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The property was farmed by a gentleman in Barchester,
who also acted as the bishop's steward--a man whose father
and grandfather had been stewards to the bishops of Barchester,
and farmers of John Hiram's estate. The Chadwicks
had earned a good name in Barchester; they had lived
respected by bishops, deans, canons, and precentors; they
had been buried in the precincts of the cathedral; they had
never been known as griping, hard men, but had always lived
comfortably, maintained a good house, and held a high position
in Barchester society. The present Mr Chadwick was a
worthy scion of a worthy stock, and the tenants living on the
butts and patches, as well as those on the wide episcopal
domains of the see, were well pleased to have to do with so
worthy and liberal a steward.
For many, many years--records hardly tell how many,
probably from the time when Hiram's wishes had been first
fully carried out--the proceeds of the estate had been paid
by the steward or farmer to the warden, and by him divided
among the bedesmen; after which division he paid himself
such sums as became his due. Times had been when the poor
warden got nothing but his bare house, for the patches had
been subject to floods, and the land of Barchester butts was
said to be unproductive; and in these hard times the warden
was hardly able to make out the daily dole for his twelve
dependents. But by degrees things mended; the patches
were drained, and cottages began to rise upon the butts, and
the wardens, with fairness enough, repaid themselves for the
evil days gone by. In bad times the poor men had had their
due, and therefore in good times they could expect no more.
In this manner the income of the warden had increased; the
picturesque house attached to the hospital had been enlarged
and adorned, and the office had become one of the most
coveted of the snug clerical sinecures attached to our church.
It was now wholly in the bishop's gift, and though the dean
and chapter, in former days, made a stand on the subject,
they had thought it more conducive to their honour to have
a rich precentor appointed by the bishop, than a poor one
appointed by themselves. The stipend of the precentor of
Barchester was eighty pounds a year. The income arising
from the wardenship of the hospital was eight hundred,
besides the value of the house.
Murmurs, very slight murmurs, had been heard in
Barchester--few indeed, and far between--that the proceeds of
John Hiram's property had not been fairly divided: but they
can hardly be said to have been of such a nature as to have
caused uneasiness to anyone: still the thing had been whispered,
and Mr Harding had heard it. Such was his character in
Barchester, so universal was his popularity, that the very
fact of his appointment would have quieted louder whispers
than those which had been heard; but Mr Harding was an
open-handed, just-minded man, and feeling that there might
be truth in what had been said, he had, on his instalment,
declared his intention of adding twopence a day to each man's
pittance, making a sum of sixty-two pounds eleven shillings
and fourpence, which he was to pay out of his own pocket.
In doing so, however, he distinctly and repeatedly observed
to the men, that though he promised for himself, he could
not promise for his successors, and that the extra twopence
could only be looked on as a gift from himself, and not from
the trust. The bedesmen, however, were most of them older
than Mr Harding, and were quite satisfied with the security
on which their extra income was based.
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