Lady Denham was indeed a great lady beyond the common wants of society12 - for she had many thousands a year to bequeath, and three distinct sets of people to be courted by; her own relations, who might very reasonably wish for her original thirty thousand pounds among them, the legal heirs of Mr Hollis, who must hope to be more indebted to her sense of justice than he had allowed them to be to his, and those members of the Denham family, whom her second husband had hoped to make a good bargain for. - By all of these, or by branches of them, she had no doubt been long, and still continued to be, well attacked; - and of these three divisions, Mr Parker did not hesitate to say that Mr Hollis' kindred were the least in favour and Sir Harry Denham's the most - The former, he believed, had done themselves irremediable harm by expressions of very unwise and unjustifiable resentment at the time of Mr Hollis's death; - the latter, to the advantage of being the remnant of a connection which she certainly valued, joined those of having been known to her from their childhood, and of being always at hand to preserve their interest by reasonable attention. Sir Edward, the present baronet, nephew to Sir Harry, resided constantly at Denham Park; and Mr Parker had little doubt, that he and his sister Miss Denham who lived with him, would be principally remembered in her will. He sincerely hoped it - Miss Denham had a very small provision - and her brother was a poor man for his rank in society.
'He is a warm friend to Sanditon -' said Mr Parker - 'and his hand would be as liberal as his heart, had he the power. - He would be a noble coadjutor! - As it is, he does what he can - and is running up a tasteful little cottage ornee,13 on a strip of waste ground Lady Denham has granted him, which I have no doubt we shall have many a candidate for, before the end even of this season.'
Till within the last twelve-month, Mr Parker had considered Sir Edward as standing without a rival, as having the fairest chance of succeeding to the greater part of all that she had to give - but there was now another person's claims to be taken into account, those of the young female relation, whom Lady Denham had been induced to receive into her family. After having always protested against any such addition, and long and often enjoyed the repeated defeats she had given to every attempt of her relations to introduce this young lady, or that young lady as a companion at Sanditon House, she had brought back with her from London last Michaelmas a Miss Brereton, who bid fair by her merits to vie in favour with Sir Edward, and to secure for herself and her family that share of the accumulated property which they had certainly the best right to inherit.
Mr Parker spoke warmly of Clara Brereton, and the interest of his story increased very much with the introduction of such a character. Charlotte listened with more than amusement now; - it was solicitude and enjoyment, as she heard her described to be lovely, amiable, gentle, unassuming, conducting herself uniformly with great good sense, and evidently gaining by her innate worth, on the affections of her patroness. - Beauty, sweetness, poverty and dependence, do not want the imagination of a man to operate upon. With due exceptions - woman feels for woman very promptly and compassionately. - He gave the particulars which had led to Clara's admission at Sanditon, as no bad exemplification of that mixture of character, that union of littleness with kindness with good sense with even liberality which he saw in Lady Denham.
After having avoided London for many years, principally on account of these very cousins, who were continually writing, inviting and tormenting her, and whom she was determined to keep at a distance, she had been obliged to go there last Michaelmas with the certainty of being detained at least a fortnight. - She had gone to an hotel - living by her own account as prudently as possible, to defy the reputed expensiveness of such a home, and at the end of three days calling for her bill, that she might judge of her state. - Its amount was such as determined her on not staying another hour in the house, and she was preparing in all the anger and perturbation which a belief of very gross imposition there, and an ignorance of where to go for better usage, to leave the hotel at all hazards, when the cousins, the politic and lucky cousins, who seemed always to have a spy on her, introduced themselves at this important moment, and learning her situation, persuaded her to accept such a home for the rest of her stay as their humbler house in a very inferior part of London, could offer.
She went; was delighted with her welcome and the hospitality and attention she received from everybody - found her good cousins the Breretons beyond her expectation worthy people - and finally was impelled by a personal knowledge of their narrow income and pecuniary difficulties, to invite one of the girls of the family to pass the winter with her. The invitation was to one, for six months - with the probability of another being then to take her place; - but in selecting the one, Lady Denham had shown the good part of her character - for passing by the actual daughters of the house, she had chosen Clara, a niece - more helpless and more pitiable of course than any - a dependant on poverty - an additional burthen on an encumbered circle - and one, who had been so low in every worldly view, as with all natural endowments and powers, to have been preparing for a situation little better than a nursery maid.
Clara had returned with her - and by her good sense and merit had now, to all appearance secured a very strong hold in Lady Denham's regard. The six months had long been over - and not a syllable was breathed of any change, or exchange. - She was a general favourite; - the influence of her steady conduct and mild, gentle temper was felt by everybody. The prejudices which had met her at first in some quarters, were all dissipated. She was felt to be worthy of trust - to be the very companion who would guide and soften Lady Denham - who would enlarge her mind and open her hand. - She was as thoroughly amiable as she was lovely - and since having had the advantage of their Sanditon breezes, that loveliness was complete.
