The Sun.
London, England, 1852-07-09 00:00:00

ART."

OUR FIRST SWEETH

BY ELIZA. COOS.
" You must have a change, a decided change of air and
scene," said our kind and skilful Aseulapius; " so just
peck up your portmanteau, enlist your travel,ing com-
, panions, and start as soon as possible." We heard
the sentence of transportation with as much piessure
as our state of guff ring would permit, and formed .a
smell, but active "committee of management" imme-
diately. Being of the happy' disposition that can
- , feel quite at home, at any -hour of the day, in a .grey
tweed or striped gingham, the wardrobe soon yielded
sufficient support for two mouths' vanity, and as we
frequently incur a serious expostulation from divers
friends, whereby any listener might learn that on the
bonnet subject we are some indifferent as, to
whether cur ribbon is worth a straw, or cur straw
worth a ribbon, why it may be easily divined that
our " luggage" was ready with much "fuss;" and then
came the question, "Where shell we go?" "Suppose
You try a farmhouse in Derbyshire." We shook our
bead, despite the charms of Mensal Dale and the lovely
pass of the " Dove," where we once wrote a number of
sentimental stanzas while our companions devoured cold
chickens and other " vulgar condiments." " Well then,
whet do you thiuk of the Lakes?" Another shako of
the head, "we
iii you ge among the fields of Kent?"
Another of Lord Burleigh's signs of wisdom, of a very
decice.,
4. d character, watt given • for dearly as we love the
rosy-lipprd cherry' oreh-•rd's, an
ow
low-haired hop-
d 1 •
vineyards of this -
country, they are now incorporated with the remembrance of cold and mercenary spirits; that
struck too Limn: a balance between their interest and our
rye declined Kent with a very Significant
'` No," and waited for another proposal. " What do you
say to Brighten ee We hesitated for a moment, There
ate a few small private reasons for our partiality to this
place; but now It was the height of the fushitwe ble sea-
on there, there, when there are such cavalcades of ladies 'll-ed
gentlemen en horseback, with dappled roans, end 1. °l'
culled piebalds, and urn' ring
cantereri and hiol-stego--
clog trotters, that the Ining'e-road and" Marine Pirajle
form a caorpound of Rotton-row and Betty's Circus.
There are such innumerable Master . Augustusses,. and
1'.14s Lauras, in goai-ear -
rieges smacking their whips and.
teggieg at the reins with exuberant energy, though
they have perstarded their fond mammas a low micutss
previous that their dear little limbs were too exheusied
with fatigue, to walk home. There are such dszz,ip '
heaps of " sapphires and diamonds found upon the
seise" in every third she reminding one of-
the jewel bon of a third-rate actress. And then the
an the
houses ere,so consumptively tall and white,
vi,itore s° thoroughly
"blase "—all the old men d look-
ing as though they vvere trying to be young, and
all the young 113.e.11 looking as though they were try-
he old; all the old women wearing dark ring-
ing to
" Tru,2fiti," in •
lets, which catry tell name
of
their
gloss; and. ell
very the young worse n carrying
toms '-`l. having exposed their beauty to a :eerie
sen!)
lev.:rt
•il, it Sleence than the "moon's;" somehow, the
whole Place
stems redolent of the unheelty regal per-
e
fume of the first gentleman in Eurt•po;" the trail of
the gorged serpent seems over the place still, and we
often that there is a want of freshness of soul and
heart in the niajority of the people we run
ivartuth of heart fancy
easiest,Then at Brighton one is sure to meet tho very
folks we care least ,Le know, and one is asked to dine
with the Frost', Purse-proud Harleys, or to spend an
evening with the Cute,shallow flobsons, when we would
much rather exist without the flattering notice of either.
