06 - Days With Sir Roger de Coverley by Joseph Addison, Richard Steele

Journey into the world of acclaimed writer Sir Richard Steele, as he recounts his intimate experiences living in the household of the intriguing Sir Roger de Coverley for an entire month. This podcast is narrated by Elijah Fisher.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chapter six of Days with Sir Roger DeCoverley. This slipper
box recording is in the public domain. Days with Sir
Roger DeCoverley by Joseph Addison and Richard Steele, Chapter six,
The Chase. Those who have searched into human nature observed
that nothing so much shews that the nobleness of the

(00:22):
soul as that its facility consists in action. Every man
has such an active principle in him that he will
find out something to employ himself upon, in whatever place
or state of life he has posted. I have heard
of a gentleman who was under close confinement in the
bastile seven years, during which time he amused himself in

(00:45):
scattering a few small pines about his chamber, gathering them
up again, and placing them in different figures on the
arm of a great chair. He often told his friends
afterwards that unless he found out this piece of exercise,
he verily believed he should have lost his senses. After
what has been said, I need not inform my readers

(01:07):
that Sir Roger, with whose character I hope they are
at present pretty well acquainted, had in his youth gone
through the whole course of those rural diversions which the
country abounds in, and which seemed to be extremely well
suited to that laborious industry. A man may observe here
in a far greater degree than in towns and cities.

(01:31):
I have before hinted at some of my friend's exploits.
He had, in his youthful days, taken forty caveys of
partridges in a season, and tried many a salmon with
a line consisting but of a single hair. The constant
thinks and good wishes of the neighborhood always attained him

(01:54):
on account of his remarkable enmity towards Foxes, having destroyed
more of the k vermin in one year that it
was thought the whole country could have produced. Indeed, the
Knight does not scruple to own among his most imminent friends,
that in order to establish his reputation this way, he

(02:17):
has secretly sent for great numbers of them out of
other countries, which he used to turn loose about the
country by night, that he might the better singnalize himself
in their destruction the next day. His hunting horses were
the finest and best managed in all these parts. His

(02:39):
tenants are still full of the praises of a graystone
horse that unhappy staked himself several years since, and was
buried with great solemnity in the orchard. Sir Roger, being
at present too old for fox hunting to keep himself
in action, has disposed of his beagles and got a

(03:02):
pack of stophounds. With these want in speed. He endeavors
to make amends for by the deepness of their mouths
and the variety of their notes, which are suited in
such manner to each other, that the whole cry makes
up a complete concert. He is so nice in this

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particular that a gentleman, having made him a present of
a very fine pound the other day, the night returned
it by this servant with a great many expressions of civility,
but desired him to tell his master that the dog
he had sent was indeed a most excellent bass, and

(03:44):
that at present he only wanted a counter Tenor. Could
I believe my friend had ever bred Shakespeare? I should
certainly conclude he had taken the hint from theseus In
the midsummer night's dream. My hounds are bred out of
the spartan him mind, so fluid, so sanded, and their
heads are hung with ears that sweep away the morning dew.

(04:07):
Crook heeded and the dew lapped like Thessilian bulls, slow
in pursuit, and matched in mouths like bells, each under
each a cry more tuneable, was never hollowed to, nor
cheated with horn. Sir Roger is so keen at this

(04:27):
sport that he has been out almost every day since
I came down, and upon the Chaplain's offering to lend
me his easy pad, I was prevailed on yesterday morning
to make one of the company. It was extremely pleased
as we read along to observe the general benevolence of
all the neighborhood towards my friend. The farmer's sons thought

(04:51):
themselves happy if they could open a gate for the
good old Knight as he passed by, which he generally
requated with a nod or a smile and a kind
of inquiry after their fathers and uncles. After we had
rid about a mile from home, we came upon a
large heath, and the sportsmen began to beat. They had

(05:14):
done so for some time, when, as I was at
a little distance from the rest of the company, I
saw hare pop out from a small furze break almost
under my horse's feet. I marked the way she took,
which I endeavored to make the company sensible of my
extending my arms, but to no propose till Sir Roger,

(05:38):
who knows that none of my extraordinary motions are insignificant,
rode up to me and asked me if Puss was
gone that way. Upon my answering yes, he immediately called
in the dogs and put them upon the scent. As
they were going off, I heard one of the country
fellows muttering to his companion that as a wonder they

(06:00):
had not lost all their sport for want of the
silent gentleman's crying stole away. This, with my aversion to
leaping hedges, made me withdraw to a raising ground, from
whence I could have the pleasure of the whole chase
without the fatigue of keeping in with the hounds. The

