第47章

ON SOME COUNTRY SNOBS

Tired of the town, where the sight of the closed shutters of the nobility, my friends, makes my heart sick in my walks; afraid almost to sit in those vast Pall Mall solitudes, the Clubs, and of annoying the Club waiters, who might, I thought, be going to shoot in the country, but for me, I determined on a brief tour in the provinces, and paying some visits in the country which were long due.

My first visit was to my friend Major Ponto (H.P.of the Horse Marines), in Mangelwurzelshire.The Major, in his little phaeton, was in waiting to take me up at the station.The vehicle was not certainly splendid, but such a carriage as would accommodate a plain man (as Ponto said he was) and a numerous family.We drove by beautiful fresh fields and green hedges, through a cheerful English landscape; the high-road, as smooth and trim as the way in a nobleman's park, was charmingly chequered with cool shade and golden sunshine.Rustics in snowy smock-frocks jerked their hats off smiling as we passed.Children, with cheeks as red as the apples in the orchards, bobbed curtsies to us at the cottage-doors.

Blue church spires rose here and there in the distance:

and as the buxom gardener's wife opened the white gate at the Major's little ivy-covered lodge, and we drove through the neat plantations of firs and evergreens, up to the house, my bosom felt a joy and elation which Ithought it was impossible to experience in the smoky atmosphere of a town.'Here,' I mentally exclaimed, 'is all peace, plenty, happiness.Here, I shall be rid of Snobs.There can be none in this charming Arcadian spot.'

Stripes, the Major's man (formerly corporal in his gallant corps), received my portmanteau, and an elegant little present, which I had brought from town as a peace-offering to Mrs.Ponto; viz., a cod and oysters from Grove's, in a hamper about the size of a coffin.

Ponto's house ('The Evergreens' Mrs.P.has christened it) is a perfect Paradise of a place.It is all over creepers, and bow-windows, and verandahs.A wavy lawn tumbles up and down all round it, with flower-beds of wonderful shapes, and zigzag gravel walks, and beautiful but damp shrubberies of myrtles and glistening laurustines, which have procured it its change of name.

It was called Little Bullock's Pound in old Doctor Ponto's time.I had a view of the pretty grounds, and the stable, and the adjoining village and church, and a great park beyond, from the windows of the bedroom whither Ponto conducted me.It was the yellow bedroom, the freshest and pleasantest of bed-chambers; the air was fragrant with a large bouquet that was placed on the writing-table; the linen was fragrant with the lavender in which it had been laid; the chintz hangings of the bed and the big sofa were, if not fragrant with flowers, at least painted all over with them; the pen-wiper on the table was the imitation of a double dahlia; and there was accommodation for my watch in a sun-flower on the mantelpiece.A scarlet-leaved creeper came curling over the windows, through which the setting sun was pouring a flood of golden light.It was all flowers and freshness.

Oh, how unlike those black chimney-pots in St.Alban's Place, London, on which these weary eyes are accustomed to look.

'It must be all happiness here, Ponto,' said I, flinging myself down into the snug BERGERE, and inhaling such a delicious draught of country air as all the MILLEFLEURSof Mr.Atkinson's shop cannot impart to any the most expensive pocket-handkerchief.