DAYS WITH SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY
J >>
JOSEPH ADDISON and RICHARD STEELE >> DAYS WITH SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY
This etext was produced by John Hill.
DAYS WITH SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY
by Joseph Addison and Richard Steele
(Originally published in THE SPECTATOR)
CONTENTS.
SIR ROGER'S FAMILY.
MR. WILL WIMBLE.
THE PICTURE GALLERY.
A COUNTRY SUNDAY.
THE WIDOW.
THE CHASE.
THE COUNTY ASSIZES.
THE SPECTATOR'S RETURN TO TOWN.
SIR ROGER'S FAMILY.
Having often received an invitation from my friend Sir Roger de
Coverley to pass away a month with him in the country, I last
week accompanied him thither, and am settled with him for some
time at his country-house, where I intend to form several of my
ensuing Speculations. Sir Roger, who is very well acquainted
with my humour, lets me rise and go to bed when I please, dine at
his own table or in my chamber as I think fit, sit still and say
nothing without bidding me be merry. When the gentlemen of the
country come to see him, he only shews me at a distance. As I
have been walking in his fields I have observed them stealing a
sight of me over an hedge, and have heard the Knight desiring
them not to let me see them, for that I hated to be stared at.
I am the more at ease in Sir Roger's family, because it consists
of sober and staid persons; for as the Knight is the best master
in the world, he seldom changes his servants; and as he is
beloved by all about him, his servants never care for leaving
him; by this means his domesticks are all in years, and grown old
with their master. You would take his valet de chambre for his
brother, his butler is gray-headed, his groom is one of the
gravest men that I have ever seen, and his coachman has the looks
of a privy-counsellor. You see the goodness of the master even
in the old house-dog, and in a gray pad that is kept in the
stable with great care and tenderness out of regard to his past
services, tho' he has been useless for several years.
I could not but observe with a great deal of pleasure the joy
that appeared in the countenance of these ancient domesticks upon
my friend's arrival at his country-seat. Some of them could not
refrain from tears at the sight of their old master; every one of
them press'd forward to do something for him, and seemed
discouraged if they were not employed. At the same time the good
old Knight, with the mixture of the father and the master of the
family, tempered the enquiries after his own affairs with several
kind questions relating to themselves. This humanity and good-
nature engages every body to him, so that when he is pleasant
upon any of them, all his family are in good humour, and none so
much as the person whom he diverts himself with. On the
contrary, if he coughs, or betrays any infirmity of old age, it
is easy for a stander-by to observe a secret concern in the looks
of all his servants.
My worthy friend has put me under the particular care of his
butler, who is a very prudent man, and, as well as the rest of
his fellow-servants, wonderfully desirous of pleasing me, because
they have often heard their master talk of me as of his
particular friend.
My chief companion, when Sir Roger is diverting himself in the
woods or the fields, is a very venerable man who is ever with Sir
Roger, and has lived at his house in the nature of a chaplain
above thirty years. This gentleman is a person of good sense and
some learning, of a very regular life and obliging conversation.
He heartily loves Sir Roger, and knows that he is very much in
the old Knight's esteem, so that he lives in the family rather as
a relation than a dependent.
I have observed in several of my papers, that my friend Sir
Roger, amidst all his good qualities, is something of an
humorist; and that his virtues, as well as imperfections, are as
it were tinged by a certain extravagance, which makes them
particularly HIS, and distinguishes them from those of other men.
