Ham-ha-hoh. Well, I don't know, perhaps the man is mad; but if there is anything wrong, I rather think--that is, I have a faint idea, that Mr. John Clarke is at the bottom of it. However, nous verrons. 17th.-Letter from Miss Walton, marked "A Knows Miss Walton by report; she is a say Mr. W. is so particularly unwell at maiden lady, about fifty, living with her present that she must beg Mr. Slade to put mother and sister; she is very rich. This off his intended visit for a few days." last piece of information was highly satisfactory; nothing is more delightful than assisting one's fellow-creatures for a consideration. It will be seen that Mr. Slade's depositions amounted to little more than that he knew nothing about the matter; and though philosophers assert that to "Immediate." Bless us! what a passion know you know nothing is the acmé of hu- the good lady is in with poor Slade! man intelligence, I cannot say I ever found very good man, and means well, but too it so in the law. To ascertain how matters easy; has let that woman talk him over really stood, I recommended Mr. Slade to with her plausible stories. Mr. Wingrove start for Bristol immediately; see Miss is no more mad than she is. Begs me to Walton, and endeavour, with her assist- come down instantly. Happy to make any ance, to find out where Mr. Wingrove was remuneration I may think proper. Room confined. He was then to demand an in- at Walton House, &c." terview, and judge for himself as to the alleged insanity, (for I had my doubts on the subject;) and in case he was refused admittance, we would then commence proceeding to compel a legal inquiry. I thought Miss Letitia's letter, being from a lady, (and containing a promise to pay,) ought to be kept with peculiar care, so I popped it into a tin box for safety. Well, there's not much going [on just now, and two guineas a day-good quarters-case to manage-chance of a commission of lunacy-eh? I'll go off this very night, and that will be sure to please Miss Walton amazingly. "Here Smith, James Smith, run to the Swan with two Necks, and secure me an inside place by the Bristol mail for to-night, and there-leave a July 16.-Letter from Slade. Arrived sovereign for earnest. Certainly, women safe, and saw Miss Walton, who insisted do go through with anything they take up. on his making Walton House head-quar- I see by her letter she is positively deterters; (good quarters, too, I dare say.) mined to get him out, mad or not mad; and Then follows a long account of all the lady I make no doubt she will do anything, and knew about the matter; which, after all, go to any expense, to have her way. Byrested on little better authority than the the-bye, that is another letter for the tin box. gossip of a country village, except as to 18th.-Arrived at the Bush Inn, Bristol. the fact of Mr. Wingrove's confinement on Breakfasted, and took a chaise to Shirehampthe ground of insanity. He was not, how-ton. [Mem. Bristol rather a dingy place; ever, in a madhouse, but lived in a cottage inns bad.] Passed by King's Parade, where at Henbury, about five miles from Bristol, Mrs. Wingrove is staying-crossed "The under the care of a keeper. His nephew, Downs,"-fine old Elizabethan house on Mr. John Clarke, lived with him, and was the right, belonging to Sir Henry Lippinthe ostensible owner of the house. Slade, cott; winding road through a well-wooded it seems, following my instructions, went undulating country; at Kingsweston Hill to the cottage and asked for Mr. W.; the turned off to the left through Lord de Clifnephew received him very politely, but re- ford's splendid park. (Lord de Clifford gretted to say that his uncle was too un- since dead, the title extinct, and the fine old well to see any one, the medical man having place sold to a Bristol merchant.) On leavdesired him to be kept perfectly quiet. ing which, the pretty village of ShirehampSlade then asked for Mrs. Wingrove, and ton came into view, and the postboy, puton being informed that she was staying ting his cattle to their speed, dashed up to with her own family at King's Parade, near Walton House, in what he considered firstBristol, he took his leave without mention-rate style. Slade was present, certainly, at our consultation, but we carried everything unanimously without troubling him to vote: " he had nothing to do with the laws but to obey ing the real object of his visit. He then Miss Walton and myself were acquaintcalled on Mrs. W., and had a long inter-ed in five minutes. It has been a main view. Here he went at once to the point, point with me to acquire a good off-hand by requesting to know whether the report confident manner, and fortunately the lady of