章节正文
The Warden
by Anthony Trollope
CONTENTS
I. Hiram's Hospital
II. The Barchester Reformer
III. The Bishop of Barchester
IV. Hiram's Bedesmen
v. Dr Grantly Visits the Hospital
VI. The Warden's Tea Party
VII. The Jupiter
VIII. Plumstead Episcopi
IX. The Conference
X. Tribulation
XI. Iphigenia
XII. Mr Bold's Visit to Plumstead
XIII. The Warden's Decision
XIV. Mount Olympus
XV. Tom Towers, Dr Anticant, and Mr Sentiment
XVI. A Long Day in London
XVII. Sir Abraham Haphazard
XVIII. The Warden is very Obstinate
XIX. The Warden Resigns
XX. Farewell
XXI. Conclusion
CHAPTER I
Hiram's Hospital
The Rev. Septimus Harding was, a few years since, a beneficed
clergyman residing in the cathedral town of ---;
let us call it Barchester. Were we to name Wells or Salisbury,
Exeter, Hereford, or Gloucester, it might be presumed that
something personal was intended; and as this tale will refer
mainly to the cathedral dignitaries of the town in question, we
are anxious that no personality may be suspected. Let us presume
that Barchester is a quiet town in the West of England,
more remarkable for the beauty of its cathedral and the
antiquity of its monuments than for any commercial prosperity;
that the west end of Barchester is the cathedral close, and that
the aristocracy of Barchester are the bishop, dean, and canons,
with their respective wives and daughters.
Early in life Mr Harding found himself located at Barchester.
A fine voice and a taste for sacred music had decided the
position in which he was to exercise his calling, and for
many years he performed the easy but not highly paid duties
of a minor canon. At the age of forty a small living in the close
vicinity of the town increased both his work and his income,
and at the age of fifty he became precentor of the cathedral.
Mr Harding had married early in life, and was the father
of two daughters. The eldest, Susan, was born soon after his
marriage; the other, Eleanor, not till ten years later.
At the time at which we introduce him to our readers he was
living as precentor at Barchester with his youngest daughter,
then twenty-four years of age; having been many years a
widower, and having married his eldest daughter to a son of
the bishop a very short time before his installation to the office
of precentor.
Scandal at Barchester affirmed that had it not been for the
beauty of his daughter, Mr Harding would have remained a
minor canon, but here probably Scandal lied, as she so often
does; for even as a minor canon no one had been more popular
among his reverend brethren in the close than Mr Harding;
and Scandal, before she had reprobated Mr Harding for being
made precentor by his friend the bishop, had loudly blamed
the bishop for having so long omitted to do something for his
friend Mr Harding. Be this as it may, Susan Harding, some
twelve years since, had married the Rev. Dr Theophilus
Grantly, son of the bishop, archdeacon of Barchester, and
rector of Plumstead Episcopi, and her father became, a few
months later, precentor of Barchester Cathedral, that office
being, as is not usual, in the bishop's gift.
Now there are peculiar circumstances connected with the
precentorship which must be explained. In the year 1434
there died at Barchester one John Hiram, who had made
money in the town as a wool-stapler, and in his will he left
the house in which he died and certain meadows and closes
near the town, still called Hiram's Butts, and Hiram's Patch,
for the support of twelve superannuated wool-carders, all of
whom should have been born and bred and spent their days in
Barchester; he also appointed that an alms-house should be
built for their abode, with a fittingresidence for a warden,
which warden was also to receive a certain sum annually out
of the rents of the said butts and patches. He, moreover,
willed, having had a soul alive to harmony, that the precentor
of the cathedral should have the option of being also warden
of the almshouses, if the bishop in each case approved.
From that day to this the charity had gone on and prospered
--at least, the charity had gone on, and the estates had prospered.
Wool-carding in Barchester there was no longer any;
so the bishop, dean, and warden, who took it in turn to put in
the old men, generally appointed some hangers-on of their
own; worn-out gardeners, decrepit grave-diggers, or octogenarian
sextons, who thankfully received a comfortable lodging
and one shilling and fourpence a day, such being the
stipend to which, under the will of John Hiram, they were
declared to be entitled. Formerly, indeed--that is, till within
some fifty years of the present time--they received but sixpence
a day, and their breakfast and dinner was found them
at a common table by the warden, such an arrangement being
in stricter conformity with the absolute wording of old Hiram's
will: but this was thought to be inconvenient, and to suit the
tastes of neither warden nor bedesmen, and the daily one
shilling and fourpence was substituted with the common
consent of all parties, including the bishop and the corporation
of Barchester.
