Chapter 6 - Page 2

pairs, laughing and diverting
themselves with the grotesque groups of blacks that were occasionally
met, coming in from their sports. These young men I knew had enjoyed the
advantages of being educated at home, some of them, quite likely, in the
Universities, and all of them amid the high civilization and taste of
England. I say all of them, too hastily; as there were young men of the
colonies among them, who probably had not enjoyed these advantages. The
easy air, self-possession, and quiet, what shall I call it?--insolence
would be too strong a word, and a term that I, the son and grandson of old
king's officers, would not like to apply, and yet it comes nearest to what
I mean as applicable to the covert manner of these young men--but, whatever
it was, that peculiar air of metropolitan superiority over provincial
ignorance and provincial dependence, which certainly distinguished all the
younger men of this class, had an effect on me, I find it difficult to
describe. I was a loyal subject, loved the King,--most particularly since
he was so identified with the Protestant succession,--loved all of the
blood-royal, and wished for nothing more than the honour and lustre of the
English crown. One thus disposed could not but feel amicably towards the
King's officers; yet, I will confess, there were moments when this air of
ill-concealed superiority, this manner that so much resembled that of the
master towards the servant, the superior to the dependent, the patron
to the client, gave me deep offence, and feelings so bitter, that I was
obliged to struggle hard to suppress them. But this is Anticipating, and is
interrupting the course of my narrative. I am inclined to think there must
always be a good deal of this feeling, where the relation of principal and
dependant exists, as between distinct territories.

I was a good deal excited, and a little fatigued with the walk and the
incidents of the morning, and determined to proceed at once to Duke Street,
and share the cold dinner of my aunt; for few private families in York,
that depended on regular cooks for their food, had anything served warm on
their tables, for that and the two succeeding days. Here and there a
white substitute was found, it is true, and we had the benefit of such an
assistant at half-past one. It was the English servant of a Col. Mosely, an
officer of the army, who was intimate at my uncle's, and who had had the
civility to offer a man for this occasion. I afterwards ascertained,
that many officers manifested the same kind spirit towards various other
families in which they visited on terms of friendship.

Marriages between young English officers and our pretty, delicate York
belles, were of frequent occurrence, and I had felt a twinge or two, on the