The Dear Inconstant
IT is 1.1 great pleasure to meet Dorothea Herbert once more— Those who enjoyed the first instalment of her deliciously amusing Retrospections will remember that when they -saw the last of her she had come to the end of her "teens'.' and was crossed in love. This second volume, opens in 1789. Many sisters and brothers fill the house, all are younger than herself. The youngest boy is thirteen, no one is yet twenty. The father who, it will be remembered, used to cry and roar with misery when the boys went back to school, is rector of Carrick-on-Suir in Ireland and holds also the living of Knock- grafton, twenty miles off, where he is obliged to reside during three months of each year. A double social life is thus enjoyed by the family all of whom are exceedingly lively and attractive.. Among the sisters, Fanny is (after Dorothea) the most distinct figure, " a stirring, notable pieee and a most -,fnectious and agreeable --companion."- -They_ for
pleasure, but the boys realize 'that some work is necessary to procure it, and all are ready for any amount of discomfort and adventure in its pursuit.
" Parties " of one sort and another were of continual occurrence both at Carrick and Knockgrafton and pretty scenes , they must have presented. Dressing up for them was a long business but the results were very fine
" Fanny and I wore pink lutestrings (a Present from Ned Eyre) with thin muslin trains and Black silk Bodices all handsomely trimmed with black lace and green ribbon with white plumes and other ornaments in our Heads. My Aunt Eyre. my Mother and Mrs. Bradshaw, were as fine as Hands and Pins could make them. Ned Eyre was one blaze of Brilliants from Top to Toe and cut a most curious figure wearing a pink lutestring suit adorned with quantities of Double Paste Buttons with Buckles and Knee Buckles to match."
The company was always in spirits at least to begin with.
After supper they were apt to tease one another and become what one can only describe as exceedingly naughty, even trying to make each other cry. - But then the suppers were very long and great rivalry existed as to who should offer the most dishes and we suppose drinks. There was one notable occasion when the Herterts had sixty-nine dishes on the table, but a rival hostess went one better even than this and she produced seventy. When there was no company, however, the bread was often short and a " very old goat " would be described as venison for many days.
Most of the guests were very young, the " pieces " ently almost children. " A beautiful little creature wild with spirits and very affable, but she curst and swore tre- mendously," had just finished her education at _fifteen or sixteen. Another " smart piece who set the gentlemen dying for her " seems to have been little older.
The fact that girls fainted and fell easily into hysterics does not seem to have prevented their having much pluck and endurance. Fanny (the " stirring " and " facetious piece ") went to England on a visit with a young brother. Finding themselves without sufficient money for the return journey, boy and girl determined to get back as they could. Most of the way they " footed it," But " sometimes they were relieved by a charitable set down in an idle carriage and some- times they mounted a wagon." Anyhow they got home safe and sound and surprised the family who imagined them still in London.
Political disturbances varied still further a life already far from dull. The Herberts were not politically minded.
They and most of their friends were as much afraid of the soldiers as of the " rebels." Nightraids and all sorts of horrors took place. " One night about twelve or one o'clock the whole village was alarmed by the dreadful sound of Hallooing and Galloping through the place. Nanno crept up to the Garret where we lay and found us all shivering with terror. We all sat down ' en chemise ' to Yell out our Despair." The whole business turned out to be a practical joke played by " a set of drunken half-gentlemen." The joke was from the point of view of these riotous fools very successful for next
morning most of our neighbours: were found hid in the ditches in a worse state- than ourselves." No one seems to have attempted any vengeance upon the buffoons.
But though the scenes are as lively as those described in the last diary the shadow of unrequited love hangs over poor Dorothea from first to last ! The poor thing suffers day and night fram " the, plague of the heart." We get sometimes rather tired of John Roc " the Dear Inconstant," whose " wit was fine, delicate and redundant " (sic) whose " sentiments were natural " whose " benevolence was un- affected " and whom no efforts On the, part of the lady availed " to fix." As Dorothea looks back she sees that he was never in earnest, that he was always amused by her devotion, and vulgar idle young squire that he was, not averse from amusing others by the spectacle of her distress. Sometimes one wonders if what would now be called the nervous breakdown which marks the end of hope, were not to some extent mental.
True she tells us that love died in her bosom when she heard of his " contemptible nuptials " but the death of love was certainly not the renewal of indifference. She still suffered and still found relief in tears and shrieks long after her friends had ceased to sympathiie and her family were sick and tired of the whole subject.
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