Honor OCallaghan

Honor O'callaghan, by Mary
Russell Mitford

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Title: Honor O'callaghan
Author: Mary Russell Mitford
Release Date: October 2, 2007 [EBook #22840]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
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O'CALLAGHAN ***

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HONOR O'CALLAGHAN
By Mary Russell Mitford
Times are altered since Gray spoke of the young Etonians as a set of

dirty boys playing at cricket. There are no such things as boys to be met
with now, either at Eton or elsewhere; they are all men from ten years
old upwards. Dirt also hath vanished bodily, to be replaced by finery.
An aristocratic spirit, an aristocracy not of rank but of money,
possesses the place, and an enlightened young gentleman of my
acquaintance, who when somewhere about the ripe age of eleven,
conjured his mother "not to come to see him until she had got her new
carriage, lest he should be quizzed by the rest of the men," was perhaps
no unfair representative of the mass of his schoolfellows. There are of
course exceptions to the rule. The sons of the old nobility, too much
accustomed to splendour in its grander forms, and too sure of their own
station to care about such matters, and the few finer spirits, whose
ambition even in boyhood soars to far higher and holier aims, are,
generally speaking, alike exempt from these vulgar cravings after petty
distinctions. And for the rest of the small people, why "winter and
rough weather," and that most excellent schoolmaster, the world, will
not fail, sooner or later, to bring them to wiser thoughts.
In the meanwhile, as according to our homely proverb, "for every
gander there's a goose," so there are not wanting in London and its
environs "establishments," (the good old name of boarding-school
being altogether done away with,) where young ladies are trained up in
a love of fashion and finery, and a reverence for the outward symbols
of wealth, which cannot fail to render them worthy compeers of the
young gentlemen their contemporaries. I have known a little girl, (fit
mate for the above-mentioned amateur of new carriages,) who
complained that her mamma called upon her, attended only by one
footman; and it is certain, that the position of a new-comer in one of
these houses of education will not fail to be materially influenced by
such considerations as the situation of her father's town residence, or
the name of her mother's milliner. At so early a period does the
exclusiveness which more or less pervades the whole current of English
society make its appearance amongst our female youth.
Even in the comparatively rational and old-fashioned seminary in
which I was brought up, we were not quite free from these vanities. We
too had our high castes and our low castes, and (alas! for her and for

ourselves!) we counted among our number one who in her loneliness
and desolation might almost be called a Pariah--or if that be too strong
an illustration, who was at least, in more senses than one, the
Cinderella of the school.
Honor O'Callaghan was, as her name imports, an Irish girl. She had
been placed under the care of Mrs. Sherwood before she was five years
old, her father being designated, in an introductory letter which he
brought in his hand, as a barrister from Dublin, of ancient family, of
considerable ability, and the very highest honour. The friend, however,
who had given him this excellent character, had, unfortunately, died a
very short time after poor Honor's arrival; and of Mr. O'Callaghan
nothing had ever been heard after the first half-year, when he sent the
amount of the bill in a draft, which, when due, proved to be
dishonoured. The worst part of this communication, however
unsatisfactory in its nature, was, that it was final. All inquiries, whether
in Dublin or elsewhere, proved unavailing; Mr. O'Callaghan had
disappeared; and our unlucky gouvernante found herself saddled with
the board, clothing, and education, the present care, and future destiny,
of a little girl, for whom she felt about as much affection as was felt by
the overseers of Aberleigh towards their involuntary protege, Jesse
Cliffe. Nay, in saying this, I am probably giving our worthy governess
credit for somewhat milder feelings upon this subject than she actually
entertained; the overseers in question, accustomed to such
circumstances, harbouring no stronger sentiment than a cold, passive
indifference towards the parish boy, whilst she, good sort of