On returning to my own cottage in the village, (which was generally after midnight), I was accompanied by a servant, who carried a lantern. On these occasions, I rode an ass, as being the most sure-footed creature for mountainous paths in the dark. In England we have no idea of a road to a person’s house such as this was; in itself, however, in no wise different from that which led to the Emir Beshýr’s palace, or to any other principal or princely dwelling on Mount Lebanon. These paths are no wider than is requisite for a mule or a horse; and, where the sides of the mountains are unusually steep, they always run in zigzags, and sometimes in steps. A slip, in such places, might be attended with very serious consequences, especially as in no case is there any protection afforded by means of a parapet-wall or other defence. It is not without very natural apprehension, therefore, that a stranger to the country trusts himself for the first time, even in the daylight, upon these difficult mountain paths; and there were two instances of Frenchmen, who were actually on their way from Sayda to Lady Hester’s residence, when they turned back in alarm from the apparent impracticability of the road. But habit soon begets indifference to obstacles of this kind, and the animals of the country are so sagacious and sure-footed, that anybody, who trusts to their skill rather than his own, may traverse all such dangerous ways in perfect safety.
I was about to say that, in going home at night, three or four mastiffs, which lay in the courtyard, commonly came out of the gate with me. Their delight was to scour the distance between the house and the village in search of jackals, wolves, and a species of panther, found during the winter in the low parts, but more commonly in the forests of the higher chain of Mount Lebanon. In these nocturnal courses I often heard the jackals, but had hitherto only encountered one wolf; on one occasion, however, at about two after midnight, on my way home, the dogs set up a sharp bark, and, from a shelving terrace of the rock above my head, a wolf made a desperate leap across the path down the declivity, with the dogs at his heels, and, like dark shadows, swift as lightning they disappeared. I heard their rush for about ten or fifteen seconds, and then, in about as many minutes more, the dogs returned panting; but I was not able, in the obscurity of the night, to see by their jaws whether they had overtaken the wolf or not. Wild boars are found in these mountains, as also foxes, antelopes, and forest animals.
The following day, I walked out with my family into a deep valley, between two lofty mountains, wooded with low ilexes, locust-trees, oaks, arbutuses, &c. There was a goatherd leading a herd of goats; and, just as we reached them, we saw a large mastiff go down the side of the ravine in chase of some animal. The goatherd told me it was a panther, which he had roused in throwing a stone at one of his goats. The dog, after a pursuit of some hundred yards, came back. The man added, that these panthers were not dangerous in the daytime, but might be after dark, if very hard pressed for food. He and his companion, however, seemed very indifferent about it, as if accustomed to see them often. These goatherds remain, during the whole of the winter season, on some particular range of the lower mountains, and fold their herds by night in caverns in the rocks, of which there are many natural ones. Dogs, and a hedge of prickly brambles, form their protection. In the summer, they go back to their villages higher up. Those we met came from a village called Muzrat es Shoof, about three or four leagues off, and near the snow.
March 9.—We went to Dayr Mkhallas, to revisit Miss Williams’s tomb. I was entreated the same day, by a peasant woman, to go to her husband, who was lying ill of a malignant fever. He was then in the agonies of death, and died the same evening; but I had occasion to remark that he had six fingers on each hand. I was told this day, also, of the mode of curing sore throat as practised in the village. A handkerchief was drawn tightly round the neck, until the patient was half strangled, and this effected such a revolution in the circulation, that the inflammation subsided in a few hours. I had the information from the mouth of a respectable man who had recently been operated upon.
March 10 and 11 were spent with Lady Hester, who was at one time in a state of high irritation against her blacks, and, at another, busy as a housekeeper in directing the package of three cases of dried fruits, honey, syrups, snobars, or fir-apple pips, preserved apricots, and other delicacies, intended for Dr. Dusap, in Egypt.
