To an American, the sense of the domination of this
family over so considerable a tract of earth was even
oppressive; and as I considered their simple annals,
gathered from the legends of the engravings, surprise
began to mingle with my disgust. "Mr. Recorder"
doubtless occupies an honourable post; but I thought
that, in the course of so many generations, one Carthew
might have clambered higher. The soldier had stuck at
Major-General; the church-man bloomed unremarked in an
archdeaconry; and though the Right Honourable Bailley
seemed to have sneaked into the Privy Council, I have
still to learn what he did when he had got there. Such
vast means, so long a start, and such a modest standard
of achievement, struck in me a strong sense of the
dulness of that race.
I found that to come to the hamlet and not visit the
Hall would be regarded as a slight. To feed the swans,
to see the peacocks and the Raphaels--for these
commonplace people actually possessed two Raphaels,--to
risk life and limb among a famous breed of cattle
called the Carthew Chillinghams, and to do homage to
the sire (still living) of Donibristle, a renowned
winner of the Oaks: these, it seemed, were the
inevitable stations of the pilgrimage.
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