Fairburn

“ Fairburn represented.”
“Many of our virtues and vices are brought prominently forward by circumstances,” replied Swinton. “Hospitality in a thinly-inhabited country is universal, and a Dutch boor is hospitable to an excess. Their cruelty to the Hottentots and other natives arises from the prejudices of education: they have from their childhood beheld them treated as slaves, and do not consider them as fellow-creatures. As Mr. Fairburn truly said, nothing demoralises so much, or so hardens the heart of man, as slavery existing and sanctioned by law.” ”

“ While I was thus passing my time at Fairburn, at work with my tutor, in rides rendered doubly lonesome by contrast with those made so enjoyable by the company of my friend, or in rambles about the solitary Chase, the course of true love was running more smoothly in Harley Street than it is fabled to do. ”

“ The crew of the captured collier brig, it appeared, had been kept at Dunkirk till the autumn of 1704, when they had been exchanged for certain French prisoners in ward at Dover. The Fairburn colliery had prospered wonderfully, and the owner now employed no fewer than four vessels of his own, one of which ran to Hull regularly. In fact, the skipper was just going on board to return to the Tyne.
Within an hour, therefore, Lieutenant Fairburn was afloat once more, to his great joy. On the voyage he learnt many things from the old captain. ”

“ In a midland county, not as yet scarred by factories, there stands a village called Fairburn, which, at the time I knew it first—many, many years ago—had for its squire, its lord, its despot, one Sir Massingberd Heath. Its rector, at that date, was the Rev. Matthew Long; and at the Rectory, when my story commences, there was in pupilage to the said rector a youth, one Peter Meredith, who has since grown up to be the present writer. When we are small, all things seem vast to our young minds; good men are saints, and evil ones are demons. ”

“ Then it was that Fairburn came out like a man. He proposed to run the colliery for their benefit. To the world it was to appear that the collieries had been amalgamated or rather that the Blackett pit had been bought up by his rival. The advantage to Matthew and Mary was too obvious to be rejected, and the required arrangements were made. Before the time came for the three young officers to go back to their duties they had the satisfaction of seeing Mrs. Maynard and Mary settled in a pretty cottage near, and the colliery in full work and prospering, the district employed and contented. ”

“ On man and horse tramped, till the ancient city of Trèves was reached. The Duke prepared for a siege, but he was saved the trouble. The garrison was far too weak to hold the place, and the place fell into his hands almost without a blow. George Fairburn grumbled at his luck, but was cheered by Matthew's laughing reply, "Don't seek to rush things too quickly, my dear lad ”

“ Good children always do,' began Mr. Fairbairn, entirely forgetting the pranks of his boyhood, as people are apt to.
'Glad I didn't know you then. Must have been a regular prig,' growled Harry under his breath.
'Silence, sir! go to your room, and don't let me see you till tea-time. You must be taught respect as well as obedience." and Mr. Fairbairn gave the table a rap that caused his son to retire precipitately.
On the stairs he met his sister Kitty looking as cross as himself. ”

“ I set Fairfax down and he gave himself a shake and trotted back to Aunt Myra and Elise, waving his tail in triumph. Fairfax never acknowledges defeat; he is very exasperating.
The porter took us out to our cab and the station returned to its normal condition. Aunt Myra had several things to say about Fairfax on the way across town and several things to say about me. The undignified, unladylike manner in which I had raced around a public railroad station was mortifying in the extreme.
“Well, someone had to do it,” I said. “Elise hasn't the first instinct of a sportsman. ”

“ The Earl by this time had put on his clothes and had joined Lance and George.
"I think the door is giving way, sir," said George, quietly, to Lord Fairfax, as the sound of breaking timbers mingled with the screech of the savages.
"I know it, sir," added Lance, grimly. "We can keep the scoundrels out of the front door by stationing men in the half-story above, but there is no way of defending the kitchen door from the inside."
"How many Indians do you think you saw, George?" asked Lord Fairfax, as coolly as if he were asking the number of cabbages in a garden. ”