This cast of mind, as it is generally very innocent in itself, so
it renders his conversation highly agreeable, and more delightful
than the same degree of sense and virtue would appear in their
common and ordinary colours. As I was walking with him last
night, he asked me how I liked the good man whom I have just now
mentioned? and without staying for my answer told me, That he
was afraid of being insulted with Latin and Greek at his own
table; for which reason he desired a particular friend of his at
the University to find him out a clergyman rather of plain sense
than much learning, of a good aspect, a clear voice, a sociable
temper, and, if possible, a man that understood a little of
backgammon. My friend, says Sir Roger, found me out this
gentleman, who, besides the endowments required of him, is, they
tell me, a good scholar, tho' he does not shew it. I have given
him the parsonage of the parish; and because I know his value,
have settled upon him a good annuity for life. If he outlives
me, he shall find that he was higher in my esteem than perhaps he
thinks he is. He has now been with me thirty years; and tho' he
does not know I have taken notice of it, has never in all that
time asked anything of me for himself, tho' he is every day
soliciting me for some thing in behalf of one or other of my
tenants his parishioners. There has not been a law-suit in the
parish since he has liv'd among them. If any dispute arises they
apply themselves to him for the decision; if they do not
acquiesce in his judgment, which I think never happened above
once or twice at most, they appeal to me. At his first settling
with me, I made him a present of all the good sermons which have
been printed in English, and only begg'd of him that every Sunday
he would pronounce one of them in the pulpit. Accordingly, he
has digested them into such a series, that they follow one
another naturally, and make a continued system of practical
divinity.
As Sir Roger was going on in his story, the gentleman we were
talking of came up to us; and upon the Knight's asking him who
preached to tomorrow (for it was Saturday night) told us, the
Bishop of St. Asaph in the morning, and Dr. South in the
afternoon. He then shewed us his list of preachers for the whole
year, where I saw with a great deal of pleasure Archbishop
Tillotson, Bishop Saunderson, Dr. Barrow, Dr. Calamy, with
several living authors who have published discourses of practical
divinity. I no sooner saw this venerable man in the pulpit, but
I very much approved of my friend's insisting upon the
qualifications of a good aspect and a clear voice; for I was so
charmed with the gracefulness of his figure and delivery, as well
as with the discourses he pronounced, that I think I never passed
any time more to my satisfaction. A sermon repeated after this
manner, is like the composition of a poet in the mouth of a
graceful actor.
I could heartily wish that more of our country-clergy would
follow this example; and instead of wasting their spirits in
laborious compositions of their own, would endeavour after a
handsome elocution, and all those other talents that are proper
to enforce what has been penned by greater masters. This would
not only be more easy to themselves, but more edifying to the
people.
MR. WILL WIMBLE.
I was yesterday morning walking with Sir Roger before his house,
a country-fellow brought him a huge fish, which, he told him, Mr.
William Wimble had caught that very morning; and that he
presented it, with his service to him, and intended to come and
dine with him. At the same time he delivered a letter which my
friend read to me as soon as the messenger left him.
"Sir Roger,
"I desire you to accept of a jack, which is the best I have
caught this season. I intend to come and stay with you a week,
and see how the perch bite in the Black River. I observed with
some concern, the last time I saw you upon the bowling-green,
that your whip wanted a lash to it; I will bring half a dozen
with me that I twisted last week, which I hope will serve you all
the time you are in the country. I have not been out of the
saddle for six days last past, having been at Eaton with Sir
John's eldest son. He takes to his learning hugely.
"I am, Sir, your humble servant,
"Will Wimble."
This extraordinary letter, and message that accompanied it, made
me very curious to know the character and quality of the
gentleman who sent them; which I found to be as follows. Will
Wimble is younger brother to a baronet, and descended of the
ancient family of the Wimbles. He is now between forty and
fifty; but being bred to no business and born to no estate, he
generally lives with his elder brother as superintendent of his
game. He hunts a pack of dogs better than any man in the
country, and is very famous for finding out a hare. He is
extremely well versed in all the little handicrafts of an idle
man: he makes a Mayfly to a miracle; and furnishes the whole
country with angle-rods. As he is a good-natur'd officious
fellow, and very much esteem'd upon account of his family, he is
a welcome guest at every house, and keeps up a good
correspondence among all the gentlemen about him. He carries a
tulip-root in his pocket from one to another, or exchanges a
puppy between a couple of friends that live perhaps in the
opposite sides of the county. Will is a particular favourite of
all the young heirs, whom he frequently obliges with a net that
he has weaved, or a setting-dog that he has made himself. He now
and then presents a pair of garters of his own knitting to their
mothers or sisters; and raises a great deal of mirth among them,
by enquiring as often as he meets them how they wear! These
gentlemen-like manufactures and obliging little humours make Will
the darling of the country.
