Earl

“ Very soon the earl gathered round him, besides acquaintances, a knot of real friends, affectionate and true, who, in the charm of his cultivated mind, and the simplicity of his good heart, found ample amends for every thing that nature had denied him, the loss of which he bore so cheerfully and uncomplainingly. ”

“ The good old earl, now at the full age of three score and ten, is as hale and hearty as ever, and appears to be not a whit nearer to the end of his endurance. Moreover, the six years last past have been, on the whole, to him years of happiness. ”

“ So the Earl went to the place where the maiden was, and spake with her. “Ah, maiden,” said he, “it cannot be pleasant to thee to journey thus with yonder man!” “It is not unpleasant to me,” said she, “to journey the same road that he journeys.” “Thou hast neither youths nor maidens to serve thee,” said he. “Truly,” she replied, “it is more pleasant for me to follow yonder man, than to be served by youths and maidens.” “I will give thee good counsel,” said he. “All my Earldom will I place in thy possession, if thou wilt dwell with me.” ”

“ What else does an earl do besides being created?”
“A great many of them have helped to govern England. Some of them have been brave men and have fought in great battles in the old days.”
“I should like to do that myself,” said Cedric. “My papa was a soldier, and he was a very brave man—as brave as George Washington. Perhaps that was because he would have been an earl if he hadn’t died. I am glad earls are brave. That’s a great ’vantage—to be a brave man.”
“There is another advantage in being an earl, sometimes,” said Mr. Havisham slowly. “Some earls have a great deal of money.” ”

“ As he spoke, the Earl of March entered the hall of audience, dressed in the ordinary riding garb of the time, and wearing his poniard. He had left in the anteroom the page of honour who carried his sword. The Earl was a well built, handsome man, fair complexioned, with a considerable profusion of light coloured hair, and bright blue eyes, which gleamed like those of a falcon. He exhibited in his countenance, otherwise pleasing, the marks of a hasty and irritable temper, which his situation as a high and powerful feudal lord had given him but too many opportunities of indulging. ”

“ To win his love I lay in wait.
Oh, the Earl was fair to see,
As fair as any man could be;—
The wind is howling in turret and tree!
We two shall be wed tomorrow morn,
And I shall be the Lady Clare,
And when my marriage morn shall fall,
I hardly know what I shall wear. ”

“ The earl, in the mean while, walked to and fro the chamber with a light, careless stride, every moment pausing to laugh at the frank simplicity of his kinsman, or to throw in some shrewd remark, which he cast purposely in the rough Westmoreland dialect; for no man ever attains to the popularity that rejoiced or accursed the Earl of Warwick, without a tendency to broad and familiar humour, without a certain commonplace of character in its shallower and more every-day properties. ”

“ The king, and the earl, and the bishop, and the earls, and all the great men swore to observe these and the other conditions that were then made. The earl was received with much honour at Winchester and at London, and all did homage to him, and swore to keep the peace, and it soon became a very good peace, such as never was in this land. Then the king was more powerful here than ever he was; and the earl went over sea, and all the people loved him, because he did good justice, and made peace. ”

“ As the Seagull glided to her moorings, his expression grew harder and sterner. He was a man of the world, and he knew what would be expected of him. An earl, the owner of an historic title and vast estates, has a paramount duty—that of providing an heir to his title and lands. ”

“ The old Earl, their father, was constantly disappointed and humiliated by them; his heir was no honour to his noble name. It was very bitter, the old Earl thought, that the son who was only third, should be the one who had all the gifts, and all the charms. Sometimes he almost hated the handsome young man because he seemed to have the good things which should have gone with the stately title and the magnificent estates. ”

“ Of course we are all aware that the title, as it comes to the present earl, is what may be called a barren honor, there being no entail. Not one golden guinea, not one acre of moorland, comes with it. The father of the late earl, when he drew up his will, might have foreseen the contingency which the strange irony of events all unlikely as it then seemed--has now brought about. ”

