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by each successive victory he would be lowering himself in learned estimation on the part of those over whom he had so long reigned with undisputed sway, and who until now had looked up to him as a prodigy of knowledge.

Mr. Gubbins on several occasions insisted that every foaming tankard during the evening should be at his expense, and during his sojourn there it happening to be Squire Clincher's natal day, that night was one which gave an open house to the Plough. This generosity at length began to win over partizans, and certain of those "frugal swains" began to veer round to the conclusion that the new proprietor of the hall might prove a better man than the world had reported; and when Gabriel dwelt on the beauty and charity of Mrs. Jingles, of the vast riches of her father, and the generosity of her husband, reflection whispered that it might be policy to treat the fresh folks with respect. The Gamaliel and Fallow, though each might have desired to speak out in sympathy for the old family,

and in detestation of the new, were, as well as some others, tongue-tied by the consideration of self-preservation, and they wisely resolved at least to be silent. Time, thought they, would prove the virtues of the stranger magnates.

The alterations and plannings, the painting and papering, the additions and alterations, were carried on with such vigour, that the old hall in a few short weeks became as unlike itself as self can be made unlike. The dark oaken panels shone in their fresh varnish, every door was opened by a new latch or a different handle, marble chimneypieces had usurped the places of their antiquated predecessors, the walls were hung with costly papers, and flowing draperies, pendant from decorated fastenings, made the substantially framed windows appear anything but what they were in the days of yore. Ere long loads of costly furniture arrived, such shining chairs and tables!—and such mirrors!—and then those costly pictures, the Gaspar Poussins, Velasquezes, Murillos, and Vandycks, how all these be

spoke the truth of the great man's riches and power, and who could deny that such affluence brought into their cottage-homed hamlet, there to be neighboured by poverty and scarceness, would bring with it an envied blessing?

In the gardens, the shrubberies, the pleasure grounds, the park, trees were felled, new walks wound through secluded tracts, and that restless spirit of improvement which walked through dry places and everywhere, but stayed nowhere, left in every aspect unequivocal symptoms of its presence. That verdant lawn where the green turf thickly grew up to the drawing-room windows, had been so closely shaven, and rolled, and swept, that it looked as smooth and beautiful as a broad web of Genoa velvet; those broken statues which had so long disfigured it were in better taste, succeeded by colossal urns, over whose edges the graceful tendrils of choice creepers were trained; the gravel walks had been so rounded and improved, that the most delicate foot of ladye fair might perambulate them in all sorts of

VOL. II.

G

weather; the green-house and the vinery had not one cracked pane, and rare exotics now bloomed there in the nicely regulated temprature of the tropics. The main entrance gates looked smart and gladsome in their fresh coat of paint, and the armorial bearings the huge De Bohun fleur de lis placed on either pillar, and which had been there long anterior to the memory of men still living, had been taken down, ruthlessly destroyed, and two rampant lions which Mr. Jingles had imagined were the symbols of his house, now gazed on each other in savage mood, as the sleepless guardians of the portal!

Mr. Jingles boastingly said, that as his own fortune was even more ample than his father-in-law's, the place ought to be fitted up regardless of expense. They were now about to settle as a county family, and appearances had to be considered as well as position. He prided himself that he was a man of taste, and it was his intention to demonstrate to the unrefined county squires by whom he was neighboured, certain of his

more accomplished notions, as he declared from all he observed in that part of the country, that nothing beyond a patriarchal simplicity was to be witnessed. To come out with something of a dash, he conceived, would place him in envied relief, as contrasted with such bucolic coarseness, and such rural ignorance as everywhere pervaded. The furniture and equipage were to be patterns of the genteel, and with the very cut of his coat he was not heedless, well-knowing that all he wore, or did, or said, were sure to be nicely scanned and very probably copied. In the course of time the mansion was in readiness, and Gabriel took no modicum of credit for appearances to himself-he had been director of the works, and the assembled rustics at the Plough had flattered him on the possession of his tastes, in nothing short of superlative encomiums.

'Twas one evening when Mr. and Mrs. Jingles were comfortably talking the twilight shades away in their snug sitting-room in London, and, of course, the all-absorbing topic of conversation at this time was relative

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