„ No, we won't go to Brighton in the height of the sea-
son—so that's settled." Dever, Cheltenham, Hastings,
and To cosy, were ail objected to, and we suddenly de-
ter mintei w abandon all fmnous Hygeian places of
resort, and go and have a look at our first rural home, in
One of the wildest parts of Sussex. We bad often seen
our second country locality, but had never revisited our
earliest paths among heath and forest, where we pus-
sensed our first Peen and met our " first sweetheart."
Away we went, forty miles of rail, and five of a cross-
read, took u 5 to our olden haunt; and we will just give
a few hasty reminiscences of our incipient life that ran
over our brain during the journey,
Our home at Sr. Leopards had been a nondescript
sort
of domicile--half an English farmhouse, halt a
Gothic villa—situated in the tieighbourhood of a
rabbit-warren, amid a vast range of hilly and woody
country, intersected with gurgling streams and large
patches of cultivated land; sheets of golden wheat
flashing out between dark brushwood slopes, and
emerald fields of turnips, spreading at the feet of the
tall frowning trees. A noble espalier pear tree, and
a luxuriant vine, trailed all over tee white fronts, and
many a clustering bunch of luscious purple fruits
might be seen in the autumn sunshine ripening on
the gabled roof, resting its juicy weight on the
patches of stonecrop, and causing divers speculations
among the juniors of the household as to whether
there was a possibility of reaching them from the top
casements; and occasionally they did disappear in a
most miraculous manner. There was a rude sort
of garden spreading round, where carnations and
cabbages, leburnams and lettuces, scarlet beans and
sweet-williams, brocoli and black currants, rosetrees
and radishes, sprang in plentitul and brilliant con-
tiguity; and there was one little corner where
some moss-covered flints, a spontaneous profusion of
deckleaves, and an overhanging elder, afforded au asy-
lum for a couple of pet frogs, to the dismay of certain
boarding-school-brid cousins who visited us in the mid-
summer holidays. One side of this Eden wilderness was
hounded by a broad thread of lucid water, known as
e ".tiller's Brook," across which, close by the frogs' her-
mitage, were a couple of rough planks, terming a bridge,
leading on to a fresh grassy bank, where flags, and
rushes, and forget-me-note, grew thick and odorous,
under the Oadow of poplars and aldees, and beyond lay
rho " Long Water Meadows," with Dives's farm in the I
distance. On the other side was an ancient rambling sort
of orchard, inclosed with old grey paling, all covered with
yellow lichens, and wefted with wiry ivy, with an occa-
sional azure periwinkle and red dog-rose peeping out, re-
minding 1.
one of Ire-ancy's blue eyes and ruddy cheeks
playing with the wrinkled brow and silver hair of grand-
tether. Ay, that was an orchard! where bouncing 1
eat's-bead tipples shone their fists in the nigger-faces of
muscle plums; where greengages, bursting with sugary
juice, tumbled into the cool grass, and gipsy filberts
rattled down about our ears with very gentle assistance;
then the mulberries and the " swan's-egg" pears, and
the damsons and the cherries—oh, much cherries!--
May-dukes and bigaroons, and blackhcarts and morellos,
hanging like coral and jespar wreaths from the droop-
ing boughs, propped up here rind there by a broken
red. Ah, whet mouths, what pinafores, what hands,
used to be seen in that old orchard during the
cherry season; what morning gluttony, what evening
excesses, were carried on in defiance of all paternal au-
thority and serious prognostications of cholera and sud-
den death. We taught the very sheepdog; to mumble
the delicious food, and old " Watch" was often seen
with his grizzled muzzle deeply stained with the for-
bidden fruit—to say nothing of the pony having real
nonpareils handed to him by dozens through a gap in
the paling, and whelp espfuls of the finest " Orleans "
being bestowed in munificent generosity on any ragged
waverer who looked with longing eyes on our depreda-
tions. This paradise of an orchard led through a
gatir into a lengthy sort of copse, the copse led
into a clover-field, and the clover-field skirted a hare
with luxuriant hedgerows, where bees, butterflies),
and grasshoppers, made. essignatioue with the
honeysuckle and sweet-woodruff; where the in-
fant- stragglers laid hid thetnielves among the wild
briony and tall foxgloves, and eat threading "cheeses"
from the mallow, or flieging ox-eve daisies at each other
by the hour together. Abut is quarter of a mile down
this lane, just at the commencement of the village, was
the blacksmith's rustic forge 'and thatched (mimeo,
where the ringing hammer made cheertel music, and as
happy a family dwelt as one might meet in a day's
march, and with whom we scraped an enthusiastic Dud
immediate acquaintance. Widow Hewitt was a dear
primitive old woman, with only two faults in the
world. The first, and by far the most terrible in
our estimation, was an inveterate prejudice in
favour of camomile tea, and the strength of her "
prejudice was only equalled by that of the decoction.