Mr. W.'s insanity was true? The lady, was a great admirer of that style. Mr. apparently in great distress, admitted that it was so. She then detailed a variety of instances, strange and eccentric no doubt, but scarcely amounting to absolute derangement, even on her own statement. them." However, she had evidently shaken Slade's Mem. Four o'clock is the regular dinner opinion as to his benefactor's state of hour. Capital Wye salmon, Madeira firstmind, especially as she proposed of her own accord that he should visit the patient and judge for himself. This was two days ago, and he was expecting a summons to Henbury every hour. P.S. Mrs. Wingrove has just written to rate. Mrs. Walton and Miss Louisa Walton made up the party; but the old lady went to bed before Slade and I joined the tea-table. Rather dull evening; no whist. 19th.-Glorious day. The Misses Wal "Well,” exclaimed Miss Walton, in an exasperated tone, "I am surprised. I did not think you would have sided with that John Clarke-you who owe so much to Mr. Wingrove, besides being a clergyman. I am sure, Mr. D., you see what the man is?" King's Parade is but a short distance from the Downs, and I was soon at the house. I sent up my card with a message, to say I had called on particular business, and after a short delay the lady made her appearance. ton, Slade, and myself, took a most delight- Here Slade, with great want of tact, observful drive by Kingsweston Hill, Blaize ed that Mr. Clarke appeared to be a fair Castle, and Henbury Cottages. At Mr. and candid man; and that so far, at least, Wingrove's prison-house Slade and I got we knew nothing against him. out, while the ladies continued their drive, promising to call for us in an hour. Knocked at the door, and were told by the servant that Mr. Wingrove was too ill to be seen, but that Mr. Clarke would take any message for him. Slade gave his card, and we were ushered into the study, where "A rascal, unquestionably, my dear mathe nephew was sitting before a desk with dam, a most decided rascal;" and the lady, a pile of books around him. I remained appeased by this cordial sympathy, threw purposely incog., in order to get a notion herself back with a bounce, and a “Humph! of the sort of animal we had to deal with, I should think so, indeed!" at the same time and the result of my observations was by raising her left eyebrow, and looking at no means favourable. Mr. John Clarke was Slade with an air of great disgust. The rather above the middle size, with a large worthy parson, much annoyed at Miss W.'s head, deep-set eyes, and massive forehead; brusque and somewhat rude attack, endeavhis face had the even healthy paleness of a oured to explain his sentiments; but he well shaved Quaker; but from the watch·|might have spared himself the trouble. She ful, cautious glance, that "spying all seem- was one of those persons with whom modered nought to spy," the ready smile on the ation is but another word for hostility or inlips, while there was none in the eyes, and difference. At the foot of the Downs I got the rapid change of countenance, from deep out to pay a visit to Mrs. Wingrove, with a gravity to open mirth, I suspected him to strong injunction from Miss Walton, at partbe a long-headed, scheming, hollow-heart-ing, "to let the woman know we were detered man, with no small share of unscrupu- mined to expose her." lous ambition. To all Slade's inquiries he answered in a manner so plausible and studiously candid, that I was convinced he was acting a part for some purpose or other; and as my friend was evidently making no way, I thought it time to intro- She was a good-looking personable woduce myself as a professional man, retain- man, apparently about eight-and-twenty, ed by Mr. Wingrove's friends to satisfy placid and reserved in her manner, with fine them as to his alleged insanity. At this dark eyes, and a good natured, sensible exannouncement his face underwent one of pression of countenance. As soon as she its sudden changes; and though he soon understood that I was a lawyer employed by recovered his smooth and ready smile, yet | Slade (nominally) to investigate the legality there was a guarded manner, a contraction of her husband's confinement, she seemed of the eyelids, and a slow steady way of very anxious and disturbed. I could hardly speaking, which showed his consciousness get a word from her, and it was quite eviof an enemy. He professed great surprise dent that she considered me a dangerous that Mr. W.'s friends could think such a animal, to be treated with the utmost caution. step desirable, and inquired if Mrs. Win- "Mr. Wingrove's state of mind was a most grove had sanctioned it. I admitted