These parties reside at Brigland, and Philip Martindale, a dissipated
lover of the turf, who is dependent on his capricious cousin for his
supplies; and Horatio Markham, the hero, are thus introduced. Then we
have a country curate of the higher order, together with his loquacious
_half_; which are excellent portraits.
John Martindale is one of those eccentric beings--half-aristocrat, and
half-liberal, which are more rare in society than they were fifty years
since; and upon this curious compound turns the narrative. Clara Rivolta
and her mother, Signora Rivolta, the wife of Colonel R. quit their
native Italy, and visit Brigland, where old Martindale, on the
discovery, acknowledges the Signora as the fruit of an early imprudence
on the continent, and finally leaves them a large fortune. Clara is
married to Markham, and Philip Martindale, afterwards Earl of
Trimmerstone, marries a gay, giddy girl, who elopes with a perfumed
puppy of the first fragrance.
The round of the earl's dissipation is but a sorry picture of the
prostitution of rank; but the connexion leads us into a succession of
scenes of fashionable life, which are vividly drawn, as are two or three
of their adjuncts,--a popular west-end preacher, an anti-nervous
physician, the dandy already mentioned, a noble gambler, and a rich city
knight and his aspiring family--all of which are to the life.
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