The old laird of Etterick survived his daughter near six years, and confessed he was much more comfortable now, than ever he had been since he was a bachelor. He rarely spoke of the Sourkrouts, either mother or daughter; and seeing the happiness of William and Maria, Hambden and Charlotte, and contrasting these ladies with his mother-in law and wife, he thought he must have been wrong in his original notion, that the supreme object in marriage is a well-tochered lass. Even his daughter, he could not call to mind, without pain and humiliation; and therefore called her to mind as little as possible. Often he told his old friend, the parson, that Providence ordered every thing for the best. The old gentleman accompanied his nephew to visit Mr. Burke, whose astonishing powers, as versatile as gigantic, met the nephew on all the depths of learning and philosophy, and in all the details and principles of existing politics; met his uncle on spring wheat, barley, and horse beans; on the different operations and effects of turnips and hay in fattening cattle; and treated these subjects with a minuteness and circumstantiality, which hardly any hind could equal; and surpassed the laird himself, though one of the best farmers in Scotland. When alone with his nephew, the uncle declared, he did not believe there was a more sensible man in the world. “He might give a lesson to Andrew Peebles our grieve (land-bailiff), who has not his match in aw Tweedle, the Forest, or Tiviotdale.” Etterick, some years after, expressed deep regret for the death of his Beaconsfield host; the best farmer, he said, with whom he had ever conversed. The old gentleman himself, within two years after, departed this life; and the Scottish rents having still rapidly risen, the whole property exceeded ten thousand a-year.
Sir Edward and Lady Hambden had a son and heir, born soon after Hamilton’s first exhibition in parliament; and several sons and daughters since that time. For the last three years, neither Sir Edward nor Hamilton have taken any share in the parties of the times; they conscientiously support every measure which they think calculated for the good of the country, and in their respective spheres of moral influence, have, since the commencement of the war, been extremely active, in inspiriting and invigorating military energy, and in disciplining the corps which they respectively command. They both retain a high veneration for Mr. Pitt, and are on the most friendly terms with the present ministers. Lady Hambden, reflecting on her first and her last predilection, though she entertains a high respect for the talents and character of Mortimer, is nevertheless convinced, that Hambden is much better fitted for communicating domestic happiness to a woman of her cast and dispositions.
Sir Edward’s sister, Mrs. Raymond, is thoroughly reconciled with her husband; and by the sincerity of her penitence, and her exemplary discharge of every duty of virtue and religion, in all the departments and relations in which she stands in society, does whatever frail human nature can do, to atone for vice, which, though temporary and short, was heinous. She, her husband, brother, and all her friends, bless the day that brought Hamilton and his party, to view the White Horse on Cherril Downs.
Captain Henry Hamilton was engaged in most of the glorious enterprizes that distinguished the last war. Under Jervis he acquired high renown, off St. Vincent’s; and some months after, being sent into harbour, he was no sooner refitted, than he was dispatched to the North Seas; and was one of those, who, at Camperdown, followed Duncan’s example, in breaking the line. The first of August, 1798, brought him to the mouth of the Nile; there he was wounded, but not dangerously. The following year, he, under Admiralty orders, cruised on the coasts of France and Spain; and though he had no opportunity, from the timidity of the enemy, of attacking any of their war ships, he captured a Spanish galleon; his share of which far exceeded his succession from Capt. Wentbridge. At the expiration of the war, he came to arrange his money concerns, and visit his brother in London. His property in all, little short of a hundred thousand pounds, when vested in the funds at a very low price; rose near thirty per cent. by the peace. He sold out, and purchased a very considerable estate, in the charming vicinity of Doncaster. While at his brother’s, ‘Squire Mortimer, and his unmarried daughter, arrived on a visit to William and Maria. The young lady was a handsome accomplished girl, about three and twenty; the Captain, a tall, portly, manly, handsome, but weather-beaten seaman, near a dozen years older, was captivated by her appearance, and frankly told her his sentiments; nor did she listen with displeasure: in a few weeks the nuptials were solemnized.
Hamilton and his Maria, the longer they know each other, are the more tenderly endeared; and have no less than five pledges of affection, besides one or two whom they lost in infancy. Charles, the eldest, is now thirteen; received a considerable part of his education at an eminent seminary in Kensington, of which the head, though master of an academy, is really a scholar and a gentleman, and totally above the custom hunting devices of hawking and peddling schoolmasters. Thence he went to Harrow, where he now makes a very eminent figure in the fourth form, and also distinguishes himself, like his father, at the various athletic exercises. Two of his brothers are under the care of his late master, where they have been also joined by their cousin Hambden. Miss Hamilton, now in the twelfth year of her age, has been as fortunately placed as her brothers; having, for several years, been at Blackland’s house; and under the tuition of the able, discriminating, skilful, and prudent governess of that eminent seminary, makes rapid proficiency in the intellectual and moral parts of education, and in its ornamental accomplishments and external graces; and both in important and engaging qualifications, she bids fair to equal her estimable and charming mother, whom she already strikingly resembles, in the beauties of her face and person. The youngest, a daughter, is still at home. William, and his Maria, the former only thirty-nine, and the latter thirty four, are still as handsome a couple as are to be seen in any private party, or even in any place of public resort. Unlike the fashionable indifference of too many modern couples, William and his Maria, in all their relaxations and amusements, are to be seen together. At assemblies, plays, operas, park, and gardens, you rarely see the one without the other. Thence they have sometimes experienced the tittering whispers of levity, or the sneers of envy; but without discomposure, or even the smallest notice. Both the Hambdens and Hamiltons dare to support in the face of frivolity and folly, the dignity of virtuous love.
FINIS.
Printed by A Strahan, Printers-Street.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] See Missionary Travels and Adventures through Scotland, published in 1799 by James Haldane and Co. in their Expedition to detach the Scottish Flocks from their established Pastors. Not having the treatise before us, we cannot exactly quote the pages to which the above remark alludes, but, to the best of our remembrance, the scene is the Orkneys, soon after the panegyrising account of the soldier that, having deserted his drum, had betaken himself to preaching, immediately before the chapter wherein an unbeliever is converted to the new faith by stumbling over a cow. From this context, which our imperfect recollection supplies, the reader of the above work will be able to find the illustrative passages.
[2] Not exactly a fool, but a gaping, staring, stupid fellow.