ABSTRACT
In most respects people may draw a confining circle around an eighteenth-century country house, and espy inside it a quite self-sustaining little world. When mention is made of the eighteenth-century country gentleman, even the poorest of people is rich in memories, and may presume to speak, on that subject, with a certain assurance. Far less attractive was the life of most country gentlemen; far less so, indeed, than the life of, for example, Squire Western. The best bedrooms are swept out, a good cob is put at the disposal of the paterfamilias, a round of late suppers tops off days spent in the saddle, and it is no miracle for a country ball to be arranged. Civilized man can visualize nothing much duller, yet there are friendliness and stupidity to mitigate the dullness, and the men will go through it, for the most part, drunk.
