All the journey down to Hackton Castle, the largest and most ancient of our ancestral seats in Devonshire, was performed with the slow and sober state becoming people of the first quality in the realm. An outrider in my livery went on before us, and bespoke2 our lodging4 from town to town; and thus we lay in state at Andover, Ilminster, and Exeter; and the fourth evening arrived in time for supper before the antique baronial mansion5, of which the gate was in an odious6 Gothic taste that would have set Mr. Walpole wild with pleasure.
The first days of a marriage are commonly very trying; and I have known couples, who lived together like turtle-doves for the rest of their lives, peck each other’s eyes out almost during the honeymoon7. I did not escape the common lot; in our journey westward8 my Lady Lyndon chose to quarrel with me because I pulled out a pipe of tobacco (the habit of smoking which I had acquired in Germany when a soldier in Billow’s, and could never give it over), and smoked it in the carriage; and also her Ladyship chose to take umbrage9 both at Ilminster and Andover, because in the evenings when we lay there I chose to invite the landlords of the ‘Bell’ and the ‘Lion’ to crack a bottle with me. Lady Lyndon was a haughty10 woman, and I hate pride; and I promise you that in both instances I overcame this vice11 in her. On the third day of our journey I had her to light my pipematch with her own hands, and made her deliver it to me with tears in her eyes; and at the ‘Swan Inn’ at Exeter I had so completely subdued12 her, that she asked me humbly13 whether I would not wish the landlady15 as well as the host to step up to dinner with us. To this I should have had no objection, for, indeed, Mrs. Bonnyface was a very good-looking woman; but we expected a visit from my Lord Bishop16, a kinsman17 of Lady Lyndon, and the BIENSEANCES did not permit the indulgence of my wife’s request. I appeared with her at evening service, to compliment our right reverend cousin, and put her name down for twenty-five guineas, and my own for one hundred, to the famous new organ which was then being built for the cathedral. This conduct, at the very outset of my career in the county, made me not a little popular; and the residentiary canon, who did me the favour to sup with me at the inn, went away after the sixth bottle, hiccuping18 the most solemn vows19 for the welfare of such a p-p-pious gentleman.
Before we reached Hackton Castle, we had to drive through ten miles of the Lyndon estates, where the people were out to visit us, the church bells set a-ringing, the parson and the farmers assembled in their best by the roadside, and the school children and the labouring people were loud in their hurrahs for her Ladyship. I flung money among these worthy20 characters, stopped to bow and chat with his reverence21 and the farmers, and if I found that the Devonshire girls were among the handsomest in the kingdom is it my fault? These remarks my Lady Lyndon especially would take in great dudgeon; and I do believe she was made more angry by my admiration22 of the red cheeks of Miss Betsy Quarringdon of Clumpton, than by any previous speech or act of mine in the journey. ‘Ah, ah, my fine madam, you are jealous, are you?’ thought I, and reflected, not without deep sorrow, how lightly she herself had acted in her husband’s lifetime, and that those are most jealous who themselves give most cause for jealousy23.
Round Hackton village the scene of welcome was particularly gay: a band of music had been brought from Plymouth, and arches and flags had been raised, especially before the attorney’s and the doctor’s houses, who were both in the employ of the family. There were many hundreds of stout24 people at the great lodge25, which, with the park-wall, bounds one side of Hackton Green, and from which, for three miles, goes (or rather went) an avenue of noble elms up to the towers of the old castle. I wished they had been oak when I cut the trees down in ‘79, for they would have fetched three times the money: I know nothing more culpable26 than the carelessness of ancestors in planting their grounds with timber of small value, when they might just as easily raise oak. Thus I have always said that the Roundhead Lyndon of Hackton, who planted these elms in Charles II.‘s time, cheated me of ten thousand pounds.
For the first few days after our arrival, my time was agreeably spent in receiving the visits of the nobility and gentry27 who came to pay their respects to the noble new-married couple, and, like Bluebeard’s wife in the fairy tale, in inspecting the treasures, the furniture, and the numerous chambers28 of the castle. It is a huge old place, built as far back as Henry V.‘s time, besieged30 and battered31 by the Cromwellians in the Revolution, and altered and patched up, in an odious old-fashioned taste, by the Roundhead Lyndon, who succeeded to the property at the death of a brother whose principles were excellent and of the true Cavalier sort, but who ruined himself chiefly by drinking, dicing32, and a dissolute life, and a little by supporting the King. The castle stands in a fine chase, which was prettily33 speckled over with deer; and I can’t but own that my pleasure was considerable at first, as I sat in the oak parlour of summer evenings, with the windows open, the gold and silver plate shining in a hundred dazzling colours on the side-boards, a dozen jolly companions round the table, and could look out over the wide green park and the waving woods, and see the sun setting on the lake, and hear the deer calling to one another.
The exterior34 was, when I first arrived, a quaint35 composition of all sorts of architecture; of feudal36 towers, and gable-ends in Queen Bess’s style, and rough-patched walls built up to repair the ravages37 of the Roundhead cannon38: but I need not speak of this at large, having had the place new-faced at a vast expense, under a fashionable architect, and the facade39 laid out in the latest French-Greek and most classical style. There had been moats, and drawbridges, and outer walls; these I had shaved away into elegant terraces, and handsomely laid out in parterres according to the plans of Monsieur Cornichon, the great Parisian architect, who visited England for the purpose.
After ascending40 the outer steps, you entered an antique hall of vast dimensions, wainscoted with black carved oak, and ornamented41 with portraits of our ancestors: from the square beard of Brook42 Lyndon, the great lawyer in Queen Bess’s time, to the loose stomacher and ringlets of Lady Saccharissa Lyndon, whom Vandyck painted when she was a maid of honour to Queen Henrietta Maria, and down to Sir Charles Lyndon, with his riband as a knight43 of the Bath; and my Lady, painted by Hudson, in a white satin sack and the family diamonds, as she was presented to the old King George II. These diamonds were very fine: I first had them reset44 by Boehmer when we appeared before their French Majesties45 at Versailles; and finally raised L18,000 upon them, after that infernal run of ill luck at ‘Goosetree’s,’ when Jemmy Twitcher (as we called my Lord Sandwich), Carlisle, Charley Fox, and I played hombre for four-and-forty hours SANS DESEMPARER. Bows and pikes, huge stag-heads and hunting implements46, and rusty47 old suits of armour48, that may have been worn in the days of Gog and Magog for what I know, formed the other old ornaments49 of this huge apartment; and were ranged round a fireplace where you might have turned a coach-and-six. This I kept pretty much in its antique condition, but had the old armour eventually turned out and consigned50 to the lumber-rooms upstairs; replacing it with china monsters, gilded51 settees from France, and elegant marbles, of which the broken noses and limbs, and ugliness, undeniably proved their antiquity52: and which an agent purchased for me at Rome. But such was the taste of the times (and, perhaps, the rascality53 of my agent), that thirty thousand pounds’ worth of these gems54 of art only went for three hundred guineas at a subsequent period, when I found it necessary to raise money on my collections.
