Oldfield

“ Frank Oldfield could not but be struck by the love and harmony which reigned in the Oliphant family. He saw the power of a religion which made itself felt without thrusting itself forward into notice. He could not but reflect sometimes, and then even his sunny brow was clouded, that he wanted a something which the children at the rectory possessed; that he wanted a great reality, without which he could not be fully happy. He saw also the bright side of total abstinence when he spent a day with the rector’s family. ”

“ The coming of spring was important to everybody in the Pennyroyal Region, where every man was a farmer—the merchant, the lawyer, the doctor, and even the minister; and where every woman had a garden, large and rich like old lady Gordon's, or small and poor as Miss Judy's was. And the buds of the japonica were the gay little heralds of the spring, coming clad all in scarlet satin, while the rest of nature wore dull and sombre robes. Flashing out from their dark hiding-places at the first touch of the sun, the sight of them stirred the ladies of Oldfield as nothing else ever did. ”

“ Misfortune never comes singly to a community any more than to an individual. No life anywhere may ever stand or fall quite alone, so are the living all bound together. In a village where every door stands wide and all lives are in the open, and where no high, hard walls rise between the people,—as they do in a city,—the bond is closer than it can be elsewhere. So that the uneasiness which the judge communicated so unwillingly to Miss Judy on that quiet midsummer night was the beginning of the end of the peace of many of the good people of Oldfield, for a long time afterward. ”

“ It is in the quiet village, remote, as this was, from the rushing change of city life, that the fervor of religion always appears warmest and seems to linger longest.
In Oldfield everybody went to church twice a day on Sunday, in winter and in summer, and through the rain as well as through the sunshine. That is to say, everybody except old lady Gordon and Miss Judy Bramwell, neither of whom ever went at all. ”

“ Just as the meeting was called to order, Nicholas Oldfield stole away, and no one missed him. The proceedings began with some animated discussion, all tending one way. Cupidity had entered into the public soul, and everybody professed himself willing to take the clock, lest, by refusing, some golden future should be marred. Let Old Eaton have his way, if thereby they might beguile him into paving theirs. Let the town grow. ”

“ Oldfield so terrified a native by shouting out the name of a deceased person, that the man fairly took to his heels and did not venture to shew himself again for several days. At their next meeting he bitterly reproached the rash white man for his indiscretion; “nor could I,” adds Mr. Oldfield, “induce him by any means to utter the awful sound of a dead man's name, for by so doing he would have placed himself in the power of the malign spirits.”1320 On another occasion, a Watchandie woman having mentioned the name of a certain man, was informed that he had long been dead. ”

“ The terrified country round about Oldfield knew the place only by vague hearsay as a drinking, gambling resort, wherein boatmen and all unwary travellers going up or down the Ohio were lured to destruction. ”

“ Ever since the coming of Bernard Oliphant to Waterland, there had been free intercourse between the two families at the hall and the rectory; for Mr Oliphant was a distant relation of the Oldfields, and it was through Sir Thomas that he had been presented to the living. So the young people grew up together, though there was, strictly speaking, more intimacy than friendship between them, especially as the total abstinence principles of the rectory were a bar to any great cordiality on the part of the squire and his lady. On this point the baronet and his wife were entirely agreed. ”

“ The inside of the house was tastefully but not unduly furnished, ancient and modern articles being ranged side by side in happy fraternity; for a thorough colonist suits his own taste, and is tolerably independent of fashion.
“Welcome once more to Australia!” exclaimed Mr Oliphant to his young companions; “and more especially welcome to ‘the Rocks.’ Come in: here, let me introduce you to my eldest daughter and youngest son—Jane and Thomas, here’s your cousin Hubert; and here’s his friend, Mr Frank Oldfield; you must give them a hearty welcome.” ”

“ I will not tell you where I am, nor where I shall be; it is better not. Forget me if you can, and think of me as dead. I am so for all better purposes; for everything good or noble has died out of me. The drink has done it. Your hopeless son, Frank Oldfield.”
Chapter Twenty Two. A Miserable Death.
Three days after Jacob Poole had posted his letter and its enclosure, a cab drove up to Mrs Jones’s door. In it were Sir Thomas and Lady Oldfield. No one who saw them could doubt of the bitter sorrow that had stamped its mark upon their noble features. ”

