| PART I | PART II | PART III | PART IV |
| PART V | PART VI | PART VII |
The summer day in 1874 which closed the annual session of WhitelawCollege was marked by a special ceremony, preceding the wonteddistribution of academic rewards. At eleven in the morning (just as aheavy shower fell from the smoke-canopy above the roaring streets) themunicipal authorities, educational dignitaries, and prominent burgessesof Kingsmill assembled on an open space before the College to unveil astatue of Sir Job Whitelaw. The honoured baronet had been six monthsdead. Living, he opposed the desire of his fellow-citizens to exhibiteven on canvas his gnarled features and bald crown; but when hismodesty ceased to have a voice in the matter, no time was lost inraising a memorial of the great manufacturer, the self-mademillionaire, the borough member in three Parliaments, the enlightenedand benevolent founder of an institute which had conferred humanedistinction on the money-making Midland town. Beneath such a sky,orations were necessarily curtailed; but Sir Job had always beenimpatient of much talk. An interval of two or three hours dispersed therain-clouds and bestowed such grace of sunshine as Kingsmill might atthis season temperately desire; then, whilst the marble figure wasgetting dried,—with soot-stains which already foretold its negritudeof a year hence,—again streamed towards the College a variedmultitude, official, parental, pupillary. The students had nothingdistinctive in their garb, but here and there flitted the cap and gownof Professor or lecturer, signal for doffing of beavers along the lineof its progress.
Among the more deliberate of the throng was a slender, upright,ruddy-cheeked gentleman of middle age, accompanied by his wife and adaughter of sixteen. On alighting from a carriage, they first of alldirected their steps towards the statue, conversing together withpleasant animation. The father (Martin Warricombe, Esq. of Thornhaw, asmall estate some five miles from Kingsmill,) had a countenancesuggestive of engaging qualities—genial humour, mildness, a turn formeditation, perhaps for study. His attire was informal, as if hedisliked abandoning the freedom of the country even when summoned tourban ceremonies. He w