oS 
the payment of it. On the death 
of Captain Tempeft, which hap- 
pened fhortly after, the money was 
replaced. ‘That Mr. Elwes was no 
loier by the event, does not take 
away from the merit of the deed; 
and it ftands amongit thofe fingular 
records of his character, that reafon 
has to reconcile or philofophy to 
account for, that the fame man, at 
one and the fame moment, could 
be prodigal of thoufands, and yet 
almoft deny to himfelf the neceffaries 
of life! 
As no gleam of favourite paffion, 
or any ray of amufement, broke 
through this gloom of penury, his 
infatiable defire of faving was now 
become uniform and fyftematic. He 
ufed ftill to ride about the country 
on one of thefe mares—but then he 
rode her very ceconomically; on 
the foft turf adjoining the road, 
without putting nimfelf to the ex- 
pence of fhoes—as he obferved, 
« The turf was fo pleafant to a 
horfe’s foot!” And when any gen- 
' tleman called to pay him a vifit, 
and the boy who attended in the 
ftables was profufe enough to put a 
little hay before his horfe, old Elwes 
would flily fteal back into the ftable, 
and take the hay very carefully 
away. 
That very ftrong appetite which 
Mr. Elwes had in fome meafure re- 
ftrained during the long fitting of 
parliament, he now indulged moft 
voracioufly, and on every thing he 
could find. To fave, ashe thought, 
the expence of going to a butcher, 
he would have a whole fheep killed, 
‘and fo eat mutton to the—end of 
the chapter. When he occafionally 
had his river drawn, though fome- 
times horfe-loads of {mall fith were 
n, not one would he fuffer to 
thrown in again, for he obferv- 
Chl AcH AcC! TUE. RS. 
23 
ed, «* He fhould never fee them 
again !’? Game in the laft flate of 
putrefaction, and meat that walked 
about his plate, would he continue 
to eat, rather than have new things 
killed before the old provifion was 
finifhed. : 
With this diet—the charne!-houfe 
of fuftenance—his drefs kept pace— 
equally in the laft ftage of ad/olute 
diffolution, Sometimes he would 
walk about in a tattered brown- 
coloured hat: and fometimes in a 
red and white woollen cap, like a 
prifoner confined for debt. 
When any frienis, who might 
occafionally be with him, were ab- 
fent, he would carefully put out 
his own fire, and walk to the houfe 
of a neighbour; and thus make one 
fire ferve both. In fhort, whatever 
Cervantes or Moliere have pictured, 
in their moft fportive moods, of 
avarice in the extreme, here might 
they have feen realized or fur- 
paffed ! 
His fhoes he never would fuffer 
to be cleaned, left they fhould be 
worn out the fooner. 
The feene of mortification, at _ 
which Mr. Elwes was now arrived, 
wasalli buta denial ofthe common ne- 
ceffaries of life : and indeed it might 
have admitted a donbt; whether or 
not, if his manors, his fith-ponds, 
and fome grounds, in his own 
hands, had not furnifhed a fubfiit- 
ence, where he had not any thing 
actually to buy, he would not, rather 
than have bought any thing, have 
ftarved ;—flrange as this may ap- 
pear, it is not exaggerated.—He, 
one day, during this period, dined 
upon the remaining part of a maor- 
hen, which had been brought out 
of the river by a vat/ and at an- 
other, eat an undigefted part of a 
pike, which the larger one had 
C4 fwallowed, 
