A Lecturing Tour-Mr. Chauncey Depew-An Interview with President Arthur at Washington- General Butler-Failure and Success-An Enterprising Neapolitan "Chew "-At the Royal Palace, Honolulu- King David Laamea Kalakaua-Auckland-Mr Dalley-Melbourne- "The Land of the Golden Fleece "-Wagga Wagga-A Snub at Calcutta-Smitten with Fever-The Queen's Jubilee-An Urgent Note from Mr. Labouchere--Introduction to Pigott the Forger-His Confession— THE LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF GEORGE AUGUSTUS SALA. CHAPTER XXXIII. UPTON COURT. Upton-cum-Chalvey-A Family Ghost-Rats-Wm. Romer-Eton College and Dr. Goodford-A Story of Thackeray and "Jacob Omnium "-Death of the Prince Consort-The Funeral-The Exhibition of 1862-Mr. BeresfordHope-A Meeting in the Chapter House, Westminster. It was in 1860 that it appeared to me that I might palliate the severity of my daily toil if I changed the venue of my domicile. So one Saturday—the journalist's Sabbath, at least, when he does not write leading articles for the Sunday papers, we went down to Windsor; dined at the good old "White Hart” inn ; and then took a fly and drove about the neighbourhood: which, to me, has always been the most enchanting in Europe, in search of a house to let. We found one, precisely to our mind, at Upton-cum-Chalvey, a little bit of a village a few hundred yards from Slough. The house was known as Upton Court; it was said to have been originally a "cell," or dependency of Merton Abbey, and assuredly was not less than five hundred b years old. I conjectured that in Stuart times Upton Court had been the lodge of the Master of the Royal Buckhounds; since, to one of the fire-places, there was a wrought-iron back, embossed with the Royal arms and the inscription "C.R., 1630," or thereabouts. The house had a high-pitched roof covered with thatch, a pretty lake in front; in the grounds, which were very extensive, there was a lovely rosery, where no less than eighteen varieties of the prettiest and most fragrant flowers in the world were cultivated; and there were a well-stocked orchard and flower-garden. The grounds were approached from an old-fashioned pair of iron gates between stone pillars in the high road; but the nearest way of getting to the place was through Upton churchyard. The rude forefathers of the hamlet slept just beneath the window of the room which we fixed upon as our sleeping apartment; but the churchyard was so green, so peaceful, and, to my thinking, so beautiful, that we never troubled ourselves about miasma or malaria, or any other scientific bogeys. People in the 'sixties lived and died, married and had children, pretty much as they do now; and as Mr. Walter Besant would put it, "The world went very well then." At present we seem to live in one continuous state of alarm about Bacteria and Bacilli, Parasites, Microbes, and cognate foes. When I was a young man Ascaridæ, or minute intestinal worms, were nearly the only terrors that the scientists used to frighten us with; and Raspail, the French Republican and chemist, in his yearly Almanack of Hygiene, used to tell his readers that they might defy the Ascaridæ if they ate plenty of spices and drank freely of the Liqueur Raspail, a nostrum of his own concoction, and which was nearly as toothsome as green chartreuse. There were plenty of bedrooms at Upton Court, and, moreover, there was a Hall, the floor laid with tiles, with an open timbered roof. I felt quite baronial when I settled the terms for taking Upton Court for a year the proprietor being a worthy coal merchant, who resided at Windsor town itself, in a house built by Sir Christopher Wren. Of course, there was a Ghost attached to Upton Court; but no extra charge was made by my landlord for the phantom. The apparition was declared, on the most unimpeachable maid-servant testimony, to be that of a lady in a white night-dress, and her long hair streaming down her back. Where, I wonder, do ghosts get their night-gowns? Are there any couturieres pour revenants? The lady-ghost at Upton Court usually appeared on Friday nights ; and wrung her hands, like Lady Macbeth in the play, in a manner pitiable (so they said) to behold. According to a charwoman of long-established veracity, the ghost would occasionally utter a piercing scream. I never saw this eidolon during my two years' tenancy of Upton Court; but, having to sit up very late at night writing my Temple Bar copy, I certainly heard very often the strangest of noises. For one sound I could, without difficulty, account. We had three varieties of rats on the demesne. First, the lake was infested by water-rats; one of which was so huge, and had such very long grey whiskers, that when he came up in quest of my ducks, I christened him Marshal Blücher. He was an inveterate duck-hunter; so being but a blunderer in the use of firearms myself, I sent a note to my landlord's son, who was a gentlemanfarmer hard by, and asked him if he would be kind enough to step round and shoot the monster. Subsequent to his decease, the remains of no less than six ducks were found in the old villain's lair. Then came the barndoor rats, which strayed into my grounds from the neighbouring farm, and were so plump, and so glossy and tame, that one grew almost to like them. Finally, there were the rats behind the old oak panelling in the hall and the dining-room; and an infernal vacarme did those rodents make during the small hours. I never caught sight of one of them; I have not the slightest idea of their means of existence; but they were historic rats; since I found in an old book of travels in England, published in the reign of Queen Anne, that the disturbance made by the rats behind the panels at Upton Court House could only be compared to the clatter of the hoofs of a troop of horse. Now another of the noises which disturbed me resembled not the tramping of horses, but the crunching of the gravel in the garden outside by human feet; and, putting this and that together, I came to the opinion that the sound arose from the prowling around of the gipsies, with whom the neighbourhood then abounded, and who were bent on stealing my fruit and my firewood. |