Her preserves were superb, and her applepies—
ber real " apple-pies"—were something to talk about,
putting to the blush the make-believe fashion of
trumpery tarts, where an ounce of fruit is spread
over, any quantity or quality of crust, with prison tars
laid across, as if to protect the beggarly thing fat m in-
vasion; her cake was equal to her pie, and her home-
made wines were equal to her cake. Somehow we aeon
got cn such terms with the old lady that we bad the run
of ti certeiu corner cupboard, and revelled in gaspherry-
jam, greengage marmalade, and sparkling geesel Tei.i.'
but alas! there was a " bubbly jock" to our gastric
the
city ie the form of that horrible camomile t whichtlenefull do ,e
dear old lady insisted on administering
in
nthin reace of
of half a lint to every luckless being
sw
the
aihrtiat,_
her prescription, no matter what
neuralgia,—it could
toothach, sprained uncle, 0
r tea. Camomile tea
only be cured by camomile,,•t was necessary to was her " life preserver; I
air we breathe; and as old
exist-
ence, in her opinion, as the
4,
It w .
war a merciful
Gimble the wheelwright said,
take to quack pison-stuff on
providence she didn't
e Sunday. school
the same scale." She bribed th
mouth; shepersuaded
, children into its bitterness once a
the landlord of " The Chequers that it would remove ~
his grog blossoms; she made the dressmaker believe
that it would " clear her complexion;" and it was as-
serted that she had attempted to dote the old foxhound
" Music," when be came to theca a puppy with the dis-
temper. Certain it is that old Music always displayed
active signs of disapprobation whenever be caught sight
of the huge brown pitcher that held the elixir. and it is
also certain that he scratched up the camomile flowers
on the common with a force that savoured more of re-
venge than mischief. Dame Hewitt's other fault was in
thinking that her son Ben, who managed the business,
was the only son in the world worthy of a mother. Cer-
tainly, Ben was a fine-hearted, handsome young man; he
was seldom seen at the Chequers, and played the fiddle at
church every Sunday; he knew a good deal of Shgks-
pere and Goldsmith; always had a flower in his
jacket
button hole; managed to shoe the most vicious horses
5,...e..
without difficulty, and had a knack of quieting I° l'r
and
perous babies in a magical manner. Ben'aYal the
whiskers were enough to disturb the Pece°afend when
Phillises and Dsphnes in the neighbourbood.
his mother declared that the Baronet's son
was
not to be
her opinion
compared to him, there is little doubt that
was fully corroborated by more young ladies than one.
3eate affections to
It was our fortune to captivate
and
a very serious extent. His youngest
sister
of children, an ogrd-
selves had exercised the freemasonry
or three accidental
grown very "thick " duringy ov
meetings in the lane. INe had given her a volume
of Fairy Tales, and she had bestowed on us a pincushion
of her own making. Our
approbation of each other was
fully established over a private reading of Robinson
being taken to h orhome to
Crusoe, and ended in our . 6
_OO
Ur d
see a litter of wonderful pUpPle • Dame Hewitt
" fine complexion," and said
took infinite notice of our
all sorts of kind things; but • we recollect that she insi-
nuated a few remarks as to the efficacy of " camomile