that unhappy circumstance; she had taken no she was not aware of our intentions; and steps without the concurrence of her friends, he took advantage of this avowal to decline and his own nephew; if there was anything entering upon the subject, or giving any wrong or improper in what had been done, information. I then demanded to know it was quite unintentional. She could give distinctly whether his uncle was under restraint in that house, on the plea of his being insane; and after some hesitation, recollecting, probably, that Mrs. W. had already said as much to Slade, he allowed that it was so. He was then told that application would be made to Mrs. W. for an interview with her husband; and, in case of refusal, that legal measures would be resorted to. With this hint we left Mr. Clarke to his ruminations, and walked towards Westbury, until the carriage met us. Miss Walton was greatly disappointed at On my way back to Shirehampton, howso lame and impotent a result. She ex-ever, my fit of gallantry wore off, and I felt pected something on the thunder and light- persuaded from the extreme reluctance to ning principle; said we should have forced let Mr. Wingrove be seen, Clarke referring our way into Mr. Wingrove's room in spite us to Mrs. W., and she again to Clarke, the of them, and have turned that abominable caution they both observed, and the latter's John Clarke out of the house altogether. evident dread of publicity, that somebody no answer about seeing Mr. W., until she consulted with her friends; but if Mr. Clarke agreed to it, she had no objection," &c. I hinted the disagreeableness of a public inquiry which must be resorted to if full information were not given; but the mention of it distressed her so much that I was annoyed with myself for making the suggestion, and took my leave as soon as possible, feeling very much as if I had stolen a goose or picked a pocket-it is such a bore to act the attorney towards a woman. 20th.-Sent a note this morning to Mr. Clarke, stating that Mrs. Wingrove had been consulted, and left everything to him, and that Slade and myself would call in the evening to have an interview with Mr. Wingrove. Walked about the gardens, and up to Penpole Point, from which there is a beautiful view down the Bristol Channel, with the Welsh hills on one side, and the Somersetshire coast on the other. Slade and Miss L. Walton very companionable. As we came back through the village Miss Walton took me into the house of a poor woman, who made great complaints of the hard work and hard fare she and her children endured; she could not always get bread enough to eat, and a drop of milk was quite a luxury; as to meat, they never saw such a thing, &c. Three of her children were in the room, but their dirty appearance, and the mother's whining voice indisposed me to that pity which induced Miss Walton to promise a supply of bacon and a Sunday dinner. Unfortunately for them, just as we were leaving, a little Blenheim spaniel of Miss Louisa's, by snuffing and pushing at a wooden bowl which Slade then tried him on the subject of lay in the corner, overset it, and disclosed charity, and he at once avowed his opinion the fresh picked bones of a neck of mutton. that living within one's income was a Anything like the abuse Miss Walton show- deadly sin; it was refusing to do good to ered on the woman at this discovery I never others, in order to fortify a place for ourheard from a lady's lips. I was in the act selves inaccessible to poverty and sufferof laughing at the whole scene, when she ing; it was an attempt to get out of the jusuddenly appealed to me whether there was risdiction of Providence, to render ourever any thing so abominable. Luckily one selves independent of Heaven for daily of the children, a boy of twelve or thirteen, bread, &c.; and so he went on with great was just passing by me to the door, so I re- fervour and eloquence to show that making trieved my character, by lending him a box fortunes, or retaining them when readyon the ear that sounded fearful, thus afford-made, was gross selfishness, quite incoming an undeniable proof of zeal against the hypocritical family. [This story about the neck of mutton every visitor at Walton House is sure to hear, even at this day.] had done something wrong somewhere. His forehead rose up in a peak, from which This was too lukewarm a conclusion for the head sloped backwards in a most cuMiss Walton, so I kept up her expectations rious way; all his features were thin, fineof what we were going to do by mysterious drawn, and spiritual, corresponding excelnods, screwing up the mouth, and vague in- lently with his meagre but well proportioned timations of