Devonshire Characters and Strange EventsBaring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
History
Devonshire Characters and Strange Events
Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Devon (England) -- Biography; Devon (England) -- History
“The Reader cannot but be surprised, when we assure him that this
Mendicant Companion of his was _no less a Person than my Lord Weymouth
himself_, who, being desirous of sounding the Tempers and Dispositions
of the Gentlemen, and other Inhabitants of his Neighbourhood, put
himself into a Habit so vastly beneath his Birth and Fortune. Nor was
this the first Time that this great Nobleman had metamorphosed himself
into the despicable Shape and Character of a Beggar. He took especial
Care to conceal it even from his own Family, one Servant only, in whose
Secresy he greatly confided, being entrusted therewith.”
This Lord Weymouth was Thomas Thynne, born 1710, who succeeded to the
title of Viscount Weymouth in 1714, and died in 1751.
So soon as Carew and his companion had parted company, Lord Weymouth
slipped home by a private way, divested himself of his disguise, and
calling for his servants said that he had been informed that two
mendicant sailors had visited his house, that they were impostors, and
he ordered two of his men to mount their horses and bring them before
him.
The servants, naturally, were able to secure Carew alone, and he was
reconducted to the mansion. My lord accosted him in a very rough
manner, asked where the other fellow was, and told him he should be
made to find him. “Mr. Carew in the mean Time stood thunder-struck,
expecting nothing less than Commitment to Prison; but upon Examination,
made out his Story as well as he could. After having thus terrified
and threatened him for a considerable Time, away goes his Lordship,
and divesting himself of his Habit and Character of a Nobleman, again
puts on his Rags, and is by his Trusty Valet de Chambre (alone in the
Secret) ushered into the Room where his Brother Beggar stood sweating
with Fear. They confer Notes together, whispering to each other what
to say, in order that their Accounts might agree when examined apart.
The Steward took Mr. Carew aside into a private chamber, and there
pretending that the other Fellow’s Relation contradicted his, proved
them to be both Counterfeits; a Prison must be the Portion of them
both; indeed nothing was omitted that might strike Mr. Carew with the
greatest Terror and Confusion. By this Time my Lord having thrown off
his Rags and put on his fine Apparel, Mr. Carew was again brought into
his Presence to receive his Sentence; when my Lord, having sufficiently
diverted himself with the Consternation of his Brother Mumper,
discovered himself to him.”
After that Lord Weymouth, to whom before Bampfylde had confided his
real name, showed him hospitality and liberality and took him along
with himself to the Warminster horse-races.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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