human
It is very bad, quoth he,
gpt
Do you think so? said the squire, softened.
human
Yet the top-boots--Stirn never wears top-boots.
gpt
No more do you, except in the hunting-field. If you look again, those are not tops, they are leggings,--Stirn wears leggings. Besides, that flourish, which is meant for a nose, is a kind of hook, like Stirn's; whereas your nose--though by no means a snub--rather turns up than not, as the Apollo's does, according to the plaster cast in Riccabocca's parlour.
human
Poor Stirn! said the squire, in a tone that evinced complacency, not unmingled with compassion,
gpt
That may protect the stocks certainly; but will it keep those detestable tracts out of the beer-house?
human
We shall shut the beer-house up the next sessions.
gpt
The tracts will break out elsewhere,--the humour's in the blood!
human
I've half a mind to run off to Brighton or Leamingtongood hunting at Leamington--for a year, just to let the rogues see how they can get on without me!
gpt
My dear Mr. Hazeldean, said the parson, taking his friend's hand,
human
I don't want to parade my superior wisdom; but, if you had taken my advice, 'quieta non movere!' Was there ever a parish so peaceable as this, or a country gentleman so beloved as you were, before you undertook the task which has dethroned kings and ruined States,--that of wantonly meddling with antiquity, whether for the purpose of uncalled-for repairs, or the revival of obsolete uses.
gpt
If it were to do again, faith, I would leave the parish to the enjoyment of the shabbiest pair of stocks that ever disgraced a village. Certainly I meant it for the best,--an ornament to the green; however, now the stocks is rebuilt, the stocks must be supported. Will Hazeldean is not the man to give way to a set of thankless rapscallions.
human
I think, said the parson,
gpt
What the plague has the House of Tudor got to do with my stocks?
human
A great deal. Henry VIII. found a subsidy so unpopular that he gave it up; and the people, in return, allowed him to cut off as many heads as he pleased, besides those in his own family. Good Queen Bess, who, I know, is your idol in history--
gpt
To be sure!--she knighted my ancestor at Tilbury Fort.
human
Good Queen Bess struggled hard to maintain a certain monopoly; she saw it would not do, and she surrendered it with that frank heartiness which becomes a sovereign, and makes surrender a grace.
gpt
Ha! and you would have me give up the stocks?
human
I would much rather the stocks had remained as it was before you touched it; but, as it is, if you could find a good plausible pretext--and there is an excellent one at hand,--the sternest kings open prisons, and grant favours, upon joyful occasions. Now a marriage in the royal family is of course a joyful occasion! and so it should be in that of the King of Hazeldean.