Chapter XVlII.

Otago Witness, Issue 1155, 17 January 1874, Page 19

Chapter XVlII.

PERKIAM PLACE. Perriam Place had been built by a certain Godfrey Perriam in the days of Queen Anne, on the site whore a previous Perriam Place had stood for centuries before — the Perriams being old in the land. When this new Perriam was built, Monkhampton returned its member ; and the free and independent electors, to the number of seven-and-twenty, were as sorfs and vassals to Sir Godfrey Perriam. He paid them for their allegiance — he, or the member he made them vote for — but none ever dreamed of voting against Sir Godfrey's nominee. For a great many years the present red brick building had been called the New Place ; but now age had mellowed its ruddy tones. The magnolias against the southern front stretched hi^h and wide ; the mansion had ripened like the fruit on the garden walls with the passage of years. Perriam Place consisted of a handsome pedimented centre, and two massive wings. Sculptured garlands adorn tho stone frieze — the same garlands were ropeatod, in little, over doors and windows. Before the house stretched a noble lawn, shaded on one side by a clump of cedars, on the other by a group of giant maples. On the left of the house lay the flower garden, a model of old-fashioned horticulture, unimproved by the Capability Browns of later years. On tho right were tho kitchen gardens, rich in common place vegetables, and boasting no dazzling range of orchard houses, pineries, and vineries — only an old hot-bed or two where tho peasant gardeners grew cucumbers in the cucumber t>o;isou. But the want of orchard-houses need be felt but little in a climate where green pens could be grown till November, and where monster plums and ruddy peaches ripened unuarod for on the buttressed walls.

Perriaia Place of to-day was exactly like the Porriam Place of a hundred years ago. Entering that cool, stonepavod hall, and surrounded by that oldfashioned furniture, you might have (fancied that Time had grown no older 'than the date of yonder eight-day clock, which bore its age upon its face, in quaint Roman numerals, like the titlepage of an old book, it was a fundamental principle with the Perriams not to spend any money which they could honourably avoid spending. They were not miserly, or inhospitable — they lived as gentlemen should live — dispensed the orthodox benevolence of country gentlemen—kept a good table in dining parlour and servants' hall — rode good horses — but they nevor frittered away money. Art they ignored altogether. No canvas — save that of a family portrait, erer graced the walls of Perriam. A few mezzotint engravings— Oxford, Bolingbroke, Pope, Garrick, the great Lord Chatham, and Dr. Johnson — graced the oak pannelling in the breakfast parlour ;

and these prints were the newest in the house. Perriams succeeded their fathers, and followed one another along the trodden Avay to Lethe, but no Perriam ever added to or improved the mansion. The things Avhich had satisfied their forefathers satisfied them. They Avere eminently conservative — objected to neAvfangled ways, took their after-dinner wine at a table Avhose broad expanse of mahogany reflected the ruby of the vintage, and avoided all superfluous expenditure of money. If the Perriam housekeeper, intent upon the glory of the house, ventured to hint at any change in the details of a banquet, to suggest that this or that . was the fashion up in London, freezing Avas the reply of her lord. " Fashion !" exclaimed Sir Aubrey. " What do I care about fashion. Do you suppose it matters to ma what newfangled trumpery is invented forparvenue stockbrokers and Manchester cotton lords. They can have no distinction except in Avasting money, Let my table be laid as it Avas when Lord Bolinbroke visited my great grandfather. " Lord Bolingbroke always silenced the housekeeper. He was almost a living presence at Perriam. The best of spare bedchambers Avas still called the Bolingbroke room. Brilliant St. John had slept in it when neAV Perriam place was only a year old. Heaven knoArs Avhat schemes had filled the busy head that pressed yonder pillows. Years after he had returned to Perriam for a little Avhile, a disappointed man, on whose once marA r ellous life now shone no light save that of a Avoman's faithful love.

