The Luttrells; or the Two Marriages

Chapter I. First Impressions

My father had served with distinction in the Peninsular war, before the close of which he was obUged to be invalided, in consequence of a severe wound. Nevertheless he found no difficulty, after his return to England, in recom mending himself to the last survivor of an ancient famUy, who had been left sole heiress to a considerable estate, adjoining that which had been held by my paternal ancestors since VOL. I. B it came to the first De LuttreU, for good service rendered to the Conqueror at the battle of Hastings. Major LuttreU disposed of his commission soon after his marriage with Miss Conyers ; and they lived thenceforth the quiet, uneventful life of a country squire and his lady, on their demesne, which was weU known in the country as " Mount Conyers," the seat of my mother's family. My father's property, called " The Grange," he chose to let as a farm.

Whether it was that his wound rendered him irritable, or that the pride he felt in uniting in his own person the dignity of the two most ancient famUies in the neighbourhood, made him unsocial, I have reason to believe that he was not liked either as a landlord or as a neighbour. Of my mother I have but an indistinct recollection ; but I have learnt that she also had the reputation of placing too much value on her ancient descent, and of looking down upon those around her who could not boast of such advantages. Consequently, they lived very retired, were seldom visited, and little beloved. In due time, after the ' marriage, I was born. It might be thought that, as the heir of such parents, I should have received the most tender care. It happened to be otherwise. In con sequence of my mother having been seized with an alarming fever, I was sent out of the house before I was a week old, to the humble roof of one Giles Howes, a smaU grazier, who farmed a few acres of my father's manor.

His wife, Phœbe, was my nurse, and I shared with her infant daughter the nourishment she had been selected to afford. In a short time this temporary expedient, to meet an exigency that had never been con templated, became a regular arrangement. My b mother remained in too delicate a state to undertake the care of her infant, and I con tinued at the little cottage at the end of the viUage. Once or twice she managed to come to me in an invalid chair: but possibly this may have, been an imprudence, for she caught a severe cold, was again confined to her bed, daUy got worse, and died. She had a hand some funeral, and a very handsome tablet was erected to her honour among the monumental effigies of her ancestors, that form so marked a feature in the ancient church of Dorrington. My father was left in sole possession of the united estates, the care of which now so absorbed his attention, that he seemed to live for no other object than to make the property as productive as possible.

Most probably he did not like to be encumbered with so young a chUd, for he aUowed me to remain where I was ; and being thus kept out of sight, I was at *■*■ 0 last so completely out of mind, that for years he troubled himself no farther about me than to pay for my board. Phœbe Howes did her duty by her foster child, as far as it was in her power to do it. But she had other obligations to attend to, which could not help interfering, in some measure, with the proper fulfilment of the extra duty she had undertaken. There were her own household affairs, and her own famUy, to look after. The latter was of itself no slight charge, for independently of the claims upon her of her husband, she was the mother of three troublesome boys, and the girl to whom I have already referred. Nevertheless she did not neglect me; and if my nurture was not so refined as became my birth, what I lost in delicacy I gained in health, for I grew to be a stout, healthy boy, the admiration of the viUage, and the delight of the servants at the Mount, when they called to pay me a visit.

GUes was certainly not the most exemplary father for a gentleman's chUd ; for whenever he sold his beasts to the butchers, or bought stock of the farmers, his bargains were accompanied with such an equal share of hard swearing and hard drinking, that his company was scarcely endurable to persons less sober or less profane. His hopeful sons, Tom, Dick, and Harry, grew up according to the model they had before them ; and as the youngest was two years my senior, there was a great probabUity of my following the same fashion. At seven years old I was the most reckless urchin that ever mounted a cart horse or swung on a gate ; ignorant of everything I ought to have been taught, yet wonderfully knowing in many things that did not by necessity form part of a young gentleman's education. Such a hand at bird's-nesting, and robbing orchards, there did not exist in aU the country round ; and I could climb a tree like a squirrel, leap a hedge like a greyhound, play at chuck farthing with the most knowing gambler on the green, and ride a pony against any jockey in the county.

I had other accomplishments, of which I shaU here make no boast, although they wonderfuUy assisted in creating the extensive popularity I enjoyed throughout the rising generation of Dorrington. It should be added, that I was usually known as "The young Squire," and, by virtue of my superior rank, that derived powerful assistance from my superior daring, I was permitted to be king of aU the boyish games that were played, and leader in aU the juvenUe mischief perpetrated within the parish. It may seem strange that my father should have left me so long to these people, without a thought respecting the ill habits I might form in such society ; but, possibly, he considered that he was not likely to make a better nurse than his tenant's wife ; and, moreover, he could not bear the idea of having his quiet disturbed by a noisy chUd.