From this main hall branched off on either side the long series of state-rooms, poorly furnished with high-backed chairs and long queer Venice glasses, when first I came to the property; but afterwards rendered so splendid by me, with the gold damasks of Lyons and the magnificent Gobelin tapestries56 I won from Richelieu at play. There were thirty-six bedrooms DE MAITRE, of which I only kept three in their antique condition — the haunted room as it was called, where the murder was done in James II.‘s time, the bed where William slept after landing at Torbay, and Queen Elizabeth’s state-room. All the rest were redecorated by Cornichon in the most elegant taste; not a little to the scandal of some of the steady old country dowagers; for I had pictures of Boucher and Vanloo to decorate the principal apartments, in which the Cupids and Venuses were painted in a manner so natural, that I recollect57 the old wizened58 Countess of Frumpington pinning over the curtains of her bed, and sending her daughter, Lady Blanche Whalebone, to sleep with her waiting-woman, rather than allow her to lie in a chamber29 hung all over with looking-glasses, after the exact fashion of the Queen’s closet at Versailles.
For many of these ornaments I was not so much answerable as Cornichon, whom Lauraguais lent me, and who was the intendant of my buildings during my absence abroad. I had given the man CARTE BLANCHE, and when he fell down and broke his leg, as he was decorating a theatre in the room which had been the old chapel59 of the castle, the people of the country thought it was a judgment60 of Heaven upon him. In his rage for improvement the fellow dared anything. Without my orders he cut down an old rookery which was sacred in the country, and had a prophecy regarding it, stating, ‘When the rook-wood shall fall, down goes Hackton Hall.’ The rooks went over and colonised Tiptoff Woods, which lay near us (and be hanged to them!), and Cornichon built a temple to Venus and two lovely fountains on their site. Venuses and Cupids were the rascal’s adoration61: he wanted to take down the Gothic screen and place Cupids in our pew there; but old Doctor Huff the rector came out with a large oak stick, and addressed the unlucky architect in Latin, of which he did not comprehend a word, yet made him understand that he would break his bones if he laid a single finger upon the sacred edifice62. Cornichon made complaints about the ‘Abbe Huff,’ as he called him. (‘Et quel abbe, grand Dieu!’ added he, quite bewildered, ’un abbe avec douze enfans’); but I encouraged the Church in this respect, and bade Cornichon exert his talents only in the castle.
There was a magnificent collection of ancient plate, to which I added much of the most splendid modern kind; a cellar which, however well furnished, required continual replenishing, and a kitchen which I reformed altogether. My friend, Jack63 Wilkes, sent me down a cook from the Mansion House, for the English cookery — the turtle and venison department: I had a CHEF (who called out the Englishman, by the way, and complained sadly of the GROS COCHON who wanted to meet him with COUPS64 DE POING) and a couple of AIDES from Paris, and an Italian confectioner, as my OFFICIERS DE BOUCHE. All which natural appendages65 to a man of fashion, the odious, stingy old Tiptoff, my kinsman and neighbour, affected66 to view with horror; and he spread through the country a report that I had my victuals67 cooked by Papists, lived upon frogs, and, he verily believed, fricasseed little children.
But the squires68 ate my dinners very readily for all that, and old Doctor Huff himself was compelled to allow that my venison and turtle were most orthodox. The former gentry I knew how to conciliate, too, in other ways. There had been only a subscription69 pack of fox-hounds in the county and a few beggarly couples of mangy beagles, with which old Tiptoff pattered about his grounds; I built a kennel70 and stables, which cost L30,000, and stocked them in a manner which was worthy of my ancestors, the Irish kings. I had two packs of hounds, and took the field in the season four times a week, with three gentlemen in my hunt-uniform to follow me, and open house at Hackton for all who belonged to the hunt.
These changes and this train de vivre required, as may be supposed, no small outlay71; and I confess that I have little of that base spirit of economy in my composition which some people practise and admire. For instance, old Tiptoff was hoarding72 up his money to repair his father’s extravagance and disencumber his estates; a good deal of the money with which he paid off his mortgages my agent procured73 upon mine. And, besides, it must be remembered I had only a life-interest upon the Lyndon property, was always of an easy temper in dealing74 with the money-brokers, and had to pay heavily for insuring her Ladyship’s life.
At the end of a year Lady Lyndon presented me with a son — Bryan Lyndon I called him, in compliment to my royal ancestry75: but what more had I to leave him than a noble name? Was not the estate of his mother entailed76 upon the odious little Turk, Lord Bullingdon? and whom, by the way, I have not mentioned as yet, though he was living at Hackton, consigned to a new governor. The insubordination of that boy was dreadful. He used to quote passages of ‘Hamlet’ to his mother, which made her very angry. Once when I took a horsewhip to chastise77 him, he drew a knife, and would have stabbed me: and, ‘faith, I recollected78 my own youth, which was pretty similar; and, holding out my hand, burst out laughing, and proposed to him to be friends. We were reconciled for that time, and the next, and the next; but there was no love lost between us, and his hatred79 for me seemed to grow as he grew, which was apace.
I determined80 to endow my darling boy Bryan with a property, and to this end cut down twelve thousand pounds’ worth of timber on Lady Lyndon’s Yorkshire and Irish estates: at which proceeding81 Bullingdon’s guardian82, Tiptoff, cried out, as usual, and swore I had no right to touch a stick of the trees; but down they went; and I commissioned my mother to repurchase the ancient lands of Ballybarry and Barryogue, which had once formed part of the immense possessions of my house. These she bought back with excellent prudence83 and extreme joy; for her heart was gladdened at the idea that a son was born to my name, and with the notion of my magnificent fortunes.
To say truth, I was rather afraid, now that I lived in a very different sphere from that in which she was accustomed to move, lest she should come to pay me a visit, and astonish my English friends by her bragging84 and her brogue, her rouge85 and her old hoops86 and furbelows of the time of George II.: in which she had figured advantageously in her youth, and which she still fondly thought to be at the height of the fashion. So I wrote to her, putting off her visit; begging her to visit us when the left wing of the castle was finished, or the stables built, and so forth87. There was no need of such precaution. ‘A hint’s enough for me, Redmond,’ the old lady would reply. ‘I am not coming to disturb you among your great English friends with my old-fashioned Irish ways. It’s a blessing88 to me to think that my darling boy has attained89 the position which I always knew was his due, and for which I pinched myself to educate him. You must bring me the little Bryan, that his grandmother may kiss him, one day. Present my respectful blessing to her Ladyship his mamma. Tell her she has got a treasure in her husband, which she couldn’t have had had she taken a duke to marry her; and that the Barrys and the Bradys, though without titles, have the best of blood in their veins90. I shall never rest until I see you Earl of Ballybarry, and my grandson Lord Viscount Barryogue.’
