CHAPTER IV.
Fortwo months our young couple had enjoyed each other with ardent and increasing affection, though not without attempts to interrupt their happiness.—These sprang from Mrs. and Miss Sourkrout whose inventions, not being so fertile as their dispositions were malignant, had confined their exertions to anonymous letters, too frivolous in contrivance, and absurd in execution to produce any effect. From some circumstances Mr. and Mrs. Hamilton were able to trace them to the rightful authors; but without deigning to resent malice so very inefficient.—About this time a letter arrived from the laird of Etterick, in which he announced his intention of visiting his brother.—His expectations from the co-heiresseshad, it seems, though he had tried both, proved as fallacious as his hopes from any of his former undertakings. He was now meditating to try his fortune among the English ladies, who, he hoped, would be more sensible to his merits than the misses of his own country. In a few weeks he arrived at Brotherton; and was greatly pleased with his reception at the vicarage. He soon contracted a very high admiration for the worthy clergyman, not so much on account of his abilities, learning, virtue, and piety, as for his skill in rearing cattle; and declared, that he had gained so much knowledge of green crops, during the time he passed in Yorkshire, as would much more than indemnify the expences of his excursion. Though he spent much of his time with Mr. Wentbridge, when superintending his husbandry, and still more with the hind, yet the evenings were passed in theparlour, and he frequently heard mention made of the machinations of Miss Sourkrout. As the state of her finances did not happen to be brought on the carpet, her name excited little attention. But as the season advanced the evenings grew long and fine, the laird, tiring of domestic society, found out a neighbouring public house, wherein he was introduced to an amicable company, consisting of the parish clerk, the barber, the exciseman, the lawyer, and some others, who, though the chief subject of their conversation was the state of public affairs, would sometimes descend to more private considerations. In one of these conferences the attorney, who had that day returned from Doncaster, informed the company that he had the honour of spending the evening in the house of an alderman, that there he had met with a young lady of a capital fortune, who had treated himwith great complacency. “I do believe,” said he, with a self-approving nod, “that if I had not been married I might——hem.” The laird, aroused by this intelligence, inquired what the amount of the lady’s property was, and how it was disposed of, learned from the communicative lawyer the account he had heard from the alderman’s lady, that there was twelve thousand pounds burdened, indeed, with a dowager. The next day the laird, though not much addicted to balls or assemblies, proposed to his brother and sister-in-law to go to the first meeting of that sort which should be held at Doncaster, “wishing,” he said, “to have a view of the Yorkshire lasses.”—They readily agreed to his proposal, and about a week after repaired to the festive scene. Thinking an auxiliary might be useful, in carrying on his enterprize, he had bethought himself of applying to the attorney, andopened his mind so much to the satisfaction of that learned gentleman, that he declared he should want no assistance in his power. The lawyer, early in the day appointed for the ball, rode to Doncaster, and making a visit to the alderman’s lady, informed her, by way of news, that there was to be a Scotch gentleman offourthousand a year in the assembly room that evening, the elder brother of parson Wentbridge’s son-in-law; that he had heard much of Miss Sourkrout, and had been making many enquiries about her temper and dispositions. Mrs. Alderman regarding a dowager mayoress as a very high lady, and having attained the pinnacle of dignity at which she herself aspired, was desirous of gratifying the mother and daughter, and hastily conveyed to them this intelligence.
