John Richardson

“ It was some time before he discovered the presence of his relatives; and Mahony had leisure to admire the fashion in which, this corner-talk over, John dispersed himself among the company; drinking with this one and that; glibly answering questions; patting a glum-faced brewer on the back; and simultaneously checking over, with an oily-haired agent, his committee-meetings for the following days. His customary arrogance and pompousness of manner were laid aside. For the nonce, he was a simple man among men. ”

“ Emulation incited by a contemporary author does not imply imitation, and has no significance in original literary creation. Taken, then, by and large, John Richardson had first-rate powers of invention, and was a respectable literary craftsman. He was not a great novelist, but he was sufficiently great as a creator of historical romances to produce novels which have been read during almost a century since publication, and are still read, along with Kirby’s and Sir Gilbert Parker’s historical romances of life and love and heroism in far-off days in Canada. ”

“ But, alas! he is greater than any constable: he is a justice himself: Such a justice deliver me from!—But God Almighty, I hope, in time, will right me—For he knows the innocence of my heart!
John went your way in the morning; but I have been too much distracted to send by him; and have seen nobody but Mrs. Jervis or Rachel, and one I hate to see or be seen by and indeed I hate now to see any body. Strange things I have to tell you, that happened since last night, that good Mr. Jonathan’s letter, and my master’s harshness, put me into such a fluster ”

“ A couple of days prior to their arrival, John and Zara had quarrelled violently; and for the dozenth time Zara had packed her trunks and departed for one of those miraculous situations, the doors of which always stood open to her.
John was for Mary going after her and forcing her to admit the error of her ways. Mary held it wiser to let well alone.
"DO be guided by me this time, John," she urged, when she had heard her brother out: "You and Zara will never hit it off, however often you try." ”

“ You'd live in a bigger house, and have a room to yourself and time to read and write. I'm quite sure you'd make lots of money and soon be at the top of the tree. And after all, dear Richard, I don't want to go home. I would much rather stay here and look after Jerry, and dear Ned, and poor John's children," said Polly, falling back as a forlorn hope on her own preference.
"Why, what a piece of special pleading!" cried Mahony, and leaning forward, he kissed the young flushed face. ”

“ If once you sell off and leave Ballarat, you can never come back. And then, if you regret it, where will you be? That's why I say don't hurry to decide. Sleep over it. Or let us consult somebody--John perhaps--"
"No you don't, madam, no you don't!" cried Richard with a grim dash of humour. "You had me once . . . crippled me . . . handcuffed me--you and your John between you! It shan't happen again."
"I crippled you? I, Richard! Why, never in my life have I done anything but what I thought was for your good. I've always put you first." And Mary's eyes filled with tears. ”

“ A great crowd blocked the approaches to the hustings. Here were the four candidates, who, in attending the issue, strove to look decently unconcerned. John had struck a quasi-Napoleonic attitude: his right elbow propped in the cup of his left hand, he held his drooped chin between thumb and forefinger, leaving it to his glancing black eyes to reveal how entirely alive he was to the gravity of the moment. Standing on the fringe of the crowd, Mahony listened to the piebald jokes and rude wit with which the people beguiled the interim ”

“ In Melbourne they were the guests of John--Mahony had reluctantly resigned himself to being beholden to Mary's relatives and Mary's friends to the end of the chapter. At best, living in other people's houses was for him more of a punishment than a pleasure; but for sheer discomfort this stay capped the climax. Under Zara's incompetent rule John's home had degenerated into a lawless and slovenly abode: the meals were unpalatable, the servants pert and lazy, while the children ran wild--you could hardly hear yourself speak for the racket. Whenever possible, Mahony fled the house. ”

“ Who IS to hit it off, as you put it, if not two of a family?"
"Oh, John. . . "--Mary felt quite apologetic for her brother. "Clever as Zara is, she's not at all fitted for a post of this kind. She's no hand with the servants, and children don't seem to take to her--young children, I mean."
"Not fitted? Bah!" said John. "Every woman is fitted by nature to rear children and manage a house."
"They should be, I know," yielded Mary in conciliatory fashion. "But with Zara it doesn't seem to be the case." ”

