George Yeardley

“ The king can hardly have relished this appointment, but as Yeardley was of rather humble birth, being the son of a poor merchant tailor, he gave him a certain sanction by making him a knight. High official position seemed in those days more than now to need some such social decoration. Yeardley was ordered to send Argall home; but that independent personage being privately notified, it is said by the Earl of Warwick, loaded his ship and sailed for England before the governor's arrival. He was evidently a man who could carry things with a bold face. ”

“ His countenance, says John Yeardley, evinces the magnanimity and kindness of his heart; it is remarkable and precious that so young a man should dedicate his whole time and fortune for the benefit of the orphan and the destitute.
At Creveldt, the next town where they stopped, Pastor Molinaar and his wife, who were Mennonists received them in a very cordial manner: the latter had seen Thomas Shillitoe at Amsterdam. J.Y. relates several visits which these worthy persons and some of their Christian friends paid to them at the inn. ”

“ During the years 1831–39 there appeared in The New Sporting Magazine, edited by R. Surtees, a series of sporting sketches of which “Mr. John Jorrocks” was the hero. These papers were collected and published in 1838 under the alliterative title of Jorrocks’s Jaunts and Jollities, il­lus­trat­ed by “Phiz.” This volume was brought to the notice of Lockhart, who thereupon advised Surtees to try his hand at a sporting novel. The immediate result was Handley Cross. In 1843 a third edition of Jorrocks’s Jaunts and Jollities appeared, with sixteen coloured plates after Henry Alken. ”

“ Friedensthal, Pyrmont, 7 mo. 14,1825.
MY DEAR BROTHER,
On my return from Holland I received thy long and very interesting letter. Martha Savory and her companion Martha Towell are now acceptably with us. They expect to spend two or three months with us, and then we have some prospect of going in company to the South of France. As this has fallen out in a rather remarkable manner, it may not be amiss just to explain it to thee. We were entire strangers to each other's concern ”

“ John, in his cousin’s workshop, was shielded from a good deal of the evil talk and jesting that went on among his fellows in the fields. He “took after” George in being grave and quiet, and he loved no company better than his invalid aunt’s; but to be a steady and religious youth was a more difficult matter in those days than at present, for harmless outlets for youthful spirits had not been devised, and to avoid mischief it was almost needful to abstain from almost all the company and pleasures of a country lad. ”

“ Hylton made this inquiry sharply, but not as if such a circumstance would be altogether displeasing to her.
'Oh, no; only she hasn't seen him for so long, you know. Perhaps, when she comes to look at him with fresh eyes, she'll notice things more. Ah, here is [Pg 79] George, just getting out of a hansom—so he has played truant for once! There's one thing I do think Ella might do—persuade him to shave off some of those straggly whiskers. I wonder why he never seems to get a hat or anything else like other people's!'
Presently George was announced. ”

“ Streetlights cast weird shadows across the white. George could hear the faint crunch-crunch his shoes made. Half-turning he looked at his tracks behind him.
"Damn white stuff!" He hunched his shoulders more, pulled his neck down into the folds of his collar. "Puts a pure clean blanket over the whole world—but all you have to do is walk on it and you can see the dirt underneath!"
George climbed the steps to the elevated, bought a ticket to anywhere. Then he sat down and waited for a train. ”

“ It proved a much longer journey to Vlotho than we had expected; when we arrived we found a large number assembled. Five of our Friends came from Minden to meet us, and it was a remarkable meeting, notwithstanding we had gone to it under so much discouragement: we have cause to bless and adore our Divine Master, who caused his presence to be felt amongst us. August Mundhenck interpreted for J.Y. and for me. J.R. also suffered his voice to be acceptably heard in testimony, after which the meeting closed in solemn supplication. ”

“ George was very hot and sore; and this sort [Pg 114] of bantering was new to him. He was in that humour which causes a man to go into a fight on little provocation; but John, he noticed, was smiling amicably, so he held his peace.
"If this was Uncle Sam's country, Soapy would have been here taking away your wages before this," laughed Hugh.
"I wouldn't kick if he could do the trick. Say! can you dance? This is going to be a swell dance all right! Wish I had enough lumber to cover the floor, so we could dance proper. Poles is mighty hard to dance on. ”

