Wingfield

“ Wingfield!” cried Addie; “he talks to me only of pictures and music. I can’t imagine him watching men pound each other.”
“He’s a fellow of first-rate ability,” observed Colonel Craighill, to whom Wingfield was a deplorable idler who had made no use of his talents. “But he has never justified his right to exist.”
“Why should he work merely to please his critics? If he took a job, it would throw somebody else out. What would you have him do?” Wayne demanded.
“Our rich young men have had too much notoriety; they have brought scandal upon the city!” ”

“ That is all I ask or ever could accept in the way of an inheritance.
"Jack."
XXXIV "JOHN WINGFIELD, YOU—" John Wingfield, Sr. had often made the boast that he never worried; that he never took his business to bed with him. When his head touched the pillow there was oblivion until he awoke refreshed to greet the problems left over from yesterday. Such a mind must be a reliably co-ordinated piece of machinery, with a pendulum in place of a heart. It is overawing to average mortals who have not the temerity to say "Nonsense!" to great egos. ”

“ Soon after this he was sued by John Smith and another of the party for slander, the case was tried by the council and Wingfield was cast in heavy damages. Although a good soldier and an honourable man, Wingfield seems to have been wholly unfitted for his post. He was evidently self-confident, pompous, and puffed up by a sense of his own superior birth and position, unable to co-operate with common men and unfit to rule them. ”

“ At times the gleam of the brasswork would exercise the same hypnosis over his senses as the scintillation of the jewelry counters of the store, and he would rub his hands crisply together.
John Wingfield, Sr. spent little time in the car. Morning and afternoon and evening he would go over to Dr. Patterson's with the question: "How is he?" which all Little Rivers was asking. The rules of longevity were in oblivion and the routine channels of a mind, so used to teeming detail, had become abysses as dark and void as the canyons of the range. ”

“ His sympathetic tones unlocked the lips of the young carpenter. He poured out the recital of his wrongs at the hand of Wingfield.
“Cheer up, Laydon; things may turn out better than you dream; but keep a watchful eye upon Wingfield. If I read him truly, he is not above doing you a mischief out of pure malice. It is owing to his efforts that I am a prisoner. He and Kendall have filled the men’s minds with suspicion and unkindness toward me.” ”

“ WINGFIELD, Sir HUMPHREY (d. 1545) , speaker of the House of Commons, was the twelfth son of Sir John Wingfield of Letheringham, Suffolk, by Elizabeth, daughter of Sir John FitzLewis of West Horndon, Essex. Sir John Wingfield, the father of four daughters and twelve sons, of whom Sir Richard (1469?–1525) and Sir Robert are noticed separately, had been sheriff of Norfolk and Suffolk in 1443–4 and again in 1461. He was knighted by Edward IV in 1461, and made a privy councillor. In 1477 he was appointed a commissioner to treat with the French ambassadors at Amiens. He died on 10 May 1481. ”

“ Of course there are people far richer than the Wingfields—uncle Robert, for instance, besides the others who are so much richer even than he, and count their millions by the hundred; but taking him all in all, there’s not a better match in society—for looks, and education, and position, and health, too, which I regard as a very important consideration. You must agree with me, my dear—Wingfield would have made an excellent husband. ”

“ Wingfield rode as a knight of the king's chamber. When Francis grew suspicious of the purport of the subsequent interview between Henry and the emperor at Gravelines (5 July) , Wingfield employed all his diplomacy to keep him in good humour, protesting on his knees by his bedside for an hour at a time the devotion of Henry and Wolsey to his person and his interest. Francis, who had vainly hoped to be admitted to participate in the meeting, rivalled Wingfield in the extravagance of his assurances. ”

“ A boy, engaged with marking pot and brush in decorating a soap-box with cabalistic characters, stopped chewing gum and whistled to a comrade to give heed to the strange being who had entered the front door and was now ascending the counting-room steps. As Mr. Wingfield was careful of his raiment, his manner of gathering up the skirts of his ulster on the stair, and the fact that he wore spats, caused the artist and his comrade to exchange signals of derisive delight. ”