How singular it was that the very same ideas should be passing in my mother’s mind and my own! The very title she had pitched upon had also been selected (naturally enough) by me; and I don’t mind confessing that I had filled a dozen sheets of paper with my signature, under the names of Ballybarry and Barryogue, and had determined with my usual impetuosity to carry my point. My mother went and established herself at Ballybarry, living with the priest there until a tenement91 could be erected92, and dating from ‘Ballybarry Castle;’ which, you may be sure, I gave out to be a place of no small importance. I had a plan of the estate in my study, both at Hackton and in Berkeley Square, and the plans of the elevation93 of Ballybarry Castle, the ancestral residence of Barry Lyndon, Esq., with the projected improvements, in which the castle was represented as about the size of Windsor, with more ornaments to the architecture; and eight hundred acres of bog94 falling in handy, I purchased them at three pounds an acre, so that my estate upon the map looked to be no insignificant95 one. [Footnote: On the strength of this estate, and pledging his honour that it was not mortgaged, Mr. Barry Lyndon borrowed L17,000 in the year 1786, from young Captain Pigeon, the city merchant’s son, who had just come in for his property. At for the Polwellan estate and mines, ‘the cause of endless litigation,’ it must be owned that our hero purchased them; but he never paid more than the first L5000 of the purchase-money. Hence the litigation of which he complains, and the famous Chancery suit of ‘Trecothick v. Lyndon,’ in which Mr. John Scott greatly distinguished96 himself.-ED.]
I also in this year made arrangements for purchasing the Polwellan estate and mines in Cornwall from Sir John Trecothick, for L70,000 — an imprudent bargain, which was afterwards the cause to me of much dispute and litigation. The troubles of property, the rascality of agents, the quibbles of lawyers, are endless. Humble97 people envy us great men, and fancy that our lives are all pleasure. Many a time in the course of my prosperity I have sighed for the days of my meanest fortune, and envied the boon98 companions at my table, with no clothes to their backs but such as my credit supplied them, without a guinea but what came from my pocket; but without one of the harassing99 cares and responsibilities which are the dismal100 adjuncts of great rank and property.
I did little more than make my appearance, and assume the command of my estates, in the kingdom of Ireland; rewarding generously those persons who had been kind to me in my former adversities, and taking my fitting place among the aristocracy of the land. But, in truth, I had small inducements to remain in it after having tasted of the genteeler and more complete pleasures of English and Continental101 life; and we passed our summers at Buxton, Bath, and Harrogate, while Hackton Castle was being beautified in the elegant manner already described by me, and the season at our mansion in Berkeley Square.
It is wonderful how the possession of wealth brings out the virtues102 of a man; or, at any rate, acts as a varnish103 or lustre104 to them, and brings out their brilliancy and colour in a manner never known when the individual stood in the cold grey atmosphere of poverty. I assure you it was a very short time before I was a pretty fellow of the first class; made no small sensation at the coffee-houses in Pall105 Mall and afterwards at the most famous clubs. My style, equipages, and elegant entertainments were in everybody’s mouth, and were described in all the morning prints. The needier part of Lady Lyndon’s relatives, and such as had been offended by the intolerable pomposity106 of old Tiptoff, began to appear at our routs107 and assemblies; and as for relations of my own, I found in London and Ireland more than I had ever dreamed of, of cousins who claimed affinity108 with me. There were, of course, natives of my own country (of which I was not particularly proud), and I received visits from three or four swaggering shabby Temple bucks109, with tarnished110 lace and Tipperary brogue, who were eating their way to the bar in London; from several gambling111 adventurers at the watering-places, whom I soon speedily let to know their place; and from others of more reputable condition. Among them I may mention my cousin the Lord Kilbarry, who, on the score of his relationship, borrowed thirty pieces from me to pay his landlady in Swallow Street; and whom, for my own reasons, I allowed to maintain and credit a connection for which the Heralds’ College gave no authority whatsoever112. Kilbarry had a cover at my table; punted at play, and paid when he liked, which was seldom; had an intimacy113 with, and was under considerable obligations to, my tailor; and always boasted of his cousin the great Barry Lyndon of the West country.
Her Ladyship and I lived, after a while, pretty separate when in London. She preferred quiet: or to say the truth, I preferred it; being a great friend to a modest tranquil114 behaviour in woman, and a taste for the domestic pleasures. Hence I encouraged her to dine at home with her ladies, her chaplain, and a few of her friends; admitted three or four proper and discreet115 persons to accompany her to her box at the opera or play on proper occasions; and indeed declined for her the too frequent visits of her friends and family, preferring to receive them only twice or thrice in a season on our grand reception days. Besides, she was a mother, and had great comfort in the dressing116, educating, and dandling our little Bryan, for whose sake it was fit that she should give up the pleasures and frivolities of the world; so she left THAT part of the duty of every family of distinction to be performed by me. To say the truth, Lady Lyndon’s figure and appearance were not at this time such as to make for their owner any very brilliant appearance in the fashionable world. She had grown very fat, was short-sighted, pale in complexion117, careless about her dress, dull in demeanour; her conversations with me characterised by a stupid despair, or a silly blundering attempt at forced cheerfulness still more disagreeable: hence our intercourse118 was but trifling119, and my temptations to carry her into the world, or to remain in her society, of necessity exceedingly small. She would try my temper at home, too, in a thousand ways. When requested by me (often, I own, rather roughly) to entertain the company with conversation, wit, and learning, of which she was a mistress: or music, of which she was an accomplished120 performer, she would as often as not begin to cry, and leave the room. My company from this, of course, fancied I was a tyrant121 over her; whereas I was only a severe and careful guardian over a silly, bad-tempered122, and weak-minded lady.
She was luckily very fond of her youngest son, and through him I had a wholesome123 and effectual hold of her; for if in any of her tantrums or fits of haughtiness124 —(this woman was intolerably proud; and repeatedly, at first, in our quarrels, dared to twit me with my own original poverty and low birth) — if, I say, in our disputes she pretended to have the upper hand, to assert her authority against mine, to refuse to sign such papers as I might think necessary for the distribution of our large and complicated property, I would have Master Bryan carried off to Chiswick for a couple of days; and I warrant me his lady-mother could hold out no longer, and would agree to anything I chose to propose. The servants about her I took care should be in my pay, not hers: especially the child’s head nurse was under MY orders, not those of my lady; and a very handsome, red-cheeked, impudent125 jade126 she was; and a great fool she made me make of myself. This woman was more mistress of the house than the poor-spirited lady who owned it. She gave the law to the servants; and if I showed any particular attention to any of the ladies who visited us, the slut would not scruple127 to show her jealousy, and to find means to send them packing. The fact is, a generous man is always made a fool of by some woman or other, and this one had such an influence over me that she could turn me round her finger. [Footnote: From these curious confessions128, it would appear that Mr. Lyndon maltreated his lady in every possible way; that he denied her society, bullied129 her into signing away her property, spent it in gambling and taverns131, was openly unfaithful to her; and, when she complained, threatened to remove her children from her. Nor, indeed, is he the only husband who has done the like, and has passed for ‘nobody’s enemy but his own:’ a jovial132 good-natured fellow. The world contains scores of such amiable133 people; and, indeed, it is because justice has not been done them that we have edited this autobiography134. Had it been that of a mere135 hero of romance — one of those heroic youths who figure in the novels of Scott and James — there would have been no call to introduce the reader to a personage already so often and so charmingly depicted136. Mr. Barry Lyndon is not, we repeat, a hero of the common pattern; but let the reader look round, and ask himself, Do not as many rogues137 succeed in life as honest men? more fools than men of talent? And is it not just that the lives of this class should be described by the student of human nature as well as the actions of those fairy-tale princes, those perfect impossible heroes, whom our writers love to describe? There is something naive138 and simple in that time-honoured style of novel-writing by which Prince Prettyman, at the end of his adventures, is put in possession of every worldly prosperity, as he has been endowed with every mental and bodily excellence139 previously140. The novelist thinks that he can do no more for his darling hero than make him a lord. Is it not a poor standard that, of the summum bonum? The greatest good in life is not to be a lord; perhaps not even to be happy. Poverty, illness, a humpback, may be rewards and conditions of good, as well as that bodily prosperity which all of us unconsciously set up for worship. But this is a subject for an essay, not a note; and it is best to allow Mr. Lyndon to resume the candid141 and ingenious narrative142 of his virtues and defects.]