(06:20):
hare immediately threw them above a mile behind her, But
I was pleased to find that instead of running straight forwards,
or in hunter's language, flying the country, as I was
afraid she might have done, she willed about and described
a sort of circle round the hill where I had
taken my station, in such manner as gave me a

(06:42):
very distinct view of the sport, I could see her
first pass by, and the dog some time afterwards, unraveling
the whole track she had made, and following her through
all her doubles. I was at the same time delighted
in observing that difference which the rest of the pack
paid to each particular hound according to the character he

(07:05):
had acquired amongst them. If they were at fault, and
an old hound of reputation opened but once he was
immediately followed by the whole cry, while a raw dog
or one who was a noted liar must have yelped
his heart out without being taken notice of The hare, now,

(07:25):
after having squatted two or three times, had been put
up again, as often came still nearer to the place
where she was at first started. The dogs pursued her,
and these were followed by the jolly knight, who rode
upon a white gilding, encompassed by his tenants and servants

(07:47):
and cheering his hounds with all the gaiety of five
and twenty One of the sportsmen rode up to me
and told me that he was sure the chase was
almost at an end, because the old dogs, which had
hitherto lain behind, now headed for the pack. The fellow
was in the right. Our hair took a large field

(08:10):
just under us, followed by the full cry in view.
I must confess the brightness of the weather, the cheerfulness
of everything around me, the chiding of the hounds, which
was returned upon as in a double echo from two
neighboring hills, with the hollowing of the sportsmen, and the
sounding of the horn, lifted my spirits into a most

(08:33):
lively pleasure, which I freely indulged, because I was sure
it was innocent. If I was under any concern, it
was on the account of the poor hare that was
now quite spent and almost within the reach of her enemies.
When the huntsmen, getting forward, threw down his pole before
the dogs, which were now eight yards of that game

(08:57):
which they had been pursuing for almost as many yet
on the signal before mentioned, they all made a sudden stand,
and though they continued opening as much as said before,
Durst had not once attempted to pass beyond the pole.
At the same time, Sir Roger rode forward, and alighting,

(09:19):
took up the hair in his arms, which he soon
delivered to one of the servants. With an order, if
she be kept alive, to let her go in his
great orchard, where it seems he has several of those
prisoners of war who lived together in a very comfortable captivity.
I was highly pleased to see the discipline of the

(09:41):
pack and the good nature of the knight, who could
not find in his heart to murder a creature that
had given him so much diversion. As we were returning home,
I remember that Monsieur Paschal, in his most excellent discourse
of the Misery of Man, tells us that all our
endeavors are after greatness, proceed from nothing but a desire

(10:04):
of being surrounded by a multitude of persons and affairs
that may hinder us from looking into ourselves, which is
a view we cannot bear. He afterwards goes on to
show that our love of sports comes from the same reason,
and is particularly severe upon hunting. What says he, unless

(10:27):
it be too drawn thought, can make men throw away
so much time and pains upon a silly animal, which
they thought they might buy cheaper in the market. The
foregoing reflection is certainly just when a man suffers his
whole mind to be drawn into his sports, and altogether

(10:48):
loses himself in the woods. That does not affect those
who propose a far more laudable And for this exercise
I mean the preservation of health in keeping all the
organs of the soul in a condition to execute her orders.
Had that incomparable person whom I last quoted been a
little more indulgent to himself in this point the world,

(11:10):
that might probably have enjoyed him much longer. Whereas, through
to great an application to his studies in his youth
he contracted that ill habit of body, which, after a
tedious sickness, carried him off in the fortieth year of
his age. And the whole history we have of his
life till that time is but one continued account of

(11:32):
the behavior of the noble soul struggling under innumerable pains
and distempers. For my own part, I intend to hunt
twice a week during my stay with Sir Roger, and
to prescribe the moderate use of this exercise to all
my country friends, as the best kind a physic for

(11:53):
amending a bad constitution and preserving a good one. I
cannot do this better than in the following lines out
of mister Dryden, the first physicians by debach were made.
Excess began, and slow sustains the trade. By chance, our
long lived fathers earned their food, toil, strung the nerves,

(12:16):
and purified the blood. But we their sons, a pampered
race of men, are dwindled down to threescore years of ten.
Better to hunt in fields for health unbought than fee
the doctor for a nauseous draft, the wise for cure
on exercise depend God made his work for man to mend.

(12:40):
End of Chapter six read by Elijah Fisher