My story begins in London in November of 1760. The city was full of excitement, for the war with France, which had begun so disastrously four years earlier, was now bringing almost daily reports of victories on land and sea in all parts of the world. But now His Majesty King George II, who had reigned over us for so many years, had died, and his grandson was our new monarch: King George III, a man in his early twenties, no older than me. A new age was dawning, and I had my own reasons to be happy because, unexpectedly and through no merit of my own, I was about to become a man of wealth!
It was a cold morning of heavy cloud, and I was walking in the Strand, when a carriage passed nearby and I heard a man’s voice halloo me. I turned as the carriage stopped, the window was opened and the same voice exclaimed, “It’s Charles Huntingdon, is it not?” I saw it was Lord Staines, the only son of the Earl of Teesdale. I recognised him from our college at Cambridge University; though I had then been merely a poor scholar hoping to find a living in the Church, and he had been far above me in station. We poor scholars had had to wait on the young noblemen in Hall, and neither expected nor received many thanks in return. I was surprised that he had remembered me at all.
His manner was most friendly; in marked
contrast to how he had often behaved at the college. He asked me what I was
about, and I explained my recent great good fortune: that I had become the heir
of an aunt, Mrs Andrew, a widowed lady without children who had resided near
the town of Bereton, north of Mulchester, where she owned extensive properties;
that I had not been long in London and knew little of the great metropolis, but
was on my way to see the banker, Mr Coutts, and then the lawyers at Lincoln’s
Inn, to discuss my inheritance.
Staines
congratulated me, and said, “I must go now, but meet me this afternoon at
Brown’s club, and tell me more. It’s not far from here; between the Savoy and
St Clement’s church”. With that he instructed his coachman to drive on, and
clattered away across the paving stones.
Having concluded my business for the morning
I made my way to Brown’s club. I had never previously heard of that
establishment, but had no great difficulty in locating it. I found a substantial room
with a wooden floor and a high ceiling. A fire was blazing in a wide grate, and
a large kettle was hung above it. At one end was an enclosed area where coffee
was being prepared. A dozen or so gentlemen sat around tables, drinking and
smoking pipes while they talked together. Newspapers were laid out to be read and
there were coloured engravings on the walls. Waiters trotted to and fro with
coffee pots.
A look around the company told me that Staines was not present. One or two of the gentlemen glanced in my direction and then returned to their own affairs. I stood irresolute in the doorway, uncertain as to what to do. After what seemed like an age, a waiter approached me and politely asked me my business. When I informed him that Lord Staines had asked me to meet him there, he ushered me to sit at a table in a corner while I awaited his lordship’s arrival.
No-one took further notice of me, so I remained silent and listened snatches of the conversation of the other gentlemen as they discussed the latest news of the war. I had, of course, followed reports in the newspapers of the great battles, and I knew of Mr William Pitt, the Secretary of State who was planning the war against France, and hoped I might learn more. I was interested to hear that some of those present thought the war must end soon, lest the costs became ruinous. They also spoke of our new King, though none of them had ever met him. But soon talk then turned to their own affairs, and to the new plays, and scandalous gossip, and my attention wandered.
I wondered about Lord Staines. I was surprised
that he should care about me. At our college he had been an inhabitant of a different
and higher world, but perhaps now that I was about to be the owner of a
significant landed estate, he might consider me a friend. I had come to the
city alone, and if I had now gained a friend who could advise and guide me, my
life would become far more enjoyable.
I assembled together the scattered
recollections I had of him. He was slender in his build, and shorter than me. His
eyes were blue. He had a charming smile, though he seldom revealed it;
preferring to appear solemn even when he was joking. He was always the central
figure in any gathering. I never heard him raise his voice in anger; nor did he
ever appear hasty or flustered. Occasionally he was polite towards us humble
servitors, but at other times he was rude and sneering. He could be scathing in
his denunciations of other men, usually when they were absent, or when he
wished to display his wit to his numerous acolytes. As was common with
young noblemen at the university, he left without taking a degree, and I had heard
that his father the Earl had then purchased him a commission in a cavalry
regiment and he had joined our allied army in Germany. That being the case, I
wondered why he was in London, and not in uniform, with the war still raging. I
was still pondering this point when Staines himself entered.