Her infernal temper (Mrs. Stammer143 was the jade’s name) and my wife’s moody144 despondency, made my house and home not over-pleasant: hence I was driven a good deal abroad, where, as play was the fashion at every club, tavern130, and assembly, I, of course, was obliged to resume my old habit, and to commence as an amateur those games at which I was once unrivalled in Europe. But whether a man’s temper changes with prosperity, or his skill leaves him when, deprived of a confederate, and pursuing the game no longer professionally, he joins in it, like the rest of the world, for pastime, I know not; but certain it is, that in the seasons of 1774-75 I lost much money at ‘White’s’ and the ‘Cocoa-Tree,’ and was compelled to meet my losses by borrowing largely upon my wife’s annuities145, insuring her Ladyship’s life, and so forth. The terms at which I raised these necessary sums and the outlays146 requisite147 for my improvements were, of course, very onerous148, and clipped the property considerably149; and it was some of these papers which my Lady Lyndon (who was of a narrow, timid, and stingy turn) occasionally refused to sign: until I PERSUADED her, as I have before shown.
My dealings on the turf ought to be mentioned, as forming part of my history at this time; but, in truth, I have no particular pleasure in recalling my Newmarket doings. I was infernally bit and bubbled in almost every one of my transactions there; and though I could ride a horse as well as any man in England, was no match with the English noblemen at backing him. Fifteen years after my horse, Bay Bulow, by Sophy Hardcastle, out of Eclipse, lost the Newmarket stakes, for which he was the first favourite, I found that a noble earl, who shall be nameless, had got into his stable the morning before he ran; and the consequence was that an outside horse won, and your humble servant was out to the amount of fifteen thousand pounds. Strangers had no chance in those days on the heath: and, though dazzled by the splendour and fashion assembled there, and surrounded by the greatest persons of the land — the royal dukes, with their wives and splendid equipages; old Grafton, with his queer bevy150 of company, and such men as Ancaster, Sandwich, Lorn — a man might have considered himself certain of fair play and have been not a little proud of the society he kept; yet, I promise you, that, exalted151 as it was, there was no set of men in Europe who knew how to rob more genteelly, to bubble a stranger, to bribe152 a jockey, to doctor a horse, or to arrange a betting-book. Even I couldn’t stand against these accomplished gamesters of the highest families in Europe. Was it my own want of style, or my want of fortune? I know not. But now I was arrived at the height of my ambition, both my skill and my luck seemed to be deserting me. Everything I touched crumbled153 in my hand; every speculation154 I had failed, every agent I trusted deceived me. I am, indeed, one of those born to make, and not to keep fortunes; for the qualities and energy which lead a man to effect the first are often the very causes of his ruin in the latter case: indeed, I know of no other reason for the misfortunes which finally befell me. [Footnote: The Memoirs155 seem to have been written about the year 1814, in that calm retreat which Fortune had selected for the author at the close of his life.]
I had always a taste for men of letters, and perhaps, if the truth must be told, have no objection to playing the fine gentleman and patron among the wits. Such people are usually needy156, and of low birth, and have an instinctive157 awe158 and love of a gentleman and a laced coat; as all must have remarked who have frequented their society. Mr. Reynolds, who was afterwards knighted, and certainly the most elegant painter of his day, was a pretty dexterous159 courtier of the wit tribe; and it was through this gentleman, who painted a piece of me, Lady Lyndon, and our little Bryan, which was greatly admired at the Exhibition (I was represented as quitting my wife, in the costume of the Tippleton Yeomanry, of which I was major; the child starting back from my helmet like what-d’ye-call’im-Hector’s son, as described by Mr. Pope in his ‘Iliad’); it was through Mr. Reynolds that I was introduced to a score of these gentlemen, and their great chief, Mr. Johnson. I always thought their great chief a great bear. He drank tea twice or thrice at my house, misbehaving himself most grossly; treating my opinions with no more respect than those of a schoolboy, and telling me to mind my horses and tailors, and not trouble myself about letters. His Scotch160 bear-leader, Mr. Boswell, was a butt162 of the first quality. I never saw such a figure as the fellow cut in what he called a Corsican habit, at one of Mrs. Cornely’s balls, at Carlisle House, Soho. But that the stories connected with that same establishment are not the most profitable tales in the world, I could tell tales of scores of queer doings there. All the high and low demireps of the town gathered there, from his Grace of Ancaster down to my countryman, poor Mr. Oliver Goldsmith the poet, and from the Duchess of Kingston down to the Bird of Paradise, or Kitty Fisher. Here I have met very queer characters, who came to queer ends too: poor Hackman, that afterwards was hanged for killing163 Miss Reay, and (on the sly) his Reverence Doctor Simony, whom my friend Sam Foote, of the ‘Little Theatre,’ bade to live even after forgery164 and the rope cut short the unlucky parson’s career.
It was a merry place, London, in those days, and that’s the truth. I’m writing now in my gouty old age, and people have grown vastly more moral and matter-of-fact than they were at the close of the last century, when the world was young with me. There was a difference between a gentleman and a common fellow in those times. We wore silk and embroidery165 then. Now every man has the same coachmanlike look in his belcher and caped166 coat, and there is no outward difference between my Lord and his groom167. Then it took a man of fashion a couple of hours to make his toilette, and he could show some taste and genius in the selecting it. What a blaze of splendour was a drawing-room, or an opera, of a gala night! What sums of money were lost and won at the delicious faro-table! My gilt168 curricle and out-riders, blazing in green and gold, were very different objects from the equipages you see nowadays in the ring, with the stunted169 grooms170 behind them. A man could drink four times as much as the milksops nowadays can swallow; but ’tis useless expatiating171 on this theme. Gentlemen are dead and gone. The fashion has now turned upon your soldiers and sailors, and I grow quite moody and sad when I think of thirty years ago.
This is a chapter devoted172 to reminiscences of what was a very happy and splendid time with me, but presenting little of mark in the way of adventure; as is generally the case when times are happy and easy. It would seem idle to fill pages with accounts of the every-day occupations of a man of fashion — the fair ladies who smiled upon him, the dresses he wore, the matches he played, and won or lost. At this period of time, when youngsters are employed cutting the Frenchmen’s throats in Spain and France, lying out in bivouacs, and feeding off commissariat beef and biscuit, they would not understand what a life their ancestors led; and so I shall leave further discourse173 upon the pleasures of the times when even the Prince was a lad in leading-strings, when Charles Fox had not subsided174 into a mere statesman, and Buonaparte was a beggarly brat175 in his native island.