The furniture of Perriam was old, sombre, but handsome ; the more modern portion Avas of the famous Chippendale school — perhaps the only original and artistic furniture which England ever produced. The rich glow of the prevailing mahogany Avas relieved and set off by satimvood. stringings. There Avere dainty Pembroke tables Avith reeded legs, sideboards with brass handles and cIaAV and ball feet, capacious arm-chairs with lyre-shaped backs, carved by a chisel as correct and delicate in its lines as nature hersslf, Avhatnots of lightest build, yet firm as the Eddystone lighthouse—furniture which in its very simplicity had a grace unknoAvn to the florid ornamentation and gilded pitch pine of the sham Louis-Quatorze school. The draperies were of the same date as the chairs and tab.es. and had not been improved by time like tho melloAving Avood ; Indian brocaded curtains, Avhose damask had once been vivid as tho plumage of tropical birds, still adorned the drawing-room, and, although faded, looked handsomer than any modern fabric. Of ornament there Avas A-cry little in that vast saloon, with its seveu long windows and deep bay overlooking the garden. Tato monster vases of Worcester china, rich in purple and gold, surmounted a Florentine marble table between the windows in the bay, a table that had stood there in the days of Lord Bolingbroke. A second pair of jars, huge and oriental, graced the other end of the room, on cither side the Avide hearth. The tall marble chimneypiece, Athenian in design, bore no ornament saA'o a clock and pair of candelabra of bronze, mounted on podestals of black marble which coldly contrasted the vcinlcss white of the slab that sustained them.

No modern frivolities crowded this vast saloon. No Davenport, or dos-a-dos, or central ottoman marred its stern simplicity. No fernery or aquarium bespoke the tastes of some feminine occupant. No photographic album or stereoscopic offered diversion to the idle visitor. Tho cell of a model prison could hardly have boon leas fruitful in diversion for the unthinking mind. The amateur of architecture might find something to admire in the thruo-foot deep cornice, with its variety of moulding and egg-and-dart border, but, save in its architectural beauties, tho room Avas barren of interest.

I Yet to tho thinker there was sonic charm in its very repose. That old-world look which told of days gone by, when tho world was a century and a half younger. Tho present lord of Perriam i was very proud of his drawing-room, or saloon, as tho chamber was religiously entitled. Not for kingdoms would he have changed an object in that soberlyfurnished apartment. And by this wise ! conservatism he at onco testified his roverenco for his ancestors, and saved his own money.. " Photographic album !" he exclaimed, when some frivolous person suggested that he should adorn one of the Chippendale tables with that refuge of the mindless guest. ' ' There wore no photographic albums in the time of Bolingbroke, and society was a deal moro brilliant then than it is now. If people want to aniuso themselves let them road Pope. There's a fine edition in yonder bookcase." ' And the baronet pointed the finger of triumph at a dwarf bookcase defended by brass lattices which extended along one side of his saloon. Hero neatly ranged were all thoso authors whose reputation

increases daily among a generation by Avhich they are for the most part unread" — Pope, Prior, Gay, Swift, St. John, Addison, and Steele. Sir Aubrey forgot that the key of that treasury had been mislaid fifteen years ago, and that the books were dusted with a feather brush that went between those criss-crossed wires.

In the west front were Sir Aubrey's apartments — bedroom vast, gloomy, dress-ing-room larger than most modern bedrooms, study a mere closet ; and at the southern end of the house, communicating by a narrow passage with the baronet's rooms, and overlooking the kitchen, garden, were the apartments which had been occupied without change for the last thirty years by Sir Aubrey's brother, Mordred Perriam. The ancient Saxon name was almost Mr Perriam's sole heritage from his ancient race, for the Perriam estates were strictly entailed, and, but for a stray two hundred a year that came to him from the maternal side of the house, Mordred Perriam would have been dependent on his brother for support. As it Avas, Mr Perriam lived with his brother, and lived free of all expense. He spent the greater part of his OAvn income tipon his library, a heterogeneous collection of second-hand books, bought hap-hazard of those provincial booksellers with whom Mr Perriam kept up a never-ending correspondence. They Avere such volumes as Martin Scriblerus or Dominie Sampson might have rejoiced in, but Avhich Avould hardly have provoked the envy o£ a modern collector. BroAvn leather bindings ; ancient editions in Avhich the last voluminous author generally ran into forty volumes ; queer old ribbed paper, queer old typo — no single set perfect. Authors whose names are only preserved in the Dunciad ; authors whose brief span of popularity has left no record whatever. English obscurities, French obscurities, Roman obscurities, German obscurities, cumbered the book- worm's shelves, till to hunt for a genuine classic amongst the uncatalogued chaos was half-a-day's labour.