“ Since his accession to the title of his ancestors, the young earl had continued to live in retirement with his mother, a woman of a noble, elevated, and generous soul, well becoming her high lineage—for she, too, was descended of one of the noblest families in England—but in whose temper there was occasionally made visible a dash of the leaven of aristocracy. ”

“ Of the earl I must say, that he is so noble and worthy a personage, and so forward in all his actions, and so complete a gentleman wherein he may either advance your honor or service, as you may take comfort to have in store so rare a subject, who hath nothing in greater regard than to show himself such an one indeed as the common fame reporteth him ”

“ Maitland. “The earl is now stricken in years, and in the common course of nature he cannot be long here. If only for your boy’s sake, you ought to give way. A grand future is before him, if the earl chooses to make him his heir, which he has promised to do.” ”

“ They look so pleased, and they blush so, and look so wistfully up to where their relatives are sitting, that it is quite pathetic, and the good old Earl has a vigorous wipe of his spectacles before he calls up the Fourth Junior. ”

“ If the proud Earl could forget the services my dear father rendered him, when, a younger son, without fortune or position, he had no other refuge than our house,—if he could wipe away the memory of benefits once received,—he might perhaps be better minded towards us ”

“ Plainer than any of the fine ones—than you, for instance. The earl is much altered, but I should have known them both anywhere. I should have known her from the likeness to her poor mother—just the same eyes and sweet expression. ”

“ The Earl absolutely prohibited all conversation on affairs in debate during the supper which was spread in the hall, with quite as much state as, and even greater profusion and splendour, than was to be found at Windsor, Winchester, or Westminster. All the high born sat on the dais, raised on two steps with gorgeous tapestry behind, and a canopy overhead; the Earl and Countess on chairs in the centre of the long narrow table. ”

“ Ay, and that if he thinks an old man’s hairs brought down to the grave, a broken-hearted wife, helpless orphans, and a land without a head, to be a grateful offering to my father, let him enjoy the thought of how the righteous Earl would have viewed all the desolation that will fall on England without the one—one scholar who knew how to value and honour his lessons. ”

“ At the king's coronation feast he was girded with the sword of the earldom of Essex, though he had been called earl before, and had exercised certain administrative rights which Roger of Hoveden speaks of as pertaining to the earldom (ib. p. 90) ”

“ Each may expect some fresh boon from a new sovereign, and the baron’s ambition to become an earl is just as eager, and probably twice as unprincipled, as the varlet’s to become a page, or the page’s to become a squire. ”

“ From his picture we recognise the young Earl, possessor of the most famed name, and broadest lands in the kingdom. We see the same lofty mien—the artist has but faintly caught—the same noble outline of features, and dark brown hair, curled close as the tendrils of the vine over his broad forehead. His air is dignified and high, he looks what he is, and yet there is about his face something which tells us he has all the love of his race for the field, and his look does not belie his character ”

“ Born in 1567, the Earl had barely reached the age of manhood when he won the heart of his royal mistress, already verging on threescore. Gifted by nature with a handsome person, undoubted courage, and many generous qualities, he exhibited, in the most important transactions of life, the recklessness of a madman and the levity of a spoiled child; it was apparent to the world that nothing short of the personal fascination which he exercised over the Queen could so long have preserved him from the consequences of his continual caprices and quarrels. ”

“ The Earl gave a courteous answer to this demand, saying: “I consider your friendship of great importance; and if you think you require my assistance against other chiefs, you have well deserved it; but I cannot well pay you homage, as I am already an Earl of the King of Scots, and his vassal.”
13But when the King found from these words that the Earl wished to avoid the claims which he had put forward, he said: “If you will not become my man, there is the other alternative—viz., that I place that man over the Islands whom I choose. ”

