"THE SQUIRE."

Otago Witness, Issue 2513, 14 May 1902, Page 66

"THE SQUIRE."

(Globe.) »,'•' The title, eminently English and insular, . calls up a picture which is 'eminently English — the picture of a stately, venerable English country house, approached by avenues traversing a typical English, park, extensive and well-kept, and the trim figure of an English gentleman, lord of all that he surveys from his hall door ; and yet in the technical sense no lord at all nor baromet, nor knight, but just plain Mr — Mr Hillandale, of Hillandale Park, in the County of Anyshire. Very likely he may, be written down J.P., and unlikely, as times go, M.P. And very likely, too, he may be written down A great, broad-shoulder'd, genial Englishman, A lord of fat prize-oxen and sheep, A raiser of huge melons and of pine, A patron of some thirty charities, A. pamphleteer on/ guano and on grain, A quarter-sessions chairman, abler none. But ibefore all these things he is,, to those who dwell within his gates and for a,' good many miles around, . pre-eminently ' Tie Squire. Be he young or middle-aged or elderly, he is The Squire— -Squirejffillandale ' — to all -whom he may concern, such as the parson and the doctor jind the tenants and the village lawyer and many another, even as 3riß father and -grandfather. ,ha.ye ( beenc before him, and so on back W the- days ofi the Eoundheads and Cavaliers, and the Civil war that stalked naked through, th© 1 lan*. It is a fine. title that of The fiquirei-'f&dT small blame to our friend if 'he would" he loth to exchange it for a handle, to his family or Christian name. For such-handle,-recently acquired, does not of imply, as the title of The Squire doe's, a survival of all that is fittest in feudalism, almost one might say ipatriarchalism. X may be in these days a disputed point? whether the land and its broad acres, andE the ownership of it, constitute a desirable 1 thing and an unmixed Iblessin^ j but sucli as they are, they are the Squire's. Without them, indeed, he ceases to exist. Ancient lineage, too, must of necessity-foe his ; ! , for his title — a thing bestowed- upon WriD by generations of sturdy English yeomen; farmers — is not to be looked for'iby the holder of the long purse, who ibuys air estate by way of investing 'his savings..-,. And, indeed, there is nothing better calculated to remind us, in these days, of the rock whence we have been hewn than the respect, and more than respect, still felt and expressed by honest, sturdy country folk? for a dignity "and position of their own£forefathers' cheating. In these days of newspapers and oheap travelling they have* read and seen with their own eyes — read? of lords and ladies, and perhaps seen .belted earls as thick as peas in London town; But which of all of them, when all is said and done, is a, greater personage than The Squire up yonder at the ibig house? For fc which of all of them, saying, "Go!" or "Come!" would they make greater speedl than for The Squire'? for which of them, crying, "Do this," would they labour more abundantly? The name itself seems to stand for a certain trim smartness and precision, indicating the man of action, slightly imperious, perhaps, as one accustomed to give orders and see them obeyed promptly ;' cheery and hearty withal., laying up for himself a "lusty winter" of old age. But; chiefly it stands for the man of field sports, one of a race born unto sport as the sparka fly upward, to be pictured in the sportsman's garb, with gun and docs, or in the pink and the top-boots. Even Squire Western, full of strange oaths as 'he was and downright terrible fellow for his bottle; was an admirable performer across country, and loved the iounds no less fchan,'Jre-loye«i his daughter. If he is to be taken,- as probably he is, as typical of his order, if; mu&t be admitted that the squires of 150 years ago were no ordinary topers. But/ at least they knew a horse when they saw one, and how to breed him and ride him, and, perhaps, sell him without actual loss.

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