Whilst these improvements were going on in my estates — my house, from an antique Norman castle, being changed to an elegant Greek temple, or palace — my gardens and woods losing their rustic176 appearance to be adapted to the most genteel French style — my child growing up at his mother’s knees, and my influence in the country increasing — it must not be imagined that I stayed in Devonshire all this while, and that I neglected to make visits to London, and my various estates in England and Ireland.
I went to reside at the Trecothick estate and the Polwellan Wheal, where I found, instead of profit, every kind of pettifogging chicanery177; I passed over in state to our territories in Ireland, where I entertained the gentry in a style the Lord Lieutenant178 himself could not equal; gave the fashion to Dublin (to be sure it was a beggarly savage179 city in those days; and, since the time there has been a pother about the union, and the misfortunes attending it, I have been at a loss to account for the mad praises of the old order of things, which the fond Irish patriots180 have invented); I say I set the fashion to Dublin; and small praise to me, for a poor place it was in those times, whatever the Irish party may say.
In a former chapter I have given you a description of it. It was the Warsaw of our part of the world: there was a splendid, ruined, half-civilised nobility, ruling over a half-savage population. I say half-savage advisedly. The commonalty in the streets were wild, unshorn, and in rags. The most public places were not safe after nightfall. The College, the public buildings, and the great gentry’s houses were splendid (the latter unfinished for the most part); but the people were in a state more wretched than any vulgar I have ever known: the exercise of their religion was only half allowed to them; their clergy181 were forced to be educated out of the country; their aristocracy was quite distinct from them; there was a Protestant nobility, and in the towns, poor insolent182 Protestant corporations, with a bankrupt retinue183 of mayors, aldermen, and municipal officers — all of whom figured in addresses and had the public voice in the country; but there was no sympathy and connection between the upper and the lower people of the Irish. To one who had been bred so much abroad as myself, this difference between Catholic and Protestant was doubly striking; and though as firm as a rock in my own faith, yet I could not help remembering my grandfather held a different one, and wondering that there should be such a political difference between the two. I passed among my neighbours for a dangerous leveller, for entertaining and expressing such opinions, and especially for asking the priest of the parish to my table at Castle Lyndon. He was a gentleman, educated at Salamanca, and, to my mind, a far better bred and more agreeable companion than his comrade the rector, who had but a dozen Protestants for his congregation; who was a lord’s son, to be sure, but he could hardly spell, and the great field of his labours was in the kennel and cockpit.
I did not extend and beautify the house of Castle Lyndon as I had done our other estates, but contented184 myself with paying an occasional visit there; exercising an almost royal hospitality, and keeping open house during my stay. When absent, I gave to my aunt, the widow Brady, and her six unmarried daughters (although they always detested185 me), permission to inhabit the place; my mother preferring my new mansion of Barryogue.
And as my Lord Bullingdon was by this time grown excessively tall and troublesome, I determined to leave him under the care of a proper governor in Ireland, with Mrs. Brady and her six daughters to take care of him; and he was welcome to fall in love with all the old ladies if he were so minded, and thereby186 imitate his stepfather’s example. When tired of Castle Lyndon, his Lordship was at liberty to go and reside at my house with my mamma; but there was no love lost between him and her, and, on account of my son Bryan, I think she hated him as cordially as ever I myself could possibly do.
The county of Devon is not so lucky as the neighbouring county of Cornwall, and has not the share of representatives which the latter possesses; where I have known a moderate country gentleman, with a few score of hundreds per annum from his estate, treble his income by returning three or four Members to Parliament, and by the influence with Ministers which these seats gave him. The parliamentary interest of the house of Lyndon had been grossly neglected during my wife’s minority, and the incapacity of the Earl her father; or, to speak more correctly, it had been smuggled187 away from the Lyndon family altogether by the adroit188 old hypocrite of Tiptoff Castle, who acted as most kinsmen189 and guardians190 do by their wards55 and relatives, and robbed them. The Marquess of Tiptoff returned four Members to Parliament: two for the borough191 of Tippleton, which, as all the world knows, lies at the foot of our estate of Hackton, bounded on the other side by Tiptoff Park. For time out of mind we had sent Members for that borough, until Tiptoff, taking advantage of the late lord’s imbecility, put in his own nominees192. When his eldest193 son became of age, of course my Lord was to take his seat for Tippleton; when Rigby (Nabob Rigby, who made his fortune under Clive in India) died, the Marquess thought fit to bring down his second son, my Lord George Poynings, to whom I have introduced the reader in a former chapter, and determined, in his high mightiness194, that he too should go in and swell161 the ranks of the Opposition195 — the big old Whigs, with whom the Marquess acted.
Rigby had been for some time in an ailing196 condition previous to his demise197, and you may be sure that the circumstance of his failing health had not been passed over by the gentry of the county, who were staunch Government men for the most part, and hated my Lord Tiptoff’s principles as dangerous and ruinous, ‘We have been looking out for a man to fight against him,’ said the squires to me; ‘we can only match Tiptoff out of Hackton Castle. You, Mr. Lyndon, are our man, and at the next county election we will swear to bring you in.’
I hated the Tiptoffs so, that I would have fought them at any election. They not only would not visit at Hackton, but declined to receive those who visited us; they kept the women of the county from receiving my wife: they invented half the wild stories of my profligacy198 and extravagance with which the neighbourhood was entertained; they said I had frightened my wife into marriage, and that she was a lost woman; they hinted that Bullingdon’s life was not secure under my roof, that his treatment was odious, and that I wanted to put him out of the way to make place for Bryan my son. I could scarce have a friend to Hackton, but they counted the bottles drunk at my table. They ferreted out my dealings with my lawyers and agents. If a creditor199 was unpaid200, every item of his bill was known at Tiptoff Hall; if I looked at a farmer’s daughter, it was said I had ruined her. My faults are many, I confess, and as a domestic character, I can’t boast of any particular regularity201 or temper; but Lady Lyndon and I did not quarrel more than fashionable people do, and, at first, we always used to make it up pretty well. I am a man full of errors, certainly, but not the devil that these odious backbiters at Tiptoff represented me to be. For the first three years I never struck my wife but when I was in liquor. When I flung the carving-knife at Bullingdon I was drunk, as everybody present can testify; but as for having any systematic202 scheme against the poor lad, I can declare solemnly that, beyond merely hating him (and one’s inclinations203 are not in one’s power), I am guilty of no evil towards him.
I had sufficient motives204, then, for enmity against the Tiptoffs, and am not a man to let a feeling of that kind lie inactive. Though a Whig, or, perhaps, because a Whig, the Marquess was one of the haughtiest205 men breathing, and treated commoners as his idol206 the great Earl used to treat them — after he came to a coronet himself — as so many low vassals207, who might be proud to lick his shoe-buckle. When the Tippleton mayor and corporation waited upon him, he received them covered, never offered Mr. Mayor a chair, but retired208 when the refreshments209 were brought, or had them served to the worshipful aldermen in the steward’s room. These honest Britons never rebelled against such treatment, until instructed to do so by my patriotism210. No, the dogs liked to be bullied; and, in the course of a long experience, I have met with but very few Englishmen who are not of their way of thinking.
