William Young

“ Young was always looked upon as a person of marvellous variety of attainments and extent of knowledge; but during his life he hardly held that elevated place among great discoverers which posterity will probably assign him. In 1802, he was constituted Foreign Secretary of the Royal Society, an office which he held during life; in 1827 he was elected one of the eight Foreign Members of the Institute of France; perhaps the greatest honor which men of science usually receive. ”

“ Mr. Grisewood would be a fool to get rid of a man like that. Good gardeners are scarce. . . .”
Edwin could not understand this at all. It was obvious that the woman must be making some mistake; for it was clearly impossible that his Uncle William could be a gardener. Still, his father offered no protest.
p. 191“They tell me,” she went on in her soft West-country voice, “that he’ve apprenticed that boy Joe to Hares, the shoeing-smith.”
“I didn’t know that,” said Mr. Ingleby.
“Well, of course, it may be all right,” the landlady went on, “but there’s always the future to think on. ”

“ Young appears to have been aware of his own deficiency in the power of drawing public favor, or even notice, to his discoveries. In 1802, Davy writes to a friend, “Have you seen the theory of my colleague, Dr. Young, on the undulations of an ethereal medium as the cause of light? It is not likely to be a popular hypothesis, after what has been said by Newton concerning it. He would be very much flattered if you could offer any observations upon it, whether for or against it.” Young naturally felt confident in his power of refuting objections, and wanted only the opportunity of a public combat. ”

“ In 1807 Young was appointed governor of Tobago, a post which he retained until his death at the government house at Tobago in January 1815. He was twice married: first, on 22 July 1777, to Sarah, daughter and coheiress of Charles Lawrence. By her he had four sons—William Lawrence, Brook Harry, Charles, and George—and two daughters: Sarah Elizabeth, married to Sir Richard Ottley, chief justice of Ceylon; and Caroline, married to Thomas Robson of Holtby House, Yorkshire. Young married, secondly, on 21 April 1793, Barbara (d. 1 Feb. 1830) , daughter of Richard Talbot of Malahide Castle, co. ”

“ Young completed his last term of residence at Cambridge in December, 1799, and in the early part of 1800 he commenced practice as a physician at 48, Welbeck Street. In the following year he accepted the chair of Natural Philosophy in the Royal Institution, which had shortly before been founded, and soon afterwards, in conjunction with Davy, the Professor of Chemistry, he undertook the editing of the journals of the institution. This circumstance has already been alluded to in connection with Count Rumford, the founder of the institution. ”

“ When this boy was brought to Dr. Young, his name being William, the same as mine, my mother was ordered to change mine to something else. This, at the time, I thought to be one of the most cruel acts that could be committed upon my rights; ”

“ Know, all men by these presents, that I Lawrence Carmichael now of Monterey Upper California, do by these writtings [sic] give to William Bailey now of the Wallammett Settlement, full power to Ask, demand, and recover in my name, and for my use, from the Heirs, Assigns, Administrators, or Executors of the Estate of the late Ewing Young, who died in the said Wal- lammett Settlement, All and every part of one half of the Farm (commonly called Youngs place,) together with all improve- ments, grain etc., etc., that was on the aforesaid Farm in the month of January, 1837. ”

“ When that day came he felt that he and his father would be able to drink together on equal terms. By the time that he was fourteen he was already taller than John Fellows, and meant to grow a lot taller still. He was going to be strong and to learn boxing: perhaps, in a few years’ time, he would be able to strip and fight in one of the boxing-booths at the wakes: perhaps, in stripes of chocolate and yellow, he might even play football for Mawne United and talk like a brother with the great George Harper.
In this manly, indefinite future, women had no place. He had never had a sister ”

“ Grahame spoke. His voice was hoarse and strained and evilly gleeful. Williams? Williams was the one man left on earth to have his friendship.
I glanced toward the women. Eunice's face was covered with distress; nothing could have seemed further from reason than what she was hearing her father say.
Dula leaned forward. Her dark face was aglow. Incredulous, amazed, she pressed the closed fingers of one hand to her cheek as if to grip back her delight.
Oh-ho-ho! Did Davenant's flesh still hurt from the bitter caress of hemp? To be beaten like a dog—and he the son of a marquis! ”