“ Jinny, the chief person concerned, sat meekly by, or chimed in merely to echo her husband's views.
"By the way, I ran into Richard on Specimen Hill," said John as he turned to leave the room. "And he asked me to let you know that he would not be home to lunch."
"There. . . if that isn't always the way!" exclaimed Mary. "As sure as I cook something he specially likes, he doesn't come in. Tilly sent me over the loveliest little sucking-pig this morning. Richard would have enjoyed it."
"You should be proud, my dear Mary, that his services are in such demand." ”

“ John had buttonholed old Devine; Jinny and Agnes were still lost in domesticities. Dear little Agnes had grown so retiring of late, thought Mary; she quite avoided the society of gentlemen, in which she had formerly taken such pleasure. Richard and Archdeacon Long sat on the verandah, and in moving to and fro, Mary caught a fragment of their talk: they were at the debatable question of table-turning, and her mental comment was a motherly and amused: "That Richard, who is so clever, can interest himself in such nonsense!" ”

“ RICHARDSON, JOHN (1767?–1837) , itinerant showman, began life in the workhouse at Great Marlow, Buckinghamshire, in which town he subsequently filled several menial situations. Starting to try his fortune in London, he obtained employment at a shilling a day with an Islington cowkeeper named Rhodes. Here he formed theatrical tastes and aspirations, joining in 1782 in a club-room in the Paviour's Arms, Shadwell, the travelling company of a Mrs. Penley. With little success the company travelled from town to town, until Richardson, returning to London, started in a small way as a broker. ”

“ John tapped his foot in time to the tune; and under cover of the applause at its close remarked abruptly: "You should fatten Richard up a bit, Mary. He could stand it."
From where they sat they had Richard in profile, and Mary studied her husband critically, her head a little on one side. "Yes, he IS rather thin. But I don't think he was ever meant to be fat."
"Ah well! we are none of us as young as we used to be," was John's tribute to the power of music. And throwing out his stomach, he leaned back in his chair and plugged the armholes of his vest with his thumbs. ”

“ By the time John was so far recovered as to exchange bed for sofa, it had come to be exclusively Jinny who carried in to him the dainties Polly prepared--the wife as usual was content to do the dirty work! John declared Miss Jinny had the foot of a fay; also that his meals tasted best at her hands. Jinny even succeeded in making Trotty fond of her; and the love of the fat, shy child was not readily won. Entering the parlour one evening Mahony surprised quite a family scene: John, stretched on the sofa, was stringing cats'-cradles, Jinny sat beside him with Trotty on her knee. ”

“ Mahony lit on the paragraph by chance one morning; said: "Hullo! Here's something that will interest you, my dear," and read it aloud.
Polly laid down her knife and fork, pushed her plate from her, and went pink with pleasure and surprise. "Richard! You don't mean it!" she exclaimed, and got up to look over his shoulder. Yes, there it was-- John's name in all the glory of print. "Mr. John Millibank Turnham, one of the foremost citizens and most highly respected denizens of our marvellous metropolis, and a staunch supporter of democratic rights and the interests of our people." ”

“ It is worth while to add his comment on a regret of a member of his family at an act of self-devotion supposed to have been thrown away: "Nothing of what is nobly done can ever be lost." It is also to be noted as in the same spirit, that it was not the loud but the silent heroisms he most admired. Of Sir John Richardson, one of the few who have lived in our days entitled to the name of a hero, he wrote from Paris in 1856. "Lady Franklin sent me the whole of that Richardson memoir ”

“ He would then be out of reach of snubs and slights, and people would understand him better—not the residents on Ballarat alone, but also John, and Sarah, and the Beamishes, none of whom really appreciated Richard. In her mind's eye Polly had a vision of him going his rounds mounted on a chestnut horse, dressed in surtout and choker, and hand and glove with the bigwigs of society—the gentlemen at the Camp, the Police Magistrate and Archdeacon Long, the rich squatters who lived at the foot of Mount Buninyong. ”

