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The History of Myself and My Friend,
A Novel: By Ann Plumptre.
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The Power that did create, can change the scene
Of things; make mean of great, and great of mean;
The brightest glory can eclipse with might,
And place the most obscure in dazzling light.
Milton.
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London. Colburn. 1813. 4 Vols. 12mo. - Taylor, Printer.
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The Authoress explains her reasons for giving her work the title of a History, in her preface and Dedication, part of which we shall therefore insert.
I had once proposed giving my work the title of Confessions, since I thought that The Confessions of Samuel Danville would look extremely well in a title page, and that is a very important consideration in composing a book. Besides, as I have confessed that a desire of notoriety is one of my leading motives in commencing author, this title seemed particularly appropriate. On reflecting, however, more deeply, it seemed to me that the days of Confessions were gone by; that the present are rather the days of Lives and Histories; and I am well aware that an author who writes from the pure love of fame, must study the prevailing fashions of the day, and even sacrifice to them, if necessary, the look of his title page. I have therefore preferred giving my work the title of a History.
To that public, then, whose interest I am so anxious to excite, whose entertainment I am so desirous to promote, this true HISTORY is very respectfully inscribed by
Their most obedient,
And, as I hope to become, through the immense sale of my book, most obliged humble servant,
Samuel Danville.
For the better comprehension of the story, it may not be improper to sketch a few of the principal characters in this novel. The Reverend Bernard Armstrong is a [628] very worthy man, whose happiness chiefly consists in promoting that of others. His youngest sister, Eleanor, is an amiable woman, and much attached to her brother. Katherine Middleton, her daughter by her first husband, is of a good disposition, and conducts herself, on a trying occasion, in a manner truly noble. Mr Carberry, Eleanor's second husband, is an honest, well-meaning man; is very fond of talking politics; and wishes to see his son, Maurice, make a figure in parliament. This young man is of a very extravagant, thoughtless disposition, and gives his father great uneasiness. Mr Armstrong's son, Walter, is of a giddy, unsettled disposition, but possesses a very good heart. His friend, Samuel Danville's father, is a blacksmith, and clerk of the parish: he is well read in the Scriptures, which he is fond of quoting, and is very desirous that his son should be in the church. Young Danville is a steady, good young man, but has a great objection to being a clergyman, which is in the end removed, and takes orders. The other characters require no particular notice.
This novel commences with a dialogue between Mr Worledge, the rector of Langham, and his cousin, Mr Anderson; the former is going abroad for the benefit of his health, and has employed Mr Anderson to procure a curate to supply his place during his absence; he recommends a fellow collegian, whose name is Bernard Armstrong; this young man has little more than his fellowship to depend upon, and has three sisters living with him, who have only a thousand pounds each; his elder brother is in possession of the family estates, and his second brother had been in India several years as a trader. Mr B Armstrong is established in the curacy, and is soon joined by his sisters, who behave with so much pride, that they are visited by very few families at Langham: these young ladies have been brought up at a boarding school in London, where they were only instructed in showy accomplishments, and could not even make a shirt, or a pudding, or cast up a sum in an account-book. A year and a half after their arrival at the rectory, Mr Armstrong and his sisters being at the house of Mr Conway, who is patron of the living, and squire of the parish, meet Mr Middleton, who is the minister of Ambresbury, a town distant from Langham only two miles; Mrs Middleton and her two daughters are present. A friendship commences between Eleanor Armstrong and Sophia Middleton. The Miss Armstrongs are at last made sensible of their deficiency in domestic occupations, and go to Mrs Middleton, who is an excellent housewife, for instruction: in return, Sophia becomes the pupil of Mr Armstrong; and, witnessing his kindness to his sisters, her heart becomes so deeply interested for him, that her health begins to suffer from the state of her mind. At the end of six years, Mr Worledge dies; and Mr Conway gives the living to Mr Armstrong. Three years after this event, the eldest Miss Armstrong is married to Mr Shelburne, an attorney at Warwick, and the second sister dies. Eleanor informs her brother of the state of Sophia's heart, and her declining health in consequence; he offers her his hand, which she accepts; and Laurence Middleton, who in his visits to his parents had become attached [629] to