_(attributed_to)_-_John_Cowper,_an_Edinburgh_Beggar_-_1756_-_Fitzwilliam_Museum.jpg){kind=link}
Introduction
In Guy Mannering, King George III has been pleased to appoint Godfrey Bertram, Laird of Ellangowan, to the magistrates’ bench. (“Pleased! I’m sure he cannot be better pleased than I am.”) The Laird at once gave up good-humoured tolerance and began sweeping the idle into work, the sick from their beds, and the ragged from the streets.
The Laird of Ellangowan ruthlessly commenced his magisterial reform, at the expense of various established and superannuated pickers and stealers who had been his neighbours for half a century. He wrought his miracles like a second Duke Humphrey;* and by the influence of the beadle’s rod caused the lame to walk, the blind to see, and the palsied to labour. He detected poachers, black-fishers, orchard-breakers, and pigeon-shooters; had the applause of the bench for his reward, and the public credit of an active magistrate.
All this good had its rateable proportion of evil. Even an admitted nuisance of ancient standing should not be abated without some caution. The zeal of our worthy friend now involved in great distress sundry personages whose idle and mendicant habits his own lachesse* had contributed to foster, until these habits had become irreclaimable, or whose real incapacity for exertion rendered them fit objects, in their own phrase, for the charity of all well-disposed Christians.*
* John Foxe wrote in his Actes and Monumentes (1570) that Humphrey of Lancaster (1390-1447), Duke of Gloucester, had “a head, to discern and dissever truth from forged and feigned hypocrisy.” This rested on a famous occasion, described by Thomas More in his Dialogue Concerning Heresies (1529), when the Duke visited St Alban’s Abbey, and witnessed what was claimed to be the miraculous healing of a man who had been blind from birth. The Duke questioned the man on the gowns worn by the bystanders, and asked him to distinguish their colours by name. When the man did so, the Duke triumphantly ordered him to be taken away and put in the stocks, arguing that a man blind from birth could no doubt distinguish various colours after he had gained his sight, but could not possibly name them.
* Lachesse (or laches, pronounced the same as latches) is a rare word meaning negligence, slackness, indulgence. Scott’s spelling preserves the original French.
* A stock expression used by celebrity preachers and in official press releases, and picked up by beggars. The London Gazette on September 12th, 1666, reported that King Charles II had ordered collections following the Great Fire of London, “... that the distresses of those who have more particularly suffered in that calamity be on that day most effectually recommended to the charity of all well-disposed Christians.” In one of his sermons at the fashionable Temple Church, Thomas Sherlock (1678-1761), Bishop of London, said that “Some have a Right to be maintained by Charity; and those who have a Right to this kind of Maintenance have a Right to ask for it, that is, to beg the Charity of all well-disposed Christians.” See also The Beggar’s Petition.
Précis
In Walter Scott’s Guy Mannering, Godfrey Bertram, Laird of Ellangowan, celebrated his appointment as a magistrate by adopting a zero-tolerance policy on welfare and petty crime. Some of this, said Scott, was good enough in its way, but many people were cruelly mislabelled, and others were suddenly punished for habits that the laird had been winking at for years. (59 / 60 words)
In Walter Scott’s Guy Mannering, Godfrey Bertram, Laird of Ellangowan, celebrated his appointment as a magistrate by adopting a zero-tolerance policy on welfare and petty crime. Some of this, said Scott, was good enough in its way, but many people were cruelly mislabelled, and others were suddenly punished for habits that the laird had been winking at for years.
Variations: 1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 65 words. 2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 55 words. 3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: because, besides, must, unless, until, whereas, whether, who.
Word Games
Sevens Based on this passage
Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.
Variations: 1.expand your answer to exactly fourteen words. 2.expand your answer further, to exactly twenty-one words. 3.include one of the following words in your answer: if, but, despite, because, (al)though, unless.
Jigsaws Based on this passage
Express the ideas below in a single sentence, using different words as much as possible. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.
You are welcome to share your creativity with me, or ask for help with any of the exercises on Clay Lane. Write to me at this address:
See more at Email Support.
If you like what I’m doing here on Clay Lane, from time to time you could buy me a coffee.
Buy Me a Coffee is a crowdfunding website, used by over a million people. It is designed to help content creators like me make a living from their work. ‘Buy Me a Coffee’ prides itself on its security, and there is no need to register.
