Of seventy thousand readers which remain, there are many who might be amused and instructed by books which were not professedly adapted to the classes that have been enumerated. With this view the following volumes ] have been composed. The title of Popular Tales has been chosen, not as a presumptuous and premature claim to popularity, but from the wish that they 1 This Work was originally published in three volumes. B I may be current beyond circles which are sometimes exclusively considered as polite. The art of printing has opened to all classes of people various new channels of entertainment and information. — Amongst the ancients, wisdom required austere manners and a length of beard to command attention ; but in our days, instruction, in the dress of innocent amusement, is not denied admittance amongst the wise and good of all ranks.

It is therefore hoped that a succession of stories, adapted to different ages, sexes, and situations in life, will not be rejected by the public, unless they offend against morality, tire by their sameness, or disgust by their imitation of other writers. Richard Lovell Edgeworth.

Chapter I

Some years ago, a lad of the name of William Jervas, or, as he was called from his lameness, Lame Jervas, whose business it was to tend the horses in one of the Cornwall tin-mines, was missing. He was left one night in a little hut, at one end of the mine, where he always slept ; but in the morning he could nowhere be found ; and this his sudden disappearance gave rise to a number of strange and ridiculous stories among the miners. The most rational, however, concluded that the lad, tired of his situation, had made his escape during the night. It was certainly rather surprising that he could nowhere be traced ; but after the neighbours had wondered and talked for some time about it, the circumstance was by degrees forgotten.

The name of William Jervas was scarcely remembered by any, except two or three of the oldest miners, when, twenty years afterward, there came a party of gentlemen and ladies to see the mines ; and, as the guide was showing the curiosities of the place, one among the company, a gentleman of about six-and-thirty years of age, pointed to some letters that were carved on the rock, and asked, ' Whose name was written there ? ' ' Only the name of one William Jervas,' answered the guide ; ' a poor lad, who ran away from the mines a great long while ago.' ' Are you sure that he ran away ? ' said the gentleman. ' Yes,' answered the guide, ' sure and certain I am of that.' ' Not at all sure and certain of any such thing,' cried one of the oldest of the miners, who interrupted the guide, and then related all that he knew, all that he had heard, and all that he imagined and believed concerning the sudden disappearance of Jervas ; concluding by positively assuring the stranger that the ghost of the said Jervas was often seen to walk, slowly, in the long west gallery of the mine, with a blue taper in his hand. — ' I will take my Bible oath,' added the man, 'that about a month after he was missing, I saw the ghost just as the clock struck twelve, walking slowly, with the light in one hand, and a chain dragging after him in t'other ; and he was coming straight towards me, and I ran away into the stables to the horses ; and from that time forth I've taken special good care never to go late in the evening to that there gallery, or near it : for I never was so frightened, above or under ground, in all my born days.' The stranger, upon hearing this story, burst into a loud fit of laughter ; and, on recovering himself, he desired the ghost seer to look steadfastly in his face, and to tell whether he bore any resemblance to the ghost that walked with the blue taper in the west gallery.

The miner stared for some minutes, and answered, ' No ; he that walks in the gallery is clear another guess sort of a person ; in a white jacket, a leather apron, and ragged cap, like what Jervas used to wear in his lifetime ; and, moreover, he limps in his gait, as Lame Jervas always did, I remember well.' The gentieman walked on, and the miners observed, what had before escaped their notice, that he limped a little ; and, when he came again to the light, the guide, after considering him very attentively, said, ' If I was not afraid of affronting the like of a gentleman such as your honour, I should make bold for to say that you be very much — only a deal darker complexioned — you be very much of the same sort of person as our Lame Jervas used sor to be.' ' Not at all like our Lame Jervas,' cried the old miner, who professed to have seen the ghost ; ' no more like to him than Black sack to Blue fohn.' The bystanders laughed at this comparison ; and the guide, provoked at being laughed at, sturdily main tained that not a man that wore a head in Cornwall should laugh him out of his senses.

Each party now growing violent in support of his opinion, from words they were just coming to blows, when the stranger at once put an end to the dispute, by declaring that he was the very man. ' Jervas ! ' exclaimed they all at once, 'Jervas alive! — our Lame Jervas turned gentleman ! ' The miners could scarcely believe their eyes, or their ears, especially when, upon following him out of the mine, they saw him get into a handsome coach, and drive toward the mansion of one of the principal gentlemen of the neighbourhood, who was a proprietor of the mine. The next day, all the head miners were invited to dine in tents, pitched in a field near this gentleman's house. It was fine weather, and harvest time ; the guests assembled, and in the tents found abundance of good cheer provided for them.

