Memorials and Other Papers — Volume 1De Quincey, Thomas
General
Memorials and Other Papers — Volume 1
De Quincey, Thomas
English essays
And in allusion to this line from Horace it was, that amongst his
literary friends he was known familiarly by the name of Aristippus. His
sons, Edward and Thomas, resembled him, by all accounts, in nothing;
neither physically, nor in moral versatility. These two sons of the
Squire, Edward and Thomas, through some traditional prejudice in the
family, had always directed their views to the military profession. In
such a case, the king's army is naturally that to which a young man's
expectations turn. But to wait, and after all by possibility to wait in
vain, did not suit my fiery grandfather. The interest which he could put
into motion was considerable; but it was more applicable to the service
of the East India Company than to any branch of the home service. This
interest was so exerted that in one day he obtained a lieutenantcy in
the Company's service for each of his sons. About 1780 or 1781, both
young men, aged severally sixteen and seventeen years, went out to join
their regiments, both regiments being on the Bengal establishment. Very
different were their fates; yet their qualifications ought to have been
the same, or differing only as sixteen differs from seventeen; and also
as sixteen overflowing with levity differs from seventeen prematurely
thoughtful. Edward Penson was early noticed for his high principle, for
his benignity, and for a thoughtfulness somewhat sorrowful, that seemed
to have caught in childhood some fugitive glimpse of his own too
brief career. At noonday, in some part of Bengal, he went out of doors
bareheaded, and died in a few hours.
In 1800-1801, my mother had become dissatisfied with Bath as a
residence; and, being free from all ties connecting her with any one
county of England rather than another, she resolved to traverse the most
attractive parts of the island, and, upon personal inspection, to
select a home; not a ready-built home, but the ground on which she might
herself create one; for it happened that amongst the few infirmities
besetting my mother's habits and constitution of mind, was the costly
one of seeking her chief intellectual excitement in architectural
creations. She individually might be said to have built Greenhay; since
to _her_ views of domestic elegance and propriety my father had resigned
_almost_ everything. This was her _coup-d'essai_; secondly, she built
the complement to the Priory in Cheshire, which cost about one thousand
pounds; thirdly, Westhay, in Somersetshire, about twelve miles from
Bristol, which, including the land attached to the house, cost twelve
thousand five hundred pounds, not including subsequent additions; but
this was built at the cost of my uncle; finally, Weston Lea, close
to Bath, which being designed simply for herself in old age, with a
moderate establishment of four servants (and some reasonable provision
of accommodations for a few visitors), cost originally, I believe, not
more than one thousand pounds--excluding, however, the cost of all after
alterations.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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