strong measures in reserve-a figure. Altogether he reminded me of Don species of silent eloquence which every pro- Quixote in his personal appearance; nor fessional man finds eminently useful. was the resemblance in other points less striking, for, like the good knight of La Mancha, he evidently possessed a noble heart and high intellect, though some phantom of the brain might have led them both astray. His reception of Slade was very cordial, and for a time his manner was quite animated as he questioned him on his present pursuits. "I had intended," he remarked, "to have provided you with a pulpit of your own, but it was not to be;" and again he relapsed into his usual passive mood of unnatural resignation. Perceiving that Slade felt a delicacy in referring to his situation, he spoke of it himself, declaring that he was in his sound mind, and only confined there because worldly people could not understand the principles of a religious man. "It was a great trial," he continued, "when I found my own wife had turned against me; but it is a just judgment—a just judgment upon me for marrying a woman of the world. She thinks it right, and I forgive her thoroughly and entirely, yet pitying the blindness of heart that could think the relief of misery a mark of insanity." After dinner the whole party drove over to Henbury, and when Slade and myself got out at Mr. Wingrove's place of confinement, I was greatly amused to see Mr. John Clarke, with his blandest smile, go up to the carriage door, and invite the ladies to rest and refresh themselves. Miss Louisa declined the offer with cold politeness, but her sister looked at the man in utter amazement at his effrontery, and desired the coachman to drive on in a tone that ought to have annihilated John Clarke at once. That gentleman, however, returned with great coolness, still preserving his cold stereotyped smile, and after some little preparation, we were at length admitted to an interview with the supposed madman. Mr. Wingrove was a man about forty, with a pale attenuated face and long sleek hair, something like the portraits of John Wesley, patible with the wide benevolence of a Christian. Slade argued the matter for some time, but with so little success that I thought the mad gentleman had the best of it; he supported his theory by very strong reasons, though of course it must be untrue, because impracticable in the present state of things. He then expressed his entire resignation to what had befallen him, said he should make no attempt to regain his liberty, and concluded by gratefully acknowledging the attachment of his nephew, who had given up everything to come and live with him in his affliction. I fixed my eye steadily on Clarke while this was said, and observed that he winced considerably. After an hour's conversation we left Mr. W. in the same mood; but previously to leaving the house I asked the nephew for the sight of the authority under which his uncle was confined. To my surprise, there was no order from any court or ma gistrate whatever; nothing but a certificate altogether a steady-going, respectable old of two physicians, that Mr. W. was insane, gig; or, as Mr. Hook would say, a gig with and ought to be taken care of. I am sure that cannot be legal. Upon the whole, my impression is that Mr. Wingrove is not mad, so as to justify depriving him of liberty, and that there is some plot against him, in which both the wife and the nephew are concerned, though what the motive can be is beyond my fathoming. I must find out how the property was settled on his marriage. Mem. Who was the solicitor employed? During the evening Miss Walton bored me not a little about the best method of prosecuting the neck-of-mutton woman, and getting John Clarke transported. At length the rector dropped in, and was immediately assailed with a true and particular account of his parishioner's hypocritical imposture, under cover of which I slipped off to join Slade and Miss Louisa at the piano. 