“ Oldfield was, then, in her highest excellence of action, happy in all the rearly-found requisites, that meet in one person to complete them for the stage——She was in stature just rising to that height, where the graceful can only begin to shew itself ”

“ He felt sure that, if he could find Frank Oldfield, he should soon ingratiate himself with him, and that he might then take advantage of his good-nature and of his intemperance to gather to himself sufficient funds to enable him to start as gold-digger. A wretched compound of vanity, selfishness, and shrewdness, where his own interests were concerned, he had no other view as regarded his young master than to use him as a ladder by which he might himself mount to fortune. A week later, and Juniper Graves was established as general man-servant at Frank Oldfield’s cottage in the hills. ”

“ The rector took it, as we have before said, and used it partly as shops, and the large public room as a reading-room. And thus it was that the “Dun Cow” remained without a rival as the dispenser of strong drink to the inhabitants of Waterland.
Chapter Four. The Park.
It was a great vexation to Sir Thomas Oldfield that Mrs Barnes would neither keep the “Oldfield Arms” open herself, nor let it as a public-house to any one else. The “Dun Cow” was quite an inferior place altogether, and nothing but rebuilding it could turn it into anything like a respectable house ”

“ Oldfield admired Michael, and being American, found out the unique things in London....
In amongst the small old shops in St. Martin’s Lane, gloomy, iron-barred gates, a long bleak corridor, folding doors; and suddenly inside a large room with sloping galleries and a platform, like a concert room, a row of dingy modern people sitting on the platform facing a scattered “chapel” congregation; men and women sitting on different sides of the room ... being left standing under the dark gallery, while Dr. Oldfield and Michael were escorted to seats amongst the men ”

“ In these unhappy circumstances, his widow was forced to live with her sister, who kept a tavern in St. James's market, and the daughter was placed with a sempstress, in King-street, Westminster. In the mean time. Miss Oldfield shewed an extravagant fondness for reading plays, and was entertaining her relations at the tavern with her talent in this way, when her voice chanced to reach the ear of Capt. ”

“ Dr. Ferguson was acting Governor at that time; he is a most excellent man. Here I was very agreeably surprised to find my old friend Dr. Oldfield comfortably settled. He was one of my most intimate friends many years before I left the First Life Guards. I found him still the same, and still possessing the same generous heart. Long may it beat tranquilly! [Pg 19] I had many hospitable invitations; but accepted that of my friend Oldfield, who kindly opened his house for me during my stay here, and gave two large dinner-parties in respect to my presence. ”

“ It was arranged that Jacob Poole should come to him as soon as he was settled, and in the meanwhile Mr Oliphant found the boy employment. Unfortunately for himself, Frank Oldfield was not in any way dependent for his living on his own exertions. His father allowed him to draw on him to the amount of three hundred pounds a year, so that, with reasonable care, he could live very comfortably, especially if he voluntarily continued the total abstinence which he had been compelled to practise on board ship. The reader is aware that he had never been a pledged abstainer at any time. ”

“ There are impressions cut deeper into the heart by the sudden stroke of some special trial than any made by the continuous pressure of afflictions, however heavy; impressions which nothing in this world can efface—wounds, like the three-cornered thrust of the bayonet, which will not heal up. Such was the keen, piercing sorrow which the sight of Frank in his drunkenness had stabbed deep into the soul of Mary Oliphant. The wound it had made would never heal. Oh, miserable drink! which turns the bright, the noble, the intellectual creatures of God into worse than madmen ”

“ OLDFIELD or OTEFIELD, JOHN (1627?–1682) , ejected minister, was born near Chesterfield, Derbyshire, about 1627. He was educated at the grammar school of Bromfield, Cumberland. Though of no university, he was a good scholar and mathematician. He held the rectory of Carsington, Derbyshire, having been appointed in or before 1649. His parishioners, according to Calamy, were 'very ticklish and capricious, very hard to be pleased in ministers,' but he suited them; and, though the living was worth but 70l., he refused a better offer of the perpetual curacy of Tamworth, Warwickshire. ”