“ After the conviction of the Marquis of Exeter he received a grant of a lease of his lands in Lalford Says, Ardelegh, Colchester, and Mile-End, in Essex and Suffolk.
Wingfield died on 23 Oct. 1545 (Inq. port mortem, 16 Jan. 1546) . He married between 1502 and 1512 Anne, daughter and heiress of Sir John Wiseman of Essex, and widow of Gregory Adgore, Edgore, or Edgar, serjeant-at-law. His son and heir, Robert, married Bridget, daughter of Sir Thomas Partiger, knt., alderman and lord mayor of London in 1530. His daughter Anne married Sir Alexander Newton. ”

“ Wingfield’s story that Wayne had been visiting a friend on a Western ranch served admirably to explain his absence during the summer, and it accounted also for his rugged appearance. Both friends found the man they journeyed with to Pittsburg not the man they had known of old—quieter, more subdued, more given to wide-eyed dreaming. ”

“ Wingfield's statement that the supply left with the colony was very scant, a store that would only last thirteen weeks and a half, and prudence in the distribution of it, in the uncertainty of Newport's return, was a necessity. Whether Wingfield used the delicacies himself is a question which cannot be settled. In his defense, in all we read of him, except that written by Smith and his friends, he seems to be a temperate and just man, little qualified to control the bold spirits about him. ”

“ Wingfield was looking for the youngest débutante when he came upon Walsh [132] stolidly smoking in the Blair library. Walsh in a white waistcoat was something new under the sun. It occurred to Wingfield that he had never seen him in anyone’s house before. He stopped to smoke a cigarette that he might, if possible, analyze Walsh’s emotions in this alien air.
“So you’ve quit the Colonel—taken over the Wayne-Craighill Company. If you have any stock to sell I’d like to have a slice. I’ve always thought the grocery business must be entertaining. ”

“ Wingfield, you are come to see our cowslip feast.’
‘There seems to be great enjoyment,’ replied the young curate, looking, however, somewhat pre-occupied.
‘Look at Charlie Layton,’ said she, pointing to the dumb boy. ‘That ball is perfect felicity, he had rather not play with it, the delight is mere possession.’ She was turning to the boy again, when Mr. Wingfield said, not without hesitation—‘You have not heard when to expect your party from Madeira?’
‘You know we cannot hear again. ”

“ One of his grandsons, Anthony Wingfield (c. 1550–c. 1615) , was public orator in the university of Cambridge, and another was Sir John Wingfield (d. 1596) , a soldier who was governor of Gertruydenberg from 1587 and 1589. Another of Sir Anthony's descendants, Sir Anthony Wingfield (d. 1638) , was created a baronet in 1627. ”

“ Men found it hard to work in the fields while they waited on the crisis. John Wingfield, Sr. sat for hours under Dr. Patterson's umbrella-tree in moody absorption. He talked to all who would talk to him. Always he was asking about the duel in the arroyo which was fought in Jack's way. He could not hear enough of it; and later he almost attached himself to the one eye-witness of the final duel, which had been fought in Leddy's way. ”

“ Moreover, as the Spanish government was known to be bitterly hostile to the colony and to be plotting against it, those interested in the undertaking were naturally distrustful of a Roman catholic. In April 1608 Wingfield returned to England. He appears to have been living, unmarried, at Stoneley in Huntingdonshire in 1613.
Wingfield wrote a pamphlet entitled ‘A Discourse of Virginia.’ This was a complete account of the proceedings of the colonists in Virginia from June 1607 till Wingfield's departure. ”

“ WINGFIELD, EDWARD MARIA (c. 1560–c. 1614) , English colonist in America, was born at Stoneley, Huntingdonshire, about 1560. He served as a soldier both in Ireland and in the Low Countries, was one of the patentees of Virginia in 1606, and in 1607 accompanied the first colonists to Jamestown. ”

