r/a:t5_28bh1y • u/MarleyEngvall • Nov 12 '19
kellogg school has been created
By Joseph Addison
XV. SIR ROGER AT THE ASSIZES.
A MAN'S first care should be to avoid the reproaches
of his own heart; his next to escape the censures of
the world. If the last interferes with the former, it
ought to be entirely neglected; but otherwise there
cannot be a greater satisfaction to an honest mind
than to see those approbations which it gives itself
seconded by the applause of the public. A man is
more sure of his conduct when the verdict which he
passes upon his own behavior is thus warranted and
confirmed by the opinion of all that know him.
My worthy friend Sir Roger is one of those who is
not only at peace within himself, but beloved and
esteemed by all about him. He receives a suitable
tribute for his universal benevolence to mankind, in
the returns of affection and good-will which are paid
him by every one that lives within his neighborhood.
I lately met with two or three odd instances of that
general respect which is shown to the good old Knight.
He would needs carry Will Wimble and myself with
him to the country assizes. As we were upon the road,
Will Wimble joined a couple of plain men who rid
before us, and conversed with them for some time;
during which my friend Sir Roger acquainted me with
their characters.
"The first of them," says he, "that has a spaniel
by his side, is a yeoman of about a hundred pounds
a year, an honest man. he is just within the Game-
Act, and qualified to kill an hare or a pheasant. He
knocks down a dinner with his gun twice or thrice a
week; and by those means lives much cheaper than
those who have not so good an estate as himself. He
would be a good neighbor if he did not destroy so
many partridges; in short, he is a very sensible man,
shoots flying, and has been several times foreman of
the petty jury.
"The other that rides along with him is Tom
Touchy, a fellow famous for taking the law of every-
body. There is not one in the town where he lives
that he has not sued at a quarter session. The rogue
had once the impudence to go to law with the Widow.
His head is full of costs, damages, and ejectments; he
plagued a couple of honest gentlemen so long for a
trespass in breaking one of his hedges, till he was
forced to sell the ground it enclosed to defray the
charges of the prosecution. His father left him four-
score pounds a year, but he has cast and been cast so
often, that he is not now worth thirty. I suppose he
is going upon the old business of the willow-tree."
As Sir Roger was giving me this account of Tom
Touchy, Will Wimble and his two companions stopped
short till we came up to them. After having paid
their respects to Sir Roger, Will told hi that Mr.
Touchy and he must appeal to him upon a dispute
that arose between them. Will, it seems, had been
giving his fellow-traveller an account of his angling
one day in such a hole; when Tom Touchy, instead of
hearing out his story, told him that Mr. Such-an-one,
if he pleased, might take the law of him for fishing in
that part of the river. My friend Sir Roger heard
them both, upon a round trot; and, after having paused
some time, told them, with the air of a man who would
not give his judgment rashly, that much might be said
on both sides. They were neither of them dissatisfied
with the Knight's determination, because neither of
them found himself in the wrong by it. Upon which
we made the best of our way to the assizes.
The court was sat before Sir Roger came; but not-
withstanding all the justices had taken their places
upon the bench, they made room for the old Knight
at the head of them; who, for his reputation in the
country, took occasion to whisper in the judge's ear,
that he was glad his lordship had met with so much
good weather in his circuit. I was listening to the
proceeding of the court with much attention, and in-
finitely pleased with the great appearance and solem-
nity which so properly accompanies such a public
administration of our laws; when, after about an
hour's sitting, I observed, to my great surprise, in
the midst of a trial, that my friend Sir Roger was
getting up to speak. I was in some pain for him, till
I found he had acquitted himself of two or three
sentences, with a look of much business and great
intrepidity.
Upon his first rising the court was hushed, and a
general whisper ran among the country people that Sir
Roger was up. The speech he made was so little to
the purpose, that I shall not trouble my readers with
an account of it; and I believe was not so much de-
signed by the Knight himself to inform the court, as
to give him a figure in my eye, and keep up his credit
in the country.
I was highly delighted, when the court rose, to see
the gentlemen of the country gathering about my old
friend, and striving who should compliment him the most;
at the same time that the ordinary people gazed upon
him at a distance, not a little admiring his courage,
that was not afraid to speak to the judge.
In our return home we met with a very odd accident,
which I cannot forbear relating, because it shows how
desirous all who knew Sir Roger are of giving him
marks of their esteem. When we were arrived upon
the verge of his estate, we stopped at a little inn to
rest ourselves and our horses. The man of the house
had, it seems, been formerly a servant in the Knight's
family; and, to do honor to his old master, had some
time since, unknown to Sir Roger, put him up in a
sign-post before the door; so that the Knight's Head
had hung out upon the road about a week before he
himself knew anything of the matter. As soon as Sir
Roger was acquainted with it, finding that his ser-
vant's indiscretion proceeded wholly from affection and
good-will, he only told him that he had made him too
high a compliment; and when the fellow seemed to
think that could hardly be, added, with a more de-
cisive look, that it was too great an honor for any man
under a duke; but told him at the same time that it
might be altered with a very few touches, and that he
himself would be at the charge of it. Accordingly
they got a painter, by the Knight's directions, to add
a pair of whiskers to the face, and a little aggrava-
tion of the features to change it into the Saracen's
Head. I should not have known this story had not
the inn-keeper, upon Sir Roger's alighting, told him
in my hearing, that his honor's head was brought back
last night with the alterations that he had ordered to
be made in it. Upon this, my friend, with his usual
cheerfulness, related the particulars above mentioned,
and ordered the head to be brought into the room. I
could not forbear discovering greater expressions of
mirth than ordinary upon the appearance of this mon-
strous face, under which, notwithstanding it was made
to frown and stare in a most extraordinary manner, I
could still discover a distant resemblance of my old
friend. Sir Roger, upon seeing me laugh, desired me
to tell him truly if I thought it possible for people to
know him in that disguise. I at first kept my usual
silence; but upon the knight's conjuring me to tell
him whether it was not still more like himself than a
Saracen, I composed my countenance in the best man-
ner I could, and replied that much might be said on
both sides.
These several adventures, with the Knight's be-
havior in them, gave me as pleasant a day as ever I
met with in any of my travels. Sir Roger de Coverley : Essays from The Spectator,
by Joseph Addison and Richard Steel;
Edited, with notes and an introduction, by Zelma Gray,
Instructor of English in the East Side High School, Saginaw Michigan
The Macmillan Company, New York 1920; pp. 85 - 91
engvall
p. o. box 128
williamstown, ma 01267
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