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John Halifax, Gentleman: Richard

Chief among the petty tyrants of the aristocratic class were the Earl of Luxmore and his son-in-law, Richard Brithwood, the important landowners of our neighborhood. Hard-drinking, hard-riding, and profligate, they made use to the full of those privileges of birth and position which in those days allowed the nobility to be overbearing to all whom they regarded as inferiors. Toward this spirit John Halifax bore himself respectfully but manfully, exciting the hatred of his opponents by defeating their ends. A combination of circumstances brought him in the long run into closer connection with both than either he or they cared to recognize.