Life in the country at this date was apparently more exhausting than life
in London. No moment of the day was sacred from the encroachments of
visitors. Morning calls were the fashion, and it was held to be impolite
to refuse admission to friends who, after a long drive over bad roads, not
only expected the offer of some substantial refreshment, but in view of
the fatigue they had undergone and their desire that they should be
sufficiently recovered before undertaking the return journey, were apt to
outstay their welcome. Of a neighbour, however, who resided beyond the
distance practicable for a morning call, and with whom Marianne Stanhope
had apparently been staying at this date, she gives a more enthusiastic
description. Mr Fawkes of Farnley was the son of her father's old friend
and neighbour at Horsforth, in the days of his youth, Walter Hawkesworth,
[22] who took the name of Fawkes on inheriting the property of Farnley
under the will of a cousin. He was succeeded, in 1792, by this son, Walter
Ramsden Fawkes, who, in 1806, became Member for York, and later, as his
father had been before him, High Sheriff for the county. This younger Mr
Fawkes was a man of exceptional talent, who is best remembered by
posterity as having been one of the earliest and most munificent patrons
of J. M. W. Turner, but who was better known to his contemporaries for his
remarkable oratory. Mr Stanhope relates of him that once at a meeting
which was convened in Yorkshire to discuss the Peace of Amiens, he made a
speech so brilliant that the reporters declared themselves unable to take
it down, so completely were they carried away by its extraordinary
eloquence and beauty of language.


_Marianne Spencer-Stanhope to John Spencer-Stanhope._
_December 4th, 1805._

You cannot think how charmed I was with Mr Fawkes when we were at