April 30, 1845.
I am leading the life of a true Devoto á la Santissima Hygeia. I sleep at Exmouth, rise at six, walk on the beach, listening to the ripple of the waves, and inhaling the morning sea-impregnated breezes. I come home to breakfast at seven; at half-past mount my steed, and come clipping over here, ganando horas, in about an hour, nine miles, and such hills! then, while hot as a horseshoe, I hiss under a shower-bath, and occupy the morning until two in Handbooky and gentle exercise of the mind. At two I dine, en famille, on rôti and a pint of Bordeaux; after dinner is dedicated to sauntering on the terrace and listening to the gentle discourse of Mrs. Ford, when in a sweet disposition, and at other times to lectures, à la Mrs. Caudle, on gastronomic excesses and consequent pains and penalties. At five I remount, and jog leisurely back again through sweet, shady, and verdurous lanes. A butter-and-egg pace favours meditation and sentiment which is akin to the season, when Nature puts on her new livery of spring, which we can’t. Arrived at Exmouth, I again wander on the lonely shore and watch the sunsets, which are transcendental, the heaven and the earth all crimson; then I count the pretty stars as they come out coyly one by one for their evening’s pleasure, tomando el fresco. All this air and belles pensées naturally conduce to hunger and thirst, and at eight I sit down to two mutton chops, nada más, ni menos, and another pint of claret. Then I peruse the Morning Post of the day, and soon the gentle, oblivious style and absence of thought steal over my senses, and then to bed, to sleep sound and short, and then up again: asi gira la vida. The most pendulous uvula yields to such a bracing winding-up system: hominem sic erigo. I will duly advise you whether Don Jorge will meet me in London.
The Handbook was published in the summer of 1845. Released from his labour, Ford was preparing to spend a holiday abroad, when Exeter was convulsed by a famous trial, which took place at the July assizes.
In February 1845 a Brazilian schooner named the Felicidade was captured in the Bight of Benin by H.M. Wasp. Though fitted for the slave trade, she had no slaves on board. In charge of a prize crew she was making for Sierra Leone, when she met the Echo, a brigantine full of slaves. She captured the Echo, took on board some of the crew as prisoners, and resumed her course. The prisoners from the Echo overpowered and killed the prize crew of Felicidade, seized the schooner, and made off. The Felicidade, however, was recaptured by H.M. Star. Suspicions were aroused, and ten of the prisoners were sent home to be tried for murder on the high seas. Mr. Baron Platt overruled the objections that the slave trade was not piracy by Brazilian law, and that the Felicidade, being wrongfully taken, was not a British ship. The jury found seven of the men guilty, and they were sentenced to death. An appeal was however allowed on the legal points; Platt’s decision was reversed and the prisoners released. Ford describes the trial to Addington in an undated letter of July 1845.
I will secure the Western Times. Nothing can have been so bad as Platt, or his vulgar platitudes. The defence too, was miserable. Manning, un Burro cargado de leyes, broke down, and Collier, a young advocate, proved his clients’ guilt, by over-examination; and what think you of a peroration like this—“Will you hang up these foreigners like ropes of onions (? ajos) and cast them then as carrion to the crows?” Mr. Godson, who came down special, made sad hash or ash with the Queen’s Alphabet: “Suppose this case Hay and B. on the ’igh seas,” etc. The facts were too clear to admit of a doubt, and seven have been found guilty. It is a sad thing for our peaceable, unslave-dealing city to be horrified with such a wholesale execution, and they ought to be hung on the African coast. If they are not hung, the exasperation of the cruising Jacks is so great that they will Pelissier the next slave prize to avenge their murdered comrades. A Frenchman on the jury did all he could to save the prisoners from la perfide Albion. An attaché also of the Brazilian Mission was down here, abusing the witnesses in their vernacular until stopt. What think you of the Spanish and Portuguese Government refusing to pay for more than one counsel, who was chosen because a nephew of the Portuguese Consul? Thus ten men’s lives were risked to put 5 guineas in a relation’s pocket. Vaya! un empeño! Drewe was so annoyed that he retained Manning (who understands Spanish) at his own cost.
I forgot to say that these Spaniards were made a regular show of by the magistrates, who gave orders by hundreds to see them in the jail, until Drewe, the High Sheriff, stopt the spectacle. The pirates thought that they had been tried, and came here expecting to be hung. One was a monstrous handsome fellow, and all the ladies are interested for him, as he realised the Corsair, while his bronzed cheek, raven locks and flashing eyes contrasted with the pudding-headed, clotted-cream, commonfaced Devonians. Another culprit was the facsimile of a monk of Zurbaran; the rest were a savage South America set. Of course nothing has occupied people here but Cosas de España, and your humble servant, quasi one of the gang, was at a premium and a sort of lion.
CHAPTER VII
HEAVITREE AND LONDON
(1845-1858)
Success of the Handbook—Gatherings from Spain—Illness and Death of his Wife—Marriage with Miss Mary Molesworth—Telbin’s “Diorama of the Duke of Wellington’s Campaigns”—Francis Clare Ford and the Diplomatic Service—Death of Sir William Molesworth—Failing Health—Marriage of Clare Ford—Last Article in the Quarterly Review, and Last Letter to Addington—Death at Heavitree, August 31st, 1858.
“Since July” (Ford writes to Don Pascual Gayangos at Madrid, November 27th, 1845) “I have been wandering with my son in Germany, and have visited those mighty rivers, the Rhine and the Danube, and beheld the temples and frescoes of Munich.”