It was not until I opened their eyes that they knew their degradation211. I invited the Mayor to Hackton, and Mrs. Mayoress (a very buxom212 pretty groceress she was, by the way) I made sit by my wife, and drove them both out to the races in my curricle. Lady Lyndon fought very hard against this condescension213; but I had a way with her, as the saying is, and though she had a temper, yet I had a better one. A temper, psha! A wild-cat has a temper, but a keeper can get the better of it; and I know very few women in the world whom I could not master.
Well, I made much of the mayor and corporation; sent them bucks for their dinners, or asked them to mine; made a point of attending their assemblies, dancing with their wives and daughters, going through, in short, all the acts of politeness which are necessary on such occasions: and though old Tiptoff must have seen my goings on, yet his head was so much in the clouds, that he never once condescended214 to imagine his dynasty could be overthrown215 in his own town of Tippleton, and issued his mandates216 as securely as if he had been the Grand Turk, and the Tippletonians no better than so many slaves of his will.
Every post which brought us any account of Rigby’s increasing illness, was the sure occasion of a dinner from me; so much so, that my friends of the hunt used to laugh and say, ‘Rigby’s worse; there’s a corporation dinner at Hackton.’
It was in 1776, when the American war broke out, that I came into Parliament. My Lord Chatham, whose wisdom his party in those days used to call superhuman, raised his oracular voice in the House of Peers against the American contest; and my countryman, Mr. Burke — a great philosopher, but a plaguy long-winded orator217 — was the champion of the rebels in the Commons — where, however, thanks to British patriotism, he could get very few to back him. Old Tiptoff would have sworn black was white if the great Earl had bidden him; and he made his son give up his commission in the Guards, in imitation of my Lord Pitt, who resigned his ensigncy rather than fight against what he called his American brethren.
But this was a height of patriotism extremely little relished218 in England, where, ever since the breaking out of hostilities219, our people hated the Americans heartily220; and where, when we heard of the fight of Lexington, and the glorious victory of Bunker’s Hill (as we used to call it in those days), the nation flushed out in its usual hot-headed anger. The talk was all against the philosophers after that, and the people were most indomitably loyal. It was not until the land-tax was increased, that the gentry began to grumble221 a little; but still my party in the West was very strong against the Tiptoffs, and I determined to take the field and win as usual.
The old Marquess neglected every one of the decent precautions which are requisite in a parliamentary campaign. He signified to the corporation and freeholders his intention of presenting his son, Lord George, and his desire that the latter should be elected their burgess; but he scarcely gave so much as a glass of beer to whet14 the devotedness222 of his adherents223: and I, as I need not say, engaged every tavern in Tippleton in my behalf.
There is no need to go over the twenty-times-told tale of an election. I rescued the borough of Tippleton from the hands of Lord Tiptoff and his son, Lord George. I had a savage sort of satisfaction, too, in forcing my wife (who had been at one time exceedingly smitten224 by her kinsman, as I have already related) to take part against him, and to wear and distribute my colours when the day of election came. And when we spoke3 at one another, I told the crowd that I had beaten Lord George in love, that I had beaten him in war, and that I would now beat him in Parliament; and so I did, as the event proved: for, to the inexpressible anger of the old Marquess, Barry Lyndon, Esquire, was returned member of Parliament for Tippleton, in place of John Rigby, Esquire, deceased; and I threatened him at the next election to turn him out of BOTH his seats, and went to attend my duties in Parliament.
It was then I seriously determined on achieving for myself the Irish peerage, to be enjoyed after me by my beloved son and heir.
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1
ornament
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| v.装饰，美化；n.装饰，装饰物 | |
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bespoke
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| adj.（产品）订做的；专做订货的v.预定( bespeak的过去式 )；订（货）；证明；预先请求 | |
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spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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lodging
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| n.寄宿，住所；(大学生的)校外宿舍 | |
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mansion
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| n.大厦，大楼；宅第 | |
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odious
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| adj.可憎的，讨厌的 | |
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honeymoon
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| n.蜜月（假期）；vi.度蜜月 | |
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westward
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| n.西方，西部；adj.西方的，向西的；adv.向西 | |
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umbrage
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| n.不快；树荫 | |
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haughty
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| adj.傲慢的，高傲的 | |
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vice
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| n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的 | |
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subdued
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| adj. 屈服的，柔和的，减弱的 动词subdue的过去式和过去分词 | |
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humbly
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| adv. 恭顺地，谦卑地 | |
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whet
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| v.磨快，刺激 | |
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landlady
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| n.女房东，女地主 | |
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bishop
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| n.主教，（国际象棋）象 | |
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kinsman
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| n.男亲属 | |
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hiccuping
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| v.嗝( hiccup的现在分词 )；连续地打嗝；暂时性的小问题；短暂的停顿 | |
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vows
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| 誓言( vow的名词复数 )； 郑重宣布，许愿 | |
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worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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reverence
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| n.敬畏，尊敬，尊严；Reverence:对某些基督教神职人员的尊称；v.尊敬，敬畏，崇敬 | |
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admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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jealousy
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| n.妒忌，嫉妒，猜忌 | |
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lodge
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| v.临时住宿，寄宿，寄存，容纳；n.传达室，小旅馆 | |
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culpable
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| adj.有罪的，该受谴责的 | |
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gentry
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| n.绅士阶级，上层阶级 | |
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chambers
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| n.房间( chamber的名词复数 )；（议会的）议院；卧室；会议厅 | |
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chamber
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| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
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besieged
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| 包围，围困，围攻( besiege的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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battered
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| adj.磨损的；v.连续猛击；磨损 | |
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dicing
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| n.掷骰子，（皮革上的）菱形装饰v.将…切成小方块，切成丁（ dice的现在分词 ） | |
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prettily
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| adv.优美地；可爱地 | |
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exterior
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| adj.外部的，外在的；表面的 | |
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quaint
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| adj.古雅的，离奇有趣的，奇怪的 | |
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feudal
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| adj.封建的，封地的，领地的 | |
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ravages
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| 劫掠后的残迹，破坏的结果，毁坏后的残迹 | |
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cannon
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| n.大炮，火炮；飞机上的机关炮 | |
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facade
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| n.(建筑物的)正面，临街正面；外表 | |
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ascending
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| adj.上升的，向上的 | |
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ornamented
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| adj.花式字体的v.装饰，点缀，美化( ornament的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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brook
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| n.小河，溪；v.忍受，容让 | |
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knight
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| n.骑士，武士；爵士 | |
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reset
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| v.重新安排，复位；n.重新放置；重放之物 | |
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majesties
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| n.雄伟( majesty的名词复数 )；庄严；陛下；王权 | |
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46
implements
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| n.工具( implement的名词复数 )；家具；手段；[法律]履行（契约等）v.实现( implement的第三人称单数 )；执行；贯彻；使生效 | |
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rusty
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| adj.生锈的；锈色的；荒废了的 | |
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armour
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| （=armor）n.盔甲；装甲部队 | |
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49
ornaments
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| n.装饰( ornament的名词复数 )；点缀；装饰品；首饰v.装饰，点缀，美化( ornament的第三人称单数 ) | |
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50
consigned
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| v.把…置于（令人不快的境地）( consign的过去式和过去分词 )；把…托付给；把…托人代售；丟弃 | |
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gilded
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| a.镀金的，富有的 | |
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antiquity
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| n.古老；高龄；古物，古迹 | |
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rascality
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| 流氓性，流氓集团 | |
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gems
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| growth； economy； management； and customer satisfaction 增长 | |
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wards
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| 区( ward的名词复数 )； 病房； 受监护的未成年者； 被人照顾或控制的状态 | |
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tapestries
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| n.挂毯( tapestry的名词复数 )；绣帷，织锦v.用挂毯（或绣帷）装饰( tapestry的第三人称单数 ) | |
