Memorials and Other Papers — Volume 1De Quincey, Thomas
General
Memorials and Other Papers — Volume 1
De Quincey, Thomas
English essays
arranged and illuminated, that Lady Carbery would take all her visitors
once or twice a week to admire it. On the other hand, at Westport you
might fancy yourself overlooking the establishment of some Albanian
Pacha. Crowds of irregular helpers and grooms, many of them totally
unrecognized by Lord Altamont, some half countenanced by this or that
upper servant, some doubtfully tolerated, some _not_ tolerated, but
nevertheless slipping in by postern doors when the enemy had
withdrawn, made up a strange mob as regarded the human element in this
establishment. And Dean Browne regularly asserted that five out of six
amongst these helpers he himself could swear to as active boys from
Vinegar Hill. Trivial enough, meantime, in our eyes, was any little
matter of rebellion that they might have upon their consciences. High
treason we willingly winked at. But what we could _not_ wink at was the
systematic treason which they committed against our comfort, namely, by
teaching our horses all imaginable tricks, and training them up in the
way along which they should _not_ go, so that when they were old they
were very little likely to depart from it. Such a set of restive,
hard-mouthed wretches as Lord Westport and I daily had to bestride,
no tongue could describe. There was a cousin of Lord Westport's,
subsequently created Lord Oranmore, distinguished for his horsemanship,
and always splendidly mounted from his father's stables at Castle
M'Garret, to whom our stormy contests with ruined tempers and vicious
habits yielded a regular comedy of fun; and, in order to improve it, he
would sometimes bribe Lord Westport's treacherous groom into misleading
us, when floundering amongst bogs, into the interior labyrinths of these
morasses. Deep, however, as the morass, was this man's remorse when,
on leaving Westport, I gave him the heavy golden perquisite, which my
mother (unaware of the tricks he had practised upon me) had by letter
instructed me to give. He was a mere savage boy from the central bogs of
Connaught, and, to the great amusement of Lord Westport, he persisted
in calling me "your majesty" for the rest of that day; and by all other
means open to him he expressed his penitence. But the dean insisted
that, no matter for his penitence in the matter of the bogs, he had
certainly carried a pike at Vinegar Hill; and probably had stolen a
pair of boots at Furnes, when he kindly made a call at the Deanery,
in passing through that place to the field of battle. It is always a
pleasure to see the engineer of mischief "hoist with his own petard;"
[Footnote: "Hamlet," but also "Ovid:"--"Lex nec justior ulla est, **Quam
necis artifices arte perire sua."] and it happened that the horses
assigned to draw a post-chariot carrying Lord Westport, myself, and the
dean, on our return journey to Dublin, were a pair utterly ruined by a
certain under-postilion, named Moran. This particular ruin did Mr. Moran
boast to have contributed as his separate contribution to the general
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account