Memoirs of James Hardy Vaux/Volume 1/Chapter 1
MEMOIRS
OF
JAMES HARDY VAUX.
CHAPTER I.
IT may be expected that, like other biographers, I should give some account of my ancestors. This I can but imperfectly do; for the volatility of my disposition, and the early age at which I left my friends, prevented me from ever making pointed inquiries on the subject. Family pride I have ever considered as the most ridiculous of all human weaknesses. However, as I am writing facts, be it known, that my progenitors, by the mother's side, were of no mean rank; my great-great-grandmother, Dorothy, the daughter of Sir Thomas Hartopp, Bart. of Ragby, or Ragley Castle, in ———shire, was united, after a long and romantic courtship, to a gentleman named Yonge, and from this union sprang a very respectable family, the Yonges of ———shire, who are still of some consequence in that county. This scrap of genealogy I should probably have been unacquainted with, but for the circumstance of two original love-letters, interchanged between the parties above-mentioned, during the period of their courtship, and still preserved in the family as antiques. These epistles are written in the most pathetic strain, and, allowing for the age in which they were composed, abound in elegant diction. My grandmother, Dorothy Yonge, married Mr. Lowe, a respectable attorney of the court of King's-Bench, who for many years filled the office of clerk to the warden of the Fleet, and had, besides, a very extensive private practice. The only issue of this marriage was my mother, who was brought up with the most affectionate tenderness, and well educated. By what means she became acquainted with my father, who was from a very distant county, I never learnt; but she was united to him in the year 1781, and, as I have reason to think, against the advice and will of her parents, my father being of a family much less respectable, and, at the time of his marriage, in no higher situation than that of butler and house-steward to Mr. Sumner, a member of parliament, whose estate was situated near Guilford, in Surrey; where my mother, it appears, went to reside after her union, of which I was the first fruits, being born at the village of East Clandon, on the 20th of May, 1782. My father shortly afterwards quitted the family of Mr. Sumner, and obtained a similar post in the service of Sir Richard Hill, Bart., with whom he continued several years.
In the year 1785, my grandfather, being advanced in life and naturally fond of domestic retirement, quitted the profession to which, by his integrity and honour, he had long been an ornament; and prevailing on my parents to commit me to his care, removed with my grandmother to S——— in S———shire, I being then about three years of age. In this neat little town, surrounded by the relatives of my grandmother, and many friends of his own, my grandfather having served his clerkship in the county, this worthy and truly virtuous couple enjoyed, for several years, uninterrupted happiness, their only care being centred in the education and indulgence of their grandson, of whom they every day became more extravagantly fond.
As my years increased, I was transferred from the preparatory school, at which I had been first placed, to a respectable seminary in the town, one of the best the county afforded, where I received the rudiments of a general education, and my capacity for learning endeared me still more to my indulgent friends. The imprudence of my mother's conduct had much lessened her in the affectionate esteem of her parents; nor did her subsequent behaviour, I believe, tend to restore her or recommend my father to their good opinion; so that their correspondence grew every year less frequent, and at length settled in a formal coldness on both sides. What may appear more unnatural, though not uncommon, is, that in proportion as the kindness and liberality of my grand-parents towards me increased, the affection of my father and mother diminished; and, as they had several children afterwards, I soon became an object, if not of aversion, at least of indifference. Of these children, two brothers and a sister died in their infancy, and two sisters younger than myself are still living.
