Charles Lloyd

“ He could not retort, in sheer humanity he could not flame out in petulance at the man whose life was to be placed in most hideous jeopardy in half an hour, balanced on the flicker of an eyelash, lost in a momentary quiver of the nerves. But Lloyd truly felt that his trials increased in a regular ratio with the demonstration of his capacity to sustain them. Sometimes he thought that a sudden sarcasm, an outbreak of the vexation that stirred him might over-awe Haxon, elicit his self-control, and serve really to steady his nerves. ”

“ Lloyd deprecated infinitely Haxon's mood of surly disaffection. He knew that it tended to impair the acrobat's nerve and to render his terrible feat doubly dangerous. Haxon, of all men, should cultivate composure, a cheerful and equable state of mind. Lloyd was subtly aware that his partner secretly upbraided him for this unfortunate move, the culminating disaster of an unsuccessful season. ”

“ Judge Lloyd did not know one card from another—and was proud of the fact. I remember that once I tried a case in his court that involved a gambling transaction—his cousin Charles Jennico was of the opposing counsel—but that's neither here nor there. Judge Lloyd had other children then—boys and girls—he could not bring them into such association—he could not justify such an example."
"Jennico—isn't that a name down your way, in Louisiana, Mrs. Laniston?" one of the chess players suggested. ”

“ With the peculiar carrying quality of Lucia's voice every word she uttered was distinct to Lloyd. He could not hear what was said by the others, albeit she spoke no louder. Now and then Frank's facetious growl seemed to slip the leash and a phrase or a laugh became distinguishable. Lloyd had some instinct that stood him in stead for breeding, for tuition, for experience. He would not unduly urge Haxon, but men of their hurried mode of life make swift work of meals and might be called "very valiant trenchermen." ”

“ While he laboured to reassure the acrobat, to freshen his nerve, to flatter his composure, to reinstate his pride, so grievously cut down in the episode of the handbill, these mental exercises were hardly pretermitted for a moment. When, however, the perilous feat was once more safely performed and Haxon had been fed, and his nerves recuperated, Lloyd, feeling that the moment for the absolutely essential revelation had arrived and could no longer be postponed, drew him aside and intimated that he had disclosures to make of an importance that necessitated closed doors. ”

“ Lloyd used argument and persuasion, and finally resorted to menacing warnings.
"You'll give the whole thing away to the authorities before we can have a moment's counsel together and see what we can do."
"What can we do?" cried Haxon, his palms outspread dolorously. "We are caught here like a rat in a trap—we can't get away. God! If I had thirty-five dollars in the world I'd cut and run, and leave you to shift for yourself."
Lloyd eyed him critically.
"Haxon, how can you show so much courage and nerve in that cursed high dive of yours and be such a coward in a crisis like this?" ”

“ Lloyd looked with anxious doubt at the brow of Haxon, seeking to discern and gauge his sentiment, so slight an irritant might now disturb the precarious poise of his equilibrium. But Haxon merely remarked with a sigh, "I wish they were five hundred instead of five."
"Well, there's one comfort," said Lloyd, "the show couldn't be any better if they were five hundred instead of five."
He had struck the wrong note and the discord jangled instantly.
"Well, the railroads don't haul folks on their merits," the acrobat rejoined acridly. ”

“ He is a mild man with a reserved manner.
Sir Charles and Lady Henry invited us to luncheon at [351] their beautiful town house in Carlton Gardens, to meet Lloyd George, who was then Chancellor of the Exchequer. The other guests were: Sir Alexander Ure, solicitor-general for Scotland; Dr. Thomas J. MacNamara, parliamentary secretary to the Admiralty; Robert Donald, editor of the "Daily Chronicle," a leading labor daily.
Lloyd George explained the important Liberal measures to me, particularly the National Insurance Act of 1911, amendments to which were then being considered in the House. ”

“ While in certain traits of his adolescence he represented a type of the callow undergraduate, he had an appreciation of his own inexperience and limitations that indeed did much to annul them, and rendered him almost as cautious as a man versed in the mutations of human affairs. He hardly knew what to do, and hence he was slow to act. He thought at one moment that he would call Lloyd aside and disclose the facts, thus bringing the matter to a crisis. But this, he reflected, might precipitate the lurking treachery, whatever deed it was that the man had in contemplation. ”

