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Text File  |  1993-08-20  |  23KB  |  316 lines
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  32. │                                                                    │
  33. │                                                                    │
  34. │                ionel Carvel, Esq., of Carvel Hall, in              │
  35. │                 the county of Queen Anne, was no                   │
  36. │          inconsiderable man in his Lordship's province             │
  37. │          of Maryland, and indeed he was not unknown in             │
  38. │          colonial capitals from Williamsburg to Boston.            │
  39. │                                                                    │
  40. │             When his ships arrived out, in May or June,            │
  41. │          they made a goodly showing at the wharves, and            │
  42. │                                                                    │
  43. │                                                                    │
  44. │                                                                    │
  45. │          his captains were ever shrewd men of judgment             │
  46. │          who sniffed a Frenchman on the horizon--so that           │
  47. │          none of the Carvel tobacco ever went, in that             │
  48. │          way, to gladden a Gallic heart.                           │
  49. │                                                                    │
  50. │                                                                    │
  51. │                 take no shame in the pride with which I            │
  52. │                  write of my grandfather, albeit he took           │
  53. │          the part of his Majesty and Parliament against            │
  54. │          the Colonies.                                             │
  55. │                                                                    │
  56. │             He was born at Carvel Hall in the year of              │
  57. │          our Lord 1696, when the house was but a small             │
  58. │          dwelling.                                                 │
  59. │                                                                    │
  60. │             It was his father, George Carvel, my great-            │
  61. │          grandsire, who reared the present house in the            │
  62. │          year 1720, of brick brought from England as               │
  63. │                                                                    │
  64. │                                                                    │
  65. │                                                                    │
  66. │          ballast for the empty ships.                              │
  67. │                                                                    │
  68. │             And he added on, in the years following,               │
  69. │          the wide wings containing the ball-room, and              │
  70. │          the banquet-hall, and the large library at the            │    
  71. │          eastern end, and the offices.                             │
  72. │                                                                    │
  73. │             But it was my grandfather who built the                │
  74. │          great stables, and the kennels where he kept his          │
  75. │          beagles and his fleeter hounds.  For Mr. Carvel           │
  76. │          dearly loved the saddle and the chase, and                │
  77. │          taught me to love them too.                               │
  78. │                                                                    │
  79. │             Many the sharp winter day I have followed the          │
  80. │          fox with him over two counties, and lain that             │
  81. │          night, and a week after, at the plantation of             │
  82. │          some kind friend who was only too glad to                 │
  83. │          receive us.                                               │
  84. │                                                                    │
  85. │                                                                    │
  86. │                                                                    │
  87. │             Often, too, we have stood together from early          │
  88. │          morning until dark night, waist deep on the duck          │
  89. │          points, I with a                                          │
  90. │          fowling-piece I was                                       │
  91. │          all but too young to                                      │    
  92. │          carry, and brought                                        │
  93. │          back a hundred                                            │
  94. │          redheads or canvas-                                       │
  95. │          backs in our bags.                                        │         
  96. │                                                                    │
  97. │              And Mr. Carvel                                        │ 
  98. │          went with unfailing                                       │     
  99. │          regularity to the races                                   │
  100. │          at Annapolis or Chestertown                               │
  101. │          or Marlborough, often to see his own horses run,          │
  102. │          where the coaches of the gentry were fifty and            │
  103. │          sixty around the course; where a negro, or a              │
  104. │          hogshead of tobacco, or a pipe of Madeira was             │
  105. │                                                                    │
  106. │                                                                    │
  107. │                                                                    │
  108. │          often staked at a single throw.                           │ 
  109. │                                                                    │
  110. │             And I thought it not strange that Mr. Carvel           │
  111. │          should delight in a good fight between two                │
  112. │          cocks, or a bull-baiting, or a breaking of heads          │
  113. │          at the Chestertown fair, where he went to show            │
  114. │          his cattle and fling a guinea into the ring for           │
  115. │          the winner.                                               │
  116. │                                                                    │
  117. │                                                                    │
  118. │                ut it must not be thought that Lionel               │
  119. │                 Carvel was wholly unlettered because he            │
  120. │          was a sportsman, though it may be confessed that          │
  121. │          books occupied him only when the weather                  │
  122. │          compelled, or when on his back with the gout.             │
  123. │                                                                    │
  124. │             At such times he would have me read to him             │
  125. │          from the Spectator, as he lay in his great four-          │
  126. │                                                                    │
  127. │                                                                    │
  128. │                                                                    │
  129. │          post bed, stopping me now and                             │
  130. │          anon at some awakened memory                              │   
  131. │          of his youth.                                             │
  132. │                                                                    │
  133. │             For, indeed, Mr. Carvel                                │
  134. │          had walked in Gray's Inn                                  │
  135. │          Gardens, and met adventure                                │
  136. │          at Fox Hall, and seen the                                 │
  137. │          great Marlborough himself.                                │
  138. │          He had a fondness for Mr.                                 │
  139. │          Congreve's Comedies, some                                 │
  140. │          of which he had seen acted,                               │
  141. │          and was partial to Mr. Gay's                              │
  142. │          Trivia, which brought him                                 │
  143. │          many a recollection.                                      │      
  144. │                                                                    │
  145. │             He was, in all, a man much                             │
  146. │          looked up to in the province                              │
  147. │                                                                    │
  148. │                                                                    │
  149. │                                                                    │
  150. │          before the Revolution, and sat at the council             │
  151. │          board of his Excellency the Governor, as his              │
  152. │          father had done before him, representing the              │
  153. │          crown in more matters than one when the French            │
