William Howitt

“ Every man of any note called him friend. The most splendid equipages crowded the way toward his house; the feast was spread continually as it were the feast of a king; while on the balcony, ranging along the whole front, stalked to and fro, in his tartans, the wild piper, and made the air quiver with the tempestuous music of the hills. Arms and armor were ranged along the walls and galleries of his hall. There were portraits of some of the most noted persons who had figured in his lays and stories—as of Claverhouse, Monmouth, the Pretender, the severed head of the Queen of Scots ”

“ The air is blowing charmingly, and tempers the heat. I am going to Hillmartin and a little beyond, and I want you, Letty, to mount Fairaway, and have a gallop in the breeze. It is what you want to take the dismals out of your blood. Ann, what say you?”
“I say that I shall stay and help mother; but, Letty, by all means, and Mr. Thorsby will join you.”
“Of course he will,” said Thorsby.
“Your horse is saddled, Letty,” added George. “I will have him brought out, and so away, and get on your habit.” ”

“ Degge, Sir Henry, George, Ann, and Letty, set out for this walk. A more delicious evening never shed its charms on such a company. A light breeze blew the odours of legions of flowers towards them as they slowly wandered down the valley. They had then to cross some fields, and pass through a farm-yard, before reaching the copse in question. These fields and this copse were on Sir Roger Rockville’s land; and as they approached the gate leading into the fields, they saw, to their surprise, a board erected, declaring that there was no road that way. ”

“ We have most cordially to thank Mary and William Howitt for their valuable contribution to our knowledge of the literature of Northern Europe. They have effected a public good. They have offered to all classes of readers a work abounding in original and entrancing interest, overflowing with varied matter—of criticism, biography, anecdotes, sketches, and quotations, all tending to exhibit new treasures for the gratification and enlightenment of a vast circle of minds. ”

“ Walter rose up with an air of business, and took up the important bunch of keys, saying, "Come, Mina, you shall go with me; you can be of some use."
"Ah! a real, living princess," said Mina, "I shall be frightened if I meet her."
"I shall not," said Fritz boldly, "all men are equal before God, prince or peasant or nobleman; it makes no difference."
"You talk as you know, foolish boy," said Mrs. Dote, now for the first time really angry; "it is true that God created all men equal, but the Lord himself has appointed to each one his particular place ”

“ In 1852 William Howitt with two of his sons, Alfred and Herbert Charlton, went to Australia, partly to visit his own brother Godfrey, who had been for some time settled at Melbourne in medical practice. After two years' wandering in Australia William Howitt returned to England, leaving his two sons in Australia. Herbert Charlton was subsequently drowned while bridge-making in New Zealand.
Alfred first farmed land belonging to his uncle at Coalfield near Melbourne, and then took to cattle droving. He soon acquired the reputation of an able, 'careful, and fearless bushman. ”

“ To this proposal Henry Clavering would not listen. “No,” said he, “my dearest Ann, I cannot change my heart and soul at pleasure. With you or with no one must I unite my life. I feel the greatness of your self-sacrifice, but it is not in your power to set me free. I am what I am, and must be. My love for you is rooted into the deepest [Pg 10] region of my heart—neither you nor I can tear it out at will. I will wait for you as long as you like—and you or I may change.”
Sir Emanuel Clavering had seconded the proposal of his son with the most zealous advocacy. ”

“ He that finds it too hot flings off his coat, and dances in his shirt sleeves; he that does not find the music keep time, helps it with the stamping of his foot. All seems totally happy--all unity. But the wine has, meantime, heated their heads, and suddenly in one corner of the hall rises a terrible hubbub. The strife has arisen about that maiden who, there weeping, endeavours to part the combatants. "What would the silly Knoten?" cries a student Then springs wrathfully forth a brisk tailor. "What be we? Knoten be we? ”

“ The man who meddles with cold iron;"
and has set a glorious example to future genius—to rely on its own intimations, and not on reviews; to assert the rights of mind, and yet not to neglect business. In him stands a living proof that poetry and worldly prosperity can go hand in hand.
By his own statement to me, it appears that he was born the 17th of March, 1781, being one of eight children. His father was a commercial clerk in the iron-works at Masborough, near Rotherham, with a salary of £70 a-year, "and consequently," says he, "a rich man in those days." ”

