The De Coverley Papers | Page 8

him in the country, I last week
accompanied him thither, and am settled with him for some time at his
country-house, where I intend to form several of my ensuing
speculations. Sir Roger, who is very well acquainted with my
humour[34], lets me rise and go to bed when I please, dine at his own
table or in my chamber as I think fit, sit still and say nothing without
bidding me be merry. When the gentlemen of the country come to see
him, he only shows me at a distance: as I have been walking in his
fields, I have observed them stealing a sight of me over an hedge, and
have heard the Knight desiring them not to let me see them, for that I
hated to be stared at.
I am the more at ease in Sir Roger's family, because it consists of sober
and staid persons; for, as the Knight is the best master in the world, he
seldom changes his servants; and as he is beloved by all about him, his
servants never care for leaving him; by this means his domestics are all
in years, and grown old with their master. You would take his valet de
chambre for his brother, his butler is grey-headed, his groom is one of
the gravest men that I have ever seen, and his coachman has the looks
of a privy counsellor. You see the goodness of the master even in the

old house-dog, and in a grey pad[35] that is kept in the stable with great
care and tenderness out of regard to his past services, though he has
been useless for several years.
I could not but observe, with a great deal of pleasure, the joy that
appeared in the countenance of these ancient domestics upon my
friend's arrival at his country seat. Some of them could not refrain from
tears at the sight of their old master; every one of them pressed forward
to do something for him, and seemed discouraged if they were not
employed. At the same time the good old Knight, with a mixture of the
father and the master of the family, tempered the inquiries after his own
affairs with several kind questions relating to themselves. This
humanity and good-nature engages everybody to him, so that when he
is pleasant upon[36] any of them, all his family are in good humour,
and none so much as the person whom he diverts himself with: on the
contrary, if he coughs, or betrays any infirmity of old age, it is easy for
a stander-by to observe a secret concern in the looks of all his servants.
[Illustration: 'Every one of them press'd forward to do something for
him.']
My worthy friend has put me under the particular care of his butler,
who is a very prudent man, and, as well as the rest of his
fellow-servants, wonderfully desirous of pleasing me, because they
have often heard their master talk of me as of his particular friend.
My chief companion, when Sir Roger is diverting himself in the woods
or the fields, is a very venerable man who is ever with Sir Roger, and
has lived at his house in the nature of a chaplain above thirty years.
This gentleman is a person of good sense and some learning, of a very
regular life, and obliging conversation[37]: he heartily loves Sir Roger,
and knows that he is very much in the old Knight's esteem, so that he
lives in the family rather as a relation than a dependent.
I have observed in several of my papers, that my friend Sir Roger,
amidst all his good qualities, is something of an humorist[38]; and that
his virtues, as well as imperfections, are, as it were, tinged by a certain
extravagance, which makes them particularly his, and distinguishes

them from those of other men. This cast of mind, as it is generally very
innocent in itself, so it renders his conversation highly agreeable, and
more delightful than the same degree of sense and virtue would appear
in their common and ordinary colours. As I was walking with him last
night, he asked me how I liked the good man whom I have just now
mentioned? And without staying for my answer, told me, that he was
afraid of being insulted with Latin and Greek at his own table; for
which reason he desired a particular friend of his at the University to
find him out a clergyman rather of plain sense than much learning, of a
good aspect, a clear voice, a sociable temper, and, if possible, a man
that understood a little of backgammon. My friend, says Sir Roger,
found me out this gentleman, who, besides the endowments required of
him, is, they tell me, a good scholar,