Eleanor, makes her proposals of marriage, which are accepted, and both weddings take place at the same time. Sophia survives her marriage only a year and a half - she leaves a son, who is named Walter. Samuel Danville is the only child of a blacksmith; and having none of the coarse habits common among children in a country village, is admitted by Mr Armstrong to the rectory, where he instructs him equally with his own son. In a few years Eleanor's husband dies, and leaves her with a daughter, named Katherine, and a son, named Bernard. Laurence Middleton had been, for some time previous to his death, in the service of Mr Carberry, a rich coal merchant; Eleanor applies to him to continue in her late husband's situation, which he [sic] does; and, in the course of his visits to her, becomes so much attached to her, that he marries her. He has one son by a former wife, whose name is Maurice. Two years after Eleanor's marriage, she loses her son, about a year before his death she became the mother of a boy, who is named Edward; and, two years after, of a girl, who is called Sophia. Samuel Danville, who has been placed in Christ's Hospital, frequently visits at Mr Carberry's house in Chatham Place, and instructs Katherine in Greek and Latin; his father is very anxious for him to be a clergyman, and, to oblige him, he goes to college for a year. Walter's father also wishes him to be in the church, but he declares his predilection for the profession of an artist. Mr Armstrong is taken dangerously ill, his sisters go to him, he discloses his fears for his son, who is of a very thoughtless, unsettled disposition. Mr Shelburne, who is going to reside in London, offers to make his house a home for Walter, which is accepted. Samuel returns from college, and is employed by Mr Carberry in his coal wharf, where he has apartments fitted up for him, and engages the superintendant to let him board with him. Mrs Shelburne, and her two daughters, after staying three months at Langham, join Mr Shelburne at a house he has taken in Lincoln's Inn Fields, and bring Walter with them; he, and his friend, Samuel, meet at Mr Carberry's, where Walter pays such marked attention to Katherine, (notwithstanding he has told Samuel that he is desperately in love with his cousin, Margaret Shelburne,) that young Danville, who is really attached to her, is quite discomposed; but thinking that the family might wish for a union to take place between her and Walter, resolves to absent himself, as much as possible, from Chatham Place. Maurice persuades his father to take chambers for him, and allow him five hundred pounds a year, but the Earl of Borrowdale, and his other honorable friends, make such large demands on his purse, that he is often obliged to draw on his father for fresh supplies. Samuel and Walter go to Brighton, with the intention of proceeding to Paris, but Samuel receives a severe hurt in his leg, in rescuing a lady, who is near being thrown from her horse, which confines him to his room; he is visited by his father, Mrs Carberry, and Katherine, who appears very unhappy on her mother's account, as her health visibly declines. Upon Samuel's recovery, Walter tells him, he has changed his mind, and does not intend to go to France, as he has given up [630] all thoughts of being a painter. Samuel goes to acquaint Mr Armstrong of the change in Walter's sentiments, and upon his return to him, finds he has again changed his mind, and means to return to the study of painting; though he does not intend to go abroad. Maurice, and his honorable friends, embark at Dover, for Paris, the very day that Mrs Carberry arrives in London for medical advice. After a long illness she dies in the arms of her husband and daughter. Maurice writes to his father for fresh supplies, but he refuses to be answerable for more money than will bring him to England. Samuel, going by St Andrew's church one morning early, sees Walter on the steps, with an elderly gentleman, and a lady; he enters the church with them, recognizes the lady as the Miss Bridport he had rescued at Brighton; and the gentleman as her uncle, Mr Bridport; a man enters the church, claims the lady as his wife, to the utter dismay of Mr Bridport, who, in attempting to make his escape, falls down the steps, and is carried home senseless. The lady and her husband are much agitated, and are taken to the clergyman's house till they are more composed. Walter goes with Samuel to his apartments at the wharf, where they find Mrs Fenton in great distress, as both her daughters have eloped. Samuel goes to inform Mr Shelburne of what has happened, and proceeds to Ely Place, where he finds that the lady's name is Corbett, not Bridport; he then goes to Bedford Row, where he sees Mr Corbett, who, finding he is Mr Armstrong's friend, begs to know his name and address. On entering the parlour, he sees Mrs Northington, who, after questioning him about Mr Bernard Armstrong's family, tells him that the gentleman, who went to St Andrew's church with his friend, is not named Bridport, but Northington, and is her husband; and that though he has behaved very ill to her, she does not mean to quit him till he no