CHAPTER 4
'And whose very snug-looking place is this?' - said Charlotte, as in a sheltered dip within two miles of the sea, they passed close by a moderate-sized house, well fenced and planted, and rich in the garden, orchard and meadows which are the best embellishments of such a dwelling. 'It seems to have as many comforts about it as Willingden.'
'Ah! -' said Mr Parker. - 'This is my old house - the house of my forefathers - the house where I and all my brothers and sisters were born and bred - and where my own three eldest children were born - where Mrs Parker and I lived till within the last two years - till our new house was finished. - I am glad you are pleased with it. - It is an honest old place - and Hillier keeps it in very good order. I have given it up you know to the man who occupies the chief of my land. He gets a better house by it - and I, a rather better situation! - one other hill brings us to Sanditon - modern Sanditon - a beautiful spot.14 - Our ancestors, you know always built in a hole. - Here were we, pent down in this little contracted nook, without air or view, only one mile and three quarters from the noblest expanse of ocean between the south foreland and the land's end, and without the smallest advantage from it. You will not think I have made a bad exchange, when we reach Trafalgar House - which by the bye, I almost wish I had not named Trafalgar - for Waterloo is more the thing now. However, Waterloo is in reserve - and if we have encouragement enough this year for a little crescent to be ventured on - (as I trust we shall) then, we shall be able to call it Waterloo Crescent - and the name joined to the form of the building, which always takes, will give us the command of lodgers -. In a good season we should have more applications than we could attend to.'
'It was always a very comfortable house -' said Mrs Parker - looking at it through the back window with something like the fondness of regret. - 'And such a nice garden - such an excellent garden.'
Yes, my love, but that we may be said to carry with us. - It supplies us, as before, with all the fruit and vegetables we want; and we have in fact all the comfort of an excellent kitchen garden, without the constant eyesore of its formalities; or the yearly nuisance of its decaying vegetation. - Who can endure a cabbage bed in October?'
'Oh! dear - yes. - We are quite as well off for gardenstuff as ever w
e were - for if it is forgot to be brought at any time, we can always buy what we want at Sanditon House. - The gardener there, is glad enough to supply us -. But it was a nice place for the children to run about in. So shady in summer!'
'My dear, we shall have shade enough on the hill and more than enough in the course of a very few years; - the growth of my plantations is a general astonishment In the mean while we have the canvas awning, which gives us the most complete comfort within doors - and you can get a parasol at Whitby's for little Mary at any time, or a large bonnet at Jebb's - and as for the boys, I must say I would rather them run about in the sunshine than not I am sure we agree my dear, in wishing our boys to be as hardy as possible.'
'Yes indeed, I am sure we do - and I will get Mary a little parasol, which will make her as proud as can be. How grave she will walk about with it, and fancy herself quite a little woman. - Oh! I have not the smallest doubt of our being a great deal better off where we are now. If we any of us want to bathe, we have not a quarter of a mile to go. - But you know,' (still looking back) 'one loves to look at an old friend, at a place where one has been happy. - The Hilliers did not seem to feel the storms last winter at all. - I remember seeing Mrs Hillier after one of those dreadful nights, when we had been literally rocked in our bed, and she did not seem at all aware of the wind being anything more than common.'
'Yes, yes - that's likely enough. We have all the grandeur of the storm, with less real danger, because the wind meeting with nothing to oppose or confine it around our house, simply rages and passes on - while down in this gutter15' nothing is known of the state of the air, below the tops of the trees - and the inhabitants may be taken totally unawares, by one of those dreadful currents which do more mischief in a valley, when they do arise than an open country ever experiences in the heaviest gale. - But my dear love - as to gardenstuff; - you were saying that any accidental omission is supplied in a moment by Lady Denham's gardener - but it occurs to me that we ought to go elsewhere upon such occasions - and that old Stringer and his son have a higher claim. I encouraged him to set up - and am afraid he does not do very well - that is, there has not been time enough yet. - He will do very well beyond a doubt - but at first it is uphill work; and therefore we must give him what help we can - and when any vegetables or fruit happen to be wanted - and it will not be amiss to have them often wanted, to have something or other forgotten most days; - just to have a nominal supply you know, that poor old Andrew may not lose his daily job - but in fact to buy the chief of our consumption of the Stringers.'
'Very well my love, that can easily be done - and cook will be satisfied - which will be a great comfort, for she is always complaining of old Andrew now, and says he never brings her what she wants. - There - now the old house is quite left behind. - What is it, your brother says about its being a hospital?'
'Oh! my dear Mary, merely a joke of his. He pretends to advise me to make a hospital of it. He pretends to laugh at my improvements. Sidney says anything you know. He has always said what he chose of and to us all. Most families have such a member among them I believe Miss Heywood. - There is a someone in most families privileged by superior abilities or spirits to say anything. - In ours, it is Sidney; who is a very clever young man, - and with great powers of pleasing. - He lives too much in the world to be settled; that is his only fault. - He is here and there and everywhere. I wish we may get him to Sanditon. I should like to have you acquainted with him. - And it would be a fine thing for the place! - Such a young man as Sidney, with his neat equipage and fashionable air, - you and I Mary, know what effect it might have: many a respectable family, many a careful mother, many a pretty daughter, might it secure us, to the prejudice of Eastbourne and Hastings.'
