Country life -- England; England -- Social life and customs; Gentry -- England
In connexion with these expeditions to Higher Combe, it may be added
that the cavalcade of tenants would attend Sir Thomas to the wood where
a stag had been harboured. Among them was a band, each member of the
band played _one_ note only; but it was so arranged that a hunting tune
was formed by these notes being played in succession. When the stag was
unharboured, and started across the moor, the band commenced this tune,
and until it was played out the hounds were kept in leash. The time
occupied by this tune was the "law" given to the stag, and when it was
ended the hounds were laid on.
A famous china bowl was made in China, and presented to Sir Thomas by
the Hunt. This bowl used to be kept at Higher Combe; it represented a
stag-hunt. And twelve glasses were presented to Sir Thomas along with
it, each engraved with a stag, and the words, "Success to the hunting."
One day Sir Thomas said to Rawle, "Rawle, I want to send a gelding and
a mare in foal to Duke Ludwig of Baden, at Baden Baden. Can you take
them?"
"Certainly, Sir Thomas."
The man could neither read nor write, and of course knew no other
language than the broadest Exmoor dialect--and this was at the
beginning of the century, when there were not the facilities for
travelling that there are now. He started for Baden Baden, and took his
charges there in safety, and delivered them over to the Grand Duke. He
had, however, an added difficulty, in that the mare foaled _en route_,
and he had a pass for two ponies only.
Is the old "good and faithful servant" a thing of the past? Not perhaps
the good servant, but the servant who continues in a family through the
greatest portion of his or her life, who becomes a part of the family,
is probably gone for ever; the change in the signification of words
tells us of social changes. A man's family, even in Addison's time,
comprised his servants. "Of what does your family consist?" A hundred
and fifty years ago this would have been answered by an enumeration of
those comprising the household, from the children to the scullion. Now
who would even think of a servant when such a question is asked? The
family is shrunk to the blood-relatives, and the servants are outside
the family circle.
We are in a condition of transformation in our relations to our
servants; we no longer dream of making them our friends, and
consequently they no longer regard us with devotion. But I am not sure
that the fault lies with the master. The spirit of unrest is in the
land; the uneducated and the partially educated crave for excitement,
and find it in change; they can no longer content themselves with
remaining in one situation, and when the servants shift quarters every
year or two, how can master and mistress feel affection for them, or
take interest in them?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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