He appeared soon after three o’clock, came
to sit beside me and immediately summoned a waiter. “Why have you not served my
friend with coffee?” he demanded. “Well then: bring some immediately!” he
continued, interrupting the servant’s stuttering apologies.
We began our conversation by exchanging some
trivial reminiscences of our times at the college. He dismissed the institution
as useless, and was contemptuous of the scholarship of the dons. “I would rate my years there”, he said, “As the most unprofitable period of my life,
redeemed only by the pleasurable company of my companions. You should have
joined us!” We had all heard of the drinking and debauchery supposed to have taken
place in Lord Staines’s rooms in a part of the college known as “Holy Joe’s”,
after an ancient statue of St. Joseph that stood there (“A fitting place for a
sainted cuckold”, someone had said). I had never been invited to join the young
noblemen in their pleasures, but did not point this out.
He continued in this vein for a while, with
witty dissections of the character and habits of our more eccentric dons. During
this discourse, to which I contributed no more than an occasional word, I
observed that gentlemen at an adjacent table had interrupted their talk to
listen to him, and were laughing. Lord Staines had always enjoyed performing
before an appreciative audience.
Then we fell to talking of the future. He
commiserated with me on the death of my aunt, Mrs Andrew; but I explained to
him that she was in reality a more distant relation, a cousin of my late
mother; I had not set eyes on her since I was a small child, and was as
surprised as anyone to find myself named as her heir. He replied that Mrs
Andrew was not unknown to his family, for his father also owned lands around Bereton.
He had wondered who would inherit the Andrew estate, and he was glad it was me,
rather than a stranger.
“And now”, he added, “we must now be
considered neighbours; for my father’s country seat, Maybury, is in the same
county, and no great distance away. I shall make sure that my father invites
you there, once you are established”.
He asked me how I lived now. I said that
since the death of both my parents I had no permanent residence, but that at
present I lodged in Crown Street, Westminster, and that the bankers allowed me
£30 a quarter in expectation of my eventual inheritance; but I was experiencing
frustrating delays in the sorting through of my aunt’s investments in the
Funds. Staines said that his father’s attorney and man of business was in town, and if necessary he
would instruct him to help me.
“His name is Jarrett”, he said, “He is a
most ingenious fellow, and I would back him to navigate a way through the most
tangled labyrinths of the law, even if blindfolded!”
I thanked him for the offer of assistance,
and said that as soon as everything was settled I proposed to travel up to
Bereton to inspect my new property, and perhaps reside there for a while. At
that he shook his head and laughed, saying that the country was no place for any
young man of spirit, that I would quickly find it dull and tedious.
I asked him what he knew of Bereton.
“I have never set foot there”, he replied,
“Nor do I propose to do so! I know only what my father has told me. It is an
ancient, decayed town. I fear you will find no gentleman of taste or refinement
there, for most of the so-called gentry in the county are in reality little better
than farmers, and never come to town. Believe me, my father knows them only too
well! They have ridiculous names like “Sir Heatherbrain Fitzbooby”, and are as
ignorant as the peasants who plough their fields. Clowns and boors, every one!
All they seek in life is to eat and drink to excess and to hunt foxes!” I
wondered whether the listening gentlemen would take offence at this, but they
merely chuckled. They must have considered themselves to be of a superior breed
to the country folk.
“The town elects two members to the
Parliament. One of these is Sir James Wilbrahim who is a typical specimen of the
breed I have described. He is a stupid old Tory and a notorious Jacobite, and
seldom comes to London.”
“A Jacobite, you say?”
“Oh yes! You may be amazed that there are
still such benighted men in our nation, but I assure you that numbers still
lurk in the depths of the country. Sir James Wilbrahim is one. You will
doubtless meet him when you visit Bereton, and I wish you joy of him! The other
Member, Mr Bailey, is a friend of my father. At the last election, Wilbrahim
and Bailey were returned unopposed without a poll, which saved my father any
further expenditure of money, though he had already spent vast sums. You will
not meet Bailey there: he now rarely leaves his home in Hampstead.”