Sir Roger was proceeding in the character of him, when we saw him
make up to us with two or three hazel-twigs in his hand that he
had cut in Sir Roger's woods, as he came through them, in his way
to the house. I was very much pleased to observe on one side the
hearty and sincere welcome with which Sir Roger received him, and
on the other, the secret joy which his guest discover'd at sight
of the good old Knight. After the first salutes were over, Will
desired Sir Roger to lend him one of his servants to carry a set
of shuttle-cocks he had with him in a little box to a lady that
lived about a mile off, to whom it seems he had promised such a
present for above this half year. Sir Roger's back was no sooner
turned but honest Will began to tell me of a large cock-pheasant
that he had sprung in one of the neighbouring woods, with two or
three other adventures of the same nature. Odd and uncommon
characters are the game I looked for, and most delight in; for
which reason I was as much pleased with the novelty of the person
that talked to me, as he could be for his life with the springing
of a pheasant, and therefore listen'd to him with more than
ordinary attention.
In the midst of his discourse the bell rung to dinner, where the
gentleman I have been speaking of had the pleasure of seeing the
huge jack, he had caught, served up for the first dish in a most
sumptuous manner. Upon our sitting down to it he gave us a long
account how he had hooked it, played with it, foiled it, and at
length drew it out upon the bank, with several other particulars
that lasted all the first course. A dish of wild fowl that came
afterwards furnished conversation for the rest of the dinner,
which concluded with a late invention of Will's for improving the
quail-pipe.
Upon withdrawing into my room after dinner, I was secretly
touched with compassion towards the honest gentleman that had
dined with us; and could not but consider, with a great deal of
concern, how so good an heart and such busy hands were wholly
employed in trifles; that so much humanity should be so little
beneficial to others, and so much industry so little advantageous
to himself. The same temper of mind and application to affairs
might have recommended him to the publick esteem, and have raised
his fortune in another station of life. What good to his country
or himself might not a trader or merchant have done with such
useful tho' ordinary qualifications?
Will Wimble's is the case of many a younger brother of a great
family, who had rather see their children starve like gentlemen,
than thrive in a trade or profession that is beneath their
quality. This humour fills several parts of Europe with pride
and beggary. It is the happiness of a trading nation, like ours,
that the younger sons, tho' uncapable of any liberal art or
profession, may be placed in such a way of life as may perhaps
enable them to vie with the best of their family. Accordingly,
we find several citizens that were launched into the world with
narrow fortunes, rising by an honest industry to greater estates
than those of their elder brothers. It is not improbable but
Will was formerly tried at divinity, law, or physick; and that
finding his genius did not lie that way, his parents gave him up
at length to his own inventions. But certainly, however improper
he might have been for studies of a higher nature, he was
perfectly well turned for the occupations of trade and commerce.
As I think this is a point which cannot be too much inculcated, I
shall desire my reader to compare what I have here written with
what I have said in my twenty-first speculation.
THE PICTURE GALLERY.
I was this morning walking in the gallery when Sir Roger entered
at the end opposite to me, and advancing towards me, said he was
glad to meet me among his relations the De Coverleys, and hoped I
liked the conversation of so much good company, who were as
silent as myself. I knew he alluded to the pictures, and as he
is a gentleman who does not a little value himself upon his
ancient descent, I expected he would give me some account of
them. We were now arrived at the upper-end of the gallery, when
the Knight faced towards one of the pictures, and as we stood
before it he entered into the matter, after his blunt way of
saying things, as they occur to his imagination, without regular
introduction, or care to preserve the appearance of chain of
thought.
"It is," said he, "worth while to consider the force of dress;
and how the persons of one age differ from those of another,
merely by that only. One may observe also, that the general
fashion of one age has been followed by one particular set of
people in another, and by them preserved from one generation to
another. Thus the vast jetting coat and small bonnet, which was
the habit in Harry the seventh's time, is kept on in the yeomen
of the guard; not without a good and politick view, because they
look a foot taller, and a foot and an half broader. Besides that
the cap leaves the face expanded, and consequently more terrible,
and fitter to stand at the entrances of palaces.
