212520_The_Adve ... _Way_Through_The_World.pdf - OUDL Home

ON HIS WAY THROUGH THE WORLD 629
gathered round this manifesto, and we ourselves went out to examine
it. The " Ram " placard denounced, in terms of unmeasured wrath,
the impudent attempt from the Castle to dictate to the free and
independent electors of the borough. Freemen were invited not to
promise their votes; to show themselves worthy of their name;
to submit to no Castle dictation. A county gentleman of property,
OI influence, of Liberal principles—No WEST INDIAN, no CASTLE
FLUNKEY, but a TRUE ENGLISH GENTLEMAN, would come forward
to rescue them from the tyranny under which they laboured. On
this point the electors might rely on the word of A BRITON.
" This was brought down by the clerk from Bedloe's. He and
a newspaper man came down in the train with me ; a Mr. _________ "
As he spoke, there came forth from the " Ram," the newspaper
man of whom Mr. Bradgate spoke—an old friend and comrade of
Philip, that energetic man and able reporter, Phipps of the Daily
Intelligencer, who recognised Philip, and cordially greeting him,
asked what he did down here, and supposed he had come to
support his family.
Philip explained that we were strangers, had come from a
neighbouring watering-place to see the home of Philip's ancestors,
and were not even aware, until then, that an electioneering contest
was pending in the place, or that Sir John Ringwood was about to
be promoted to the peerage. Meanwhile, Mr. Bradgate's fly had
driven out of the hotel yard of the " Ringwood Arms," and the
lawyer, running to the house for a bag of papers, jumped into the
carriage and called to the coachman to drive to the Castle.
" Bon appétit !" says he, in a confident tone, and he was gone.
" Would Phipps dine with us ?" Phipps whispered, " I am on
the other side, and the ' Ram' is our house."
We, who were on no side, entered into the " Ringwood Arms,"
and sat down to our meal—to the mutton and the catsup, cauliflower
and potatoes, the copper-edged side-dishes, and the watery
melted-butter, with which strangers are regaled in inns in declining
towns. The town badauds, who had read the placard at the
" Ram," now came to peruse the proclamation in our window. I
daresay thirty pairs of clinking boots stopped before the one window
and the other, the while we ate tough mutton and drank fiery
sherry. And J. J., leaving his dinner, sketched some of the figures
of the townsfolk staring at the manifesto, with the old-fashioned
" Ram Inn " for a background—a picturesque gable enough.
Our meal was just over, when, somewhat to our surprise, our
friend Mr. Bradgate the lawyer returned to the " Ringwood Arms."
He wore a disturbed countenance. He asked what he could have
for dinner ? Mutton neither hot nor cold. Hum! That must do.