“ Hogg, during his lifetime, never liked to hear its demolition proposed. Here he had lived as a child, and here he lived when grown up, and rented the farm, before going to Altrive. He used always to inquire of people from Ettrick, if the house really were yet destroyed. I believe it stood till after his death, but it is now quite gone. The bricklayers? There is no such thing here; all is built of the iron-like, hard whinstone of the hills;—the builders, then, with a sentiment which does honor to them, were reluctant to pull down the birthplace and home of the shepherd-poet ”

“ But in spite of all this, nothing is so easy as to recognise the student by his free and self-possessed carriage. Saucily, often haughtily, he observes the groups of onward-pouring people, without turning a step out of his track; careless whether he be an object of notice, being only too secure that he is. So leaves he the city Besom to the Handwerksbursche, nodding, however, a passing greeting to this and the other as they go by, assured that, arrived at the dancing place, they will speedily forsake the Knoten to fly to the arms of the more favoured dancer. ”

“ The Howitts had left the Society of Friends in 1847, and became interested in spiritualism. In 1863 appeared The History of the Supernatural in all Ages and Nations, and in all Churches, Christian and Pagan, demonstrating a Universal Faith, by William Howitt. ”

“ The visitor will not find all there that he naturally looks for. He will not find the country very beautiful, or the mill, the brook, the ale-house as rural and picturesque as he could [Pg 340] wish; but he will find the very ground on which Oliver Goldsmith ran in the happy days of his boyhood; the ruins of the house in which that model of a village preacher—simple, pious, and warm-hearted, justly, indeed, dear to all the country—lived, the father of the poet ”

“ If the numbers be counted of those who lead the life so much extolled by William Howitt,—who, by the way, has left out some of its roughest traits,—they will be found, even where most numerous, as in the smaller towns, never to exceed one-fourth of those inscribed as students. ”

“ The village of Houghton, the only one that I saw, is a regular old farming village, with one large, old stone hall standing, about a hundred yards from the road, and falling evidently to decay, while the great stone wall which separates its grounds from the road, massy as it is, is equally dilapidated. Elliott's house, which he has built, is a good stone house in the style of the country, with a flag roof, and is fit for gentleman or farmer. It occupies the top of a hill on the edge of a common. ”

“ In America we have seen how continually, when the bulk of the people, or the legitimate chiefs, would not cede territory, the whites made a mock purchase from somebody who had no right whatever to sell, and on that title proceeded to drive out the real owners. In this case, Plattenburgh, to give a colour of justice to his claim, sent out Colonel Gordon in search of Caffres as far as the Keiskamma, who conducted a few to the governor, who consented that the Great Fish River should be the boundary. ”

“ All called on Betty to explain how it took place, and Letty was greatly agitated.
“Oh!” said George, “I see how it is. Harry has taken off his hat to the Friends as they passed, and that scamp of a pony has shied. But he cannot have hurt the old man; falling from that little brute is only like falling from a chair.”
“What does a sober man like that ride such a skittish thing for?” asked Mr. Woodburn.
“Because,” said George, “I was going to say, he is an old fool; but the fact is people always do ride animals like themselves.”
“What! Do you think a man like a horse?” exclaimed Ann. ”

“ But, not to lose sight of the object of your inquiry--our domestic arrangements--I here remark that the Philistine in whose house we lodge, is styled house-philistine, and his wife, the Philöse. The student who is quartered with us in the same house is our House-Bursche; and he who shares with us our apartments, is to us a Stuben-Bursche, or Room-Fellow."
"I thank you," I added. "I have certainly put your commentatorial patience to a severe trial."
"One speaks of oneself," he replied, "generally pretty willingly. We have that feeling in common with all mortals." ”