Nothing worth record occurred during my continuance in Sshire. I passed my hours of relaxation, like other children, in harmless sports, but attended with avidity to my lessons when at school; and indeed as soon as I was capable of understanding, my chief delight was in reading books of an entertaining nature, from all of which I derived more or less instruction. I even preferred this rational amusement to the childish games of my young companions, from which my good friends prognosticated that I should become a great man. I must confess that I was already a spoiled child; but I did not abuse the indulgence I met with, by any irregular or vicious conduct, nor did I betray any symptoms of latent depravity, or indicate any wicked propensities. I hope my readers will believe this assertion when I relate by what gradations I fell from the path of rectitude, and when I account for the causes which actuated me to pursue a course of dishonesty. My principal delight, when very young, was to frequent the only bookseller's shop our little town afforded, where I would stand for hours reading, or rather devouring, whatever books, or, as my dear grandfather termed it, mental food, I could lay hold of. There was also an old woman who had a circulating library, consisting of about a hundred volumes, chiefly novels, to whom I disbursed every sixpence and shilling I received for pocket money. My parents, indeed (for by this term I shall in future, for brevity's sake, call my grandfather and grandmother, as it is from them only I ever experienced parental affection; they, I say) did not wholly approve of this indiscriminate passion for reading; fearing, and indeed with reason, as I am now convinced, that I should meet with matter tending to vitiate a young mind (which has been justly compared to a sheet of white paper, open to receive and retain the first impressions), and to inculcate romantic notions of men and manners. Though I subscribe to the justice of this idea in general, yet I firmly believe it was owing to this course of reading that I very early acquired a knowledge of the world, surprising in one so young; and that when I soon after launched into the ocean of life, I was on my guard against many of the deceptions of the designing part of mankind and enabled to avoid or defeat them. My beloved parents, indeed, suspected not the errors to which I was becoming daily a stronger proselyte. My grandfather, whom I believe to have been as perfect a character and as good a christian as nature ever formed, inculcated both by precept and example, the love and practice of piety and virtue; and, above all, an inflexible adherence to honesty. He possessed many peculiarities of habit as well as principle, several of which I inherit from him;—would to Heaven I inherited his virtues!
My volatile disposition was early manifested by my want of stability or steady application to any particular employment or pursuit. Like Robinson Crusoe, I felt a strong predilection for rambling into foreign countries, and had a longing desire to go to sea. This Arose from perusing the Voyages of Cooke, Anson, and other circumnavigators; so enraptured was I with their profession, that before I was twelve years old I had a pretty just notion of nautical manoeuvres, without having ever seen a ship, and had most sea-terms at my tongue's end. This rising inclination was, however, checked for a time by the dissuasions of my friends, who were alarmed at the bare thought of it, and by the inland situation of the county we resided in. Among my domestic amusements I practised drawing, for which I had a good natural genius; but happening to be famished with some prints of running horses for imitation, and being a great admirer of that noble animal, I suddenly turned my whole attention to this subject, in which I soon became a pretty good proficient, considering my youth and that I never had any master, and it appears to have been my forte. These prints having always the pedigree and performances of the animal subjoined, insensibly gave me a passion for racing, which became my next hobby-horse. I tow eagerly perused the Racing Calendar, took in the Sporting Magazine, purchased a Stud-Book[1]; and was so indefatigable in my researches, that, before I was fourteen, I could repeat the pedigree of any celebrated horse, and could discourse of handicaps, and give-and-take plates, of the Beacon Course, and the Devil's Ditch[2], with the fluency of a veteran jockey—and I actually stole a march from London to Newmarket in hopes of obtaining a situation in the racing stables; flattering myself that I might, like the great Dennis O'Kelly[3], whose life I had read, become in time a shining character on the turf; but I failed in this attempt to disgrace my friends, and degrade myself, as my youth and genteel appearance deterred the persons to whom I applied from listening to my request.
I shall now resume the thread of my narrative. After six years' residence at S, my grandfather was prevailed on, by the solicitations of my father and mother, to return to London, and reside with them. My father, from whom I probably derived my disposition to instability, had by this time quitted the service of Sir Richard Hill, and established himself in the hat and hosiery business in Great Turnstile, Holborn. How this chimerical project occurred to him, I know not, as he certainly had been bred to no trade; however, he was sanguine in his hopes of success. He had taken a good house and shop, and on our arrival in town, we found the family very comfortably established. I was introduced to my two surviving sisters, who were pretty, lively girls, and my father and mother received me with a shew of great affection.
I was now turned of nine years old, and shortly after our arrival, was placed by my grandfather at a respectable boarding-school at Stockwell,in Surrey, and my sisters were soon afterwards settled by their father at one equally genteel at Oakingham, in Berkshire. As I shall not have occasion to say much more of these girls, I shall now briefly observe that they received a good female education, learning French and the other fashionable accomplishments of the age. Their capacities were good; they were both more than agreeable in their persons, and their dispositions uncommonly sweet.