"This predecessor of ours, you see, is dressed after this manner,
and his cheeks would be no larger than mine, were he in a hat as
I am. He was the last man that won a prize in the tilt-yard
(which is now a common street before Whitehall). You see the
broken lance that lies there by his right foot; he shiver'd that
lance of his adversary all to pieces; and bearing himself, look
you, Sir, in this manner, at the same time he came within the
target of the gentleman who rode against him, and taking him with
incredible force before him on the pommel of his saddle, he in
that manner rid the turnament over, with an air that shewed he
did it rather to perform the rule of the lists, than expose his
enemy; however, it appeared he knew how to make use of a victory,
and with a gentle trot he marched up to a gallery where their
mistress sat (for they were rivals) and let him down with
laudable courtesy and pardonable insolence. I don't know but it
might be exactly where the coffee-house is now.
"You are to know this my ancestor was not only of a military
genius, but fit also for the arts of peace, for he played on the
bass-viol as well as any gentleman at court; you see where his
viol hangs by his basket-hilt sword. The action at the tilt-yard
you may be sure won the fair lady, who was a maid of honour, and
the greatest beauty of her time; here she stands the next
picture. You see, Sir, my great-great-great-grandmother has on
the new-fashion'd petticoat, except that the modern is gather'd
at the waist; my grandmother appears as if she stood in a large
drum, whereas the ladies now walk as if they were in a go-cart.
For all this lady was bred at court, she became an excellent
country-wife, she brought ten children, and when I shew you the
library, you shall see in her own hand (allowing for the
difference of the language) the best receipt now in England both
for an hasty-pudding and a white-pot.
"If you please to fall back a little, because 'tis necessary to
look at the three next pictures at one view; these are three
sisters. She on the right hand, who is so very beautiful, died a
maid; the next to her, still handsomer, had the same fate against
her will; this homely thing in the middle had both their portions
added to her own, and was stolen by a neighbouring gentleman, a
man of stratagem and resolution, for he poisoned three mastiffs
to come at her, and knocked down two deer-stealers in carrying
her off. Misfortunes happen in all families: the theft of this
romp and so much money, was no great matter to our estate. But
the next heir that possessed it was this soft gentleman, whom you
see there: observe the small buttons, the little boots, the
laces, the slashes about his clothes, and above all the posture
he is drawn in (which to be sure was his own choosing); you see
he sits with one hand on a desk writing and looking as it were
another way, like an easy writer, or a sonneteer. He was one of
those that had too much wit to know how to live in the world; he
was a man of no justice, but great good manners; he ruined every
body that had any thing to do with him, but never said a rude
thing in his life; the most indolent person in the world, he
would sign a deed that passed away half his estate with his
gloves on, but would not put on his hat before a lady if it were
to save his country. He is said to be the first that made love
by squeezing the hand. He left the estate with ten thousand
pounds debt upon it; but, however, by all hands I have been
informed that he was every way the finest gentleman in the world.
That debt lay heavy on our house for one generation, but it was
retrieved by a gift from that honest man you see there, a citizen
of our name, but nothing at all akin to us. I know Sir Andrew
Freeport had said behind my back, that this man was descended
from one of the ten children of the maid of honour I shewed you
above; but it was never made out. We winked at the thing indeed,
because money was wanting at that time."
Here I saw my friend a little embarrassed, and turned my face to
the next portraiture.
Sir Roger went on with his account of the gallery in the
following manner. "This man (pointing to him I looked at) I take
to be the honour of our house. Sir Humphrey de Coverley; he was
in his dealings as punctual as a tradesman and as generous as a
gentleman. He would have thought himself as much undone by
breaking his word, as if it were to be followed by bankruptcy.
He served his country as knight of this shire to his dying day.
He found it no easy matter to maintain an integrity in his words
and actions, even in things that regarded the offices which were
incumbent upon him, in the care of his own affairs and relations
of life, and therefore dreaded (though he had great talents) to
go into employments of state, where he must be exposed to the
snares of ambition. Innocence of life and great ability were the
distinguishing parts of his character; the latter, he had often
observed, had led to the destruction of the former, and used
frequently to lament that great and good had not the same
signification. He was an excellent husbandman, but had resolved
not to exceed such a degree of wealth; all above it he bestowed
in secret bounties many years after the sum he aimed at for his
own use was attained. Yet he did not slacken his industry, but
to a decent old age spent the life and fortune which was
superfluous to himself, in the service of his friends and
neighbours."
