So I think, my dear Charles, you may give up any farther attempts on
our good old Church principles; the Doctor is determined not to turn
round to the communion-table even at the creed, and I will beat you £20
that the congregation will all come back again, and we shall once more
be a happy and united parish.
LETTER THIRD.
We look on you now, my dear Charles, as a fallen star; and, between
ourselves, I don't think you are missed by a single astronomer in
Yawnham, from the sky where you were once enthroned. No, sir: our
curate's neckcloth is stiffer than yours, his collar plainer, his tails
longer, his knowledge of saints and legends infinitely deeper--and,
besides, he sings like an angel, and has a phaeton and pair. And he
is so gentlemanly, too. He was at Eton, and is intimate with many
lords, and has a power of sneering at low churchmen and dissenters
that would be myrrh and incense to the Pope. Now you will observe, my
unfortunate young friend, that when gentlemanly manners, good looks
and accomplishments--not to mention an intimacy with the Red Book--and
fourteen hundred a-year are in one scale, and Charles Fustian and a ton
weight of Tractarians are in the other, the young persons who, in our
parish, hold the beam will very soon send you and your make-weights
half-way through the roof. Therefore, if you wish to retrieve your
influence, either with Araminta or the other fair innovators, now or
never is your time; come down and visit us. We shall all be delighted
to see your elongated visage, and are not without hopes--for you are a
good-natured excellent-dispositioned fellow after all--that you will
see the error of your ways, and believe that humility and charity are
Christian graces as well as faith and coloured windows. It so happens
that there is scarcely a house in the place without a visitor. Tom
Blazer has come down to Hellebore Park, and has brought Jones and
Smith, two of his brother officers of the Rifles, with him;--the two
Oxford men are with Mount Huxtable, who has taken Laburnum Place, and
our doings are likely to be uncommonly gay. Swallowlies and Rowdy
are great friends, though they seem to be the very antipodes of each
other. Rowdy won't believe anything, and has doubts about the battle
of Waterloo; and Swallowlies believes everything, and thinks the
American States will soon pay off my bonds. Rowdy says there is no
evidence, satisfactory to him, that there is such a state as Arkansas
in the world, as it is not authoritatively stated by church or council;
and tries to persuade me that I have lent six thousand pounds of real
money to an imaginary republic. In the mean time, the loss of three
hundred a-year is by no means an imaginary evil, and I feel a little
sore at both these Oxford humourists for laughing at my misfortunes.
However, Swallowlies errs on the right side, and is decidedly the
favourite with us all.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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