Titian or Vandyck, to
be sure my lady dowager could hardly have valued them at a higher price.
But though we paid so generously, though we were, I may say without
boast, far kinder to our poor than ever she had been, for a while we had
the very worst reputation in the county, where all sorts of stories
had been told to my discredit. I thought I might perhaps succeed to my
uncle's seat in Parliament, as well as to his landed property; but I
found, I knew not how, that I was voted to be a person of very dangerous
opinions. I would not bribe: I would not coerce my own tenants to vote
for me in the election of '68. A gentleman came down from Whitehall
with a pocket-book full of bank-notes; and I found that I had no chance
against my competitor.

Bon Dieu! Now that we were at ease in respect of worldly means,--now
that obedient tenants bowed and curtseyed as we went to church; that we
drove to visit our friends, or to the neighbouring towns, in the great
family coach with the four fat horses; did we not often regret poverty,
and the dear little cottage at Lambeth, where Want was ever prowling
at the door? Did I not long to be bear-leading again, and vow that
translating for booksellers was not such very hard drudgery? When we
went to London, we made sentimental pilgrimages to all our old haunts.
I dare say my wife embraced all her landladies. You may be sure we asked
all the friends of those old times to share the comforts of our new home
with us. The Reverend Mr. Hagan and his lady visited us more than once.
His appearance in the pulpit at B------(where he preached very finely,
as we thought) caused an awful scandal there. Sampson came too, another
unlucky Levite, and was welcome as long as he would stay among us. Mr.
Johnson talked of coming, but he put us off once or twice. I suppose our
house was dull. I know that I myself would be silent for days, and fear
that my moodiness must often have tried the sweetest-tempered woman
in the world who lived with me. I did not care for field sports. The
killing one partridge was so like killing another, that I wondered how
men could pass days after days in the pursuit of that kind of slaughter.
Their fox-hunting stories would begin at four o'clock, when the
tablecloth was removed, and last till supper-time. I sate silent, and
listened: day after day I fell asleep: no wonder I was not popular with
my company.

What admission is this I am making? Here was the storm over, the rocks
a