doubt, some three centuries prior
to this Fornham Battle, there dwelt a man in these parts of the name
of Edmund, King, Landlord, Duke or whatever his title was, of the
Eastern Counties;--and a very singular man and landlord he must have
been.

For his tenants, it would appear, did not in the least complain of
him; his labourers did not think of burning his wheatstacks, breaking
into his game-preserves; very far the reverse of all that. Clear
evidence, satisfactory even to my friend Dryasdust, exists that, on
the contrary, they honoured, loved, admired this ancient Landlord to a
quite astonishing degree,--and indeed at last to an immeasurable and
inexpressible degree; for, finding no limits or utterable words for
their sense of his worth, they took to beatifying and adoring him!
'Infinite admiration,' we are taught, 'means worship.'

Very singular,--could we discover it! What Edmund's specific duties
were; above all, what his method of discharging them with such results
was, would surely be interesting to know; but are _not_ very
discoverable now. His Life has become a poetic, nay a religious
_Mythus_; though, undeniably enough, it was once a prose Fact, as our
poor lives are; and even a very rugged unmanageable one. This landlord
Edmund did go about in leather shoes, with _femoralia_ and bodycoat of
some sort on him; and daily had his breakfast to procure; and daily
had contradictory speeches, and most contradictory facts not a few, to
reconcile with himself. No man becomes a Saint in his sleep. Edmund,
for instance, instead of _reconciling_ those same contradictory facts
and speeches to himself,--which means _subduing_, and in a manlike and
godlike manner conquering them to himself,--might have merely thrown
new contention into them, new unwisdom into them, and so been
conquered _by_ them; much the commoner case! In that way he had proved
no 'Saint,' or Divine-looking Man, but a mere Sinner, and unfortunate,
blameable, more or less Diabolic-looking man! No landlord Edmund
becomes infinitely admirable in his sleep.

With what degree of wholesome rigour his rents were collected, we hear
not. Still less by what methods he preserved his game, whether by
'bushing' or how,--and if the partridge-seasons were 'excellent,' or
were indifferent. Neither do we ascertain what kind of Corn-bill he
passed, or wisely-adjusted Sliding-scale:--but indeed there were few
spinners in those days; and the nuisance of spinning, and other