Peter Simple; and, The Three Cutters, Vol. 1-2

Frederick Marryat

Description

pubOne.info thank you for your continued support and wish to present you this new edition. Without yielding implicit credence to the handsome pedigree of the Marryats supplied by Mrs Lean, the novelist's daughter, we may give a glance in passing to the first-fruits of this family tree. They - naturally - came over with the Conqueror, and emerged from obscurity under Stephen as the proud possessors of much lands at the village of Meryat, Ashton Meryat, and elsewhere in Somersetshire ... One Nicotas de Maryet is deputed to collect the ransom of Richard Coeur de Leon through the county of Somerset ... In the reign of Edward I., Sir John de Maryet is called to attend the Great Parliament; in that of Edward II., his son is excommunicated for embowelling his deceased wife; 'a fancy,' says the county historian, 'peculiar to the knightly family of Meryat.' Mrs Lean quotes records of other Meryat hearts to which an honourable burial has been accorded. The house of Meryat finally lost its property on the fall of Lady Jane Grey, to whom it had descended through the female line.

Informations

• Publié par: Pub One Info
• Date de parution: 23 octobre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9782819910756
• Langue: English

Extrait

Preface
Without yielding implicit credence to the handsomepedigree of the Marryats supplied by Mrs Lean, the novelist'sdaughter, we may give a glance in passing to the first-fruits ofthis family tree. They – naturally – came over with the Conqueror,and emerged from obscurity under Stephen as the proud "possessorsof much lands at the village of Meryat, Ashton Meryat, andelsewhere in Somersetshire ... One Nicotas de Maryet is deputed tocollect the ransom of Richard Coeur de Leon through the county ofSomerset ... In the reign of Edward I., Sir John de Maryet iscalled to attend the Great Parliament; in that of Edward II., hisson is excommunicated for embowelling his deceased wife; 'a fancy,'says the county historian, 'peculiar to the knightly family ofMeryat.'" Mrs Lean quotes records of other Meryat "hearts" to whichan honourable burial has been accorded. The house of Meryat finallylost its property on the fall of Lady Jane Grey, to whom it haddescended through the female line.
Captain Marryat belonged to the Suffolk branch ofthe family, of whom "one John de Maryat had the honour of dancingin a masque before the Virgin Queen at Trinity College, Cambridge... was sent to aid the Huguenots in their wars in France ...escaped the massacre of St Bartholemew and, in 1610, returned toEngland." Here he married "Mary, the daughter and heiress of DanielLuke, of the Covent Garden (a rank Puritan family in Hudibras ), and again settled in his paternal county ofSuffolk." Less partial biographers neglect to trace the Marryatsbeyond this Huguenot officer, who is described by them as arefugee.
Whatever may be the truth of these matters, it iscertain that during the 17th and 18th centuries the Maryats were arespectable, middle-class Puritan family – ministers, doctors, andbusiness men. In the days of the merry monarch a John Marryatbecame distinguished as a "painful preacher," and was twiceexpelled from his livings for non-conformity. Captain Marryat'sgrandfather was a good doctor, and his father, Joseph Marryat ofWimbledon House, was an M.P., chairman for the committee ofLloyd's, and colonial agent for the island of Grenada – asubstantial man, who refused a baronetcy, and was honoured by anelegy from Campbell. He married Charlotte Geyer, or Von Geyer, aHessian of good descent.
Frederick, born July 10, 1792, was one of fifteensons and daughters, "of whom ten attained maturity, and severalhave entered the lists of literature." His eldest brother, Joseph,was a famous collector of china, and author of Pottery andPorcelain ; the youngest, Horace, wrote One Year in Sweden,Jutland and the Danish Isles ; and his sister, Mrs BuryPalliser, was the author of Nature and Art (not to beconfounded with Mrs Inchbald's novel of that name), The Historyof Lace , and Historic Devices, Badges and War Cries . Hisfather and grandfather published political and medical works,respectively, while the generation below was equally prolific.Marryat's youngest son, Frank, described his travels in Borneoand the Eastern Archipelago and Mountains and Molehills ,or Recollections of a Burnt Journal ; and his daughterFlorence, Mrs Lean, the author of his Life and Letters , haswritten a great many popular novels.
We can record little of Marryat's boyhood beyond ageneral impression of his discontent with school-masters andparents. Mr Hannay is probably right in regarding his hard picturesof home and school life as reflections of his own experience.
It is said that on one occasion he was found to beengaged in the pursuit of knowledge while standing on his head; andthat he accounted for the circumstance with a humorous philosophyalmost worthy of Jack Easy – "Well! I've been trying for threehours to learn it on my feet, but I couldn't, so I thought I wouldtry whether it would be easier to learn it on my head." Anotheranecdote, of a contest with his school-fellow Babbage, isinteresting and characteristic. It appears that the inventor of thecalculating machine, unlike Marryat, was a very diligent lad; andthat he accordingly arranged, with some kindred spirits, to beginwork at three in the morning. The restless Marryat wished to jointhe party, but his motives were suspected and the conspiratorsadopted the simple expedient of not waking him. Marryat rolled hisbed across the door, and Babbage pushed it away. Marryat tied astring from his wrist to the door handle, and Babbage unfastenedit. A thicker string was cut, a chain was unlinked by pliers, butat last the future captain forged a chain that was too stout forthe future mathematician. Babbage, however, secured his revenge; assoon as his comrade was safely asleep he slipped a piece of packthread through the chain and, carrying the other end to his ownbed, was enabled by a few rapid jerks to waken Marryat whenever hechose. Apparently satisfied with his victory in the gentle art oftormenting, Babbage yielded voluntarily upon the original point ofdispute. Marryat and others joined the reading party, transformedit to a scene of carnival, and were discovered by theauthorities.
