Memoirs of Life and LiteratureMallock, W. H. (William Hurrell)
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Memoirs of Life and Literature
Mallock, W. H. (William Hurrell)
Mallock, W. H. (William Hurrell), 1849-1923
Yet another story told by Mr. Antony Froude illustrates rural mentality
in relation to contemporary politics. Mr. Froude was the tenant of a
well-known house in Devonshire, and had come to be on very friendly
terms with Mr. Emmot, his landlord's agent, a typical and true Devonian.
One day Mr. Emmot came to him in a condition of some perplexity. He had
been asked an important question, and was anxious to know if the answer
he had given to it was satisfactory. It appeared that a cottager who had
a bit of land of his own had been saying to him, "Look here, Mr. Emmot:
can you tell us rightly what the difference be between a Conservative
and a Radical?" "Well, Mr. Froude," said Mr. Emmot, "I didn't rightly
knaw the philosophy of the thing, so I just said to 'un this: 'You knaw
me; well, I be a Conservative. You knaw Jack Radford--biggest blackguard
in the parish--well, he be a Radical. Now you knaw.'"
Chance reminiscences such as those which have just been quoted will be
sufficient to indicate what, so far as a child could understand them,
the conditions and ways of thinking of the rural population were, and
how easy and unquestioning were the relations which then subsisted
between it and the old landed families. These relations were easy,
because the differences between the two classes were commonly assumed to
be static, one supporting and one protecting the other, as though they
resembled two geological strata. In slightly different language, society
was presented to us in the form of two immemorial orders--the men,
women, and children who touched their hats and curtsied, and the men,
women, and children to whom these salutations were made.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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