Page:Vivian Grey, Volume 1.djvu/231

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
VIVIAN GREY.
221

portant person was Sir Christopher Mowbray, who, upon the lecturer presuming to inform him "what rent was," "damned himself if he didn't know what rent was, a damned deal better than any damnationed French smuggler." I dont wish to be coarse, but Sir Christopher is a great man, and the sayings of great men, particularly when they are representative of the sentiment of a species, should not pass unrecorded.

Sir Christopher Mowbray is member for the County of ———shire; and member for the county he intends to be next election, although he is in his seventy-ninth year, for he can still follow a fox, with as pluck a heart, and with as stout a voice, as any squire in Christendom. Sir Christopher, it must be confessed, is rather peculiar in his ideas. His grandson, Peregrine Mowbray, who is as pert a genius as the applause of a common-room ever yet spoiled, and as sublime an orator as the cheerings of the Union ever yet inspired, says "the Baronet