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recollect
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| v.回忆，想起，记起，忆起，记得 | |
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wizened
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| adj.凋谢的；枯槁的 | |
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chapel
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| n.小教堂，殡仪馆 | |
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judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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adoration
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| n.爱慕，崇拜 | |
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edifice
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| n.宏伟的建筑物(如宫殿，教室) | |
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63
jack
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| n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克 | |
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coups
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| n.意外而成功的行动( coup的名词复数 )；政变；努力办到难办的事 | |
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appendages
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| n.附属物( appendage的名词复数 )；依附的人；附属器官；附属肢体（如臂、腿、尾等） | |
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affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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victuals
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| n.食物；食品 | |
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squires
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| n.地主，乡绅( squire的名词复数 ) | |
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subscription
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| n.预订，预订费，亲笔签名，调配法，下标（处方） | |
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kennel
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| n.狗舍，狗窝 | |
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71
outlay
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| n.费用，经费，支出；v.花费 | |
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72
hoarding
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| n.贮藏；积蓄；临时围墙；囤积v.积蓄并储藏（某物）( hoard的现在分词 ) | |
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73
procured
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| v.（努力）取得， （设法）获得( procure的过去式和过去分词 )；拉皮条 | |
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74
dealing
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| n.经商方法，待人态度 | |
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75
ancestry
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| n.祖先，家世 | |
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76
entailed
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| 使…成为必要( entail的过去式和过去分词 )； 需要； 限定继承； 使必需 | |
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77
chastise
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| vt.责骂，严惩 | |
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78
recollected
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| adj.冷静的；镇定的；被回忆起的；沉思默想的v.记起，想起( recollect的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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79
hatred
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| n.憎恶，憎恨，仇恨 | |
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80
determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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81
proceeding
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| n.行动，进行，(pl.)会议录，学报 | |
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82
guardian
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| n.监护人；守卫者，保护者 | |
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83
prudence
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| n.谨慎，精明，节俭 | |
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84
bragging
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| v.自夸，吹嘘( brag的现在分词 )；大话 | |
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85
rouge
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| n.胭脂，口红唇膏；v.(在…上)擦口红 | |
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86
hoops
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| n.箍( hoop的名词复数 )；（篮球）篮圈；（旧时儿童玩的）大环子；（两端埋在地里的）小铁弓 | |
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87
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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88
blessing
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| n.祈神赐福；祷告；祝福，祝愿 | |
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89
attained
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| （通常经过努力）实现( attain的过去式和过去分词 )； 达到； 获得； 达到（某年龄、水平、状况） | |
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90
veins
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| n.纹理；矿脉( vein的名词复数 )；静脉；叶脉；纹理 | |
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91
tenement
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| n.公寓；房屋 | |
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92
ERECTED
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| adj. 直立的，竖立的，笔直的 vt. 使 ... 直立，建立 | |
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93
elevation
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| n.高度；海拔；高地；上升；提高 | |
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94
bog
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| n.沼泽；室...陷入泥淖 | |
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95
insignificant
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| adj.无关紧要的，可忽略的，无意义的 | |
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96
distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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97
humble
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| adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低 | |
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98
boon
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| n.恩赐，恩物，恩惠 | |
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99
harassing
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| v.侵扰，骚扰( harass的现在分词 )；不断攻击（敌人） | |
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100
dismal
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| adj.阴沉的，凄凉的，令人忧郁的，差劲的 | |
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101
continental
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| adj.大陆的，大陆性的，欧洲大陆的 | |
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102
virtues
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| 美德( virtue的名词复数 )； 德行； 优点； 长处 | |
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103
varnish
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| n.清漆；v.上清漆；粉饰 | |
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104
lustre
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| n.光亮，光泽；荣誉 | |
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105
pall
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| v.覆盖，使平淡无味；n.柩衣，棺罩；棺材；帷幕 | |
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106
pomposity
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| n.浮华；虚夸；炫耀；自负 | |
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107
routs
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| n.打垮，赶跑( rout的名词复数 )；（体育）打败对方v.打垮，赶跑( rout的第三人称单数 )；（体育）打败对方 | |
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108
affinity
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| n.亲和力，密切关系 | |
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109
bucks
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| n.雄鹿( buck的名词复数 )；钱；（英国十九世纪初的）花花公子；（用于某些表达方式）责任v.（马等）猛然弓背跃起( buck的第三人称单数 )；抵制；猛然震荡；马等尥起后蹄跳跃 | |
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110
tarnished
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| （通常指金属）（使）失去光泽，（使）变灰暗( tarnish的过去式和过去分词 )； 玷污，败坏 | |
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111
gambling
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| n.赌博；投机 | |
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112
whatsoever
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| adv.（用于否定句中以加强语气）任何；pron.无论什么 | |
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113
intimacy
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| n.熟悉，亲密，密切关系，亲昵的言行 | |
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114
tranquil
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| adj. 安静的, 宁静的, 稳定的, 不变的 | |
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115
discreet
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| adj.(言行)谨慎的；慎重的；有判断力的 | |
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116
dressing
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| n.(食物)调料；包扎伤口的用品，敷料 | |
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117
complexion
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| n.肤色；情况，局面；气质，性格 | |
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118
intercourse
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| n.性交；交流，交往，交际 | |
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119
trifling
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| adj.微不足道的；没什么价值的 | |
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120
accomplished
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| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
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121
tyrant
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| n.暴君，专制的君主，残暴的人 | |
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122
bad-tempered
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| adj.脾气坏的 | |
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123
wholesome
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| adj.适合；卫生的；有益健康的；显示身心健康的 | |
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124
haughtiness
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| n.傲慢；傲气 | |
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125
impudent
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| adj.鲁莽的，卑鄙的，厚颜无耻的 | |
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126
jade
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| n.玉石；碧玉；翡翠 | |
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127
scruple
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| n./v.顾忌，迟疑 | |
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128
confessions
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| n.承认( confession的名词复数 )；自首；声明；（向神父的）忏悔 | |
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129
bullied
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| adj.被欺负了v.恐吓，威逼( bully的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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130
tavern
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| n.小旅馆，客栈；小酒店 | |
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131
taverns
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| n.小旅馆，客栈，酒馆( tavern的名词复数 ) | |
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132
jovial
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| adj.快乐的，好交际的 | |
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133
amiable
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| adj.和蔼可亲的，友善的，亲切的 | |
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134
autobiography
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| n.自传 | |
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135
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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136
depicted
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| 描绘，描画( depict的过去式和过去分词 )； 描述 | |
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137
rogues
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| n.流氓( rogue的名词复数 )；无赖；调皮捣蛋的人；离群的野兽 | |
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138
naive
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| adj.幼稚的，轻信的；天真的 | |
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139
excellence
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| n.优秀，杰出，(pl.)优点，美德 | |
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140
previously
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| adv.以前，先前（地） | |
