Peter Simple and The Three Cutters, Vol. 1 by Frederick Marryat
page 26 of 740 (03%)
page 26 of 740 (03%)
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Thus:-- 1842. Total receipts, £154 2 9 " Expenditure, 1637 0 6 1846. Total receipts, 898 12 6 " Expenditure, 2023 10 8 His former tenant had indeed shown but little respect for the property. Besides taking all he could out of the land without putting anything into it, he fitted up the drawing-room of the manor (which in its brightest days had been known in the village as the "Room of Thousand Columns," from an effect produced by mirrors set in the panels of folding doors, reflecting trellised pillars,) with rows of beds, which he let out to tramps at twopence a night! Of these latter years on the farm we can gather some distinctly pleasant impressions. Marryat was evidently a good master at all times. He delighted to arrange for festivities in the servants' hall, but he was also very tolerant to poachers, and considered it his first duty to find work for his men when times were bad. His model pigsties and cottages were unpopular, but he loved his animals and understood them. The chief merit of his lazy and somewhat asinine pony Dumpling consisted in his talent for standing still. Upon this patient beast the captain would occasionally sally forth to shoot, assisting his natural short-sightedness by a curious "invention of his own;"--a plain piece of crystal surrounded by a strip of whalebone, hanging in front of his right eye from the brim of his "shocking bad hat." He was a careless dresser, but scrupulously clean; no smoker, but very fond of snuff. He had a fancy for pure white china which had to be procured from the |
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