Such was the condition of Hiram's twelve old men when
Mr Harding was appointed warden; but if they may be
considered as well-to-do in the world according to their condition,
the happy warden was much more so. The patches and
butts which, in John Hiram's time, produced hay or fed cows,
were now covered with rows of houses; the value of the property
had gradually increased from year to year and century to
century, and was now presumed by those who knew anything
about it, to bring in a very nice income; and by some
who knew nothing about it, to have increased to an almost
fabulous extent.
The property was farmed by a gentleman in Barchester,
who also acted as the bishop's steward--a man whose father
and grandfather had been stewards to the bishops of Barchester,
and farmers of John Hiram's estate. The Chadwicks
had earned a good name in Barchester; they had lived
respected by bishops, deans, canons, and precentors; they
had been buried in the precincts of the cathedral; they had
never been known as griping, hard men, but had always lived
comfortably, maintained a good house, and held a high position
in Barchester society. The present Mr Chadwick was a
worthy scion of a worthy stock, and the tenants living on the
butts and patches, as well as those on the wide episcopal
domains of the see, were well pleased to have to do with so
worthy and liberal a steward.
For many, many years--records hardly tell how many,
probably from the time when Hiram's wishes had been first
fully carried out--the proceeds of the estate had been paid
by the steward or farmer to the warden, and by him divided
among the bedesmen; after which division he paid himself
such sums as became his due. Times had been when the poor
warden got nothing but his bare house, for the patches had
been subject to floods, and the land of Barchester butts was
said to be unproductive; and in these hard times the warden
was hardly able to make out the daily dole for his twelve
dependents. But by degrees things mended; the patches
were drained, and cottages began to rise upon the butts, and
the wardens, with fairness enough, repaid themselves for the
evil days gone by. In bad times the poor men had had their
due, and therefore in good times they could expect no more.
In this manner the income of the warden had increased; the
picturesque house attached to the hospital had been enlarged
and adorned, and the office had become one of the most
coveted of the snug clerical sinecures attached to our church.
It was now wholly in the bishop's gift, and though the dean
and chapter, in former days, made a stand on the subject,
they had thought it more conducive to their honour to have
a rich precentor appointed by the bishop, than a poor one
appointed by themselves. The stipend of the precentor of
Barchester was eighty pounds a year. The income arising
from the wardenship of the hospital was eight hundred,
besides the value of the house.
Murmurs, very slight murmurs, had been heard in
Barchester--few indeed, and far between--that the proceeds of
John Hiram's property had not been fairly divided: but they
can hardly be said to have been of such a nature as to have
caused uneasiness to anyone: still the thing had been whispered,
and Mr Harding had heard it. Such was his character in
Barchester, so universal was his popularity, that the very
fact of his appointment would have quieted louder whispers
than those which had been heard; but Mr Harding was an
open-handed, just-minded man, and feeling that there might
be truth in what had been said, he had, on his instalment,
declared his intention of adding twopence a day to each man's
pittance, making a sum of sixty-two pounds eleven shillings
and fourpence, which he was to pay out of his own pocket.
In doing so, however, he distinctly and repeatedly observed
to the men, that though he promised for himself, he could
not promise for his successors, and that the extra twopence
could only be looked on as a gift from himself, and not from
the trust. The bedesmen, however, were most of them older
than Mr Harding, and were quite satisfied with the security
on which their extra income was based.
This munificence on the part of Mr Harding had not been
unopposed. Mr Chadwick had mildly but seriously dissuaded
him from it; and his strong-minded son-in-law, the
archdeacon, the man of whom alone Mr Harding stood in awe,
had urgently, nay, vehemently, opposed so impolitic a concession:
but the warden had made known his intention to the
hospital before the archdeacon had been able to interfere, and
the deed was done.
