Bracebridge Hall, or The Humorists

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Washington Irving. Bracebridge Hall, or The Humorists

THE AUTHOR

THE HALL

THE BUSY MAN

FAMILY SERVANTS

THE WIDOW

THE LOVERS

FAMILY RELIQUES

AN OLD SOLDIER

THE WIDOW'S RETINUE

READY-MONEY JACK

BACHELORS

WIVES

STORY TELLING

THE STOUT GENTLEMAN

FOREST TREES

A LITERARY ANTIQUARY

THE FARM-HOUSE

HORSEMANSHIP

LOVE SYMPTOMS

FALCONRY

HAWKING

ST. MARK'S EVE

GENTILITY

FORTUNE-TELLING

LOVE-CHARMS

THE LIBRARY

THE STUDENT OF SALAMANCA

ENGLISH COUNTRY GENTLEMEN

A BACHELOR'S CONFESSIONS

ENGLISH GRAVITY

GIPSIES

MAY-DAY CUSTOMS

VILLAGE WORTHIES

THE SCHOOLMASTER

THE SCHOOL

A VILLAGE POLITICIAN

THE ROOKERY

MAY-DAY

THE MANUSCRIPT

ANNETTE DELARBRE

TRAVELLING

POPULAR SUPERSTITIONS

THE CULPRIT

FAMILY MISFORTUNES

LOVERS' TROUBLES

THE HISTORIAN

THE HAUNTED HOUSE

DOLPH HEYLIGER

THE STORM-SHIP

THE WEDDING

THE AUTHOR'S FAREWELL

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The reader, if he has perused the volumes of the Sketch-Book, will probably recollect something of the Bracebridge family, with which I once passed a Christmas. I am now on another visit to the Hall, having been invited to a wedding which is shortly to take place. The Squire's second son, Guy, a fine, spirited young captain in the army, is about to be married to his father's ward, the fair Julia Templeton. A gathering of relations and friends has already commenced, to celebrate the joyful occasion; for the old gentleman is an enemy to quiet, private weddings. "There is nothing," he says, "like launching a young couple gayly, and cheering them from the shore; a good outset is half the voyage."

Before proceeding any farther, I would beg that the Squire might not be confounded with that class of hard-riding, foxhunting gentlemen so often described, and, in fact, so nearly extinct in England. I use this rural title partly because it is his universal appellation throughout the neighbourhood, and partly because it saves me the frequent repetition of his name, which is one of those rough old English names at which Frenchmen exclaim in despair.

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The title of "an old family servant" carries with it a thousand kind associations, in all parts of the world; and there is no claim upon the home-bred charities of the heart more irresistible than that of having been "born in the house." It is common to see gray-headed domestics of this kind attached to an English family of the "old school," who continue in it to the day of their death, in the enjoyment of steady, unaffected kindness, and the performance of faithful, unofficious duty. I think such instances of attachment speak well for both master and servant, and the frequency of them speaks well for national character.

These observations, however, hold good only with families of the description I have mentioned; and with such as are somewhat retired, and pass the greater part of their time in the country.

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