A Jacobite, I thought: a supporter of the
exiled Stuart who calls himself King James III, and of his son Charles, who had
led a rebellion back in 1745, when I had been a child and too young to comprehend anything about it. It all seemed so long ago, and the cause so hopeless that I
was surprised that its supporters still lived.
Lord Staines continued. “As for your aunt’s
house, which is now yours: I believe it is in a hamlet to the west of the town,
but I know nothing about it. I cannot imagine that you will find it anything
but old and ugly in its design and furnishing. No: once you have viewed your
new properties and settled your affairs there, I warrant you will quickly
return to London!”
I said to Staines that I understood he had
served in the army. At this his face grew dark, and lowering his voice so that
he should not be overheard he asked me whether I knew anything of the recent
battle of Minden, in Germany. I replied that I had heard the name, but that
having only recently arrived in town, I knew no details.
“Well then”, he told me with an unusual
degree of bitterness in his voice, “I must tell you that Lord George Sackville,
who commanded our cavalry and was my patron and friend, was accused of
cowardice for failing to charge home with his men when ordered to do so. I was
there, as his aide-de-camp, and I knew the accusation to be most villainously
unjust, for the orders he had received made no sense at all. So when he was
dismissed from the army at the express command of the King himself, was
subjected to public humiliation and had his private life traduced in the vilest
rumours, I resigned my commission forthwith and came home. I must beg you in
all earnestness never to mention the subject again”.
I thought it best to say nothing, but to wait for him to regain his composure. This he quickly did, remarking that the war would soon be over and that such matters could then be forgotten. More cheerful now in his manner, he asked me how I liked our great capital. I replied that at first, having never lived in any town larger than Cambridge, I had been bemused by the immense bustling crowds, the constant noise, the dirt and all-pervading smells. He laughed and said that this was a common feeling among those newly arrived from the country, but that he would wager that ere long I, like him, would never wish to live anywhere else in England. He further told me that now I was about to become rich, I should live appropriately; and that he would instruct me in the fashionable life of the town that my newfound wealth had opened up to me.
Realising that my life was about to change, I resolved to start a journal. Reading now through such scattered pages as have survived, I recall how the next few weeks were passed in endless activity, as Lord Staines endeavoured to reform my way of life. He conducted me first to his tailor, and commanded the man to make me two new suits of clothes, one red and one green, richly embroidered and with silver buttons. The tailor measured me and assured me that the garments would be ready without delay. I also paid six guineas for a very splendid waistcoat of golden silk, embroidered with tiny flowers and birds in vivid colours. To go with these I acquired a fine tricorn hat with lace, stockings of the best silk, shoes with silver buckles, and finally two bag wigs tied with a black ribbon in the latest fashion, which cost twelve guineas. The tradesmen treated me with a most gratifying respect that verged on servility. I also provided myself with a gold-topped cane, a watch for twenty guineas and a snuffbox of tortoiseshell and silver. The only one of these vanities that I still retain is a very handsome sword with an elaborate hilt of silver and steel, which was purchased from the shop of Mr Jefferys, sword-cutter to His Majesty, and cost ten guineas. It was only a toy sword, worn just for show and I did not know how to use it, never having had a fencing lession in my life, but I had never before owned a sword, and I contemplated it every day with a degree of pleasure. I would play with it in my rooms, to the alarm of my landlady. I felt myself now fully equipped to parade through the best parts of our capital city.
I was not required to pay any money at the
time for these purchases. Some of the tradesmen were unwilling to grant me
credit, since they did not know me, but Lord Staines said he and his father
would personally vouch for me, and this was generally accepted. I thus piled up
debt after debt in a very short time. I thought little of economy then, but I
was later grateful that I did not follow Staines’s advice to change my lodgings
to a fashionable place on Pall Mall. That would have cost me £200 a year, and I
pleaded that I was living very comfortably for little more than a tenth of that,
with a landlady who sewed the ruffles on my shirt without asking for payment,
and had discovered a tavern nearby where I could dine off a good beefsteak for
little more than a shilling. Staines shook his head at this, but did not press
me.
Eventually he announced that I looked a proper gentleman, fit to meet his friends and to attend on his father the Earl when he next gave a dinner party. I felt absurdly proud. My new life was beginning!