There was, however, a change approaching. The Vicar of Dorrington, being old and infirm, had been content to let his parishioners proceed in the best way they could: and a very indifferent way that was, by all accounts. On his death a new incumbent was appointed, who proved a man of a totally different stamp. Dr. Erasmus Latimer was not only an able scholar, but an effective minister. He was as strict in his conduct as his predecessor had been lax, and both bold and enterprising in the performance of his duties. He gradually effected a change in the manners of the population of the viUage. There was no more gambling in the churchyard before divine service, and no more foot-baU on the green afterwards. The majority of the idlers became regular church-goers, and the incurably profligate con fined their Sabbath-breaking to the tap-room of the Red Lion, or the common of the next parish.

I came under the Doctor's observation within the first week of his residence. WeU do I remember that thoughtful and benevolent face, and that thin, upright figure, in its clerical suit, surmounted by the peculiarly shaped hat, with which divines of his standing have the exclusive privUege of shading their brows ; and though so many years have passed, and I have moved in scenes harmonizing so Uttle with it, that most pleasant of aU " the old famUiar faces " of my chUdhood rises before me as distinctly as when it first attracted my attention in my native vUlage. He chanced to be walking through the straggling row of cottages, so denominated, and on passing the smaU enclosure at the end of it, customarily set apart for strayed cattle, his attention was attracted by the shouts of a group of dirty boys, encouraging a little sturdy feUow in the somewhat hazardous performance of standing on his head on the gate, his hands grasping the top bar, as he was swung back wards and forwards by some of his com panions.

The performer was myself; my assistants were my foster-brothers, Tom, Dick, and Harry, with their little sister Lucy ; and the spectators were the principal tag-rag of the viUage. I observed the Doctor, but I was not in the humour to stop my sport for aU the clergymen in the country, so I shouted, and sang, and clapped my feet together with redoubled energy directly I noticed that he was looking at me. Perhaps he observed something in my appearance that distinguished me from the other chUdren, for he beckoned one of the viUage boys and questioned him about me. The information he obtained seemed to astonish him extremely. He continued his inquiries with increased interest, evidently ob serving me narrowly all the time ; then caUed me to him ; but I, not caring to be interrupted in my amusement, did not pay any attention to his invitation, and he presently went away, much to the reUef of my companions.

Next day, to the astonishment of the grazier and aU his famUy, Jacob, the old gardener, came down to the cottage with a message from the Squire, that young Master was to go with him to the Mount with aU convenient speed. At first I refused to go. I cared nothing for the Mount. There was nobody there I wanted to visit. My friends were Tom, Dick, and Harry, and their pretty Uttle sister; and I was not to be coaxed into leaving them, for any bribe that Jacob had to offer, or any argument at his disposal. My obduracy, however, was at last put a stop to, by GUes catching me up, and, by main force, placing me in his cart, where I was tightly held by the gardener, while the horse was driven at a rapid rate to the great house. On the way I got reconciled to my journey, by my foster parent offering to let me drive, " if I would go before the Squire like a gentleman," and I made my first visit to my father's house driving GUes Howes' taxed cart up the long avenue of mag nificent limes, with a dexterity and fearlessness that elicited praise from both my feUow-pas sengers.

I jumped out of the vehicle in exceUent spirits, and rushed laughing up the steps of the front entrance, where I was met by my father and the Vicar, who had evidently been observing my approach. The former, I thought, looked angry, and the Doctor wore a serious counte nance. I stared at both with the same uncon cern, and would have become sullen and impracticable, only I remembered my promise of behaving weU, and wished to prove I respected it. The Major rather roughly seized hold of me as soon as I came within reach of his arm, and appeared inclined to treat me with violence. Dr. Latimer interposed, and drawing me aside, in a quiet and dignified manner, said " Excuse me, Major LuttreU, we must treat such a case as this with delicacy, or nothing but mischief wiU arise from our interference.