Both madam and miss were arouzed. A triumph over the daughter of Wentbridge,who was the wife of a younger brother of the squire, was not the least consideration with either. No beauty that mantua-makers or milliners could bestow on so short a notice was spared. When the company met, the laird having learned which was Miss Sourkrout, after taking something of a circuit round the room, came to miss, and very respectfully requested the honour of her being his partner in a country dance, when they should begin. Miss most graciously complied, and, though fond of exhibiting herself in a minuet, forbore for the present that gratification. He, meanwhile, entered into conversation with both miss and her mother. He soon took a great fancy to the sagacity of the old lady, and the ingenuity of the young one. At length, the time for their dance arrived, and a couple exhibited themselves, which attracted the eyes of the company morethan any that appeared that evening.—The gentleman extremely lank, with high cheek-bones, a lean visage, the solemn seriousness of aspect which so often distinguishes our northern countrymen, opposed the lady, squab, fat, and blowsy, flirting and simpering; he with narrow shoulders, and a flat chest; she with back broad and brawny, chest large, deep, and capacious. The swain moved in the attitude of a trotting dromedary, so useful to Arabs; the nymph like a quadruped which, though little relished by Jews, is not without value among Christians, and if we may believe Fielding, had even occupied the chief care of a christian pastor[1]. As both had laboured extremely hard, they were very happy when the rules of the assembly sufferedthem to have rest. The mother most politely thanked the laird for his attention to Grizzle, to which he answered, after much consideration, that he thought it the duty of a gentleman to be polite to ladies: that was a maxim that, he said, had been very early impressed upon him by his worthy grand-mother, to whom, he observed, he was chiefly indebted for his education; having, while his brother went to school, been brought up under the old lady’s own eye. Mrs. Sourkrout proposed, as they appeared heated with dancing, to take to a rubber, saying, “she doubted not that a gentleman of his appearance could play at whist.” “O yes,” replied he, “that was one of my grand-mama’s chief lessons; from the time I was twelve year old, till I was past twenty, we spent almost every evening in that pastime, and while my mother lived, and my sisters were athome, we long after kept in the same course: but since I am an orphan and lonesome, I send for my foreman, and take a hit at backgammon. But I should like a rubber very much.” A party was accordingly formed. Mr. Hamilton and the fair nymph were partners. Their opponents had won a double, were nine to four of the second, and had turned up the king; three tricks were gained before the laird and his partner had got one. MissSourkrout, the dealer, with the king guarded, had two aces, from which she reasonably entertained sanguine hopes of a bumper. Miss having the queen, knave of trumps, and a long suit; after taking a trick, shewed a suit; with profound skill discontinued it, to play through the honour; at the second round drove the king prisoner into the hands of her partner’s victorious ace. Her right-hand adversary’s ten fell by the same fatalblow, the laird’s nine and eight exhausted all the enemy’s trumps, and left his three lord of the board. Now did the comprehensive wisdom of the laird, having before its view every trick, return his partner’s suit; the lady made two more, one only remained the destined victim of the corps de reserve, and thus secured the victory. A single hand determined the next game in favour of the laird and miss. Mr. Hamilton considered the rubber as won by miss’s dexterity, which raised her very high in his estimation. He with much gravity remarked, “that it was a very providential circumstance, that she thought of playing through the honour.”
The major and his lady observed their brother’s attention to Miss Sourkrout, but thinking it accidental, regarded it with unconcern. The next morning thelaird went to pay the lady a visit, and was very graciously received.
A few days after, taking an opportunity of being alone with the major, he turned the discourse upon Miss Sourkrout, with a very particular detail of her cash and moveables, according to the information which he had received from his acquaintance the attorney. The major strongly dissuaded his brother from attempting any such connection; but as in his dissuasives he said nothing to the disparagement of her fortune, he made little impression.
The laird visited and revisited the fair object of his pursuit, and as she and her mamma had taken care to be well informed concerning his circumstances, he was received with kindness, manifesting itself the more openly at every succeeding interview. A few weeks concludedthe negotiation, and after a decent sacrifice to coyness and decorum, the esquire was blessed with all the happiness that the lawful possession of miss’s charms, such as they were, could bestow. The senior and junior relations of mayoral dignity soon after set out with the esquire for the house of Etterick.
Major Hamilton, meanwhile, after having spent the destined time in Yorkshire, rejoined his regiment, then quartered at Berwick and adjacent towns.—The remainder of the summer and the following winter he and his lady passed in the county of Northumberland. The time now approaching, that was to render her a mother, Eliza anxiously wished to repair to the vicarage. The major, procuring a short leave of absence, accompanied her thither, and soon after (March 22d, 1765,) she presented him with a son and heir. In due time theinfant was christened by a neighbouring clergyman, whilst his grand-father, being sponsor, gave to him his own name of William. Mrs. Hamilton having resolved not to delegate to another the duty which she found herself able to discharge, it was agreed that the vicarage should continue to be her chief residence, while she suckled little William; and as the regiment was now removed to York, that the major should spend, at Brotherton, all the time that he could spare from professional duty. As these visits, depending in some degree on contingences, were neither fixed as to time, nor certain as to duration, they enhanced the impassioned affection with which the husband and wife regarded each other, and their little boy. Whilst the mother, in the father’s absence, traced his beloved features in the son, she could not help reflecting, that thecause of their frequent separation was the performance of duties that might tear them much farther and longer asunder; carrying her fancy to events not improbable, she often dwelt with anxious tenderness on the likelihood there was that Hamilton might be ordered abroad. Peace, it was true, did not at present seem about to be soon broken, but discontents already manifested themselves in America, and might become more serious; should troops be requisite to support the authority of government, no regiment, she thought, was more likely to be selected than that of which her adored husband was a member.—These considerations tinged the love of Eliza with a pensive softness, that rendered her more peculiarly interesting. Her father, who divined the cause of her uneasiness, assured her, that should any circumstance call his esteemed and valued son-in-lawto a distant land, William should be his care, and that no pains or expence, which an income, though moderate not scanty, could afford, should be wanting to give him an education becoming a gentleman and a scholar. The forebodings of Mrs. Hamilton for several years proved unfounded. After William was of sufficient age and strength to allow her absence, she accompanied her husband to the regimental quarters, which, though they frequently shifted, were never farther removed than Liverpool, Chester, Shrewsbury, or some other town within a hundred miles of her father and her son.
