Page:The Ladies' Cabinet of Fashion, Music & Romance 1832.pdf/83



THE reader who has ever been in the pleasant village of Hookam in Yorkshire, may know something of Johnny Anson, a neat, stout built lad, who was a great favourite among the ladies of that place, a few years back. The reason of his popularity with the fair, I could never exactly learn ; for he was the most uncomely youth that a traveller could meet in a day's journey. Perhaps it might have been in consequence of his expectations ; for his father, who was a baker, was said to have several hundreds of guineas locked up in an oaken chest which stood by his bedside ; and as he had always permitted John to roam about the village, without paying the least attention to his education or conduct, it seemed very evident that he intended to make him his heir. Perhaps it might have been owing to his good nature ; for to tell the truth, there was not a better tempered lad in the whole county. Whatever else might be said in disparagement of John, all admitted that he was a well conditioned boy, and had not the least harm in him. He would lie for hours, under the shade of a great elm which stood before his father's door, looking at the sky, or play about on the grass ; and no change in the weather, nor other cross accident, was ever known to disturb his serenity. After all, he might owe his favour with the village belles to his musical abilities, which were certainly remarkable. When quite small he was an adept at playing on the Jews-harp, and the boys and girls would crowd around him to listen to his melody, as if he had been another Orpheus. As he grew older, he took to the violin, and his services began to be in request. A man may always fiddle his way through this world ; no matter whether he play for love or money, whether he is a hired musician, or an amateur, fiddling is a genteel, popular, and profitable employment. Johnny was now a regular and an acceptable visiter at all the tea parties, rural dances, and harvesthome's, in and around the village, and never did any human H FEB. 1839.