March 11.—In the midst of her package she related the following anecdote to me; it happened at Malta, and I recollected the day very well. Her ladyship had said to me, “On such a day I am going to dine at Lord Bute’s; he has not invited you, and it will be a very good opportunity for you to see the medical and other acquaintances you may have made here: so invite whom you like to dinner, and I will give orders to François about it. You will lose nothing by not going to Lord B.’s; for he is a proud man, and expects that doctors and tutors should never speak but when spoken to. Mr. K. hardly opens his mouth in his presence, except when my lord asks him a question, or refers to him about a passage in Virgil, or some book or another: but then how easily is a clergyman, who has lived with great people, to be known, and what superior manners he has! Always possessing himself, and always unassuming, he is sure to be well received everywhere.”
“I was dining,” said Lady Hester, “at Lord B.’s on that occasion, and at dinner Lord B. asked me what I thought of D*******, the banker’s son. ‘Oh!’ cried I, ‘I think of him as I do of all bankers’ sons I see skipping about the continent, that they had much better be behind the counter; for, if they are intended to follow their father’s trade, this skipping about only unfits them for it, and they never after can be brought to sit in some dark room, in a narrow street in the city; and, if they are intended to be fine gentlemen, it is ten to one but they ruin themselves: or, if they do not, that their house gets a bad name:—am I not right, my lord?’ ‘Why, you know, Lady, Hester,’ answered Lord B., ‘I generally agree with you, but on this point I am not quite sure. Then you don’t like bankers, Lady Hester?’ ‘Not particularly, my lord,’ said I; but, as I looked up, I saw Lord Ebrington screwing up his mouth, and Lady B. looking very odd, whilst Lord B. looked very cunning; the butler, all the while, standing first on one leg and then the other, in a state of the strangest uneasiness. All of a sudden old C***** came into my head, and I saw what a blunder I had made.
“In going out of the room, Lady B. said, ‘Lady Hester, you are always wild as you have been, but I know you never mean any harm in what you say.’ And here the matter ended, as I thought. Lady B., however, did not forget it, as you shall hear. I kept up a correspondence with her for fifteen or twenty years, and her letters were full of protestations of service. In 1827 I found myself at one time, as I have already told you, very short of money, and I wrote to Lady B. to ask her to lend me three hundred pounds: the answer was, that she had not so much at her disposal, without inconveniencing herself. After this I never wrote to her again; but I had a great mind to send her a letter to say, I did not think the proud Lord B. would have left his widow so poor as to make three hundred pounds an object to her, when I recollected to have seen as much given away to an old butler or a poor housekeeper.”
March 12.—Lady Hester related another story. “Mr. A******** wanted to be made—would you believe it, doctor?—wanted to be made Lord Raleigh, and I was determined he should not, if I could help it. One morning, Mr. Pitt came into the drawing-room to speak to me, so I said to him, ‘What a pretty caricature they have made about A.;’ and I described, as if I had seen it, a caricature in which figured Queen Elizabeth and Mr. A. and the king; and, with as much humour as I could, made such a ridiculous picture that Mr. Pitt was quite amused. Just as I had finished my description, somebody came in, and interrupted the conversation; and, Mr. Pitt going out to dinner, I saw no more of him. He, thinking what I told him was a fact, repeated the story to Mr. A. and others. Immediately half-a-dozen people were despatched to all the caricature shops to buy up the whole impression at any price; but, as the whole was my invention, of course they found none: for I had intended to say, ‘Fancy how ridiculous a business it will appear, if such a caricature is published, which is very likely.’ So, when I saw Mr. Pitt next day, I told him; but the fright they had been thrown into was so great that another title was chosen. Subsequently, Mr. Pitt never would speak to Lord S.
“The rise of Mr. A.’s father in the world was this. Lord Chatham’s first coachman being taken ill, the postillion was sent to the town for the family doctor; but, not finding him, and not knowing what to do, he returned, bringing with him Mr. A., then a practitioner of the place, and excused himself to my grandfather by saying, he hoped his lordship would not be offended; for everybody told him Mr. A. was a good doctor. Lord Chatham spoke to him, and desired him to go and see the coachman, which he did, and then returned again to report what was the matter with him. Lord Chatham was so pleased with Mr. A., that he took him as apothecary for the servants, then for himself; and, finding he spoke good sense on medicine, and then on politics, he at last made him his physician.