Before William had reached the second year of his age she had brought him a brother, and soon after he attained his third she produced another boy. Young William by this time was a strong, active, sprightly little fellow, and the chief favourite of his grand-father, who lookedon him as a kind of phenomenon, and though only in his fourth year, began to teach him the first rudiments of literature.
Having about a year before risen to be lieutenant-colonel of his regiment, Hamilton had so closely attended to the troops that he procured a leave of absence for six months, which he, with his lady, spent with the vicar, and in vigilantly watching the opening understanding and heart of their eldest son; and from the acuteness of his remarks, quickness and retentiveness of his memory, and readiness of his ingenuity, together with the affectionate kindness of his disposition, all seen through the exaggerating medium of parental partiality, regarded him as a surprizing instance of intelligence and goodness. Affection, however, did not so much blind discernment as to prevent them from discoveringthat his temper was irritable and fiery, that under the impulse of anger he would very readily do mischief, though he soon repented; and they strongly represented to the vicar this defect in the child, and he promised his efforts to its correction. Hamilton now rejoined his regiment, which was ordered to the south of England, and did not for the two following years after find leisure to revisit his son. William, during this interval, made quick proficiency under his grand-father; at six years old began his accidence, and at seven had made no small progress in Corderius. Besides the old vicar he had another preceptor, who as anxiously superintended the efforts of his bodily strength, as his grand-father his mental improvement. This was sergeant Maxwell, who instructed him in boxing and cricket, as he had himself learned them in his youth, from Hampshireand Sussex men, when quartered in the south of England; and also procured him the instructions of young villagers, eminent for the Yorkshire wrestling, and especially for cross buttocks. Under his various tutors William made such advances that he had few matches of his own age, at either grammatical or gymnastical exercises. About this time the vicar’s eldest son, after having held a fellowship at Cambridge for several years, was presented to a living in his native country, near twenty miles from his father’s house. Having, during his residence at the university, been accustomed to tuition, he proposed to add to his income by establishing an academy. The vicar highly approved of this plan, proposed to send his young grandson as a scholar to the new seminary. His son-in-law and daughter, who were now at the vicarage, were greatly delighted withthis scheme, as they saw their boy, with many excellent qualities, required much stricter and steadier discipline than was administered by his grandfather’s indulgence. The colonel’s regiment being speedily to embark for Ireland, it was at his instance determined that young Hamilton should be immediately sent to school. The second son of colonel Hamilton had died an infant, the third was, at the earnest entreaty of the vicar, left to replace William. The youngest child, a daughter, accompanied her parents. Mrs. Hamilton, with extreme reluctance, parted from her two boys; yet convinced that their respective situation was the fittest that could be chosen for their several ages, bore it with fortitude. She was now less uneasy on her husband’s account, than during the first appearance of American discontent.—The conciliatory policy with which theadministration of lord North had commenced, had already, in a great measure, quieted disturbances, and it was hoped that measures so agreeable to the mildness of his character would be uniformly adhered to, and produce a total cessation of dissatisfaction. From these expectations, so gratifying to loyal and patriotic politicians, Mrs. Hamilton drew an inference conducive to private happiness, that the colonel would not be ordered to America. Cherishing these hopes, she with the less regret took leave of her father and children, whom, as the distance was comparatively inconsiderable, she hoped ere long to have in her arms.