Hiram's Hospital, as the retreat is called, is a picturesque
building enough, and shows the correct taste with which the
ecclesiastical architects of those days were imbued. It stands
on the banks of the little river, which flows nearly round the
cathedral close, being on the side furthest from the town. The
London road crosses the river by a pretty one-arched bridge,
and, looking from this bridge, the stranger will see the windows
of the old men's rooms, each pair of windows separated by a
small buttress. A broad gravel walk runs between the building
and the river, which is always trim and cared for; and at
the end of the walk, under the parapet of the approach to the
bridge, is a large and well-worn seat, on which, in mild
weather, three or four of Hiram's bedesmen are sure to be seen
seated. Beyond this row of buttresses, and further from the
bridge, and also further from the water which here suddenly
bends, are the pretty oriel windows of Mr Harding's house,
and his well-mown lawn. The entrance to the hospital is
by Anthony Trollope
CONTENTS
I. Hiram's Hospital
II. The Barchester Reformer
III. The Bishop of Barchester
IV. Hiram's Bedesmen
v. Dr Grantly Visits the Hospital
VI. The Warden's Tea Party
VII. The Jupiter
VIII. Plumstead Episcopi
IX. The Conference
X. Tribulation
XI. Iphigenia
XII. Mr Bold's Visit to Plumstead
XIII. The Warden's Decision
XIV. Mount Olympus
XV. Tom Towers, Dr Anticant, and Mr Sentiment
XVI. A Long Day in London
XVII. Sir Abraham Haphazard
XVIII. The Warden is very Obstinate
XIX. The Warden Resigns
XX. Farewell
XXI. Conclusion
CHAPTER I
Hiram's Hospital
The Rev. Septimus Harding was, a few years since, a beneficed
clergyman residing in the cathedral town of ---;
let us call it Barchester. Were we to name Wells or Salisbury,
Exeter, Hereford, or Gloucester, it might be presumed that
something personal was intended; and as this tale will refer
mainly to the cathedral dignitaries of the town in question, we
are anxious that no personality may be suspected. Let us presume
that Barchester is a quiet town in the West of England,
more remarkable for the beauty of its cathedral and the
antiquity of its monuments than for any commercial prosperity;
that the west end of Barchester is the cathedral close, and that
the aristocracy of Barchester are the bishop, dean, and canons,
with their respective wives and daughters.
Early in life Mr Harding found himself located at Barchester.
A fine voice and a taste for sacred music had decided the
position in which he was to exercise his calling, and for
many years he performed the easy but not highly paid duties
of a minor canon. At the age of forty a small living in the close
vicinity of the town increased both his work and his income,
and at the age of fifty he became precentor of the cathedral.
Mr Harding had married early in life, and was the father
of two daughters. The eldest, Susan, was born soon after his
marriage; the other, Eleanor, not till ten years later.
At the time at which we introduce him to our readers he was
living as precentor at Barchester with his youngest daughter,
then twenty-four years of age; having been many years a
widower, and having married his eldest daughter to a son of
the bishop a very short time before his installation to the office
of precentor.
Scandal at Barchester affirmed that had it not been for the
beauty of his daughter, Mr Harding would have remained a
minor canon, but here probably Scandal lied, as she so often
does; for even as a minor canon no one had been more popular
among his reverend brethren in the close than Mr Harding;
and Scandal, before she had reprobated Mr Harding for being
made precentor by his friend the bishop, had loudly blamed
the bishop for having so long omitted to do something for his
friend Mr Harding. Be this as it may, Susan Harding, some
twelve years since, had married the Rev. Dr Theophilus
Grantly, son of the bishop, archdeacon of Barchester, and
rector of Plumstead Episcopi, and her father became, a few
months later, precentor of Barchester Cathedral, that office
being, as is not usual, in the bishop's gift.
Now there are peculiar circumstances connected with the
precentorship which must be explained. In the year 1434
there died at Barchester one John Hiram, who had made
money in the town as a wool-stapler, and in his will he left
the house in which he died and certain meadows and closes
near the town, still called Hiram's Butts, and Hiram's Patch,
for the support of twelve superannuated wool-carders, all of
whom should have been born and bred and spent their days in
Barchester; he also appointed that an alms-house should be
built for their abode, with a fittingresidence for a warden,
which warden was also to receive a certain sum annually out
of the rents of the said butts and patches. He, moreover,
willed, having had a soul alive to harmony, that the precentor
of the cathedral should have the option of being also warden
of the almshouses, if the bishop in each case approved.
From that day to this the charity had gone on and prospered
--at least, the charity had gone on, and the estates had prospered.
Wool-carding in Barchester there was no longer any;
so the bishop, dean, and warden, who took it in turn to put in
the old men, generally appointed some hangers-on of their
own; worn-out gardeners, decrepit grave-diggers, or octogenarian
sextons, who thankfully received a comfortable lodging
and one shilling and fourpence a day, such being the
stipend to which, under the will of John Hiram, they were
declared to be entitled. Formerly, indeed--that is, till within
some fifty years of the present time--they received but sixpence
a day, and their breakfast and dinner was found them
at a common table by the warden, such an arrangement being
in stricter conformity with the absolute wording of old Hiram's
will: but this was thought to be inconvenient, and to suit the
tastes of neither warden nor bedesmen, and the daily one
shilling and fourpence was substituted with the common
consent of all parties, including the bishop and the corporation
of Barchester.