“ Figures must fail somewhere; and we want another in this case. My Lord, you are the gem, and the heavenly Graver is fashioning on you the King’s likeness. Will you stay His hand before it is perfect?”
“I would it were near perfection!” sighed the Earl.
“Perhaps it is,” said the Prior, gently. “Remember, it is your Father who is graving it.”
The Earl’s lip quivered. “If one could but know when it would be done! If one might know that in seven years—ten years—it would be complete, and one’s heart and brain might find rest! ”

“ I did n't think I was going to like it myself, but I like it better now I'm used to it. The one who is the earl now, he's my grandpapa; and he wants me to do anything I like. He's very kind, if he is an earl ”

“ Earl (A.Sax. eorl; Dan. jarl) , a degree of the British nobility between marquess and viscount, the title of highest antiquity in England. The title was made hereditary by William the Conqueror, and for a time was used interchangeably with that of count, the corresponding title on the Continent. The wife of an earl is still called a countess. The earl was the highest in rank of the nobility until Edward III created a duke in 1357, and Richard II a marquess in 1385. The first earl of England is the Earl of Arundel. ”

“ Of course, a duke must be just so much smarter than an earl, and an earl than a viscount. She tried sometimes to measure positions by such a standard here. There was Miss Bowles, who wouldn’t have any title at all; and Mrs. Orvice, who would certainly be an earl’s daughter, the Lady Anne Orvice, and the Emmonses, who would be equivalent, she thought, to a smart young duke and duchess, just succeeded to the title. ”

“ This noble earl bids me say to you, Edward Duke of Somerset, that, being solicitous to avoid the unnecessary effusion of Christian blood, he is ready to decide this quarrel by single combat with you alone, or to encounter you with ten or twenty gentlemen on each side, on foot or on horseback, as may be arranged. ”

“ Good evening, Duchess; so good of you to look in. Ah, Earl, charmed to meet you; you'll find some sandwiches in the billiard-room. Beltravers, show the Earl some sandwiches. How-do-you-do, Professor? Delighted you could come. Won't you take off your goloshes? ”

“ At first the dignity was official and certainly not hereditary, and the name of a county of which he is said to have been an officer in the king’s name was not essential to his dignity as an earl. There were also men who, though Scottish and Norman earls, and commonly so addressed and summoned to parliament, were rated in England as barons (Lords Reports, ii. 116, 120; Earldom of Norfolk Peerage Case, Law Reports [1907] , A.C. p. 18) . Earls received individual summonses to parliament by the name of Earl (q.v.) ”

“ You see,—you and these other fellows can do as you like; go where you like when you like. An Earl's second son has to serve his House. He has to pave the way and make things smooth for the son and heir. He is supposed to work the limelight that shines on his elder brother. ”

“ There are one or two important letters from his father, the seventh Earl, two or three from his mother; there is also his mother's will. There is one letter from his younger brother, to whom he had evidently, more than once, announced his determination of leaving home for a considerable time. ”

“ Eagre, a name given in England to a tidal wave rushing up a river or estuary on the top of another, called also a Bore (q. v.) .
Earl, a title of nobility, ranking third in the British peerage; originally election to the dignity of earl carried with it a grant of land held in feudal tenure, the discharge of judicial and administrative duties connected therewith, and was the occasion of a solemn service of investiture. ”

“ But however that may have been, the imperious Earl insisted on the meek king becoming his son-in-law; and a man who, even in the days of his youth, had been much too saintly to think of matrimony, was compelled, when turned of forty, to espouse a woman on the hands of whose father was his brother's blood, and to whose family he had, naturally enough, a thorough aversion. ”

“ Other evidence, and specially that of the exchequer rolls of Scotland (iii. 600, 634) , points to the date of the earl's death as the end of 1404 or beginning of 1405, probably February 1405. The earl had no issue by his wife, but he had several natural children, Alexander (who became Earl of Mar) [q. v.] ”

“ The great earl marshal himself, who, if we may trust his biographer, was never afraid to do what he thought honour demanded, and was always able to defend himself in the king's presence with such vigorous argument that nothing could be done with him, was obliged to give over to the king's keeping first his eldest and then his second son. ”