After dinner, Mr. R , the master of the house, appeared, accompanied by Lame Jervas, dressed in his miner's old jacket and cap. Even the ghost-seer acknowledged that he now looked wonderful like himself. Mr. R , the master of the house, filled a glass, and drank — ' Welcome home to our friend, Mr. Jervas ; and may good faith always meet with good fortune.' The toast went round, each drank, and repeated, ' Welcome home to our friend Mr. Jervas ; and may good faith always meet good fortune.' Indeed, what was meant by the good faith, or the good fortune, none could guess ; and many in whispers, and some aloud, made bold to ask for an explanation of the toast. Mr. Jervas, on whom all eyes were fixed, after thanking the company for their welcome home, took his seat at the table ; and in compliance with Mr. R 's request, and the wishes of all present, related to them his story nearly in the following manner : — ' Where I was born, or who were my parents, I do not well know myself; nor can I recollect who was my nurse, or whether I was ever nursed at all : but, luckily, these circum stances are not of much importance to the world.

The first thing which I can distinctly remember is the being set, along with a number of children of my own age, to pick and wash loose ore of tin mixed with the earth, which in those days we used to call shoad, or squad — I don't know what you call it now.' ' We call it squad to this day, master,' interrupted one of the miners. ' I might be at this time, I suppose,' continued the gentle man, ' about five or six years old ; and from that time till I was thirteen I worked in the mine where we were yesterday. From the bottom of my heart I rejoice that the times are bettered for youngsters since then ; for I know I had a hard life of it. 'My good master, here, never knew anything of the matter ; but I was cruelly used by those under him. First, the old woman — Betty Morgan, I think, was her name — who set us our tasks of picking and washing the squad, was as cross as the rheumatism could make her.

She never picked an ounce herself, but made us do her heap sor her among us ; and I being the youngest, it was shoved down to me. Often and often my day's wages were kept back, not having done this woman's task ; and I did not dare to tell my master the truth, lest she should beat me. But, God rest her soul ! she was an angel of light in comparison with the trap-door keeper, who was my next tyrant. ' It was our business to open and shut certain doors, that were placed in the mine for letting in air to the different galleries : but my young tyrant left them every one to me to take care of; and I was made to run to and fro, till I had scarcely breath in my body, while every miner in turn was swearing at me for the idlest little fellow upon the surface of the earth ; though the surface of the earth, alas ! was a place on which I had never yet, to my knowledge, set my foot. ' In my own defence, I made all the excuses I could think of ; and, from excuses, I went on to all kinds of deceit : for tyranny and injustice always produce cunning and falsehood. ' One day, having shut all the doors on my side of the mine I left three open on my companion's side.

The men, I thought, would not go to work on that side of the mine for a day or two : but in this I was mistaken ; and about noon I was alarmed by the report of a man having been killed in one of the galleries for want of fresh air. ' The doorkeepers were summoned before the overseer ; or, as you call him, the viewer. I was the youngest, and the blame was all laid upon me. The man, who had only swooned, recovered ; but I was thrashed and thrashed for the neglect of another person, till the viewer was tired. ' A weary life I led afterwards with my friend the door keeper, who was enraged against me for having told the truth. ' In process of time, as I grew stronger and bigger, I was set to other work. First, I was employed at the barrow ; and then a pickaxe and a gad1 were put into my hands ; and I thought myself a great man. — It was my fate to fall among the 1 A gad is a tool used in mines ; it resembles a smith's punch. idlest set in the mine.

I observed that those men who worked by task, and who had the luck to hit upon easy beds of the rock, were not obliged to work more than three or four hours a day : they got high wages with little labour ; and they spent their money jollily above ground in the ale-houses, as I heard. I did not know that these jolly fellows often left their wives and families starving while they were getting drunk. ' I longed for the time when I should be a man, and do as I saw others do. I longed for the days when I should be able to drink and be idle ; and, in the meantime, I set all my wits to work to baffle and overreach the viewer. ' I was now about fourteen, and, had I grown up with these notions and habits, I must have spent my life in wretchedness, and I should probably have ended my days in a workhouse ; but fortunately for me, an accident happened, which made as great a change in my mind as in my body. ' One of my companions bribed me, with a strong dram, to go down into a hole in the mine to search for his gad; which he, being half intoxicated, had dropped.