“ Oldfield, it was felt to be striking rather too keenly at the root of things. For Nicholas Oldfield was looked upon with a respect not so much inspired by his outward circumstances as by his method of taking them. There are, indeed, ways and ways among us who serve the public. When Tom O'Neil went round peddling essences, children saw him from afar, ran to meet him, and, falling on his pack, besought him for "two-three-drops-o'-c'logne" with such fervor that the mothers had to haul them off by main force, in order themselves to approach his redolence ”

“ I dare not run the terrible risk. I dare not join myself to you in a bond which could never be severed, however aggravated might be my misery and your sin. Oh, Frank, my heart is well nigh broken! I have loved you, and do love you still. Let us be one in heaven, though we never can be so here. Pray, oh, pray for grace to resist your temptation! Ask to be made a true follower of the Lord Jesus, and you will be guided aright, and we shall meet then in that bright land where all shall rejoice together who have, by grace, fought the fight and won the victory here.—Sincerely yours, Mary Oliphant. ”

“ The 'Humours of Oxford' had been successfully acted at Drury Lane 9 Jan. 1730, on the recommendation of Mrs. Oldfield (who took the part of Clarinda, with Wilks as Gainlove and Cibber as Ape-all) , so he took to dramatic writing to enlarge his income (Genest, Account, iii. 250) . But by this occupation Miller offended the bishop from whom he had expectations, and when soon afterwards he published a satirical poem in which a character appeared that was thought to be intended for the bishop, all his hopes of preferment from that quarter were destroyed. ”

“ Hot footmen were rushing wildly about, carrying all sorts of eatables and drinkables. Tables creaked and plates clattered. Then, just about one o’clock, came the squire and his lady, followed by many friends, among whom were Mr and Mrs Oliphant; while Frank, looking supremely happy, with his sunny face all life and playfulness, came last, with Mary on his arm. Usually the Oliphants had kept away from these harvest-homes, for they were not conducted to the rector’s satisfaction, but to-day they had a special reason for coming. ”

“ But the mumps subsided, and the minister gained strength; so, being public-spirited men, these two at once concerned themselves in village affairs. The first thing the minister did was to call on Nicholas Oldfield, and Young Nick's Hattie saw him there, knocking at the front door.
"Mary! Mary!" cried she, "if there ain't the young pa'son over to your grandpa's. I dunno when anybody's called there, he's away so much. Like as not he's heard how father carried on that night, an' now he's got out, he's come right over, first thing, to tell him what folks think." ”

“ But the simple people, walking beneath, went on their way heeding only the beauty, and the sweetness, and the warmth of the sunshine. They greeted one another after the friendly custom of the country, which gave a greeting even to strangers,—and these church-goers were all old friends. Only the young man leaving old lady Gordon's gate might be accounted a stranger. Yet his ancestors also slept on the highest, greenest hillside, under the long grass over which the soft wind was running with swift, invisible feet. ”

“ H. F. refers W. H. L. to a small volume entitled A Catalogue of the Lords, Knights, and Gentlemen that have compounded for their Estates. London, 1655. I have compared Oldfield's list with the reprint of the Catalogue (Chester, 1733) , and find that, with some slight exceptions, they agree. Oldfield, however, omits the following compositions for Lincolnshire:
There are also a few discrepancies in the amounts of the compositions, but none of any importance. ”

“ He knows everything."
"You see," continued the minister, now addressing her, "there are facts enough that are common talk about the town, but we only half know them. The first settlers came from Devon. Well, where did they enter the town? From which point? Sudleigh side, or along by the river? I incline to the river. The doctor says it would be a fine symbolic thing to take the procession up to the church by the very way the first settlers came in. But where was it? I don't know, and nobody does, unless it's Nicholas Oldfield."
Mary folded her hands, in proud composure. ”