Here we were called to dinner, and Sir Roger ended the discourse
of this gentleman, by telling me, as we followed the servant,
that this his ancestor was a brave man, and narrowly escaped
being killed in the civil wars; "For," said he, "he was sent out
of the field upon a private message, the day before the battle of
Worcester." The whim of narrowly escaping by having been within a
day of danger, with other matters above mentioned, mixed with
good sense, left me at a loss whether I was more delighted with
my friend's wisdom or simplicity.
A COUNTRY SUNDAY.
I am always very well pleased with a country Sunday, and think,
if keeping holy the seventh day were only a human institution, it
would be the best method that could have been thought of for the
polishing and civilizing of mankind. It is certain the country
people would soon degenerate into a kind of savages and
barbarians, were there not such frequent returns of a stated
time, in which the whole village meet together with their best
faces, and in their cleanliest habits, to converse with one
another upon indifferent subjects, hear their duties explained to
them, and join together in adoration of the Supreme Being.
Sunday clears away the rust of the whole week, not only as it
refreshes in their minds the notions of religion, but as it puts
both the sexes upon appearing in their most agreeable forms, and
exerting all such qualities as are apt to give them a figure in
the eye of the village. A country-fellow distinguishes himself
as much in the Church-yard, as a citizen does upon the Change,
the whole parish-politicks being generally discussed in that
place either after sermon or before the bell rings.
My friend Sir Roger, being a good churchman, has beautified the
inside of his church with several texts of his own choosing. He
has likewise given a handsome pulpit-cloth, and railed in the
communion-table at his own expense. He has often told me, that
at his coming to his estate he found his parishioners very
irregular; and that in order to make them kneel and join in their
responses, he gave every one of them a hassock and a common
prayer-book: and at the same time employed an itinerant singing-
master, who goes about the country for that purpose, to instruct
them rightly in the tunes of the psalms; upon which they now very
much value themselves, and indeed outdo most of the country
churches that I have ever heard.
As Sir Roger is landlord to the whole congregation, he keeps them
in very good order, and will suffer nobody to sleep in it besides
himself; for if by chance he has been surprised into a short nap
at sermon, upon recovering out of it he stands up and looks about
him, and if he sees any body else nodding, either wakes them
himself, or sends his servants to them. Several other of the old
Knight's particularities break out upon these occasions.
Sometimes he will be lengthening out a verse in the singing-
psalms, half a minute after the rest of the congregation have
done with it; sometimes, when he is pleased with the matter of
his devotion, he pronounces Amen three or four times to the same
prayer; and sometimes stands up when every body else is upon
their knees, to count the congregation, or see if any of his
tenants are missing.
I was yesterday very much surprised to hear my old friend, in the
midst of the service, calling out to one John Mathews to mind
what he was about, and not disturb the congregation. This John
Mathews it seems is remarkable for being an idle fellow, and at
that time was kicking his heels for his diversion. This
authority of the Knight, though exerted in that odd manner which
accompanies him in all circumstances of life, has a very good
effect upon the parish, who are not polite enough to see anything
ridiculous in his behaviour; besides that the general good sense
and worthiness of his character makes his friends observe these
little singularities as foils that rather set off than blemish
his good qualities.
As soon as the sermon is finished, no body presumes to stir till
Sir Roger is gone out of the church. The Knight walks down from
his seat in the chancel between a double row of his tenants, that
stand bowing to him on each side; and every now and then enquires
how such an one's wife, or mother, or son, or father do, whom he
does not see at church; which is understood as a secret reprimand
to the person that is absent.
The chaplain has often told me, that upon a catechising day, when
Sir Roger has been pleased with a boy that answers well, he has
ordered a Bible to be given him next day for his encouragement;
and sometimes accompanies it with a flitch of bacon to his
mother. Sir Roger has likewise added five pounds a year to the
clerk's place; and that he may encourage the young fellows to
make themselves perfect in the church service, has promised upon
the death of the present incumbent, who is very old, to bestow it
according to merit.