The Caxtons Part V

The Caxtons Part V

Pisistratus Caxton, walking to London, takes a shortcut through the park of Mr. Trevanion, "the great parliament man," on the advice of the Boots at his inn. He pays an old woman at the lodge to guide him to the cascade, and from her grumbling comparisons of the current owner to the former family, the Hogtons, he forms an unfavorable impression of Trevanion as a hard, ungenerous parvenu. At the waterfall, hearing that a madman once leapt the gulf there, Pisistratus rashly leaps it himself, then finds himself stranded on the private side with no way back except a locked gate. A quiet, plainly dressed man seated nearby, whom Pisistratus takes for the head gardener, offers to let him through and draws out his history in conversation — his schooling under Dr. Herman, his father's Great Book, his family name of Caxton and his Uncle Roland. On hearing the name, the stranger reveals himself to be Trevanion himself, an old college friend of Augustine Caxton's. He brings Pisistratus into the house and introduces him to his wife, Lady Ellinor, and their daughter, Fanny, both of whom receive him with warmth. Over breakfast Trevanion is absorbed and abrupt, reading letters and dismissing them with "Pish!" and "Stuff!"; Pisistratus later reads a newspaper's assessment of Trevanion as an able, upright member of Parliament but no cabinet material, being too fastidious and uncommitted to any party. Lady Ellinor defends her husband's devotion to "justice, beneficence, honor, and his country" against Fanny's teasing that he cares for none of the usual pursuits — flowers, farming, pictures. Lady Ellinor remarks that Trevanion has no son, and asks whether Pisistratus has a sister; a charged silence follows. Trevanion then walks the boy back toward the lodge, mixing brisk questions about his education with a philosophic outburst about ignoring praise and blame, and reflecting bitterly on how the old lodge-woman's paid flattery of the former owners makes him seem miserly by comparison. He asks Pisistratus to have his father write to him in London. At the gate, the old woman demands an extra threepence "parquisites" for her nephew Bob, which Pisistratus refuses. Arriving in London, Pisistratus finds his parents in a small, chaotic hotel room, his mother fretting over lodgings and small thefts. When he mentions the Trevanions, his father Augustine grows pale and quiet, asking pointedly after Ellinor — clearly an old, unspoken attachment — before composing himself and affectionately reassuring his wife. The family settles into a house in Russell Street, Bloomsbury, near the British Museum, where Augustine begins working daily in the library on his Great Book, likening it to communing with the dead. Uncle Roland, visiting, speaks of family tradition requiring each generation to furnish a soldier, hinting he hopes Pisistratus might be that one, though the subject of his own missing son remains a sore, forbidden topic. Uncle Jack Tibbets bursts in, having quit his provincial newspaper for a new London radical publication, "The Anti-Monopoly Gazette," full of self-important schemes for the good of humanity, and maneuvers to dine with the family constantly while pretending reluctance. That night, Augustine and Roland agree to renew acquaintance with Trevanion, and Pisistratus writes to him. In the following days, Pisistratus wanders London, feeling his boyhood give way to restless ambition, while Uncle Jack disappears into his newspaper scheme and Roland vanishes daily on mysterious errands, returning late with a troubled, sleepless tread. Curious and worried, Pisistratus secretly follows his uncle through a long day: aimless wandering near Leicester Square, a meager meal at a cook-shop while scanning newspaper advertisements, a moment of soldierly recognition as the Duke of Wellington rides past, exhausting hours pacing the park and streets, and finally an evening at a theatre where he is approached by women in the refreshment saloon but gently refuses them. Roland then proceeds to a private gambling house, entering after a furtive knock. Pisistratus, warned off by a policeman who identifies the place as "a hell," realizes with anguish that his stern, thrifty uncle is searching there for his estranged son. He hurries home ahead of Roland, feigns having been sightseeing, and goes to bed as his uncle's weary footsteps climb the stairs.

By Edward Bulwer-lytton · First published 1849 · Genre: Historical Fiction, Family Saga, Romance · 4 chapters · 12,306 words

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In setting off the next morning, the Boots, whose heart I had won by an extra sixpence for calling me betimes, good-naturedly informed me that I might save a mile of the journey, and have a very pleasant walk into the bargain, if I took the footpath through a gentleman's park, the lodge of which I should see about seven miles from the town.

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The Caxtons Part V is listed on Textopian as a novel by Edward Bulwer-lytton, dated 1849 CE.

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Victorian Era · Family Saga · Romance · Social Class · Wealth · Power Struggle · Marriage · Inheritance · Family Drama · Historical Fiction · 19th Century · English Literature

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