21st. Went into Bristol to see Mr. Wingrove's former attorneys. The junior partner is fortunately a friend of the Wal. tons, and gave me some valuable hints under the rose. He says Mr. W.'s landed property is settled in such a way that Clarke, the nephew, will come in for it, provided his uncle has no children, and does not go through a legal ceremony, called a recovery; so that Clarke's interest in keeping up a separation, and treating Mr. W. as insane, is quite obvious. The estates, he says, are worth about 2,000l. a year, and there were also two years ago about 80,000l. in the funds. Mrs. Wingrove's family are not rich, but have enough to maintain a fair station in society, and are very respectable people. Believes the settlement was small, owing to Mr. W.'s peculiar opinions, &c. So far I felt we had gained ground; but on mentioning that Mr. Wingrove was detained on no better authority than a certificate by two physicians, he startled me considerably by asserting that nothing more was necessary, and on referring to the act of parliament I found he was right. "Any two medical practitioners, each of them being a physician, surgeon, or apothecary;" and the sole protection for the person said to be insane is, that the keeper must send up to London every year a certificate of the patient's state, to be seen only by the secretary of state or the lord chancellor. I told him the names of the medical men, and he recognised one of them as a physician in good practice, and the other as an apothecary much patronised by the former; so off I set to try what could be done with these arbitrary judges. The apothecary lived near College Green, on the way to the doctor's house in Park Street, and I bore down on him first. He was a low square sort of a man, with a shiny bald head fringed with light hair, dressed in black, with a frilled shirt, white cravat, and a very baggy drooping coat; lamps, taking into consideration his large spectacles. The moment he understood my business, he eschewed all interference with uncommon humility, and threw everything on Dr. D.'s shoulders, whose talents he trumpeted as zealously as if he expected me to become a patient, and get my prescriptions made up at his shop. I soon left him to roll his pills at ease, and walked up the hill to his patron. Dr. D. was a little man with a lively grey eye, rapid pronunciation, and moved on springs. "Yes, yes," he nodded before I had got out a dozen words, "I see, I see-come from Mr. Wingrove's friends. Seen him yet?" "I had an interview yesterday, and I must say "Ah, you think him all right, I dare say -quiet and rational, and all that. You don't know their tricks, my dear sir, you don't know them: it is a most decided case of monomania-touch him on the right point, and he is as mad as a March hare." "But surely, sir," I remarked, "he ought not to be confined unless his insanity is dangerous, and he seems to be perfectly harmless." "Harmless!" repeated the doctor, wrinkling his forehead up to the top; "harmless! Would have ruined himself and all the family by this time. Threw away money by hatfuls. Saw a beggarman one day, had him in, and gave him a dinner, which was very well, you know-very well; but he got talking with him, and beggar. man said he had been a thief, and everything that is bad, all owing to want and distress. Well, up goes Wingrove to his cabinet, pulls out a great bag of sovereigns, and told beggarman to put in his hand and take out as many as he could. Asked him why, and he said that sudden prosperity might open man's heart, and make him honest, and grateful, and so on. Think that harmless?" said the little doctor, rattling some money in his own pocket with an air that seemed to defy any beggarman to get a halfpenny of it; "that like a man in his senses, eh? Mad, my dear sir―mad, decidedly mad. Shut him up, and take care of him-that's the only thing to be done." Finding I could make no impression on the doctor, I determined to consult Mr. S., one of the barristers residing in Bristol, as to the best legal course to pursue. I found him at his chambers near the exchange, and, though rather an uncouth mortal, he showed good sense and good feeling too in the course of our consultation. A petition to the chancellor he seems to think the best legal method of relief, as the mode of examination under a habeas corpus is very unsatisfactory. He then read me, by way of a curiosity merely, the MS. note of a case where a supposed madman had been carried off by force from his keepers, difficulties encountered in getting at the and a villainous conspiracy to deprive him truth, since both the person and the papers of liberty thereby exposed. This was done of the party were in possession of the enemy. without note or comment, but it was evi- No help could be expected from Dr. D., and dent that the sagacious old gentleman there seemed to be no other regular way of meant it as a hint to me, though he would proceeding except by an application to channot commit himself by open advice. cery, which would not only be troublesome and expensive, but would also keep Mr. W. imprisoned for some time longer, besides exposing him to the annoyance of a public inquiry. Here I paused for a reply. 23d.