Mr. Perriam had begun many catalogues ; struggling on with infinite toil, trotting to and fro between his desk and the shelves with meekest patience ; but the catalogues always ended in muddle. He Avas always buying, and the supplementary catalogue which his latest purchases rendered necessary bothered his somewhat feeble brains. His ily leaA r es and addenda groAv thicker than the original volume, and he abandoned his task in wild despair. After all he knew his books, and could have recited all their titles, though perhaps in many cases unfamiliar Avith their contents. Ho used to imagine that he had a particular desire to read such and such an author, till he got the author at home. But the volumes once snug on his shelA r es, the desire seemed someAvhat appeased. When his learned friends talked of an author, Mr. Perriam used to say, "Ah! Fvo got him." He avos too honest to say " IVe rend him.

The apartments devoted to Mr. Perriam Avere airy and spacious like all the rest of the house. But large us they Avere his books overran them. From floor to ccilins;, under tho auihloavs, over the mantelpiece, Avhereever a shelf could be put, appeared those endless rows of brownbacked volumes, hardly brightened hero and there by the faded labels of some later editions. Mr Perriam could -not afford to be a connoisseur in bindings. No costly tooled calf, no perfumed Russia, gratified his sense of sceut or feeling. But in his very poverty there lurked a blessing. He had taught himself to patch the old bindings, to stain and sprinkle, and marble the dust-black-cuod edges, and he was noA r or more serenely content than wlion he sat before hid Avork-table, and dabbed and fitted, and pasted and furbished the battered old volumes Avith the aid of a glue pot, a few scraj is of calfskin, a little vcrmillion, a big pair of scissors, find inexhaustible patience. In his he-art of hearts, Mr I'orriain felt that could ho begin life again ho would Avish to be a bookbinder.

I\Jr. Perriam's library overlooked the kitchen garden. !t Avas a spacious room with a cleop bay like that Avhich at tho other extremity of the house formed the !end of the drawing-room. In the days Avhon there were children at Perrian.l, this 1 room had been the nursery. Immediately above it Avas Mr Perriam's bed-chamber, and next to that a smallish dressing-room, which communicated, by means of a dark little passage, with Sir Aubrey's bedroom. The brothers Avere honestly attached to each other, different as Avere their habits, and liked to be within call of each other. Sir Aubrey's valet slept in his master's dressing-room ; but Mr Perriam had no body servant. That Avas a luxury, or an incumbranco, Avhich he persistently denied himself. Nor would his wardrobe have afforded either employ men fc or perquisites for a valet. Ho never possessed but one suit of clothes, wore those garments nearly threadbare, and passed them on when done to an underling in the garden ;

a deaf old man, who wheeled a barrow of dead leaves all the autumn, and rolled the lawns and gravel walks when there were no leaves to fill his barrow. This old gardener used to prowl about the gardens looking like the wraith or double of Mr Perriam. When there were visitors at the place, Mr Perriam rarely showed himself. When Sir Aubrey had no guests the brothrs dined together ; but while the baronet was away Mr Perriam dined in his own den, and turned the leaves of some late acquisition as he ate his dinner. He was a' slow reader, and had been three years poring over an old copy of Dante, and addling his poor brains with commentaries which obscured the text. If he took a walk it was in the kitchen garden. He liked those prim quadrangles of pot-herbs, the straight narrow walks, the espalier-bounded strawberry beds, the perfect order and quiet of the place, and above all he liked to know that no chance visitor at Perriam would surprise him there. He brought his books here on summer mornings, and paced the paths slowly, reading as he walked ; or dosed over an open volume, in yonder summerhouse before the fish pond on sultry afternoons. He trotted up and down between the bare beds for his constitutional in midwinter. The kitchen garden was all he knew of the external world, and all he cared to know ; so long as he could conduct all his transactions with booksellers, through the convenient medium of the : post. So passed his harmless uneventful life, and if no man could say that : Mordred Perriam had ever done him a : service, assuredly none could charge him . with a wrong. i