[242] History of Knighthood, quoted by Nares.
[244] A military expedition.
[245] The Tanner.
[246] There are two other expressions applied to this respectable class which are extremely incorrect, namely, gentlemen-farmers and tenant-farmers. A person who by birth, education, and wealth, is entitled to the distinction of gentleman, and who chooses to devote his capital to agriculture may be properly designated a farming-gentleman, though the occupation of a large estate without those qualifications can never constitute a gentleman-farmer. Tenant-farmer, a phrase which has lately been in the mouth of every politician, is as fine a piece of tautology as ‘coat-making tailor’ or ‘shoe-mending cobbler’ would be.
“It maketh me laugh to see,” says Sir John Ferne’s Columel, “a jolly peece of worke it were, to see plow-men made Gentle-men!”
[247] Quoted by Blackstone.
[248] Page 89 et seq.
[249] He was living in 1638, and was son, brother, and uncle to three successive earls of Huntingdon. An account of him coinciding in many particulars with the one here given is painted in gold letters beneath an original portrait in the possession of his descendants: it is said to have been written by the celebrated earl of Shaftesbury. (Vide Bell’s Huntingdon Peerage.)
[250] “The hall of the Squire,” says Aubrey, “was usually hung round with the insignia of the squire’s amusements, such as hunting, shooting, fishing, &c.; but in case he were Justice of Peace it was dreadful to behold. The skreen was garnished with corslets and helmets, gaping with open mouths, with coats of mail, launces, pikes, halberts, brown bills, bucklers, &c.”