Tales and Legends of the English LakesArmistead, Wilson
General
Tales and Legends of the English Lakes
Armistead, Wilson
Folklore -- England -- Lake District; Legends -- England -- Lake District; Tales -- England -- Lake District
The honest clergyman readily undertook the commission; paid his respects
to the Duke, and pathetically described the unfortunate situation of his
amiable relative. His Grace of Rutland, not recollecting at the moment
such a name as Hatfield, expressed his astonishment at the application.
This reduced the worthy divine to a very awkward situation, and he
faltered in his speech, when he began making an apology; which the Duke
perceiving, he very kindly observed, that he believed the whole was some
idle tale of an impostor, for that he never knew any person of the name
mentioned, although he had some faint recollection of hearing Lord
Robert Manners, his relation, say that he had married a natural daughter
of his to a tradesman in the north of England, and whose name he
believed was Hatfield.
The Reverend was so confounded that he immediately retired and proceeded
to the prison, where he gave the impostor, in the presence of Mr.
Morris, a most severe lecture. But the appearance of this venerable man,
as his friend, had the effect which Hatfield expected; for the Duke sent
to inquire if he was the man that married the natural daughter of Lord
Robert Manners, and, being satisfied as to the fact, despatched a
messenger with £200, and had him released.
In 1784, his Grace of Rutland was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland;
and shortly after his arrival in Dublin, Hatfield made his appearance in
that city. He immediately, on his landing, engaged a suite of rooms at a
hotel in College Green, and represented himself as nearly allied to the
Viceroy, but that he could not appear at the castle until his horses,
servants, and carriages were arrived, which he ordered, before leaving
England, to be shipped at Liverpool. The easy and familiar manner in
which he addressed the master of the hotel, perfectly satisfied him that
he had a man of consequence in his house, and matters were arranged
accordingly. This being adjusted, Hatfield soon found his way to Lucas's
coffee-house, a place which people of a certain rank generally frequent;
and, it being a new scene, the Yorkshire park, the Rutlandshire estate,
and the connection with the Rutland family, stood their ground very
well for about a month.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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