to the subject. Although his piety was and sincere, he would never take any part i family devotion, except as a listener, an always declined even to ask a blessing a table, when my father was absent. How deep must have been that wound intense the sensibility, that could never meet the human eye! although the expre of every eye, to one so truly penitent, must been that of love and compassion. To the of Heaven, who sees what mortals cannot trate, his meekness, humility, and self-a ment, must have gained their reward; and his short life was finished, he may have j that early friend, where their union wi eternal. LETTER VII. 'Strange is it, that our bloods Of color, weight, and heat, poured all together, SHAKSPEARE. BEFORE the Revolution, we had in our parish a person of more consequence than any I have yet described no less than an English Baronet. Sir W. S. lived about two miles from our church, on a beautiful little peninsula running out into the sea, and bounded on the side next the village by our beautiful river. The usual approach to it was by descending the river in a boat. The house, which to me was a palace, was built on the point, a level, wooded headland. It was protected on the side towards the ocean by noble trees, while sunny slopes descended quite to the margin of the river on the other side. Here, in solitary grandeur, lived the noble and childless pair. Lady S. seldom passed over her threshold, except to take an airing in her coach, and Sir W. S. suffered so much from ill health, that he took no part in country affairs. Sometimes, but not constantly, his powdered head and goldlaced coat were seen in the only curtained and cushioned pew in the meeting-house. He was a Tory, but he was a very good friend to my father, and frequently invited him to be his guest. I was once the companion of one of his visits. We went down the river in the boat, and landed at the foot of a beautiful avenue of noble trees. When we reached the hall door, I was surprised to see my father take out a handkerchief and carefully wipe every particle of dust from his shoes. Observing my look of wonder, he said, 'Lady S. was one of those exquisitely nice persons, who were offended by the soil of our mother earth.' This, of course, prepared me for something very imposing. On entering the parlor I thought it untenanted, but presently I saw emerging from behind a large embroidery frame a delicate little woman, whom I could have taken in my arms, although I was but a child. She received us with great courtesy, but her appearance was a little grotesque. She had not changed the fashion of her garments since she came to this country, in the last year of the reign of George the First. At this time she was about sixty years old; her hair, which was quite gray and thickly powdered, was combed entirely back from the face, and hung down in ringlets; and, except that the materials were finer, her cap was the exact pattern of our old Hannah's. She wore a white satin petticoat, with hoops, and an open brocade gown with short sleeves, and deep cuffs of Flanders lace. The lowness of her stature, I suppose, was the reason that the heels of her satin shoes were four inches high. The room was exquisitely neat. The andirons, of which the tops were large, perpendicular brass plates, eighteen inches in diameter, were dazzlingly bright; and the windows, thickly curtained, gave me an idea of such exquisite comfort as I had never seen before. Lady S. pressed us to stay to dinner, which my father declined, but when we walked out to take leave, we found some one had taken away our boat; we were compelled, therefore, to stay for its return, or accept the courtesy of the carriage to take us two or three miles round and across the bridge to our village. My father preferred the former, and we accordingly remained to dinner. Sir W. S. did not appear till dinner was announced. I remember the dinner as if it were yesterday. Behind the chair of both master and mistress, stood a negro servant, both very old, with thin, woolly locks drawn out into a queue, and thickly powdered. They were dressed in black except their coats, which were of coarse, yellow cloth, covered with blue lace. The whole service of the table was of silver, while water and ale were drank from large silver tankards. The noble host and hostess seemed sad and peevish, and, notwithstanding their splendor, I remember thinking they were not so happy as my father and myself. While we were at dinner, a gentleman, as I thought, came in to receive some order. He was dressed in white silk stockings and waistcoat, but with the same yellow coat, except that the materials were finer than that of the negroes. In my simplicity, I arose and dropped my little childish curtsy, at which my father first blushed, and then laughed. I found afterwards that he was the maître d'hôtel. At length our boat returned, and we went home, my young mind filled with wonder at the splendor I had witnessed. The baronet returned to England during the war, and bequeathed his library to my father. We had hitherto seen few books; now we pos |
