Debt, Imprisonment for -- Fiction; London (England) -- History -- 18th century -- Fiction
He seemed in those days a good-natured young man who went his own
way and troubled himself not one whit about other people. Women were
inferior creatures, of course: they could not shoot, hunt, fish, ride
to hounds; they had no strength; they did not like to see things
killed; they did not love sport; they did not drink wine; they did not
take beer for breakfast; they did not smoke tobacco; they loved tea,
chocolate, coffee, and such vanities; they loved to dress fine and
stand up making bows to men, which they called dancing; they loved to
read a lot of nonsense in rhymes, or to cry over the sorrows of people
who never lived. Women, however, had their uses: they kept things in
order, looked after the dinner, and took care of the babies.
Will did not say all these things at once; but they were collected
together and written down by the girls, who kept a book between them,
where they entered all the things they heard which struck their
fancy. Nancy even went so far as to try to make up a story about the
proctor and the pump, but never dared show it, except to her father,
who pinched her ear and laughed. They called the page about the ways
of women "Will's Wisdom," and continually added to it without his
knowledge; because Will, like all men who love the sports of the field
and not the wisdom of the printed page, became quickly angry if he were
laughed at. The girls always pictured Esau, for instance, as a grave
man, with a square chin, who talked a good deal about his own hunting,
took no interest in the occupations of the women, and could never see a
joke.
Two years or so after Will's rustication, Harry came of age and
left Cambridge without taking a degree. There were bonfires, and
oxen roasted whole, and barrels of beer upon the green when he took
possession of his own estate and went to live in his own house, which
was three miles and a half from the Hall.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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