My Friends and Acquaintance
William Hazlitt XV
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XV.
HAZLITT’S SYMPATHY WITH STRANGE PEOPLE.—ANECDOTES Of
BECKFORD.—HONEST ROGUERY.
It was during this stay at Fonthill Abbey that I had occasion to
remark one among many other instances in Hazlitt, of
that peculiarity which he himself so often observed and smiled at in Charles Lamb—unconscious, I believe, that it existed in at
least an equal degree in himself, though modified by another feature in his personal
character. Whenever he showed special signs of favour towards any one in a menial stage of
life, it was sure to be some out-of-the-way being, who was the laughing-stock or the pity
of everybody else; and among the people of the late immense establishment of Mr. Beckford who had been retained in the service of the
new proprietor of the place (Mr. Farquhar) was a
lout of a footboy, who was in special favour with Hazlitt. He had
recently been promoted from the plough-tail to the ![]()
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servants’
hall, and had been appointed to take up Hazlitt’s breakfast to
his room in the morning, and to give him any information he might need connected with the
object of his visit to the place—which was similar to mine. Now, a personal civility to
Hazlitt won his heart at once; and in the case of menial servants
he always took care to lay the foundation for this (when he could afford to do so) by a
liberal gratuity beforehand. And he had done this in
Tom’s case so effectually that the lad took him for nothing
less than a lord in disguise, and treated him accordingly; at the same time perceiving, by
a sort of menial instinct, that his benefactor was in fact not much more lordly or urbane
in his mere “complement extern” than he himself was, and thereupon assuming a
most lacquey-like superiority over him, in virtue of the information which he
(Tom) possessed and the other party wanted. He used to direct
Hazlitt as to the various localities of the neighbourhood; show
him about the grounds; and in one or two instances, I remember, ventured to go the
forbidden length of naming the name of the late lord ![]()
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of the Abbey.
Among other things, he told Hazlitt that he had once (during an almost life-long servitude on the spot!) actually caught a sight
of the visible presence of the said mysterious being, who, in his solitary wanderings about
the grounds of the Abbey, having encountered the unlucky apparition of
Tom in those sacred precincts where he had no business, instead of
ordering his instant dismissal from the service (which was the understood rule in such
cases), in his infinite magnanimity merely desired him to “get out of the
way.”
The change which had come over the spirit of Tom since
the downfall at the Abbey of this more than Eastern mystery and despotism, had worked an
amusing alteration in him, the outward effects of which it was that took Hazlitt’s fancy; and he used to take every
opportunity that offered of talking with him on subjects connected with the late and
present state of the place. While Tom, on his part, thus elevated to a
companionship with “gentlefolks,” and seeing those spots which had heretofore
scarcely echoed to a human footstep suddenly changed ![]()
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(nobody could
tell why) into a bear-garden and a public thoroughfare, was so completely mystified and
moved from his propriety as to have become, for the nonce, a “character” well
worth observation and study.
One great practical point in Tom’s favour with
Hazlitt, I remember, was, that he used, by hook
or by crook, to procure him an inordinate quantity of cream for his breakfast and tea: and,
in order to excuse himself from any improper imputation on his honesty in the affair, he
used to confess, or rather to boast, with great naïveté, that all
“that sort of thing” was now the understood privilege and
“parquiset” of the establishment. “Lord bless’ee, zur, we all
does it now, since Nabob ‘a been gone
away, and nobody be’nt the worse nur the wiser for it. Muster Phillips* is master now, and we does just as we
likes.” In fact, what Hazlitt admired in
Tom was the simple honesty of his roguery. There was nothing
Tom would not have done for him—such as stealing the best fruit
from
* The “eminent” auctioneer under whose direction the
property was preparing for the public sale, which shortly afterwards took place.
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the hot-houses—harnessing the pet white ponies to the pony-phaeton,
and driving him round the grounds, &c. &c.—excusing it all with a “Lord
bless’ee, zur, there’s no harm in it—nobody won’t know nothin about
it!” The only immorality, in Tom’s eyes, was—to be
found out.
William Thomas Beckford (1760-1844)
English novelist and aesthete, son of the Jamaica planter and Lord Mayor William Beckford
(1709-1770), author of
Vathek: An Arabian Tale, surreptitiously
translated and published in 1786. He was MP for Wells (1784-90) and Hindon (1790-94,
1806-20).
John Farquhar (1751-1826)
Scottish gunpowder manufacturer who after making a fortune in India purchased Fonthill
Abbey from William Beckford in 1822. A notorious miser, he was said to have offered a
Scottish university £100,000 to endow a professorship of Atheism.
William Hazlitt (1778-1830)
English essayist and literary critic; author of
Characters of
Shakespeare's Plays (1817),
Lectures on the English Poets
(1818), and
The Spirit of the Age (1825).
Charles Lamb [Elia] (1775-1834)
English essayist and boyhood friend of Coleridge at Christ's Hospital; author of
Essays of Elia published in the
London
Magazine (collected 1823, 1833) and other works.
Harry Phillips (1766 c.-1839)
Of New Bond Street, fine-art auctioneer from 1796; he began in business working for James
Christie (1730-1803).
