The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1867-12-31 00:00:00

A SERIOUS FAMILY.

At the tune this story oommences—which may be
no
later than the Christmas before last, if you so
choose to chronologies for ON —the family at Wag
ford Pled, Clampshire, Ma.., New England. con-
doled of • Female Head (Squire Paul died is 1848 of
• broken heart, it is said, at seeing his oonotry
engage in that unchristian Idezioari war), who was
the relict, by second espousals, of the hero of the
Chesapeake. Alibsogh Mrs. Cornelia Wagford (see
Mooklewrath) was of English descent as pure as her
husband, I don't think I an doing her injustice in
hinting that, in the way of desperament, she hailed
either from the Chersocess or from see of
times steppes over which TiCIIOOf 0000 roved. and
whale nomadic inhabitants are popularly supposed
to tat horseflesh and drink mare's milk. Yes, she
was • very terrible Tarter indeed ; Inquiet a woinan,
but as formidable a we, as seer breathed. Rarely
did she uplift her voice, but very frequently did she
I bring down her hand, and with a force which yea
not to be laughed at • for, though a little palm, it
was an uncommonly hard one. Abe
the sun to go dowa on her wrath, bet she often
allowed that luminary to ries apes it; and a shock-
ing disturbance there
tioossiona, I assure yw• •, - teen
some woman in her t • n,,ut 1

Paul, it was said, soo,,what a.
country gentleman's will , 1-• "
a tall young lady, with an iron will
thousand dollars to her rift, '

it meet be admitted, woo:
Dot quite so aerioe• o•
and •• • Wagtord sbou • •
of tb• old Adam of

They said that when be we .- '•e• " : •
to eat oysters late se night, sod i ~e- -, b ~
famed to having goes one night ..... p:eas .c- .: 1
Castle Garden, to hear • (eolith. 60 eh play-acting
woman, by the O&M' Of And, alii. would smoke
a tobacco so, defending that abhorrent practice by
Lb. example of many Puritan worthies—notably the
old Governor of the Puncshbowl memory. However,
Mrs. Cornelia took him in hand with • will, —1 mean
to say her will,—and very soon made a reformed
character of bun. H. suffered long, an 3 died very
well off, but quite broken in spirit He left •
numerous family. His wife waa sole executrix, uni-
versal legatee, everything that the departed Squire
bad been told to make bet, on duly-attested foolscap
paper; and she had henceforth things entirely her
own way. She brought up bee family admirably,
naturally following, as an exemplar of discipline,
that illustrious Mother of the Wesley. who laid down
the rule that at one year cg age • child "must be
I made to obey and to fear ih• rod," and that any
I attempt to cry after thirteen months most he met
with immediate mstigati.n. There were not better
taught, better principled, better behaved, better fed,
better d better whipped children in the
county of Clanikiire and the State of Maseachnimits
than the juvenile Wagfords. As for their being
spoilt, it was entirely out of the question ; so un-
sparing was their good parent of the rod. She gave
them, perhaps, a little too much physic ; and, in
her scheme of discipline, rhubarb and magnesia,
or sienna and salts, sometimes alternated with the
s(gewiuteet.cgtitie dark
ai cloosatzedonipt,,,ta.ahe,aaramt S,i.c4;ori.,ftpt:).,z) nrer:aaßtion:leasodpai
penal
infliction; ; but, on the other hand, when the children
were good they were crammed with "goodies ;" and
in Cranberry-port and round it, there was sot a
boom whose board was so liberally spread or whose
store-closet was so abundantly provisioned with
succulent delicacies. This seediest mother made
. the very best jams and preserves that ever you tasted.
' Her apple-candy, her brandy-peaches, her co anberry-
jumble were the delight of the neighbouring clergy.
She compounded every kind of cake, she hung beef,
she rolled eels, she collared brawn, she boiled hams
in old ?dadeira • her strawberry-shortcake was
inimitable, her pickled shad incomparable. She was
a most bounteous and benevolent woman ; and al-
though, in the happy community of which she was a
member, there were no paupers and few even indigent
persons, she had always a helping hand for the
. needy, and trobecribed liberally both in aid of local.
schools, infirmaries, and testimonials to clergymen,
foreign missionary enterprise, and especially to the
Underground Railroad, which was then running
very-
briskly and conveying vast numbers of escaped
Africans to Canada. " For bow dreadful," would
Mra Cornelia exclaim, clasping her hands, "is the
lot of the poor slave l—oppressed, chained, subject
to all the caprices of a despotic master, and exposed
Ito the lash of a brutal ermerov . _ wo— ti=driegro I"
1 Amer widen Mts. Consent Irejetif llff- pop,
I Master Tom into the dark cupboard for having
trodden on the cat, and set Master Harry eighty
verses for breaking down in his recitation of the pre-
ceding lifts, or tie Freddy by the leg to • chair for
the dire offence of having yawned at meeting the
foregoing Sabbath, or order Miss Minnie upstairs to
be whipped.
So in • calm, and peaceful, and righteous current
flowed on the life of tbe Wagfords. Mrs. Cornelia,
I need scarcely say, was frequently likened to her
namesake so well known in Roman history. A
smooth-spoken gentleman, however—an Abolitionist
lecturer, I think—who made her a set speech on the
occasion of her presenting five hundred dollars both.
Fund for Stealing and Burning the Cowhides with
which Hapless Slaves are Mercilessly Beaten, rather
put his foot in it—to use • vulgar expression—wises
bespoke of her as the Mother of the Gracchi. She
drew herself tip haughtily, repudiated any connection
with "Pagan folk, and observed that she preferred
to be the Mother of the Wagfords.
Her admirable educational system cannot precisely
be said to have bioken down, or even to have ex-
hibited a serious flaw; but still the imperfection of
all monde°, things was shown when, shortly after
his papa's death, Tom Wagford, the eldest son,
abad:.roihlrhtlsmaailmAggoose"
jaasoinatirpa,aamfrotinviii.teihealnecastegbita:whalryhidaioaamwestir o
RarestraiaaranntdanHdat:
Hydge (who was likewise instruct:ad not to spare thew
eam
rod), and fairly ran away to the Mexican war. He
volunteered into the Indiana Fleshbiters, and dis-
tinguished himself at Monterey; but he didn't come
back to New England. Indeed, in answer to& letter
from Rev. H. Hydge, his mamma's chief adviser, in
which be was likened to the Prodigal Son, and
bidden, lest the time for fatted calves should pass
away for ever, to return at ontae,—this graceless
young man replied that be would be somethinged if
he would; and, addressing his quondam pastor and
master by the scandalously irreverent epithets of
"Daddy Hydge" and an "old cues," informed him
that his father having been fool enough to leave
everything unreservedly to his mother, he intended
to seek his fortune in the then recently opened-up
territory of California. Thenceforward he was
always likened in the domestic circle to Absalom;
and his poor little sister Minnie, who was of sense-
of her wayward brother as suspended by his beauti-
ful
may be discreetly hinted that, after the falling
away of this errant youth, Mrs. Cornelia seems to
have been troubled in her mind with some doubts as
to the infallibility of education founded solely on
religion and lb. rod. Anything but serious she
could be, but she allowed the wand of outigs-
tion to fall into comparative desuetude. That her
children were growing too old to be whipped had,
Hosea Hydge, in considers'
still retained on the snub?
lain, head steward, add I. . _

advise. r generally :bud.,
quarter bruited about
hare entertained any re.
in Mill more intimate relati,
. .

_
nal to log:loos bee to convert ... .
into Hydge. —George Augustus Baia iamm