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The Hall and the Hamlet, Or, Scenes and Characters of Country Life
The Hall and the Hamlet Or Scenes and Characters of Country Life Author:William Howitt Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II. THE WELSTEA.D FAMILY AND ITS POSITION. The three sons of Marcus Welstead were fast approaching the period of life when young men look for some ... more »measures being taken, and means applied, for introducing them to their future professions. The eldest, indeed, was already four- and-twenty, but he was looked upon as the heir to the estate, and might be said to have therefore entered on his proper path of life. They had all had a most excellent education. The eldest, George, had shown by far the least taste for the higher branches of knowledge. He was what was called a plain man ; cut out for the country gentleman. Reading he had no distaste for, but it did not consist of the classics, for which his father had endeavoured to inspire him with a taste in common with his brothers. Poetry hefound little attraction in. The romances of Fielding, Richardson, and Smollet, with the essays of Addison, Steele, and Johnson, seemed to give him much pleasure ; but a good tract on planting, draining, and management of woods and estates, far more. He had no time for politics, and often ventured to advise his father to leave the nation to take care of itself; on which the old gentleman would exclaim, " George, George ! if all people were of your mind, there would soon be neither people nor private affairs to take care of. We should have another Charles I. seizing our money without asking our leave, and putting an end to our grumbling with bayonets and bullets." George was of a particularly grave temper. He was seldom seen to laugh, and his smiles had something more of ridicule than merriment in them. He was fond of his gun, was particular in everything that related to his horse, his greyhounds, his setters, and his breed of cock-spaniels, which were very handsome, and reckoned unrivalled....« less