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OR,

WEEKLY

THE

VISITOR.

FOR THE USE AND AMUSEMENT OF BOTH SEXES.

VOL. XII.]

Saturday, December 1,....1810.

History of
KITTY WELLS.

(A TRUE STORY.)

NO. 6

sent down to her in the waggon, and the mother received her into her bosom with all the transports of unbounded affection. The two old people had been very happy when together, and they were not miserable when they parted. The husband said that his wife had strange megrims now and then, which he did not know how to describe; but which very near approached, in his opinion, to insanity. She also had her story, and said he was a dull, morose, plodding man, with only the vulgar qualities of honesty and industry to recommend him. In short, he was a simple, plain labourer-and she inherited a family obliquitya whirligig in the brain, as Mr. Charles Turner calls it, which hurried her occasionally into whimsical excesses. When they parted, therefore, there were no violent convulsions of grief, and during their absence they seldom or ever corresponded: they were very well satisfied if they heard once or She was twice in a year that they were

KITTY WELLS was the daughter of an honest pair, who lived in a low station in the village of Eltham, in Kent, about eight miles from London. Soon after her birth, her mother was engaged as housekeeper in a gentleman's family in Yorkshire, to which she removed, leaving her young daughter to the care of her father, who remained in their native place. The father, like most others of the same rank in life, thought nothing of his daughter's education; he provided for her the same decent maintainance that he had for himself,and by his daily labour made them both comfortable, at least, if not luxurious.About two years after the establishment of her mother in this northern family, she sent for her daughter, then about six years of age.

both alive and well; and he was quite happy when his old wife sent him up by the waggon a piece of hung beef or a tongue, to relish his beer, and prove, that she had not forgot him.

The good woman's distemper was very much fed by what is called the fun and the humbug of the large family in

which she lived.

There is a

the trim footman, and the pert chambermaid; an old maid is chased from every corner to which she retreats,and is found to take refuge, at last, either in the out-houses among brutes more human than those from whom she has retired; or to some unfortunate sister, driven like herself, from the abodes of men. A gentleman by which appellation every one is called, who has not had the good fortune, like themselves to sit in the one shilling gallery, and assist, by roaring and bellow

spirit of wanton wickedness alive and active in the breasts of a certain description of people, which urges them to mis-ing, at the damnation of a new chiefs of humour, as they are play a gentleman is condemcalled, but which are really ned to suffer all, that empty productive of severe calami- pride and little cunning can ties. The lazy domestics of inflict. In short, the manners large families are more than of a great man's hall are taintothers tinctured with this vice,ed with follies more disgustpampered and dissipated, ac-ing, even than those of his quainted with all the follies of the times, by the luxury of a winter residence in town, they play a thousand antic tricks for the sake of jollity as they practice a thousand debaucheries for the sake of enjoyment. If there is any ancient domestic, whose fidelity hath given him a sort of inheritance in the household, with all the simple honesty of a countryman, who never emigrated a dozen miles from the cottage in which he was born; he is sure of being made the butt for ridicule of "with dispositions towards one

drawing-room-in the one, my lord and my lady-and my lord and my lady's friends are politely complisant, and cheat one another out of their money, or whisper one another out of their reputation, with the most courteous and civil behaviour that can be imagined. In the other, there is a constant series of ill natured offices, by which they vex, torment, scratch, and pelt one another, with the best dispositions in the world, or rather

another neither good nor bad. In such a family it was that the mother of Kitty Wells resided as housekeeper.

By

would never condescend to speak, "Because it would ar

66

rogate from the indignation "of her rank, to hold aversion

slow degrees, they discovered" with such infernal sillies,” had a good deal of archness in his mind; and being instigated by the haughty deportment of the housekeeper, as well as by his natural love of humbug, he came home one evening from a route, given by the butler of Castle Howard, with a most important face. He looked with all the gravity of a man who labours under the pressure of a weighty secret-his natural levity was

her mind was disordered with an irregular and unfortunate addiction to gentility-she was constantly fancying herself the descendant of some great family her mind was so superior to her station, her views were so high, and her propensities so different from the vulgar. This was but an odd right on which to found her claim to gentility. But how many people are seen pretending to birth and rank with no better pre-gone-he was silent and cirtensions? how many miserable beings do we see rejecting every kindly offer that is made to assist them, because they are, or fancy themselves to be too much of gentlemen for the drugery of business? and for the honor of their families, they will rather starve as gentlemen, than submit to live as citizens, on the comforts of their industry. The maidenname of Kitty Wells's mother was Howe; the family in which she resided, lived in the neighbourhood of Castle Howard, the beautiful seat of the young Earl of Carlisle. One of the lowest of the servants, to whom Mrs. Wells