“ He did not speak his thoughts: schoolmasters never can. He said,—
p. 67“Let me see, Ingleby, you’re in the Lower Fifth?”
“Yes, sir.”
“I must speak to Mr. Cleaver. . . .” He didn’t say what he must speak about. “All right—get along with you.” He left them, walking away with his hands joined behind his back supporting an immense flounce of black silk gown. Edwin scrambled over the fence; his hands, as they clutched the top of it, were trembling violently.
“Well, you are a prize liar,” said Widdup, “and the old man believed every word of it.”
“I know,” said Edwin. “That’s the rotten part of it. . ”

“ Let me see—Widdup, isn’t it?”
“Yes, sir.”
A mortar-board topped the palings. “Ingleby—What’s this? What’s this? What are you doing there?”
A moment of brilliant inspiration.
“Widdup and I were fooling, sir, and he chucked my cap over the fence. May I get it, sir?”
“Serious—very serious,” muttered the Head. “The letter of the law. Race-week. You’re out of bounds, you know—technically out of bounds. Boys have been expelled for less. Yes, expelled. Ruin your whole career.”
Edwin saw that he was in a good humour; saw, in the same flash, the too-literal Widdup, white with fear. ”

“ Isaac followed Mr. Ingleby’s eyes towards these flowers.
“Purty, ban’t they?” he said with pride. “Your brother Will sent mother they.”
In the gloom of the fireplace, where a pile of turves smouldered, mother began to dissociate herself from the surrounding brownness. She was a very old woman. Edwin had never seen any one so old—sitting bolt upright in a straight-backed oaken chair. Her face seemed to Edwin very beautiful, for extreme age had taken from it all the extraneous charm that smoothness and colour give, leaving only the sheer chiselled beauty of feature. ”

“ He entitled the four volumes which he published himself, "The Works of the Author of the Night Thoughts." While it is remembered that from these he excluded many of his writings, let it not be fogotten that the rejected pieces contained nothing prejudicial to the cause of virtue, or of religion. Were every thing that Young ever wrote to be published, he would only appear perhaps in a less respect able light as a poet, and more despicable as a dedicator: he would not pass for a worse Christian, or for a worse man. This enviable praise is due to Young. ”

“ I’ll get my rods over.”
The subject was dangerous, and so Edwin asked him where he was living: “With your cousin, I suppose.”
“Oh, no. . . . I don’t know the old divil, you know. I’ve rooms with an old lady up in Alvaston. She’s rather a decent sort. House full of animals.” He didn’t specify what the animals were. “I’d better go and unpack some of my things. I suppose I shall see you at the Chemistry Lecture to-morrow. So long. . . . Oh, I forgot. . . . What’s your name?”
“Ingleby.”
“Ingleby. . . Right-o.” ”

“ My luck runs that way.
Davenant walked off. Erect, with head well up, he stood perhaps watching nothing but his own thoughts. It was a comfortable gray day, with the sea tossing itself into crests that fell sizzling down the steep glassy sides of waves, and with the shrouds humming at times before the gusty blows of the wind.
I studied his back, tall and square and reserved in bearing. He had dignity, the dignity of manners. Williams had dignity of another kind—with the utter lack of manners; the dignity of a sheer, menacing personality. ”

“ He lived much in retirement, though in his later years he received a public appointment.
His major works are The Last Day (1713) and The Force [263] of Religion (1714) , which are moralizings written in the heroic couplet; The Love of Fame (1724) , which shows an advance in the use of the couplet; and a poem in blank verse, The Complaint, or Night Thoughts (1742) . This last poem, which was inspired by the death of his wife, had a great and long-enduring popularity, which has now vanished. Like Young’s other poems, it shows some power of expression and somber satisfaction at his own misery. ”