“ George looked at her in astonishment, for she spoke with bitter self-reproach and kept her eyes away from his.
“My dear Annie, you are reproaching yourself very unnecessarily. When Harry himself behaved to you like a coal-heaver, even he could scarcely be surprised that you preferred any society to his.”
“Not any society—I did not mean that.”
“No, but that of men of his own rank, but not quite of his manners,” said George, drawing his chair a little nearer to hers. ”

“ Gerald was silenced, but looked dissatisfied; however, there was no more time to talk, for Clara came to say that tea was almost ready, and Marian rang for Saunders. Gerald looked as if he was meditating when first they sat down to tea, and after some little time he abruptly began, "I don't like your church at all. It is just like a room, and nobody makes any noise."
"Nobody makes any noise," repeated Caroline, smiling; "is that Fern Torr fashion?" ”

“ Are you now willing to own that you did wrong?"
"I ought not to have spoilt the book," said Gerald boldly, "and I was rude to Miss Morley."
"There is a brave boy," said Mr. Lyddell, very much relieved. "Well, Gerald, I am glad you have given, in at last; I hate obstinacy, as I told you yesterday, but that is over, and we will say no more about it; only you know we told you that you should be sent to school, and we must keep our word."
"Yes," said Gerald, trying not to let a muscle of his face relax; though now the die was cast, his consternation at the thought of school was considerable. ”

“ Some people go along all their days with no other thought in life than to burrow through their own mole-hills. There in the hay, with the shining dust of the sunbeams falling athwart the old barn floor, the boy lay and listened. Thoughts that he had no words for, ambitions that he could not express, yet that filled him with vague longing, seemed to vibrate along the earnest voice, and tremble from the fulness of George's heart into his. Even after George stopped talking and began to whistle softly in the pause that followed, John Jay lay quite still with his face hidden in his arms. ”

“ The next day they returned to Frankfort, and made the acquaintance of Pastor Appia, a Piedmontese, who, with his wife, was very friendly; and when he heard that they had left their own land to visit his native country, marked out a route for them, and gave them letters of introduction. "When I am with such good people," observes J.Y., in relating their interview with Appia, "I am always uneasy in my mind that I am not more worthy. May the Lord strengthen me!"
On the 10th, they went to Darmstadt, where they met with several enlightened Christians. ”

“ As in the dark of the fabled underland the men who are blind are kings, George Jordon, the silly man, who never had a purpose, and carried about with him an enviable eternal dream, seemed in that listless world the only wideawake, for he at least kept moving, slouching somewhere, sure there was work for him to do if only he could get at it. ”

“ John Gore pulled out a short clay pipe and a tortoise-shell box from a pocket. He filled the pipe leisurely, and lit it with a splinter of burning wood that he picked up with the tongs.
“Well, Johnny, how is Yorkshire?”
My lord, like a father, showed no discretion or sense of proportion either in the diminutives or in the vernacular renderings of his son’s name. Moreover, the Yorkshire moors were very far away, and a more vivid vista blotted them into the distance.
“Shirleys has changed very little. They have a new pump in the village. All the farms are in good fettle. ”

“ On the 12th, held our little meeting with our faithful friend Jules, in which ability was granted to supplicate for the spread of divine light over this benighted district. At 9 o'clock we set out to make a Sabbath-day's journey: the wind extremely high and always in our face, which fatigued Nimrod [their horse] as well as ourselves. We dined at Lesengnan: not a Protestant in the place, yet we met with a circumstance worth recording. Jules, who is ever watchful to find out who can read, gave a few tracts to some boys in the stable-yard. ”

“ Sir George much worse. Harry has returned.”
That night he was again at the Grange—not a minute too soon. They told him, on his arrival, that his father was not expected to live till morning, and he went straight up to the sickroom. Harry was there on his knees by the bedside, very still and grave and unlike himself. Sir George opened his eyes as his eldest son came in.
“George,” said he, with difficulty, “I have forgiven him. Don’t let it be mentioned again. I cut him out of my will a week ago; it is too late to alter it. Promise me to provide for him.” ”