If you wiU so far favour me as to leave the matter in my hands, I think I can answer for the result." Then turning to me, in a kind voice and most winning manner, he added, " Harkee, my little friend ! We are not going to do anything that may be disagreeable to you. That we require of you is to answer a few questions, that wiU not give you much trouble. This gentleman, you know, is your father, to whom you owe both obedience and affection ; and I am your good friend, and am very desirous of forwarding your happiness. Now, my dear boy, aU we want to learn at present is, what you have been taught during the last two or three years ?" My father's countenance was stiU disturbed and angry ; but I was so weU pleased with Dr. Latimer's friendly address, that I felt dis posed to answer his question to the full extent of my abUity ; and, therefore, twisting my straw hat, which the Doctor had gently removed from my head, I began a recital of my most prized accomplishments.

And a curious medley they were, and a curious set of professors I had had to teach them. " Tom taught me how to snare a hare, Dick how to smoke a pipe, and Harry how to worm a dog. From Johnny Briddle, the blacksmith's son, I learnt how to shoe a pony : from Toby Tiptree, the carpenter's apprentice, I acquired the whole art of making pop-guns and whistles. A certain Jerry Brigsley, whose mother keeps a sweet-shop, had initiated me into the mysteries of toffey and buU's-eyes ; and Jemmy Jowlter, whose father was the parish sexton, and sold fire-works, had given me private lessons in blue and red fire." I was going through a much longer Ust of simUar attainments, when my interrogator stopped me, and placing his hand kindly on my head, bade me look up to him, and tell him what I knew of reading and speUing, of which, he added, every Uttle boy of my age was expected to know something.

Now it so chanced that of these particular things I was most lamentably ignorant. I had certainly been placed for a short time at a dame's school ; but the first week, my mistress offering to punish me for some fault, I had exhibited so intractable a spirit, that she lost no time in getting rid of me, and no other attempt had been made of a simUar nature. Dr. Latimer, therefore, soon discovered that I hardly knew my letters, and of religious know ledge was as profoundly ignorant, as if I had been born in the remotest corner of the most uncivUized portion of the globe. The Doctor's brow grew more grave as my ignorance became more evident. He seemed to grow, also, more severe in his bearing towards my father: yet his language and manner to me continued so affectionate and conciUatory, that I sensibly felt a feeling of regard for him arising in my breast as he pursued his inquiries.

AU this time the Squire seemed very impatient and restless, and every moment assumed a more uneasy and troubled look. He evidently stood in some awe of the Vicar, and the exposure that was going on of his neglect of his parental duties, affected him more than he would have confessed. At last, after some friendly commendation of my sincerity and readiness, the Doctor took my father aside, and in a grave and earnest manner rebuked him, for aUowing his only son to grow up in total darkness as to aU religious culture, whUst in the place of that learning, which would have gone some steps towards fitting him for the position he would have to fill, as the heir of the Conyers' property, he was permitted to acquire an insight into those arts which are necessary only to the poacher or the mechanic. My father attempted to deprecate his censures.

His habits, as a soldier, he said, had unfitted him for the care of so young a child. Mrs. Luttrell VOL. I. C had placed the boy with his tenant's wife, and he did not like to disturb the arrangement she had made : he had been so much occupied with superintending the various improvements he was effecting on his property, that he had forgotten his son now wanted other teachers and other associates, than he was likely to find in the viUage. And a good many more excuses of the same character. These were very far from satisfying Dr. Latimer, and he so forcibly directed my father's attention to the discredit that he was bringing upon himself, and the injustice he was doing his son, by leaving him to the Howes's, that he was shamed into making an effort to dissolve my connection with them. Nevertheless he declared that he was quite at a loss what to do for the best under the circum stances : the Doctor replied by offering to take the charge of my education upon himself.

To this my father readUy consented. It was a plan he thought that would reUeve him of a good deal of trouble ; and the annoyance he had felt at the manner in which my neglected state had been pointed out to him, made him eager to get rid of me. I was taken at once to the Vicarage. c

Chapter II. The Vicarage

To the change in my way of living that must needs ensue from my change of domicile, it was long before I could reconcUe myself. The freedom, the licence, the authority I had been aUowed to exercise in the famUy of Phœbe Howes, were very much more to my taste than the propriety, the decency, and subordination to which I found myself being subjected at Dr. Latimer's. And I should have rebeUed, and enforced a return to my old habits and associates, had not the Doctor with great skUl so managed matters, that I was induced to conform myself to my altered circumstances, without feeling that I was coerced — for my studies were presented to me in a manner that made me regard them as amuse ments much more entertaining than those to which I was so much more familiar. Mine was a case that seemed to call for great tact and management, and very few persons would have succeeded in it ; but my preceptor made himself completely my friend and companion : he so adapted himself to my humour whUst he attracted me towards his inten tions, that my most ardent longings after forbidden pleasures were crushed before they could exercise any influence over my nature.

