"oh how sweet that dear little brogue sounds in my Irish ears," cried one of the party; "we are most of us your Lordship's countrymen, and would all have been murdered, do you see, before your grandson should have come to any harm. To be sure, it was an Irish lad gave him those ugly thumps upon his face; but we have done for the spalpeen ; he won't be after kidnapping another great man in a hurry! The devil burn me if he ought not to have been roasted by the fire we made of his goods."

"Come along then, dame ," cried the old man, bustling forward, and getting in first himself; then calling out, "Tip us your daddle!" he presented his hand to his wife. [some narrative omitted]
" Coachy , I suppose you sort of chaps know the way by night as well as by day in this confused great town? But hark ye me , and be sure you take the nearest way; do you mind , we live at my cousin Barrett's that keeps the great oil shop upon Holborn Hill, number two hunderd and---- rot me if I can remember what, but it is next door to----" [some narrative omitted]
"A gentleman farmer, mayhap ," rejoined the old man; "but I don't wish to be inquisitive."
"Exactly so," replied Henry.
"Well, and no offence to you, Sir; I should prefer a farmer's to a soldier's life. However, I shall be very glad to see either or both of you at Great Yarmouth, in Norfolk; I will give you a bit of good mutton, a well-aired bed, a bottle of good old port, and a hearty welcome into the bargain."

"Well, more's the pity, say I," cried the old man; " but hark ye me , before we part, you shall both of you promise to dine or sup with with us while we stay in London; and we return to Yarmouth next week."
"I wish the gentlemen could make it convenient to come to-night, lovee ," cried his wife. [some narrative omitted]
"Well, we sup at nine, gentleman, and the sooner you come, the better we shall be pleased."

[Letter from Hawkins to Lord Delmont]
My Lord,
Though I am but a sorry hand at inditing, notwithstanding I writes a very plain good hand, which makes me not over fond of doing business by letter, I take the liberty of sending you these lines, with mine, and my wife's, and Sally's humble duty. No tidings can we gain of Polly; but that is neither here nor there. We are in duty bound to thank your Lordship, who might have law for nothing, seeing as how your own father is a lawyer, for sparing me and mine from an expensive suit. God knows , I have reason enough to dread attornies' bills. I paid a swinging one ( more's the pity) no such long time agone . I forgot to ask where t'other young gentleman lived; so hope your Lordship, out of your great goodness, will please to tell him how sorry my wife and self are, and how ready we are to ask his sister's pardon. I suppose his name being Brown, and her's being White, she is not his own sister; but I don't mean to be curious; it don't concern me, as your Lordship knows without my telling you. I also hope Mr. James was satisfied with my promise to send him a barrel of herrings, which I would double rather than go to law: I was always a man of my word in matters of business. But what I chiefly put pen to paper for was, after offering my duty and so forth to your Lordship, to inform you I intend to take my wife and remaining daughter out of this wicked town this very night. I mean no offence in what I says about London; but your Lordship knows I have met with crosses and mishaps enough, since I comed here, to have turned a wiser body's brain; but not to trouble you to read a longer letter, I shall once more in all our names, not forgetting cousin Barrett, humbly entreat you to pardon the past. So no more at present from your Lordship's dutiful humble servants to command,
Joseph Hawkins,

"It's an awsome thing, Mr. Jackson," said the park-keeper to the steward, after they had long plodded their way in silence, "to think what may have happened to my Lord. I'll be sworn there's poachers in this neighbourhood that would do a body a mischief as soon as look at him ; and so to my thinking –"
"They might touch you," said the Steward, "but I'm sure there's not a man hereabouts that would venture to lay a finger on his Lordship. There's not a set of tenants anywhere that have less reason to complain of their Landlord or them that manage for him ( though I say it ) than his Lordship's; and everybody will tell you the same; and if he's not liked, who is to be safe?"
" Oh, I never meant that my Lord wasn't liked, or you either, Mr. Jackson, but folks may do others an ugly turn; and as for poachers, I believe I ought to know something of them; and so to my thinking --?"
"Hark!" interrupted the Steward, as he heard at that moment a distant shout. "It is James, that went with my Lord this morning," said the other.

"What, you?" said Clarkson, looking round, as his arm received a friendly support, that saved him from falling; "come, that's hearty. D—n it , you are a real good one. You bear no grudge, I see; that's right."
" No; we bear no grudge," said the American, "though it was your tarnation evidence that blew us out of Court entirely. It didn't leave us a splinter to stand upon. But it was old Ally's fault, I guess . He wouldn't give you enough, old boy, and who could expect that you shouldn't split if you had not your proper share of the Spanish ? But what did you get from the other side?"
"A d—d fine question to ask a gen'l'man ! Why, I'll tell you. I got what you couldn't give me."
"And what was that?"
" I've got it here -- a precious yarn of old Holford's spinning; a confession in black and white, and I may publish it if I like."
"And what the 'mighty is this confession?"
"Why, look you, I was tried once for shooting a man: -- you know his name : -- but I didn't do it."
"I thought," interrupted the American, "you let out once --"
" Hold your jaw ; what if I meant to do it? I didn't do it. Old Holford did it by accident. Think of the old fellow coming between us and taking my work out of my hands ! He let me be tried, though, d—n him ! and then I came over to your free-and-easy rip of a country."
"Then he has confessed that he did it, and cleared you?"
"Yes; that's part of the story."
"And then -- the money?"
"A thumping annuity -- none of your promises -- all signed and sealed, by G—d ! I shall live a d—d fine life of it now!"

