CHAP. III.

"Concourfe, and noife, and toil he ever fled,
Nor cared to mingle in the clamorous fray
Of fquabbling imps; but to the foreft fped,

Or roam'd at large the lonely mountain head;

Or where the maze of fome bewilder'd ftream

To deep untrodden groves his footsteps led,
There would he wander wild."

NOT

or to leave the picture to be finished by the hard and cold pencil of Mrs. Crewkherne, George Delmont ought to be reprefented fuch as he was at Eton, where his uncle, Lord Caftledanes, had placed, at an early age, both his nephews, whom he looked upon as his heirs.

Always taught from his firft recollection to confider himself as fuch, Adolphus, the eldest of these boys, had never felt a wish that he did not imagine he had a right to gratify. During the early part of his life, the excellent sense of his mother had not been able to counteract

the

the impreffions given him, as well by his uncle, who was extremely fond of him, as by his tutor, who attended him to Eton, and the fervants and dependants, who feldom fail to make their court to the heir of a noble houfe. The mafters of a great school are apt to fhew that pupils connected with title and fortune have a more than ordinary fhare of their regard; yet among boys of the fame age there is always established a certain degree of equality, and to this Adolphus Delmont fubmitted with reluctance. As he was placed with only his brother, in a private houfe, attended by a fervant, and under the immediate direction of a tutor, who had a large ftipend for his trouble, he by no means liked to be confounded in the mafs of thofe fo well defcribed by Gray, "as dirty boys playing at cricket"-He was mortified at the little confideration

hewn him by his inferiors; the continual confcioufnefs of his rank, to which they paid no manner of refpect, kept him aloof from them; and his fuperiors he

liked ftill lefs, because they seemed to demand from him the deference he was refused by others-Thus driven to the fociety of his tutor, whofe favourite he was, he obtained the character of a fullen cold-blooded fellow, and a fap, though his paffing much of his time, when out of school, with Mr. Jeans, his preceptor, had in reality nothing to do with any attention to books, with which he fatigued himself as little as poffible.

Nothing could be more unlike him than his brother George-He had never been made of fo much confequence by the people about him; and his mother, though more fondly attached to him than fhe had ever fuffered to appear, had carefully guarded against his falling into the fame error as his brother, and had taught him that the feelings of others were to be confulted as well as his own; he had never, therefore, fuppofed that the whole world ought to pause in filent concern if his illustrious head ached, and every one about him obey his caprice

and

and deprecate his ill-humour. George was fometimes filent without being grave or fullen-careless of the opinion of thofe he did not like, and fcorning to use the leaft diffimulation, even when he felt himself wrong, to palliate his errorsOften indolent and neglectful, he had at other times fits of ftudy, from which, however, it was not difficult for his friends to roufe him, and engage him in those violent exercises, in which, from the ftrength and agility of his frame, he particularly excelled. He was frequently involved in scrapes for harmless frolics and trefpaffes out of bounds; but from the wildest exceffes which the indulgence of these animal fpirits led him into, he was recalled by a fingle word from any one he loved, though the harsh voice of authority, wantonly exerted never failed to give something like obftinacy to his refiftance. His intelligent countenance, and the acquifition of general information, above what is ufually collected at his age, were evidences that his abilities VOL. I.

D

were

were uncommon; yet fuch was his indolence, or dislike to the rules with which he was to begin his studies at school, that he fell into continual difgrace with the mafters, and was left at the bottom of -his clafs, while many a heavy lad, without the fiftieth part of his talents, looked down upon him with fcorn. Thefe violations of rules were frequent, and punishment had no effect to reclaim him; yet, unlike other boys, his eccentricities did not confift of parties on horfeback to dine at a tavern, or failing schemes on the water: he was fometimes indeed concerned in these frolics, but oftener fat out alone on a ramble he knew not whither, and yielding to the pleasure of temporary liberty, quite forgot the reftraint impofed upon him, and threw himfelf down under a tree with some favourite book, then fell into a reverie as he liftened to the wind among the branches, or the dafhing of the water against the banks, where, among the reeds and willows crowding over the Thames, he not unfrequently delighted

to