Sitting at his window conning the mysteries of simple arithmetic, I could not help glancing from my book out into the sunny garden where the birds were in fuU chorus, and wishing myself free as they were, to ramble about with Tom, Dick and Harry, into the shady woods and lanes, or to go out with the terriers hunt ing rats in the ditches ; or, with as many as could keep on his back, galloping a favourite donkey in the orchard ; or rocking Lucy in a swing ; or enjoying any other of the numerous rustic sports and pastimes into which I had been initiated. But when the Doctor perceived that my attention was diverted from my book, he would at once divine the cause, and invite me to take a stroU with him in the fields, which he would render so delightful with pleasant conversation, about the different objects that presented them selves in the course of the walk, that I forgot aU my own enjoyments, and was, when tired with walking, easily induced to resume my book, and give it my best attention.

In this way I made progress in my studies — slow at first, and far from promising : but I was not hurried nor forced forward in any way — I went on, sometimes almost against my wiU, over difficulties and perplexities which, with another guide, I should have abandoned without a struggle. Imperceptibly my instructor gained an influence over me. However disposed 1 was to foUow my own inclinations, I never opposed him openly. I did many things that he objected to : as often as I could I enjoyed stolen interviews with my friends Tom, Dick and Harry : I gossiped with them in the churchyard before the Doctor had left the vestry, and generaUy managed to find one or other of them loitering about the grounds of the Vicarage, when he went to make his rounds among his poor parishioners. This intimacy he found it impossible to prevent; though very much against its continuance, he cared not to hazard a struggle with me about it.

He threw as many obstacles as he could in the way of my seeing my foster mother's chUdren — and indeed any of my old play-feUows : but habits of intimacy amongst chUdren, when once firmly established, are not easUy eradicated. I had grown up, in all respects, like a favourite brother amongst these young rustics, and was as partial to them as they were to me. It may, therefore, be readUy supposed that aU the Doctor's schemes to make us strangers, only made us firmer friends ; and as they resented his intentions to estrange us, I was led by them into a multitude of tricks and deceptions, to defeat his object. I may attribute to this attachment the long train of evils, from which I suffered in after years. For, as Tom, Dick and Harry grew up, they did not improve either in manners or morals. They presented all the features of rustic profligacy, as seen in those idle, dissipated, scapegraces, that are found disgracing almost every vUlage.

My friends were the pest of the country ; and had gained an Ul name far and near. They early became proficient in single stick and boxing — could play successfully at aU games of chance ; were first-rate horse breakers and jockeys ; but when forced to work, could display both industry and skiU at almost any kind of agricultural labour. As their father was an Uliterate man, he cared not about giving his sons an education. He boasted that he had done weU without it, and assured every one that they could do the same. AU he cared for, was, that they should be able to assist him in his avocations; and therefore they were often sent on long journeys to drive home the beasts he had sold, and generail) returned with some new vice they had contrived to pick up on the road. Such examples were likely to neutralize all the advantage I was acquiring from the lessons of Dr. Latimer, and finding he could not prevent my suffering from them, he began to be greatly perplexed as to what course to adopt.

He could find no fault with me as regarded my studies, which proceeded regularly and satis factorily, but he began to perceive features in my disposition he had never anticipated. The natural ingenuousness of chUdhood was fast disappearing, and in its place there appeared an inclination for any deception that could be adopted for the purpose of obtaining forbidden gratifications. I had also become more self wUled, and was getting selfish and unscrupulous. As he possessed a real regard for his pupil, he spoke to my father about the Ul effects that were likely to arise from my continued association with the sons of his tenant ; but the Squire was satisfied that he had done all that could be required of him as a parent. Moreover he knew that GUes Howes paid his rent, and did not choose to affront him, by teUing him that his boys were not fit to associate with his heir.

FinaUy he excused himself from interfering by saying, that he could not see any harm in a child of Walter's age being seen sometimes in the company of bigger boys, nutting, or fishing, or shooting rabbits ; but if it was wrong, the Doctor must put an end to it his own way. And then, as usual, he avoided farther discussion on the subject, on the plea that he wanted to see how his men were getting on with the new plantation. Whether the Doctor thought that in so orave a matter two heads were better than one, and so chose an assistant in the shape of a wife, I cannot say ; but about this time he took the extraordinary step of marrying a widow about his own age, who had formerly kept a young lady's school of some celebrity in a fashionable watering place, and had, on the death of her husband, sold the establishment for an annuity, and with one daughter named LucUla, then quite a chUd, and as I afterwards found a very troublesome one, had retired to a smaU cottage that stood a little distance from the road, about a quarter of a mUe from the vUlage.

