CHAPTER VII 



"A Fine Old English Gentleman "A Political Meteor A Surprise 



Visit. 



IF, as I have already pointed out, modern-day 

 developments have deprived the farmer of 

 some of those characteristics which very 

 clearly differentiated him from the dweller in 

 towns, the same influences have not left the squire 

 untouched. The steady-going, slow-moving em- 

 bodiment of that sterling stubbornness which 

 stood England in such good stead during the 

 stress and strain of the Napoleonic Wars, and 

 which was the stand-by of the elder Pitt, as well 

 as the sheet-anchor of the country-side, has well- 

 nigh passed out of ken. One of the best specimens 

 of the old squirearchy I ever met was Joseph 

 Warner Henley, who, for many years, represented 

 Oxfordshire in Parliament, and was President of 

 the Board of Trade in Lord Derby's two adminis- 

 trations. He was the beau-ideal of a country 

 gentleman of the old school the Chairman of 

 Quarter Sessions, par excellence in manners, dress, 

 and everything else. With a sterling independence 

 admitting of no deflection, there was combined 

 a shrewdness and a prudence which accounted 

 for and justified the position he held in the minds 

 of rich and poor alike. He had the rare gift of 



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