Such was the condition of Hiram's twelve old men when
Mr Harding was appointed warden; but if they may be
considered as well-to-do in the world according to their condition,
the happy warden was much more so. The patches and
butts which, in John Hiram's time, produced hay or fed cows,
were now covered with rows of houses; the value of the property
had gradually increased from year to year and century to
century, and was now presumed by those who knew anything
about it, to bring in a very nice income; and by some
who knew nothing about it, to have increased to an almost
fabulous extent.
The property was farmed by a gentleman in Barchester,
who also acted as the bishop's steward--a man whose father
and grandfather had been stewards to the bishops of Barchester,
and farmers of John Hiram's estate. The Chadwicks
had earned a good name in Barchester; they had lived
respected by bishops, deans, canons, and precentors; they
had been buried in the precincts of the cathedral; they had
never been known as griping, hard men, but had always lived
comfortably, maintained a good house, and held a high position
in Barchester society. The present Mr Chadwick was a
worthy scion of a worthy stock, and the tenants living on the
butts and patches, as well as those on the wide episcopal
domains of the see, were well pleased to have to do with so
worthy and liberal a steward.
For many, many years--records hardly tell how many,
probably from the time when Hiram's wishes had been first
fully carried out--the proceeds of the estate had been paid
by the steward or farmer to the warden, and by him divided
among the bedesmen; after which division he paid himself
such sums as became his due. Times had been when the poor
warden got nothing but his bare house, for the patches had
been subject to floods, and the land of Barchester butts was
said to be unproductive; and in these hard times the warden
was hardly able to make out the daily dole for his twelve
dependents. But by degrees things mended; the patches
were drained, and cottages began to rise upon the butts, and
the wardens, with fairness enough, repaid themselves for the
evil days gone by. In bad times the poor men had had their
due, and therefore in good times they could expect no more.
In this manner the income of the warden had increased; the
picturesque house attached to the hospital had been enlarged
and adorned, and the office had become one of the most
coveted of the snug clerical sinecures attached to our church.
It was now wholly in the bishop's gift, and though the dean
and chapter, in former days, made a stand on the subject,
they had thought it more conducive to their honour to have
a rich precentor appointed by the bishop, than a poor one
appointed by themselves. The stipend of the precentor of
Barchester was eighty pounds a year. The income arising
from the wardenship of the hospital was eight hundred,
besides the value of the house.
Murmurs, very slight murmurs, had been heard in
Barchester--few indeed, and far between--that the proceeds of
John Hiram's property had not been fairly divided: but they
can hardly be said to have been of such a nature as to have
caused uneasiness to anyone: still the thing had been whispered,
and Mr Harding had heard it. Such was his character in
Barchester, so universal was his popularity, that the very
fact of his appointment would have quieted louder whispers
than those which had been heard; but Mr Harding was an
open-handed, just-minded man, and feeling that there might
be truth in what had been said, he had, on his instalment,
declared his intention of adding twopence a day to each man's
pittance, making a sum of sixty-two pounds eleven shillings
and fourpence, which he was to pay out of his own pocket.
In doing so, however, he distinctly and repeatedly observed
to the men, that though he promised for himself, he could
not promise for his successors, and that the extra twopence
could only be looked on as a gift from himself, and not from
the trust. The bedesmen, however, were most of them older
than Mr Harding, and were quite satisfied with the security
on which their extra income was based.
This munificence on the part of Mr Harding had not been
unopposed. Mr Chadwick had mildly but seriously dissuaded
him from it; and his strong-minded son-in-law, the
archdeacon, the man of whom alone Mr Harding stood in awe,
had urgently, nay, vehemently, opposed so impolitic a concession:
but the warden had made known his intention to the
hospital before the archdeacon had been able to interfere, and
the deed was done.