-Two more days spent in bustling about, questioning this man, sifting that, and doing nothing after all. Quære, whether there would really be much risk in carrying him off bodily? It would be a queer thing too. "There is another," I replied, "though hardly such as a lawyer can recommend. We might go to the cottage, take him away by force, and let them appeal to the courts if they dare." "If there is to be a public inquiry," said Miss Walton, "I know who has most reason 25th.-To-day (Monday) I went again to be afraid. I should like to see John Clarke to see my friend the apothecary. As I and that woman face to face with the dear talked big about a public commission, strict good man, and all the world by to hear them." inquiry, &c. he remarked, though in rather "It would scarcely be advisable though," an apprehensive tone, that his share in remarked Slade," "for poor Mr. Wingrove, the business could hardly be questioned, unless there is no other way." since he had letters froin Mr. Wingrove's own nephew, stating his uncle's madness in the strongest terms, and requesting him to sign the certificate. It struck me this might be of use, so I changed my tone, expressed regret at putting a professional man to inconvenience, intimated a high opinion of his respectability, and a peculiar regard for apothecaries in general. I then set him going on chemical subjects, and admired in a clergyman." greatly the model of a life-boat, which he had invented, until the worthy pill vender, whose head was brighter outside than in, readily gave me the nephew's letter, on an assurance of receiving no further trouble in the matter. Well "Thus far our arms with victory are crowned; For though we have not fought, yet have we found 26th. It is resolved I shall call a council of war this very evening. When the ladies left us after dinner, I hinted to Slade that the time had come for more vigorous measures, which might be attended with some risk to himself, as the most prominent party concerned. He did not seem to like my preface much, but at the same time expressed his resolution to undergo anything for the sake of his benefactor. We then adjourned to the drawingroom, and held a council, Slade and Miss Louisa W. sitting on the sofa, while Miss Walton and myself drew our chairs to the tea-table. No," said Slade, in a tone of unusual decision, "I cannot be a party to such a scheme. It might lead to personal violence, and at all events would be highly indecorous 66 Oh, certainly not," echoed Miss Louisa; "it would be exceedingly unbecoming." Miss W. was on the point of bursting out against these renegades, when I suggested that perhaps she and I might settle the matter by ourselves better than in Slade's presence, whose profession naturally rendered and his fair companion took the hint readihim averse to strong measures. My friend ly enough, and soon disappeared in the conservatory, leaving me to pour "into the porches of Miss Walton's ears" the confidential announcement. The terrors of the court of chancery, the expense, and the trouble that might befall her, if Mr. W. should prove to be really insane, were all fully depicted; but she heroically braved them all, and the next evening was fixed for our adventurous achievement. Slade was to know nothing of it until we brought Mr. W. in triumph to Walton house. 27th. The eventful evening arrived. Two boys from the Sunday school hadbeen sent off in the morning to keep watch over the cottage at Henbury, well provided with I produced from my pocket a bundle of remnants of the last regale, in the shape of papers tied with red tape, arranged them lumps of pudding, triangles of pie, tartlets, gravely before me, shifted them about here cakes, and a bottle of cider, the sight of and there, rustled open two or three of the which rendered them zealous exceedingly. letters, and when Miss W. had become suf- Miss Walton proposed that I should take ficiently nervous at my multifarious prepa- the barouche, with four horses and two ration, I opened the case with all due form. footmen behind, besides the gardener, armality. Mr. Wingrove's confinement, the ed with a blunderbuss; she even hinted suspicion of foul play somewhere, and the at accompanying the expedition in person, probability that the wife and nephew were nor was it without some difficulty I perconcerned, were the first points dilated on. suaded her to remain in garrison, and sufThe nephew's part in the transaction was fer me to manage the affair my own way. I clear from his interest in Mr. W.'s property, had the barouche closed up, two horses only, and from his letters to the spring-headed no gardeners or blunderbuss, though the apothecary, the reading of which produced two footmen had stout sticks, if occasion a great effect; then came a statement of the should arise; and in this way, with little of |