“ She could not be so hoighty-toighty if afraid.
'You are right,' he returned; 'business is business. I regret to say I must search your house, for I've reason to know that Councillor Crosbie is concealed here. I advise you to produce him, and have done with it.'
Oh, Major Sirr! Major Sirr! You should have sent your better-half to cope with Mrs. Gillin. What are a dozen men against one woman, in a battle of wits? What are two dozen men against one woman whose blood is roused, who stands like a tigress 'twixt her whelp and danger? ”

“ Get ye gone by the postern in the rosary. The peasantry are staunch. You might lie in a cabin under the bed-furniture till night, and then steal out to sea under cover of the darkness.'
'If I fall into their hands I will speak my own defence, sir,' murmured Emmett, without moving.
'And much good may it do you--fool!' shouted the enraged councillor. 'Don't stand shilly-shallying here like a great goose. Sara, order him to go. If he's hanged you'll have yourself to thank for it.'
Sara took no heed, but lay back, watching the dear youth--as white as wax, like one in a trance. ”

“ Wingfield, a prisoner with them at Calabar, says the same as to the quality he acted in, but that he was civil beyond any of them, and verily believes that when the brigantine he served on board of, as a factor for the African Company, was voted to be burnt, this man was the instrument of preventing it, expressing himself with a great deal of sorrow for this and the like malicious rogueries of the company he was in, that to him showed he had acted with reluctancy, as one who could not avoid what he did. ”

“ Wingfield married Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Sir George Vere and sister of John de Vere, fourteenth earl of Oxford, and left a large family; the eldest surviving son, Sir Robert (d. 1597) , was father of Sir Anthony (d. 1605) and grandfather of Sir Anthony (d. 1638) , first baronet ”

“ Their elfin laughter reverberated among the grim pinnacles and turrets, and as the carriage turned into a woody glade, Gabrielle saw from her seat in the moat-garden little Camille climb upon the woman's knee and press her rosy face against the brown one. The action smote the marquise as with a knife-stab, and she moaned as if in bodily pain. "She usurps my place completely," murmured the hapless lady, deadly pale. "I am as little a mother as a wife. Oh, God grant me strength to endure! Though I be without the gate, teach me to be thankful that they are happy." ”

“ No wonder if they should have arrived at a state of impatience like that of the urchin who has planted a bed full of seed and cannot be restrained from digging them up to see what they are coming to. At such times there is sure to be plenty of fault-finding; disappointment seeks a vent in scolding. We have observed that Wingfield, the deposed president, had returned to England early in 1608; with him went Captain Gabriel Archer, formerly a student of law at Gray's Inn, and one of the earliest members of the legal profession in English America. ”

“ On 26 Aug. he was appointed commissioner to sit at Calais on 1 Sept. 1517 and adjudicate the disputes between English and French merchants. On 5 May and again on 5 Nov. 1518 Wingfield was nominated, together with the treasurer and secretary of Calais, to receive payment of instalments of 50,000 francs each due to Henry under the convention with Louis XII on his marriage with the Princess Mary. On 4 March 1519 Wingfield received a grant in tail male of the reversion of the manors of Donyngton, Cretyngham, Clopton Halle, and Ilkettyshall, Suffolk, upon the death of Elizabeth, countess of Oxford. ”

“ So he smiled sweetly, and, handing his cup to be refilled, observed that as Justice did not live in Ireland, it would be folly to provide a car for her. The spectacle of an English Viceroy making believe to dally with the stranger would be as astounding to Irishmen as the spectacle of a horse-racing Venetian.
'Lord Clare likes his joke,' chorused the giant Cassidy, 'but Curran won't be hoodwinked.'
'I assure you I am in earnest,' declared the chancellor, eyeing his foe from under alligator lids. 'I protest the idea is splendid. If they are bent on hanging themselves, why not give them rope? ”

“ He thought the fact of his driving a street nigger [Pg 67] a great joke, and made merry over his passenger as he passed the other drivers. But he was very much astonished when he drove up in front of quite an imposing dwelling and saw the door opened by a footman as the nigger toiled up the steps.
As an artist Wingfield was ambitious. Finding, as he told me, that he could never be a great artist, he preferred not to be one at all. On his walls were large classic paintings, not likely ever to find their way to the walls of anyone else. But he tried his hand at popular art as well. ”