The sequel proved that if Dr. Latimer sought assistance from this lady, he could not have selected a person less qualified to give it. Mrs. Latimer had her own notions of education, which having acted upon for twenty years, she was fully satisfied were the very best that could be adopted under any circumstances. Her long profession of teaching had given her habits of authority, with the most perfect reliance on her own resources ; they were now displayed quite as prominently to her husband as they had been to her pupUs. On learning the difficulties of the case, she treated them with superlative contempt, and with the greatest possible confidence offered to bring me to reason in a month, on condition that I was left entirely to her own management. The proposal was gladly accepted, and the worthy Doctor handed me over to his wife.

I am certain that he entertained misgivings as to the result, notwithstanding the extraordinary satis faction with which the lady entered upon her office. The first day of the proposed experiment I was summoned to appear before her in the drawing-room, and beheld a matronly dame with a round face, a little rouged apparently to render less prominent the redness of a peculiar sharp nose, that gave her features an air of mingled audacity and self-conceit. Her hair, which was black, she wore as a girl's crop, curUng aU round her head, and her very showy dress was cut in a fashion equally at variance with her real age. " Hark ye, young gentleman !' she ex claimed with a loud voice, and with a speech of stern authority, " Dr. Latimer has judi ciously delegated to me the office he has hitherto fulfiUed himself.

You are not too young to know the reverence which is naturaUy due to persons that are placed in authority over you ; to this you must now add the respect which a lady, in my position, has a right to expect from a chUd, whose education has been confided to her care." I stood and stared at her, whUe she was delivering these sentences, with the most marked absence of the feeling she was so par ticular in endeavouring to exact. " You wiU be so good, Walter LuttreU," she added, with an increased assumption of dig nity, " to continue to study those lessons in the various branches of human knowledge Dr. Latimer has thought proper to set you, and you wiU remain in your own room till you are prepared to repeat them ; you wUl then have the goodness to bring your books to me ; and," she concluded with an air of marked severity, " I should recommend you to be careful how you behave yourself when in my presence, as you may depend upon it you wUl find me a person not to be trifled with."

I continued to regard her with more curiosity than reverence, when, with a tremendous frown and piercing look, she cried out, " Do you hear, sir ?" " Yes, I hear very weU," I replied quietly, without in the least degree shrinking from her glance ; " but I don't choose to be taught by a woman — and I won't." A sharp box of the ears was Mrs. Latimer's reply to this saucy speech. So unusual a pro ceeding startled me a little at first ; but I did not long hesitate as to my course of action. In a moment I caught up a book that lay on one of the tables, and flung it at her with so true an aim, that it struck her on the side of her head, and with such force, it left that important member completely bare, having forcibly removed the fictitious crop of curls to which she owed so much of the juvenility of her appearance.

Her screams brought assistance, and un fortunately witnesses of the faUacy of her pretensions to youth. The Doctor, with the servants rushed in, and found his wife sprawling over the chair she had upset, displaying cranial development to the best possible advantage ; and her raven tresses, that he had so much admired, hanging, by one of its curls, to a bird-cage, that was suspended before the window. I did not stop to enter into any explana tions, but leaving the Vicar to the indignation of his prostrate spouse, I walked out into the garden, and was presently engaged on a ladder, placed against the wall, recount ing the rapid victory I had just achieved, to my three friends, who received the intelU gence with the most intense satisfaction; and in a very short time, the story, with all sorts of amplifications, was going the round of the village; and the whole parish were engaged in laughing at the combat of the young Squire and the parson's wife.

Mrs. Latimer gave up her proposed plan of reformation; nay, more, so bitter was her VOL. I. d hostUity against me for having betrayed the secret of her head-dress, that she insisted on my being sent out of the house instantly; declaring that her life could not be safe, whilst " such a blood-thirsty young ruffian" was to be found under the same roof with her. The Doctor saw that his wife's notions of education applied to my case, were less ser viceable than his own, and that with aU her boasted experience and excessive confidence, there did not exist the slightest chance of her effecting any good with me. He was much shocked at the outrage I had com mitted; and saw that nothing but a state of open warfare could ever exist, where such hostUity had been displayed. StUl he hesi tated about the extreme measure of expulsion.