cumspect, and ever as Mrs. Wells passed him with her uplifted crest, he would lay his hand upon his breast, and make her a low bow, without daring to lift his eyes from the ground. The servants stared-the housekeeper was gratifiedand, in the course of half an hour, whisked into the hall six or seven times, to receive the reverence of Robin-upon all which occasions he started from his seat and repeated his bow. It was in vain for the servants to enquire the cause of this extraordinary conduct -he preserved his gravity, his silence, and his secret. The morning came, and Robin was

still as troubled in his mind,position of a glaring head, or

of a bloody hand. Just as I came to the pigeon-house, and was in all this confusion, I heard a flutter of something behind me, I started, stood still shook, and stared, but saw nothing. Well, I collected myself as well as I could, believed it was only a pigeon; and I crept away from the place; I had not gone a hundred yards, and just as I had made up my mind to believe that it was a

pigeon, I was stopped of a sudden by some invisible power. It came over me all at once, just like the night-mare; but some-how I was not so terrified as before, or rather I was pe

and as submissive to Mrs. Wells. After carrying on this gloomy farce for some days, and winding up to the utmost pitch the curiosity of the whole family, he suffered himself to be prevailed on by one of the dairy maids, a talkative girl, with whom he had an intrigue, to declare the whole of the mystery. After extorting from her a solemn promise of secrecy, which he very well knew she would without solemnity break, he told her a wonderful story of an apparation that had appeared to him on the night of the route. "In coming, says he, from the castle, down the long avenue, which is shad-trified,and was not able to use my ed with elms, I was not alto- feet at all. Robin,' said a voice, gether at my ease, for you that came from know not know there was always a story what : "Lord have mercy that a ghost has been seen upon me!" said I. "Robin wandering about the walls of don't be afraid," said the the castle-it was twelve voice. "Our father which o'clock, aud the night was dis- art in heaven!" said I.mally dark; there was not a Don't be afraid, Robin," it single star in all the heavens, repeated, "I am only a ghost, and there was no moon. and I have wandered up and whistled to keep myself from down this avenue, and round thinking-but it would not do the castle for this hundred -my hair somehow was unset- years and more. I am the tled-it felt as if it were brist- ghost of Charles Howard; the ling on my head-and I was unhappy Charles Howard, who constantly turning my eyes, by was said to have died an infant, compulsion, from one side to but who was really exposed another, attracted by the sup-and saved by accident. I was

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earried to Manchester, and brought up by the name of Howe, to the mean employment of a weaver, although I was the son of Castle Howard; and Mrs. Wells, Robin your housekeeper, is my granddaughter. Oh! that the granddaughter of Castle Howard should be reduced to the station of a menial servant, and that too under the very walls of her own seat! go, therefore, Robin, and contrive to make her leave a place where she cannot continue without degrading her ancestors. Robin, I shall never be happy 'till my grand-child leaves this spot. If she must be a servant, let it not be upon my own haunts, for I dare not leave them.” This was the secret with which Robin, was so full, he told it with great art, for he had an archness, accompanied with an easy cunning address, which he had acquired by living with a young barrister of the Middle

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story twenty times over, with the same inflexible muscles, and without altering a sylable of the ghost's narrative.— During all this time the other servants were watching at the door, listening, and anxious to catch a glimse of the scene transacting within. Mrs. Wells was so infatuated with the story, that in half an hour she came out perfectly ridiculous, dressed out, and bedizened with a profusion of taudry ornaments, in which the yellow was paramount, because the yellow was the lively of Howard. The servants now per

Temple. Just as he had imagined; the story was told, im-ceived the humbug, Robin was proved, heightened, and inflated to a pitch of terrific wonder in less than four hours. The same night at an hour the most favourable to superstition and credulity, the story was Communicated to the person

extolled, caressed, and for mere joy, the butler opened the best bin in the cellar, and treated the whole family with bumpers, to the health of Robin, and "his new-created lady in Mary Howard," any,

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