longer wants her cares. On Samuel's mentioning Mrs Northington's name to Walter, he discovers that she is the lady with whom Louisa Elliot resides; he had met this young lady some time before at a Ball, and been deeply smitten with her. Walter and his friend go to Langham; and upon Samuel's relating the events that had lately taken place, Mr Armstrong acquaints them with his early attachment to Mrs Northington, and accounts for her attention to his son some time before at the Shakespeare Gallery. On Samuel's return to London, he visits Mrs Northington; her husband requests to speak to him alone; he confesses that the young woman, who had passed for his niece, was a married woman, whom he had seduced from her husband; that, knowing Mrs Northington was attached to Mr Armstrong previous to her marriage, he wished to avenge himself on his son, and to unite him to Mrs Corbett, whom he had imposed upon by a feigned story of her husband's death. The Miss Fentons return home, as their lovers, finding they had no money independent of their father, leave them at Newcastle, where the master of the vessel places them under the protection of Mr Anderson, who is going to London in the same coach, to visit his niece, Mrs Northington, having heard of the accident that had happened to [631] her husband. Mrs Corbett dies in a short time after her return to her husband's house; Mr Northington does not long survive her; before his death, he makes his will, and leaves all his property to his wife, except ten thousand pounds, which he bequeaths to Louisa Elliot, whom he acknowledges as his child by a poor woman. Mr Carberry removes to New Lodge, and announces to Samuel his intention of taking him into partnership in a year or two, at which his father is so well pleased, that he gives up all ideas of his entering the church. Maurice arrives in England, runs into more foolish expenses than he had done before, so that his father limits his allowance, and will not give him a sixpence beyond it; in consequence of it, his honorable friends desert him. He goes to Weymouth, falls in love with a young lady, whom he follows to Bath; writes to his father to ask his consent to his marriage with her, which he refuses; and, while Maurice is taking a solitary ride to consider in what way he could make this refusal known to her, she goes off with her parents, and takes fifty pounds, which Maurice had carelessly left in a drawer. Mr Carberry dies - Maurice disputes his will; Katherine and Samuel resign the provision that had been made for them in it, that they may appear as witnesses, for the defendants, Edward and Sophia. The cause is tried and decided in their favor. Ethelred Armstrong arrives in England with a large fortune; he hears of Katherine's noble conduct; hearing that New Lodge is to be let, he goes to view it, has an interview with her, without letting her know that he is her uncle, and asks her so many strange questions that she is alarmed and removes to Langham to avoid him. He follows her, and is recognised by his brother; and, after offering himself to Katherine, as her husband, and being rejected, he discovers himself to her, and tells her that he shall adopt her as his daughter. Samuel visits the rectory, Mr Ethelred perceives Katherine's attachment to him which he does not disapprove. Mr Anderson arrives at Langham, on a visit to Mr Armstrong; and, in a conversation, which takes place between them respecting the niece of the former, whom he had wished Mr Armstrong to have married in early life, but, on account of his sisters, he had delayed making proposals to her so long that her friends forced her to marry Mr Northington, who was a man of considerable property. Mr Armstrong had seen the account of her marriage in the newspaper, previous to his being united to Sophia. Two years and a half after the death of her husband, Mrs Northington becomes the wife of Mr Armstrong, and Samuel Danville is married to Katherine Middleton. Mrs Northington, being possessed of an ample fortune, the living of Langham is given up to Samuel, who takes orders. Walter is much attached to Louisa Elliot; and, two years after his father's marriage, his friend Samuel has the happiness of joining their hands. Ethelred Armstrong provides handsomely for Katherine, and spends most of his time in nursing her children, and relating his adventures to old Mr and Mrs Danville, who dispose of their shop, and reside in a neat cottage near their son and daughter-in-law. Mr Anderson dies a year before Walter's marriage, and leaves all his property to his niece, [632] who desires that Walter and Louisa may be joint heirs to her fortune, so that he gives up all thoughts of entering a profession. Sophia Carberry is often with Mrs Bernard Armstrong. Edward is placed under the care of Samuel Danville till he is removed to College.
We think we shall be forgiven if we altogether omit Extracts from Novels; since it may be more interesting to submit the story itself to our readers, and more particularly when the style is known as well as that of our fair authoress. [complete]
Provided by Julie A. Shaffer, January 2000
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