“Threat to whom?” I asked.
“I do not know.”
Poor Jacob finds matters outside the daily norm distressing. He is more at ease with his learned books than with the problems of his flock, dearly though he would like to help.
“You could take the waters, Parson Pennywick,” Jacob’s delightful daughter Dorothea teased me, attracted by the unusual hullabaloo.
“Thank you, but I put my faith in rhubarb powder.”
Dorothea laughed, and I could not blame her. She is young and therefore all that is old and tried and true is of no value to her — yet. It is hard for me to change my ways, and I cannot believe that a glass of spring water taken in the Walks, popularly known as the Pantiles, would prove a tonic more beneficial than the fresh air of Mount Pleasant. For no one but Jacob and Dorothea would I go to the Walks during the fashionable hours. It was late in June and the high season was upon us. Earlier this century, the Wells would have been host to every person of fashion in London, but by this year of 1783 the delights of Brighton offer an alternative that it cannot match, particularly for the younger visitors. Nevertheless the spa is still crowded with its admirers.
With a wistful glance at Jacob settling down to my coffee and toast, I hastened to remove my cap and to seek wig, hat, and cane. I too must look my best, as Dorothea insisted on accompanying me.
“Make haste, Caleb,” Jacob urged me from the comforts of his own table.
“The spring will not run dry,” I assured him somewhat crossly, “and doubtless the threats of death will by now have cooled.” I was only reconciled to my fate by the thought of the wheatear pie, a Kentish delicacy that I had been promised for dinner that afternoon.
On the Upper Walk of the Pantiles a threat of death seemed as out of place as a Preventive Officer in a parsonage. I suspected Dorothea was less concerned about the fate of some unknown person than about missing the excitement of the day — which would doubtless be long over when we arrived. To enter the Upper Walk was like stepping onto the stage of Mr. Sheridan’s Drury Lane straight from the rainy muddy streets of London town. Gone are the dull cares of everyday and around one is a whirligig of colour, chatter, riches, and culture. Here one may take coffee, read newspapers and books, write letters, dance, play cards, buy Tunbridge Ware — and above all converse. Death does not usually dare speak its name. And yet today, according to Lady Mopford, it had.
How could death be contaminating such a paradise, I wondered? This was a paradise with strict social rules. By now, at well past ten o’clock, the Upper Walk should be all but deserted, as society would have returned to hotels and lodgings to “dress” for the day. Before then, the ladies appear here in dishabille with loose gowns and caps, and the gentlemen are unshaven, as they greet the day by taking the waters. After their departure they would not return until noon, by which time they are boned-and-strutting peacocks in silks and satins of every hue — a delightful spectacle for one whose calling demands more sober colours.
Today, however, I saw to my unease that a great many were still here. Something must indeed be amiss.
“There,” cried Dorothea. Her arm tensed in mine, but I did not need her guidance, for I could see the crowd outside Mr. Thomas’s bookstore and circulating library for myself. He caters for visitors who, having paid a subscription, may have such books as they choose delivered to their lodgings. Mr. Thomas’s shop is always well attended, but today it seemed all Tunbridge Wells wished to advance its knowledge of literature and science. As we pushed our way forward through the throng, Dorothea caught the vital words.
“The Book of Poets,” she exclaimed.
Even I had heard of this tradition — and indeed read the Book in the past with much amusement. For well over a hundred years, this weighty tome containing copies of lyrics from would-be poets had been displayed in the bookstore. At first, these verses had been of a saucy nature circulated amongst gentlemen in the Coffee House, but then they had been requested by a wider public. Ladies now read the love poems in the Book of Poets, each imagining herself the fair damsel addressed — fortunately in more tasteful terms than in earlier times. Nevertheless, the quality scarcely rivalled Dryden, nor their content John Milton.
Seeing Dorothea, who looked most attractive in her printed cotton morning gown, Mr. Edwin Thomas — a fine-looking man of perhaps thirty years — immediately hurried to her side.
“I’m honoured, Miss Dorothea.”
His wife did not look quite so honoured, but was preoccupied in appeasing the sensibilities of the elderly ladies clustered eagerly around the Book, which lay open on a table of its own. Dorothea was equally eager to view it, and so, with Jacob’s mission in mind, was I, as this could be the source of the threat.
Mr. Thomas cleared our path to the Book, after I had explained my presence. “Let me show you yesterday’s verse first, Parson Pennywick,” he said gravely.
A sheet was laid between two pages, and I read:
Fairest nymph, fair — of the Wells
Whose magic spells
Are cast upon thy humble slave
Who but the merest glance doth crave...
These most unmemorable lines were writ in a cultured hand, but lacked talent, however heartfelt the sentiment that lay behind them. It was the custom that the lady’s name should be anonymous, but not that of the author. Thus a bold Foppington,followed by a flourish of which only an English aristocrat would be capable, adorned the end of the poem.
Even I had heard of this fop, whose name was so well bestowed. Lord Foppington was the grandson of the Duke of Westshire, and prided himself on his reputation as the most fashionable macaroni in London society, clad in exquisite silks and satins.
“And now,” Mr. Thomas said even more gravely, “see today’s verse, in the same hand but hardly of the same nature or intent.” He turned the page, where I read on the next sheet:
Alas, I am spurned by fairest—, my love divine
But no other shall with her form entwine
No other hand shall win her favour
From death’s cold grasp no man can save her.
“It is not the thing, sir; indeed it is not,” Mr. Thomas moaned.
“It is a jest,” Mrs. Thomas quavered. A slender woman of far less height than her husband, she was clearly indignant that the world had singled out her beloved spouse for such tribulation.
As indeed tribulation it was. I did not like this affair. I perceived that no name was attached to this verse, but it looked to be from the same hand as its predecessor. “How did it come?” I asked. “Did the poet bring it?”
“It was by our door this morning,” Mr. Thomas told me. “Many of our poets spend their evenings in the Rooms, either dancing or playing cards, according to the evening, and they pen their tributes during the midnight hours, leaving them by our door to find in the morning.”
By the cold light of day, I thought, many must rue their hot-headed declarations. No wonder the fashion for anonymity of the damsels so highly praised by the poets. Did the author of this last verse rue his violent declaration, or was it merely a lovers’ quarrel which time had solved? Somehow I did not think so. “Have you spoken to his lordship today?” I asked.
“Lord Foppington has not appeared this morning, and no wonder,” Mr. Thomas said in a tone of disgust. “Nor, fortunately, has the fair Miss Olivia Cherrington, whom all know to be the nymph he threatens.”
“He is coming,” squealed Mrs. Thomas, running to the window. “Husband, pray do something. Miss Cherrington accompanies him.”