absent for some years from his home, from his father's estate, tenants, and
dependents, to see something of the world, to learn to estimate himself
and others, and thus to have means of becoming a really respectable,
enlightened, and useful country gentleman--not one of those booby squires,
born only to consume the fruits of the earth, who spend their lives in
coursing, shooting, hunting, carousing [Footnote: See an eloquent address
to country gentlemen, in Young's Annals of Agriculture, vol. i., last
page.], "who eat, drink, sleep, die, and rot in oblivion." He thought it
in these times the duty of every young heir to serve a few years, that he
might be as able, as willing, to join in the defence of his country, if
necessary. Godfrey went, perhaps, beyond his father's ideas upon this
subject, for he had an ardent desire to go into the army as a profession,
and almost regretted that his being an eldest son might induce him to
forego it after a few campaigns.

Godfrey did not enter into the army from the puerile vanity of wearing a
red coat and an epaulette; nor to save himself the trouble of pursuing his
studies; nor because he thought the army a _good lounge_, or a happy escape
from parental control; nor yet did he consider the military profession as a
mercenary speculation, in which he was to calculate the chance of getting
_into the shoes_, or over the head, of Lieutenant A---- or Captain B----.
He had higher objects; he had a noble ambition to distinguish himself. Not
in mere technical phrase, or to grace a bumper toast, but in truth, and
as a governing principle of action, he felt zeal for the interests of the
service. Yet Godfrey was not without faults; and of these his parents, fond
as they were of him, were well aware.

Mrs. Percy, in particular, felt much anxiety, when the moment fixed for
his departure approached; when she considered that he was now to mix with
companions very different from those with whom he had hitherto associated,