Lordship's province of Maryland, and indeed
he was not unknown in the colonial capitals from Williamsburg to Boston.
When his ships arrived out, in May or June, they made a goodly showing
at the wharves, and his captains were ever shrewd men of judgment who
sniffed a Frenchman on the horizon, so that none of the Carvel tobacco
ever went, in that way, to gladden a Gallic heart. Mr. Carvel's acres
were both rich and broad, and his house wide for the stranger who might
seek its shelter, as with God's help so it ever shall be. It has yet to
be said of the Carvels that their guests are hurried away, or that one,
by reason of his worldly goods or position, shall be more welcome than
another.

I take no shame in the pride with which I write of my grandfather,
albeit he took the part of his Majesty and Parliament against the
Colonies. He was no palavering turncoat, like my Uncle Grafton, to cry
"God save the King!" again when an English fleet sailed up the bay. Mr.
Carvel's hand was large and his heart was large, and he was respected
and even loved by the patriots as a man above paltry subterfuge. He was
born at Carvel Hall in the year of our Lord 1696, when the house was,
I am told, but a small dwelling. It was his father, George Carvel, my
great-grandsire, reared the present house in the year 1720, of brick
brought from England as ballast for the empty ships; he added on, in
the years following, the wide wings containing the ball-room, and the
banquet-hall, and the large library at the eastern end, and the offices.
But it was my grandfather who built the great stables and the kennels
where he kept his beagles and his fleeter hounds. He dearly loved the
saddle and the chase, and taught me to love them too. Many the sharp
winter day I have followed the fox with him over two counties, and lain
that night, and a week after, forsooth, at the plantation of some kind
friend who was only too glad to receive us. Often, too, have we stood
together from early morning until dark night, waist deep, on the duck
points, I with a fowling-piece I was all but too young to carry, and
brought back a hundred red-heads or canvas-backs in our bags. He went
with unfailing regularity to the races at Annapolis or Chestertown or
Marlborough, often to see his own horses run, where the coaches of
the gentry were fifty and sixty around the course; where a negro, or a
hogshead of tobacco, or a pipe of Madeira was often staked at a single
throw. Those times