“ It seemed strange to Edwin that his father should know none of these men. It showed him again how remote and solitary the man’s life must have been in this ultimate corner of the Black Country. “We don’t really belong here,” he thought. “We’re foreigners. . . .” And the reflection pleased him, though he remembered, with a tinge of regret, that by this denial he dissociated himself from his old idol the poet of the Pastoral Ballad.
Soon they left the cinder path behind, and plunged into a green lane descending to a water-mill, turned by the tawny Stour, as yet unsullied p. ”

“ In cold climates a fellow may find it convenient to do a little work to get his blood circulating. But not at Lelela. Williams must have got his brother the chief to take an interest, for everybody from babies to doddering ancients turned to and made so much clatter and bustle that my absence was not noticed. Yet the crew had a rich, glorious time. Work was like play; play like what it always was in those unchristianized days. Everything that a generous Creator, who must have loved the old Samoans well, had bestowed in the way of food was laid at the feet of the men ”

“ Edwin thought to himself. “Splendid . . . splendid . . . magnificent.” And while he was thinking this, a sombre poet with shining eyes drew him aside and confessed to him, almost with tears, that all this brilliance and colour and life meant nothing to him compared with the memory of the Beardsley lady, whose ankles were so thin that they might be spanned with his little finger. “As light as a feather,” said the poet, “gossamer . . . swansdown . . . all soul. Of course, old fellow, I know that p. 318you can understand. I shouldn’t talk like this to any other person in the world.” ”

“ The blacks, with yells of triumph, were bearing the dead dog off for a feast. No doubt they would have much preferred to have a Portuguese.
A third boat, loaded, was leaving the Friedrich.
The white men from off the Sally Martin slouched dispiritedly down on the landing. They had not been given arms. They were not given arms.
Hawkins was with Malua and the Samoans, who, grouped under the trees, were at a strategic point between the landing and the walled garden.
There was a disturbing uneasiness within me, and no hope. Williams, I told myself, did not have a chance. ”

“ You’re learning to cure people, while I’m learning to make things to kill them.”
He stared out of the window towards a patch of sky in which the glow of his father’s furnaces pulsated as though it registered the beatings of a savage, fiery heart, and relapsed into gloomy silence. The tunnel swallowed them, and in a moment they pulled up at Mawne Hall. Willis prepared to go. “I say,” he said, “we’re giving a dance next week—” and hesitated.
“What for?” said Edwin, for want of something better.
“I don’t know . . . unless it’s to celebrate the Colenso casualties. I believe you’re invited. ”

“ He goes mooching about in those old felt slippers of his, and you never know where he is. The other day he came into the long box-room when Griff and I were there playing Nap. You couldn’t tell he was coming. He’s like a damned old tomcat. I can’t think how you stick him, Ingleby. . . .”
“I don’t, really,” Edwin confessed.
“And old Griff says he follows him like a shadow. Just lately he’s taken to haunting the swimming-bath. I don’t know what he goes there for. He never used to. He never goes in. I don’t suppose the fat beast can swim.”
“He could float . . .” said the practical Widdup. ”

“ Luke’s and the unbidden image of Rosie, Edwin’s head was in a whirl.
“And old Griffin,” said Widdup. “That’s another funny thing. I ran slap into him in the lounge of the Grand Midland to-night. Up to the same old games, you know. Yes . . . he had a girl with him. Rather an attractive little piece: something to do with the pantomime, he told me. What was her name? The old brute introduced me, too! Yes . . . I think I’ve got it. Beaucaire . . . Rosie Beaucaire. Rather a rosy prospect for old Griff, I should imagine. Why, what the devil’s the matter with you?” ”

“ Let the biggest man alive put a chip on his shoulder, and it will be impudently knocked off. Williams, not wholly unconsciously, wore a chip. Most people, either cautious or sensible, not necessarily timid, gave him headway.
I ignored his manner; though not his words. Commands were things he meant. He was not a bully. And when he gave his loyalty, his friendship, his word, not the combined admiralties of the world could frighten or fight him out of it.
“Too much imagination,” Williams snapped angrily.
I had talked of a woman.
“I'm a mummy inside, Skipper.” ”