  154. │          and savages were upon our frontiers.                      │
  155. │                                                                    │
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  168. │                              ______                                │
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  179. │                                                                    │
  180. │                                                                    │
  181. │                n October of each year, after the crops             │
  182. │                 were all in at the Hall, Mr. Carvel                │
  183. │          would set out by barge for Annapolis, to reside           │
  184. │          there until the following spring.                         │     
  185. │                                                                    │
  186. │             His house stood in Marlborough Street, a               │
  187. │          dreary mansion enough.  Praised be heaven that            │
  188. │          those who inherit it are not obliged to live              │
  189. │                                                                    │
  190. │                                                                    │
  191. │                                                                    │
  192. │          there on the memory of what was in days gone by.          │
  193. │                                                                    │
  194. │             The heavy green shutters are now closed; the           │
  195. │          high steps, though stoutly built, are shaky after         │
  196. │          these years of disuse; and the host of faithful           │
  197. │          servants who kept its state are nearly all laid           │
  198. │                                       side by side at              │
  199. │                                       Carvel Hall.                 │
  200. │                                       Harvey and Chess             │
  201. │                                       and Scipio are no            │
  202. │                                       more.                        │
  203. │                                                                    │
  204. │                                          The kitchen,              │
  205. │                                       whither a boyish             │
  206. │                                       hunger oft directed          │
  207. │                                       my eyes at twilight,         │       
  208. │                                       shines not with              │
  209. │          the welcoming gleam of yore, and Chess no longer          │
  210. │                                                                    │
  211. │                                                                    │
  212. │                                                                    │
  213. │          prepares the dainties which astonished Mr.                │
  214. │          Carvel's guests, and which he alone could cook.           │         
  215. │                                                                    │
  216. │             But if I shut my eyes, there comes to me               │
  217. │          unbidden that dining-room in Marlborough Street           │
  218. │          of a gray winter's afternoon, when I was but a            │
  219. │          lad.                                                      │
  220. │                                                                    │
  221. │             I see my dear grandfather in his wig and               │
  222. │          silver-laced waistcoat and his blue velvet                │
  223. │          coat, seated at the head of the table, and the            │
  224. │          precise Scipio putting down at his left hand the          │
  225. │          silver tray with its shining cut-glass.                   │
  226. │                                                                    │
  227. │             And if I shut my eyes yet again, I can recall          │
  228. │          as yesterday the day Captain Daniel Clapsaddle            │
  229. │          rode into Marlborough Street, his horse covered           │
  230. │          with sweat, and the tidings of Captain Jack               │
  231. │                                                                    │
  232. │                                                                    │
  233. │                                                                    │
  234. │          Carvel's death from Indians on his lips.                  │
  235. │                                                                    │
  236. │             Strangely enough that day sticks in my memory          │
  237. │          as one of delight rather than sadness.  After             │
  238. │          my poor mother had gone up the stairs on my               │
  239. │          grandfather's arm, the strong soldier took me on          │ 
  240. │                            his knee, and drawing his pistol        │
  241. │                                  from his holster, bade            │
  242. │                                  me snap the lock, which           │
  243. │                                  I was barely able to do.          │
  244. │                                                                    │
  245. │                                     And he told me                 │
  246. │                                  wonderful tales of the            │
  247. │                                  woods beyond the                  │
  248. │                                  mountains, and of the             │
  249. │                                  painted men who tracked           │
  250. │                                  them, much wilder and             │
  251. │                                  fiercer they were than            │
  252. │                                                                    │
  253. │                                                                    │
  254. │                                                                    │
  255. │          those stray Nanticokes I had seen from time to            │
  256. │          time near Carvel Hall.                                    │
  257. │                                                                    │
  258. │             And when at last he would go, I clung to him;          │
  259. │          and so he swung me to the back of his great               │
  260. │          horse, Ronald, and I seized the bridle in my              │
  261. │          small hands.                                              │
  262. │                                                                    │
  263. │             Then lifting me off at length, he kissed me            │  
  264. │          and bade me not to annoy my mother; and leaping           │   
  265. │          on Ronald, was away with never so much as a look          │    
  266. │          behind, leaving me standing in the street.                │ 
  267. │                                                                    │ 
  268. │                                                                    │ 
  269. │                fter that blow which left her a widow, my           │
  270. │                 mother continued to keep Mr. Carvel's              │
  271. │          home.  I recall her chiefly as a sad and                  │
  272. │          beautiful woman, stately save when she kissed me          │
  273. │                                                                    │
  274. │                                                                    │
  275. │                                                                    │
  276. │          with passion and said that I bore my father's             │
  277. │          look.                                                     │
  278. │                                                                    │
  279. │             She drooped like the flower she was, and one           │
  280. │          spring day my grandfather led me to receive her           │
  281. │          blessing, and to be folded for the last time in           │
  282. │          her arms.                                                 │
  283. │                                                                    │
  284. │             Then with a smile on her lips she rose to              │
  285. │          heaven to meet my father.  She lies buried with           │
  286. │                                                                    │
  287. │                                                                    │
  288. │                                                                    │
  289. │                                                                    │
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  295. │                                                                    │
  296. │                                                                    │
  297. │          the rest of the Carvels at the Hall, next to the          │
  298. │          brave captain, her husband.                               │      
  299. │                                                                    │
  300. │                                                                    │
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  315. │                                                                    │
  316.