They were now approaching the church and the real village of Sanditon, which stood at the foot of the hill they were afterwards to ascend - a hill, whose side was covered with the woods and enclosures of Sanditon House and whose height ended in an open down where the new buildings might soon be looked for. A branch only, of the valley, winding more obliquely towards the sea, gave a passage to an inconsiderable stream, and formed at its mouth, a third habitable division, in a small cluster of fishermen's houses.
The village contained little more than cottages, but the spirit of the day had been caught, as Mr Parker observed with delight to Charlotte, and two or three of the best of them were smartened up with a white curtain and 'Lodgings to let' -, and farther on, in the little green court of an old farm house, two females in elegant white were actually to be seen with their books and camp stools - and in turning the corner of the baker's shop, the sound of a harp might be heard through the upper casement.
Such sights and sounds were highly blissful to Mr Parker. - Not that he had any personal concern in the success of the village itself; for considering it as too remote from the beach, he had done nothing there - but it was a most valuable proof of the increasing fashion of the place altogether. If the village could attract, the hill might be nearly full. - He anticipated an amazing season. - At the same time last year, (late in July) there had not been a single lodger in the village! - nor did he remember any during the whole summer, excepting one family of children who came from London for sea air after the whooping cough, and whose mother would not let them be nearer the shore for fear of their tumbling in.
'Civilization, civilization indeed! - ' cried Mr Parker, delighted - 'Look my dear Mary - Look at William Heeley's windows. - Blue shoes, and nankin boots!16 - Who would have expected such a sight at a shoemaker's in old Sanditon! - This is new within the month. There was no blue shoe when we passed this way a month ago. - Glorious indeed! - Well, I think I have done something in my day. - Now, for our hill, our health-breathing hill. -'
In ascending, they passed the lodge-gates of Sanditon House, and saw the top of the house itself among its groves. It was the last building of former days in that line of the parish. A little higher up, the modern began; and in crossing the down, a Prospect House, a Bellevue Cottage, and a Denham Place were to be looked at by Charlotte with the calmness of amused curiosity, and by Mr Parker with the eager eye which hoped to see scarcely any empty houses. - More bills at the window than he had calculated on - and a smaller show of company on the hill - fewer carriages, fewer walkers. He had fancied it just the time of day for them to be all returning from their airings to dinner - but the sands and the Terrace always attracted some - and the tide must be flowing - about half-tide now.
He longed to be on the sands, the cliffs, at his own house, and everywhere out of his house at once. His spirits rose with the very sight of the sea and he could almost feel his ankle getting stronger already. - Trafalgar House, on the most elevated spot on the down was a light elegant building, standing in a small lawn with a very young plantation round it, about a hundred yards from the brow of a steep, but not very lofty cliff - and the nearest to it, of every building, excepting one short row of smart-looking houses, called the Terrace, with a broad walk in front, aspiring to be the Mall of the place. In this row were the best milliner's shop and the library - a little detached from it, the hotel and billiard room - here began the descent to the beach, and to the bathing machines - and this was therefore the favourite spot for beauty and fashion.
At Trafalgar House, rising at a little distance behind the Terrace, the travellers were safely set down, and all was happiness and joy between Papa and Mama and their children; while Charlotte having received possession of her apartment, found amusement enough in standing at her ample Venetian window,17 and looking over the miscellaneous foreground of unfinished buildings, waving linen, and tops of houses, to the sea, dancing and sparkling in sunshine and freshness.18
CHAPTER 5
When they met before dinner, Mr Parker was looking over letters.
'Not a line from Sidney!' - said he. - 'He is an idle fellow. - I sent him an account of my accident from Willingden, and thought he would have vouchsafed me an answer. - But perhaps it implies that he is coming himself. - I trus
t it may. - But here is a letter from one of my sisters. They never fail me. - Women are the only correspondents to be depended on. - Now Mary,' (smiling at his wife) - 'before I open it, what shall we guess as to the state of health of those it comes from - or rather what would Sidney say if he were here? - Sidney is a saucy fellow, Miss Heywood. And you must know, he will have it there is a good deal of imagination in my two sisters' complaints - but it really is not so - or very little - They have wretched health, as you have heard us say frequently, and are subject to a variety of very serious disorders.19 - Indeed, I do not believe they know what a day's health is; - and at the same time, they are such excellent useful women and have so much energy of character that, where any good is to be done, they force themselves on exertions which to those who do not thoroughly know them, have an extraordinary appearance. - But there is really no affectation about them. They have only weaker constitutions and stronger minds than are often met with, either separate or together. - And our youngest brother who lives with them, and who is not much above twenty, I am sorry to say, is almost as great an invalid as themselves. - He is so delicate that he can engage in no profession. - Sidney laughs at him - but it really is no joke - though Sidney often makes me laugh at them all inspite of myself. - Now, if he were here, I know he would be offering odds, that either Susan, Diana or Arthur would appear by this letter to have been at the point of death within the last month.'