“ Lyddell a very sensible man."
"Then poor Gerald is to grow up away from his own home, and never see the dear old moors! But if we cannot stay here, I had rather be with Selina. She is so fond of Gerald, and she knows what home was, and she knew and loved—them. And we should not meet so many strangers. Only think what numbers of Lyddells there are! Boys to make Gerald rude, and girls, and a governess—all strangers. And they go to London!" concluded poor Marian, reaching the climax of her terrors. "O Edmund, can you do nothing for us?" ”

“ I nevah in all my life befo' heard tell of anything so mean!"
"Haven't you?" asked George, with such peculiar emphasis and such a queer little smile that John Jay felt guilty, although he could not have told why.
"No, I nevah did," he insisted.
George leaned against the door-casing, and looked thoughtfully across the fields. "There are more turnpikes in life than one, my boy," he said kindly, "and every one has its toll-gate. ”

“ A wherry was seen rowing among the craft, containing the boatman, and a gentleman in a woolly white hat, with a bright pea-green coat, and a basket on his knee. "By jingo, here's Jemmy Green!" exclaimed Mr. Jorrocks, taking his telescope from his eye, and giving his thigh a hearty slap. "How unkimmon lucky! The werry man of all others I should most like to see. You know James Green, don't you?" addressing the Yorkshireman—"young James Green, junior, of Tooley Street—everybody knows him—most agreeable young man in Christendom—fine warbler—beautiful dancer—everything that a young man should be." ”

“ He, like Master Headley himself, and the rest of his party were clad in red, guarded with white, and wore the cross of Saint George on the white border of their flat crimson caps, being no doubt in the livery of their Company. The citizen himself, having in the meantime drawn his conclusions from the air and gestures of the brothers, and their mode of dealing with their food, asked the usual question in an affirmative tone, “Ye be of gentle blood, young sirs?” ”

“ I heard nothing but petulant abuse of George Yolland on one side, and on the other I knew he would have thrown up the agency except for Harold.
When at Michaelmas Eustace informed him that the estate should no longer go on without a regular responsible agent, and that one was engaged who had been recommended by Mr. Horsman, I do not know whether he was most hurt or relieved, though I could hardly forgive the slight to his cousin, far less the reply, when I urged the impropriety. "Harold can't expect to domineer over everything. He has put me to expense enough already with his fancies." ”

“ In short, Jowler went on helter-skelter; and as long as John and his wife were in the humour of paying his bills, he hired all the poachers, game-keepers, and whippers-in in the country, and did not care a farthing for a fellow, unless he could send him off the country, [Pg 93] to do some mischief or other. For this reason he made John get as many game-keepers as possible, but never a word of arming his own children. He made up matters again with Rousterdivel, gave him all he asked, and encouraged him to play the devil in the house of Squire South, John’s old friend. ”

“ But Harold admired it greatly, and both he and George Yolland seemed to find inspiration in it.
But one summer evening, when the young men were walking up and down the garden, smoking, we heard something that caused us to look round for a thunder-cloud, though none could be seen in the clear sky, and some quarter of an hour after, Richardson hurried out to us with the tidings, "I beg your pardon, sir, but there is a person come up to say there has been an explosion at the Hydriot works."
"Impossible!" said Harold. "There's nothing to explode!" ”

“ Then “George,” a merry-faced, broad-chested native of Anaa, in the Paumotu Islands, after an inquiring glance at me, broke out into a bastard Samoan-Tokelauan canoe song, with a swinging chorus, altering and improvising as he sang, showing his white teeth, as every now and then he smiled at Yorke and myself when making some humorous play upon the words of the original song, praising the former for his skill and bravery, and his killing of the man-eating savages of New Hanover, his great strength and stature, and his kindly heart—“a heart which groweth from his loins upwards to his throat.” ”