It was on one bright sunshiny day in the summer of the sixth year from the event abovementioned, that a gentleman, attended by his servant, arrived in a travelling carriage at a small inn in a village situated in the North of England, and inquired his way to the residence of Lord Arlington. The request was followed by a curtsey and a stare from the fat landlady to whom it was addressed, and then a shrill scream to a slatternly girl, who was carrying a pail across the inn-yard; "Bess -- set down that, and rin for Jim to show the gentleman the way to the Hall."
"Is it far to the Hall ?" inquired the gentleman.
"It will, mayhap , be a short three miles, Sir."
"But if our guide is to go on foot," pursued the traveller, impatient to arrive at the end of his journey, "I am afraid he will hardly keep pace with the carriage. Had you not better direct the driver, if you can, which road he is to follow ?"
" You'11 be for walking up to the Hall, I suppose, Sir," replied the woman with another stare.
"No, I shall go in this carriage."
" I beg your pardon , Sir," said the woman, "but you can't go to the Hall in a carriage."
"No?"
"No, Sir; the road is not over and above good , though I won't say you mightn't go it well enough ; but then, Sir, the gates are locked. But I beg pardon ," with another low curtsey, "perhaps, Sir, you have got a key."
"Indeed I have no such thing," said the traveller; "have you no key here for the accommodation of visitors?"
" Laws! Sir, there never comes no visitors here," said the landlady; " we are not allowed to have no key : they've keys at the Hall, and we sent for one aforetime for a gentleman as called , but we couldn't get it. We'll send for one now, if your honour pleases; and if you'll be so good as to walk in and take a little dinner, I dare say you'll get the key in less than a couple of hours,--that is, if they send it at all."
"Thank you, my good woman; but in that case I prefer proceeding immediately on foot; my servant shall remain here with the carriage, and Jem, whom you called for, shall be my guide to the Hall."
"I suppose, Sir," said the landlady, as the traveller was departing, "you know that nobody is never let in to look at the house ; but if you have business with my Lord or Mr. Bennet the steward, that's another matter."

The traveller was obliged to her for the hint, and, conducted by Jem, he proceeded on his pedestrian pilgrimage to what was emphatically called "the Hall." On his way thither he was curious to extract from his conductor some information respecting Lord Arlington, and the light in which he was regarded in that neighbourhood. "Is Lord Arlington popular hereabouts?" he asked.
"Sir?" was the exclamation of the uncomprehending Jem, a short, bandy-legged, ostlerlike looking youth of about twenty.
"I mean," said the traveller, altering his phraseology , " is he liked in this neighbourhood? "
"Oh -- ay -- yes , he's liked very well, for he's a very good gentleman, and spends a sight of money here. There's lots of hands as he employs one way or tother , and nobody hereabouts needs be out of work as wants to have it ; only, you see, it would be better for the inn if he didn't live so quiet like, but had gentlefolks come and see him, just as other gentlefolks do; howsumever , that's partly his own consarn , for the inn is my Lord's, and master says he can't pay him hardly no rent if he don't do nothing for it. "
"People would be sorry, I suppose, if Lord Arlington were to go away from here?"
" Ay , surely. It has been a rare thing for the parish him coming and living down here."
"Is he charitable?" inquired the traveller; " does he give away much money ?"
"He gives some sometimes to them as can't work , but he generally gives work to them as can ."
"Is he often seen?"
"Oh -- ay -- you 'll see him most days riding or walking somewhere abouts, but he don't go much off his own ground -- but then that reaches a long way; why it is all my Lord's as far as you can see, and a mile or two afore you came to the village."
"Does he dislike being met or spoken to?"
"Eh! no -- not at all -- at least by them as live about here . He talks a deal to 'em , and knows them well nigh all, I reckon; there an't a gentleman in the land as is freer and pleasantspokener than my Lord, and he isn't stiff and high a bit, and not as they say lords is elsewhere."
"Do any gentlemen of the neighbourhood ever call upon his Lordship?"
"No, Sir, none as I knows of; but there is no gentleman very nigh ; Squire Grufferton is the nighest , and he is about twelve miles off."
"Then Lord Arlington lives quite alone, doesn't he?"
"No, Sir."
"No! and who lives with him?"
"Oh, there's Master Bennet the steward, and there's the butler, and -- "
"Ah! his establishment, his servants; but is there anybody else?"
"No, Sir, nobody as I knows of ."