“ George and Sally Fairfax settled in Bath in a red-brown sandstone house at 11 Lansdown Crescent, where they became a part of the gay parties taking the waters at the Pump Room and attending assembly balls in the fashion of Jane Austen's most aristocratic characters. Friendly letters went back and forth between Bath and Mount Vernon. After the Revolution, Fairfax wrote to Washington: "I glory in being called an American," regretted his inability to contribute to the "glorious cause of Liberty" and offered his "best thanks for all your exertions ... ”

“ It is rather ironic that neither Lord Culpeper nor Lord Fairfax, who inherited his estate and for whom the County and Town were named, cared particularly for Virginia. Lord Culpeper came under duress and returned as soon as possible to England. Lord Fairfax came, according to tradition, only after he had been disappointed in love in England and because his holdings demanded his attention. The people struggled on, however, and gradually the wealthy land owners began to move northward to occupy the tracts of land upon which their grandfathers had speculated. ”

“ On our way to the train I thought I saw Fairfax's rescuer ahead of us in the crowd, but couldn't be sure. They hadn't begun running the parlor car yet and that annoyed Aunt Myra somewhat. She's very fond of parlor cars, even though she always protests against the expense. But even Aunt Myra's dumps and the dirty, rickety, antiquated day-coach couldn't spoil my pleasure at getting back to Eastmeadows. I suppose the Groves blood predominates in me, for New England always seems much more like home to me than either Washington or Virginia. ”

“ Thursday we went to Fairford in the afternoon, and I was pleased to see the glass and the handsome church once more. Though the country that way is not remarkable, every turn in the road and every byway set me a-longing to go afoot through the country, never stopping for a day; after all a fine harvest time is the crown of the year in England; there is so much to look at. ”

“ Just when we thought we had run Fairfax to earth, under a bench in the corner of the waiting room, someone came in and, before we could tell him to close the door, Fairfax had shot out of it. “Tally-ho!” I cried. I didn't mean to, but it just popped out. Everyone laughed and we all went tearing through the doors. Somewhere at a distance I could hear Aunt Myra calling, “Marjorie! ”

“ The tumult and noise which fill the city, together with the consciousness of the cause creating it, would have been too much for your nerves, unstrung as they have been of late, by the feeling you have expended for the unhappy king. There is yet, though—I delight to say, and you will delight to hear—a single hope remaining for him, even while the bells now ring for his execution. Lord Fairfax, who though, like myself, friendly to his deposition, still shudders at the thoughts of shedding his blood, will, with his own regiment, make an attempt to rescue him from the scaffold. ”

“ And my lord is opposed to the French, and no doubt they have set the Indians against us; and then the Indians like the killing, just for the fun of the thing. I think I shall sleep with one eye open until I hear that Mr. Black Bear and his friends are no longer in this neighborhood."
That night, after supper, George and the Earl talked over Lance's suspicions. Lord Fairfax thought they were not ill founded, but he was not a man to excite himself over possibilities. ”

“ Did you ever see a picture of the great law reformer, Jeremy Bentham? or of Benjamin Franklin?”
“Of Franklin, of course,” said Thorsby.
“Well,” continued Mr. Woodburn, “there is a great general resemblance in the persons of these three great men, for I place Mr. Fairfax in the scale of great men. They were, and he is, of middle height and strong build. They had, and Mr. Fairfax has, a style of countenance with strong features, somewhat prominent nose, and their hair hanging in abundance on their shoulders. Mr. Fairfax dresses, as you know, in plain drab, with waistcoat long and with flaps ”

“ Some slight touch of human perversity perhaps inspires him also. At Fairford, at all events, he has put some of his best work, and especially some of his finest colour, into the figures of the Persecutors of the Church. Unfortunately, they are high up in the clerestory, and so do not get their share of attention; certainly they do not get the praise they deserve. ”

“ I told you most decidedly not; to let the coward go, and he would never annoy or trouble you again. Mr. Fairfax, who possessed a nice sense of honor, and was a gallant and accomplished gentleman, was so disgusted and mortified at the conduct of his principal that he left him and came over and joined our party, and after taking breakfast with us at Nicolaus, returned with us to Marysville, while Judge Barbour went on his way to Sacramento. ”

