When she and her spouse married, they lived close to the
manufactory, in a sweet little villa replete with every elegance and
convenience--a pond, which they called a lake--laburnums without end; a
yew, clipped into a dock-tailed waggon-horse; standing for three horses and
gigs, with an acre and half of land for a cow.
Old Puffington, however, being unable to keep those dearest documents of
the British merchant, his balance-sheets, to himself, and Mrs. Puffington
finding a considerable sum going to the 'good' every year, insisted, on the
birth of their only child, our friend, upon migrating to the 'west,' as she
called it, and at one bold stroke they established themselves in Heathcote
Street, Mecklenburgh Square. Novelists had not then written this part down
as 'Mesopotamia,' and it was quite as genteel as Harley or Wimpole Street
are now. Their chief object then was to increase their wealth and make
their only son 'a gentleman.' They sent him to Eton, and in due time to
Christ Church, where, of course, he established a red coat to persecute Sir
Thomas Mostyn's and the Duke of Beaufort's hounds, much to the annoyance of
their respective huntsmen, Stephen Goodall and Philip Payne, and the
aggravation of poor old Griff.
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