Meanwhile Marryat was constantly running away – tosea; according to his own account because he was obliged to wearhis elder brother's old clothes. On one occasion his fatherinjudiciously sent him back in a carriage with some money in hispocket. The wise youth slipped out, and finding his way home bysome quiet approach, carried off his younger brothers to thetheatre. He finally ran away from a private tutor, and Mr Marryatrecognised the wisdom of compliance. Being then fourteen, that isof age to hold a commission, Frederick was allowed to enter thenavy, and on the 23rd of September 1806, he started on his firstvoyage on board H.M.S. Impérieuse , Captain Lord Cochrane,for the Mediterranean.
He could scarcely have entered upon his career underbetter auspices. In a line-of-battle ship he would have had nochance of service at this stage of the war, when the most daring ofthe French could not be decoyed out of port; but the frigates hadalways more exciting work on hand than mere patrolling. There werecruisers to be captured, privateers to be cut off, convoys to betaken, and work to be done on the coast among the forts. And LordCochrane, Earl of Dundonald, was not the man to neglect hisopportunities. His daring gallantry and cool judgment areaccredited to most of Marryat's captains, particularly in FrankMildmay , where the cruise of the Impérieuse along theSpanish coast is most graphically and literally described.Cochrane's Autobiography betrays the strong, sternindividuality of the man, invaluable in action, somewhat disturbingin civil life. As a reformer in season and out of season, at theAdmiralty or in the House of Commons, his zeal became a bye-word,but Marryat knew him only on board his frigate, as an inspiringleader of men. He never passed an opportunity of serving hiscountry and winning renown, but his daring was not reckless. "Imust here remark," says Marryat in his private log, "that I neverknew any one so careful of the lives of his ship's company as LordCochrane, or any one who calculated so closely the risks attendingany expedition. Many of the most brilliant achievements wereperformed without loss of a single life, so well did he calculatethe chances; and one half the merit which he deserves for what hedid accomplish has never been awarded him, merely because, in theofficial despatches, there has not been a long list of killed andwounded to please the appetite of the English public."
Marryat has left us a graphic account of his firstday at sea: – "The Impérieuse sailed; the Admiral of theport was one who would be obeyed, but would not listen always to reason or common sense. The signal for sailing wasenforced by gun after gun; the anchor was hove up, and, with allher stores on deck, her guns not even mounted, in a state ofconfusion unparalleled from her being obliged to hoist in fasterthan it was possible she could stow away, she was driven out ofharbour to encounter a heavy gale. A few hours more would haveenabled her to proceed to sea with security, but they were denied;the consequences were appalling, they might have been fatal. In thegeneral confusion some iron too near the binnacles had attractedthe needle of the compasses; the ship was steered out of hercourse. At midnight, in a heavy gale at the close of November, sodark that you could not distinguish any object, however close, the Impérieuse dashed upon the rocks between Ushant and theMain. The cry of terror which ran through the lower decks; thegrating of the keel as she was forced in; the violence of theshocks which convulsed the frame of the vessel; the hurrying up ofthe ship's company without their clothes; and then the enormouswave which again bore her up, and carried her clean over the reef,will never be effaced from my memory."
This, after all, was not an inappropriateintroduction to the stormy three years which followed it. The storyis written in the novels, particularly Frank Mildmay 1 where everyitem of his varied and exciting experience is reproduced withdramatic effect. It would be impossible to rival Marryat'snarrative of episodes, and we shall gain no sense of reality byadjusting the materials of fiction to an exact accordance withfact. He says that these books, except Frank Mildmay, are"wholly fictitious in characters, in plot, and in events," but theyare none the less truthful pictures of his life at sea. Cochrane's Autobiography contains a history of the Impérieuse ;it is from Peter Simple and his companions that we mustlearn what Marryat thought and suffered while on board.
Under Cochrane he cruised along the coast of Francefrom Ushant to the mouth of the Gironde, saw some active service inthe Mediterranean, and, after a return to the ocean, was finallyengaged in the Basque Roads. A page of his private log contains alively resumé of the whole experience: – "The cruises of the Impérieuse were periods of continual excitement, from thehour in which she ho