“ The merchants' evident lack of expectation of reaping the golden reward of a "big crowd in town" had a damping effect on the already drooping spirits of the showman. By way of steadying his nerve Lloyd sought reassurance in verifying some of the lures which had led him hither. In the office of the county court clerk, a brick-paved, white-washed apartment in the courthouse, he paid the State and county privilege tax on the show, and after he had taken out his license to exhibit, he courteously presented the officials with free passes to all the attractions. ”

“ Only the appearance and manner of Lloyd caused him to doubt his conclusion, and then he wondered at himself that the endowments of unusual personal beauty, a thing valueless in a man, absolutely apart from character or station, a gift, an accident, together with a grave and gentlemanly address, which was also a fortuitous circumstance, should weigh with him for an instant where an itinerant faker was concerned. ”

“ Lloyd, think of the unpleasant personal publicity," said the priggish gentleman. "They will advertise your name in this connection and make money out of it. That's what they'll do—make money out of it. They will use your accession to fortune as a sensation, a card to draw people to the show."
"Exactly what I wrote to Haxon—work it for all it's worth, and quit sousin' in that old tank of yours that will break your back and drown you some day! I'll keep that show going—straight goods; it kept me going many a day." ”

“ The people provided the taxes, the Commons are elected by the people, and the power of the purse possessed by the Commons gives the people the command in affairs of state. As long ago as the time of Charles II. this rule about the Commons and Lords with respect to money supplies was emphatically laid down. Lloyd George's scheme was to wrap up social changes in his Budget and to dare the Lords to meddle with them, inasmuch as they were part and parcel of a money bill. ”

“ The man looked at him with a clearing brow. "Fur sech resky folks ez ye 'pear ter be ye air toler'ble fore-thoughted," he said approvingly.
Taking his way back to the sidewalk Lloyd was accosted by an elderly merchant. "The best of your show seems to be free," he said sourly. He had earlier taken occasion to gird at the fair; it was a hindrance rather than a help to trade; it was a novelty, a noisy intrusion, a foolish enterprise, a predestined failure, and he could make no compact of toleration with it. "You ought to remember that thanks are not profits." ”

“ When Hilary Lloyd in a flutter of enthusiasm detailed to his partner the fact that he had found a charming new attraction Haxon lowered indifferent. He felt that the show was already good enough for all reasonable purposes.
"I had rather hear that you have found transportation," Haxon said sourly.
"It may help to the same thing," Lloyd argued, bent on keeping up his own and his confrère's spirits. "It may draw more of the country folks. There's a kind of interest in seein' one's own sort perform—if the thing is well done." ”

“ Lloyd gave a sigh of despair. Then didactically he rejoined: "A lydy who performs in public must be more natural than—than—nature—or seem to be,—which is all the same thing. She can paint her cheeks, which yours don't need—and beautify along natural lines—but no oread that I ever saw billed had a greased head. ”

“ It was not an unnatural conclusion, perhaps; strangers in those secluded fastnesses, unheralded and without vouchers, were rare and obnoxious to suspicion.
The matter was peculiarly distasteful to Lloyd individually, who was a sober, law-abiding citizen, and in the interests of the Street Fair, specially repugnant. He resented the fact that the enterprising moonshiners should contrive to utilise the presence of his show in the streets of Colbury to share the profits of the occasion with their nefarious and illicit trade. ”

“ The man's eyes had been so charged with rancour, with a sense of burning wrath as he had encountered their gaze, that Lloyd had been reluctant in the presence of ladies to elicit words from him. Lloyd could not, of course, imagine any reason for this, save the unassuaged hatred that the poor of a certain type entertain for the presumably rich and favoured, without regard to individuals or circumstances. ”

“ Few men had seen so much of modern warfare on a large scale as Charles Brackenbury, and no one did more to spread sound ideas in England about the tactical changes demanded by the changes in weapons. He was a frequent contributor to the ‘Times,’ and often lectured at the United Service Institution. ”