“ In the depth of the inclement winter, after the relief of Nantwich, Sir Thomas Fairfax, in obedience to the orders of the Parliament, marched back into Yorkshire to join his father, Lord Fairfax, who was hastening to unite his forces with the Scottish army, which, led by Lesley, Earl of Leven, had crossed the border and marched knee-deep in snow upon the soil of England, preparatory to an attack upon York. ”

“ FAIRFAX, FERDINANDO, second Baron Fairfax of Cameron in the peerage of Scotland (1584–1648) , son of Thomas Fairfax, first baron [q. v.] , of Denton in Yorkshire, and Ellen Aske, was born 29 March 1584 (Markham, Great Lord Fairfax, p. 6) . Fairfax married in 1607 Mary, daughter of the third Lord Sheffield (ib. p. 7) . His father seems to have wished to make him a soldier, for he is reported to have said: ‘I sent him into the Netherlands to train him up a soldier, and he makes a tolerable country justice, but is a mere coward at fighting’ (ib. p. 12) . ”

“ George was so eager at this point that he crawled on all fours up to Lance and gazed breathlessly into his face.
"It was Lord Fairfax dressed up as a woman! And he says, when I had come to myself a little, for I nearly dropped dead with surprise, 'If I can fool my own men and my own brother officers, I ought to be able to fool the Frenchmen into letting me into the town.' And sure enough, Mr. Washington, that was exactly what he did." ”

“ So we went by train, just Aunt Myra and Elise and I and Lord Fairfax. Elise is my maid and Lord Fairfax is my cat. He's a beauty, a blue Angora with just the longest, silkiest hair I ever saw on a cat. He's a good deal of a villain, though, for he will eat his hair, which is very bad for his digestion, and he will run away. Elise has a great deal of trouble with him.
We took the Federal Express and got into Boston very early in the morning, and while the porter went to find us a cab, Elise took Fairfax for a walk around the station. ”

“ And beheld the beautiful Oak by her side;
And, after viewing it from the bottom to the top,
She said to her Court, that it was Fair-lop!
It is eight fathoms round, spreads an acre of ground;
They plaster’d it round, to keep the Tree sound;
So we’ll booze it away; dull care we’ll defy,
And be happy on the first Friday in July.
About a century ago, as I have heard say,
This Fair it was kept by one Daniel Day,
As hearty a good fellow as ever there could be;
His coffin was made of a limb of the Tree. ”

“ Harry knew the rector's tactless way too well to be affronted now by any remark he might make or any question he might ask. "My father has a liberal mind," he said good-humoredly. "And a man hopes for briefs sooner or later."
"It is mostly later, unless he have singular ability or good [Pg 329] connexions. You must marry a solicitor's daughter," said the rector, flourishing his stick. Harry said he would try to dispense with violent expedients. They walked on a minute or two in silence, and then Mr. Wiley said: "You have seen Miss Fairfax, of course?—she is on a visit at Fairfield." ”

“ Slade rather stiffly. “It is near New York. We have all the advantages of a great metropolis without the drawbacks. Fairbridge is a most charming city, and very progressive, yes, very progressive.”
Mrs. Slade took it rather hardly that Mrs. Snyder should intimate anything prejudicial to Fairbridge and especially that it was not good enough for Alice Mendon, who had been born there, and lived there all her life except the year she had been in college. If anything, she, Mrs. Slade, wondered if Alice Mendon were good enough for Fairbridge. ”

“ Mrs Fairbrother, the old lady, indeed, to use one of the gentlemen’s expressions, ran alongside of them and threw out grappling-irons. She had never been out of England before, she was profoundly ignorant of foreign ways, she was mightily afraid of imaginary dangers and difficulties; and she clung to these strangers as likely to assist her to surmount the first obstacles. Mrs Fairbrother was a worthy woman, the wife of a large grocer who had made a considerable fortune by supplying H.M. vessels when put in commission. ”