“ The poor horse trembled with terror in every limb. George bade the man put it into the stable, and wash and clean it well; and he sent another man up the road to prevent anyone carrying the news to Bilts’ Farm till the reality was known. He then ran down to the Ferry. There were already several men and women there as well as Mr. Woodburn. The ferry-boat was drawn to this side of the river, but it betrayed no marks of any kind which could clear up the mystery. Mr. Drury was nowhere to be seen ”

“ In life or in death, it is our duty and our privilege to follow Him. Now, shall we go?”
Henry Clavering had set down his cup of [Pg 70] coffee untasted. Mrs. Heritage, however, compelled him to take it, and having taken one herself, and tied a warm woollen handkerchief around her throat, she led the way to the door. Henry Clavering gave her his arm down the steps, where Sylvanus Crook stood with the carriage-door in his hand ready to open it and shut them in, looking more like a pillar of snow than a man, and the coachman on his seat, looking a living snow-pile. ”

“ He then rose up and said he had ordered his dinner at the Dog and Partridge, and must go there, but that he meant to stay a few weeks in the country, and go and find out Birchin's relations at Cosser. He did not mean to go to sea again; he had been to Australia, and got enough gold to live on, and he meant to settle down somewhere in the country. He should often come and see her while he stayed.
Old Beckey prayed God to bless him for the good news he had brought; an angel from heaven could not have brought more blessed tidings ”

“ Markham; “it is useless to deny what is plain to everybody; but I join you in all you say of Degge’s vulgar impudence in presuming to snatch a property, as it were, out of the hands of such a gentleman as Sir Benjamin Bullockshed, and in letting loose half the hosiers of Castleborough on Sir Benjamin’s game.”
“On Sir Benjamin’s game!” said Sir Roger Rockville; “on all our game. He has encouraged the poachers to an audacity never known before. They all say, ‘There, Mr. Degge has shown his sense. He knows that game is everybody’s.’ Our keepers have now no rest day nor night. ”

“ The poor fellow is deeply to be pitied.
Pittschaft.--Freisleben, let us hear the story. We are all curious; and thou knowest it will remain amongst us friends.
Hoffmann.--See there! At length appears Mr. Traveller! Good evening. Take off your things. Seat yourself by the stove: here is a pipe, and here the Fidibus.
Mr. Traveller.--Best thanks! Ha, it is savagely cold without; but here, thank God, it is warm and comfortable. But I have disturbed the gentlemen!
Hoffmann.--Not at all. Freisleben is about to tell the story of an unfortunate student. ”

“ There is a fine, frank, clever, and good young fellow; well, really, I could like him myself, if I did not like somebody better, and that silly girl has sent him to the right about for a London money-bag. Really, we women are very silly with all our sharpness. Here they come! Good gracious! It is no good. They look like ghosts!”
The quondam lovers really did approach looking most ominously. A blight seemed to [Pg 174] have passed over them both. Poor Frank Leroy looked blacker in his misery than ever; Millicent looked very little better.
“Good-bye, dear Miss Drury,” said Dr. ”

“ Squance,” said George Woodburn; “fine weather for the corn.”
“Ay, Master George, and for the hay too. I reckon you’ve gotten yourn in.”
“We have,” said George, as they continued to ride on. “But Squance has not got his in; and won’t for this next ten days, because he won’t pay for the necessary men. There are his two great strong sons, and an old carter working at it, that is all. Look at his house, his yard, his hedges, his everything. The thatch on the house is old and rotten; his yard doors are tumbling down—some have fairly fallen to pieces, and he stops the doorway with hurdles. ”

“ Look at those clear, sunny, azure eyes, under those dark eye-lashes, and amid that raven hair. I don’t wonder that King George, in his younger days, ran away with a young Quakeress.”
“Don’t you think,” said Letty, looking at him with a funny smile, “that you will be running off with one some day?”
“Never!” said Thorsby, looking earnestly into Letty’s eyes.
But there is a call to tea, and the company are taking their places, and we don’t yet know who there are. I see, however, Sir Emanuel Clavering, Mr. Thomas Clavering, the rector of Cotmanhaye, and Mrs. Clavering; Dr. Frank Leroy ”