“ Writing in June, 1799, to Robert Lloyd, Priscilla, his sister, says: "Lamb would not I think by any means be a person to take up your abode with. He is too much like yourself—he would encourage those feelings which it certainly is your duty to suppress. Your station in life—the duties which are pointed out by that rank in society which you are destined to fill—differ widely from his." When next we hear of Robert Lloyd he has returned to Birmingham, where his father soon afterwards bought him a partnership in a bookselling and printing business. ”

“ I'm a partner, and what you do will implicate me."
"I've a good mind to roll you on the floor till you're as thin as a sheet of paper," the athlete threatened, "only it's too good a stunt without a crowd. You may bet your immortal soul that nothing I do will implicate you or any other man."
"I just wanted to warn you," said Haxon mildly.
"I was warned beforehand," Lloyd protested.
The mental activity, the canvass for expedients that Lloyd had sought to rouse in Haxon's mind seemed now stimulated by the cessation of urgency on the manager's part. ”

“ In 1818, however, the clouds effectually dispersed for a while, and, returning to London, he resumed the poetical activity of his early life. The new pieces in Nugæ Canoræ, 1819, were the first-fruit of this period, which lasted until 1823. He then relapsed into his old state and died, lost to the world, in 1839. Writing to Lloyd concerning his later poetry Lamb said: "Your lines are not to be understood reading on one leg."
In Lloyd's poem, "Desultory Thoughts in London," 1821, are portraits of both Coleridge and Lamb. ”

“ It tolerated no false dealing on the part of its concessionaries toward the unsophisticated and simple population; it was a strictly temperance organisation—the acrobats required sobriety to conserve the control of the nerves, and the other members of the company, hard at work from early morn till late at night, had neither time nor inclination to indulge in the flowing bowl. Lloyd was nettled, even more, troubled, that it should be associated in any way with the risky trade plying on the outskirts of the town. ”

“ Jardine." Then he hesitated as if he thought he had said too much. It was no part of his duty as clerk of the Avoca House of Colbury to censor the guests' criticism of each other. "Poor business, but no man could behave more fairly. Lloyd wanted to go, but gave up the preference. Ollory seemed possessed to get away—Haxon, I should say. ”

“ LENNOX, CHARLES GORDON-, fifth Duke of Richmond (1791–1860) , the eldest son of Charles, fourth duke [q. v.] , was born on 3 Aug. 1791. He was educated at Westminster School, and was gazetted lieutenant in the 13th regiment of (light) dragoons on 21 June 1810. After serving as aide-de-camp to his father, then lord-lieutenant of Ireland, Lord March, as he was called by courtesy, joined the forces in Portugal as aide-de-camp and assistant military secretary to the Duke of Wellington (July 1810 to July 1814) . ”

“ Laniston looked bewildered.
"But I should think that would be more expensive than a regular university course."
Mr. Dalton smiled and beamed, and tapped the letter against the sheaf he was sorting.
"A good bit of money goes with the real estate. Mr. Lloyd thinks he can afford to put himself on a level in culture with his station." ”

“ He reached Edinburgh on the 30th, and next day the army, somewhat reinforced, was again on the march for Stirling. The rebels did not wait for him. Charles Edward was forced, much against his will, to raise the siege and retire to the highlands. The duke entered Stirling on 2 Feb. and Perth on the 6th. On the 8th a corps of five thousand Hessians, sent to replace the Dutch troops, arrived at Leith. They were placed at Perth and Stirling to guard the southern issues from the highlands; and on the 20th the duke set out with his army for Aberdeen, which he reached on the 28th. ”

“ The clock and 'Big Ben,' like most of Grimthorpe's undertakings, involved him in fierce controversies, and he waged battle for sixteen years with the office of public works, with Sir Charles Barry [q. v.] the architect, with Sir George Airy, who withdrew from the undertaking, and others. In the libel action, Stainbank v. Beckett, turning on the soundness of the bell, he was cast in 200l. damages (1859) . ”