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141
candid
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| adj.公正的，正直的；坦率的 | |
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142
narrative
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| n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的 | |
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143
stammer
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| n.结巴，口吃；v.结结巴巴地说 | |
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144
moody
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| adj.心情不稳的，易怒的，喜怒无常的 | |
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145
annuities
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| n.养老金；年金( annuity的名词复数 )；（每年的）养老金；年金保险；年金保险投资 | |
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146
outlays
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| v.支出，费用( outlay的第三人称单数 ) | |
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147
requisite
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| adj.需要的，必不可少的；n.必需品 | |
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148
onerous
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| adj.繁重的 | |
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149
considerably
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| adv.极大地；相当大地；在很大程度上 | |
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150
bevy
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| n.一群 | |
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151
exalted
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| adj.(地位等)高的，崇高的；尊贵的，高尚的 | |
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152
bribe
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| n.贿赂；v.向…行贿，买通 | |
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153
crumbled
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| （把…）弄碎， （使）碎成细屑( crumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 衰落； 坍塌； 损坏 | |
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154
speculation
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| n.思索，沉思；猜测；投机 | |
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155
memoirs
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| n.回忆录；回忆录传( mem,自oir的名词复数) | |
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156
needy
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| adj.贫穷的，贫困的，生活艰苦的 | |
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157
instinctive
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| adj.(出于)本能的；直觉的；(出于)天性的 | |
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158
awe
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| n.敬畏，惊惧；vt.使敬畏，使惊惧 | |
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159
dexterous
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| adj.灵敏的；灵巧的 | |
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160
scotch
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| n.伤口，刻痕；苏格兰威士忌酒；v.粉碎，消灭，阻止；adj.苏格兰(人)的 | |
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161
swell
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| vi.膨胀，肿胀；增长，增强 | |
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162
butt
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| n.笑柄；烟蒂；枪托；臀部；v.用头撞或顶 | |
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163
killing
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| n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财 | |
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164
forgery
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| n.伪造的文件等，赝品，伪造（行为） | |
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165
embroidery
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| n.绣花，刺绣；绣制品 | |
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166
caped
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| 披斗篷的 | |
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167
groom
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| vt.给（马、狗等）梳毛，照料，使...整洁 | |
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168
gilt
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| adj.镀金的；n.金边证券 | |
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169
stunted
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| adj.矮小的；发育迟缓的 | |
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170
grooms
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| n.新郎( groom的名词复数 )；马夫v.照料或梳洗（马等）( groom的第三人称单数 )；使做好准备；训练；（给动物）擦洗 | |
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171
expatiating
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| v.详述，细说( expatiate的现在分词 ) | |
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172
devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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173
discourse
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| n.论文，演说；谈话；话语；vi.讲述，著述 | |
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174
subsided
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| v.（土地）下陷（因在地下采矿）( subside的过去式和过去分词 )；减弱；下降至较低或正常水平；一下子坐在椅子等上 | |
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175
brat
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| n.孩子；顽童 | |
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176
rustic
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| adj.乡村的，有乡村特色的；n.乡下人，乡巴佬 | |
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177
chicanery
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| n.欺诈，欺骗 | |
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178
lieutenant
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| n.陆军中尉，海军上尉；代理官员，副职官员 | |
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179
savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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180
patriots
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| 爱国者，爱国主义者( patriot的名词复数 ) | |
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181
clergy
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| n.[总称]牧师，神职人员 | |
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182
insolent
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| adj.傲慢的，无理的 | |
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183
retinue
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| n.侍从；随员 | |
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184
contented
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| adj.满意的，安心的，知足的 | |
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185
detested
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| v.憎恶，嫌恶，痛恨( detest的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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186
thereby
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| adv.因此，从而 | |
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187
smuggled
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| 水货 | |
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188
adroit
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| adj.熟练的，灵巧的 | |
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189
kinsmen
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| n.家属，亲属( kinsman的名词复数 ) | |
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190
guardians
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| 监护人( guardian的名词复数 )； 保护者，维护者 | |
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191
borough
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| n.享有自治权的市镇；(英)自治市镇 | |
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192
nominees
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| n.被提名者，被任命者( nominee的名词复数 ) | |
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193
eldest
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| adj.最年长的，最年老的 | |
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194
mightiness
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| n.强大 | |
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195
opposition
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| n.反对，敌对 | |
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196
ailing
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| v.生病 | |
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197
demise
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| n.死亡；v.让渡，遗赠，转让 | |
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198
profligacy
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| n.放荡，不检点，肆意挥霍 | |
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199
creditor
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| n.债仅人，债主，贷方 | |
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unpaid
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| adj.未付款的，无报酬的 | |
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201
regularity
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| n.规律性，规则性；匀称，整齐 | |
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202
systematic
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| adj.有系统的，有计划的，有方法的 | |
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203
inclinations
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| 倾向( inclination的名词复数 )； 倾斜； 爱好； 斜坡 | |
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204
motives
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| n.动机，目的( motive的名词复数 ) | |
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205
haughtiest
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| haughty（傲慢的，骄傲的）的最高级形式 | |
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206
idol
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| n.偶像，红人，宠儿 | |
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207
vassals
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| n.奴仆( vassal的名词复数 )；（封建时代）诸侯；从属者；下属 | |
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208
retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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209
refreshments
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| n.点心,便餐;(会议后的)简单茶点招 待 | |
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patriotism
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| n.爱国精神，爱国心，爱国主义 | |
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211
degradation
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| n.降级；低落；退化；陵削；降解；衰变 | |
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buxom
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| adj.（妇女）丰满的，有健康美的 | |
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213
condescension
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| n.自以为高人一等，贬低(别人) | |
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214
condescended
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| 屈尊，俯就( condescend的过去式和过去分词 )； 故意表示和蔼可亲 | |
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215
overthrown
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| adj. 打翻的，推倒的，倾覆的 动词overthrow的过去分词 | |
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216
mandates
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| 托管（mandate的第三人称单数形式） | |
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217
orator
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| n.演说者，演讲者，雄辩家 | |
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218
relished
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| v.欣赏( relish的过去式和过去分词 )；从…获得乐趣；渴望 | |
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219
hostilities
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| n.战争；敌意(hostility的复数)；敌对状态；战事 | |
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heartily
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| adv.衷心地，诚恳地，十分，很 | |
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221
grumble
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| vi.抱怨；咕哝；n.抱怨，牢骚；咕哝，隆隆声 | |
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222
devotedness
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223
adherents
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| n.支持者，拥护者( adherent的名词复数 )；党羽；徒子徒孙 | |
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smitten
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| 猛打，重击，打击( smite的过去分词 ) | |
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