“ John hung over his beautiful wife, wheeled up an easy chair, arranged her in it, placed a footstool. "Pray, pray, do not overfatigue yourself, Emma! That child is too heavy for you," he objected, as the babe made strenuous efforts to kick itself to its feet. "You know I do not approve of you carrying it yourself."
"Nurse is drinking tea."
"But why do I keep a houseful of domestics if one of the others cannot occasionally take her place?" ”

“ RICHARDSON, JOSEPH (1755–1803) , author, born at Hexham, Northumberland, in 1755, was the only child of Joseph Richardson, a tradesman in that town. He was educated at Haydon Bridge school, and admitted sizar at St. John's College, Cambridge, on 4 July 1774. His father's means were insufficient for the complete education of his son, and the cost of his residence at college was borne by a titled lady of Northumberland who discovered his talents, but in 1778 she cut off her contributions. Although he was readmitted as pensioner on 25 Sept. 1780, he left the university without taking a degree. ”

“ Mahony!--if you don't want him to fall a victim," teased Richard. "Remember our good John's inflammability. He's a very Leyden jar again at present."
"No, indeed I don't," said Mary with emphasis. "But the children are the first consideration. Oh, dear! it does seem a shame that Tilly shouldn't have them to look after. And it would relieve John of so much responsibility. As it is, he's even asked me to make it plain to Tilly that he wishes Trotty to spend her holidays at school."
The forsaking of the poor little motherless flock cut Mary to the heart. ”

“ Then espying them, he hurried over, and rubbing his hands with pleasure said warmly: "My dear Mahony, this is indeed kind! Jerry, my lad, how do, how do? Still growing, I see! We'll make a fine fellow of you yet.— Well, doctor! ... we've every reason, I think, to feel satisfied with the lie of the land."
But here he was snatched from them by an urgent request for a pronouncement—"A quite informal word, sir, if you'll be so good,"—on the vexed question of vote by ballot. And this being a pet theme of John's, and a principle he was ready to defend through thick and thin, he willingly complied. ”

“ Laura ran upstairs to dress for tea, taking two steps at a time. On the top landing, beside the great clothes-baskets, she collided with Chinky, who was coming primly down.
“O ki, John!” she greeted her, being in a vast good-humour. “What do you look so black for?”
“Dunno. Why do you never walk with me nowadays, Laura? I say, you know about that ring? You haven’t forgotten?”
“Course not. When am I to get it? It never turns up.” Her eyes glittered as she asked, for she foresaw a further link in her chain. “Soon, now?”
Chinky nodded mysteriously. “Pretty soon. ”

“ At thirty, this John was a partner in the largest wholesale dry-goods' warehouse in Melbourne. He had also married money, and intended in due course to stand for the Legislative Council. Behind Ned's windy bragging Mahony thought he discerned tokens of a fond, brotherly pride. If this were so, the affair had its pathetic side; for, from what the boy said, it was evident that the successful man of business held his relatives at arm's length. ”

“ RICHARDSON, JONATHAN (1666–1745) , portrait-painter and author, was born in 1666. His father died about 1673, and five years later his mother remarried, whereupon Richardson's stepfather apprenticed him to a scrivener, although the profession was little to his taste. Released before the expiration of his apprenticeship by his master's retiring from business, Richardson followed his own inclination towards painting, and at the age of twenty became the pupil of John Riley [q. v.] , the well-known portrait-painter, he lived until his master's death in Riley's house, and married Riley's niece. ”

“ RICHARDSON, Sir JOHN LARKINS CHEESE (1810–1878) , speaker of the Legislative Council of New Zealand, was son of Robert Richardson of the Bengal civil service, and Mary Anne his wife. He was born in Bengal on 4 Aug. 1810, and sent to England to be educated for the East Indian military service, entering in 1827 Addiscombe College. In 1828 he returned to India, and on 12 Dec. entered the East India Company's service as a cadet in the Bengal artillery, becoming lieutenant on 19 Aug. ”