ment falls,1 and give that settlement to a good servant who has a mind to go into the world, or make a stranger pay the fine to that servant, for his more comfortable maintenance, if he stays in his service. A man of honor and generosity considers it would be miserable to himself to have no will but that of another, though it were of the best person breathing, and for that reason goes on as fast as he is able to put his servants into independent livelihoods. The greatest part of Sir Roger's estate is tenanted by persons who have served himself or his ancestors. It was to me extremely pleasant to observe the visitants 2 from several parts to welcome his arrival into the country; and all the difference that I could take notice of between the late 3 servants who came to see him and those who stayed in the family, was that these latter were looked upon as finer gentlemen and better courtiers. This manumission and placing them in a way of livelihood I look upon as only what is due to a good servant, which encouragement will make his successor be as diligent, as humble, and as ready as he was. There is something wonderful in the narrowness of those minds which can be pleased and be barren of bounty to those who please them. One might, on this occasion, recount the sense that great persons in all ages have had of the merit of their dependants, and the heroic services which men have done their masters in the extremity of their fortunes, and shown to their undone patrons that fortune was all the difference between them; but as I design this my speculation only as a gentle admonition to thankless masters, I shall not go out of the occurrences of common life, but assert it, as a general observation, that I never saw, but in Sir Roger's family and one or two more, good servants treated as they 1 The fine collected from a tenant who has allowed his rent to depreciate in value, is "spared" by Sir Roger-i. e., not put into his own pocket-and given to a good servant. Recent. 2 Tenants who came to greet him. ought to be. Sir Roger's kindness extends to their children's children, and this very morning he sent his coachman's grandson to prentice.1 I shall conclude this paper with an account of a picture in his gallery, where there are many which will deserve my future observation. At the very upper end of this handsome structure I saw the portraiture 2 of two young men standing in a river, the one naked, the other in a livery. The person supported seemed half dead, but still so much alive as to show in his face exquisite joy and love towards the other. I thought the fainting figure resembled my friend, Sir Roger; and, looking at the butler, who stood by me, for an account of it, he informed me that the person in the livery was a servant of Sir Roger's, who stood on the shore while his master was swimming, and observing him taken with some sudden illness, and sink under water, jumped in and saved him. 4 He told me Sir Roger took off the dress he was in as soon as he came home, and by a great bounty at that time, followed by his 5 favor ever since, had made him‘ master of that pretty seat which we saw at a distance as we came to this house. I remembered indeed Sir Roger said there lived a very worthy gentleman, to whom he was highly obliged, without mentioning anything further. Upon my looking a little dissatisfied at some part of the picture, my attendant informed me that it was against Sir Roger's will, and at the earnest request of the gentleman himself, that he was drawn in the habit in which he had saved his master.8 1 To be apprenticed. A painting. 3 The butler. 4 The servant. 5 Sir Roger's. 6 The servant. Ꭱ. 7 Why? Observe that he says nothing, however. 8 Which showed the greater delicacy? VIII. WILL WIMBLE. [Spectator No. 108. Wednesday, July 4, 1711. Addison.] Gratis anhelans, multa agendo nihil agens. PHÆDRUS. As I was yesterday morning walking with Sir Roger before his house, a country fellow brought him a huge fish, which, he told him, Mr. William Wimble1 had caught that very morning; and that he presented it, with his service to him, and intended to come and dine with him. At the same time he delivered a letter, which my friend read to me as soon as the messenger left him. "Sir Roger,—I desire you to accept of a jack, which is the best I have caught this season. I intend to come and stay with you a week, and see how the perch bite in the Black River. I observed with some concern, the last time I saw you upon the bowling-green, that your whip wanted a lash to it; I will bring half a dozen with me that I twisted last week, which I hope will serve you all the time you are in the country. I have not been out of the saddle for six days last past, having been at Eaton 1 This character, like many others in the Spectator, has been referred to a supposed original, a Mr. Thomas Morecroft, who once received pecuniary aid from Addison. But such "speculations have already been answered. See note 1, p. 14. A reading of Tatler No. 256 will show that Will Wimble is only Mr. Thomas Gules retouched--a gentleman who was "the cadet of a very ancient family," who "had chosen rather to starve, like a man of honor, than do anything beneath his quality"; who "had never employed himself beyond the twisting of a whip in order to make a present now and then to his friends." with Sir John's eldest son. He takes to his learning hugely.1 66 "I am, sir, your humble servant, 4 5 This extraordinary 2 letter, and message that accompanied it, made me very curious to know the character and quality of the gentleman who sent them, which I found to be as follows. Will Wimble3 is younger brother to a baronet, and descended of the ancient family of the Wimbles. He is now between forty and fifty, but, being bred to no business and born to no estate, he generally lives with his elder brother as superintendent of his game. He hunts a pack of dogs better than any man in the country, and is very famous for finding out a hare. He is extremely well versed in all the little handicrafts of an idle man; he makes a may-fly to a miracle, and furnishes the whole. country with angle-rods. As he is a good-natured, officious fellow, and very much esteemed upon account of his family, he is a welcome guest at every house, and keeps up a good correspondence among all the gentlemen about him. He carries a tulip-root in his pocket from one to another, or exchanges a puppy between a couple of friends that live perhaps in the opposite sides of the county. Will is a particular favorite of all the young heirs, whom he frequently obliges with a net that he has weaved, or a setting-dog that he has made himself. He now and then presents a pair of garters of his own knitting to their mothers or sisters, and raises a great deal of mirth among them by inquiring, as often as he meets them, how they wear. These gentleman-like manufactures and obliging little humors make Will the darling of the country. 1 4 9 Is Will joking? Point out what is " extraordinary." Can the name signify a small-bore? If so, what is the pun? Was this before or after the famous tulip mania? Consult encyclopædias Characterize this epithet. " Instructed. Why is this more expressive than favorite? 1 Sir Roger was proceeding in the character of him,2 when he saw him make up to us with two or three hazeltwigs in his hand that he had cut in Sir Roger's woods, as he came through them, in his way to the house. I was very much pleased to observe on one side the hearty and sincere welcome with which Sir Roger received him, and on the other, the secret joy which his guest discovered at sight of the good old knight. After the first salutes were over, Will desired Sir Roger to lend him one of his servants to carry a set of shuttlecocks he had with him in a little box to a lady that lived about a mile off, to whom it seems he had promised such a present for above this half year. Sir Roger's back was no sooner turned but honest Will began to tell me of a large cock-pheasant that he had sprung in one of the neighboring woods, with two or three other adventures of the same nature. Odd and uncommon characters are the game that I look for and most delight in; for which reason I was as much pleased with the novelty of the person that talked to me as he could be for his life with the springing of a pheasant, and therefore listened to him with more than ordinary attention.* In the midst of his discourse the bell rung to dinner, where the gentleman I have been speaking of had the pleasure of seeing the huge jack he had caught, served up for the first dish in a most sumptuous manner. Upon our sitting down to it he gave us a long account how he had hooked it, played with it, foiled it, and at length drew it out upon the bank, with several other particulars that lasted all the first course. A dish of wild fowl that came afterwards furnished conversation for the rest of the dinner, which concluded with a late invention of Will's for improving the quail-pipe.5 3 Note the appropriateness of the motto at the beginning of this paper. In other words the Spectator makes game of Will. |