English essays; Great Britain -- Social life and customs
"Orchats" is good; but how far these lines can be justly called
Miltonian is a question which my readers can decide for themselves. At
any rate, the poem contains more than four thousand lines exactly like
them, and they had the remarkable fortune to be translated into Italian
under the title of "Il Sidro." Philips was a Cavalier in all his tastes
and sympathies: but even the Puritans, whom he so cordially detested,
admitted the merits of Cider. Macaulay, with his characteristic love
of irrelevant particularity, insists on the fact that, through all
the commotions of the Great Rebellion and the Civil War, "the cream
overflowed the pails of Cheshire and the apple-juice foamed in the
presses of Herefordshire." Nor was it only in his purple prose that the
great rhetorician glorified the juice of the apple. Many a reader who
has forgotten all about John Philips will recall Macaulay's rhymes on
the garrulous country squire who had a habit of detaining people by the
button, and who was especially addicted to the society of Bishops:--
"His Grace Archbishop Manners-Sutton
Could not keep on a single button.
As for Right Reverend John of Chester,
His waistcoats open at the breasts are.
Our friend has filled a mighty trunk
With trophies torn from Bishop Monk,
And he has really tattered foully
The vestments of good Bishop Howley.
No buttons could I late discern on
The garments of Archbishop Vernon,
And never had his fingers mercy
Upon the garb of Bishop Percy;
While buttons fly from Bishop Ryder
Like corks that spring from bottled cyder."
From Macaulay and bottled Cyder (or Cider) the transition is easy to
that admirable delineator of life and manners, Mrs. Sherwood; she
was pretty much a contemporary of Macaulay's, and was a native of
Worcestershire, which in its Cider-bearing qualities is not far removed
from Herefordshire, beloved of Philips. Few but fit is the audience to
which Mrs. Sherwood still appeals; yet they who were nurtured on "The
Fairchild Family" still renew their youth as they peruse the adventures
of Lucy, Emily, and little Henry: "The farmer and his wife, whose name
was Freeman, were not people who lived in the fear of God, neither did
they bring up their children well; on which account Mr. Fairchild had
often forbidden Lucy, Emily, and Henry to go to their house." However,
go they did, as soon as their parents' backs were turned; and Mrs.
Freeman "gave them each a large piece of cake and something sweet to
drink, which, she said, would do them good." But it turned out to be
Cider, and did not do them good, for, "as they were never used to drink
anything but water, it made them quite drunk for a little while."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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