[[55]] A description of salted fish, brought from America.
CHAPTER XLVIII.
The pure in blood—Aristocrats of the higher order—Law, physic, and divinity—Merchants and planters—Proprietors’ dwellings—A day at a country-seat—Gastronomy—Beef—“Mary Swift”—Mutton—Pork—Turtle and City aldermen—Christmas.
Having, in the preceding chapter, glanced at the “rise and progress” of the mushroom part of the aristocracy, it may be deemed requisite for me to enlarge upon the merits of those members of that body who, to present high bearing, add the claim of good descent. And yet I know not what to say more than I have done already in many parts of these pages, that they are fully entitled to the respect they so universally meet with. For among them are to be found men of superior knowledge, and distinguished by the possession of all the cardinal virtues; men in whom dignity of station is blended with kindliness of heart, and who, amid the blessings wherewith Providence has blessed them, have an open purse, and an outstretched hand, ever ready to administer to the wants of their less fortunate brethren; men of agreeable manners and pleasing conversation, and whose intercourse with the polite circle in other parts of the world has corrected any little errors they might have imbibed from their West Indian mode of life, and divested them of that narrow-minded spirit so much to be deplored.
In this class of individuals are to be found the Creole proprietor, as well as those who may have purchased estates within these last few years, and, in consequence, emigrated from England, clergymen, barristers, and physicians, merchants and planters, the offspring of the soil itself, or wanderers from the several countries of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales.
I have already spoken of the worth of many of the clergymen; men who practise what they preach, and who, in their private as well as public life, shew forth, by the fruit they bear, that they are branches of the true vine. The barristers are generally considered men of distinguished abilities, and some of them plead with powerful eloquence. They also act as solicitors and attorneys; but they honour the profession too much to speculate in cargoes of horses or corn-meal, as some of their brothers of the profession are said to do in an island not seventy miles from Antigua. In that colony there is at the present day a firm, consisting of three parties, who, to their numerous duties of pleading before the bar, add the more primeval occupation of agriculturists, the partners taking it by turns to play the planter for the space of three years,[[56]] and so leaving Coke, Blackstone, and similar other worthies, study instead the art of planting canes and boiling sugar. How far their professional knowledge retains its vigour in the interim their several clients can best tell; I suppose they refrain from tasting the waters of Lethe, but pay daily orisons at the shrine of Mnemosyne. It must not be supposed that all the barristers of the island in question engage in such diversified occupations; many of them pay as much respect to their profession as their brethren of Antigua do, and among them are to be found some very clever men. One in particular is possessed of very superior qualifications, and his eloquent pleading would gain attention and merit applause even within the ancient walls of Westminster. His name is also known in the literary world, and his “Commentaries” upon the laws of his native island have no doubt often materially benefited his brother barristers. It is, of course, a work that would not call for general attention, from its local nature; but if once taken up, the author employs so many pleasing bands with which to bind his bundle of law leaves together, that the reader is irresistibly led to peruse it to the end.
To return to Antigua. Perhaps the most eminent member of the Antiguan bar is a Mr. James Scotland, who, although he does not often indulge in that flowery style of oratory which some of his brethren of the long robe do, speaks with powerful emphasis, and is grounded in all the mazy doctrines of the law. Mr. S. is a scion of a goodly stock. His ancestors emigrated from the mother country, and became settlers in Antigua, in which island they filled official situations at an early period, and where they have ever maintained a high character for philanthropy and liberal principles, even in days of prejudicial darkness. Such a line of conduct has often drawn down persecution upon the members of this family; but at length they have met with the reward of their unflinching perseverance in seeing that large portion of the Antiguan community whose interests they have ever supported, enjoying the privileges of British subjects, without regard to complexional prejudice.
The merchants are in most instances unexceptionable characters; the planters rank high in agricultural knowledge and respectability; and the physicians are, I believe, generally noted for their eminent skill. It must be remarked that in this last-named profession there are no gradations, all the medical men ranking as M.D., whether they have attained that degree or not; and so far is this custom carried by the illiterate, that the very black or coloured boys, who are generally employed to handle the pestle, also go by the title of “doctor;” nor is it an uncommon circumstance for these illegitimate sons of Galen to be called in to visit patients and perform those particular branches of surgery, phlebotomy and extracting of teeth. The first physician in Antigua is a Dr. F., a man of versatile and brilliant talents—an able logician, well versed in polite literature, of energetic manner, and, what is above all, possessed of deep, heart-felt philanthropy, based upon that golden maxim, “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.”
Some of the proprietors’ dwellings, situated upon their several estates, in the most cultivated parts of the island, are mansions which would not disgrace the parks of our English country gentlemen. They, in most instances, are built upon gently swelling eminences, spots of extreme beauty; and the contrast they display between their dazzling white walls, and the deep verdure of their surrounding groves, over-canopied by a sky of intense blue, strikes pleasingly upon the eye; while the interior is fitted up in a style worthy the taste of the occupiers.
The approach to many of these edifices is by stately avenues of cedars, whose bright laurel-like leaves set off to advantage the bunches of delicate trumpet-shaped flowers. Others, again, have the carriage-road bordered by noble rows of cocoa-nuts or palmettos, whose long graceful branches bend to the breeze, which makes pleasing melody as it sighs among them. Their country-seats embrace prospects of inexpressible loveliness. Nothing of what is generally termed the sublime, it is true—no frowning precipices or gigantic mountains, whose hoary heads are ever hid in the clouds—no impetuous cataracts rushing down the face of wild and blackened rocks, and hiding at length their angry waters in some dreadful abyss; the scene is of a more quiet nature, one where there is such a rich harmony of colouring, such a blending of earth, and sea, and sky, (for from almost all parts of the island the ocean can be seen,) that as the eye gazes thereon, a pleasing calm comes over the beholder, and every discordant passion sinks to rest.[[57]]