354 History of the English Landed Interest. 



pigs at market, anon imbibing beer at liome, iintil they are 

 laid in swinish intoxication under their own hospitable tables. 

 We can see them in their taverns making agricultural bargains 

 over the tankard, and we can see them in their manor houses, 

 "with the cabbage plants and gooseberry-trees blocking the 

 front doors, and the garbage of the farmyard mounting as 

 high as the transoms of their bedroom windows. We can hear 

 the squire as he fills his after-dinner pipe, toast the king in 

 old October and heartily curse all foreigners and every form of 

 heterodox religion. We can picture the family circle, with 

 the old man in the ingle nook still garrulous about Goring 

 and Lumsford, or the wound he received at Naseby ; with his 

 stalwart sons around him, whose knowledge of genealogy and 

 field sports alone redeemed them from utter illiteracy ; with 

 the wife curing marigolds or making crust for the venison 

 pasty in the kitchen, and with the daughters stitching and 

 spinning in the parlour, or brewing gooseberry wine in the 

 still room. What a flutter in this domestic dovecot must the 

 unexpected arrival of some court gallant have occasioned. 

 How the girls' hearts must have palpitated afhis'good looks and 

 fine bearing. AVith what mingled feelings of envy and admir- 

 ation must the rude boors his cousins have heard his exploits 

 in the Flemish campaign. How he in his turn must have 

 inwardly sneered at the uncouth gait and provincialisms of 

 these bucolic kinsmen, and lastly how readily would both 

 sides have crossed swords had the least inkling of such 

 thoughts appeared on the surface. Generous, honourable, un- 

 polished, punctilious, bigoted fellows were these Tories of the 

 old school, the progenitors of the so-called " Stupid Party," 

 who long after the House of Brunswick had established itself 

 securely on the throne, drank " to the king over the water ; " 

 who opposed to the utmost the repeal of the Corn Laws, the 

 introduction of the railroad, the abolition of slavery, the 

 extensions of the franchise, and every other Radical innovation, 

 good, bad or indifferent. With all their faults and folUes, 

 England would have never been half so great without such 

 staunch supporters of her vested interests. 



It seems almost incredible that any king, however foolish 