Hiram's Hospital, as the retreat is called, is a picturesque
building enough, and shows the correct taste with which the
ecclesiastical architects of those days were imbued. It stands
on the banks of the little river, which flows nearly round the
cathedral close, being on the side furthest from the town. The
London road crosses the river by a pretty one-arched bridge,
and, looking from this bridge, the stranger will see the windows
of the old men's rooms, each pair of windows separated by a
small buttress. A broad gravel walk runs between the building
and the river, which is always trim and cared for; and at
the end of the walk, under the parapet of the approach to the
bridge, is a large and well-worn seat, on which, in mild
weather, three or four of Hiram's bedesmen are sure to be seen
seated. Beyond this row of buttresses, and further from the
bridge, and also further from the water which here suddenly
bends, are the pretty oriel windows of Mr Harding's house,
and his well-mown lawn. The entrance to the hospital is
- bishop [´biʃəp]
n.主教 (初中英语单词) - cathedral [kə´θi:drəl] n.大教堂 (初中英语单词)
- anxious [´æŋkʃəs] a.担忧的；渴望的 (初中英语单词)
- personality [,pə:sə´næliti] n.人；个性；人品；人物 (初中英语单词)
- remarkable [ri´mɑ:kəbl] a.值得注意的；显著的 (初中英语单词)
- commercial [kə´mə:ʃəl] a.商业的 n.广告节目 (初中英语单词)
- sacred [´seikrid] a.神圣的；庄严的 (初中英语单词)
- peculiar [pi´kju:liə] a.特有的；奇异的 (初中英语单词)
- residence [´rezidəns] n.居住(期间)；住宅 (初中英语单词)
- harmony [´hɑ:məni] n.调合，协调，和谐 (初中英语单词)
- formerly [´fɔ:məli] ad.从前，以前 (初中英语单词)
- arrangement [ə´reindʒmənt] n.整理；排列；筹备 (初中英语单词)
- absolute [´æbsəlu:t] a.绝对的 n.绝对 (初中英语单词)
- income [´inkʌm] n.收入，所得 (初中英语单词)
- grandfather [´grænd,fɑ:ðə] n.(外)祖父；祖先 (初中英语单词)
- estate [i´steit] n.财产；庄园；等级 (初中英语单词)
- worthy [´wə:ði] a.有价值的；值得的 (初中英语单词)
- liberal [´libərəl] a.大方的 n.开明的人 (初中英语单词)
- therefore [´ðeəfɔ:] ad.&conj.因此；所以 (初中英语单词)
- wholly [´həul-li] ad.完全，十足；统统 (初中英语单词)
- character [´kæriktə] n.特性；性质；人物；字 (初中英语单词)
- universal [,ju:ni´və:səl] a.宇宙的；普遍的 (初中英语单词)
- intention [in´tenʃən] n.意图；打算；意义 (初中英语单词)
- distinctly [di´stiŋktli] ad.清楚地，明晰地 (初中英语单词)
- seriously [´siəriəsli] ad.严肃；严重，重大 (初中英语单词)
- interfere [,intə´fiə] vi.干涉；妨碍；打扰 (初中英语单词)
- retreat [ri´tri:t] v.&n.退却；撤退；放弃 (初中英语单词)
- decided [di´saidid] a.明显的；决定的 (高中英语单词)
- eldest [´eldist] a.最年长的 (高中英语单词)
- scandal [´skændl] n.丑闻；耻辱；流言蜚语 (高中英语单词)
- reverend [´revərənd] a.可尊敬的 (高中英语单词)
- annually [´ænjuəli] ad.每年；按年计算 (高中英语单词)
- charity [´tʃæriti] n.施舍；慈悲；博爱 (高中英语单词)
- shilling [´ʃiliŋ] n.先令 (高中英语单词)
- steward [´stju:əd] n.管家；服务员 (高中英语单词)
- popularity [,pɔpju´læriti] n.普及；流行；名望 (高中英语单词)
- gravel [´grævəl] n.砾石 vt.铺砾石 (高中英语单词)
- warden [´wɔ:dn] n.看守人；监护人 (英语四级单词)
- aristocracy [,æris´tɔkrəsi] n.贵族政治；贵族 (英语四级单词)
- respective [ri´spektiv] a.各自的，各个的 (英语四级单词)
- well-to-do [,weltə´du:] a.小康的，富裕的 (英语四级单词)
- uneasiness [ʌn´i:zinis] n.不安，担忧；不自在 (英语四级单词)
- repeatedly [ri´pi:tidli] ad.反复地；再三地 (英语四级单词)
- mildly [´maildli] ad.温和地；适度地 (英语四级单词)
- bridge [bridʒ] n.桥(梁)；鼻梁；桥牌 (英语四级单词)
- calling [´kɔ:liŋ] n.点名；职业；欲望 (英语六级单词)
- installation [,instə´leiʃən] n.就职；安装；装置 (英语六级单词)
- fitting [´fitiŋ] a.适当的 n.试衣 (英语六级单词)
- conformity [kən´fɔ:miti] n.依照；适合；一致(点) (英语六级单词)
- inconvenient [,inkən´vi:niənt] a.不方便的 (英语六级单词)
- fairness [´fɛənis] n.公正；晴朗 (英语六级单词)
- clerical [´klerikəl] a.牧师的；教士的 (英语六级单词)
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章节正文
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