The Warden | Page 7

them. It is the ingratitude of this which stings
Mr Harding. One of this discontented pair, Abel Handy, was put into
the hospital by himself; he had been a stone-mason in Barchester, and
had broken his thigh by a fall from a scaffolding, while employed about
the cathedral; and Mr Harding had given him the first vacancy in the
hospital after the occurrence, although Dr Grantly had been very
anxious to put into it an insufferable clerk of his at Plumstead Episcopi,
who had lost all his teeth, and whom the archdeacon hardly knew how
to get rid of by other means. Dr Grantly has not forgotten to remind Mr
Harding how well satisfied with his one-and-sixpence a day old Joe
Mutters would have been, and how injudicious it was on the part of Mr
Harding to allow a radical from the town to get into the concern.
Probably Dr Grantly forgot at the moment, that the charity was
intended for broken-down journeymen of Barchester.
There is living at Barchester, a young man, a surgeon, named John
Bold, and both Mr Harding and Dr Grantly are well aware that to him
is owing the pestilent rebellious feeling which has shown itself in the
hospital; yes, and the renewal, too, of that disagreeable talk about
Hiram's estates which is now again prevalent in Barchester.
Nevertheless, Mr Harding and Mr Bold are acquainted with each other;

we may say, are friends, considering the great disparity in their years.
Dr Grantly, however, has a holy horror of the impious demagogue, as
on one occasion he called Bold, when speaking of him to the precentor;
and being a more prudent far-seeing man than Mr Harding, and
possessed of a stronger head, he already perceives that this John Bold
will work great trouble in Barchester. He considers that he is to be
regarded as an enemy, and thinks that he should not be admitted into
the camp on anything like friendly terms. As John Bold will occupy
much of our attention we must endeavour to explain who he is, and
why he takes the part of John Hiram's bedesmen.
John Bold is a young surgeon, who passed many of his boyish years at
Barchester. His father was a physician in the city of London, where he
made a moderate fortune, which he invested in houses in that city. The
Dragon of Wantly inn and posting- house belonged to him, also four
shops in the High Street, and a moiety of the new row of genteel villas
(so called in the advertisements), built outside the town just beyond
Hiram's Hospital. To one of these Dr Bold retired to spend the evening
of his life, and to die; and here his son John spent his holidays, and
afterwards his Christmas vacation when he went from school to study
surgery in the London hospitals. Just as John Bold was entitled to write
himself surgeon and apothecary, old Dr Bold died, leaving his
Barchester property to his son, and a certain sum in the three per cents.
to his daughter Mary, who is some four or five years older than her
brother.
John Bold determined to settle himself at Barchester, and look after his
own property, as well as the bones and bodies of such of his neighbours
as would call upon him for assistance in their troubles. He therefore put
up a large brass plate with 'John Bold, Surgeon' on it, to the great
disgust of the nine practitioners who were already trying to get a living
out of the bishop, dean, and canons; and began house-keeping with the
aid of his sister. At this time he was not more than twenty- four years
old; and though he has now been three years in Barchester, we have not
heard that he has done much harm to the nine worthy practitioners.
Indeed, their dread of him has died away; for in three years he has not
taken three fees.

Nevertheless, John Bold is a clever man, and would, with practice, be a
clever surgeon; but he has got quite into another line of life. Having
enough to live on, he has not been forced to work for bread; he has
declined to subject himself to what he calls the drudgery of the
profession, by which, I believe, he means the general work of a
practising surgeon; and has found other employment. He frequently
binds up the bruises and sets the limbs of such of the poorer classes as
profess his way of thinking--but this he does for love. Now I will not
say that the archdeacon is strictly correct in stigmatising John Bold as a
demagogue, for I hardly know how extreme must be a man's opinions
before he can be justly so called; but Bold is a strong reformer. His